07.29.06
2004-2005 Giant Carbon Fiber Team Bike

This week's Bike of the Week is an unidentified Giant Carbon Fiber compact. Carlos's bike is fairly standard, though quite nice. It is a Giant that comes ALMOST straight off the shelf with full Dura-Ace 10-speed components. What sets this bike apart and makes it this week's Bike of the Week is the manner in which Carlos has decided to make his own mark on this bike. All of the decals (Giant does not paint its frames) have been taken off and replaced with Carlos's own design of red and blue stickers. Not to leave out the literary element all together, Carlos has added "Granados" and "Cuervo" to the frame and for with black stick-on letters. While the lettering is not possible to see in these pictures, look closely at the down tube, and you'll see Carlos's own creative work.

07.22.06
2006 BMC Team Bike

After last week's lack of an identified bike, this week's HarperRide was also fairly week in terms of the new and exotic, but Hank's BMC was chosen in honor Floyd Landis and his Phonak/iShares team, which ride these bikes. While Landis uses Campy components and earned a special yellow/carbon paint scheme this week, Hank uses new Dura-Ace componentry. Otherwise, the same unusual seat cluster is shared by both frames--as is the rest of this pro frame.

07.08.06
Early 1990s Caloi by Eddy Merckx

In honor of the end of the 2006 World Cup, Flavio brought out another fantastic relic, this time it was the Belgian-Brazilian Caloi from the early 1990s. This bike, built from Columbus steel tubing was fully kitted out in Team Motorola style, fitting for the time period during which Phil Anderson, Steve Bauer, and Andy Hampsten were tearing up the roads for the Schaumburg-based multi-national. With eight speed Dura-Ace, the bike is a HarperRide classic. Of course, the Caloi badging may be a bit of a marketing goof, the fork crown does carry the Merckx symbol if you look carefully!

07.01.06
Update on the BOTW from 06.03.06

Tom did not know how to adjust the headset properly. Now, he has learned. The bike no longer shimmies like crazy. Apparently, Trek's employees did not re-measure Lance Armstrong's bike after the 2003 Tour before beginning their production run... Good work, Tom!

06.24.06
1992 Vitus Time Trial

In an effort to prevent his wife from demanding that he sell this time trial bike, Robert rode it to Harper. He was at the front, the back, and in the middle of the pack--violating a key rule about aero bars! To his credit, Robert did spend most of the ride on his cowhorn handlebars!

The Vitus frame features swooping "aerodynamic" tubes. There is a Kestrel carbon fider fork up front, an FSA crank, and 9-speed Dura Ace components. When racing in an actual time trial, Robert uses a 58mm Zipp rim up front and a disc in the back.

This funky time trial bike is a from a period in which time trial technology was changing rapidly. While these bikes were not as light as today's time trial models, they are stiff, and Robert claims that his Vitus is very stiff despite the general stereotypes about Vitus road frames from the era being quite flexy.

06.17.06
2005 Colnago C50

Rich's bike is the first one to appear twice. The first time it appeared because there is no bike that is cooler than the C50. This time it appears for the same reasons that Late May's Trek appeared--a funky new component. Check out the Flashpoint wheels making their HarperRide debut. These clincher wheels have alloy/carbon rims with an alloy braking surface. These wheels, which are made by Zipp, are based on earlier Zipp models.

While they are slightly heavier than other Zipp wheels like the 404s, they are still light, strong, and super fast! Many shops in Chicagoland are carrying these new wheels, and they retail for only $1100. Did you notice how fresh Rich looked on the hills. You can do that, too, and these wheels will help!

06.03.06
2005 Trek Madone
"Shimmy, shimmy, coco, bop; Shimmy, shimmy, bop"

Tom's relatively new Trek Madone has one very exciting feature--for Tom and anyone riding around him--a shimmy like you've not ever before seen! Tom is no small rider, and one would expect his bike to be even more stable than those around him, but after emerging from Payton's neighborhood, Tom sat up for a moment and the bike went wild! Tom repeated this two or three more times during the ride, and the entire bike moved like a bronco in a Sunday night rodeo on OLN. Why make this the Bike of the Week?

HarperRide.net has a theory about why the bike turned out like this. After Lance won the 2003 Tour, we believe that his frame was taken back to Waterloo, Wisconsin for detailed analysis. Using everything that was learned from this post-Tour study, production frames were built! Of course, our friends north of the border forgot to consider that Lance rode his frame through a farmer's field at 60 kilometers per hour!!! Hence, each cyclist now on a Trek Madone has a shimmy on relatively smooth tarmac.

Since a Trek is the Bike of the Week, one other question... Why does everyone riding a Trek need to use so many stackers up front?

05.27.06
1983 Team 7-11 "Murray" Rossin--In 1983, the 7-11 Cycling Team was the top team in the United States. At that time, they were still an amateur team as they prepared for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Stage victories and leaders jerseys in the Giro and Tour were still a distant dream. During the 1980s, 7-11 was "sponsored" by Murray and, later, Huffy. Of course, neither of these big-name department store brand bike companies actually built the bikes. The early Murrays were entirely Italian affairs, Rossin bikes with Cinelli and Campagnolo components.

Ron brought his very special bicycle out to Harper with him. The bike was bought from Jim Ochowicz following the 1983 season, and it was raced locally by Ron in 1984 and 1985. Not only is this bike's history unique, but it still maintains many of its original features. The bike still includes almost all of its original Super Record components, though the crankset was replaced with a Chorus crank a few years ago. While the chain and cogs have been replaced over the years, the front derailleur and both sets of brake cable and housing are original. (The rear shifter was replaced with a bar-end shifter.

05.06.06
1987-1988 Cannondale--This late 1980s American-made bicycle is, of course, made out of aluminum tubing. It's fat tubes, though, pre-date Cannondales ground-breaking 3.0 frame. This bike is also outfitted with a downtube shift lever for the front derailleur and a bar-end shifter for the rear derailleur. This bike is "topped off" with its big and bright rearview mirror, which protrudes from the left brake lever hood.