SB Nation User Blog: Jimbo...

Open Letter to Pinarello...

Jimbo... — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:22:38 -0000

Dear Pinarello,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jimbo... I am a avid cyclist and frequent commentor here at the Podium Cafe, the nexus of all things cycling related. Please, make yourselves at home, poke around, read the posts, get to know the natives, comment if you feel so inclined. And have something to eat, you look too thin...

So you and I have never met, but I am a big fan or your bikes. Huge fan. Huge... And I love that Prince... the bike I mean, not that short guy in purple from Minneapolis, Ha! Never heard that one before, I bet, huh?... Anyway... nothing makes me happier than riding my bike, or live blogging a pro cycling race with my fellow bike freaks here at the cafe, except, that is, live blogging a pro cycling race being won by someone riding one of those sexy Prince Carbons!. Love that bike. The curvy lines, the bold color scheme, the forks... ah, those forks... just thinking about those sexy forks makes me feel kinda funny... Ah, but I digress...

Alright, enough chit chat. Here is what I want. I want you guys to lend me a Prince Carbon. In return, I will ride the crap out of it and document my joy on this very website for all to see. And you will make me a happy man. And Gavia wants one too.

"What do we get?", you may be asking yourselves. Well, my fine Italian friends, you get this... eyeballs!... lots of eyeballs. And in my case, you get the actual living eyeballs of all those potential Pinarello owners who ride bikes in Marin County, California, the land of milk and honey. I am talking about hundreds of rich stock brokers, dentists, and entrepreneurs who ride, and, if I am not being too fatuous, who ride expensive bikes. These folks love expensive bikes. They buy tons of them and the more expensive, the better. Seriously. A weekend on the bike path from Sausalito to Mill Valley is like a parade of high priced cycling porn. Colnagos, Sevens, Serottas, Orbeas, Willier, Cervello... you name it... But sadly, not that many Pinarellos. Which is just wrong. Now, ask yourself. Why might that be? Simple, lack of exposure! See? So let's make this happen. It will help us both. Gavia wants to help also. Her town does not have enough Pinarellos either.

Oh, and as Competitive Cyclist says...

"The Prince Carbon is built from carbon fiber sourced strictly from Japanese textile giant Toray, a supplier to virtually every aerospace company worldwide. Pinarello raves how Toray's quality control and testing protocols are as intensive as you'll find anywhere in the composites industry. Pinarello chooses 50HM1K carbon for the Prince Carbon -- a high-modulus carbon that has a tensile strength of 50 tons per square cm (50HM), and an exterior weave of 1000 weaves per crossing (1K). This allows Pinarello to use substantially less material while still maintaining optimum strength and rigidity. Sprint in a 53x12 or launch an out-of-the-saddle attack on a climb and the last thing you'll feel will be frame flex. Higher quality carbon also allowed Pinarello to build their lightest-ever frameset: The unpainted weight of a Prince Carbon is sub-900g..."

Booya! No idea what half of that means, but that kind of language is like chocolate icing and sprinkles on a bacon sandwich, baby! So throw a pair of Zipp wheels on that bad boy, tell the guy down in shipping to call UPS and tell them they have a pickup! Destination: Jimbo's garage. Oh, and make sure you send one to Gavia too. That is key. She is good people and she writes good too.

Ciao!

Jimbo...

[Note by Jimbo..., 10/25/08 3:55 PM PDT ] Pinarello people, I need a sized 56 frame, please. Here are the specs of my current bike. Any color is fine, as long it's black, red, yellow, white, or some combo thereof, but this color scheme will get you multiple posts. That I promise. And you can contact me via the email address on my profile.

[Note by Jimbo..., 10/25/08 10:07 PM PDT ] Forgot to mention that I'm one quarter Italian. Tuscano. Mothers side. That makes us related, right?

US Olympic Cycling Teams Announced

Jimbo... — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:03:09 -0000

VeloNews has the article. Looks like the road team is Hincapie, Leipheimer, McCartney, Vande Velde and Zabriskie. No love for Horner. The TT'ers will be Levi and Zabriskie. The article has details about the ladies as well as the track squad. Kristen Armstrong is the only qualifier so far for the women's road race .

[deleted: hot dog-related chatter inserted to make the minimum word count. Something about bratwurst, condiments, hot grits, midgets, etc etc ... (ED)]

"I'll make love to you, like you want me to, ..."

Jimbo... — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:56:09 -0000

"I'll make love to you, like you want me to, ..."

For Sale Cheap! Hardly Ridden!

Jimbo... — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:49:24 -0000

For Sale Cheap! Hardly Ridden!

Paris-Roubaix Amuse Bouche

Jimbo... — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:07:55 -0000

Here are some highlights of the Arenberg trench that I found on the Slipstream site... if your Roubaix juices are not already flowing, this ought to do the trick.

My ToC Prologue and Stage 1

Jimbo... — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:42:12 -0000

Thanks to my geographic advantage, I got to attend the Prologue and both the start and finish of stage 1 today. It's a little late to write up the specifics (I will save that for work tomorrow) but I wanted to share some photos that I took. You you can find them here...

Trainers? Please educate the newbie...

Jimbo... — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:51:26 -0000

I'm thinking about buying myself a trainer so I can combine my new favorite pastime... riding my bike... with my old favorite pastime... watching TV by myself after a long day of work once my entire family has gone to bed. Now in a perfect world, I would just get out and ride all winter since where I live in Northern California, weather is rarely an issue, but with work, the commute, not to mention the parenting thing, every available daylight hour (and then some) is booked. Two hours on a weekend is about all I can weasel out. So a trainer in front of the Tivo would seem to be my best option if I want to ride more than just two hours a week. Looking around quickly at the options on the market, I see models with fans, with magnets, with fluid, and even a few with gels or powder inside? Some have remote control cable thingies, or wireless remotes with computers, or even virtual racing programs which let you ride the Giro in your basement. Such enhancements may be wonderful and totally worth it if you have a large pot of money handy... I do not have such a pot... And prices are all over the map from $100 to over a $1000. So my question to you all is "HELP!" What do you guys use? Which features are crucial and which are crap? Which brands are the good ones and which are to be avoided? And what about those roller things? Are they actually good for anything, or are they just for showing off and/or injuring myself? Any and all advice/opinion would be much appreciated.

What was your biggest week on the bike?

Jimbo... — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:09:11 -0000

Taking a cue from Tikigiant's Beijing Diaries post, where he asks what sort of weekly mileage folks out there are averaging these days, I'm wondering what the answer is to the following... What's your biggest mileage week ever? I've read stories about guys like Ekimov who regularly did 500 + mile weeks, which seems crazy, My personal record is just shy of 500 miles, but that was only once and then I took a few weeks off to ice my ass... So what is your big week?

Any questions for Floyd?

Jimbo... — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:10:31 -0000

I'm going to the Floyd Fairness Fund presentation in San Jose tonight. Anyone have any questions they want me to ask him? If so, speak up quickly. I'm on the road in about 45 minutes...

Just got home from the presentation in San Jose. They give their power point presentation, which you can find on the Floyd Fairness Fund website. If you haven't checked it out, you should. It's pretty compelling. Putting on my Floyd fanboy hat for second, it looks to me like the guy is getting screwed over. Doping in cycling may be a problem, and Floyd may be a doper (for the record, I don't think he is), but regardless of one's opinion, the evidence in this case appears to be really, really sloppy. Which pisses me off.

After the presentation they do a public Q&A followed by an auction of a few jerseys(1 Phonak, 1 TdF Yellow, and 1 Floyd Fund), an autographed bottle of Jack Daniels and a copy of the Dick Pound book signed by Floyd. I think the signed TdF yellow jersey went for $1200 or so.

Chris, I asked him your questions, as I was simultaneously getting my picture with him and getting his autograph... excuse the spaz but SWEET! I GOT TO MEET FLOYD!... Questions and paraphrased answers are ...

Q: Do you read Podium Cafe?

FL: I've read it but it's been a while...

Q: Sorry for the bad karma question, but if you lose this case and you can't race in Europe, would you sign with a domestic team and race in the US?

FL: Man... I don't know. It would be tough to do that...

At which point my 30 seconds was up. So there you have it. Not the most comprehensive interview you will find. Not really sure what he meant by the second answer, but a shit load of fun for me!

ToC Stage 1 - what was that crunching sound?

Jimbo... — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:09:12 -0000

[editor's note, by chris] Jimbo surveys the wreckage...

Jelly Belly may have the most vibrant team car, but...

their mechanic was seriously slow to get moving after the carnage.

My daughter and I were camped at the 50-meter-to-go line, right across from the VIP tents where we could see the live feed on the multiple VIP TVs (VIP tent = TV's, full bar, and an endless procession of BBQ wing bearing caterers. I must get very important before next year's race.)

Anyway, from 50 meters back and with all the crowd noise, I couldn't really see or hear much. All I could see was a bunch of cyclists standing still right past the finish line. The team cars all came to a halt in front of us, the mechanics exited quickly, wheels in hand, and bolted for the apparent pile up. All of them, that is, except the Jelly Belly guy who just kind of sat there in his easily id'd team car looking around, understandably confused, before he finally opened the door and got moving. Within two minutes the mess was cleared up and everyone was off again.

The group in front of the crash, probably 40 or so riders, came by a few minutes later with Bettini smack dab in the sweet spot. In truth, given all the speed and excitment, he was the only one I could pick out (white jersey sticks out) but he was in really great position, ten riders back right in the middle.

Two laps later, they came by for the final time, going really, really fast, all strung out in full sprint mode, two Rabobank guys in front, Hushovd about three riders back and the rest close behind. Bettini was all alone 500 meters behind the lead group. The rest of the field dribbled in for the next several minutes. A few sporting brand new road rash.

No idea who won. It was all very fast and very exciting... all blured speed and crowd noise. But, it could have been better. I would speculate that the crash made the final sprint a lot more civilized since it removed over half the sprinters and slowed things down a whole lot. The first time the peloton came through, it was big and angry. The last two times, it was cautious. Understandable, given that it's only mid-Feb and not even spring yet, except for here paradise. These guys have a long season ahead of them.

Versus coverage just came on so time to go. Can't wait to see what happened with the wreck. Sadly, work calls no more live racing action for Jimbo. Hopefully someone else will pick this up. This blogging thing is fun! Next thing you know, I'll start texting my buddies and wearing my pants around my thighs.

Chris, next year we need to weasle some press passes out of the organizers so a few of us SF locals can get some wings, uh, I mean, so we can cover the race better...