Bike Swap

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Well, it's done. After the latest series of mechanical issues with my Tomac, I decided that I could not take the risk again. I rode the Era for the Crested Butte Fat Tire 40 (race report coming, I promise) and had a great race. But I also took over a pound weight penalty for choosing that bike. So Nick and I talked it over and decided to strip both bikes down and swap components and wheels. That way, the lighter race quality group would be on the bike I planned on racing the rest of the season. Mid season is never a good time to make such a radical change, but...

So Thursday I stripped everything off the Tomac, from wheels to fork to bottom bracket. I cleaned everything, inspected everything and set it aside. I also pulled the lighter tires off my ZTR race wheels. The plan was to keep the tires off the Era with that bike. Friday, I repeated the process with the Era. Stripped everything off and cleaned it all real well. Scary, having both bikes in peices at the same time! Saturday, Nick and I built the Era back up with the race componetry and fork from the Tomac. Nick did most of the building, but I did as much as I could. We got that bike dialed that night. All the work paid off, we took over 1.5 pounds off the Era.

Long test ride yesterday and everything works great. I was hard on the shifting on purpose to make sure everything work well. The Tomac is still in peices, so we will have to get the bike rebuilt soon. But the Era is now race worthy and feels great! I'm going to miss the pretty blue Crankskins on the crank arms - have the clear on the Noir crankarms. I might have to get another pair of blue for the Era again.

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