I have ridden the same bike for almost my whole racing career. This year it has taken a while to get my new bikes dialed and fitted, we received
piece by
piece so I had to wait for all my new parts before getting a proper bike fit.
After Sea Otter I had a bike fit on my new bikes (
Eddie O'dea had fit me on my old bikes and recommended
Karl Etzel at
Silicon Valley Cycling Center in California). Now I really love my new bikes! I can tell the difference in the fit. I did make a couple
tweaks since the fit, the Racer-X is now set up a little more for downhill control and the
Fireline is for pure climbing. I have been testing the fits this week and I really feel I have more control now. Thanks Eddie and Karl!
Todd and I found some great shops to help me fix the other issues.
Thanks to Chuck (Pedal Power in Santa Maria, CA) for helping me out.
We visited all of the shops in a 50 mile radius and this was by far the best shop. He had all the parts we needed to fix my shifting, plus he loaned us tools, cut my fork, gave us pointers, told us where to ride and helped us work on our bikes well past closing. For the first race this year I didn't have a technical and finished well (11th) at NMBS #3. Thanks Chuck! What was different about this shop is that he really loves riding and helping out customers, you can tell as soon as you walk in.
We also found a great shop in Carmel, CA (close to Sea Otter). And again someone who went out of his way to help us out, Rob was very nice to set up my new road bike. I went in to get the fork cut, but he really knew what he was doing so I didn't stop him when he started fixing everything. I assumed I would not get in a road ride for a while, but Rob set it all up and I was able to ride 17-Mile Drive the same day. That was so very cool, I know they were busy. Thanks Rob and Netty!
Bruises from the NMBS#1 (Fontana) race. No bike fit, weight too far forward, too short of a fork = lots of falling.
This is one awesome place to ride. Thanks to Nick and Cass we have our own personal tour guides. The weather is not cooperating, it has rained everyday (which is not normal from what we understand). Rain and 35-40 degree weather is not fun for long. But we have seen enough to know we need to come back.
Thanks to Chuck (Pedal Power in Santa Maria, CA) for helping me out. 
NMBS#3 in Los Olivos, CA. HOT! 103 degrees at the finish of our XC race on Saturday. A heat wave hit this weekend, my last few weeks of riding in CA have been in 55 to 70 degree weather. I had a great race though. My bike stayed together the entire time, my legs felt good, and I didn't put a foot down once in the XC race - what an accomplishment. 
