Sunday, September 23, 2007

Tyler's View ~ A Specialized Report



My father and I spent last night putting together my new Tarmac Pro and it was a blast. We had all of it put together by around 10 and then it was time for a test ride. Of course I started out with a sprint and in the middle of it while I was tugging on the bars they pulled sideways. The wheel was pointed right and I was headed left...not good. I pulled out of it and it was no problem, guess we should have tightened the stem down to the fork before my test ride.


Today was the first real ride on it and I was thinking about going for a couple hours around the lake, but as I got onto the road I decided that it had to go up Tam on its first ride. I got to test its ability at climbing and descending and it blew me away. Right from the start I could feel the incredible stiffness as I stomped towards town. As I began to climb Tam I was going at a relatively easy pace, but I was flying. The Beast and its carbon is so stiff that all of my power goes just where its supposed to. I made it to the peak above the golf course with relative ease before I was subdued by hunger. I still wasnt sure if I could head back home, I was hypnotized by this machine and its abilities.


Then came the real test, the descent. The road was relatively packed today so I couldnt push it to the absolute limit, but I would definitely go hard. I started my timer (Im not sure if anyone else times there descents but I love going downhill fast) and I was off. The first few corners were crisp. I started to glide through the next few and I began to notice that this machine was even better at descending than climbing. It was as if it found the apex for me. I was going well into hyperdrive until I met a car that decided to stop in the middle of the road. After a few valuable seconds were lost and a total loss of momentum I was off again. I took it back into hyper drive and flew to the bottom. Not bad 6 minutes flat. My record on the old machine was 5:52, I am going to blow that away. The Beast is very nearly a weapon of war.

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