Vintage Machine

The constant tease in my cycling circles is about my 2004 Cannondale Ironman 2000 Time Trial bike. If I may say, In 2004, this was a pretty solid mid-line aluminum with the slice Aero frame design, full Ultegra group and a pretty little color pattern for celebrating Kona…Fast forward 8 years to 2012, maybe not so cool. It’s an old aluminum coated in rust from sweat, thousands of miles of wear and tear and an awful blue wavy color pattern trying to represent Kona in some way.

We now have bikes with full carbon everything, matte black Batmobile-esque rocket ships with electronic shifters, water bottles built into the frame, race wheels and a total curb weight that rivals my set of Kevlar reinforced Armadillo tires. But it’s the engine that matters, right? It still needs to be pedaled. The Panzer tank pistons pounding on the pedals move the machine forward. Those bells and whistles are not necessarily directly translated into performance, but rather the ‘look’ of speed. Granted new is nice, smooth and technology has improved dramatically, but in 1986 Greg Lemond  won the Tour de France (first American) with ‘vintage’ machinery while averaging ~23 mph over 2538 miles…

So, instead of a new ride this year, I embraced the vintage for year 1 of IM racing and slapped a matte black Quarq CinCo power meter on there. I guess that, in itself looks pretty bad a$$ and says ‘I’m not messing around…and go ahead and try me.’ After all, this piece of vintage metal was with me in 2005 when I did that very first mini-sprint at the pool in Temecula, CA. It was an amazing experience and start to a pretty good run the last 7 or so years. It’s fitting that ‘Vinny’ and I go end-to-end, cradle to grave, from mini-sprint to Iron together. As a single unit: an entity of perseverance and history of overcoming obstacles to take on new challenges together.

Vintage? Yes, but a whole lot more than that. We have history together and we’re not done just yet.