SRAM Neutral Spares Man

During this years Jayco Bay Criteriums, Jono and I were lucky enough to be asked to be the neutral spares mechanics for SRAM. This was a fun and eye opening event for us. It was really well organised by SRAM and gave us the opportunity to work on some bikes under race situations.Every morning, we went to the days stage and set up the caravan and banners bright and early so we got the best position on the course. Generally SRAM had the best exposure of any brand on the day so that made us feel pretty good. After this we got out our 17 sets of neutral spare wheels which consisted of SRAM 40, 60 and 80mm wheels. These were available to any of the riders in the support, womens or mens races, and they sure did need them.
Everyday we changed about 20-40 wheels between the three races. Also we dealt with mechanical faults and riders with no mechanical faults who just wanted a lap out. On two occcasions we changed a chain in under a lap, so we were quite proud of that. But lots of the time we just got to watch the racing from the best seat in the house.
Many of the bikes to begin with were in pretty terrible condition and it was quite astonishing to see some guys in the pro race rock up ten minutes before the start with bent derailleur hangers and cracked carbon rims. Some of these guys may know how to race, but they sure can't look after their bikes!
It was a very exciting four days and the team we had consisting of Aaron, Paul, Jono and myself had a great time and I personally learnt a lot more about the top level domestic race scene. I also fixed Baden Cooke's bike before the last stage where he won which was awesome.

The Bike Gallery

So here it is, the new Pegoretti direct from Northern Italy. Dario really is the man when it comes to building extremely cool frames. The build is all Super Record with Record hubs and seatpost. The spokes are DT aerolite finished in white and the rims are DT465, nipples are gold just like the Chris King headset. I've got some new white Speedplay pedals which should be pretty sweet and I've seen that heaps of pros are on them so they must be good.

Jono helped me build this bike and I think that together we did a fantastic job. The Deda bars are some of the most comfy bars going around and I now have a 130mm stem on it which is fairly pro of me. The bike has already done all the big climbs around Bright like Buffalo and Hotham and it climbed and descended beautifully.
The bike has an epically big headtube so if you ever buy a Pegoretti, forget about buying $15 Chris King headset spacers, they are obsolete unless you get one of those awesome Kennedy fits on your bike.
The bike has one flaw however, the paint is really fragile. It chips quite easily on the chainstay and it is like a small piece of my soul disappears everytime a see a chip. So, it shall be stripped shortly and clear coated. No biggie though.
Most importantly though, this bike is about as cool as you could get. I have already had heaps of comments on it down at various cafes and on some of those slow bunch rides I've been kicking around on. Next move, shaving my legs.