can I get a High-Five?

From High-Five

Late last night I finished building up my new cyclocross racing bike.  It is a High-Five frame/fork courtesy of Jason Prudhom and High-Five cycles.  The rest of the build is either parts I made or parts off my road bike.

The crankset is a FSA-SLK with big beefy external bearings on the bottom bracket and a single 42t chainring and a custom Ruckus Components chainguard.

The wheels are also courtesy of High-Five cycles and are a deep section carbon fiber tubular wheel with Grifo Challenges glued on them (courtesy of Ben's Cycle and Fitness).

The brakes are custom Ruckus Components carbon fiber brakes.

The stem/handlebars/brifters are from my road bike and a Ritchey WCS stem, Bontrager Race Lite bars, Shimano Ultegra brifters.

The seatpost is the original OEM seatpost, which will probably be the only part I would ever really legitimately change because changing that alone drops more than half a pound. And when you are forced to run with your bike on your back, weight matters.

The rear derailleur is a Shimano XT shadow.  I am really excited to be using this derailleur, it is a fairly light mountain bike derailluer (238 grams) with high spring tension.  Also since it is a Shadow series it sits more underneath the chainstay and doesn't stick out past the rear wheel quick release (very useful when crashing).  Aesthetically it is nice because with the rear derailleur cable/housing running straight down the seat stay it goes directly into the derailleur, no silly loops here folks.

From web

Overall it weighs in just over 17 lbs which is pretty impressive considering I have a really heavy seatpost, my unused left brifter, and my LOOK pedals still on there. By far the lightest bike I have ever owned, even my road bike weighed in around 21 lbs and that had road tires on it.

Today I took it out for the Monday lawyer ride. I put on an easy 30 mile (it is a recovery day after all) of good climbs and fast descents with tight turns. It handled marvelously, I was able to hang on the climbs with that 42:27 gearing, I think because it is lighter and a stiffer frame. The bike also handled all the speed bumps better than my steel/carbon road bike. The tracking on it is tight so that will need some getting used to, but it was my first ride after all.

Tomorrow is a day off from riding and then Wednesday it is cyclocross practice!!