Santa Visit - He likes bikes as much as I do

My super cool wife got me the bike stand. It's super light and folds up into a really small package and should fit in the car on trips and races, much much better (one: Park tools bike stand for sale). My sister ordered me these really nice white brake hoods for my road bike - from Fairwheel Bikes. They appear to be nicer molds than the other brand I have seen available and have a thicker area on the top of the hood area. Fairwheel is a pretty bad ass boutique bike shop with some crazy overpriced expensive lightweight stuff.
For myself this year, I bought a Garmin 705 from an old work buddy for a great price. I have used it once on the road, got the software to download into software etc. Very easy. As you can see from this pic of the Garmin you can set up this screen to show whatever data you want. Up to 8 different fields. Pretty sweet. Or you can do 6/4/2. As you increase or decrease the number of data fields the font size increases or decreases accordingly. That is smart. If you don't buy a powertap to use with this, you must purchase the 50 dollar speed/cadence sensor from Garmin. I hope to get more time with the Garmin this weekend outside riding.
I Spent the day Tuesday gathering up some old bike stuff to sell. Hopefully, if a majority of the stuff sells I will be buying a Powertap in the next month or so. I will hit the For Sale "Bike" Forums first - just because I hate to resort to ebah. I should have a link to post, once I get through editing photos.




My older style Polar HR strap finally took a poop, and the battery in it was non replaceable - great design. So I had to get a new one (shown) that does have a replaceable battery and has newer technology. More or less, for running/training and a general back up to roll with my 720i watch. I aim to use my Garmin 70% of the time. The cool part of the Garmin, it will receive, speed, power, cadence from the Powertap - once I get that going. I don't have to break the bank buying that ugly yellow disc head unit - that reminds me of windoze 98 - and their download cradle, HR strap etc. I can just focus on the hub and getting a solid, light fast wheel build. I would like to have it for my North Carolina Road Training Camp in March.
With the camp in mind and lots of crappy Ohio weather ahead, I asked Santa for some Raceblade fenders. He IS the (wo)man and came through. These things are sick slick. They weigh almost nothing, installed in about 15/20 minutes and kept the front of my legs, feet, and backside completely dry this past Saturday when the pavement was sloppy soppy wet. They blend in well with the bike and from a distance OR close up, almost disappear. I did find a nice pic of a limited edition white set on Cycling News.
Initially, I was thinking it would be nice if I had two sets, one for the Cross bike and then for the road bike, but after installation and riding with them, they are so easy to install on and off there really is no reason to have another set. Props to SKS.