I've been spending some time time trailing again on my Planet X Exorcet 2. I purchased this bike on a bit of a whim. I bought it on Cycle to Work (obviously to cycle to work) to see how I liked time trailing. I can confirm I love it. Racing against the clock, its a pure form of racing where your own strength, positioning and style make all the benefits or errors.
With that in mind and after setting some competitive 10, 25 and 100 mile time trials, it was time to change the bike to try and get myself as aerodynamic as possible.
Initial changes were wheelset. I am currently riding on a set of Zipp 60s with an older Zipp disc wheel. I opted for the older disc wheel as it was firstly a good price, secondly can be converted to use on a track bike and lastly had an aluminium break surface. (ie. it stops in the rain, something that massively helped in the last 100 mile TT I did.)
The saddle was upgraded to a Fizik Tritone. A slightly older TT saddle that I have found, through trial and error to be incredibly comfortable. I also fitted a Verve Infocrank. Knowing your data numbers is key, especially for the longer distance TTs, but equally to go back and access the shorter distance races.
Next was aerodynamics...
Enter Stage Centre Ken Buckley, my coach and friend who holds the British Land Speed Record and is in the all time top 40 best 25 mile TT times. Ken is a master of aerodynamic positioning and wanted to help tweak and change the bike as much as possible. So we started stripping..(The bike I mean.)