The A-D Bikes Blog: Tribute to a tt Carbon

I rode my Austro-Daimler tt Carbon for the last time on 29 June 2014. It was a 50 km "time trial" around Cape Elizabeth. The bike was built up in early 2013 by Fit Werx 2 and according to Strava, I put 2,500 miles on it (both road miles and trainer hours I guess). I ran a Zipp 808 on the front and a Zipp 900 Tubular disc for the entire time I used it and used a Stages Power Meter. As with the Superleicht Carbon, I determined that I would not expect anyone to ride and race a bike that I would not race myself. Thus I have been training and racing on the this model since 2012 and can say that the frame set meets a very high standard of performance and quality. I did not have any problems with the bottom bracket or the head seat or the seat post; it was easy to service and easy to build. I won the USA Cycling Nationals Masters Time Trial 45-48 on this bike which is perhaps going to serve as the peak of my career; I won the Maine Time Trial Series on this bike too and managed a few satisfying results in the Pro 12 categories. Besides all that, I simply enjoyed getting out on this bike for my informal "time trials" around the neighborhood. The amusing thing about this bike is that when we were designing the graphics, it became clear right away that using Austro-Daimler lettering on the down tube was not going to work; it just looked funny. The only option was to superimpose the logo on the down tube. Todd Silvia at Bob the Screenprinter worked his magic and it was clear that this was the way forward (the down tube logo is now available on the Superleicht and the Ubercross). Somehow a white band was included around the logo; it was unintended, but it still worked fine. I have replaced the tt Carbon with the tt Carbon Limited which is the same design with a few extra features. I will blog about the new bike soon.