HiFi. HUH?

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Hi kids,

This is my first blog EVER! Took me long enough, aye? Well a little background first. I’m Travis’s little brother TJ from the Pittsburgh area. We’re like the Lelonde boys, but from PA. (We ride suspension forks as well) I am the manager of Trek of Pittsburgh, (a 29er mountain bike only store) I’m a full-time dad raising my little boy Alex. (I’ll try not to blog about him too much, this is a bike site) Racing, I am targeting longer races such as the 50 and 100 mile marathons. I train by commuting. When I ride off-road it is usually on a single speed. I don’t own a road bike, nor do I plan on getting one anytime soon. My primary training bike, a hybrid, has a kickstand on it. For racing I’ll ride a Full Suspension HiFI 29′r, set yo with all my “freak-stuff” on it as Travis says.

The Bike is the way to fly for the races I’ll be doing.. I hope. I pride myself in being the freak bike- fitter of T.O.P (Trek of P-Burgh) so my own bike is no exception. Everything just works, fit numbers that is. So, as I preach to all clients, the bike needs to fit perfect to the rider. All measurement are saved and haven’t been changed for about 2 years. Except this year a change to the big-sweep handlebars, uncut. Photos show everything else. Cranks, seat, stem, and the rear drive stuff. I’m tall with really long arms as well as a long torso, so yes, that is a 130mm 17 degree, upside down, all the way down. Each of my bikes has the exact set up (bars, seat, cranks, B.B., and their relationship to one another)

This weekend will be the first race of the season for me. A little behind everyone else as most of the peoples on the team have some race miles in. It is mid-April already! This weekend will be at Big Bear Lake West Virginia. Rock Heaven. A great place to try out the abilities of the HiFi. Tire choice will be more than likely the front and rear ACX combination. Although, after riding with Travis last night on the dry trails of North Park, I may end up going with the Dry-X in the rear. We’ll see. Weather will determine the tire selection.

The bike was tested on dry conditions last night with Travis at North Park and met my approval on the dry, smooth stuff. (www.motionbased.com seach: tjplatt for details) Travis was on his extremely light Superfly with Dry X’s and I was on a 29 lbs, 4″ travel full-suspension with ACX knobbies on. The bikes both performed as expected. Travis could pull away in quick acceleration situations, but as soon as we came to something rough, whether up, level, or down, the HiFi helped me close the gap down extremely fast. Both Bikes worked extremely well and were very different. Travis and I were both pleased with the results. Every middle of the week, we’ll have a training ride of some sorts.

Thanks to T.O.P for the bike, I won’t ride it too hard as it is a Demo Machine. Thanks to Fisher, Bontrager, and all the others that help out so much into the team. It is going to be a wonderful season……. More to come.

Wow, that wasn’t hard at all!