kitzblitz' long and hard ride

What I ride

Part II: Pearls

Despite all its merits, and an uncanny ability to keep up with faster bikes on long rides, the cult-Klein is of course not a racing machine. Once I decided to get into road cycling to ride my first Vätternrundan in 2007, I bought my first racer, an aluminium Monti with cool Campagnolo Record components. This was also too small, but I’m quite insensitive to such details and really enjoyed this bike. Unfortunately it decided to steer me at high speed into a signpost during the finale of the Stockholm Cykel City Gran Fondo race in 2009 and, although I managed to ride the last 2 km to the finish before being ambulanced to hospital, the bike never recovered.

With the help of a good insurance cover, Jan from Norvelo helped me get an early prototype Pearl Dice, which after my initialization with the Monti also had Record components.

The first Pearl Dice

My first real, carbon racer! I joined KBCK on a road trip to Belgium to ride the recreational version of Ronde de Flanderen with the Dice. On the morning of the ride I went down to the hotel’s bike storage room and discovered that mine and about four other bikes had been stolen. So after the 24 hour drive and all the other planning and travelling hassles, we realized we weren’t even going to be able to ride the event. We took a complicated majority vote to decide that 5 am was a good time to open the hotel bar instead. The trip was saved by a great day watching the pros ride their race the day after and the boxes and boxes of Belgian beer we took home with us. We had to somehow fill all the extra room we had in the van now that the bikes were gone!

After this Jan again helped me to buy a new Pearl Dice, which I loved. It felt so fast. So cool.

So sexy.

Then my nemesis race, the Gran Fondo, turned up again in 2010. I ended up in a really silly crash, going UPHILL(!) when the guy in front of me stopped dead and I just fell over. No harm done, just sat on the road. Unfortunately the guy behind me sat down as well, on the rear triangle of my bike. At first I didn’t even notice any damage and in real frustration because the lead group had disappeared, I rode in a little group the last 30 km to the finish. It wasn’t until I checked the bike at home that I saw that the carbon was in tatters. So; it was time for insurance, Jan and Pearl againJ

This time Pearl sent a Grace SL, which I’ve ridden ever since. Its been fantastically versatile for training, pretend fast riding on a few Vätternrundans and some recreational races, and quite long riding. This is the bike I used for both Paris-Brest-Paris and Sverigetempo.