JdFinley.com

Fulltime RV Living Adventures

Carbon Bike Update

I now have approximately one thousand miles on my self-built Chinese carbon bike so I thought an update was in order. Firstly, I’ve seen some on the net refer to these bikes as a Chinarello, a play on the brand from which the design was obviously taken (Pinarello).  Worth a chuckle, at least to me…. [Read More]

Road Ride – TORGV

The 2014 “Tour of the Rio Grande Valley” (TORGV) was recently held in Albuquerque and I decided to give it a whirl.  I’m glad I did! Not knowing anyone makes these types of events very difficult for me to get involved with. In spite of that, I forced myself to give it a shot. After… [Read More]

VeloBuild – Buyer Beware

I had hoped to post my VeloBuild R-028 build and impressions on the VeloBuild forum. I attempted the post four different times and it never appeared in the forums. Very strange, I thought. I finally sent an email asking if they could look into the issue. TWO WEEKS after sending that email, I finally have… [Read More]

R-028 Derailleur Hanger

If you read this story, you know that I recently broke the rear derailleur hanger on my VeloBuild R-028 carbon fiber bike. I’m not sure how many of these frames are out there, probably not millions.  However; for those that have one, I have a piece of information that you may find useful someday. The… [Read More]

Broken Carbon Bike

Ya, I did it. I broke my new carbon fiber road bike…. Let’s step back. I was out on my third ride with my new beauty (see here) having a glorious time with her.  I started climbing one of the few local climbs (a cat 4, by Strava) and all was going well.  I was… [Read More]

R-028 Impressions

Note: I built up this bike myself. For the details of that build, see this post. I suspect twenty miles is nowhere near enough with a bike to adequately review it.  With that said, some initial impressions… I am not being fair.  I had a very hard ride this past weekend – I am sore… [Read More]

Carbon Fiber Road Bike

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know that I am relatively new to the world of road cycling.  If my memory serves, it was nearly two and a half years ago that I started riding an old mountain bike on the road.  Several months later, I purchased a much… [Read More]

Carbon Fiber Handlebar

There aren’t too many bike parts that aren’t available in carbon fiber these days.  I’ve generally looked at carbon fiber parts as being for racers and weight-weenies.  I’ll probably never race and still have dozens of pounds to lose off my butt before I start nit-picking my bike for ounces.  However; I was talking to… [Read More]

Bike Light

I’ve been riding on rural and small town roads for several years now with pretty good success.  I haven’t been hit!!  That is not to say that there are not some real bone-headed drivers – there most certainly are plenty of those. I bought a cheap red light a long time ago and only used… [Read More]

Cycling Motivation?

My cycling really took a hit over the winter.  I had a really tough time getting out and riding.  I spent lots of hours on the trainer but that doesn’t seem to count. Even when good weather arrived, I seemed to struggle.  I wanted to ride, I did ride, but my mileage and time in… [Read More]