I'm riding about three to five times a week now. I'm climbing hills. I've turned into a cycling maniac. I just can't seem to get enough of it. I still weigh 240 pounds. Sometimes I drop to 235 and sometimes I’d bump up to 245. I don't seem to be losing any weight. Muscle mass! That's it, I'm gaining heavy muscle mass. As they say, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I began to suspect that my beloved Rocinante was probably not the right size for me. It is a 61cm frame and I was stretched out over it like I was on a medieval rack. I started dropping by bike shops and trying out different sizes of bikes. I took body measurements (my wife is beginning to think I'm nuts) and with the help of information I gleaned from the web, I discovered that I really should be on a 56 to 58cm frame. So I reluctantly put an ad on craigslist and sold my Klein to a young student who was about 6’6” tall. He was the right size for the Klein and it felt to me like he was gonna take good care of it. I replaced the Klein with a 56cm all carbon Masi 3VC Volumetrica frame and built it up myself with relatively high end components.
Masi was (emphasis on the past-tense) a legendary bike brand founded by Faliero Masi in the 50s. His bikes won a bunch of Giros d'Italia, Tours de France and Vueltas a España. Some of cycling's most legendary figures rode Masis to victory. The riders in the iconic movie Breaking Away rode Masi Gran Criteriums. Faliero Masi moved his frame building business from underneath the velodrome in Milan to Carlsbad in the early 70s and later moved back to Italy leaving his company behind. Masi is now owned by Haro bikes in Vista. Many Masi purists deride the new Masis as fakes. I don't know about that. I just liked the history behind the name and good quality vintage Masis are outrageously expensive.
I haven't given the Masi a name and I don't know if I will. It doesn't feel as significant as my first ride, even though the component mix is far better than Rocinante, it's much stiffer and much lighter, too. I'm becoming obsesses with making my bike lighter. The thing is though, that where I really needed to shave... No, hack off more weight is from my body. I still weigh 240 pounds.
