Ouch, that hurts...

So a little history might be in order for those who aren't familiar...for those who are, I'm sure you're tired of hearing my bitching'n'moaning about this particular injury. I fully expect to hear from you "HTFU", which by the way is my new slogan to my cycling friends who need a little verbal assaulting from time to time.

The deal with the new race bike goes back to some of my favorite letters and numbers. Remember Sesame Street? Yeah, I was edu-macated on my letters and numbers via that fine piece of public programming. Fondly I remember how shows were brought to us by the numbers and letters; just happens that the letter "L" and the numbers "4" & "5" just happened to gang up on me. Put them together and you've got an L45; nothing significant you say, but add some punctuation and it's otherwise fondly referred by me as an L4/5 herniated disc. Thanks a lot Big Bird you yellow freak!

Things were fine and dandy on the old Specialized E5 s-works. Fine if trying to fit oneself onto a frame that is too small is any indication of success. Sure, the bike was stiff, could sprint well and climbed rather decently, but it descended hills like a bi-polar all-star. Try putting one of your natural bike talents (size/weight) to use on a frame that won't allow you to maximize that aspect of what you bring to the game. Not fun; I've had too many scary descents on that bike. Needless to say I needed a frame that would not put me in the position to further risk another L4/5 injury and something that was an upgrade...should we say.

Going custom on a frame is not foreign to me. Did it once on the Serotta and decided to do it again. Hell, going custom has been part of my life since I had to get my high school graduation suit made since nobody has anything big enough to fit a 6'9" basketball player. I did a little research, talked a ton with folks on message boards and came to the realization that custom carbon was my material of choice and I'd go with a Parlee Z3.

I've only had two rides so far on the new bike and there are way too many adjectives floating around in my head to describe what it's like to ride this bike. I'll throw a few posts from time to time on my musings on this frame as the sensory overload calms down and I get back to reality.