Depending on where you are riding, how far you want to ride and who you are, your bike needs to be set up with proper gearing.

This is accomplished by daydreaming a little about everywhere you want to ride. Do you want to go into the mountain for all day excursions? Do you want to race on the bike path and pass everyone at light speed?

After you decide where you are riding, move on to how far you will ride at a given time. Do you want to complete a century? Do you only have 30 minutes to ride at any given time?

And the hardest part is to examine what kind of shape you are in (or hope to be very soon). Are you fresh off of the college track team? Is you husband talking you into your first bike in 25 years?

This tells us how to set up your bike. The two factors are chainrings and cassette.

CHAINRINGS

53/39 – The chainrings can be set up as the normal road ratio of 53 big ring and 39 small ring. This is going to be ideal for people who have the intention of going fast, not doing a great deal of long uphill and/or who are in great shape.

50/30 - The next step down is called a compact chainring setup. That is typically around 50 teeth for the big ring and 30 for the small. This allows for a much easier climbing gear, but not quite as fast of a true downhill gear. These need to be high quality because of the large difference in the number of teeth.

30/39/50 – This is called a triple chainring setup. It offers the widest variety of gearing. This is going to allow for a good climbing, flat and modest downhill gear.

CASSETTE

The range for a cassette is described by their smallest, then biggest gear. So an 11-23 has a tiny 11 tooth cog for going fast and a much bigger (while not that big) 23 tooth climbing cog.
There are a huge variety of cassettes on the market. SRAM in particular has a huge variety of 9 and 10 speed cassettes.

Within the chainrings listed above and the choices of cassettes, you can make a bike that does damn near everything that you would like.

Just like everything else on a bike, as you spend more you get better performance and everything gets lighter.

Once you start using good sticky tires, you will scoff at the idea of getting anything else. We see it all the time; People walk in and grab our favorite tire in the store (which we’ll get to in a second) and walk to the counter. No questions asked, because we understand completely.

As you spend more on tires, to a point, you should get a couple of big advantages over the less expensive tires. Typically, you should expect more miles per dollar out of the nicer tires. ALL OF THOSE MILES will be with fewer flats and better cornering. Your acceleration will be better because of the sticky rubber and because of the lighter bead material.

Our short list of great tires:

1. Continental Grand Prix 4 Season
This is the best tire we sell for Denver. It gets the miles done quickly and comfortably. The rubber is exceptional for grip. And the casing is tough enough to resist most everything that Denver can throw at a bike tire. And lastly, they are so light, it is cheating. But, cheat if you want to.

2. Continental Ultra Gatorskin
The Gatorskin is a tough tire, as the name implies. It also is a great performing tire. Many of these tires live on messenger bikes because of the mile to cost ratio. They also need a tire that is efficient and great handling.

3. Maxxis Detonator
The Detonator is made up of 2 types of rubber. The middle is a harder material that will last longer, while the sides are more of a grippy material for cornering. It really lasts a good long time, with few problems of flats. As a side note, they also come in some great colors, which never hurts.

Your feet are not going to bother you on miles 1 thru 8. But, after that you will know whether the shoe fits. We have all had a pair of shoes that didn’t fit. Most of the time it is a dress shoe… Remember that? At the wedding, when you got blisters before you even got through the reception. Well, that pain is gonna be even worse if you don’t select your road shoes and socks carefully.

When you are looking at road shoes, make sure to find a pair that fits well and is high quality. The reason for stressing the high quality (when it seems so obvious) is that a cheap pair of shoes that feels great will NOT feel great in the middle of a long ride.

Socks should be simply a clean, soft layer between your feet and shoes. We sell Save Our Soles socks because 1. they are local and 2. they are the best socks we have ever encountered.

Proper fit is finding a shoe that feels great on, that does not slip at the heel in any excess. It should feel like a slipper, if you will.

We carry two brands of Road Shoes that we are confident with:

1. Shimano – The last of the Shimano shoes is made… well, to last. They worked extensively at making shoes that fit well and will last for several seasons of heavy abuse. We have had all expectations exceeded with Shimano Road shoes.

2. Mavic – New for 2009 are the Mavic shoes. Mavic doesn’t do anything half-assed. They have teamed up with Salomon to make incredibly light, incredibly technical road shoes. Upon receiving our first shipment of product, we will be delighted to show them off to you.

There are so many reasons to wear sunglasses. On the road, they are useful even when it isn’t sunny yet.

The idea of sunglasses is to be able to see, right?

Well, the sun (obviously) can make it so that you are unable to see well. But, the other thing that road riders have trouble with is air coming into your eyes.

When you are FLYING down Lookout Mountain at speeds upwards of 45 mph, the chances are great that you are going to have tears flying out of your eyes. If you have experienced this phenomenon, you understand that it feels like you are opening your eyes at the bottom of a swimming pool.

That said, we carry two levels of Sunglasses:
1. Fox Optics
Oakley optics makes the Fox lineup of glasses, but they aren’t that old worn out style. The glasses fit really well and the optics are what you would expect: THE VERY BEST.
We have almost all the styles in stock. Check out their website.


Fox Optics

2. Serfas Optics
Serfas sunglasses are an easy thing to choose. For one, they look great on. They have lots of styles and sizes for different faces. And for two, Serfas will take care of their eyewear customer no matter what happens. We have yet to actually say, “No, we cannot help you”. (Please don’t test this with something silly).

Ask your local bike shop about bibs and a standard response is “We all wear them, but no one will buy them”. Bibs are better than standard shorts for road rides. Bibs are simply a short with the suspenders built right in. There are few advantages we would like to point out to you:

1. Bibs stay up without being tight. Regular shorts have to be restrictive to stay up. They are tight through the waist to keep everything from moving down. This is not good to allow blood move freely up and down to keep those pistons going!

2. Bibs don’t bunch up. Same idea as number one, but a little different. Bib shorts do not bunch up as you are leaned over your handlebars. This is just so much more comfortable.

3. Typically, bib shorts are better for the money. Because serious cyclists look for bibs, the technology ends up there first. You will by riding the best, most comfortable short of your life.

The best products are the ones that we forget we have. That bottom bracket that keeps on working or the bars that never break, they don’t get enough high fives (and high fives are free). And man oh man, do we see people’s headsets go south constantly.

A nice assortment of nice headsets

The Chris King Headset is THE ULTIMATE HEADSET for people who ride. It doesn’t break. If it does (almost never because of normal use), they can repair it. You don’t need to replace a King headset.

The other nice thing is that King headsets are, in fact, super light. So, what else do you want? You want it to be less expensive? I know. It is much more expensive than others out there, but let’s look at how much you save if you had to replace it with a new one each 2 years (which isn’t all that far fetched).

King – $130 (give or take a few bucks)
Install – $35
Total for life – $175 (added in a tip for the mechanic!)

Cane Creek S-2 – $40
Install – $35
Total – $75
Two year total – $150
Four year total – $225
You get the point… sometimes you get what you pay for quickly and sometimes you have to enjoy how great a product is for years before it “pays for itself”.

We build custom wheels here if you cannot find what you are looking for, but many people do find a complete wheelset that makes them happier and faster without breaking their budget.

Mavic Completes
Please don’t misunderstand us when we say you will like your bike better. That same bike in your possession will magically turn into a new bike; a faster more responsive bike. With the Ksyrium SL or the R-sys wheel systems, your bike will be faster. The stiffness of the wheels lends itself to energy transfer from your power into the wheel turning. You will notice on the first tight turn you take that your bike is more responsive than ever. Mavic does a few unconventional things in wheel building:
The first thing is the materials used for spokes. On the Ksyrium SL, Mavic uses Aluminum for spokes. The reason they are able to do this is the tremendous tension that the rim can hold up to allows for the aluminum spokes to be virtually still through the movement of the wheel. The R-sys wheels use Carbon for spokes. The system is set up like a wagon wheel rather than a traditional wheel, so the carbon is holding you up, rather than you hanging on the spoke. It works. It works well.
The second thing is to offer a guarantee with their wheels. Simply buying the MP3 program at the time of wheel purchase gives you the freedom to push your wheels as hard as you want. If something does happen, Mavic will fix or replace the wheel at no extra charge to you. It is so simple; If you break wheels, you buy Mavic with an MP3 protection program.

Easton Completes
Easton does a few things we find amazing. They consistently make bombproof wheels at affordable prices and they do it with style. We sell many of the Easton EA50SL wheelsets because they offer an immediate upgrade to most entry level bikes and they last practically forever. The secret to their builds is the final human touch they offer. We cannot go to into detail on their ways, but let’s say that we rarely see problems come up with their wheels. The Owner of Salvagetti has a set of Easton EA90SLs on his Jamis Eclipse because they are light enough to fly with, but heavy duty enough to not be scared.

Bikes are inexpensive to maintain. And we at Salvagetti want you to be happy, so we have a short list of how to save a pretty decent amount of money while having a better running bike.

In order of the magnitude of how much money you will save:

1. Replace your chain before it is too stretched out.
After a chain stretches, it acts as a hammer on your gears and derailleur. Once a chain is TOO worn out, you have to replace the whole drivetrain because the new chain will not interact nicely with your old stuff. Chains can safely stretch to about 0.75″ growth before they should be changed out. Drivetrains *can* last several chains…
Money savings – $100 to a huge amount depending on how fancy of a bike you have.

2. Wipe off your chain after rides.
This removes the nasty stuff that causes the chain to wear out. After you wipe your chain, look to see if it looks like it needs lube. It should look sweaty if it is lubed properly. After you lube your chain, let the chain soak in the lube before wiping it down.
Money saving potential – see above.

3. Pump up your tires - This saves your energy. This make the tire act like the experts have designed it. Tubes aren’t all that expensive to replace, but wheels (which a properly inflated tire protects quite well) can get very pricy. Road tires also are going to give you more miles if they are properly inflated when in use. Pump up your road tires before each ride. Mountain tires should be checked about every 2 to 4 days.
Money saving potential – $5 to the cost of wheels.

4. Don’t skimp on tires - This is one of those touchy subjects for some. Tires like the Continental Ultra Sport ($16 MSRP) are great tires, BUT NOT FOR DENVER. Getting a slightly more thorn resistant tire will end up saving you more than the difference in price. A great Continental Tire for the money is the Ultra Gatorskin ($40 MSRP). In addition to you not visiting the bike shop for flats, you will also get more miles for the dollar and have a better riding bike the whole time. The Gatorskin is a *less expensive* option.
Money saving potential – $5 to who know how many flats you could get with one tire.

Please feel free to post other ideas for maintenance that pay you back.