lotus update

only missing a chain and pedals, the lotus project is almost complete

8.2kg and one of the most spetacular frames ever made!!!!

portuguese precision handcraft!!

This weekend i will have yet more fun with a 100km MTB race...
I had to work a bit to have my bike ready and my last mud bath last sunday produced a broken deralium hanger. i couldnt find a replacement in time so in good portuguese fashion i had to fabricate one :D

from a aluminum bar and after a few hours building strength in my harms i did one that will work even better, i bet the frame will break before this one does :D take a look at the portuguese precision handcrafted hanger

the aluminum bar and the first step of what looks to be a hanger

brute force :P

looks like something

old one and the new one with a lot of work left

almost done

just fixing holes left and some finishing touches

im curious to see how it holds this weekend

Photos from the weekend

First lap trying to catch up

with a lap of around 5.5 km its hard to know who is who

one of the coolest parts of the course

just before the end of a lap

preparing for maui?

not really but MTB races are fun, this one was the first one. 3h in a +-5km circuit that was hard. my body was very trashed at the end but i felt pretty good.

me with a smile before the race

Sergio Dias rode a ciclocross bike, OUCH, defenetely not a good bike for this course

After some mech problems at lap 2 i worked my way to the lead but eventually droped with a destryed wheel, fortunately it was almost at the end and i finished the lap with 4 min to spare, 4 min where enough to drop to 5th... i think

a very unusual failure for a wheel

it was a lot of fun though :P

results

:D

I almost feel like Sergio Dias. But the quality of my stable is far superior than his :D the goas is to have more bikes than Danny!!

and yes, mister Sousa should be commenting something like. "Youre an idiot" or "tu es doente" but he wants one!!! hang on to your broken hooker Paulo :P

:P

here it is

fresh from the artist that painted my hotta. i had this one strip the clearcoat and do it again, looks brand new.

its quite umbelievable the level of quality of this frame. it will put most of the actual high end frames in shame.

i can actually shave with this frame :D

time off

2 weeks are enough, im starting to get crazy with the lack of exercise. Im not a couch potato but less than 10h/week just feels bad and i feel like i have to much free time and too much time to think :P

This week ill do a bit more, at least what i feel like each day. Not a season start but i sure need to moove my body a bit more.

The portuguese bike show was this weekend and my race bike was one of the atractions of the 3 day show :D at least the orange bike had a lot of curious eyes around it. I visited the show on sunday.

Other than this there isnt much to report, i guess its planing time for me, a lot to think about.

projects

no, no 2010 news...

but i do have a few winter projects.

Yes, its a lotus (not the one in the photo) to make some company to the hotta and a MTB bike

still with my head in the other side of the globe

one week has passed, im back home and decided to finish my season as planed, although i was suposed to race today in the final of the portuguese national champs (olimpic distance in a ITU world champs format), that would hurt a bit if i left something in the big island last saturday.

I have been thinking a lot about the race (or lack of). yesterday i went for a Lusobike short ride in the morning before opening the store and i must have been the worse company possible, no chat no nothing, i spent 2h just thinking in stuff. Ive done almost nothing training wise, im on "vacations" right!! nevethless i feel that i had a great season especially mid season with some good results in key races for me, it was a hard winter spring but after that i did well, too bad about hawaii that was my main goal and where i spent the most time and resourses to have a great day but s#$% happens.

right now, any sort of workout puts me back in hawaii :P so i better advoid them a bit, oh and recharging batteries is also good