30 Days of Biking - Day 30, Last day

30 Days of Biking officially comes to an end today but, of course, I will keep on riding, just probably not every single day. Thanks to all those who shared in the fun and gave me encouragement. Compared to last April, it's been a good month for road biking with less snow and warmer temperatures. This week has seen perfect riding weather.

Today began with a ride to yoga class on the Bob Jackson 3-speed and a short stop at Shues Pond afterward.

In the afternoon, it was once again our standard favorite ride to Spring Lake and beyond, today, on my carbon bike, the Bottecchia.

I love the carbon "wing" bars on this bike that are molded to more comfortably fit the hand than a round bar and with a wide flat section on the corners that helps relieve pressure points.

And the drop on these bars is also very comfortable, with an ergonomic bend and shape that I find more comfortable than a traditional alloy drop bar.

For the last few days Mike has been riding his Ritchey take-apart bike. This is the bike he took on our trip to Italy in 2007. The frame was originally a very drab, battle-ship gray color with dull maroon accents. Mike had it repainted by Matt Assenmacher who also made some modifications to the frame so it could run sidepull brakes instead of cantilevers.

The flashy red and white paint job duplicates the Ritchey Swiss Cross paint job on the bike Ritchey created to celebrate his winning cyclocross team.

The frame is unique in that it comes apart in two pieces, the front triangle and  the rear triangle, at the seat lug and near the bottom bracket.

The seatpost, clamped in two places, secures the seat tube and top tube together.

A clamp near the bottom bracket secures two flanges on the down tube.

To dress up the bike a bit more, Mike had Jon Williams of Drillium Revival do some custom milling (similar to engraving) on the seatpost and crank arms.

 For more on Drillium Revival, see this post on Mike's blog.