DH Wants to race!

[7rider]

A couple of thoughts - to race Masters, your DH first needs to move up to Cat 4 (though that's not too hard to do). Once there, he will find that this group is FAST and the races are HARD - my DH started racing Masters last year, and this group seems to only get better with age .

Regarding a new bike for racing - why? First, the likelihood that you are actually going to wreck the FRAME is minimal. Most crashes cause damage to components - wheels, brake/shifter levers, handlebars, etc. and these can be just as expensive on a less expensive frame. Last year, DH got caught in a crash the broke his shift lever - that was a $400 fix (the guy that took him down broke his carbon K-Wing handlebars and both levers - much more expensive!). Not sure if you had thought of it from this POV...

Thanks for this. DH and I were at the LBS yesterday, looking at the bike DH was thinking of for this effort and chatting with the shop owner. It was a gorgeous Lemond Buenas Aires built up with Ultegra (and a whole lot more expensive than I thought! ). The owner, while always willing to sell a bike, actually talked DH *out* of buying a bike for this effort. He indicated that, in the unlikely event that something actually happened to the FRAME, the cost of replacing the carbon stays on the ID8 (because you'd have to be run over by a truck to hurt the titanium) would be less than replacing the whole Lemond frame.

The Greenbelt series starts on May 2nd. I don't know if he'll be ready to race, but perhaps we'll go watch the first few......