 So it's time to say farewell to my specialised LA Sprint and I've literally just been to Trilogy Cycles. I was packing it away and I thought to myself, shit, I've had a lot of good memories with this bike, so it really deserves a farewell video. So as you can see, I've stripped the LA down for sale. I've set it up on the magnificent Westwood road bikes down and I've even put a plant over there in the corner to deliver three major discussion topics for this farewell video. Number one is what I've really enjoyed or I'd say loved about riding the specialised LA Sprint. Number two, there are a couple of things I have disliked about riding this bike and number three, I want to share with you why I'm saying farewell to the specialised LA Sprint as of right now. But before we get into those three topic items, I wanted to share a couple of quick things. Number one, don't forget, there's a road bike right over here. It's the Merida Sculpture of 4000. I'm giving that away to a lucky subscriber a week before Christmas, which is approaching rapidly. So if you want to go into the draw, make sure you hit that subscribe button below if you already haven't. And I'm also going to be giving away a magnificent Westwood road bike stand and a set of Sun Guard case breakers to not only you have to be a subscriber but you also have to be on my email newsletter list for prizes two and three. Just be aware I'm not spamming anyone over there. I provide a weekly newsletter sharing a road cycling training tip. Now the second thing I wanted to quickly mention is that speaking of training tips, I'm about to launch an online free video training for people out there that want to take their road cycling performance to the next level. So if you land on this video two or three days after I've published it and you want access to that free online training, there'll be a link in the below description area. Now before I share with you what I love about the Specialized LA Sprint, I need to clear the air because about I think it was about two months ago now I published a video about the Specialized LA Sprint killing me. And I think there was some confusion about that particular piece because there's no bad blood between myself and the Specialized LA Sprint. I'd simply built it up as a behemoth, had a lot of weight on it, two drink bottles that had heavy wheels, big thick slow-moving Schwab marathon tires and as a result of putting a lot of weight and adding a lot of resistance to it, it was killing me particularly in bunch rides because you have to work a lot harder. So the purpose of that piece was more so to share with you how and why I'm training with resistance as opposed to badmouthing this bike at all because I absolutely love the Specialized LA Sprint for these six reasons. Number one, it's affordable. With the frame set coming in at $1,500 AUD, my complete bill which was done at the back end of 2017 was just under $3,000 AUD which is just over $2,000 USD as we speak. Number two, I bought mine as purely a frame set and that's all Specialized are offering these days with the Sprint model so it provokes you to build something up which is always more exciting than buying stock off the shelf. Number three, its geometry is more aggressive. In fact, it's slightly more aggressive than the Specialized Venge when you look at certain aspects to the geometry. Number four, it's stiff and responds well at speed. Number five, it often comes in cool limited edition colors like the Graffiti model I have so it's very aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And number six, it's aluminium which is a great all-round material. Yes, it does have carbon forks and a carbon seat post but it's predominantly aluminium which is lightweight, it's durable, it's cost effective and it performs well under race conditions. Now before I tell you what I've disliked about owning this bike, this kind of one point that sits in the middle of things I've loved about it and things I've disliked about it and that is when you put on a nice set of carbon rims like the MV6.7 you can see over there this bike really transforms. Now all road bikes will transform when you put on a nice set of carbon rims but I feel like even more so with the Specialized LA Sprint. All of a sudden its aggressive geometry, its stiffness, some of its aero tube shapes, it really comes to life and for Criterium Racing it's really a great bike. Conversely, if you put on a set of average aluminium training wheels, this bike goes from all of a sudden being quite a fast and aggressive Criterium Race Bike or I've called it a Critpick Companion to a sort of almost a mediocre road bike within the sort of price bracket that it's positioned as. So I feel like if you want to use a bike for training and racing, so this is a great training bike, it's also a great racing bike, ticks a big box, if you've just got a budget of around say two grand USD and you don't have the capacity to purchase a set of nice carbon rims I feel like there are better road bikes you could purchase with that budget in mind. Now the two things that I've disliked about owning this road bike and I don't want to get carried away here because there are characteristics I dislike about every road bike I've owned including some of the road bikes sitting behind this camera here but they are as follows. Number one, the seat post clamp works but you really have to screw that thing to a point where you're concerned it's going to crack and I know a few people have had issues with the seat falling down while riding myself included. Number two, aluminium isn't known for being a comfortable material and this is a stiff and aggressive bike. Put some standard alloy wheels on the LA and it's quite an unforgiving ride. So that's it there's only a couple of things that I've disliked about owning the Specialized LA Sprint and by far the pros outweigh the cons. Now the final point that I wanted to share with you is why am I parting ways with the Specialized LA Sprint. Well as mentioned earlier it's almost been two years since I've owned this bike and I've thoroughly enjoyed it but the time has come there's three bikes jammed up behind this camera I need to clear the air create some space and I've also got a new project coming early in 2020 and it's just time to say farewell I'll catch you in the next video