Well it’s been a while! The customary post-Christmas increase in mileage has begun in an attempt to shed the extra kilos (3kg to loose by the beginning of March) and get back to the weight I was last autumn. I’ve been looking at my training schedule as well (home-produced) to try and emulate the autumn period where I felt I was going pretty well. Last year my form seemed to desert me in July and August and I’m keen to avoid this happening again.
So, long-ish cold, windy, wet rides will be the order of the day. I’ve extended my commute as well to take in the Embankment route instead of a more direct A3 route. Along with increasing the distance by 2 miles in each direction it has the additional benefit of having far fewer traffic lights. I feel as though I an a free spirit on my bike again, rather than being constrained by the signals developed to slow the flow of traffic into London.
Christmas was spent in India with family and it was lovely to leave snowy cold weather for 27 degree sunshine, even if my break was cut short by 3 days due to delays in the outward journey. My wife took some great photos of their trip to a wildlife park (having family in senior positions within the Forestry Commission helped to get the kids up close and personal with some tigers) which I’ll post on here soon, just to prove that I’m not all about cycling!
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Friday, 10 December 2010
Forward momentum ... and a gentle slide backwards
It's been 2 weeks since I was last on a proper bike on the road. A combination of work issues and weather have kept me off the roads and on the turbo, public transport and Boris Bikes. Do they count as public transport? I suppose they do really.
The bikes are really, really sturdy and a great way to get around town. I predict that, now they are available for daily hire, the next spell of decent weather will see a rapid rise in usage, meaning that getting space at a docking rack may be tricky. My main station (Waterloo) is particularly badly served for docking racks - there are several, but none of them are located where you really want them. Anyhow, today was my first day back commuting to work on the road bike - after 2 weeks of turbo and Boris Bikes it was good to rediscover the sensation of speedy forward momentum!
The slide backwards refers to my weight - inevitable in the run-up to Christmas really. Two kilos heavier just prior to a two week holiday to India - the slide is only going to go one way. Ho hum...
The bikes are really, really sturdy and a great way to get around town. I predict that, now they are available for daily hire, the next spell of decent weather will see a rapid rise in usage, meaning that getting space at a docking rack may be tricky. My main station (Waterloo) is particularly badly served for docking racks - there are several, but none of them are located where you really want them. Anyhow, today was my first day back commuting to work on the road bike - after 2 weeks of turbo and Boris Bikes it was good to rediscover the sensation of speedy forward momentum!
The slide backwards refers to my weight - inevitable in the run-up to Christmas really. Two kilos heavier just prior to a two week holiday to India - the slide is only going to go one way. Ho hum...
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Wheels on...
I finally got a few moments to myself today, so used the time productively to get tyres and cassette fitted to the new wheels and changed the brake blocks over. I'm really happy with the look of these wheels. All I need now is a day without sub-zero temperatures to give them a test ride. Expect a report in March then!
Monday, 22 November 2010
Touchdown...
My new wheels are with my neighbour, to be collected this evening. I'm excited! In this age when global travel is commonplace I still enjoy being able to track their progress across the Atlantic - in my mind there's still something glamorous about travel...
Friday, 19 November 2010
Wheels, wheels, wheels
It’s that time of year when the mainstay of my cycling activity is solo road riding, commuting and turbo work. Circumstances seem to conspire against me nearly every time I plan a group ride to the extent that, if it keeps up until Feb, I will have forgotten how to draft other riders! Not a bad thing in so far as it means I will be used to pushing a bit harder I suppose.
With a bit more downtime recently I have had the opportunity to spend more time doing non-cycling activities (read: socialising). However, thoughts of cycling are never far from the front of mind and have led me towards the next upgrade decision – wheels. Specifically race wheels.
Let’s be clear – I don’t need another set of wheels. I don’t believe that they will turn me from an eager points-hunter into a rampant points-winner unless I put in the significant training effort and have my fair share of luck. But I do want another set of wheels to race on. They have to look good, they must be clinchers and they need to be fairly light deep sections.
I currently race on two different wheelsets – Mavic Ksyrium SL or Mavic Cosmic Carbones. The Ksyriums are pretty light (approx. 1485g), strong, reliable, pretty stiff and reasonably fast. They’re good for hauling my lardy arse up hills, they’re confidence-inspiring on descents and they are my favourite set of wheels.
The Carbones are a bit more bling (not that much though) and roll a bit faster when up to speed. But they are not very light (approx. 1750g quoted by Mavic, but I think they are actually a bit heavier than this) and they are not particularly stiff. I can really notice this when sprinting or cornering hard – they just feel a bit woolly, a bit spongy. Not terrible, but worse than the Ksyriums.
So I started thinking – should I sell the Carbones and get a lighter set of deep section clinchers? Go for full carbon rims? Go handbuilt rather than factory built? The only two things I knew for sure were that they had to be deep section all-carbon rims (no bonded fairings on alu rims) and they had to be clinchers. I’m in the lucky position of being able to cycle to 3 crit venues and to puncture on tubs on the way there would likely mean missing a race. Since each race I go to involves lots of planning (with both work and family) then the risk of not getting to the start of a race due to punctures has to be minimised. So clincher it is, even though they are going to be slightly heavier and slightly more expensive.
Part One – sell the Carbones? Definitely. They’re in great condition so I should get a decent price for them on eBay (no one in the club was interested in them). They sell tomorrow, so I’ll be interested to see if I get the ‘fair value’ that I have in mind.
Part Two – find new wheels. The contenders: the new Zipp 404 carbon clinchers, Xentis Squad 5.8, Tune Schwartzbrenner 58, Reynolds Assault or DV46, Enve 45 clinchers. Out of contention were Mavics (nothing all-carbon as a clincher) and Campag (I cannot put Campag on a Shimano-equipped bike)! Also out of contention were the ultra-expensive Lightweights.
- Zipps – nice wheels, but out. Too expensive.
- Reynolds DV46 and Enve 45 – tentative maybes. A bit pricey. Not so deep section. Reynolds use DT Swiss 240 hubs, the rear of which does not seem to have a great reputation for building laterally stiff rear wheels in factory built wheels. Could consider a handbuilt version of these, or the Enve 45s.
- Reynolds Assault – cheaper than the rest, but advice and reviews seems to suggest they are a bit flexy. Someone in the club has some and had to have them rebuilt after a series of broken spokes. Not too keen.
- Tune Schwartzbrenners – I just cannot see past the white, painted-on flame graphics. Just horrible!
- Xentis Squad 5.8 – right pricepoint, 58mm rims, DT Swiss 240 hubs so maybe not the stiffest.
I decided on the Xentis Squad 5.8 – hey, it has an active turbulator on the rim to smooth airflow. Yeah, right! But the price was right, the look was right, they were clinchers and they were in stock with Starbike.com in Germany. OK, they were on DT 240 hubs, but that seemed to be the standard for nearly all the factory-built wheels I had seen.
Well, having been stung by my bank on the exchange rate and SWIFT fee, a week later the wheels arrived. They looked visually pretty good overall. The carbon weave for the main deep section surface looked classy. The weight came in within a few grammes of manufacturer stated weight. The finishing around the clincher edge was a little rough but since you don't see it when a tyre is fitted that didn’t bother me. What did bother me was that I couldn't fit a clincher tyre to these wheels! Using fingers and brute force (and lots of talc) I managed to get a GP4000s bead (which I use on all my wheels) to within about 35cm of being on the wheel on one side only. This was with the thinnest rim ribbon fitted. I didn't go down the route of using tyre levers to struggle further as I didn't want to knacker the rim and be unable to send the wheels back. Suffice to say that, having fitted loads of tyres to wheels, if I cannot get at least a foot of tyre bead over the clincher edge in a warm room then I know I won't have a hope on the road.
So back they went, minus postage costs, minus another bank fee to accept a Euro refund payment, minus another chunk to allow the bank to further profit on the exchange rate. Bugger! Turned out to be a rather expensive mistake. I have to say that Starbike were fine to deal with though.
Right, enough messing around, back to the wheel hunt. If it was stiff wheels I was after I thought handbuilt might be the way to go. That meant either a Reynolds or an Enve rim. After looking around again I opted for Wheelbuilder.com in the States – they had been brilliant in dealing with the details from all my emails and had given some good suggestions. Enve rims appealed, both for the method of manufacture (moulded spoke holes rather than drilled) and for the relative rarity value.
So I’m currently awaiting a set of Enve 45 carbon clinchers build onto Chris King R45 hubs with Sapim CX-ray spokes. 20 spoke front, 24 spoke rear, 2 cross rear for (I hope) decent lateral stiffness. A slightly shallower and lighter rim than the Xentis (wheelset should come in at about 1400g) which should be good for crits and road races alike.
I’m awaiting a delivery date now, and the dubious pleasure of taking receipt of both the wheels and the import bill. That’s the hit I’ll have to accept for what will be, let’s face it, a pretty special wheelset.
Phew – this was a long post! Perhaps I’ve spend too much time researching, but it’s been fun!
With a bit more downtime recently I have had the opportunity to spend more time doing non-cycling activities (read: socialising). However, thoughts of cycling are never far from the front of mind and have led me towards the next upgrade decision – wheels. Specifically race wheels.
Let’s be clear – I don’t need another set of wheels. I don’t believe that they will turn me from an eager points-hunter into a rampant points-winner unless I put in the significant training effort and have my fair share of luck. But I do want another set of wheels to race on. They have to look good, they must be clinchers and they need to be fairly light deep sections.
I currently race on two different wheelsets – Mavic Ksyrium SL or Mavic Cosmic Carbones. The Ksyriums are pretty light (approx. 1485g), strong, reliable, pretty stiff and reasonably fast. They’re good for hauling my lardy arse up hills, they’re confidence-inspiring on descents and they are my favourite set of wheels.
The Carbones are a bit more bling (not that much though) and roll a bit faster when up to speed. But they are not very light (approx. 1750g quoted by Mavic, but I think they are actually a bit heavier than this) and they are not particularly stiff. I can really notice this when sprinting or cornering hard – they just feel a bit woolly, a bit spongy. Not terrible, but worse than the Ksyriums.
So I started thinking – should I sell the Carbones and get a lighter set of deep section clinchers? Go for full carbon rims? Go handbuilt rather than factory built? The only two things I knew for sure were that they had to be deep section all-carbon rims (no bonded fairings on alu rims) and they had to be clinchers. I’m in the lucky position of being able to cycle to 3 crit venues and to puncture on tubs on the way there would likely mean missing a race. Since each race I go to involves lots of planning (with both work and family) then the risk of not getting to the start of a race due to punctures has to be minimised. So clincher it is, even though they are going to be slightly heavier and slightly more expensive.
Part One – sell the Carbones? Definitely. They’re in great condition so I should get a decent price for them on eBay (no one in the club was interested in them). They sell tomorrow, so I’ll be interested to see if I get the ‘fair value’ that I have in mind.
Part Two – find new wheels. The contenders: the new Zipp 404 carbon clinchers, Xentis Squad 5.8, Tune Schwartzbrenner 58, Reynolds Assault or DV46, Enve 45 clinchers. Out of contention were Mavics (nothing all-carbon as a clincher) and Campag (I cannot put Campag on a Shimano-equipped bike)! Also out of contention were the ultra-expensive Lightweights.
- Zipps – nice wheels, but out. Too expensive.
- Reynolds DV46 and Enve 45 – tentative maybes. A bit pricey. Not so deep section. Reynolds use DT Swiss 240 hubs, the rear of which does not seem to have a great reputation for building laterally stiff rear wheels in factory built wheels. Could consider a handbuilt version of these, or the Enve 45s.
- Reynolds Assault – cheaper than the rest, but advice and reviews seems to suggest they are a bit flexy. Someone in the club has some and had to have them rebuilt after a series of broken spokes. Not too keen.
- Tune Schwartzbrenners – I just cannot see past the white, painted-on flame graphics. Just horrible!
- Xentis Squad 5.8 – right pricepoint, 58mm rims, DT Swiss 240 hubs so maybe not the stiffest.
I decided on the Xentis Squad 5.8 – hey, it has an active turbulator on the rim to smooth airflow. Yeah, right! But the price was right, the look was right, they were clinchers and they were in stock with Starbike.com in Germany. OK, they were on DT 240 hubs, but that seemed to be the standard for nearly all the factory-built wheels I had seen.Well, having been stung by my bank on the exchange rate and SWIFT fee, a week later the wheels arrived. They looked visually pretty good overall. The carbon weave for the main deep section surface looked classy. The weight came in within a few grammes of manufacturer stated weight. The finishing around the clincher edge was a little rough but since you don't see it when a tyre is fitted that didn’t bother me. What did bother me was that I couldn't fit a clincher tyre to these wheels! Using fingers and brute force (and lots of talc) I managed to get a GP4000s bead (which I use on all my wheels) to within about 35cm of being on the wheel on one side only. This was with the thinnest rim ribbon fitted. I didn't go down the route of using tyre levers to struggle further as I didn't want to knacker the rim and be unable to send the wheels back. Suffice to say that, having fitted loads of tyres to wheels, if I cannot get at least a foot of tyre bead over the clincher edge in a warm room then I know I won't have a hope on the road.
So back they went, minus postage costs, minus another bank fee to accept a Euro refund payment, minus another chunk to allow the bank to further profit on the exchange rate. Bugger! Turned out to be a rather expensive mistake. I have to say that Starbike were fine to deal with though.
Right, enough messing around, back to the wheel hunt. If it was stiff wheels I was after I thought handbuilt might be the way to go. That meant either a Reynolds or an Enve rim. After looking around again I opted for Wheelbuilder.com in the States – they had been brilliant in dealing with the details from all my emails and had given some good suggestions. Enve rims appealed, both for the method of manufacture (moulded spoke holes rather than drilled) and for the relative rarity value.
So I’m currently awaiting a set of Enve 45 carbon clinchers build onto Chris King R45 hubs with Sapim CX-ray spokes. 20 spoke front, 24 spoke rear, 2 cross rear for (I hope) decent lateral stiffness. A slightly shallower and lighter rim than the Xentis (wheelset should come in at about 1400g) which should be good for crits and road races alike.I’m awaiting a delivery date now, and the dubious pleasure of taking receipt of both the wheels and the import bill. That’s the hit I’ll have to accept for what will be, let’s face it, a pretty special wheelset.
Phew – this was a long post! Perhaps I’ve spend too much time researching, but it’s been fun!
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Summary of the year
I have that ‘end of year’ feel now that the evenings are drawing in and all the serious bike riding is over. It seems like a good time to reflect on the goals I set myself back in Feb of this year. Time to brace myself…
1) Spend next to nothing on bike upgrades. I have all I need - really.
Epic fail. Purchase of a Time NXR Instinct (You can't hang an old bell on a new bicycle) saw to that. Very pleased with it though!
2) Don't injure myself and miss a whole summer of cycling.
Success! No injuries, maybe as a result of ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’. In fact the only injury I suffered happened 2 days ago – my son fell onto my outstretched hand coming down a waterslide at the swimming pool. The same finger I broke over a year ago felt broken again, but xrays showed it was still intact. The pain is probably down to ligament damage, which frankly isn’t any easier to deal with than a fracture.
3) Do a time trial. A '10' will do, on a road bike, in under 24mins.
Urrrmmm…I did the Richmond Park TT, 10.4 miles in 27.09mins (RPTT 2010). It’s a rolling course and most competitors who placed near me have done sub-24min 10’s before. Technically a fail, this one. I just couldn’t face the hassle of a trip out to a dual carriageway for a ten mile effort to find out the truth.
4) Gain double-figure points as a 3rd Cat. Not so easy, judging on past performance!
Fail, fail, fail. Lack of focus, lack of fitness, doing the wrong races, trying to race and do long sportive-type rides, whatever the reason I didn’t achieve. I felt my form improved as the year went on though. There’s always next year...
5) Complete the long route of the Time-Megeve sportive. No time goal.
Fail due to circumstances beyond my control (Gotta love the mountains...). Did a lot of riding over the four days though, so not at all unhappy with this one.
6) Complete La Marmotte sportive in 10hrs 30mins. Hey, I'm heavy and don't go uphill very quickly.
Fail due to mental flakiness and lack of sleep (Marmotte 2010). Very unhappy with my insomnia!
7) Lose another 4kg of bodyweight prior to 6). That will take me to 79kg for a height of 185cm.
Success (although weight has now crept up a little, but not bothered as I know I can loose it again quite easily). If only all goals were this easy!
7) Finish near the front of the bunch in a Palace 3/4 race.
Fail (but an irrelevant one for me). Didn’t get out to Palace enough (I think only 3 times) to feel comfortable there. In fact, scrap that – no one feels comfortable at Palace. Getting round without gurning in pain for 45 minutes and my heart trying to jump up my throat – that’s the goal for next year.
8) Buy a house. The most important goal.
The worst fail, the one that actually bothers me. Not for want of trying either, with multiple bids on multiple houses, but there is so much competition. Still, the year’s not over yet.
Hmm, overall the year doesn't look great. On the other hand it doesn't reflect the fun I've had riding - certain highlights (climbing the Col de Romme in absolute peace, haring down to Brighton and back) more than make up for the disappointment of unattained goals.
1) Spend next to nothing on bike upgrades. I have all I need - really.
Epic fail. Purchase of a Time NXR Instinct (You can't hang an old bell on a new bicycle) saw to that. Very pleased with it though!
2) Don't injure myself and miss a whole summer of cycling.
Success! No injuries, maybe as a result of ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’. In fact the only injury I suffered happened 2 days ago – my son fell onto my outstretched hand coming down a waterslide at the swimming pool. The same finger I broke over a year ago felt broken again, but xrays showed it was still intact. The pain is probably down to ligament damage, which frankly isn’t any easier to deal with than a fracture.
3) Do a time trial. A '10' will do, on a road bike, in under 24mins.
Urrrmmm…I did the Richmond Park TT, 10.4 miles in 27.09mins (RPTT 2010). It’s a rolling course and most competitors who placed near me have done sub-24min 10’s before. Technically a fail, this one. I just couldn’t face the hassle of a trip out to a dual carriageway for a ten mile effort to find out the truth.
4) Gain double-figure points as a 3rd Cat. Not so easy, judging on past performance!
Fail, fail, fail. Lack of focus, lack of fitness, doing the wrong races, trying to race and do long sportive-type rides, whatever the reason I didn’t achieve. I felt my form improved as the year went on though. There’s always next year...
5) Complete the long route of the Time-Megeve sportive. No time goal.
Fail due to circumstances beyond my control (Gotta love the mountains...). Did a lot of riding over the four days though, so not at all unhappy with this one.
6) Complete La Marmotte sportive in 10hrs 30mins. Hey, I'm heavy and don't go uphill very quickly.
Fail due to mental flakiness and lack of sleep (Marmotte 2010). Very unhappy with my insomnia!
7) Lose another 4kg of bodyweight prior to 6). That will take me to 79kg for a height of 185cm.
Success (although weight has now crept up a little, but not bothered as I know I can loose it again quite easily). If only all goals were this easy!
7) Finish near the front of the bunch in a Palace 3/4 race.
Fail (but an irrelevant one for me). Didn’t get out to Palace enough (I think only 3 times) to feel comfortable there. In fact, scrap that – no one feels comfortable at Palace. Getting round without gurning in pain for 45 minutes and my heart trying to jump up my throat – that’s the goal for next year.
8) Buy a house. The most important goal.
The worst fail, the one that actually bothers me. Not for want of trying either, with multiple bids on multiple houses, but there is so much competition. Still, the year’s not over yet.
Hmm, overall the year doesn't look great. On the other hand it doesn't reflect the fun I've had riding - certain highlights (climbing the Col de Romme in absolute peace, haring down to Brighton and back) more than make up for the disappointment of unattained goals.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Dynamo Club Champs 2010
Last Saturday saw a collection of Dynamos (a gaggle of…? A plethora of…? A bastard of…?) gather at Hillingdon for the annual club championships. The 1hr + 5 laps format caused some concern on the forum in the weeks prior to the race from non-racing members – was it a 1hr pootle followed by 5 laps? What happened if you started your sprint before the 1hr was up? Did the rider who had covered the most distance in the 1hr win, irrespective of the subsequent 5 laps? All very amusing for the regulars who knew that it would typically be a cagey 1hr and 5 laps of frenetic activity.
In fact, for we 3rd and 4th cat riders it was 10 minutes of frenetic activity at the start (“handicap, have to stay away, pant, gasp … ride harder, pant … get off the front, you’re slow … gasp … come through and do a turn you lazy slacker … pant, gasp …”) followed by 50 minutes of reasonably restrained bunch activity and then the 5 laps of free-for-all. Two riders, Mike and Cam, broke away (with about 7 laps to go I think) and stayed away, Mike just squeezing through for the hard-fought win. A great effort considering the rainshowers and the brutal headwind down the finishing straight. I finished in the bunch to round off my spectacularly unsuccessful racing season. Next year, next year…
Tea, cake, more cake was my fuel for the trip to Marlow after the race. I set off thinking I had plenty of time before nightfall. About 90 minutes and several wrong turns later I found myself tearing downhill on a narrow, potholed, tree-covered, totally dark descent somewhere around Hedsor heading towards Bourne End. Not the ideal way to end the day. So I didn't end the day that way - I ended it by drinking far too much wine!
In fact, for we 3rd and 4th cat riders it was 10 minutes of frenetic activity at the start (“handicap, have to stay away, pant, gasp … ride harder, pant … get off the front, you’re slow … gasp … come through and do a turn you lazy slacker … pant, gasp …”) followed by 50 minutes of reasonably restrained bunch activity and then the 5 laps of free-for-all. Two riders, Mike and Cam, broke away (with about 7 laps to go I think) and stayed away, Mike just squeezing through for the hard-fought win. A great effort considering the rainshowers and the brutal headwind down the finishing straight. I finished in the bunch to round off my spectacularly unsuccessful racing season. Next year, next year…
Tea, cake, more cake was my fuel for the trip to Marlow after the race. I set off thinking I had plenty of time before nightfall. About 90 minutes and several wrong turns later I found myself tearing downhill on a narrow, potholed, tree-covered, totally dark descent somewhere around Hedsor heading towards Bourne End. Not the ideal way to end the day. So I didn't end the day that way - I ended it by drinking far too much wine!
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