your daily bicycle log

Just had to admit defeat and take my wheel in to the LBS to have them fit the tyre. The guy had a quick go while I was there and said 'it is really tight' so it's not just me...

I've had to do this before. That final 10-15cm of new tyre often seems impossible to get over the rim without permanently destroying your thumbs.

They say you shouldn't use a lever for that last bit, but you can, you know.

http://californiabikegear.com/quikstik/public/bodyqs4.jpg

some ultra ultra ultra tight tires make these ineffective, but i swear by these.

i think i need remedial classes in how to use levers to mount a tyre

Anybody have good experiences with "fit kits" - particularly in the Bay Area? I'm experiencing knee pain with my new setup, and cleat adjustment hasn't helped so far.

i am shopping around too lukas, i know of a couple (3 in marin, one in palo alto) but hope to pull the trigger asap. i will let you know which one i recommend probably in a week.

last 8 days = 376 miles, 22k feet of climbing.
taking a rest day today, feeling stronger, much more relaxed pushing tempo efforts up hills.

xpost sweet thanks

been slacking off due to weird sickness - exhausted by 5 if i get up at 6am to ride. gonna try again tomorrow.

took my bike in to get a mid-winter overhaul (half price!) and oh man what a treat.

still getting soft and fat tho

took the titus out for the first ride, and last ride before the weather gets ride-shitty, ugh:

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr222/Chass3ur/New/forecast.jpg

riding a full suspension with discs is veeeery different, technology has really moved on. mostly. *old man yelling at clouds warning* i know they are totally uncool, but barends were really good for climbing. also, sram's push-push shifters are terrible. also, 12 years after my last mtn bike had a low-normal r. der., why does high-normal still exist? it is totally inferior.

i had a grand time, though.

barends? i still got 'em. fuck the haters.

first time out on the mtb in like 2-3 months on saturday. man i felt like a noob.

Quite lucky I didn't come, then! OTOH I'd have made you feel 1337.

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr222/Chass3ur/New/suckyweather.jpg

since i'm the weather complainer-- COME ON HERE. im spoiled by the weather here but really.

A tough 50-mile training ride this morning with a guy who's stronger than me. We sprinted for most village signs and pushed it hard up the climbs - I managed to win a couple of sprints, but lost about ten and couldn't stay with him on the longer climbs, but I like having to work hard.

100km down the (flat) coast to frankston and back, with ex-workmate and a friend of his from geelong - very strong rider on c'dale synapse with sram red copped rain on the return leg, then had to contend w/ some brutal crosswinds that knocked my mate around a bit (lol italian climbers). i got BRAGGIN rights on the sharp little climb thru the city by putting it in the BIG RING and thrashing up to the top, heh!

Another tough training ride this morning. I went out with some hardened racers who were going on a deliberately hilly route (i.e. it kept doubling back pn itself to take in all the tough climbs, in as much as climbs in Essex can be tough). I'd been warned it was every man for himself: if you got dropped you were on your own, but I wasn't worried - I could easily find my way home if necessary and I wanted a good workout. I made a point of leading over every climb in the first 30 miles - I was the only one with a compact so I was able to just spin away from people when the road ramped up. By this stage our group had been whittled down from 8 to 6 and then to 4. Then a couple of guys put the hammer down and broke away and I ended up doing bit-and-bit with another guy as we tried to chase them down but they just disappeared. By now my legs were feeling destroyed. Through sheer luck I came across one of the guys who had been dropped earlier and we rode the last stretch together - when we went up the final climb (13%) we were both wobbling all over the road, barely able to keep pedalling. 53 miles and (according to my phone, which isn't the most reliable source) 2,666 feet of climbing (809m).

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/IMG_00502.jpg
As you can see, many of the other riders didn't have mudguards, so I got a face/body/legs/mouth full of mud. As you can also see, my daughter ran in front of the camera at the crucial moment.

just the 30-odd miles for me today, but it was the first decent run-out in ages, dere lord have I lost *all* of my base fitness - hit max HR on more than a couple of (pretty small apart from CryPal hill) climbs, ouch.

daaamn yesterday was pretty. really cranked through the rollers on paradise loop. so good.

really cranked through the rollers on paradise loop

I have no idea what this means.

it means i rode this squiggly section on the north side, which is gentle ups and downs, at a pace that's fast for me

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=233+Dorland+St,+San+Francisco,+California+94114&ll=37.900865,-122.465286&spn=0.045648,0.090895&t=h&z=14

Thanks.

--got new carbon fork installed last night along with new headset for stupid cheap
--biked 2 sxhool
--came out over lunch to find a note that said, basically, that someone saw a delivery van back into my bike. they pulled the plates and company name and even looked up the phone number for me
--called cops, who filed a hit and run report, and even called the company to "scare them" for me
--going to get an estimate. if the frame isn't bent (no dents) then it should just be a new wheel/fender. worried about the fork though
--phasers set to "str8 murder a motherfucker"

don't even know what my bike looks like anymore ;_;

this made me really sad, man.

can you just fucking sledgehammer it and demand a moots?

^not "legal" advice in any way shape or form.
xpost

i think it'll work out in my favor

guys at my neighborhood shop (right off my bus route) gave an estimate that jived with what i had figured myself, but there was some debate about whether or not the frame was misaligned. one guy thought it was (10mm), the other guy said it wasn't (4mm). going to my friend's shop tomorrow (better mechanics, more likely to be "generous") for the final appraisal. plus they'll give me a loaner, which is nice.

plus my pretty "new" mtb frame is just sitting there on the couch, waiting to be built.

still needs pretty much everything :-/

Had a fantastic day yesterday with http://www.ukbikeskills.co.uk/, doing a kinda back to basics course, simple techniques for drops and cornering. Bloke was an amazing teacher, a genius for not only figuring out what needs fixing, but how to get that information across - he has this theory that people are either kinetic, visual, or audio learners, they need to either actually do something, or see it, or be told. And it works! I'm audio and kinetic apparently, so he was just telling me things and occasionally getting me to try things out on the flat, other people he was taking photos on the phone and showing them what they were doing wrong (or right). The techniques are all fairly simple but he has them spot on, and it seems like half the mtb world is ignorant of them - it was years before I discovered that if you want to lift the front wheel, pulling up on it is just about the worst thing you can do.

They also have the most incredible amount of insane northshire you'll probably ever see packed into a 40 metres square area.

ppl that damaged my bike now want a complete replacement estimate along with the repair estimate. my friends tell me that this is likely a liability thing (can't blame them for fork failure a month from now, say).

apparently my cranks, new, are worth more than the frame fork and wheelset combined o_o

post-eye surgery i'm to wear goggles while cycling, so as not to dry out the corneas too much. i'm gonna look awesome.

forever?

just for the next month.

you could go for the Andy Hampsten look circa the 88 Giro:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hampsten+gavia

I'm doing The Puncheur sportive on Sunday (the hilly 70-miler finishing on Ditchling Beacon in Sussex which I've done for the last two years as well) and then doing my first race the weekend after that. My brother, who is an ex-triathlete and in the army, is briefly in Britain at the moment and I convinced him to take part in it too (when one too many Christmas champagnes probably made it seem like a good idea). What with his job he doesn't get much opportunity to cycle and he'd hardly ridden at all for months until this week: not a recipe for success. I had the day off work today and drove down to Biggin Hill to meet up with him and do a 30-mile ride. It's extremely hilly round there - you're constantly going up or down - but even so, I was expecting it to take less than two hours. It ended up taking more like three and included a lengthy stop while he bought lots of food after blowing up. He's not optimistic about being able to last the distance on Sunday. I've told him I won't be trying to set a time, that I'll just stay with him, but I our parents' house is virtually on the route and I think he's already made his plans to bail out.

big-ring every hill, imo. that'll learn him for not taking his training seriously!!

If you want to go at any sort of pace it's probably better for you both is he takes advantage of the family homestead and DNFs. On the other hand, you'll have some blissfully necessary taking it easy up hills, which makes them a LOT more fun.

I think it's more a case of waiting for him at the top of hills. He's also very keen to watch Liverpool v Man Utd live, not just recorded, so I think that will be the straw that breaks his camel's back.

A little over ambitious this morning, went to work with out gloves on. It may look like spring but it is still below freezing.

Haha wtf? I wear long-finger gloves, not matter how short the journey, if it's under 10 degrees C!

Floyd Landis was at the cafe (in north costal san Diego, CA ) at the end of todays ride. He was with some attractive woman in a pink kit and some dude in an Ouch kit. He had on a logo-less black jersey. Pretty wild.

Haha holy shit I just realized: the cafe I saw him at has an attached smoothie bar. Its name: "Juicers"

Did the Sportive. In the end, my brother decided he'd rather set off about half an hour ahead of me as he didn't want to hold me back and if I did catch him up and I'd be a bit tireder. I rode with another guy (who I didn't know) for most of the first half, then shortly after the feed station I came across my brother in a bus shelter. He'd had a puncture in his back wheel and for some reason his spare tube wouldn't inflate. He'd already phoned for a lift to get back to the HQ, so I set off again when a bunch of about 8 riders came past. I sat in with them for about half an hour, then it got broken up on a long, draggy climb and I worked in a group of four all the way to final brutal climb. My thighs were in agony the whole way up - I was genuinely worried they would just lock up and leave me unable to even walk to the finish. I coped with it by imagining that instead of going up a 15% hill after 70 miles I was actually just riding down my flat street - somehow this worked and I ended up sprinting past someone right at the top. The results are already in and I was the 55th fastest (out of 293 finishers and more than 309 starters).

landis, huh. whenever i encounter a pro cyclist i almost always am amazed by how slight they seem irl.

nice nbs.

i finally got an mtb ride in (my second), just in time to beat two snowstorms coming in tomorrow and tuesday. i only rode an 1.25 hours, but it was fun. i am having a hard time adapting dual suspension, i gotta say. the modulation on my lowish-end discs seems bad (grabby) to me, and i get this weird rocking horse feeling when i hit or release the brakes. i've got the sag set up as recommended, but maybe i need to have it set firmer?

Full on pain face alert!

They've put the official photos online, including the ones from the top of the hill right at the end.
Winding it up and hunting him down
Pulling out to come past
and the full-on agony shot Soaring past and heading for the finish line

Today was the Grand Swapping Over of the Bikes Day - heavy winter bike to be retired, and lightweight racer pressed back into action. I had it serviced a couple of weeks ago to make sure it was ready for the racing season. My first race is on Sunday (a two-up 25-mile time trial) so I put the tri-bars on this morning and took it out for a short training ride to check everything was OK. Everything *was* OK for the first 26 miles, except the front mech seemed to be getting slower at changing. Then, going up a hill, it kept clicking out of gear. I stopped and had a look and saw that the chain was actually coming undone on a rivet. I was still four miles from home so tried to see if I could just do little micro-pedals (a tenth of a revolution) to keep the wheels spinning and get me back, but no - within a few hundred yards the chain completely snapped.

Very pissed off. I had to walk more than three miles home, in cycling clothes and with cycling shoes on, through densely populated London streets, past my place of employment, all the while clanking along on my cleats and dragging a lengthy chain behind me. I'm going back to the shop that serviced now. I think they should replace the chain and investigate the front mech for free. Doubtless this won't happen: more likely I'll have to shell out a load more money and miss my race on Sunday.

sorry to hear this. otoh i heard training/racing on the heavier bike will make you stronger.

totes

otoh i heard training/racing on the heavier bike will make you stronger

So strong, in fact, that no chain can cope with my power.

I would like it to stop raining. Still haven't taken the BMC out this year and it's March already. I was hoping to benefit from this weekend's big wheel switcheroo* but I have this:

http://i51.tinypic.com/qzojky.png

I'm hoping chance of snow just means dry and bastard cold but I'm not hopeful.

*prompted by giving back all the things I stole off E's bike to get the Condor going I took the opportunity to get new wheels for the BMC and the aksiums go to the Condor