your daily bicycle log

what are you guys talking about

there's a website called trainerroad that takes speed information from your indoor trainer, extrapolates power data, and provides an online workout profile for you to do. it's like a computerized, workload-quantified spinning class you do at home.

40 miles over hills and along rivers in very windy conditions.

Threw my chain on a fast downhill yesterday!

I thankfully managed to control the resulting skid (I'm on fixed gear) and not deck it.

The chain had popped a link before getting too tangled up, so I was able to push that back together and ride home. Took it to the LBS and got a new chainring and cog fitted, as it was old worn ones which had caused the jump, I think.

Then today I get a puncture 5 miles from home, find my handheld pump doesn't work, so had to run home pushing the bike, as I would have been late for a photo job otherwise and didn't have money spare for a taxi!

Going to try and fix the puncture now, but I might not even try to ride tomorrow, it feels like tempting fate...

Perhaps best wait until the new week!

I need a second bike!

wait did the chain get caught up or something? because ime a thrown chain on a fixed gear = oh shit no brakes

My experience is that most often the chain is thrown off at the chainring, as there is more scope for slack there and then wraps itself around the rear cog, locking the rear wheel up and generally mangling things to all hell (cog, hub, wheel, dropouts, chain...). Last time it happened my rear drive-side drop out got all twisted up. Luckily this time everything locked up quite quickly and no significant damage is immediately obvious.

I've had this happen 3-5 times of varying severity in the last 3-4 years, but then I ride A LOT and don't keep everything that shipshape.

Fixed-gear doesn't necessarily mean brakeless. I'm an exception in that I have both front & rear brakes on mine, but a front brake is both common and, strictly, a legal necessity.

I'd rather the chain were thrown free of the cogs, which I've had happen a couple of times. The feeling of suddenly losing all tension and spinning the cranks into thin air and with no resistance is very weird, but you can at least use the hand brake(s) to come to a stop without damaging anything.

The chain wrapping round the rear cog is in my personal experience and expectation the more likely and potentially damaging outcome of a fixed-gear chain jump though.

Not fun whatever happens! But I didn't die, so all is good!

this is true

krakow ur the baddest ass cyclist on ilx afaict. from psychotic neds to splittin heads to fixie catastrophes, u keep it rolling.

probly the weather isnt good there either, but i cant believe its worse than minneapolis.

Krakow: was your 5-mile run home done in cycling shoes?

Just MTB style, but yes. With loaded courier bag. :-)

Urgh... 58.4 miles today at 18mph. An up, across a bit, and back down route with a cross-tailwind on the outbound leg - cracked off at a terrifying pace of 19.7mph for 24 miles. I was already suffering badly at that point. Then we split into two groups - I was in the supposedly slower group doing a shorter route, but the next stretch was mostly tailwind and it was lined out at over 27mph and once again I was just disappearing off the back and desperately fighting to get back on. Then came the long slog back home into a cross-headwind. I was utterly spent, but knew I couldn't face doing 25 miles on my own in those conditions, so hung on in there until we were safely inside the M25 and then I finally cracked with 9 miles left and struggled home alone.

Because I haven't done any serious riding for a while, I'd forgotten - until your description - how bad cracking can be. The last time I totally went was when I was out with my brother, who was a serious club cyclist at the time. He took it fairly easy, but I was still always playing catch up. The last idk 15? I could barely turn round my lowest reasonable gear, head hanging over the handlebars, barely looking up, actually visualising food I would eat when I got back to pull me along like a cartoon carrot dangling off a fish-rod in front of me. Even going downhill seemed to produce no momentum.

170km on the trainer over the weekend,.5km of real riding to a bar through brown sludge with snow tyres as well for your consideration.

Just as I was coming to warm down today my rear shift lever came off in my hand, sheared off of whatever axle is up in the depth of the double tap hood. It's still under warranty but it is vexing nonetheless. The campag chorus levers on the condor are over 15 years old and counting.

A quick search of the internet shows this to be a far from uncommon problem.

http://i42.tinypic.com/14kz7ew.jpg

SRAM is pretty good about this stuff tho right?

how many hours on the trainer is that becuz it is mental

that wasnt a product failure it was god performing an intervention

a bit less than 3 yesterday, a mildly hilly program, a little less today mainly just doing tempo, and today was with breaks. Audible is my friend in this regard, just stick a book on an zone out. January is pretty boring round these parts.

People do seem to get pretty good results from SRAM it seems.

haha

ha familiar places boulder checks in

http://youtu.be/GMCkuqL9IcM

actual lolz right there

like the nose-clearing in the cafe

getting the bike back on the road this week, fuck this £30 a week tfl smelly tube nonsense. also feel fat and depressed.

(got knocked off by taxi SMIDSY style around late november)

everything is fixed, pretty much, last thing to do is replace the brake cable. i haven't done my googling yet, just popping in here being lazy, but worth doing myself, or best to get a pro to do it?

Replacing the brake cable is pretty straight forward. If you have to replace the housing it can be a little annoying if only because cutting the housing is much easier with a proper housing cutting tool.

Where are you crackle? I've got some good cable cutters I can lend if you're in s London or roundabouts. Mind you' they're not hideously expensive.

Wake up: clear blue skies
Load the car: a crisp sunny morning
Drive for three hours down to Dorset with my three-year-old constantly saying "I want to get out now the sun's hurting my eyes": brilliant sunshine, sunglasses on
Cup of tea at the in-laws: sky turning grey
23-mile ride: hailstorm and freezing rain :-(

Went to velodrome at Calshot today with my club for a three-hour session. My first ever time riding on a track and my first ever time on a fixed wheel bike. I loved it.

Got track withdrawal symptoms today :-(

I really want to do it again, but probably won't get a chance for a year (when my club will go again, I expect). It's a shame Calshot is so far away. At least the Olympic velodrome will be just down the road from me (if I'm still here when it finally opens to the public).

220km this weekend (trainer, yes). On the pink bike because the BMC is in the shop being looked at. Kept my average watts, cadece and speed higher than last week. All may have been higher on the BMC, I spent a lot of time looking down and seeing all the bottom bracket flex.

Bottom bracket flex is the new heavy bike training.

No rides for over a week due to football injuries.

btw i've sawed halfway through the downtube/seatube junction to maximize flex on my trainer bike-- feeling big gains fwiw.

Yay, SRAM will fix my double tap under warranty. Should be ready for the weekend.

riding through the city at midnight on a tuesday is so great, in an "i own this town" kinda way. 5 lanes of traffic- all mine. capitol dome all lit up. what traffic lights? occupy (mostly) all snug in their bags.

That sounds awesome.

I love riding through the city at night. Was finishing work at 3 in the morning fairly regularly last year and riding across London was magnificent.

I braved the temperatures (-2C this morning, supposedly rising to a toasty 2C this afternoon) and went for a gentle ride into London today (as there would be less chance of encountering ice there than out in the countryside). Past White Hart Lane, Alexandra Palace, through Hampstead Heath and Regents Park, over the river, up to The (nearly-finished) Shard, and back via the edge of the Olympic Park.
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/copysmall.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/map.jpg

Nice Circuit

Bike back, brand new shift lever, one side only though so now my levers don't match, I'll take this as a badge of honour, though. New cables and bar tape too.

Mechanic at the Trek store who did the bike (cheaper, fewer arseholes than ProBikes), had the same thing happen on his monday ride. SRAM had a lever for him the next day.

Looking outside right now, I'm glad I went for a ride on Friday because I won't be going anywhere tomorrow:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/photo.jpg

This morning we measured out at 22 inches of fresh snow. My back is killing me from shovelling.

out along the usual hilly road, but had lead in the legs or something. aborted before the real hard bits. where has my glorious january form gone!!

165 km this weekend. Did an FTP test with trainerroad on saturday then a VO2 max improving workout today. The day started grey, but had brightened up by the end of my workout. So post lunch I went out for a flat spin in the sunshine. Riding on the road is so much more comfortable. I was having huge amounts of fun throwing the bike around.

Then I got a slowish flat in the front wheel, pumped it up, went on it went down. Replaced the tube, whilst doing so I pulled out 10 pieces of grit from the tread, all deep but none going through. The rear wheel was also slow and 5km later it was not holding air at all, only one tube so I had to walk the last 4 km home.

I hate walking in cleats.

I had a three-mile walk home through London in March last year after my chain broke. The cleats were less of an issue than the whole lycra tights and helmet thing while trudging past literally hundreds of surly teenagers.

Lots of climbing yesterday, amazing weather and long sweeping descents. We were all sort of giddy by the end.

Introducing my iconoclastic randonneur friend to the city club I ride with has gone well so far, should make my life less complicated.

It being Super Bowl sunday it was pretty quiet out (bars close for Super Bowl which seems bizarre to me), although the few surly looking teens I passed didn't give me any grief. In general I don't get much hassle for lycra in Pittsburgh. This being a sports mad town I think people just see it as the proper equipment and respect it as such.

Bloomin;' stressful riding tonight - really wet & really cold, i.e. literally freezing, with eerie fog.

Still very cold but the roads are clear of snow. Did another 31-mile ride around London rather than chancing the country lanes:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/albertbridge.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/crunchydog_2006/bigben.jpg

Nice, I'm hoping to do something similar tomorrow as we were too busy today. Weather looks much worse though, sleet forecast at nine. Tend to draw the line at sleet. A bit scary to think I'm doing my first night ride of the year (Brighton unfortunately) in just a month's time.

Let's hope the weather's *much* better by then