Competitive Commuting

I've gotten into a competition of sorts; I feel I need to break what every "record" I set on my commute.
Wednesday was faster than Tuesday, and Thursday faster than Wednesday.
I'm checking splits, and calculating speeds on the road.
Are these hour long hammerfest of any value? Hard to say. Last night I had a hard time keeping up with Lillian (the slowest walker in the world) on our walk to the bookstore my legs were so wrecked. Recovery is pretty good though; I don't feel too worse for wear this morning, but I'm glad I need the truck for work.

Geartard

I realize on the mountain bike I'm a total geartard. The time I've spent riding singlespeeds has rendered my ability to select the proper gear for the situation moot.
But on a road bike?
Come on, road bikes are easy. You just keep on shifting until you reach the desired amount of suffering, I mean resistance. How hard can that be?
I used to ride geared road bikes all the time, but since last Fall, I've been on a geared bike maybe a half dozen times.
Two of those time were this week.
On Monday, everything went wrong due to poor preparation (I'm firing my mechanic!), so Tuesday I was back on the Fun Machine as a sort of bicycle sorbet, to clense my pallet.
Pretty good ride too. My ride into work rivaled some of my quickest rides in on any bike.
So today, I gave the Univega another chance. I had gone over it last night to make sure I had crossed my "i's" and dotted my "t's".
Mechanically it performed flawlessly, but I felt I was fighting it the whole way in. I kept thinking "this hurts, why am I going so slow?".
When I got to the shop I was indeed slow; 1:45 slower than the day before.
WTF (that's "text" for what the fuck)! Why am I slower on a lighter geared bike than a heavier fixed gear?
Puzzling.
On the ride home, I was grinding up the climb to Roger's Orchard, you know sitting and spinning, looking at my speed. Man am I going slow. Maybe I'm this slow on the fixed gear, but I don't realizes it because I can't see the speedo standing?
The climb after the orchard, I jumped out of the saddle and it dawned on me. I don't have sit and spin muscles anymore.
All the fixed and singlespeed riding has developed my muscles differently than if I was trying to do a Lancy-pants impression.
From there on I decided to ride to my strengths. Don't shift down to a spinny gear and sit, but stand and use my upper body, like I'm used to. Ride like "me".
By the time I got to RT10, I was equal on time to Tuesday's commute.
By the time I got to the spot I flatted on Monday I was 30 seconds up.
Finally, when I got home I was up by 55 seconds. I pulled back 2:40 on the ride home. This was in the rain too, so I couldn't capitalize on coasting down hills either.
So what does all this tell us:

1. Geared bikes are faster
2. fixed gears are more reliable
3. Charlie has too much time on his hands
4. absolutely nothing
5. all of the above

180

RT 91N, exit 40.


That's as far as I made it.


Bike was prepped, food and drinks were packed. I was well rested, and had a good week of riding leading up to Sunday (not too hard, not too easy).


But there were some rough edges that needed to be smoothed, that were weighing heavily on me.


I guess some things are more important than racing my bike.





In the half full / half empty category, 1st, and 3rd place in the series also didn't race the CAT1 40-49 (Jonny Bold did a road race, and Kevin Hines came in 2nd in the Pro / CAT1 open). So I didn't gain, or loose any ground. All even stevens and the like.





In lieu of 4 hours in the truck I did have time to change the bars on my Univega (wider is better). Due to said rough edges I was rushing it, and things were not going smoothly.


First going with wider bars meant replacing cables and housings. Somehow the derailleur housings which seemed way too short, worked out by re-routing them on the inside of the bars, but there was no way around the brake cable housings.


The little tape strips under the brifters wouldn't stick, or would the fancy finishing tape, so I ended up wrestling with bar tape for far longer than I'd like, and I had to finish the ends with electrical tape.


Riding in this morning, I realized I didn't tighten the brifters, as the left slide a 1/2" out of place. So I got to re-tape the left side once again.


Another thing I forgot to do in my rush was inject more sealant in the tires. I remembered this as the sky turned black.


Then I heard pft,ftftftftftffffffffff.


So as I admire the blister on my thumb, I'm thinking that was a lot of work for a bike that's not nearly as fun as, well, the Fun Machine.

Can't Wait!

Last week I was whining about driving long miles to races, this week I'm chomping at the bit.
After racing 3 weekends in a row it was nice to have a weekend at home with the family. Got to go for a ride with the kids, go to Stratton Brook State park for swimming (well the kids swam). Got to pull weeds, cut down brush, clean gutters and other productive homebody stuff. I did miss the noon cut off to get all my brush over to the recycling center watching the Tour though.
But that's enough.
I'm ready to race.
Looking forward to back to back weekends of obsessing about tire and gear choice.
Rigid or HT?
What food should I bring?
Should I carry all my water or build a stand?
Can't wait!

Product Review: Continental Race King

I've been riding Continental Race King's (29x2.2) for about a month now, and here's what I've found.
They are fast. Scaryfast.
Because they roll so fast you need to pay attention, or they'll be telling you "Look fat boy, we're working here, stop daydreaming and keep your head in the game or we'll throw you on your ass".

Their rolling resistance is such that I found myself carrying way more speed into corners than I anticipated. At first this might cause a bobble or dab, but once I was used to how they continued to carry speed when I let off the gas, I adjusted.

At speed traction is excellent, but be warned this tire is meant to go fast. If you are looking for a tire to play Han Rey with, picking a line through a rock garden look else where. Slow speed stuff in slippery rocks is a weakness.

Now if you hit the rock garden with speed and rode the crests and spines of the rocks, or if the rocks aren't all slimy from record rainfall, the Race Kings will perform excellent.
The sidewalls are pretty stiff, so I can run them down to as low as 20 psi without bottoming them out. The sidewall stiffness is in part due to a puncture protection layer, which is a nice reassurance in rocky New England.

I raced them in the mud of the Putney West Hill race. They did pack up a bit (after I washed my bike off they were holding 1 pound of dirt), but on the course the continued to provide traction (no unplanned dismounts if you know what I mean).

I chose not to race them at Domnarski, or Pats Peak, but in retrospect, they would have worked as well as the combo I did choose.

My pair weighs in at 640 grams a piece, not lightweights, but not bad for a 29" tire, and 10 grams less than Conti's claim. With the piece of mind of sidewall protection, I'll take a few extra grams instead of the walk of shame any day.
Also the easiest tire I've ever set up tubeless; sealed without sealant. A first for me.

Singlespeed Heart

I took Quinn and Lillian for a bike ride on Saturday. We started on a nice smooth crushed stone bike path in Simsbury. I spied a blazed ribbon banking off to the right and thought "That looks like fun!"

A pretty tame path for someone who regularly mountain bikes, but on the challenging side for an 8 and 10 year old.

As I coached Quinn over some roots and up a difficult climb, I see Lillian up ahead pedalling until she can't go any further, calmly dismounting and beginning to push her bike up the rest of the hill.

No complaining, no drama. She just accepted she did the best she could, and she'd just have to push it the rest of the way. It was beautiful.

Besides the fact that she never shifts the gears on her 21 speed bike, she has the heart of a singlespeeder.

When you ride a singlespeed you don't make excuses. You make it or you don't. You don't blame your tires or your gear choice. It is what it is.

I was riding with a friend a week or so ago and on a challenging two part technical climb, I made the bottom half over the ledge and roots, but couldn't make the turn at the top. He consoled me that making it that far was making it.

Whatever.

If I make it that's great, if not, no big deal, I'll try again another day.

If your racing and you're getting blown away because your gear is small for the flat stuff, maybe you'll make it back on the climbs, maybe you won't, but don't worry about it. That's just the way it is.

"What's It Weigh?"

I've been getting that question a lot lately. Mostly at races from geared riders. They are astounded by how "heavy" it is. Conversely, singlespeed riders usually think the weight is on the lighter side.

I'm not above weight weenie-ism; I have a little fishing scale in my shop that I'll weigh tires and other parts on. I'd say more out of curiosity than anything else. If a products works well, and is heavier so be it. However if something is lighter and works as well, I'll probably go with option "B". If I end up having to walk my bike 5 miles out of the woods because option "B" wasn't up to the task, then that weight savings really wasn't too helpful.

I know weight makes some difference, but how much? My Cannondale weighs 16 lbs., whereas my Univega weighs 20 lbs. Riding the Cannondale, it definitely "feels" lighter. It's "feels" like it accelerates faster, and is quicker handling. But when I check my ride averages, I'm no faster than on the Univega, even on routes with a lot of climbing.

Which would I choose for a hillclimb? The Cannondale, no doubt.

So what does it weigh?

My Karate Monkey has been as low as 21.75 lbs with linear pull brakes and sub 600 gram Ignitors. It's been close to 25 lbs with rigid steel fork, BB7 disc brakes, and Nevegals. With disc brakes and the rigid carbon fork, hovers around 22 lbs with the right tires. Right now with Conti Race Kings, and a Rockshox Reba it's 23.8 lbs.

The only time I really notice the difference from its heaviest to lightest is carrying it up the stairs out of the basement.