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Today Today - January, 2014

Emerging from (mostly) lurking mode to get this into January's 'today' thread: a windswept effort this morning put me over the 600km for Strava's 'Prove It' Challenge for January.

I started half-heartedly after new year but found myself, a week into it, striving to keep up a 150km per week average to make the 600. This week was the final push and I couldn't quite make it yesterday, after 40km along the Edogawa - increasingly beset, as it is, by seemingly pointless roadworks, and policed by the red stick-waving uniformed brigade. So this morning was a brief blast (27km) along the Arakawa to finally put me at 613km for the month.

I now have the opportunity to purchase a special orange Strava 'Prove It' T-shirt. This seems like the booby prize after comprehensively failing to achieve the Rapha 500 challenge, but I will take it. Feel strangely satisfied with the achievement!

Cheers to all,
Pete
 
Nice work - the Rapha 500 shirt would have set you back a cool $65 - 40 for the shirt, 25 for postage. Far too rich for my blood.
Strava t-shirts can do one for reasons other than price.
 
I must admit though I do like the Grand Fondo cycling jerseys that they are offering recently.
 
... along the Edogawa - increasingly beset, as it is, by seemingly pointless roadworks...
Heresy! 治山治水。We must control the mountains and the rivers by spending half your tax yens on endlessly moving piles of sand from one side of an excavated river bank to the other, and spending the remaining half on plastering the sides of mountains with concrete formations which promptly fall off making much more dangerous landslides than the mud they were supposedly keeping in place.
 
Yeah they're rather tasteful, aren't they? So far, anyway.
Judging by the January and February jersey the design will stay the same, only the color will change. And if you curious about the upcoming colors take a look at the colored strip on the jersey.

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I too like the design, will probably order one of them, the question is which color.





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An image you'll never be able to wipe away ;)

I was considering only buying the jersey which corresponds to my birth month. The Strava challenge related Castelli jersey I got last year is a quality piece of kit but I just can't justify buying 12 more of them.
 
An image you'll never be able to wipe away ;)

I was considering only buying the jersey which corresponds to my birth month. The Strava challenge related Castelli jersey I got last year is a quality piece of kit but I just can't justify buying 12 more of them.

Haha, 12 of them would be a bit overkill, but "only" $1200 ;)

What size did you go with on the giro jersey? M? If so how's the length in the front?




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Yes, M size. It's snug around the chest and under the arms. The length is fine for me. However, you, my long-torsoed-friend may end up showing a little midriff.

Just compared it with the M size Rapha Super Lightweight Jersey and it's about 1cm shorter at the front.

superjersey-tmb.jpg


Did not know that one on the right existed. That looks sweet!
 
Yes, M size. It's snug around the chest and under the arms. The length is fine for me. However, you, my long-torsoed-friend may end up showing a little midriff.

Just compared it with the M size Rapha Super Lightweight Jersey and it's about 1cm shorter at the front.

superjersey-tmb.jpg


Did not know that one on the right existed. That looks sweet!
You have one? How is it? It's the only jersey by Rapha I'm interested in as it looks like it's purpose-built for Japanese summers.
 
That's the reason I got it. I wore it through last summer and it performs very well. It breaths easily and weighs nothing. Other jerseys can be a bother because of their weight or the feeling you're wrapped in a wet towel when the sweat is gushing out but I don't get this feeling with the Rapha. There must be other light weight technical jerseys out there but this is what I have and I'm inclined to buy another.
 
Yes, M size. It's snug around the chest and under the arms. The length is fine for me. However, you, my long-torsoed-friend may end up showing a little midriff.

Just compared it with the M size Rapha Super Lightweight Jersey and it's about 1cm shorter at the front.

superjersey-tmb.jpg


Did not know that one on the right existed. That looks sweet!
Sweet! I think I can manage 1cm shorter front. My "cheap" le tour rapha jersey is a lot shorter in front than my super light weight so I should be fine. I like em tight, just like......

Those rapha colors I think are from two years ago (2012 collection). But I agree, pretty cool color combination.
Judging by the color strip on the gran fondo jersey I think the color for March will be pretty similar the the rapha one on the right. I kind of like the February version too though...


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Had to work this weekend, but yesterday I managed to get over to Tim's to pick my road bike up post wheel balancing and also to fit new tyres/old discs on some mighty fine wheels I had ordered from him. The wheels are planned for a Boardman Cross frame that I should get in late Feb/early March, however I couldn't wait to try them out on my old Boardman Hybrid today. So once work was done this morning I headed out into the rain. I decided to investigate a bit of Tokyo north of me - Edogawabashi - Gokoku-ji - Ikebukoro - Oji - onto Arakawa for 20k and then back the same route.
The bike was perfect for it - very easy through the traffic with the more upright position, but the wheels were sublime, allowing me to get everywhere very quickly. They felt initially very stiff especially on the aluminium frame, but everything seemed to mellow a bit through the ride and I just want to get back out on it again.....
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Very much liking the red hubs.
Which hubs are they?

Those are last years Novatec 711S -712 hubs and can be picked up for between $65.00 - $145 USD depending on retailer..... but as they are not marked with the Novatec logo these would be the OEM versions so you can get them for around $50 - $60 USD with standard bearings or another 12 USD if you want 'ceramic' (Although some shady onliners won't bother)

Also I would recommend actual Novatec branded hubs as they will come with their patented ABG (Anti Bite Guard) free body as the light weight alloys they use to keep the weight down is also susceptible to damage caused by multi-part cassettes such as Shimano.

Full line up of Novatec road hubs can be found here - many companies buy the hubs OEM and put their own logo on them and a premium price tag as well so if you are looking for hubs I would cross reference here first:

http://novatecusa.net/hubs/road/
 
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Watched the Hoogerheide CX race on the UCI YouTube channel. Great race and future of tv right there, but I cannot properly live stream anything upwards of 480p resolution. Anybody manage to do this or problem on my side?
 
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