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Today December 2021

joewein

Maximum Pace
Oct 25, 2011
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November ended with a bang, with all the sudden speculation about Omicron. No doubt in two weeks we'll know more.

It was a good month for me, with the second highest monthly distance of the year so far. I am happy I did a 300 km ride again on a route that I always thought of as very challenging.

The bar for December is set very low: Ride one Century. Don't get injured. Don't catch Covid. The latter seems much easier in Japan than in Europe or the US right now.

I'll probably hit something like 6,000 km for this year, not so different from 2020.
 
The bar is set low for you? Mine is simple.... don't get hurt!
My annual will be 4000km outside and another 1000km inside.
This is with me taking off January due to injury and October more or less for work.

The past 2 years had me damage each knee in December. In 2019 it wasn't more than a sprain, but it lingered. 2020 hurt me a bit more.
I am probably going to do nothing different, since the 30 years up until 2019 I never had an issue doing what I do. But hopefully I won't let my guard down and can keep myself in one piece.
 
Removed the Mavic wheels on my Sage and replaced them with DT Swiss 240/Revin Carbon Rims.
Front wheel was .1kg lighter
Rear Wheel was .15kg lighter

The bike is a bit more reactive under power - but I am thinking it is more stiffness than weight making that difference.

20211201_184601.jpg
 
saw this today, pretty cool imo. certainly makes a lot of sense in MTB setting


Looks interesting for riding rough stuff where a conventional derailleur can get caught easily. I've had one bent derailleur hanger before, though in a road crash, not MTB.

The system seems designed for fairly small front chain rings in 1X configurations. I wonder what range of 1X chain ring sizes they support.

The chain running vertically near parallel to the seat tube from the crank to a pulley wheel may mean that there is slightly more chance for it to make contact with your right leg than with a regular derailleur setup.
 
Did you see how much that chain was jumping around???
So how much of a dead pedal do you get prior to engagement?
I am happy people are working on new ideas, but I am not sure this is it.
I actually have doubts based of of just watching that chain slapping all over the place.
 
shaft drive is the way to go. But that presumes that people will still want to pedal in the future.

25 yrs ago I was riding a protype for a bicycle manufacturer that worked very well. It was just very heavy (now I am very heavy) . Now with carbon maintubes and internal gearing getting better a still hope to see more SD bikes out there.
 
Removed the Mavic wheels on my Sage and replaced them with DT Swiss 240/Revin Carbon Rims.
Front wheel was .1kg lighter
Rear Wheel was .15kg lighter

The bike is a bit more reactive under power - but I am thinking it is more stiffness than weight making that difference.

View attachment 33663
That's a pretty sweet setup. I dig the aesthetic, too, this is Ti done right! 👍

And agreed, the amazing thing for me about a good set of carbon wheels is the ride, my carbon wheels are much more communicative and they don't seem to follow ruts as easily as my aluminum wheels.
 
shaft drive is the way to go. But that presumes that people will still want to pedal in the future.

25 yrs ago I was riding a protype for a bicycle manufacturer that worked very well. It was just very heavy (now I am very heavy) . Now with carbon maintubes and internal gearing getting better a still hope to see more SD bikes out there.
PXL_20211127_044047554.jpg

You mean like this?
 
that is similar to what I was testing. Miyata had a daimond frame bike with shaft drive as well.
I was wondering where the rear brake was on the Bridgestone Transit, but googling some other shots of it, the cable runs on the opposite of the drive shaft tunnel (can't really call it "drive side" in this case) and connects to what appears to be a drum brake inside the hub... It looks like a quirky design and about 20 years old.
 
Yep, drum brake, suspended and a lot of fun. The design had a lot of merit but sadly never really caught on. The one I was riding, with rigid forks, was a 4 speed hub but mainly riding in Saitama I was mostly in top. Climbing the weight made it a good workout and the suspension really soaked up the road buzz. Always got off it with a smile.
 
@kiwisimon, I was wondering how much inspiration came from the collaboration with Alex Moulton. The Bridgestone Moulton also didn't have a rear triangle, it had a suspension and small wheels.

The biggest competitor for shaft drive is belt drive and it has been gaining ground with commuters who don't want to get their clothes dirty, without the weight and cost issues of shaft drive.
 
yes the AMs were built under license but I had moved on by then.The counterbeam suspension and small wheels owed a lot to Sir Alex's designs and I'm sure the Transit construction and the fact it made it into production made aquiring an AM license easier. BS sucessfully used alloy where the Brits were still welding steel. There were a couple of engineers who rode AMs to work. most others were on BS bikes. I made a light alloy frame mamaracer with Mavic wheels and Ultegra componets shifted by MTB thumbies. It was nearly as light as a regular road bike. The Arakawa cycle road weekend warriors used to bust a gut trying to keep up with the "mamachari" when I passed them. Even funnier was when we'd be out in a group and amongst all these road bikes doing 40kmph+ was a regular looking mamachari keeping up. It made quite a few drivers stare.

Yep belt drive has a heap of advantages simplicity and weightwise but they are exposed to dirt and grime unlike a shaft and are nowhere near as cool.
 
Removed the Mavic wheels on my Sage and replaced them with DT Swiss 240/Revin Carbon Rims.
Front wheel was .1kg lighter
Rear Wheel was .15kg lighter

The bike is a bit more reactive under power - but I am thinking it is more stiffness than weight making that difference.

View attachment 33663
That's a nice bike

My December started off with an annual trip overhaul for myself with a few nights in hospital. Turns out through combo of diet, genes/DNA etc I'm a bit of a polyp farm and if left alone could turn to cancer given 5 to 10 years. Thankful for Japan's affordable medical as I'd not have discovered until something had turned nasty.

So no strenuous exercise or bike rides until around December 10th, but on a positive with diet before hospital, 36hrs no food, then light food since I've lost 4kg since Nov 29! Keeping it up and then will up the bike rides for rest of December so I can take care of Festive 500 easily.
 
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PXL_20211204_095124471.jpg
Last night I attended the Bonenkai (year end dinner) of my Randonneuring club. Last year I bailed out because of the 3rd wave of Covid-19 that was building then and no vaccines. This year the 7-day incidence is down 95 percent from last year's (i.e. to 1/20) and most participants though not all were vaccinated.

Unlike previous years I took the train and not the bike to the event, a last minute change of plan because the event started early (17:00) but we had a late lunch at home.

I had some interesting conversations. One was about dangerous situations we had been in and how we dealt with it. As a cyclist but especially a long distance cyclist one has to be resourceful to deal with unexpected problems, but also flexible enough to change a plan when circumstances change. Sometimes that is the most important quality to avoid getting hurt: realizing that sticking to a plan when things don't go as expected would be asking for trouble.
 
went for a gravel ride today but where we were on the shady side of the river the gravel was difficult to see.I was on 700X37C gravel bike and others were MTB and 700X45C Gravel bikes.
FWIW Continental Top Contact Winter II Premium tires are excellent on shallow snow and ice. I was running tubed and with 5 hours of gravel I felt them bottoming on the rim but no puntures and mostly held traction. 263832270_435634698215627_6943982813248870705_n.jpg
 

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