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Today December 2022

joewein

joewein

Maximum Pace
Oct 25, 2011
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Only one month left in the year.

I will be attending the bonenkai of AJ NishiTokyo in Sagamihara this coming Saturday and I'm looking forward to it. I also attended last year, after skipping the year before because of the pandemic. Will probably take the train there so I can enjoy some booze, rather than riding there and back sober as I used to in pre-pandemic days.
 
I knocked out a miura loop last night. Super casual pace on 40mm tires.
It rained off and on, but it was nice once I got past all the traffic.
I was in a mood to just be alone, so the wind slowing me down didn't even bother me.
I played mind games the whole way... once I got wet, I was internally whining.
I was planning out all the shortcuts to just call it a day and go home.
I would get to the shortcut turn, then I would mentally feel relieved - so I would go a little farther to the next shortcut... and repeat.
When I got past the windmills, I decided I would just take 134 home and no side streets to add distance.
In the moment, it made me feel good... I was heading home.
Then I got to the first side loop.. looked at the time, and decided to do it.
Once back on 134, I intended to head home again... until I got to the next side loop....
Then I took the morito kaigan route vs 134...
Then i finally went home.
No regrets on doing the whole route.
I just wish my brain was in a better place that allowed me to relax the entire ride.
 
microcord said:
Yesterday I rode from Saruhashi station up to the top of Matsuhime pass, then down to Okutama-ko, along "Okutama mukashi-michi" and to Haijima station.

Somehow doing that without a heart rate or cadence monitor didn't cause my heart or thighs to collapse. But on the other hand I was, as usual, riding some way behind everybody else, one of those half dozen bodies being on a Brompton. It doesn't seem as if there's much wrong with a Brompton. (@joewein , how's your Rocket propulsion these days?)
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The range of gears is somewhat limited on a Brompton, even with the 6 speed models that have the widest gear range. It's about 300 % vs. 428 % for a 50/34 compact with 11-32 cassette. You can pick if you want to move this limited range towards the high end (cruising gears) or the low end (climbing gears), but it's always a compromise. That's OK if you use the bike for its intended purpose, as a city bike or commuter.

The Bike Friday Pocket Rocket still occupies its customary position in our genkan, under the rack that suspends the NFE but it's not getting much exercise. In 2019 I still used it for three recording-worthy rides, including one Century (I generally don't upload rides of less than 5 km to Strava/RWGPS). In 2020 that was down to 2 recorded rides (including one Century ride to Gando toge with you). In 2021 you and I did Ō-tōge (from Saruhashi to Ome to Tokyo) which stayed below the Century distance.

I don't join a lot of rides where the start is too far from home to ride there and the start and finish are also too far apart to take the car there.

These days I only use it for local rides and even then it's mostly the NFE that I use. In April this year when I picked up the rental car to drive myself and the NFE to near Nagoya for the 24h/360+ km Fleche ride to Tokyo, I used the Bike Friday to cycle to the rental car place in Meguro, loaded the BF into the car, drove back home, dropped off the BF and loaded the NFE for the adventure.

It's now become more like the backup unit, should I ever have major technical issues with the NFE, especially after the bike parts supply situation became iffy. At some point I will have to get the NFE repainted because of rust on the top tube and that might see me use the Bike Friday for a while again, but if can avoid a repaint of the entire frame and only touch it up locally, even that won't happen.
 
@joewein, yes, I'd rather supposed that the Brompton was for intracity rides -- which made me more surprised by the speed and confidence with which I saw one ridden the other day.

Ah, Ō-tōge. The "parched lips" ride, along which I was occasionally thinking such thoughts as "If we were attached by wild boar, how many days would it take before anyone would come along and spot our bodies?" But I was melodramaticizing it (in my head). I'm sure that it's all safe, uh, maybe.

I now forget whether it was Ōno-san of Tsubasa or Ōtaki-san (framebuilder) who said he could have a frame of mine painted well and inexpensively by somebody he knew. Perhaps it was both. My Cinelli needs at least a partial repaint (or better, a powdercoating); I really ought to get around to it.
 
I got my Kickr Core from a seller on Amazon for 116k yen. But just saw they dropped the price from 125k to 106k on the Wahoo website. I'm sure the people at Wahoo waited until after I bought one to drop the price. Sneaky.
 
Snuck in a second Miura Loop on Saturday night.
The new GRX setup and 32mm tires were great.
The wind was being a turd. I was pedaling on downhills and on one in particular where i am usually going over 50kph, I maxed out at 22.
Frustrating if I were in a hurry, luckily I was just enjoying the saddle time.

1670198207865.png
 
What is this super shiny thing near the bottom of your bike?!? It is almost as white as the center line! 😁 (Looks very good)
 
OreoCookie said:
May those chainrings never wear out!

I have to admit, this is much shiner than I was expecting. I thought it'd be closer to my XTR M9000 hubs, but this looks like bright, bright silver.
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They remind me of my old White industry cranks from the 90s.
I plan to change out stem and seat post to polished, but not quite sure of the Seatpost I want and setback may affect my reach... so time will tell.
My buddy back home did the same setup as me - polished on Ti
I do like the black on his.... but I am pretty sure I am leaning polished.

1670211099508.png
 
I like contrasts, so having a black fork with a black seatpost and black carbon wheels makes sense to me. The only tricky thing for me is the combination of the matte frame with the shiny cranks. Your buddy's bike has some polished tubes, which complete the polished look of the cranks very nicely.

Judging your bike in its entirety is a bit hard atm since you took your pictures before dawn.
 
PXL_20221203_094435058.jpg

The randonneuring bonenkai was nice. It was cold out there, I was glad I took the train and not the bike. I must be getting soft.

Looks like next year we won't be doing the Flèche that we've now DNF'ed three years in a row. Instead we'll enter the Trace, which has easier time limits (200+ km instead of 360+ km in 24h). Sounds like less work, more sleep! :) I'll be signing up.
 
@joewein , the Japanese rules for a trace may not be the same as the French rules; but the latter say nothing about 24 hours. Or nothing that I notice, anyway. Instead, you can, if you wish, start as early as you like the day before everyone's meet-up time, and get a night's sleep en route.
 
microcord said:
@joewein , the Japanese rules for a trace may not be the same as the French rules; but the latter say nothing about 24 hours. Or nothing that I notice, anyway. Instead, you can, if you wish, start as early as you like the day before everyone's meet-up time, and get a night's sleep en route.
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You are right, it's from the day before the meeting time to the meeting time, which in this case is up to 34h as the meeting time in Tokyo is 10:00 on Sunday, April 9, 2023. Looks like like our team will start off somewhere in Nagano, then crosses Yamanashi to get back to Tokyo.
 
Caught a few minutes of the end of this as I was cruising channels, and at first glimpse it was wtf..., but apparently the guy's famous and thoroughly embedded in the Guinness record book:

48tornanti.wordpress.com

Documentary: Descending the Stelvio at night with no bars, brakes or lights

Link to original article: Starting this weekend, the pros will descend on Italy as the Giro d’Italia gets under way. With some of the most notorious terrain on the planet, they will face hard, uphi…
48tornanti.wordpress.com 48tornanti.wordpress.com
 
@jdd I saw the whole thing maybe three years ago. No, that's not quite true: I saw stretches between periods when I'd dozed off. I wanted to like it but it wasn't so enthralling -- though maybe it was just the wrong time of day or I hadn't slept enough the night before.

That matter aside, as I'm in the "crap cyclist" demographic (and the "dozing off in front of the boob tube" demographic), I need low gears. And by that I mean with 622 mm wheels I want a rear sprocket distinctly larger than my small chainwheel. (Go ahead, laugh.) So although the video below is strangely titled/packaged, I found a lot of interesting material (almost all of which I promptly forgot) within it.

 
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Reactions: jdd
Just set up new wheels for the new bike. Ultegra C50. MucOff valves air liner gp 5000 tlr and silca sealant.

Not too much of an issue other than a bit of a mess with sealant as Silca says you cant inject through valve stem.

only need a floor pump to get inflated
Still waiting on frame.



 

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