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July 2016

Let me guess... @Adam Cobain won a chefs hat and a box of mushrooms?

In all seriousness though, it is amazing to see you guys all up on the podium! Really well done!

I got a big bag of rice. Which is useful as I came by bike and live in the finest rice growing region in Japan.

I'll let Adam tell you the story about how they lost all our personal belongings as we sat freezing in rain drenched cycling gear.

If we're the A-Team, he's definitely BA!

You won't like him when he's angry!

Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
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Finally pulled the trigger on a new Garmin Edge 520. Recently my 510's touchscreen hasn't been working when it gets hot. Once it cools down (inside) it starts working again. Very annoying when riding in the summertime as I can't change screens or save a ride. Looking forward to having some kind of maps to look at too when on the ride. Will make it easier to find out which road to take when I get to a fork in the road.
 
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Went to Chichibu yesterday, with a goal of making it to the infamous pizza place (Gelateria Hana) just northeast from Chichibu.
Initially I planned for much more than just a regular Chichibu loop but I didn't get enough sleep the previous night and ended up with late start.

The road along the dam is now clear and not gated (it was closed for traffic in April),
The downhill after the tunnel is also clear (in April we had a fallen tree and a snapped electric pole), no rocks either.

There are two tunnels after the dam that can be bypassed by using the original unmaintained road (that the tunnels replace), the first one has lots of branches and some rocks but is ridable, the second one is fully gated, with lots of rocks and branches, and the gate is there for a good reason:

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I doubt this will ever get cleaned up.

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The pizza was good, ice-cream as well.

Cheers.
 
There are two tunnels after the dam that can be bypassed by using the original unmaintained road (that the tunnels replace), the first one has lots of branches and some rocks but is ridable, the second one is fully gated, with lots of rocks and branches, and the gate is there for a good reason:
Rindo added to 'must ride' list. Thank you!
 
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Yesterday was spent building up my 'do anything' bike at Rapha HQ in Nobeyama with Yano San.

A thoroughly nice guy, a good friend through the accident & related recovery, and truly living the dream out there (massive workshop, countryside living, financially secure, great family, et al).

Still to receive a bigger cassette and CX tyres but very happy with this 8.3kg, non-weight weenie build.
 
Went on a little/large recovery social ride with men like @Heath and @D'Pioneer this afternoon. Didn't feel as mad hot as it actually was but that may have been the good bantz covering the real.

Had butt hurt from previous day's 194km outing with fast boys and general fatigue from a long day on the bike and a very early start but the ride was spot on. Lazied to the river where I found Heath and we kept a steady leisurely pace to where we spotted Owen, stark against the vista in his brilliant @PinkyB. We had a loose plan and kept it so. Heath and Owen were well versed in the area so I followed wheels but there was no need to draft as we all soft pedalled the entire time.

A couple of stops for bike cleaning and lolly pops and we each managed a good distance with boy lightning taking a KOM on his way home just for good measure.

I sit here now with a warning.

Suncream has a shelf life!

I could cause the remaining world trade tower buildings to collapse just by standing near them, I am giving off so much heat right now!

The sun is strong in these parts and anything less than the best will not do. Especially if you are of Celtic descent as I am. I was mirin' the golden brown cut calves of my fellow riders thinking I usually flame up and lobster out when I expose myself to the sun when lo and behold here I am deep purple and unsure how badly sleep will come tonight.

I have to fly back to England on Thursday so I hope to shit the pain subsides by then. I doubt they'll turn a blind eye if I strip down and baby lotion up on a 14hr flight to London.

Badger Sport bought 2 years ago was about as useful as lathering myself in Wako's best ever award winning lube.
 
Out and about following months off of the bike.

Wrist was sore by the end but I'd say the mental strain was worst. Climbing was fine but picking up speed and vehicles approaching from behind shook me (given that a shunt from behind during my hit and run was what caused all the damage).

Also, I'd forgotten just how great the feeling of the wind in your face and freedom was.

Positive moving forward and happy to be alive.

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Been a right day of bike stuff.

-Experimenting with a new painting technique on some scratches on my frame. Have been using low pigment - high solvent carrier content and using the paint to build up as a filler with no undercoat. Working well #noneofyouunderstandthisorcare

-Got a new front rim delivered (finally). Paid to have my own design made in a factory in China. Kammtail derived 25mm wide front clincher rim, with system to prevent spoke tension reduction. Nice. Will build it up tomorrow and give it a test run.

-More power meter banging about. Since getting that Power2Max, every ride is now like a training session in the hardcore gym I used to go to in Sheffield. Warm up, then go in hard. Haha. Not sure if this is a good thing (it is definitely a good thing), but I am loving it whatever. After the first week of getting it, I started getting really tired all the time and kept having proper power-sleeping afternoon nap body shutdowns. I thought the AIDS had finally caught up with me, but then looked at the intensity I had been putting out every single ride and it all made sense. Haha. Getting used to that level of abuse now, but the transition into that was pretty amusing. Sitting at 5.5w/kg now when I get a wriggle on. Want to increase this obviously, but I have already felt the benefits of it when I went out on Saturday; fired up a climb in Tochigi that I had done a load of times before but always suffered on, like it wasn't there. Did the whole ride at 32kmph average, including a load of steep as fack climbs and headwind action. So it is working then! Next goal is to get Sekiyado TT under 7 mins. I have it at 7:08 at the moment, with a 50.5kmph average. Amazing really, considering I shit myself when I did it in 9:17 back in 2013. I realise I have now become a power meter advocate-boring bastard, but if you get one and use it, they work for sure.

-Dropped my stem down by a few mms. Have been getting more and more into FlowFit and yoga, which is increasing flexibility a lot. Slammed by the end of the year / in hospital with a broken back.

-Swapped the hybrid ceramic bearings out of my Extralite CyberFront SP hub, and replaced with NTN. Way better. Ceramics on bikes is buuuuuullshit....
 
Last night saw the start of me doing night rides along the Arakawa. I've been busy in the mornings which means I can't do a run or a ride, leaving me with a big itch that needs scratching. I really need to get some miles in the legs and this is seems like a good way to do it. It feels rather strange riding along the Arakawa in the pitch black at close to midnight, but I kinda like it. Hopefully it won't take long to see some improvements on the bike.

While out riding last night, I decided on two possible goals for the year.

1) Attempt a Shiraishi Everesting attempt (sooner rather than later)
2) Attempt to complete the crazy 10hour Fuji ride that @Adam Cobain is organising. Not sure yet if I'll try it solo or in a team of three.
 
...
Also, I'd forgotten just how great the feeling of the wind in your face and freedom was.

Positive moving forward and happy to be alive.
...

Same same on that last point--but the first line, where is the emoji for envy...?
 
My new front rim and power meter have added 200grams of disgusting weight to my rig. Unacceptable.

I am now on a mission to get it back down, or preferably lower than it was before.

So far I have ordered a set of Extralite Aliens4 QR levers which will knock 100g off the Dura Ace ones I have on there at the moment. Ordered some Extralite OctaRamp RC chainrings as well, which are 40g less than the Praxis rings I have on at the moment. So that is 140g down. 60g to go...

Took my new rim out for a ride today to bed in the wheel I built. 25mm rim width is way smoother than the 20.6mm I had on there before. Felt a bit sluggish in turning at first, but I got used to that in no time. Was way less of a skittering rattle festival going over the rough stuff on the river paths. No idea if it is faster yet, as I was only out on a slow ride today, but I really appreciated the difference. Currently have Extralite Cyberhubs front and rear, with NTN bearing in the front, NTN in the freebody and Enduro Ceramic in the hub shell, with CX-Ray in the front, CX-Ray drive side and Super Spoke non; rims are 23mm rear 38mm deep carbon clincher Chinese usual, and the front is a custom (an actual custom, not a bullshit 'custom layup') carbon clincher I designed and paid to have prototyped by a place in Xiamen. Organised that through one of the resellers I befriended on Skype. Cost about 3000 USD all in, which included a load of back and forth, a number of iterations of the design in sections, testing at their end, etc, and a final prototype for me to test which is now on my shred-sled. If it works, I will see about patenting it / selling the idea to someone / committing suicide when copies turn up on Alibaba next month.
 
25mm rim width is way smoother
Interesting, I'm guessing that's the external width, if so what's the internal width of the rim? What tires are you using? Have you got any way of measuring rolling resistance before and after you swapped the rims? It'd be interesting to see some figures on rolling resistance with different tyres and tyre widths. Also, what's your opinion on 19c rims like the Kinlin XR-22T. Anyway, intriguing stuff and interested on seeing more details on the rim and wheel build etc.
 
Interesting, I'm guessing that's the external width, if so what's the internal width of the rim? What tires are you using? Have you got any way of measuring rolling resistance before and after you swapped the rims? It'd be interesting to see some figures on rolling resistance with different tyres and tyre widths. Also, what's your opinion on 19c rims like the Kinlin XR-22T. Anyway, intriguing stuff and interested on seeing more details on the rim and wheel build etc.

Internal width; approx 20mm. The internal anti-compression carrier element originally reduced this by a few mm but after a load of iterations I have tuned this down to 20mm which is no less than a standard clincher would be.

Continental GP4000ii, 25mm

Not accurately. This has already been tested to hell and back, so no point repeating the research which has already been concluded.

Kinlin XR-22t; standard out of date width cheap metal rim.
 
Interesting, I'm guessing that's the external width, if so what's the internal width of the rim? What tires are you using? Have you got any way of measuring rolling resistance before and after you swapped the rims? It'd be interesting to see some figures on rolling resistance with different tyres and tyre widths. Also, what's your opinion on 19c rims like the Kinlin XR-22T. Anyway, intriguing stuff and interested on seeing more details on the rim and wheel build etc.
Look at part four in this journal. These guys really know their stuff.

https://silca.cc/blogs/journal
 
Finally after 7 months of doing mostly nothing on the bike, except cursing the fact that I keep not getting out on it, I did an FTP test today. I've not been doing exactly nothing of course. I have managed a miserable ~800km or so this year. But let's just say that my ability to get my head around hard efforts has been pretty bad of late. I just couldn't get my head around an FTP test before today. Anyway, my FTP had wandered up to around 260 or so last year so I was curious as to where I was. I'd done a few Trainer Road sessions recently but was concentrating on low intensity just to get going again. I had lowered my FTP for those sessions down to 230 which I thought was about right. Turns out that that number is still a little high. 2 x 8 minute tests have me looking at 218. Tough to accept but given how f@cked up I felt after that session, it's probably better that I accept where I am and work back up. Hopefully that number will be higher in a few weeks.

As a side note, to help me back into the groove I dolled out some feel good money on a new pair of Rapha classic shorts. I also have the lightweight pro ones which are awesome. The classics are very different though. They are definitely warmer but I feel they actually suit my current position on the bike even more than the pro shorts and keep in mind that the pro shorts were the best pair that I'd ever owned up to now. Very happy camper with my new purchase. So happy that I did an FTP test:confused:
 
Low number to start = Less effort to make gains!! :tup Ha ha ha! The lazy mans approach to making improvements right there!

Finally after 7 months of doing mostly nothing on the bike, except cursing the fact that I keep not getting out on it, I did an FTP test today. I've not been doing exactly nothing of course. I have managed a miserable ~800km or so this year. But let's just say that my ability to get my head around hard efforts has been pretty bad of late. I just couldn't get my head around an FTP test before today. Anyway, my FTP had wandered up to around 260 or so last year so I was curious as to where I was. I'd done a few Trainer Road sessions recently but was concentrating on low intensity just to get going again. I had lowered my FTP for those sessions down to 230 which I thought was about right. Turns out that that number is still a little high. 2 x 8 minute tests have me looking at 218. Tough to accept but given how f@cked up I felt after that session, it's probably better that I accept where I am and work back up. Hopefully that number will be higher in a few weeks.
 
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