What's new

Today March 2021

joewein

Maximum Pace
Oct 25, 2011
3,532
3,693
PXL_20210228_113551081.PORTRAIT.jpg

March is here and we've already had many milder days.

I'll join a 240 km ride next Sunday. Usually March and April are pretty busy months for cycling for me :)

PXL_20210228_113838764.NIGHT.jpg
 
March 1 - We are entering my 3rd month of my annual dry spell. 59 days without a drink of alcohol. Thank goodness I do this every year as my activities have dropped sinificantly since getting hurt and the empty calories would not have helped. I normally stop drinking until my birthday in 2 weeks, however this year with all the things going on, I am pushing the dry out until Easter.

Yesterday I dropped off my new bike at a shop to have a couple things taken care of that I wanted changed. Things I would have done at home pre-kids, but without quiet and space - it is hard to do anything on the bikes much anymore. So I pick up the new bike with tweaks after work today. I am also going to drop off my hardtail to get some new cable housing and trimmed brake lines. Something I have been meaning to get around to for about 2 years now....

I am attempting to sort out all my preferences on the bikes now and get them all dialed as I want them. Every bike I have is good to ride and functionally 100%. I just now want all the little things sorted.
 
Last edited:
I am setting up the new bike - yes I rode it and got a base line and made some changes - but I am still toying with it to get it right.
I assume it will be another 10-20 rides to dial it in. For those of you on the roadie side only - These are all the things that work together to get the bike dialed.

Tire Pressure -
Front 18psi - 29x2.6
Rear 21psi - 29x2.35

Fork - Fox 36 Factory
Air Pressure - 80psi
Rebound - 5 clicks
Compression - 2 clicks

Shock - Fox X2 Factory
Air Pressure - 240psi
High Speed Compression - 4
Low Speed Compression - 5
High Speed Rebound - 3
Low Speed Rebound - 3

This is just base line... The Air Pressures are set with sag.
My past preferences have been to set up suspension a bit stiff as I like the positive feedback - but starting with my last full suspension I have dialed things down to get a more plush feel. So when a mantufacture offers a range, I am setting up on the soft end and stiffening the bike as needed vs the opposite. I had about 4 pages of notes on my last bike that had less options on the rear shock, so I suspect I will have a simalar log on this one too.

All of these adjustments affect the others... so if I drop the air pressure, I can increase the compression and get a smilar feel. Small bump compliance ends up changing - but overall ride remains the same. I can adjust the compression and leave the air pressure and the ride can get a bit harsh..... So keeping logs is the best way to keep track of adjustments and how the bike felt with those adjustments.


Is it crazy I spend more time on my MTB suspension than I ever did on my super bike suspension?
- With the superbike, I did pay someone else to set it all up and revalve the shock & fork to my weight and riding style.
 
On the trails this morning around 0500.
Home in time to help get the kids situated for school and I was out to work on time.
With the recent rain - there were some sketchy sections, but overall I had a great time outside.
It is amazing how much you can disappear into nothing...

1614738547365.png
 
Some of you may have read of Amanda Coker, the ultra-distance cyclist who in 2017 set a new world record for most km cycled in one year at 139,326 km (86,573 miles), breaking the record of Kurt Searvogel (122,432 km / 76,076 mi) after he surpassed the record held by English cyclist Tommy Godwin since before WW2. She also holds the world record for cycling 100,000 miles in only 423 days, beating Tommy Godwin's corresponding record by 77 days.

Now she has cycled 855 km from Jacksonville in the northeast corner of Florida to Key West on its southwestern tip in a mind-boggling in 27 1/2 hours of elapsed time. That's including traffic lights and riding solo with no drafting. See it here on Strava.

Wow!
 
Last edited:
no living room is complete without a back extension machine that much can be said. that's why I got this to my wife as a present for March 8, the international women's day. just assembled it this afternoon. I even found her a red one!

1614940308986.png
 
I went for a short but pleasant ride to the Arakawa River yesterday, and for the first time ever I did not ride up and down the river with a target of kilometres in mind while battling a headwind no matter which way you travel.

The ride was a mini bike packing test, took my camp kitchen setup, with my little stove, solid fuel, pot, bowl, coffee mug. Boiled up some water, poured a coffee (love those pouches that sit over your cup), boiled up some noodles. Thai green curry instant noodles, added some chicken I bought at Lawson. Was absolutely delicious! Of all the gourmet meals I have had in Tokyo this was fun.

Note to self, for bowel safety Thai green curry will be a stay at home noodle, and regular noodles will be bike camping ones....

Grand total ride was 20km, just 10 each way and I was actually happy with that being my day out. How things have changed.
 
Today I went for a ride to Cross Coffee just down the road from Jindaiji temple (& soba restaurants) to see a mate.

First of all, its the first time to visit on the weekend, and I couldn't believe how many cyclists were flying by, and how many were at the cafe. With all the riding in Tokyo I do sometimes I hardly see anyone else, I guess they are all down near Cross & Tama River.

I am included in this, but is there any point to the state of emergency? The cafe was just as full as before covid I think, we sat outside.

Anyway, this mate just graduated from the cross bike to a proper road bike, and was able to score himself a 2019 Trek Emonda SL6 thanks to Yahoo Auctions and it is a thing of beauty. And light! So much so I was browsing for any for sale myself & checking threads on how Bloaker manages to get new bikes into the house unnoticed.... Might be tough.

Really tempted. Will see how the next 6 months play out.
 
Today I went for a ride to Cross Coffee just down the road from Jindaiji temple (& soba restaurants) to see a mate.

First of all, its the first time to visit on the weekend, and I couldn't believe how many cyclists were flying by, and how many were at the cafe. With all the riding in Tokyo I do sometimes I hardly see anyone else, I guess they are all down near Cross & Tama River.

I am included in this, but is there any point to the state of emergency? The cafe was just as full as before covid I think, we sat outside.

Anyway, this mate just graduated from the cross bike to a proper road bike, and was able to score himself a 2019 Trek Emonda SL6 thanks to Yahoo Auctions and it is a thing of beauty. And light! So much so I was browsing for any for sale myself & checking threads on how Bloaker manages to get new bikes into the house unnoticed.... Might be tough.

Really tempted. Will see how the next 6 months play out.
For reference now... I am running out of space. I am now storing 2 in my office at work!!!
 
I was browsing for any for sale myself & checking threads on how Bloaker manages to get new bikes into the house unnoticed.... Might be tough.
I think the most crucial part of this skill is being married to Bloaker's wife. That's going to be hard to replicate ;)

I'm having an early-ish night tonight - 04:30 start tomorrow for a 237 km course with my Fleche team mates to Hakone and back. This will be the medium training ride (the short one was 162 km). We may do a long one too, now that the scheduled first brevet we were also going to participate in before the Fleche has been postponed from March to October because of the State of Emergency.
 
I think the most crucial part of this skill is being married to Bloaker's wife. That's going to be hard to replicate ;)

I'm having an early-ish night tonight - 04:30 start tomorrow for a 237 km course with my Fleche team mates to Hakone and back. This will be the medium training ride (the short one was 162 km). We may do a long one too, now that the scheduled first brevet we were also going to participate in before the Fleche has been postponed from March to October because of the State of Emergency.
Enjoy your ride Joe!

I am heading out shortly for some dark trail riding!
 
so I checked the chain for wear today. out of about a dozen random links I checked, only one was shown as worn out. I guess it's not a uniform process...

this is actually the 1st time in all my years of cycling I'll see a chain used till worn out. up to now I always ended up changing it sooner for reasons like: part of an overhaul maintenance, change of cassette required different length, a link twisted when I dropped a chain etc. it's got about 6,300 km. I'll give it another month or two until the next time I clean the drivetrain (I only ride the commuter once a week nowadays so can get away with seldom cleaning) and if I find more than one worn out link next time, it's game over for this chain

1615082759853.png

1615083188748.png
 
Knocked out another 20km this morning. I spent time yesterday making more suspension changes on my bike and wow! This setup is pretty good! Climbs well, descends better and pops off jumps... I think I now have a base line I can work with!

I am also getting more excited over what my knee can take. It maybe not able to do longer rides, but I can do multiple per week! So it is getting better.
I was also able to run up a flight of stair at work this week. That is something that was impossible without tremendous pain last month.

Connecting the trails today we stopped at Higashi-Zushi station for a suspension adjustment on my buddy's bike and snapped a shot of the Ripmo in its dirty state.

1615087338673.png
 
s800.jpg


Back from the first Century ride in March (now at 103 consecutive months of at least one 100 mile ride a calendar month). I rode 215 km (on Strava).

It was colder than I expected, with a low of 4 deg C and it never reached 10 deg C. I had enough spare clothes with me to deal with that, but my teammates were very uncomfortable. So we end up not climbing to Hakone and descending to Yugawara from there but took the coastal road instead. I suggested visiting the Manazuru peninsula, since I had always followed the main road (N135) or the high road (K740) on the way to and from Atami and that was also how our planned route had been. So we did that and explored it.

s800.jpg


On the way back to the original route we passed a couple of restaurants and picked a seafood restaurant for lunch. There were people only on one other table, but they finished and left by the time we got our food. The meal was nice and reasonably priced.

s800.jpg


We returned to Odawara via the high road over Manazuru (K740) which has very little traffic . You ride past terraced fields with mikan orchards. We passed a couple of roadside mikan shops selling local produce. They must be losing a lot of business without the tourists. But at least Manazuru is still within Kanagawa (as are Hakone and Yugawara) so Kanagawa residents who try to avoid visiting prefectures not subject to the State of Emergency can still go there. This was how our ride was designed, between two opposite borders of Kanagawa (Tamagawa to Tokyo and Yugawara to Shizuoka).

s800.jpg


On the last training ride I had felt it a challenge to keep up with the ride leader during the first 1/4 of the ride, but felt comfortable during the rest of the ride. This time it was more like the opposite: The initial pace felt comfortable, but after the first stop it became harder and stayed that way. But I think it was a very successful training ride. Things went more smoothly and without incidents. I think we're getting the hang of successfully riding as a group.

s800.jpg


In two weeks we'll do another training ride. Two weeks after that will be the real Fleche event (360+ km in 24h).
 
Last edited:
Regarding health and injury - progress is being made!
I gained over 5kg in 2 weeks once I got hurt in december. Nothing changed except a sudden lack of exercise.
This morning I hopped on the scale and I am only .5kg up from my December weight. I am kind of excited about it simply because this has been an exceptionally frustrating 2.5 months. Zwift is still killing my knee - but somehow MTBing is ok. I have no idea how other than higher cadence and repetitive motion vs being all over the bike with quick sprints, coasting and spinning all mixed in.

I will need to adjust tho as rain is coming in and I will need to get used to the trainer no matter what.
Also my trail running shoes have arrived, so I will be able to still get in some exercise on days where riding isn't appropriate due to conditions.
 
is your saddle to pedal height the same on the trainer and your bike? Pedals and shoes different?
great job on staying healthy
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom