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Today May 2020

Couple of weeks ago, I baked poor Michiko.
My Garmin Edge 1000J, "Michiko", and I have been together for a while.


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Rubber (tyre) cement didn't work. Nor, sadly, did the red gasket stuff @kiwisimon suggested - didn't stick to the original material at all.

Sil-Poxy turned-up during research as an ideal solution, except that locally it costs ¥7,000 for a teeny tiny tube. In mild desperation I activated my Nihongo googuru-fu, navigated the blablabla J-DIY blogs (5% content, 95% cats and weather), and discovered Cemedine PPX:

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And it seems to have done the job... at least for now. The primer primes and etches the silicone so that the adhesive will get a good hold. Seems to be sufficiently flexible to allow the button to operate. Not a pretty fix, as I put some extra adhesive on to maximize weatherproofing. But much better than a gaping hole.

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got into a bit of a quagmire today. wanted to replace my cassette, so I can put in a 34T one for my old legs in the new climbing season.

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but that means also a new RD, and a new chain too. so far so good. while I'm at it, let's replace the RD inner cable, it's a sensible thing to do, and I've prepared it all. but then it turns out the outer cable housing needs replacing too. hmmm, good thing I got some spare laying around. undoing the bartape next reveals just how fragile it was, maybe wasn't meant to be reused. most of it remained on the bar..... ok, ffs I also have a spare bartape if needed. since I've undone the tape, I inspect the brake cables. the front one was frayed, by my own mistake a while back, I now remember. it's not as smooth as it could be, and now's a good time to replace it as well. I could swear I had a spare brake cable gathering dust somewhere, but of course nowhere to be found when needed. so the bike is back on the rack waiting for the cable delivery.

phew, this ended up being a minor overall of half of the bike today. in for a pound...... let's see how much extra weight all those larger/longer parts will add up to. hoping for 140 g extra, to stay under 7.2 kg (this includes speedometer and front light mounts, magnets and sensors, rear light, pedals and bottle cages, but not the saddle bag, pump, speedometer itself, so not exactly a road-ready weight but a decent base to start off of)

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apparently the standard long cage RDs can take up to 40T cassettes without any adjustments/adapters etc just a B screw fix. maybe I shouldn't have stopped at 34T haha

 
40 for 1x. Official spec is still 34 for 2x road derailleurs or 36 for 1x10.
52-40 sounds like an extreme amount of chain to take up.
 
official spec are just like the official covid count. only what they cannot deny, when we all know the numbers are much higher. the guy pulls it off right in front of you, 116 links chain and all
 
Purchased a 'MicroHero' link for 1,380 yen and am running a 28 front, 40t cassette. No problemo.
 
Hm 11-40 is something to consider when the 11-34 wears out.

Already have a 46/30 on the front, woo 0.75 climbing gear.
 
40 tooth in the back? Jeez. That's a lot of spinning. I rarely use my 28. Always like to keep one gear extra just in case
 
Just because it fits and doesnt break doesnt mean it is right. Expect higher fail rates and wear rates. Expect sloppier shifting with the longer chain and b screw adjusting the pulleys away. Expect it to not be as good as what you are running in every way except a few lower gears.

While Shimano is conservative with their numbers - it involves much more than 'it fits' to determine if it is a correct setup.
 
11km on the MTB today. For whatever reason I was super happy on the bike. Like not "happy to be getting exercise" - but more if a "these woods are beautiful, the air is clean, and it is silent...." type happy. I took a PR on 1.3km 8% segment by 15 seconds.... the biggest difference is today I wasn't trying to get a PR, I was just riding to ride. When I set the PR it was to test how fast I could do it... So I am pretty happy with that. My HR on the climb was also a respectable 143bpm. I wasn't killing myself like last time.

I continued on after taking in the view from the top of Futagoyama. Nature is reclaiming some of the trail. The bamboo, grass, and ferns are exploding. While it sucks for just getting in the way... it also smells amazing. Since I wasn't trying to "Shred" but rather just enjoy the outdoors...it was welcomed. Trail conditions were also quite nice. Not much in the way of slick areas or mud. This always makes things good as well. Man... just a good morning.

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Just because it fits and doesnt break doesnt mean it is right. Expect higher fail rates and wear rates. Expect sloppier shifting with the longer chain and b screw adjusting the pulleys away. Expect it to not be as good as what you are running in every way except a few lower gears.

While Shimano is conservative with their numbers - it involves much more than 'it fits' to determine if it is a correct setup.
Today hopefully I will put a 11-34T cassette on my rebuilt wheel, the old one went to 32T. I have a long tiagra derailleur so no problem there. However I am unsure about adjusting my chain length. I can see that big chainring, biggest cog , no derailleur,+ one link method might be a longer set up. But big chainring little cog and vertical derailleur wheel alignment is the same as my old set up. ( My intuition says I don't need extra length in the system because you never run big chainring big cog in the wild, but I am a tech/mech dummy. I will get the wheel builder to do it)
 
if the only change is 32 to 34T, the old chain length should work. add another link just in case, and it also won't be wrong. I need to figure out the chain sizing too now, with 28 to 34 jump tho haha
 
if the only change is 32 to 34T, the old chain length should work. add another link just in case, and it also won't be wrong. I need to figure out the chain sizing too now, with 28 to 34 jump tho haha
I am no expert here, but my hunch is Zinny's method 3: big chainring, big cog, no derailleur, +1 link.
 
Looking at data -
Today's 1 hour 11km ride burned over 800 calories per strava. That is more than i burn on a trainer or on the road bike per time. 1 hour on the trainer is 30ish km and usually around 750cal.

Just interesting
 
It was hard to get up this morning. It was hard to get on the bike and to start pedaling.
I was hard to get up to speed and maintain it... but then something clicked and my pedal stroke started to smooth out and power started of climb up. I found the magical gear to get my legs going and let me mentally zone out for a minute. And then - and hour and 30km passed by.

The numbers look fine and I feel as if I physically could have gone much further - but not sure I wanted to.
I am also not sure I want to put down more effort than I did. 217w was the average power (2.38w/kg).
I found myself riding along alone quite a bit... I never caught people my speed (duh, we are going the same speed) and didn't want to lay up and ride with someone going a bit slower - so I just clicked off the minutes and zoned out with my brain going all over the place.

On a different bike related note - last night I installed a rear rack on my fargo. I still have not quite found the perfect stem for it tho... I need to find a 90mm 10 or 15 degree rise and try it out. I have been going through the bike parts box trying out different set ups. I have a stem for long rides - it is pretty upright for comfort, but I am looking for that midrange set up now.
 
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