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Today October 2022

joewein

Maximum Pace
Oct 25, 2011
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Another thread for a month of cycling adventures :)

I only did one long ride at the beginning of September, then just local rides and one hike in the mountains with my wife -- too rainy or too busy.

For the next two weeks I'll be out of the country, so not much cycling for 6 weeks. But I did sign up for a 200 km brevet a week after I get back. It will be tough without recent cycling.
 
0 rides for me in September - just couldn't find the time to get it done, so instead spent a lot of time running and walking around. With some cooler weather on the horizons, and some ideas, October could be the month things get back into, well, gear.
 
that surfer on the board is either a super optimist or needs a time out from land based life. good on them.
 
Last week I had to fix a puncture for my daughter (she's the artist who created the image below).

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She rides an Araya Federal, a very affordable randonneur bike with downtube shifters and 8 speed setup. The most recent model seems to use 650B wheels but hers still came with 650A (ISO 590) wheels and tires. When the front wheel got taco'ed by airline baggage handlers either in Italy or Qatar on the way back from Milano a couple of years ago, Tim at GS Astuto built a 650B wheel set as a replacement for me. The bead seat radius is only 4 mm apart, within range of adjustment of the cantilever brakes. Anyway, my daughter has been using a 650B front wheel and tire with a 650A rear wheel for years now.

After I brought the bike here I checked the tube and soon found the hole. It looked like a patch had come off from a previous puncture repair. I glued on a new patch, reinstalled and reinflated. I did notice the sidewalls of the tire were breaking up, probably from UV damage as that bike was mostly parked outside.

A couple of hours later, as my wife and I were sitting at the kitchen table, we hear a loud hissing sound from our genkan - yes, the tire had done it again, same spot! So this time I discarded both the tube and the tire (the inner tube will be reused for various projects, old bicycle tubes always come in handy). I moved the current tube and tire from my Elephant NFE front wheel to the Araya, then installed a brand new tube and tire on the NFE.

The donor tire from the NFE probably has over 10,000 km on it but no significant UV damage and still sufficient rubber in the center. Its replacement is the Endurance version of the Rene Herse 650x42B Babyshoe Pass. I already had one of those on the rear but the one on the front until now was the Standard version. They're supposed to have similar rolling resistance despite one being more robust, but that's due to more expensive materials - the Endurance version costs about 20% more than the Standard and the same price as the Extralight.

Swapping the old tires was trivial. I barely needed to use levers since the fabric was well stretched. The new Endurance tire which is tubeless ready was a different story. I didn't wear gloves and ended up with small blisters on both of my thumbs from coercing the tire onto the rim. Tubeless ready tires tend to be fun in a masochistic way.

Anyway, I should be set for a long time without having to change tire again and my daughter can enjoy her bike again!
 
this is 2 weeks old but I just found it today. some decent moves there... good to remind oneself what the young and reckless are up to nowadays

 
Finally got out for a ride yesterday - first since coming back from the UK in August - and I've forgotten how many arseholes there are out on the roads driving. Almost got taken out twice by drivers either indicating too late about their turn as I went up the inside, or just not indicating at all. Another couple of times with drivers moving all the way over to block me off as I went up the inside. Finally, drivers almost brushing the drop bars on the bike as they go past.

Bloody hell. Talk about keeping your wits on you.
 
from a bloke on twitter
Getting ready to do the Virtual London Marathon - walking, not running - to raise funds for, and highlight the work of
I'm heading towards Kawagoe, along the Arakawa, might even get there. If you see me in my Amnesty vest, give me a wave.
London_Marathon_Sept_2022.png
 
Looking forward to a better month than both tropical storm filled September.

Happened upon a car free Uchibori-dori this morning! When's the last time the Sunday car free cycling event was held? It's been years, right?

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indeed, Oct started with great weather, cooler and drier finally. looks like it may come to an end soon tho

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indeed, Oct started with great weather, cooler and drier finally. looks like it may come to an end soon tho
The last time I looked, the forecast for Tuesday was good.

Well, are you riding at all?
 
@luka Is there a location for that? (sendai? or am I mixed up?)

Here's what I see for Ishikawa on the generalized forecast:
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I use this other site for wind (now set for tokyo): https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/tokyo_tokyo_japan

Tho nothing's perfect, it's more granular farther out, often showing when during a day it may rain, instead of a global 40-50%.
 

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Unexpected maintenance evening!

After a warm and enjoyable ride around the Tokyo Bay waterfront, I was following @PSB back to the Tamagawa and points homeward. I'm glad I did, because I learned of a new section of park that's good to ride through. However I am not glad I did because just after pushing bike up this ramp onto the 'bridge of endless reconstruction', I started pedaling uphill in altogether the wrong gear and mangled my big chainring.

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I got home just fine using 34T. Quite fun to spin a little along the river, although I'm by nature a grinder.

After a shower and a nap, I surveyed the carnage.

20221002-172335-chainring-broke.jpg

oof

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Even the Shimano 'Fancipantsu' rivet/ramp thing for smooth changes had ripped out.

Plan A was to take everything off, clean it, and see if it can be bashed back into shape. I have hammered a chainring flat before - no big deal.

Lots of old black wax though. I'll check the chain for wear before cleaning the chain.

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So I won't clean the chain. I have a spare ready so I'll swap it out.

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snip, snip

After cleaning and hammering the best I could, I at least got the teeth straight. It's still got an Austin Powers Dental Plan look about it though, and it's missing the ramp-rivet thing. Generally not excited about riding on this.

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So I took a break and went a-Googling for a new chainring. They're out of stock everywhere. Maybe November or December. Maybe next year. There's one scalper on Yahoo! Auctions with the exact part I need but at a 50% markup on retail price. Screw you buddy!

I rarely throw anything away if it's still usable, so I decided to look through the shed for my old 10S gear. Should be able to use the 10S crankset with 11S everything else, at least for a while.

I was surprised and confused to find a seemingly unused R7000 11S 50-34 crankset in shed #4. I cannot for the life of me remember why I would have this. Did I get a bunch of bike parts from someone and this was among them? I genuinely have no idea?

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So all is well again. I much prefer the aesthetic of the silver crankset on my Timtanium bike. But black will do just fine for the few months it takes to get hold of the silver 50T chainring at a fair price.

I wonder how it would look with the black chainrings mounted on the silver crank. That could be a project for a rainy day.
 
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Have you checked on Ebay for a new chain ring @Half-Fast Mike?
Thanks for the reminder. I had not. eBay is not generally on my go-tos, although I have an account.

Sellers are taking advantage of the parts shortage. I'll live with the black one for a while. Better than it sitting unused in my shed and then going in the bin when I decide to go 12-speed.

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Absolutleblack (home of the dubious oval chainring) makes pretty decent round replacements.

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I bought a outer ring and bolt covers for my ultregra 6800 crank this summer and so far so good.

I've heard they are a bit more flexy with power but haven't noticed anything, and getting anything shimano is so difficult these days.

Support was also good, they didn't charge me any extra for shipping the back ordered bolt covers, which once they were ready were shipped out to me. Both shipments were less than 5 days to here in Tokyo.

Can't speak to their dubious marketing or the oval rings, but so far so very satisfied with the round rings.
 
When building my lynskey I looked into the absolute black gravel sub compact rings and the price came out to more than a grx600 crank with rings and fd... went with the crankset.
 
Got an old buddy that runs a B&B in kona, and since the the ironman is on this year he has some guests that are doing that. Here's a pic of one of the bikes at his front door. He says there's now an app so that you can tell where everyone in the race is.

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Rain yesterday, and still some this morning, tho going out a little later might be possible.
 
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