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Today - December 2011

Today going over my Lrrb preparing for the >> HFC Arakawa ride tomorrow I found a nasty little piece of glass in my tyre :eek:

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.... the tyres are the Conti Gator HardShells, and they have a bead to bead DuraSkin and under the tread an extra wide PolyX Breaker for further puncture protection, seems to have worked. I really do like these tyres, for me a good combo. Now I hope that little tear does not increase in size!
 
That's nothing! Leave it in there and just add some Stan's. We skid these baby's down to the kevlar , then just swap them to the front!
 
Still nowhere close to being the calorie-burner that cycling is, tho.

Like Andy, I always find I burn more calories for the same amount of time spent swimming, using the old tried and trusted scientific method of hunger pangs. Likewise, breast stroke all the way. Front crawl is too much like hard work.

I swim almost every day in the sea in the summer with the kids but just treading water really.

Andy, don`t forget that this still needs to be included in your training load. Glad to see your back on the bike. Did the doctors ever work out the cause?
 
Now I hope that little tear does not increase in size!

Little pro trick I picked up from an old master.

Get an old inner tube and sand off some rubber (Old tyres work even better) Now fill that hole with sum superglue and pour the rubber dust into the hole you filled with superglue, push it in so that you get much rubber in there as possible.

Leave to dry.

This does two things, stops the hole splitting further and more important stops more dirt and debri from working its way in to the hole and causing punctures.
 
Little pro trick I picked up from an old master.

Get an old inner tube and sand off some rubber (Old tyres work even better) Now fill that hole with sum superglue and pour the rubber dust into the hole you filled with superglue, push it in so that you get much rubber in there as possible.

Leave to dry.

This does two things, stops the hole splitting further and more important stops more dirt and debri from working its way in to the hole and causing punctures.


Cool trick, and you can get the super glue, or CA glue that is somewhat flexible now, that does NOT dry rock hard.

What I did was fill it with contact cement, then let it dry, then to close up the hole I wrapped a zip tie around the area tight, then pumped up the tyre to operation pressure.

I'll check later to see if it held :D
 
Nice ride down the Arakawa with the HFC'ers. Since it was windy, I took out the 'Black Knight'. Same bike Eric used at Y's Enduro and Saiko. It's fast and fun to ride in windy conditions. Managed to average over 38kph (no drafting) over 16km including a few stops for idiot Baseball Players, Gates and other Arakawa hazards. Pretty easy to sustain 44 - 50kph on this bike.
 
We haven't weighed it. My guess is something around 7-8kg. It's just got good aero qualities including 50mm wheels. Once you get over 40kph you notice that you dont hit the wall so quickly and can push higher speeds much longer.
 
Bear in mind, I'm not that strong a rider anymore. My 60min FPT would be in the 300- 350w range only. And aerodynamics count big time when you start hitting 40kph+ . A 400w- 500w rider has a lot more to play with!
 
Bear in mind, I'm not that strong a rider anymore. My 60min FPT would be in the 300- 350w range only. And aerodynamics count big time when you start hitting 40kph+ . A 400w- 500w rider has a lot more to play with!
Most of that is your body position, only a small portion the bike and wheels.
Interesting read on >>wiki<< about weight and aero myth:
Heated debates over the relative importance of weight savings and aerodynamics are a fixture in cycling. ...
There are two "non-technical" explanations ... First is the placebo effect. ... Another explanation, of course, may be marketing benefits ...
:p
 
Managed to average over 38kph (no drafting) over 16km including a few stops for idiot Baseball Players, Gates and other Arakawa hazards. Pretty easy to sustain 44 - 50kph on this bike.
Are you sure you did not draft behind Mr. Kawasaki, at least it looks like that on Strava ;) (love this new compare ride function). Anyway, congrats for the KIF (King of Flat), I will wait for the right wind and might want to challenge this :rolleyes:.
 
Very true and its something as a coach we understand and always highlight with our athletes. The easiest way to explain it is to get the rider to look at the front profile of the bike then have them get on the bike in front of a mirror and ask the question "Where is the biggest area mass that effects aerodynamics?

It is always going to be the rider, bikes naturally are aerodynamic and really the the effects that the bikes have on the equation are minimal at best.

There are certain brands that rave on about how aero thier bikes are and the benifits of the bike, however once the rider is onboard the bike becomes totally different in how it cuts the air, more often than not becoming less aerodynamic than other brands out there.

Boardman Bikes were actually designed with "Rider On", something that was learnt from the Lotus Super Bike that was ridden to several worldd records.

Tim, also your FTP is bloody amazing.... there are some pro tour riders that would kill for that! You should be racing JPT!
 
Actually I think we had a pretty good tailwind for much of the section along the Arakawa today. My 16 km average (according to the MapMyRide breakdown and LibreOffice Calc) was 32.4 km/h, which is not what I am normally capable of for that distance.

Still, it looks like a superb bike, Tim! I would like to try the electronic shifting too next time you bring it along :)

I would like to thank Don, Mike and everyone else who contributed their efforts today. Again I had a great time!
 
Are you sure you did not draft behind Mr. Kawasaki, at least it looks like that on Strava ;) (love this new compare ride function). Anyway, congrats for the KIF (King of Flat), I will wait for the right wind and might want to challenge this :rolleyes:.

Actually, I was chasing Tim to catch up. But I never got ahead of him.:eek:
My first HFC ride today and was great to see some people from TCC.
 
Little pro trick I picked up from an old master.

Get an old inner tube and sand off some rubber (Old tyres work even better) Now fill that hole with sum superglue and pour the rubber dust into the hole you filled with superglue, push it in so that you get much rubber in there as possible.

Leave to dry.

This does two things, stops the hole splitting further and more important stops more dirt and debri from working its way in to the hole and causing punctures.


OK I gave your trick a try, looks like it worked really well.....

tyre_cut_fix_1.jpg

The cut, all cleaned up and ready for some surgery

tyre_cut_fix_2.jpg

The rubber dust, I sanded down a piece of hard rubber padding I had, just the corner and a few seconds with the ROS was all I needed.

tyre_cut_fix_3.jpg

CA glue and rubber dust

tyre_cut_fix_4.jpg

Sanded down the glue and dust with the ROS until it was level with the tyre tread, looks really good, even if my pic is a bit out of focus :eek: Just about disappears!

Thanks for passing that one along! :cool:
 
Kurigari Toge

I had the chance to briefly ride in Osaka today. I choose the famous "Kurigari Toge" >>wiki<< as my destination. This road goes up to 455m and the key part is around 2.5km long. For that part the average is ~20% with parts up to 37%. I needed to stop several times because my chain sprung off (guess my shimano 92' derailleur didn't like my 32 mtb sprocket), but I have to admit that I was quite happy to have some rest in between, at least I didn't push my bike :bike:.
On the picture where you see my bike lean against the wall, I literally crossed the road on all fours. And note it's hard to guess the grade by just looking at the pictures :eek:.

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Close to the start
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Somewhere in the middle
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My bike against the wall
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Done, see it says 暗峠 on the stone to the left (just noticed it now).

I then climbed over some barrier onto the "shigi ikoma skyline" road, just later at the gate I was told that it was closed for bicycles :angel:.
 
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