Saturday ridin’
I decided to test out riding with the damaged thumb on Saturday but I was not quite ready to tackle the thumb lever of the Campy shifters. So I grabbed the TT bike, with the bar end shifters, and headed to the west. I found it easy to operate the right shifter with a combination of two fingers and the hand. After a nice warmup in the flatlands I made my way into the Los Altos Hills and started some VO2Max intervals, and I was feeling good. I put in a bit over two hours with no problems whatsoever.
Sunday ridin’
If one day of riding is good, two is better. The Wife was heading out to lead a team workout and asked if I wanted to carpool northward to ride in that area. Sure, but what bike? I had torn down the TT bike to clean and prep for Madera this coming weekend and did not have time to get it together. So I threw the Colnago in the Toaster and headed out to Woodside. While The Wife and her teammates did their review of what was ahead I did some loops of the parking lot and found I could use the finger next to the thumb to shift the thumb lever, just not smoothly or quickly. I did a warmup then cruised north on Cañada road for a fast tempo ride. There was heavy drizzle and stiff headwinds, but I did not care. The legs felt great and I rode hard, minimizing gear changes. I got in a big gear and powered up, doing 22-25MPH even on the uphill sections, all the while keeping the cadence above 95 rpms. I was shooting past groups of riders, the only one’s who were matching me were two guys in DBC kits. If I had felt that good, and had that much drive, last Sunday then I think I would have been in the front group all day. Maybe the extra rest did me good, or maybe the somewhat hard workout on Saturday. Need to sort that out, but it was fun and I was feeling it.
Glue and tape
One of my teammates had a tubular tire roll of the rear rim while he was cruising for an almost certain 2nd place at the Rondee von Brisbeen crit a week ago. The race official noted there was very little glue on either the tire or the rim. The teammate says that the tire was mounted by a local bike shop owner, one whom some folks claim tell them that they use too much glue when mounting tubulars. I do not know about that, but that shop owner has told me that I should be able to swap tubulars faster than I can repair a flat clincher. Never been able to, mostly due to the time it takes me to peel the old tire off the rim; maybe if I used less glue I could peel them off faster.
The incident has led to a lot of on-line chatter about gluing techniques, etc. Basically it is a religious war as to whether to glue or tape, if glue which one, etc. With Madera a week away, and The Wife wanting to ride the TT with the high zoot carbon trispokes, with tubulars, I decided to peel and remount the tires just to make sure they were on well. I glued on the front, using the Continental glue. For the rear I tried Tufo tape. When picking up the tape I did a quick check: regular or extreme? Extreme is for ‘extreme’ conditions of low or high temperatures, with the ‘extreme high’ meaning above 74 degrees F! Where is the world is it that 74 degrees F is an extreme high? Antarctica? I know Tufo is a Czech company, but the Czech Republic is not that moderate in their temperature range. Upshot is I went for the ‘Extreme’ stuff. While I was at it, I got a new tubular spare and needed to stretch that. All I can say is that gluing tires and stretching new tires onto rims really calls for having two good thumbs. I got it all done, but it was not easy.
New track wheels
While looking at the website of the manufacturer of the carbon trispokes for gluing recommendations I found that they sell a road to track kit for the wheels. For a couple of bills I can get the parts so I can swap them back and forth between road/TT duty and use at the track. Sweet! A lot more friendly on the budget than a new set of wheels.
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April 7, 2008 at 1:19 pm
DrKim
I’ve always glued….never used tape. And pulling an old tire off of a rim takes me some serious time and effort. And the whole process is SO much messier than changing a clincher :-). I have used FastTack (3-M) as well as some other more expensive stuff as well. Both seemed to work well, and I’ve never had one even think about coming off…
Glad your thumb is not hindering your riding too much
April 7, 2008 at 1:26 pm
chatterbox
as long as the tires stay on tight and do not flat, I will be a happy camper! Thanks for all your diligence on this. Hopefully I will merit a better than last-place finish in the TT this year to make it all worth the effort!
April 7, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Tripp
I’ve got my TT wheelset tires mounted using the tape and they have been fine for over a year now (of course, being TT wheels, they have only been raced about 6 times-though I did use the front 808 at Dunnigan Hills).
However, I’ve read that the tape significantly increases rolling resistance. So, I’m sort of hoping that my Tufo tires will fail so I can mount new tires with glue…
April 7, 2008 at 4:18 pm
CyclistRick
Doc Kim - Other than the mess, glue is fine. The tape was easy tp install; applied it while watching the Tour of Flanders. Just have to see how it lasts and how easy it is to put the next tire on the same rim. BTW, part of the local religious battle last week centered on whether the current FastTack is the same formulation as it was several years back.
Ms. Chatterbox - you are always worth the effort! The tires will stay on, just do not hit any big sharp objects and you are OK.
Tripp - Thanks for the comment. Do you know of a actual test that shows the rolling resistance higher for the tape than the glue? So far all I have seen is speculation absent any data. And Continental’s extensive rolling resistance tests did not test taped tubulars (though the tests showed that top clinchers were better than top tubulars). Until I see data I am skeptical.
April 9, 2008 at 6:35 am
chris
From what I read, most in the know prefer glue.
Are you referring to the Nible Tri-Spokes? How have you found those? I asked a lot of questions about Nimble wheels and the owner here locally and the responses weren’t very good. It is very rare that I see Nimbles in Austin which is surprising given that they are only 10 miles away.
April 9, 2008 at 9:42 am
CyclistRick
Chris - yep, the Nimble Crosswinds. We do not put many miles on them, so the jury is still out. We see very few Nimbles out here; see a couple pair at the track, and an occasional set at TT’s. But Hed, and other brands dominate. Some of that is probably folks wanting to match brands, and a lot of track and TT folks (the main market for tri-spokes) like discs … and Nimble does not do discs. If I get the road-to-track conversion kit the wheels will get a lot more use, since we ride more at the track than at TT’s.