Equipment Corner

… is mostly back together again.

The road rash from the crash in the Memorial Day crit is rapidly healing. The worst spot is on the back of the left hand, which was itching up a storm through the night and resulting in me throwing in the towel and getting out of bed at 4:37AM (uggh!) since I could not sleep. Still a bit of bruising, but that is fading. All of the bodily parts seem to function.

Last night the Colnago was restored to some semblance of working order. The shifters are on and seem to shift fine. I wrapped up the bars, trying the fi’zi:k tape made of Microtex. Not sure about how it will feel or wear, but it is a pain to work with. Only thing that I have used that is more of a pain is the Brooks leather bar wrap.

This weekend I plan to get out and see if the body and bike will be up to the 47 mile Pescadero Road Race 8 days from now.

A couple of months back there was some talk of VeloGirls moving towards serving the ‘Y’ chromosome set. I was wondering when I could join, but seemed to have missed the announcement. Then last night Hernando was parading around in a VeloGirls skinsuit, but I dismissed it as he, as promoter, throwing some love towards the primary sponsor of the night.

Then today Mark P. lines up at the Dash for Cash in a VeloGirls skinsuit, apparently forsaking his allegiance to Vanderkitten. Two guys flying the pink in just over 12 hours time.

So when do I get to suit up in pink?

A bit over an hour ago the phone rings and I pick it up. The person on the other end identifies themselves as being the person I handed my Chorus shifters to yesterday for repair. He tells me they are ready, and they are repaired correctly and then follows by telling me that if I suck at Pescadero it will not be due to an equipment problem. My post from yesterday was found by someone else who worked at the shop and the link passed on. I can post, but I cannot hide!

… it might be an equipment issue.

A few months ago the right Chorus shifter on the Colnago went out for an extended lunch break. I did the quick fix of putting the spare Centaur shifters on the bike and had the Chorus shifters there in the home office waiting to be rebuilt. But I never got around to doing it myself and never took them to a shop to have it done. The broken shifter from the crash on Memorial Day was the impetus to get it done, finally.

Today I dropped the Chorus shifters at a shop near where I work for the rebuild. The guy behind the counter asks when I need them, and I say that it is not a rush, but I want a couple of weeks before Pescadero to ride on that bike. He looks at me and asks what field, so I tell him 35+ 4/5. He asks if I am a good climber, and I say that I am an OK climber. So he bundles the shifters, hands them over to a guy in the shop and says: “Dmitry, make these work fine for a few days, then so that he can shift to the 53-11, only.” Guess I know at least one person I will be racing against that day.

I came very close to ordering a wireless PowerTap last week. I am still on the fence, but The Wife is without her PowerTap for now and is preparing for the Kern Women’s Stage Race so I almost got one for her to use until after Kern (or she has her PowerTap back) then I would take it over the new one. But without a full commitment on my part to training with a PowerTap the expenditure is a bit much to swallow.

One of the downsides to the PowerTap is that there is no option for recording track workouts/races. One would need another device, and my philosophy is why own two (or three) when one will do. And that leads to the attraction of a device like the iBike Pro. One device, multiple mounts. Simple, right? Well, sort of. And to up the ante, VeloComp has a new version, the iAero, which has some cool features for comparing aerodynamics of different position on the bike. I was interested, then I got into the details. The iAero is touted as being wireless and working with devices using the ANT+ wireless protocol, which includes the Garmin 705 (but not the wireless PowerTap, which uses the older ANT protocol). The device is a bit pricey ($999, but $200 of until the end of the month) but then I was wondering how much extra mounts would cost. And that is where the devil was in the details. The iAero works with the older ‘wired and wireless’ iBike Pro mounts. Huh? The iAero is wireless, right, so why add wires or a mount that is a wireless receiver (such as the iBike Pro wireless mount)? Turns out that the iAero is not wireless, the mount is wireless. So if you want to mount it on 3 bikes you need 3 mounts that are wireless receivers along with the wireless sensors. That is $269 (MRSP) for each mount/sensor kit! Ouch! So much simpler (and cost-effective) if the wireless receiver is in the device, not the mount kit, in my opinion.

Another option just coming out is the Quarq CinQo, a crank-based power meter. The device is distributed as a spider that can be bolted onto cranks that do not have and integrated spider. It talks ANT+ wireless protocol, too, so you need an ANT+ capable “head” to go with the spider. Again, the package is a bit spendy. You need to supply a compatible crank, then it is $1195 (MRSP) for the spider, then the cost of the “head”. Quarq has an ANT+ capable “head” they will sell you at $995 (MRSP). Ouch! You can use the iAero ($999 MRSP) or the Garmin 705 (a bargain at $499.99 MRSP, but widely available for much less) as alternatives. And in my situation I would need a new crank plus spider for each bike. Triple Ouch!

Guess I will continue to use RPE and heart rate for now. Not finding any of the options to be a complete, and cost-effective, solution for me at the moment.

I am still working through the concept of training with a power measurement device, a subject I blogged about not long ago. It is a tough choice; SRM’s are too pricey (just see where the price heads when their patent protection ends) and there are too few crank options, Ergomo would require a crank without outboard bearings, and PowerTap has its reliability issues (The Wife’s still blanks in and out with regularity, and seems to be out more than in). And there is the idea that using these devices is “borderline cheating”. But I am slowling coming around towards the dark side and getting closer to throwing it down and getting a power unit.

If I felt lucky I could buy some Accelerade and put my name in to win a pair of Zipp 404’s with a wireless PowerTap. But I think I’ve used up my contest luck (a washing machine and a Jeep Cherokee have come my way through drawings). I bought a pair of Williams System 30 wheels just before the Mt San Bruno hill climb, at a time when Williams was saying that they could not make a deal with Saris to do PowerTaps. Times have changed; if I bought today there is a PowerTap option. So if I give in it will be YASW (Yet Another Set of Wheels) on my dime.

Of course, considering The Wife’s experience I might need a spare to use when the one I buy goes south. Just like Scott Martin writes about in the current issue of RoadBikeRider:

8. SCOTT’S SPIN

Power Outage

Help! I’m powerless.

“Tell us something we don’t know,” say my boss, my IRS auditor and my ex-wife’s lawyer. True enough, but that’s not the kind of power I mean. I’m talking watts, kilojoules, calories.

You see, my 2-month-old power meter died the other day. Evidently I am so powerful that the unit just short-circuited. Smoke poured from the strain gauges in the rear hub, the handlebar-mounted computer display flashed “Uncle!” and . . .

So I’m exaggerating. Actually, one of the contacts on the computer loosened and the unit stopped functioning. I called the company and explained the situation.

“No problem,” said the PowerTap rep. “Just send it back and we’ll fix or replace it.”

“Um, okay,” I replied, suddenly panicked by the thought of being without a gizmo that 3 months ago I disdained as overrated and overpriced. “Could you send me a loaner in the meantime — like when your car breaks down or your iron lung rusts?”

“Sorry, sir, we can’t. We’ll return it to you as soon as possible.”

I briefly considered hand-carrying the unit on a plane, then decided overnight delivery might be more cost-effective. Still, I’d probably be without it for at least a week.

How could this happen? Three months ago I was blissfully power-free. Didn’t even own a heart monitor. Had a cyclecomputer, but couldn’t figure out how to set the time of day. Then my power meter-flouting teammates convinced me to join the bandwagon — largely by crushing me in our weekly workouts.

Now I’m addicted to the instant, accurate feedback a power meter delivers. No more guessing, no more slacking. This wonderful, terrible device inspires me on good days and infuriates me on bad days, but always pushes me to improve.

Maybe I should buy another — for back-up.

(Scott Martin wrote feature articles for Bicycling magazine for a dozen years. He lives and rides in Northern California.)

The Wife and I spent a lovely anniversary weekend in beautiful Madera. The plan had been a hers-n-his racing weekend, but I was the party pooper. The doctors had advised against racing, and if there was any doubt a quick loop of the TT course told me that the shaking, rattletrap roads were no place to ride without a good grip with both hands. I hear that the fabled ‘Roubaix’ section of the road race would have been worse, but I will have to take everyone’s word for it since I was not going to get the pleasure of experiencing it. I got to enjoy the festivities from the sidelines, yelling encouragement, heckling occasionally, and providing support. The Wife will be reporting on her own trials and tribulations. She did a better job than she gives herself credit for, and I am sure she will take the lessons from this weekend and carry them forward. She is a tough cookie! A few notes and observations:

• Lots o’equipment needed, including lots o’tools and spares. That course and the weather is brutal on equipment as well as the riders.
• Check everything nightly: after pre-riding the TT course on Friday I did not inspect the tires. At the TT course on Saturday, just before sending The Wife off to her start, I found some glass embedded in the front tire and a slash in the sidewall of the same tire. Good thing I had spare wheels! I had a spare tubular tire and some Tufo tape with me, too, so if I had found the problems on Friday night The Wife could have ridden on the high zoot Nimble wheel rather than my old road bike front wheel.
• Lots o’riders seem clueless on feed zone protocol. Lots o’folks not taking feed were riding along the right edge and blocking those who wanted feed from getting over. If you are not taking feed, move left; if you are, move right. Darned tough to do the water bottle transfer across three rows of moving cyclists! There was way to much frustration and angst from folks not able to get bottles on Sunday.
• When the weatherman says hot, take twice as much fluids with you as you think you will need. Saturday it was clear we would run short so we made a quick dash to the store to pick up a few more gallons.
• Always check with past participants for restaurant recommendations. Shot in the dark picks are more often miss than hit.

Perhaps next year I can give a first-hand account of the racin’.

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.

Now I know a bit of what the REI dividend will fund. I am in serious need of some pants that fit the new, somewhat lighter version of yours truly. I loaded up on some pants at the end of last summer thinking that would do me for a year or so (I hate shopping so I concentrate my buying in a few, short periods of intense activity). Gravity can take those pants down to my ankles if I remove my belt now that I dropped a few pounds this past fall/early winter. I, like Jared, will have to make room in the closet for skinny pants to reside alongside the fat pants.

I have asked The Wife what she would like from REI, as I prepare to spend the spoils of being the buyer for my workplace. She has her eye on the latest in cycling footwear, the Keen Commuter cycling sandals. I am a big fan of cycling in sandals, as I blogged about last year. The Wife got a pair of cheap sandals a few years back but never got into riding in them. One of her concerns was lack of protection for the toes, and she maintained that if Keen’s ever made a cycling sandal it would be perfect. I think a pair of those will definitely make it in the shopping basket. Still looking at what else we might want or need from REI, especially that one item that will make maximum use of our “20% off one item” discount.

Some might read that this new shopping list indicates which way I decided to go on the data collection device decision (say that fast three times in a row). Not so fast. At this point in time the Garmin Edge is still the front-runner, but I realized that REI was not the place to purchase said device. The full kit (head, cadence/speed sensor, HR strap, cables, mount, software) is $359 at REI and is not eligible for the “20% off one item” discount. Other vendors sell the same package for $250. Even if it is ‘funny money’ (dividend) it seems silly to pay that much extra for one item.

… data. I figure that if I am going to continue to do some racing then I need to get a bit more serious, actually do a training regimen, and then I might need some data. And then it gets down to a question of what data and which data collection device. Ugh!

I had been ignoring the issue for a number of reasons.

• Holding off on spending $$$ until the taxman has come and gone (hopefully with no more of our $$$).
• Waiting to get over my loathing of the PowerTap after dealing with The Wife’s early Pro model which has lots of warts.
• Waiting to see how serious I will be at racing.
• I am not big on collecting new toys.

But then last week ‘Uncle REI’ informed me of my yearly rebate, err, dividend which is a bit on the high side due to a number of purchases made for work.  REI does not carry power devices, except the Polar, but they do have the Garmin’s (though they do not quality for the 20% off one item deal).  Hmmmm, says I.  That overcomes the first reason.  OK, need some time to think this over.  It would seem silly to get a Garmin if I were to get a PowerTap soon; no reason to lug both around.   And though the new Garmin 705 works with the SRM it does not work with the PowerTap (PowerTap uses the early ANT protocol, not ANT+), so there is no way to get all the information collected in one device.   And until the SRM comes off patent and inexpensive 3rd party knock-offs come out I will not go down that path.  What to do, what to do?

While musing on it over the weekend I joined up for the Saturday PenVelo ride (thanks folks) and did a bit of an survey.  Funny it was an even split among the participants, 2 for the PowerTap, 2 for the Garmin, the rest (20+) undecided (of course the real zealots were at Merco).   So for now the data I collect will be speed and cadence (average and max) and will continue to wonder what I am missing, other than frustration.