Big Miles after Easter

I've just had a weeks holiday after Easter and was able to get out and do some big miles this week. It ended up being 261.6 miles for the week - one of the biggest I have done. It culminated in an 82 miler in the Sunday - I stuck out the dubious weather to get a ride this long as a) I wanted to try and complete one of the Strava challenges (Grand Fondo 4 to be precise - a single ride of over 130km/80miles) and b) also complete the Spring Classics Challenge (1266km between 26 Mar 14 and 5 May 14). An 80 mile ride would complete these both in one fell swoop. What surprised me was that after 180 miles in the week already was how good I felt for the distance. I managed 17.2pmh over the 80 miles and got 56 Strava PRs which I was also pretty pleased with, although I had to do some dummy loops around home to make sure I made the distance.
Here's the achievements:

For the princely sum of $109 + $20 postage I have "earned" the right to buy one of these from Strava:




 
But I don't think I will..

I also entered the the Velobici Spring Classics Challenge. This was similar to the Strava Spring Classics Challenge but ran from 9 Mar 14 to 27 Apr 14 (it finished the same day as the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race) - 1098 miles in 50 days. I was 100 miles short of this challenge, finishing 6 of the 7 races:

I was disappointed to not achieve all 1098 miles but was pretty happy to get as far as I did. There are prizes on offer so lets keep my fingers crossed.

Finally this weeks mileage meant I figured strongly on the JLR Strava club:

It's worth noting that Steve Jefferies and Chris Spencer had ridden the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race (the Sportive on the Saturday) and this was why they only just beat me. Well done to them both.

FSA Chain Rings

In this post - chain rings - I moaned about the cost of chain rings. This was in light of the fact that the 50T rings were worn badly on both the Scott and the Giant. They end up being at least £30+ each and seem to be rarely in stock at most of the major internet retailers.

For the Scott which is my best bike and hence the one I tend to fuss over, I ended up getting a new Shimano 5700 Compact chainset to replace the FSA Gossamer chainset as described in the post. This still left needing a new 50T ring for the Giant. I looked over a period of weeks to see when and what was available and recently found a reasonably proved supply in stock on eBay here: sprocketsuk

To be fair it arrived very quickly and was as advertised. I think the teeth are less complex that the original FSA or Shimano teeth - they look much more regular and more like the plain teeth on the inner (34T) ring. Only time will tell if this affects the shifting quality. The design is similar to the original FSA rings but slightly different in the area of the webs.

It took about 30 minutes to fit, mostly because I struggled to hold the back of the chainring bolt still whilst undoing with an Allen key. I had to resort to using the very large socket screwdriver bit from my impact driver to hold the back still whilst using the Allen key as I had no other suitable tool. However once I had rigged up something for this it all came apart easily enough. I applied a small smear of Copaslip (other brands and suppliers are avilable) to the threads before reassembly.

All was OK with the shifting once it was all back together. 

Closer inspection of the removed item showed how worn it was (its done about 10-12,000 miles in about 3 years or so, through all seasons):

The original ring

Shark Teeth

With teeth this worn it was going to start chewing through chains at an accelerated rate so this is why I spent £30. It was going to be of the order of £60-70 to replace it.

The FSA Vero is a square taper chainset - the bottom bracket it uses is discussed here and the square taper crank sets are getting less common now. I briefly considered fitting a new ring to the FSA Gossamer that came off the Scott together with the Mega Exo BB and considering it as an "upgrade", but given the short life of the Mega EXO BB compared the the original Truvative BB-06-SQ-LE-108/68 BB on the Giant (now replaced with a Shimano UN55) I decided that the durability would be compromised. I was also unsure whether the BB faces on the Giant might need facing off I fitted an external BB like the Mega EXO compared the to cartridge type it is currently running

I saw this recently - pretty relevant I think:

The Rules - Revisted

As a cyclist you may be aware of "the rules". My personal favourites are 5, 9 and 12. And for my son number 42

However they are somewhat controversial. 

Here are a stripped down no s**t set that are much better: "no s**t rules":

Team JLR - STRAVA - Part 3

A big effort in cycling during the week together with a 60 mile run with Noel on Sunday meant I managed a 3rd in the distance Team JLR - Strava Club weekly rankings for 7-14 April 2014:

and 4th in the elevation gain:
 

Pretty chuffed as there are some serious mile munchers at JLR. I won't deny that the last few miles home of the extended commute on Friday were pretty tough.

The start of the Sunday run with Noel felt like I might struggle but after about 10 miles I was felling pretty strong. Noel was OK but is not really very bike fit at the moment so we had a pretty low pace for the 60 miles (16.1mph) and was pretty well blown by the end. However the gentler pace (compared to if I had gone out alone) was pleasant and I got home feeling pretty good and comfortable.

I am trying to do as many mile as possible as part of the Ride London preparation. On this rides basis I am confidant I'd feel pretty good if I did it next week and kept the pace low. I am aiming for around 5½hours so about 18mph, I'm not ready for this pace yet but feeling quietly confident at the moment. I have got the Dynamic Rides 100 in July as preparation and expect this to be a lot hillier and hence slower - but good timing 1 month before the Ride London event.

Veloviewer Velobici Spring Classics Challenge 2014 and BikeRadar Challenges

I signed up for this. My best position was 25th on 9 March 2014:

Needless to say I have been dropping down the rankings since then! I might just be able to complete the challenge (basically to cycle 1098 miles in 50 days) but it will be tough. I might just have done almost enough miles in March but its going to be very hard to maintain this rate.

You can sign up to the challenge here: http://blog.veloviewer.com/velobici-spring-classics-challenge-2014/

As well as this challenge  I also sign up for the monthly BikeRadar challenges. Last year I won a T Shirt:

 

This was followed this February by another T Shirt (picture to follow). 

Given that typical entries are 100-120 people the chances of a win are pretty good. Recently the prizes include a draw for £100 of e-vouchers so its well worth entering. The recent 2 month challenge (1 Mar-30 Apr) is the "Spring Sportive Challenge" and at one point I was very high and improbable 3rd place:

I am down to 10th as of 6 April.

The April challenge is The Classics Challenge and again, albeit early in the month, I am highly placed:

Needless to say I won't be staying here for long either.

Post New Year Riding

I started this post in February and things just cropped up so its been massively delayed. I have done a review and got it to a start to publish

It's now the middle of February so at least 6 weeks of 2014 have passed already and I wanted to summarise what I managed to achieve in January, and review what getting in Ride London might mean.

Firstly despite the news reporting the coming of the second global flood, the weather in the midlands had actually been quite benign. There were some cold days, and wet and windy days but there has always been one of the days at the weekend when the weather has been very good for January and I have managed to get out once each weekend and twice on one weekend. I started looking at weather and work commitments for a commute once per week although all the pieces did not come together until 13 Feb when I was able to commute for the first time this year. This was a reasonable day between high winds and rain, although it was a lot colder than I expected in the morning and there was a pretty strong and persistent headwind all the way home

However despite the reasonable weather there were a couple of icy days in January and on one of those I had "An Off". This happened one Sunday - I knew from the forecast it was due to be cold and it certainly was when I got up. I had a few moments of dithering thinking it might be too icy but countered this by knowing that the Bus Routes (and the number 11 in particular) would be OK so all I had to do was get just over ½ mile from my house and then I'd be OK. I managed about 95% of the ½mile but as I caressed the from brake to slow for the T-Junction to turn left the next thing I knew I was on the ground.

An adrenalin fueled moment later and I was up and on the path. Fortunately no cars were coming and despite being a bit winded I felt OK. My first thoughts when lying on the road were actually: "where is my Garmin and is my bike OK"! I got up and gave the bike and check and all seemed OK, felt myself and also seemed OK - a bit winded and full of adrenalin I so decided that it was nothing more than being a bit winded, so decided to carry on. I was very tense for the next few miles about the ice but felt OK and my confidence was restored as the miles and increased and the day warmed up. My side (right) felt a bit sore and after a few times when I stood up on the pedals up some small climbs and it hurt a bit more than I wanted. I decided that I was sore enough to remain seated for the rest of the ride. I got home OK and had a better look whilst I got changed, and could not see anything amiss - no bruising or discolouration.

However as the days went on my ribs ached more and more - sleeping was painful and any stretching hurt. I'd clearly bruised my ribs but wow, did it hurt. It took over 4 weeks for the pain to completely go but it was unpleasant for almost 3 weeks. What it must hurt like if you actually break a rib I have no idea but the pain must be intense.

The Number 11 bus routes (both A & C) that I created are good Sunday morning rides and I have done them a few more times. I am the KOM on both routes needless to say. I would not do them any other time than an early Sunday morning though given the traffic.

As I have posted before I got in to the Ride London so I am keen to get in some long rides as soon as possible, I'll try to post some news about these longer rides as I manage to get them in.

The Rawlinson Bracket 2014

I rode the Rawlinson Bracket last year and wrote a short article here: The Rawlinson Bracket. Last year it was miserable - the temperature was barely above freezing and I felt tired almost from the off. The last 5 miles or so was incredibly hard and luckily Noel towed me from Kineton back to the Heritage Centre.

This year was dry, reasonably warm but very windy. I started the ride again with Noel and the first 2-3 miles were very easy - we sailed along at over 25mph until a right turn when we were slap back into a headwind. I took the lead from Noel and thought he was behind but looked back and he'd fallen quite a way back. I slowed for him and he just about caught me but I then pushed on and dropped him again (unintentionally). My bike was squeaking away a bit and I spotted that the pre-load bolt for the crank set was loose so I stopped to fix it, and Noel caught me again, although this time we were just at the bottom of the Burton Dasset climb. Nobly Noel said he was feeling rubbish and said it was OK to gp on without him. I didn't really want to but could see Noel was struggling so pushed on alone.

I could bore you with a long and detailed mile by mile account, but I won't. The ride for me was much better than last year. The temperature was OK and I even unzipped my jacket on a number of occasions. The wind however was very very strong. It seemed the most of the time it was a headwind and on a few occasions I was on the 34T inner ring on the straight. However when there was a tailwind it was awesome - cruising effortlessly at 20-25mph in a big gear is tremendous fun and very rewarding. I made very short stop for more water but otherwise rode non-stop. Sunrising was as hard as ever made more so by the surface, but after the top it was pretty much a tailwind all the way to the finish.

I completed in 3:14:11 this year (average speed 16mph over 51.7 miles) compared to 3:22:15 last year (average speed 14.5 over 48.9 miles). More importantly I actually enjoyed it this year!

Steve Jefferies and the team did a really good job, and made a lot of improvements to the event this year including chip timing. Well done Steve.

Here's a couple of photos that some people took and uploaded to Flickr.

About 1/2 way up Edge Hill - just before the Right turn at the junction

At the top of Sunrising Hill

More Mash Madness

Another classic from the Daily Mash

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/roads-not-a-velodrome-2014040385379

Giant Defy Headset Bearings

This post is also a follow up to this post: Focus Cayo Bike Weights

Back in February I got the Giant of the rack in the garage:

only to find that the steering was stuck in the straight ahead positions. Clearly after 4 years and 4 winters the headset had given up the ghost, got rusty and siezed. Fortunately a little gentle twisting action loosened it again but it was clearly time to replace the bearings. A couple of days later I got the bike in the workstand and dropped the fork out to get to the bearings. I was hoping that they'd be marked up and I could read the part numbers of and source replacements easily, but unfortunately they were completely unmarked. I measured them up as best as I could, cleaned and applied some grease and re-assembled. I got the following data:

Upper Bearing - ID = 30mm, OD = 42mm, Height = 6mm
Lower Bearing - ID = 34mm, OD = 46mm, Height = 7mm
In both cases I estimated the taper at about 45° but had no way of measuring this. I used a standard steel ruler for the measurement - so within +/-1mm is the best I could do.

I also looked on the internet for information. The best I found was this Bikeradar Forum article: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12955189&p=18696395 where it identified the bearings as:

TOP BEARING 41.8mm x 6mm 45° X 45° MR136 (1 1/4")
LOWER BEARING 47mm x 7mm 45° X 45° MR137 (1 1/2")

This was close enough to my measurements to give me confidence that I had measured correctly:

Here's a few pictures of the bearings:

New Top

New Bottom

Old Bottom

Old Top

The bearings were OK again with the re-greasing, but this was obviously just a short term containment so as soon as I got the replacements I did change them. 

It was surprisingly hard to source some bearings. The best shot I found was here: Aire Bearings on EBay. I can't fault them for price, delivery and customer service - I would use again. The cost was £15.54 for a top and bottom bearing. Bearings seemed good quality and there was no issue with fit. Only time will tell for longevity but at that price I'd be OK with a couple of years given that the Giant is used all year round.

I took the opportunity to thoroughly clean and service the bike at the same time as I changed these bearings (new chain, new jockey wheels on the rear derailleur, replaced the short length  of gear outer cable at the rear derailleur etc and general tweaks). I also put the Cole Rollen Wheels back on after the Winter.

Because I had some of the bike apart I also weighed some of the components for comparison when I stripped the Focus/built the Scott.

Giant Defy Weights
Components	Detail	Actual Weight (kg)
Cole Rollen Wheel (Front) with skewer, inner tube and Continental 700cx23mm Gatorskin tyre		1.28
Cole Rollen Wheel (Rear) with skewer, inner tube and Continental 700cx23mm Gatorskin tyre, and 12-25 105 Cassette		1.77
	total	3.05
Giant Wheel (Front) with skewer, inner tube and Continental 700cx25mm Gatorskin tyre		1.92
Giant Wheel (Rear) with skewer, inner tube and Continental 700cx25mm Gatorskin tyre and 12-27 105 Cassette		2.27
	total	4.19
Weight saving due to Cole Rollen Wheels		1.14
Crank RH (drive)	FSA Gossamer (Scott)	0.55
Crank LH	FSA Gossamer (Scott)	0.25
Crank RH (drive)	FSA Vero (Giant)	0.64
Crank LH	FSA Vero (Giant)	0.42
Weight difference between Gossamer and Vero		0.36
Focus Weight		8.52
Giant Weight (Cole Wheels)		10.62

Chain Rings

On both my bikes the chains were pretty shot from (in the case of the Giant) all year round riding and in the case of the Scott a lot of summer miles on the Focus and a number of miles on the Scott through the winter (but not in the worst of the weather).

In the case of the Scott the chain set was the original FSA Gossamer from the Focus. On the Focus the I'd done over 8000miles and the Scott has done around 1500 miles. There was quite clearly a lot of wear on the 50T ring, and although there was some on the 34T this was probably OK - given that probably more that 90% of mileage is done on the big ring this doesn't seem unreasonable. I bought a couple of KMC chains (X-93) in preparation but was not prepared to put a new chain on the Scott without new chain rings. The cassette (a Shimano 105 11-28) has a much lower mileage on it as it swapped out the original 12-27.

However getting spare chain rings is both difficult and expensive. Significant internet research suggested that I'd be looking at around £35-50 for the 34 & 50T rings. The pair would be be at least £60. This compares to around £85 for a complete replacement chain set. In addition I was struggling to both find the exact replacement parts (surely they are different for different chain sets?) and somewhere where they were in stock.

After a lot of research I decided to take a different approach and replace the whole chain set. I ordered what I felt was an identical FSA Gossamer unit from Planet-X at a reasonable price and good delivery.

However I was quite surprised (and disappointed) to find that the design had changed. In the version on my bike the bottom bracket pre-load is achieved by a "special" nut that pulls the left hand crank onto the bearings. This is achieved with just a 5 or 6mm key, and then the normal 2 bolts on the crank arm pinch the arm to the shaft. This is the "nut" - just needs an allen key:

On the new design however this arrangement has been completely changed and a special tool is required. After yet more internet research it appears that (a) this tool is hard to source and (b) this tool is very expensive - it is at least £35. This is the tool here:

For reference this is from a US based EBay shop with the link here to save people time in the future: FSA-MegaExo-Crank-Bolt-Lockring-Tool and costs £25 + £15 postage

This is very steep for a tool that might be used once per year, and as I'll explain later compares very unfavourably to the Shimano equivalent which costs about £2!

I decided on this basis that I'd move from FSA and get a Shimano 105 (5700 series) model instead. So I returned the FSA chainset back to PlanetX and got a refund. Coincidentally at about the same time there was a set of drive train reduction email offers from Ribble - so I ordered the Shimano unit for only a couple of £ more. I also ordered the "special" tool at the same time.

Here's the crankset:

And here's the special tool (all £1.69 of a piece of plastic):

The proper description is "Shimano Hollow Tech II Crank Installation Tool TLFC16".

When I took the FSA chain set off I looked more carefully at the 50T chain ring. Two of the teeth were quite damaged:

 



The teeth above the "D" and the particularly the "A" are the broken/excessively worn teeth.

In this picture the wear on the 50T can be seen compared to the relatively low wear on the 34T.

In the end it took about 30 minutes to fit (with the new chain). Here's a few pictures of the Scott with the new chain set fitted: