Bicycles
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thought you were a fixed gear purist Jii?
great looking bike, something about all black everything . . .
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The stable is now 2/3 geared
Love fixed gears and still have one but touring or long (+100 km) rides on a fixed gear is definitely not the best experience, been there done that etc. Doing a ~720 km trip in may over five days and gotten quite interested in randonneuring/brevets too so yeah gears -
Great hobby & I couldn't imagine long hauls on a single speed bike. Great hobby
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What is the 720k trip you are planning Jii? Nice new build as well by the way. I'm going with the ztr cx hoops for my new build which is for similar purpose, they could fit your needs well if yore not looking to drop big bucks.
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I'm going for the ZTR Alpha 340:s since I need the rims to manage 28c road tyre pressures. Got Novatec 411/412 hubs so should build up to about 1,5-1,6 kg for the wheelset without being crazy expensive. Will probably try road tubeless too. I'll keep the current wheelset for crappy condition riding.
The 720k ride is just a ride we've been planning with some friends, nothing official. Probably gonna do the shortest brevet (200 km) before that, probably around easter.
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sounds like itll be a great wheelset and ride, cant wait for the snow to melt here so i can get back in the saddle
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got new shoes last week….hopefully they will fix my hot feet problem.
My goal this year is 2000 miles on the road bike. I'm a chubby dude already, but I'm pushing through that 260 pound ceiling right now and I'm not too thrilled.
2000 miles. And I start today.
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Good for you. Enjoy the ride. What shoes did you get?
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having an annoying time finding a 15mm allen key during the weekend to replace the freehub body on the new shimano 788 xt hub. so nice of shimano to change the size from a fairly accessible 14, to a much harder to find (without buying theirs for 50 bucks) key.
i think ill still hold off before trying this method
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I got a pair of Mavic Avenir's on good sale at the LBS.
Still got hot feet on my first ride, but I think I'm gonna switch back to cleats with some float. If that doesn't work….I don't even know.
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Have you tried Speedplays?
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If you don't need to come in and out of the pedals often and want lots of movement I'd highly recommend time pedals, just to add another name to the pile. I'm back on shimanos now as I need something really quick to get in and out of, but I loved the movement and feel of time's cleats.
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i got some yellow shimano spd-sl cleats (the ones with float) and my hot feet went away….but my achilles tendonitis flared up. bugger.
So I switched back to the 0 float cleats today (I've gotten used to them anyway, the cleats with float felt really loose) and did a 10 mile ride. Last night I went and bought some insoles with a metatarsal button, which is supposed to help alleviate hot foot issues.
The 10 mile journey wasn't too bad. I'm gonna see what happens next week.
Week 1 ride report: 35 miles. Not bad, considering the issues I dealt with. Hopefully next week will have more miles and less pain!
(by the by...the Brooks Team Pro I already have 600 miles on still feels stiff as a board. Crazy.)
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Did my first 200 km Brevet at the end of April and it went really well, we had exceptionally nice weather. All in all I did 248 kms in one day since the start and end of the ride was quite far from where I live. Probably could do a B300 without problems but the longer ones would be much harder. Did the 200 in just over 8 hours including breaks so way faster than I had planned. Physically I'm good for the longer rides, but I'm having problems with the mental side. My morale and spirit seems to dip after about four hours in the saddle, and even though short breaks and something nice to snack on brings it back up for a while it starts to dip again. The longer I go on the more frequent the dips. Gonna have to read up on that if I'm going to pursue longer rides and see what I can do about it.
The good thing with us not having a proper winter this year is that I've been riding enough to make ~100 km rides feel like leisurely quick rides. Been hitting the trails on my mountain bike frequently too and after next week's trip I'll probably focus on that for a while
This coming Monday me and five friends are spending a week on the road, we'll be doing ~750 km in 5 days. It's been really cold the last week with occasional snowfall but it looks like it's getting warmer again. Here's me doing a shakedown/test ride last friday (+80 km) with almost all of the stuff needed for the trip (I was lucky, I had packed my shell jacket and my rainlegs which I don't normally carry with me). It got really cold at the end..
Bike weighs about 11 kg including fenders and rack and the stuff plus pannier bags around seven. Really hard to pack when the temps can be anything between -1 and +14 degrees centigrade. And I need "civilian" stuff too because we're spending the weekend after partying
Got new wheels too, since I had to get them for this coming trip and the importer didn't get the Notubes Alphas in time I opted for the trusty Mavic Open Pro CD:s. After 500 km:s with them I'm really happy I did, they're just super solid and reliable.
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that looks cold
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Jii, if you check out mike Hall's youtube page he has video diaries of him discussing his experiences on the tour divide and the world cycling race. There are a ton of them, so it might take awhile to audit through them but he touches on his daily struggles physically and mentally, along with gear he uses etc.. He is really inspirational and I personally feel that he will be remembered as one of the all time greatest cyclists by the people who actually hear about him.
Congrats on accomplishing the 200k and I hope you have a great time on your upcoming trip
