Tag Archives: equipment

2014-02-12 Test Ride Backup Bike

Posted by xaminmo

Testing out the Nashbar CX with the drops, travel savers, and squeaky BB.

Need a proper BB tool, as mine likes to slip off. Also, my torque wrench for over 120 inch pounds doesn’t click.

Also need to put a proper seat on this. The big, cushy seat is too slippery. More for jeans. Need something for actual cycling. Probably one of the crummy ones I have, plus a tight fitting gel cover.

Also, the current gearing is WAY too easy on it. I have an 11-32 (34?) on the rear, and a compact double on the front with 39/50. I have a 52 and a 53 chainring for the outer position on this.

Alternatively, moving to a single 44 was a possible plan.

Need to figure out why my HR, cadence, and speed sensors on the backup bike didn’t show up.

Distance: 0.63 mi
Calories: 55 C

Time: 4:27
Moving Time: 4:24
Elapsed Time: 8:13

Avg Speed: 8.5 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 8.6 mph
Max Speed: 18.9 mph

Min Elevation: 573 ft
Max Elevation: 595 ft

Avg Temperature: 45.5 °F
Min Temperature: 42.6 °F
Max Temperature: 48.2 °F

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/444486120
http://www.strava.com/activities/112950145
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/483048033
http://runkeeper.com/user/xaminmo/activity/304200830


UPS delivered my replacement CX frame

Posted by xaminmo

UPDATE 1: If you replace the frame on a bike, is that a replacement, or a new bike?

When I re-tapped the threads on my Genesis’ bottom bracket, they tore out after 1.5 miles of riding. After a lot of research and patience, a new frame from Nashbar was my best option. Their “CX” frame had the cantilever posts I wanted, so this box from UPS is it.

Upon inspection, the maker is Kinesis, the same as my road bike (Windsor brand, Fens model). The geometry is almost identical. The difference is disc mounts, canti mounts, and black paint. The geometry is almost the same as my Genesis too – same top tube, shorter head and seat tubes by an inch, same chainstays.

It took 5.5 hours to ream, face, and install headset, transfer all of the parts including forks, then adjust everything. The head tube was already reamed, so very little was removed, other than paint on the top side. I installed the cups with wood blocks and a brass hammer. My thick head didn’t really realize I should have just used the reamer handles to screw against wood blocks for a compression fit. Whatever. It all fits and is flush.

I forgot my right shifter needs to be reassembled, so I still can’t get into 1st gear, but that’s okay. I swapped back to the 40 degree stem, but it’s still not quite right. Maybe the bottom race isn’t smacked down enough. I’ll have to re-mount this to take up some slack in the upper bearings.

I forgot that the frame doesn’t have a kickstand mount, so now I have 2 bikes that fall over. I have some wood under the porch I can probably make a rack out of, but there’s no real room to hang these and still fit the car in the garage.

OH, I just found that the old bike frame makes a really nice bike stand.

UPDATE 2: Here’s the rebuild. It’s a Nashbar CX 60cm frame (21″ top tube, 24″ seat tube, 700x35c spacing, canti and disc mounts (I have Deore 550 canti brakes). Drivetrain is XT 752 rear der, FSA Vero compact double (about tiagra level, with square taper). Levers are all metal, but shifters are SRAM MRX grips (whole cassette at once!).

Fork is Fuji FC770 (carbon forks with aluminum steerer) with an FSA Big Pig headset. Bars are Orbea Cat III carbon with an Avenir 40 degree 120mm stem (lighter and more rise than the matching Orbea stem). Seat is a Cloud 9 from sunight. it’s heavy, dorky, and great for really long rides.

I need to re-weigh it, but I think it’s about 30 pounds with the 5-pound tool bag (spare tube, lots of tools, spare chain, etc). I’m 265LBS, so I don’t really care about the weight. In all of my testing, performance really is mostly the parts, geometry, posture, and my own stamina.

UPDATE 3: New build is 30.4 pounds with tools, spares, etc but not bottles.
Totally frankenbike, but my only complaint right now is that I need to rebuild or replace the right shifter, and figure out a stand for it (no kickstand). It’s a great CX-Hybrid (CX for mountain parts, wider tires, and cantilever brakes on a road frame, and hybrid for flat bars on a road frame).

http://omnitech.net/xaminmo/2013/11/15/upd-delivered-my-replacement-cx-frame/


2013-09-16 CCC IBC NoDrop (a)

Posted by xaminmo

We started with the CCC president as ride leader. At the freeway, the front group split off and took the hill if doom, I think on Northgate westbound from Rochelle.

The pseudo leader (from slot 2-right) is one of the faster riders who often goes with the intermediates. I haven’t picked up her name yet, but she had been testing out her aerobars from the back until she realized the front group didn’t know where to go. :)

At another light, I ended up in front and launched… Oops. it was fun for me, but I got to the stop sign on the other side of the bridge and I think everyone was in WTF mode.

The last part of the ride was a hard push for the end. There were 3 in front of me, and 3 behind. In the final push, there is a 2″ gap about 50-100 feet long on Kinwest between Royal and Regent, eastbound, between the left 2 lanes. One of the front guys changed lanes into the gap, wedged, and planted. He was okay, but his front rim is out of true now.

I need to call Irving about that, and about the large array of cracks along Lake Carolyn between O’Connor and California Crossing.

Also, after adding the HR sensor, and swapping the crank magnet for my cadence sensor, my Edge 500 would pause and unpause throughout the ride. I ultimately had to turn off autopause because of this. I need to look further into that as well.

Lastly, I see a baro drift in this ride (high pressure system coming in). I need to dig up survey info and set some GPS waypoints along this route to help keep things accurate. I went ahead and updated the Garmin Connect ride with their survey information.

UPDATE
The auto-pause is a known issue. Need to tinker with the speed sensor arm and spoke magnet alignment. I let it auto-calculate the wheel diameter, which I probably should replace with a manual rollout, considering the spoke magnet was flaky.

Cadence spike is known issue, but probably is just the left heel back still. I replaced the cadence sensor magnet with a 1/2 x 1/4 round N48 (vs N35) magnet stuck to the pedal axle. This is great, and I actually had to move the sensor so this magnet didn’t trigger the speed sensor.

The more powerful magnet helps, because the reed switch stays activated through most of my parked feet, rather than re-triggering a bunch of times. Not perfect, but better. Also, it doesn’t move around, nor rely on a zip-strip.

UPDATE 2
The cadence spike is a calculation defect in the FIT file conversion. The Fit File Repair Tool allows viewing CSV dump, and picking the proper max cadence, then editing the final “max cadence” to be accurate. Seems kludgey though.

Stats
Distance: 23.25 mi
Calories: 1,414 C

Time: 1:45:16
Moving Time: 1:36:36
Elapsed Time: 2:16:11

Avg Speed: 13.3 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 14.4 mph
Max Speed: 33.5 mph

Elevation Gain: 927 ft
Elevation Loss: 927 ft
Min Elevation: 411 ft
Max Elevation: 577 ft

Avg HR: 138 bpm
Max HR: 181 bpm

Avg Power: 135 W
Max Power: 1,192 W
Max Avg Power (20 min): 160 W

Avg Bike Cadence: 74 rpm
Max Bike Cadence: 150 rpm

Avg Temperature: 96.5 °F
Min Temperature: 93.2 °F
Max Temperature: 100.4 °F

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/376974390
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/376981459
http://app.strava.com/activities/82953631
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/385657433
http://runkeeper.com/user/xaminmo/activity/243038810
http://omnitech.net/xaminmo/2013/09/16/1559/


2013-08-21 Austin Evening Ride

Posted by xaminmo

Missing about a mile or so on the front due to slow GPS acquisition (What? We’re not in North TX anymore?) This was basically a social ride with me, Steve Noreyko, and David Gilder. The few break aways, I had no problem catching up or keeping up, except for inclines. :)

The new config of my bike worked out much better than I thought. The 175mm cranks are nice, but the biggest thing I noticed was the setback seatpost. Pedal angle and CG were drastically improved. I might want to move forward just a smidge, because I popped a wheelie starting out at a light. Also, tip it up a bit, since I slid off the front braking hard. The stumpy handlebars are nicer than I thought, and the longer stem with a 40 degree rise balanced out with how flat the stash bar is. Also, my Garmin can only mount on my stem, which is too steep to read.

Anyway, most of the ride was casual, but a few hills, especially at the end turned it into a little bit of a work-out. After, we hung out and talked until just after 21:30, then Gilder and I went to grab a vegan burger and hung out until close to 1am. All in all, it was a good time.

Distance: 16.75 mi
Calories: 1,199 C

Time: 1:36:49
Moving Time: 1:26:54
Elapsed Time: 1:28:52

Avg Speed: 10.4 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 10.7 mph
Max Speed: 23.8 mph

Elevation Gain: 794 ft
Elevation Loss: 889 ft
Min Elevation: 406 ft
Max Elevation: 634 ft

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/363175920
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/362743759
http://app.strava.com/activities/76659099
http://runkeeper.com/user/xaminmo/activity/229547021