Overhaul

Over the Xmas/NY break I upgraded my old road bike with a new groupset (all of the mechanical bits: shifters/brakes, derailleurs, crankset, cassette, chain, and cables). The old groupset was 9-speed, and the new one is 10-speed, which means I can now easily swap wheels with my race bike and my time-trial bike as all of them are now 10-speed.

I started by unscrewing, unbolting, disassembling and removing the old groupset. I had done a fair bit of bike maintenance before but I had never removed a bottom bracket (the crankshaft assembly). Once removed, I cleaned up the old groupset, and given that it was still perfectly operable I sold it on to another club member for use on a commuter bike:


Removing the old bottom bracket and installing the new one turned out to be not particularly difficult after all. The most time consuming part was figuring out which tools I needed to unscrew the old and screw in the new. Buying the tools and doing it myself turned out to be cheaper than paying a bike shop to do it for me! The new crankshaft is hollow and you can see right through it:


Setting up the derailleurs was something I already had plenty of experience with and didn't present any difficulties. However, I had never cut a chain to length before. After a bit of experimentation with the highest and lowest gears I figured out how many links the chain needed to have, and I used my chain breaker tool to remove the surplus links and install it onto the bike:


The bar wrap turned out quite nice, if I do say so myself. It's only the second time I've done it but I reckon I've learned how to do it properly. The new shifters allowed me to route the cables down the handlebars, making for a very tidy appearance:


I took it out for it's first spin today. I carried a bunch of tools with me in case I needed to make adjustments, but it turned out not to need any. Gear shifting was perfect: positive and fast, even under power. This will now be my main bike for winter & wet-weather training, as if I'm going to slide & crash I'd rather do so with an aluminium frame than with the carbon frame of my race bike

Dover

I finally caved in and bought a bicycle GPS, a Garmin Edge 705. In retrospect I should have bought one earlier in the summer, as it really does takes all the hassle out of navigation. I will now be able to go on many interesting cross-country jaunts that I had put off due to the hassle of preparing navigation notes.

I broke it in on a ride down to Dover. I set it to keep me off major roads, and it took me on very quiet back-country lanes, and sometimes I didn't see a car for half an hour. The downside of staying off the main roads was that it was very very hilly. The 110 km route had more vertical elevation gain than some 100-mile rides I have done. Ouch.

New bike! (yes another one)

But haven't I just bought a new bike, you ask? Yes, but that was a road bike (and it's lovely). This one is a completely different type of beast - a Time Trial machine. It's made for one thing only, going very fast in a straight line. It's not good up steep or long hills, or around twisty bits, but over a flat or gently undulating course no road bike can come close.

It's a Planet X Stealth Pro Carbon. It's the same frame Cadel Evans rode in the final 2007 Tour de France Time Trial to a podium finish.

Everything about it is designed for maximum aerodynamic efficiency. The tubes of the frame are aerofoil shaped, and so are the seat post, handlebars and forks. The riding position puts me completely flat, presenting as small as possible a profile to the wind.

The wheels are deep section, that is they have an extended rim that helps reduce drag from the spokes. Additionally, the rear wheel is faired into the frame to further minimise drag.

Next likely purchase: a pointy helmet!

New Bike!

New bike! It's a Focus Cayo Pro. I had been planning to buy a new bike for the upcoming cyclosportive season and this one fit my requirements nicely.

It has a full carbon monocoque frame (that means it's made from one continuous piece of carbon fibre, as opposed to individual carbon tubes glued together). It has a "compact" 50/34 chainset, which is well suited to long steep alpine ascents like the ones I will take on in Europe this year. My existing bike's 53/39 chainset would be too highly geared for such terrain. Besides, I had ridden nearly 14,000km on my existing bike, and felt that I had earned an upgrade :-)

At 7.7kg it weights 1.8kg less than my existing bike, so climbing should be a little bit easier. It's lower at the handlebars too, meaning I will be able to get a completely horizontal flat back when riding on the drops. This will give me better aerodynamics, and therefore more speed into the wind.

Now I have to wait four long days until the weekend...

Photos (the "before" shots):

Capital to Coast (London to Brighton charity ride)

This was a charity ride from Esher (just SW of central London) to Hove. Having completed the 120 mile British Cyclosportive a couple of weekends ago this 60 mile ride was not daunting, but the organisers did manage to put in several quite nasty hills along the way. I didn't personally witness anyone spontaneously combust as was reported to have happened at last year's event, but I did see plenty of people struggling, wobbling, zig-zagging, or walking up the steeper sections.

I rode most of the day with Jason and Pete. Both had completed the half-distance option of last year's event. At the time they both found even 30 miles quite challenging, and were reportedly so far gone towards the end that they were hallucinating about a malevolent monkey stalking them through the trees...

This year, Pete had trained for and ridden the British Cyclosportive with me 2 weeks ago, and was flying along with a grin on his face, enjoying how much fitter he was compared with last year. Jason however had trained by going on a week long cyclo-drinking tour in Amsterdam, topped off by 12 pints of beer the night before the event, and was paying the penalty. That said, Jason still made it to the end in good spirits.

The last major hill had a nasty-sounding name: "Devil's Dyke", and had been built up in Pete & Jason's tales to be a near vertical cliff of cruel tarmac with the dessicated husks of ex-cyclists decorating the sides of the road. To give it its due, it was definitely a steep one, but it was actually over quite quickly. I enjoyed the downhill run into Hove, and drafted off a double-decker bus much of the way like a dolphin riding the wake of a ship.

We were greeted by a cheering crowd at Hove, and I realised that although 60 miles is not a long ride for me anymore, it would have been most of the riders' hardest day in the saddle ever. Congrats to all who made it.

Photos (none of me though...):

Pete, Jason, Pete + Jason, etc.:



















At the finish area:

Smithfield Nocturne - Criterium Race

As part of the Tour de France buildup there was a crit race organised around the area between Barbican and Farringdon tube stations. They ran several fun/silly races throughout the evening before the main event kicked off.

Things started off with a courier challenge. The riders had to stop at places around the course and deliver things, collect signatures etc. It didn't really work as a race, but it kept the crowd occupied:











The next race was the folding bike race. Contestants had to wear work clothing, and they had to start with their bikes folded up. This was a fast and furious race. Very funny!











Then the main event got underway, with the elite racers coming out for a few warm-up laps before the start proper:










The race itself was extremely fast-paced. There was a solo breakaway almost immediately, and the guy stayed out front for most of the race but was eventually reeled in a few minutes before the finish:



















Despite the very wet road there was only one crash that I saw. Fortunately the guy got up and walked away, so he can't have been too hurt.

Training - Portsmouth to Brighton

Three of us roadies (Rob, Pete, and I) have signed up to do the British Cyclosportive on July the 1st. It's a 200km (120 mile) meandering route from London to Canterbury, and will be a rather long day in the saddle for all of us (see: http://www.everydaycycling.com/news.aspx?fid=657). Until the end of June we'll be doing ever longer and faster rides to build endurance and power in our legs. All going well we should cover the 200km in about 7 hours on race day...

Pete and I met at Waterloo station at 7:45 in the morning with the intention of catching a train to Basingstoke and then cycling down to see Stonehenge. Unfortunately for us, part of the rail line was being repaired and they were operating a replacement bus service for that section. Buses and bikes don't go together, so we had to change our plans.

Pete came up with an alternative plan: 60 miles from Portsmouth to Brighton. We caught a train down to Portsmouth, got on the bikes, and headed out.

It turned out to be a very nice day for cycling. The route was mostly flat & smooth, but we did have a headwind most of the way.

Pics:

Cycling in Riccione, Italy

Best cycling weekend yet. Four of us (Jason, Rob, Pete, and myself) set up in Hotel Sarti Riccione (http://www.hotelsarti.com/en/vacanza_family.php), which is part of the Riccione Bike Hotels network (http://www.riccionebikehotels.it/en/index.jsp) that stretches up and down the coast. December is very much their quiet period so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. The staff put on a splendid spread for us each mealtime and looked after us very well. We flew in on Friday the 1st, flew out on the 4th, and had two days of hardcore road cycling in between.

We received our hire bikes on Friday night and we immediately took them out for a half hour spin around the local streets. They were very nice full carbon Wilier Thor road racing bikes, set up with Shimano 105 9-speed mechs and a 50/34 compact crankset. Just right for climbing big hills. That night in the bar we were introduced to our cycle guide for the next two days. He was a sprightly chap by the name of Cleto, in his early 60s but with a physiology obviously perfectly adapted to handing out punishment on a bike. He didn't speak much English, but that was probably fair because we didn't speak much Italian (my favourite phrase: "non parlo Italiano"). We managed to communicate well enough through Rob's English/Italian language guide and a lot of hand gestures.

On Saturday we headed out about 10:00am, as soon as the fog (or nebbia as the locals call it) lifted enough. Cleto set a moderate pace for the first 45 minutes to allow us to all warm up properly. We climbed up and down a few rolling hills and then arrived at the coast, where we stopped for a quick snack and to take a few pics:
In the first photo that's Jason on the left, then Cleto, myself, and Rob, with Pete behind the lens. You can just make out the helmet cam I'm wearing.

The second photo is looking back along the coast to where we had come from that morning.


The bikes were perfectly geared for the terrain; I never felt like I wanted a higher or lower gear than the bike could provide. On we went across the green hills and switchbacks.

We stopped at a cafe for a cup of espresso and a bite to eat. In the photo that's Pete on the right with the bad helmet hair.



The Italian countryside was very quiet and picturesque. It reminded me a lot of New Zealand, 'cept the few cars that we encountered on the road were not trying to kill us.

We finally returned to the hotel in the late afternoon, having covered about 108km. We had a big feed of pasta and squills (a local crayfish variant). followed by a decent night's sleep.

On Sunday we headed to San Marino. This was a highly enjoyable day trip that started from below the fog, climbed far above it, and then headed back down through it in a high-speed descent. We were climbing for the first two hours of the trip.

The grades were not particularly steep, so it was quite enjoyable just watching the countryside silently slip by. There was very little traffic. Towards the end of the second hour we climbed over a ridge and got our first look at the castle at the top of the hill we were to climb.


The final climb to the top of San Marino was fantastic. The final few hundred meters was on a pedestrian-and-cycles-only path made of cobblestones, at a gradient of around 25%. This is steep enough that you have to pull up hard on the bars to make forward progress. Cleto whistled the pedestrians out of the way during the ascent, and they obediently parted to let us through. After a minute or so of heroic grinding we made it to the top, where we stopped to enjoy the view and have a well earned rest:











When we set off again it was downhill, bigtime. The descent was 15 minutes of high speed straights, hairpins and sweepers that chilled me enough that I was really looking forward to climbing another hill. We all set max speeds of 60+ during the descent. Very enjoyable.

After that we made our way back to the hotel. Along the way we met a friendly small dog that ran alongside us for 10 minutes or so. It seemed to be quite familiar with groups of cyclists, and may have been on the scrounge for a handout. We were all tired but happy when we made it back to the hotel, just before dark.

Cycling in Italy? Highly recommended. We'll be back for sure. (helmet cam footage to follow)