Cycling uphill

Aero coach arc chainring

June 29, 2016 by tejvan

On Sunday, I used a new single chain ring. The Aerocoach Arc single chainring.

I explained in ‘converting to single chainring‘ the advantages of removing front derailleur, and inner chainring. For most time trials you only need one chainring, and it looks smoother.

This is specifically used for single ring use and the teeth are longer than normal to prevent chain slip. I don’t know if it is possible to slip the chain, but from my experience this year, I’ve had more chain slips using front derailleur and 39/56 chainring combination than with just single chainring without any front derailleur.

The shape of the Aerocoach Arc single chainring is not completely round, but is designed to provide more power at the start of the stroke when you need it most, before gradually decreasing down to a minimum gearing at bottom dead centre. See Aerocoach Arc for full explanation. Aerocoach claim “The unique time trial specific design will help increase power output by 3-5w, and allow a smoother pedal stroke than normal.”

National 12 hour time trial – 2016

June 28, 2016June 27, 2016 by tejvan

Yesterday was the National 12 hour TT championship in South Wales, promoted by South Wales District. A 12 hour is a bit different to your average time trial, requiring quite a big set up and 10 timekeepers to get the finish distance. I’ve been thinking of doing a 12 hour time trial, for about 25 years since I first read Cycling Weekly, which in those days, still gave big coverage to BBAR tables and all the seemingly amazing distances people did for 12 hours. But, despite 25 years of good intentions it’s very easy to think of a reason not to do a 12 hour – not least peaking for the national hill climb. But, this year, with Nat HC on bank road, I thought if I don’t do it this year I never will.

I think the Welsh 12 hour course is very good. It is fairly fast, but still a bit of up and down and minor roads to make it interesting. I did 1,630 m of elevation during the 283 miles. In the morning, you do a 90 mile loop including a long lumpy trek to Hereford. Then there is a main 25 mile circuit around the A40 with some dual carriageway and some minor roads.

The lead up to the race was a little curious, with the country been thrown into a self-imposed chaos. I have spent more time watching the news in the past two days than I have in the past two decades; in this climate, a cycle race seemed of little importance. But, if you’re depressed from politics, a 12 hour time trial is a very good way to clear the mind of all the frustration. A little extreme maybe, but it was good to get away from it all.

Preparing for long distance ride

June 23, 2016 by tejvan

For a long ride of 3-4 hours +, it is worth making some preparations and calcuations about how much energy to try and take on.

Carbo-loading

For anything of 100 mile plus, I will eat more carbs in the day or two before. For example, if I go out for a 1-2 hour ‘warm-up ride’ Normally I wouldn’t take any energy drink or food. But, in this case I would take a 750ml energy drink, to take on more carbs than usual.
I haven’t researched carbo-loading enough, but you have to be careful not to place undo stress on stomach by eating much more than usual.
It is also important to be well hydrated the day before and for the morning of the race.

Carbohydrate consumption

The first issue is what is the maximum amount of carbohydrate that the body can absorb per hour?
The most common figure I have seen is 60 grams of carbohydrate.
However, recently, energy drinks manufacturers have cited research that if you take a mixture of maltodextrin and fructose, you can take up to 80-90 grams. Increasingly energy drinks have maltodextrin and fructose in the ratio of 2:1. But, high quantities of fructose can be problematic for the stomach, you would have to test on yourself to see your tolerance.

Garmin Mount for TT bike

November 1, 2016June 21, 2016 by tejvan

When I use a water bottle on the aerobars, I can’t use the standard Garmin mount, so looked for alternatives which can be fixed to the bike.

K-Edge TT mount

garmin-mount-2

The K Edge TT model has a locking mechanism underneath. This is suitable for awkward positions – you don’t have to twist the Garmin, put you can twist a locking mechanism underneath the Garmin mount instead so it can work in tight areas with little room for manoeuvre. This was good for placing the Garmin between the tribar extensions. It is quite adjustable.

ECCA 100 – 2016

June 20, 2016June 19, 2016 by tejvan

Today was the ECCA 100. I have won the event in the past two years, and this year promised to be faster times because the course had been moved to all dual-carriageway on the A11 and A14 south of Cambridge. I was looking forward to the event because in recent weeks I’ve had good form, set some pbs, made some significant aero improvements and the weather forecast looked very good with low air pressure and low wind.

In fact, I tried to add up all the potential time savings in the past 12 months – watts of drag saving, faster course, better form, low air pressure, new special waxed from watt shop. On the back of an envelope, I calculated all these factors, using the formula of ’20 seconds gain per 40km per watt of drag reduction’ and I came up with a time of 3.14. Marvellous! perhaps I should have just stayed at home and stayed with my virtual time. It’s wonderful what you can learn from the internet and a bit of ‘positive thinking’. If only riding a 100 mile time trials were as easy as writing a ‘back of a fag packet’ calculation.

Converting to a single chainring

June 13, 2016 by tejvan

For both hill climbs and timetrials I have been tempted to run a single chainring in the pursuit of a few marginal gains. From an aesthetic point of view it also looks good. The only downside is a potential risk of chain unshipping and undoing any marginal gain you may have benefited from. Therefore, it is not just about taking everything off; you need a sufficiently good mechanism to stop the chain unshipping. Also, the loss of gears are a problem for some courses and training.

Single chainring

The important thing for running a single chainring, is to make sure you get a chainring designed for single chainring use. A specific chainring will:

Lack ramps and pins (which help with shifting).
Also its teeth are taller its geared counterparts, which aids in chain retention.
Narrow-wide chainrings have alternating widths between teeth to help with chain retention.

Even, if get a specific single chainring, you might still want to consider a chain guard (e.g. front derailleur / chain catcher) to be 100% sure against chain slip. Though opinion is mixed. If you have a special single ring use chainring – some will say you don’t need a chain-catcher, others will say ‘better safe than sorry’.

Redmon CC – 25 mile time trial

June 13, 2016June 11, 2016 by tejvan

In recent years, I haven’t done many 25 mile time trials. But, this was the second of the season. The previous one was Newbury RC H25/1 (51.54)

Like last week, conditions were very good. Warm – 21 degrees, very low wind and low air pressure; it would have been hard to have better weather conditions. I have been training quite a lot in past two weeks with National 12 hour TT and National 100 in mind. Two century rides in the past 8 days. Although a lot of miles, I haven’t been doing any hill intervals for quite a few weeks.

Last week, 15 mins pre race, I was scrambling around in the car for an allen key and had to dig one out of a saddle bag, right at the bottom. So I went to local bike shop and bought a set of allen keys – specifically to live in my car boot. It was a great idea, though I managed to leave this set of allen keys at home and I didn’t have any allen keys to hard. I warm up on training wheels, then with 20 mins to go, put on racing wheels. The problem is that the Zipp 808 are much wider than any other wheels, so the brakes were rubbing. I looked for a fellow competitor who might help. Number 71, my minute man was making a last minute change to his shoe cleats (so it wasn’t just me), but he still found time to dig out a small multi-tool and I was able to undo the brakes and was free to ride.

If all else fails – read the manual

February 18, 2017June 8, 2016 by tejvan

Many consumer goods these days are designed to work straight from the box. It can make us reluctant to read manuals, assuming we can work it out on the fly. This is often a good quick approach, but not always the case with bike maintenance, where small errors can have big effects.

Quark Power meter reading calibration error

At the weekend, my Quark Elsa started giving exaggerated power meter readings. I’ve had for two years, and although it has died twice (and Quark sent replacement). It has been pretty consistent in power meter reading, which is main thing for a power meter. So higher power and calibration errors was disconcerting.

I realised it may have been affected by switch from double chainring to single chainring set up. I looked up Quark Power meter calibration and found advice that after change of chain rings, you may need to recalibrate 4-5 times.

This proved correct, after 4 attempts at calibration, it finally calibrated correctly. It was tempting to give up after two or three attempts, but reading manual encouraged me to try and again. Simple solution.

100 Climbs Yorkshire

June 7, 2016June 7, 2016 by tejvan

A review of Simon Warren’s Cycling Climbs of Yorkshire. The book features 75 climbs from all corners of Yorkshire from the East Riding to the Yorkshire Dales and south Yorkshire climbs.

I was brought up in Yorkshire, learning to cycle amidst the dales and hills. Climbs like Park Rash and Fleet Moss were enough to create a little fear and trepidation in the average club cyclist. It was only on rare summer days, we would go ‘over the top’ to Hawes and leave the comfort of the lower Wharfedale slopes.

These days I’m fortunate to often go back to Yorkshire and I often end up searching some new hill climb challenge. There is a great variety in Yorkshire, from the big hills of the Yorkshire Dales, to the ridiculously steep 30% gradients of the North York Moors and also the short cobbled climbs of Halifax and Calderdale. It was only in recent years, I started to learn the joy of climbs around West and south Yorkshire – built up areas, but still some great hills and good for cycling.

The 75 climbs offer a broad overview of the Yorkshire climbs. Of course, you could easily find another 25 or 50 climbs to add to this selection, but it is still a lot to be getting on with.

Keeping track of position on bike

June 6, 2016 by tejvan

When I went for Aero Testing on Friday, Xavier said, make sure you keep measurements of your new set up.

Fortunately, I took his advice seriously and did actually do it. Two days later, my aerobars fell apart and, without those measurements, I’d be back to square one.

One way is to take photos with a ruler by the side. Always worth writing down on paper too.

Even if you are not a racer, but just someone who enjoys riding a bike – it is still worth doing for things like saddle height, fore-aft saddle. If you get a new bike, knowing past measurements is important for keeping continuity between bikes. Big changes in position can cause discomfort, loss of power, even injury.

It’s not the most glamorous job, but important to do.

If you’re a time triallist and looking to eke out marginal gains, it is even more important. Small changes of a few cm, can have big impact on drag factors.

These are my measurements, which will be of no particular interest to anyone, but if I post to my cycling blog, it makes it easier for me to find. And I’m going to use as I put my aerobars back together.