Soon, with pasties!

[ornoth_cycling]

Well, today I gave it a spin, so after four weeks with nothing but one 30-mile ride, I joined the Quad Cycles crew to test out my kneeballs.

Overall, I guess I did okay. I did 53 miles, at a mixed pace that wound up averaging 14.7 mph. My knees were ginger throughout, but I avoided putting too much torque on them, and they don’t seem to be any worse now than they were when I set out this morning.

We’ll see how they feel tomorrow. If things go well, then I’ll rest them while doing a few hill climbs during my morning commute, and then try another, lengthier ride next weekend.

But there’s not much point in training hard now, with less than three weeks until the ride. The best thing I can do now is a few hills, some really long but easy time in the saddle, and lots of rest for the kneeballs, to allow them to heal as much as possible before I grind them into a thin chalky paste.

Changing gears, as cyclists often do: it’s now been a week or so since I disassembled my helmet straps and installed a pair of Slipstreamz Spoilers, which are supposed to reduce wind noise while riding, by deflecting the airflow around your ears.

You can install them temporarily by folding your helmet straps over once, but for a permanent installation, you need to carefully re-string your helmet straps. Their site has instructions and a video to help.

I have to say that so far they work pretty well. They certainly don’t come anywhere near eliminating all wind noise, but they do cut out some of the higher-frequency noise, which is what interferes most with the ability to hear.

Aesthetically, they’re not too egregious. I wore them on the group ride today and received no negative comments. They’re certainly a lot better looking than the Nerf-darts-in-duct-tape prototype I had jury-rigged a couple weeks ago!

So all in all, they’re well worth the six bucks they cost. I bought several pairs, just in case they break easily or go unavailable, neither of which would surprise me. I’d recommend them.

Comments

[awfief.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

And you could also put some on your video camera :)

*hugs* Just checked and indeed I have the 3rd and the 6th off work.