Orny's Cycling Journal

Back in June, on my third Bicycle House shop ride, I had a flat tire. Replacing my inner tube (plus a second tube and CO2 cartridge given to me by the ride leader) required a trip to the bike shop to replenish my parts inventory. In turn, that was an opportunity to finally try some changes to my wheel setup that I’d been considering for more than a year.

One change I made was simply making use of a new-ish tool that had been sitting in a drawer for months. I’ve struggled for years with how difficult it is to mount and dismount my tires, especially in a roadside repair. And recently moving to tighter-fitting “tubeless-ready” tires and wheels made that problem significantly worse.

The Tyre Glider is a little blue plastic device that makes both removing and installing tires considerably easier, replacing traditional tire levers and bulky tire jacks. After finally pulling mine out and putting it to the test, I can say it delivers on its promise. Not only can I get stubborn tires onto the rim, but I also don’t run the risk of puncturing brand-new inner tubes while mounting them. Two greasy thumbs-up!

Another item I’d been contemplating for years was a pocket-sized battery-powered inflator, which could replace both my frame pump and CO2 cartridges. These innovative little devices have become commoditized, and I used Amazon Prime Day to pick one up at 30% off. It’s the Fanttik X10 Ace Mini, from the same brand that makes the larger inflator I use for our car. While I haven’t used the Ace Mini a ton, my early results have been very positive.

Having struggled (as I said above) with mounting my tubeless-ready Continental GP5000 tires onto my rims, I’ve wanted to try a different brand, to see if they might go on easier. I’d heard positive things about Pirelli P-Zeros, and discovered that they still offered an expressly non-tubeless clincher version, which would be an easier fit. I picked up a pair of those and have been running them ever since. They feel great, and my only complaint is that they don’t seem quite as durable as other tires I’ve used.

At the same time, I also picked up some Pirelli TPU (plastic) inner tubes that I was eager to try. They are considerably lighter than traditional butyl rubber tubes, and are more manageable than the third alternative: latex tubes. A lot of riders keep TPU tubes as spares because they’re lighter and more compact, but I’d rather run TPUs all the time and have a reliable old butyl tube as my emergency backup.

Because I swapped tires and tubes at the same time, I can’t say whether the changes in my bike’s ride-feel were due to the P-Zeros or the TPU tubes… probably a combination. On top of that, the differences were pretty subtle, and I’m not the best at discerning minuscule differences in ride feel.

In comparison to my previous tires and tubes, it’s possible the new combination of P-Zeros and TPU tubes felt lighter, rode smoother, was a little quieter, held air a little better, and had a little less rolling resistance. But any difference was slight.

But there were two huge differences that were specific to the TPU tubes.

First was price. At around $30, each TPU tube cost three times as much as a butyl tube. We’re not talking huge dollars here, but for triple the price, I expected a vastly superior product.

And then there’s durability, which is where I’ve struggled to justify running TPU tubes at all, even though I really, really wanted to switch over to them. My first TPU tube lasted just 180 kilometers: 5 rides, or 8½ hours of ride time. The second went flat just 23 km into its first ride. The third didn’t survive 3 rides, or 86 km. That’s your three strikes; yer out.

So while running TPU tubes, I had 3 flats in 290 km; in contrast, my last butyl tube had served for more than 7,800 km! At that rate, I could run butyl tubes for $10 per year, or burn through $2,900 per year on TPU tubes!

The confounding thing is that those TPU flats were all on my rear tire, while the TPU tube I installed on the front has served flawlessly for more than 2,000 km! I guess the real test will be to move that tube to the rear wheel and see how much longer it lasts…

While I might prefer TPU tubes’ ride feel, they’re just not worth the cost, especially because TPU tubes just don’t work in real-life usage. End of experiment.

Before I close, I’ll share three other noteworthy purchases which don’t have anything to do with tires.

One was a set of plastic inserts from Risk that increase the size of the hidden buttons underneath Di2 shifter brake hoods. The stock buttons are really tiny, making them hard to activate. These simple inserts provide a larger active surface area, increasing the usability of those buttons. At $8 for four, they’re cheap, easy to install, and effective: just the kinda thing I like!

I also had to replace my big chainring, which was damaged during one of my many TPU flat repairs (long story). After I ordered the part, it took just 15 minutes for the Trek store to perform a while-you-wait installation. That’s a big improvement over the treatment I got at the Specialized shop earlier this year, which kept my bike for 15 days to do a simple tune-up!

And if you bike in Texas, you need to learn how to manage the copious amount of sweat you generate. So I’m currently testing the efficacy of double-width wrist sweatbands. So far, so good, but I’m afraid of getting even stupider (sic) tan lines, so we’ll see how that goes.

I might not have blogged much lately, but from an “equipment” perspective, it’s been an eventful summer!

Aside from a couple ride reports, the last real update I posted was back in March, and a lot has happened in the intervening ten weeks.

Instead of going chronologically, I’ll organize this post along four major themes. I’ll start with some major repairs I faced, and the challenges presented by the woefully incompetent local bike shop. Then I’ll talk about a pile of new equipment I’ve purchased and tested. I’ll describe several notable rides; and that will naturally segue into a discussion of the downs and ups of my fitness level and training. Ready?

Originally, my repair situation was a whole long blogpost onto itself, so you should be thankful I’m constrained to posting a short summary now. The short version is that after an April 1 recovery ride, I discovered cracks in the rim of my rear wheel on R2 (my primary bike). On 4/6 I ordered a replacement, and began using my old bike, the Plastic Bullet (PB) while waiting for the new wheel to arrive.

But on 4/14, three days before an early-season 130-mile group ride, the PB’s rear wheel started making a horrible screeching noise when I coasted. The mechanic at my LBS said it was probably rideable, so I took a chance and rode it during the 200k. But the problem prevented me from ever coasting. Much of all that got documented in the 200k ride report which you can read here.

But my issues were far from over. Five days later, I attempted to bike out to a meditation retreat at the local zen center, only to have a spoke break on that same rear wheel. Now both of my bikes were out of commission, and would stay that way until…?

May 4, after waiting four whole weeks, I finally got R2 back with its fancy new wheel (details below). For the Plastic Bullet, it took longer. They were able to replace the broken spoke, but all they could do for the screeching freehub was to give it some lube. And that took them an unbelievable five weeks!

If I were to tell the whole story, I’d go on at length about how the shop couldn’t diagnose the freehub and even told me it couldn’t be the issue; how they said they didn’t need a deposit to order my wheel, only to call me back and demand one the next day; the numerous times they told me they’d call me back same-day, but never called at all, ever.

The topper came when I needed to register the new wheel with Mavic’s warrantee program. The bike shop didn’t know the wheel’s product number nor their own vendor number and refused to get them for me. At their insistence, I had to call Mavic myself and pretend to be a shop employee to get the info I needed! Bullshit of the highest order.

But let’s transition from their shitty service to the interesting new equipment I’ve received in the past couple months. It’s much more positive.

As mentioned, I’ve got a new rear wheel on the R2: a Mavic Ksyrium Pro Exalith. I’ve ridden Mavic Ksyriums forever and love their warrantee replacement program, but Mavic is now offering Ksyriums with a new braking surface coating called “Exalith”, which also requires special brake blocks. Visually, the brake tracks are black, rather than the standard silver of brushed aluminum, giving the wheel an all-black stealth look. The other difference is that the brake surface coating has a pebbly texture, which causes the brakes to produce a loud mechanical whine whose pitch is proportional to the bike’s speed. It’s significant enough that derpy recreational riders sometimes think I have paper or something caught in my brakes or chainstays. So far I’m really pleased with the new hoop.

Along with wheels, I’m also running new rubber. Michelin recently replaced its popular but quickly-wearing Pro4 line of tires, so I ordered a set of the new Power Endurance tires. Although I ordered standard 23mms, the vendor sent larger 25mm tires, but I decided to run them rather than sending them back because the larger size has become much more popular recently. My observations have been consistent with what people have been saying: I can run them at lower pressure (90 pounds rather than 100), which smooths out the ride on Pittsburgh’s horrible roads, without incurring much additional rolling resistance. It’s hard to compare the Powers with the old Pro4s without conflating that with the move from 23mm to 25, but I’m hopeful that the new rubber will have better longevity than the fragile old Pro4s.

During a trip to Boston I stopped by the Oakley store and picked up white ear socks and new red-orange lenses for my Half Jac sunglasses. That was mostly for style reasons, but the lenses are interesting in that they give everything a very strong blue tint.

Revisiting an older purchase, I was able to move the Hydrotac stick-on magnification bifocal lenses from my old sunglass lenses to the new ones. Those have functioned absolutely wonderfully since I picked them up last Xmas. They’re perfectly positioned to enable me to read small map details on my Garmin, while retaining normal distance vision looking up-road. Great purchase and highly recommended over expensive prescription bifocal sunglasses.

I recently took shipment of two Ass Savers (red and white, to match the bike), light little plastic wings that attach to the saddle rails and extend backward to provide a stubby little fender. They’re not big enough to prevent a roostertail in the rain, but they will keep some of it from soaking one’s backside with water and road grime. They’re great for those uncertain days with a threat of light showers, when you don’t want to break out a big, ugly clip-on fender for a mostly sunny ride.

Another cool gadget that won’t see frequent use is my new Nut-R. Basically, it replaces the nut at the end of an axle’s quick-release skewer, and provides a wheel-level mounting point for a GoPro action cam or anything that uses a GoPro-compatible mount. It’s an awesome idea, and it’ll come in handy for documenting interesting rides. While I haven’t done much with it yet, you can watch my first test video here.

Finally, I also bought a big pack of disposable latex gloves. Those are really useful when cleaning or working on the bike, which I’d formerly always done bare-handed. Dur. Sometimes the simplest little things can go un-thought-of, even for someone who has been riding as long as I have!

All those acquisitions have turned out really good, and as a result I’m pretty delighted.

But now it’s time to turn to my actual rides. If you watch my Strava page you’ll have seen these already, but if not, here’s a brief summary. Follow the links to see my comments, stats, maps, and more photos.

After a really good March, April pretty much sucked. A trip to Maine, an extended period of cold and rainy weather, and a long list of mechanical woes kept me off the bike for nearly the entire month. The only exception was the huge McConnell’s Mills 200k brevet that I somehow managed to get in. But that ride is already described in detail here.

May began with getting R2 back in working order, but still very little riding, as iffy weather continued. On May 12 I had a bit of fun, going down to the local bike track to perform my own individual hour record, which I wrote about here.

On the 18th I participated in the Ride of Silence, a casual ride in remembrance of all the cyclists who have been injured of killed on the road. Strava log.

The next day I had a bit of fun setting a new tag for the Tag-o-Rama game. Believe it or not, there’s a neighborhood south of town where Arctic Way runs parallel to Antarctic Way, with Flight Way connecting the two. My hint read: “Although there are several ways to get from the south pole to the north pole, there’s only one official way. But by thinking a mile and a half outside of the box, I didn’t have to use the airport to find the shortest flight from pole to pole.” Strava log.

The day after that I was up for a long ride, so I set off from Pittsburgh to Bagdad… Bagdad Pennsylvania, that is, on the banks of the Kiskiminetas River. Quite an adventure, having to traverse two stretches of woefully collapsed road, a mile of climbing, and heat. Strava log.

Then there were two rides in Saratoga Springs NY, while visiting Inna’s father. A 72-mile jaunt up to Summit Lake (Strava log) was followed by a damp recovery ride through the Saratoga battlefield park (Strava log). And then no riding for the last week of May, which was spent camping in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts.

That brings us up to June, which has been even better. The first highlight was a day that featured two rides, beginning with my first group ride out of the Performance Bike shop in East Liberty (Strava log). Nice, friendly group, but nothing too strenuous. Later in the day I rode 30 miles out to Sarver (Strava log) to meet up with Inna and friends at an enchanting Lantern Fest.

A few days later I also checked out my first group ride by Team Decaf, which was equally friendly and more challenging. Looks like a good group, although their evenings-only rides are pretty short. Strava log.

Then there was last weekend’s very challenging Escape to the Lake MS Ride, which was my second century of the year. That’s got its own recent writeup, which I posted earlier today here.

The final bit of catchup isn’t quite so glamorous: 50 miles into a 60-mile ride through Export PA, on the way to pick up another Tag-o-Rama game tag, I hit a grapefruit-sized stone in the road and endoed. Nothing major, but a surprising amount of road rash along the right side: elbow, back, hip, knee, ankle. I irrigated it with bottled water from the next convenience store, and rode home, but it was sufficient to warrant a quick trip to an urgent care clinic to have it dressed. Strava log.

And that brings us up to now.

The last thing to talk about is the ebb and flow of my training and fitness.

If you’ve read along this far, you can probably guess how it’s gone. At the end of March, my fitness was way ahead of schedule, but the only meaningful ride I did over the next six weeks was that 200k, so I basically atrophied. My fitness on May 9th was no better than where I’d been all the way back on March 8.

The Bagdad and Saratoga rides brought me back a bit, but they were followed by another idle week in the Berkshires. Some progress was made, but the consistency just hasn’t been there.

June has been better, with more frequent riding, some group rides, and the big MS ride. And I earned June’s Strava climbing achievement after whiffing on April and May but completing March’s.

Overall, I’ve successfully completed the March 200k and last week’s MS ride, which were my first two big target rides of the year. Now I’ve got several weeks of training time before my next big rides. The question from here forward is whether the effort from the past four weeks can be sustained for a while leading up to my next two target events: centuries in the third and fourth weeks of July.

I’ll try to keep you posted!

Follow this link for my full 2011 Pan-Mass Challenge ride report, including writeup, photos, and GPS logs.

Two items to report…

Last Saturday morning my coworker Jay drove me down to Dartmouth (Massachusetts) to take me on the ride he used to do when he lived down there. We wound up doing 62 miles in 85 degree heat.

The route traversed several peninsulae sticking out into the Atlantic. We started out tooling through South Dartmouth and waited for an open swing bridge to cross Apponagansett Bay before turning south and skirting the water down to a place known as “Cow Yard”. Back up the peninsula to cross Slocums River at Russells Mills, then down the next peninsula from Slades Corner to Horseneck Beach.

While the whole route had been hot and sunny, when you got to within 200 yards of the beach, it suddenly clouded over and the temperature dropped a good 15 degrees, as the southerly wind was blowing the seasonal sea fog onshore, and you couldn’t see more than twenty feet offshore.

Took another bridge to the next peninsula, crossing over the Rhode Island border as we went up to Adamsville, then down to Little Compton and Sakonet Point, where we took a good breather. We’d pushed ourselves a little hard, and were averaging about 16.7 mph.

Discovering it was later than we thought (my cyclocomputer was still set to Standard Time), and feeling it in our legs, we decided to take a more direct route home, back through Little Compton and Adamsville (where we hit a very run-down general store), then Westport (Massachusetts) and Dartmouth.

Overall, it was a pretty cool ride. Nice rural and coastal New England, with not very much traffic at all, and very scenic in places. Very flat, with only a few minor hills. Despite being on the coast, the breeze wasn’t too bad, and we seemed to make pretty good time until we started limping, around the 45-mile mark. A good workout, and an interesting ride. Wish I’d taken some pictures for you…

In more recent news, last Monday the bike went into the shop for the annual tune-up, but also to replace the wheelset, because of the dings I reported in this entry. After destroying two Ultegra rear wheels, I was looking for something a little more durable, and hopefully I’ve found it.

I picked up a pair of Mavic Ksyrium SL hoops. Looking around the group I ride with, just about everyone who is serious about riding has Ksyriums, whether they’re the primo SLs or the more wallet-friendly Elites. At $875/pair, they’re pretty pricey, but they also seem pretty rugged, and I added on their special warrantee program, which will hopefully cover me if I manage to destroy these wheels, as well.

I rode them 75 miles on yesterday’s Quad Cycles group ride, and I’m pretty happy with them. They’re really light, spin up really fast, and the bearings feel nice and smooth. Although I’d expected a lot more ratchet noise from the hub when coasting, it was significantly less than I’d feared. And of course with bladed spokes and anodized bits they’re pretty sexay. So I’m really pleased and looking forward to putting some more miles onto them.

After 25 days in the shop, my LBS finally called me to say my bike was ready. Shimano made me a loyal customer by agreeing to a warrantee replace for the cracked rear wheel I brought in.

When I got there, the guy in charge picked out “my wheel” and gave it to me. I asked where my bike was. He was completely surprised that the bike was in the shop, and a bit annoyed that he now had to mount the tube and tire and actually install the wheel.

Then, as he finished up the install, I mentioned that it was nice that they’d upgraded my Ultegra wheel to Dura-Ace, Shimano’s top of the line. He looked twice at it, and figured out that he’d accidentally given me, then installed, someone else’s wheel. I’d thought it was the right wheel because when he called me, he’d mentioned Shimano had provided a replacement that was an upgrade from my old wheel, but apparently he’d only meant a newer Ultegra model, not the Dura-Ace. Bone. The only thing these guys have going for them is that they’re only a few blocks from my house.

So he swapped wheels, giving me a newer Ultegra model, which seems to be a nice piece of work. No more ticking and creaking from my bike, and the only adjustment I had to make after the bike shop was done was to re-center the brake pads.

Today I took it out for a 60-mile shakedown ride with the Quad crew. The wheel is great, and even the flywheel is quiet. Let’s hope this one doesn’t shred itself out from under me like the last one.

The odd thing about today’s ride is that I was all used up after just 30 miles, and it was a hard, slow, painful slog home from there. I’ve been off the bike three weeks, but I wouldn’t expect to lose so much conditioning that fast. But this has been a pretty bad cycling year for me overall, so I guess it’s par for the course.

But at least now, after nearly a month in the shop, during which we’ve had unblemished perfect weather, I’ve got a bike I can ride again. Now I just need to put in some miles and maybe get back some of that conditioning before winter sets in again.

Lots to report.

I started commuting again. However, because I’m at a client site (located halfway between the two Sapient offices I used to work at), it’s only two miles. When I worked at SAPE, I would bike down to the Arboretum and back each way, just to get about 15 miles in each way, but I haven’t had time to do that yet because of all the other stuff going on in my life.

But I have been riding down to the Arboretum almost daily to visit Inna in the hospital, although that’s about to end when she is discharged next week.

In fact, the only other riding I’ve been able to do for the past month has been weekend Quad Cycles rides. My mileage for those four weeks has come almost exclusively from weekend rides, but it's added up to 160, 195, 82 (we’ll revisit this in the next paragraph), and 176 so far this week. So I’m getting back-to-back 75-mile rides in on the weekends, which makes me feel better about my readiness for the upcoming PMC.

Except today I was riding through Belmont and *wham* I had all kinds of shooting pains in my chest. Like sharp, severe pains. Turns out that I was stung four times by something: wasp, hornet, who knows? First time I’ve been stung since I was about eight years old. Fortunately, I don’t seem to be allergic.

Now, back to that 82-mile week, which was because I only rode one of the three days over Fourth of July weekend. Why, you ask? It’s a long story…

Five weeks earlier I had my bike tuned up and the headset replaced at Back Bay Bikes. When I got it back, the headset was loose, the brakes weren’t properly adjusted, nor were they the brand of brakes I’d requested. But none of that really was worth the hassle of going back to the shop.

Until I broke a spoke on Saturday July 2nd. Great. So I skipped Sunday July 3rd’s QC ride in order to bring the bike into the shop at noon, and while they were at it I asked them to check out the headset.

Later that day I received a call that went something like this:

• Bike shop: The bearings fell out. You need a new headset.
• Orny: Uh, that’s bullshit. You replaced the headset four weeks ago. I have no intention of paying parts or labor on this job.
• Bike shop: You’ll have to talk to the service manager. He won’t be in for the next two days. But you’ve got time. It’s going to take ten days for us to order a new headset.
• Orny: Ten days? Can’t you at least put my bike back together so that I’m not out a bike for a week and a half?
• Bike shop: Nope. The bearings fell on the floor and I can’t be arsed to find them.
• Orny: Okay. Are you going to give me a loaner?
• Bike shop: Well, we could probably cut you a deal on a rental…
• Orny: There’s no fucking way I’m paying you baboons more money because you destroyed my bike. Fuck you very much.

Tuesday I was too busy to call the shop, but on Wednesday I called and gave the briefest of explanations to the “service manager”, who said, “Hold on. I want to look at the bike. Lemme call you back in ten minutes.”

Twenty minutes later, he called to say, “Okay, your bike’s ready to pick up, no charge.” Excuse me??? So I was without any form of transportation for four days, missing two days of QC training rides, and having to find my way down to the hospital to visit Inna via MBTA and walking, all for no reason at all!

So needless to say, I am more than disenchanted with their service department. It’s doubly sad because I had an even more horrific experience at International Bike. Now come on: the *only* way a bike shop can differentiate itself from its competitors is their service department, and I’m really amazed at the pathetic service I’ve gotten from Back Bay and International. WTF?

Finally, PMC fundraising seems to be moving. I can’t say I’m knocking the ball out of the park, but good progress is being made. I need to continue to push, but I’m pleased to have made a good start on it.

Please help me out if you can: donate here.

Got my bike back after five days in the shop: rear wheel rebuild with new rim and spokes, new drive train with chain and rear cassette, new brake pads, and a major cleaning and tune-up. Hopefully this should finally cure my persistent problem with breaking spokes.

More excuses. Despite having my bike in the shop for three whole days, all the idiots at International Bike did was replace one spoke, rather than rebuild the wheel as I asked them to do. If I break spokes in the next three weeks I'm going to be pissed. Between their incompetence and being too busy to ride, I only got one solid ride in, today's ride out to Malden, down to Castle Island, out the Neponset River trail, and back via the Arboretum. I'm way behind in my training, which has to take top priority next week. But I did spend my time off chasing down sponsors, so this week my fundraising has nearly doubled, to $1455; just $545 to go! Thanks, folks! In another interesting development, I discovered today that I wasn't signed up for a room at Mass Maritime Academy for Saturday night, so I've had to book a nearby hotel room for that night; we'll see how that works out...

Is it true? The ride's only seven weeks away? Oh dear! I've gotta start fundraising!

As you can see in my cycling log, I didn't do much cycling over the past two weeks. That is, of course, because I was away in Scotland for ten days for the 2002 Dargon Writers' Summit. The trip was wonderful, but it sure put a dent in my training! And I somehow packed my multi-tool in my carry-on bag, so I had to give that up at the security check, and have since bought a replacement (sigh). However, I got back on the bike for a 25 mile ride over the weekend, and then did 50 miles out to Babson College in Wellesley, down to Canton, and back to Boston, but managed to break two spokes in the process! So that put me out of commission again for a couple days. Hopefully all that's behind me, and my spoke breakage won't continue, causing me to have to rebuild or replace the wheel...

Getting back into things, slowly. In addition to all the stuff mentioned on 5/26, this week's biking was curtailed by my trip to California for the annual DargonZine Writers' Summit. I managed to get some biking in, despite the Summit and some recurring spoke problems. Tuesday night I also had the first in a five-week series of bike repair classes at Broadway Bikes in Cambridge.