Yesterday, I was riding around the Buffalo Marathon course to cheer on some friends that were running in it. I stopped at the 7.5/11 mile point. After they had all passed, I got back onto my bike to ride ahead, and found I had a flat tire! Ouch! I moved my bike back to the side of the road, and changed the tube. I had 1 spare tube, and 1 CO2 cartridge, and a little tire filler thing that I have never used. I also had a small bike tool kit. I managed to change the tube in under 10 minutes. Before installing the new tube, I ran my fingers around the inside of the tire, but didn’t feeling anything sticking through it. The spare tube had a short valves stem instead of the longer valve stem, but it worked. I threw the old tube into my back pocket. I debated about throwing the old tube away, but I decided I could patch it and at least find out where the puncture was. Whether it was from a spoke, or a pinch or what.
When I got from the race yesterday I bought some new tubes with the longer stems, and CO2 cartridges. I will carry 2 tubes and 2 CO2 cartridges with me on the century next weekend. Hopefully that will be more than enough. I haven’t have a flat in many many years.
Last night I added air to the tube that flatted, but it seemed to be holding air. Maybe it was just a loose valve, and it leaked. But this morning I found it was softer. I added more air, and stuck it in a bucket of water. I found the hole on the outside. I patched the tube using the patch kit in my tiny Park tool kit that I carry with me.
The new tube seems to be doing fine. I am going to swap it out since it has a short valve stem, and my new bike with aero rims uses the long valve stems. I had the short valve stem tubes for my Trek with the non-aero rims.
*GRUMBLE!!!*
I was going to swap the tube out, and found the tire was soft. I pulled the tube out, and found the tube had a small hole in it, again on the outside. About the same place as the other one, about 3-4 inches from the valve stem. It’s like there is something sticking in the tire in one spot. But I had taken the tire off, and hadn’t marked where the valve stuff had been in relation to it. I have looked closely inside/outside the tire, and don’t see anything. I don’t feel anything at all. Ack!
Maybe I will throw a couple Specialized Armadillos on it. I had one brand new Armadillo out in the garage. So I pulled the Hutchison Quartz off, and installed the Specialized Armadillo. The Armadillo is slightly heavier (a few ounces). I remounted the wheel then went to wash my hands. I felt a small stab in the palm of my hand. I found a small metal sliver. Not sure if this is what causing my problems or what. I will probably go buy another Armadillo. I have never had a flat with kevlar lined tires. So yeah, they are slightly heavier, but if I don’t have to change flats!!!
Ack! I just read a review on how slow the Armadillos are. That people use em for training but not for races. Maybe I will stick the other tire back on, and hope that little sliver was the issue. If it goes flat this week, I can always put the armadillo on for my Century. But I can always keep track of where the hole in the tube is in relation to the tire. So that if there is something in the tire, I can locate it.
Ack! I guess better now than in the middle of a 100 mile ride!
I pulled the Specialized Armadillo off and re-mounted the Hutchison Quartz. Then I realized I mounted the Hutchison Quartz in the wrong direction. So I pulled it off, turned it around, and reinstalled it. At least I am getting lots of practice changing the tubes and tires. It may help during a bike race. I hope that little metal sliver I found was what was causing my flats! I will take the bike out for a ride later and see if I get another flat. If I get a flat, I will try to find the position on the tire where the puncture is occuring.
Such fun!
I have been using a Cycleops Wind trainer for the last couple years. I got a great deal on it. Free! I had been thinking of buying a mag trainer or a fluid trainer at the time, and then one day while driving to working, someone had stuck a wind trainer out on the curb for someone to take away. I took it! 
It has worked great. I have been using it more and more. And with my goal of doing an Ironman triathlon, I am probably going to be spinning even more. The wind trainer works great, but it is noisy. I have to have the TV turned up to full volume to hear it.
So I decided to start shopping for a new trainer. I read lots of reviews. The fluid trainers seemed to be quieter than the mag trainers. The Cycleops trainers seemed to be built sturdier than other trainers, so I decided to stick with Cycleops . And among the Cycleops trainers, the Fluid 2 seemed to be the quietest from the reviews I have read. I believe the resistance is supposed to be more road-like as well.
I debated about buying one off of ebay, but was concerned about have problems, and not having any warranty protection. I searched around and found a Cycleops Fluid 2 trainer at a place name Modern Bike (ModernBike.com) for $230 and free shipping. Nice. I ordered it and they shipped it the same day. It is scheduled for delivery on Saturday. It will be be nice to spin and have it be quieter. Maybe I will be able to spin down in the living room while watching TV with my wife.
I’ll probably sell my Cycleops Wind trainer on ebay to help recoup some of the cost of the fluid trainer.
I planned to do a 20 mile ride this morning. The plan was to make a 10 mile ride to a McDonalds down in Farmington, NY, have breakfast, and then ride another 10 mile route home.
I got up, got all my stuff together, and headed out the door. This was only the second ride on my new bike so I didn’t want to go too far. The roads I was riding riding on were rolling hills, going into gently rolling hills. Nice back roads.
Unfortunatly I only got about 4.5 miles out when I got a speck of dirt in my left eye. I was wearing my new wrap-around sunglasses which were doing of a good job of keeping the wind out of my eyes. But somehow I still managed to get some dirt in my eye. I stopped and tried to get it out. Small specks of dirt can be painfull when you have contacts. I thought I got it, and started to go again. But then I realized it was still there. I stopped again, and tried again to get it out. No luck. It was very uncomfortable. I decided to turn around and head home. I got most of the way home, when I noticed the dirt wasn’t bugging me anymore. Apparently it had worked its way out. I continued my ride home.
I was thinking that I might need to carry some saline solution for my contacts in case this happens again. But then I was thinking I could have just used water. But I didn’t have any water bottles mounted on my bike yet. I thought about mounting one this morning, but decided I was only doing 10 miles out, and 10 miles back with a meal in the middle. I wouldn’t need any water for that. And one of my new aero bottles is scheduled for delivery today. So I would have had to put it on, and take it off again later today. Oh well. I am hoping to spin tonight. And maybe I will go out for a ride tomorrow.
Having a new aerodynamic bike, I wanted aerodynamic water bottles. I researched what would be the most aerodynamic water bottles, and I came up with a couple. One, I could mount a standard water bottle on the downtube, and it will according to wind tunnel tests, will make the bike more aerodynamic than without the bottle. But I also found another water bottle system, the Razor water bottle from Profile Design. It also fits on the downtube, and I believe it is supposed to be even more aerodynamic. I ordered the bottle with the carbon fiber cage. The downside is it only holds about 20oz of water.
Another water bottle system that increases the aerodynamics of the bike is the AeroDrink system, also by Profile Design. This is an aerodynamically shaped bottle that is mounted between the aerobars. It has a straw that sticks up so the rider can drink while maintaining an aerodynamic position. I think this will be useful. It also holds about 32 oz of water. When I did a long training ride last weekend, I found that I didn’t drink enough water. I think if the bottle were right there in my face, I would at least take occasional sips. Now one drawback of the AeroDrink bottle system was that it didn’t have a cap. It had this stupid yellow mesh sponge thing that was jammed into the bottle mouth. But everthing I have read about this was bad. People would hit a bump and water would slosh out. But I emailed Profile Design, and found out the newest version of the AeroDrink bottle has a cap. Most places I looked at still had the old version. Even the local bike shop. I asked them about ordering one. They looked and found them back ordered. But I found a place online that had the new version. So I ordered it. It should arrive later this week. I can get it mounted, and do some training rides with it. I think it will come in handy for my century ride in a couple weeks. Having two bottles will be useful since I can load one with water, and one with Gatorade maybe.
I had been shopping around to buy a tri-bike. I couldn’t afford to buy a high end carbon fiber, pro level race bike. But I figured I might find a deal on an entry level tri-bike. I shopped around the net, and found some pretty good deals on Felt tri-bikes and tri-bikes made by Jamis. Then I found a listing at Jenson USA (jensonusa.com) for a 2006 58cm Jamis Comet for $739. It was a closeout. It had an aluminum frame, carbon fiber forks, Shimano 105 components. And it was the size of bike that my inseam indicated would fit me. All in all it seem like a great deal on the bike, and that it would be exactly what I was looking for. I did soem searches on Jenson USA, and most people gave them glowing reviews. So I decided to order the bike.
I found that a pro-build was included for free. I wasn’t sure what that was. I thought that they might put the bike together for pickup. But since I live 3000 miles away, I was having it shipped. But I did research and found a probuild is where they put the bike together, tune it up, adjust it, check it all out, then take it apart again, just enough to ship it. The web site said to allow 3 days for the pro-build. I ordered the bike on Friday 5/2. The bike was shipped on Thursday 5/8. So apparently the pro-build took longer. The bike was scheduled to arrive on Thursday 5/15, which it did. I opened the box, and found the bike very professionally packaged for shipping. Here is what it looked like out of the box:
I carefully started cutting the zip ties to remove the various parts. I first set about attaching the aerobars. This was the hardest part. I ended up removing the clipons and re-attaching then a couple times so the cables were routed properly. Next I attached the front brake, and then installed the front wheel. For a moment I thought they had forgotten to include the skewer for the fron wheel. But I looked inside the big box and found another smaller box which had some more parts including the skewer. The front brake was adjusted to tight, and even with the brake release flipped open, I had a tough time getting the wheel on. I made a small adjustment to the brake cable. I also set about adjusting the brake so it was lined up to close on the rim evenly.
I installed the seat/seatpost. I set it to 30 inches height from the center of the crank. This is the proper height for me based on my inseam measurement. I hadn’t tightened it enough, and it slipped on my first test ride. I reset it, and tightened it more, and now it seems solid.
I found one of the rear brake pads was completely loose. I positioned it and tightened it. Since this is a race bike, I removed the reflectors! Nothing says you don’t know what the heck you are doing like having reflectors on your race bike. I pulled the Shimano M520 pedals from my mountain bike and installed them on this bike. I may look at buying regular road SPD type pedals, or I might stick with the 520’s. Not sure yet.
When I got everything together, I took it out for a test ride.
As I mentioned, the seat slipped, so I reset it, and tightened it more. The rear derailleur was slightly off, and was trying to switch into a different gear occasionally. I adjusted the index slightly and fixed that. The front derailluer was installed at a wierd angle and was shifting wierd. I loosened it, line the derailluer cage up with the rings, and tightened it. I then adjusted the limiting screws and had it shifting smoothly. I also tweaked the aerobars a little. I moved the arm rests out about a centimeter each. I might move them a touch more.
Another test ride.
I am sure I will spend more time on the bike making adjustments. Especially to the aero bars, getting the angles right. I am hoping to go for a long ride on Sunday if weather permits. I will bring my tools in case I need to make some on-the-road adjustments.
Overall my experience with Jenson USA was good. I think the pro-build could have been a little better. I think the bike should have been shipped a little sooner based on their “allow 3 business days” note. Would I buy another bike from them, or other stuff? Yeah, I would.