Even though I don't like him, this is a great pic of Sven
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Ugly
Specialized new Ant+ head unit for SRM/ Powertap. Cheap....yes, good looking...hell no
To be released early next year
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
I cracked..
I swore I wasn't going to buy one of these and hold out for the new Powertap Joule which is available to the public in January. But I found one on ebay for less than $400 and thought it was too good of a deal to pass up.
With not having the powertap for the Fling and contemplating riding with a polar HR monitor again, it kinda pushed me over the edge....well thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it ;)
Garmin 705
With not having the powertap for the Fling and contemplating riding with a polar HR monitor again, it kinda pushed me over the edge....well thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it ;)
Garmin 705
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Time to write something....
Sorry all for the lack of updates, but it's been a bit of a slow period with not much racing and not alot to write about.
A Change of Scenery
First a month back I changed companies, and as most of you know when that happens everything gets turned upside down for a few weeks till you sort yourself out again. For me, this mean't less riding, more work (yes I now do a full 8hrs+ each day), and a new route to work.
My new route to work in the mornings is out the back of Tuggeranong, Tidbinbilla, Pierces Creek, Stromlo, then work in Deakin. This is giving me a solid 2hrs a day...and multiple smacks in the head because it's magpie season!
Sick, then not, then sick....
Well the long weekends been and gone. While most were riding at the Scott 24hr, I had a big weekend planned then the wheels fell off on the Friday night. I caught something, the beginnings of a cold. I was so smashed on the Saturday morning I killed the alarm at 5.00am went back to sleep, woke up again at 11.00am had breakfast, then went back to bed again till 3.30pm before re-surfacing. My head throbbed and had a hacking cough...and just generally unwell. Sunday was a little better, I got out on the MTB for about an hour and the same again on the Monday. So all up a bit of a waste of a good weekend. Then to top things off I started to get conjunctivitis again on the Friday (Filthy diseased kids at daycare!), a course of eye drops and luckily this time it didn't turn into a full blown bout.
Death of the Powertap
My MTB powertap died about a week and half ago so it's now on it's way back to the US to be repaired. The power readings have always been about 30w lower on the MTB then the SRM but it's been livable. Then it finally crapped itself telling me I was only doing 150w up Mt Stromlo....and I know my form may not be fantastic but I know I can still put out more then that. So running the diagnostic on it when I got home and found that something had happened to the torque tube in the hub and it was sending the wrong correction. Now unlike an SRM you can't adjust this and it's only fixable by replacing the torque tube.
So after trying to deal with TBA the importers of Powertap into Australia, I contacted Saris in the US directly and had the return sorted out inside of 2 days. I recommendation to anyone looking to purchase a powertap in Australia is don't. Buy from overseas! TBA charge 2x the price, have no one staff that know anything about Powertap, have no customer service....in general they're are just a bunch of pirates!
So it looks like I'm racing the Fling naked with no data...should be interesting.
Building up for the 100miler
So after all the sickness I have been trying to re-build some form for the 100 mile fling which is now only a week and a half away.
I have been tuning the hard tail, so far I have managed to drop 1.5kg off it by swapping parts out from the spares I have in the garage. I currently have it down to 9.5kg without doing anything silly. I could probably drop another 400gms off if I wanted to run ghetto tubeless, but given I don't know the course for the Fling I'm opting for safety over weight for the tires.
Fitz Epic
So this weekend Big Jase and I have Fitz epic, a 210k ramble through the hills out the back of Canberra as a warm up for the fling. I'm going to try to aim for under 7hrs riding time this year, but it's going to depend on the day.
A Change of Scenery
First a month back I changed companies, and as most of you know when that happens everything gets turned upside down for a few weeks till you sort yourself out again. For me, this mean't less riding, more work (yes I now do a full 8hrs+ each day), and a new route to work.
My new route to work in the mornings is out the back of Tuggeranong, Tidbinbilla, Pierces Creek, Stromlo, then work in Deakin. This is giving me a solid 2hrs a day...and multiple smacks in the head because it's magpie season!
Sick, then not, then sick....
Well the long weekends been and gone. While most were riding at the Scott 24hr, I had a big weekend planned then the wheels fell off on the Friday night. I caught something, the beginnings of a cold. I was so smashed on the Saturday morning I killed the alarm at 5.00am went back to sleep, woke up again at 11.00am had breakfast, then went back to bed again till 3.30pm before re-surfacing. My head throbbed and had a hacking cough...and just generally unwell. Sunday was a little better, I got out on the MTB for about an hour and the same again on the Monday. So all up a bit of a waste of a good weekend. Then to top things off I started to get conjunctivitis again on the Friday (Filthy diseased kids at daycare!), a course of eye drops and luckily this time it didn't turn into a full blown bout.
Death of the Powertap
My MTB powertap died about a week and half ago so it's now on it's way back to the US to be repaired. The power readings have always been about 30w lower on the MTB then the SRM but it's been livable. Then it finally crapped itself telling me I was only doing 150w up Mt Stromlo....and I know my form may not be fantastic but I know I can still put out more then that. So running the diagnostic on it when I got home and found that something had happened to the torque tube in the hub and it was sending the wrong correction. Now unlike an SRM you can't adjust this and it's only fixable by replacing the torque tube.
So after trying to deal with TBA the importers of Powertap into Australia, I contacted Saris in the US directly and had the return sorted out inside of 2 days. I recommendation to anyone looking to purchase a powertap in Australia is don't. Buy from overseas! TBA charge 2x the price, have no one staff that know anything about Powertap, have no customer service....in general they're are just a bunch of pirates!
So it looks like I'm racing the Fling naked with no data...should be interesting.
Building up for the 100miler
So after all the sickness I have been trying to re-build some form for the 100 mile fling which is now only a week and a half away.
I have been tuning the hard tail, so far I have managed to drop 1.5kg off it by swapping parts out from the spares I have in the garage. I currently have it down to 9.5kg without doing anything silly. I could probably drop another 400gms off if I wanted to run ghetto tubeless, but given I don't know the course for the Fling I'm opting for safety over weight for the tires.
Fitz Epic
So this weekend Big Jase and I have Fitz epic, a 210k ramble through the hills out the back of Canberra as a warm up for the fling. I'm going to try to aim for under 7hrs riding time this year, but it's going to depend on the day.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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