Review- FSA Afterburner 386 Crank

FSA Afterburner Crank 386, 40x 27 Chainrings

So I received my FSA afterburner 386 cranks in the post yesterday and thought I would post up some inital impressions.

Weight
They are 30 grams heavier than the XTR cranks they are replacing, despite being only a dual ring setup. Looking at them you can see straight away that the arms are most substantial than the XTR crankset. Whether this translates into a stiffer set of cranks I can’t say at this stage.

Finish
These are kind of a love it or hate. I like the finish which is similar to the older XTR anodizing (deep grey) but am not so keen on the shape. They just look bulky and industrial, where as the XTR cranks have a more rounded profile.

Ease of Installation

Left hand Crank and mounting bolts

Unlike XTR cranks these don’t require two separate tools to remove. When I first got the XTR cranks I was a WTF? Could they have made these anymore complicated to install? The cranks have a plastic ring which needs to be removed before the exclusive XTR crank only tool can be screwed in and the crank bolt backed out to pull the crank off.
The FSA cranks are similar in design to the XT level cranks and have a dual set of bolts on the left hand crank for fastening the crank to the axle. Bearing pre-load is adjusted through a threaded cap on the left hand side... and yes as I found out it is possible to do it up too tight!

Other set up Issues
I had to adjust the front derailleur because the new big ring is a 40T so it meant having to lower the height and here I “may have” run into a bit of a snag. Because of the shape of the frames tubing and pivot points the XTR dual pull derailleur is sitting a couple of mm’s higher than I would like. At the moment it doesn’t seem to be affecting the shifting but a full field trial will tell whether I need to swap this out for a top mount derailleur.

36-12 Cassette

I also threw on a 12-36 cassette and fresh chain at the same time and what a difference it made to the feel of the drive train. You kinda forget what fresh clean stuff feels like if you don’t replace it regularly ie 3-5 months. There seems to be enough clearance for the 36T with a normal XTR rear derailleur...but it is tight. Unlike a road rear derailleur there is no b screw to adjust the top pulley away from the cassette. Again a couple of test rides to see if this is going to be a problem or not.


Right Hand Crank

End Result
So I now have a drive train where I can use all but one gear (40x36) for about the same weight. The front shifting, I think is on par with the XTR cranks it’s replacing but I wouldn’t say it’s an improvement. From reading some of the descriptions of the SRAM XX stuff there are a lot more ramps and pins for shifting the chain which the FSA cranks are lacking.
I will be taking this out for a thrashing on Sunday to field test drive train and see what adjustments I need to make and will give an update then.

Linky

http://www.trainingandracingwithapowermeter.com/

Still waiting on my book... but thats another story

Wee Man at Stromlo

This morning was sent taking Wee Man out to Stromlo and rather then him hit up the kids park he decided he wanted to go on the trails. So we went we for a bit of a loop around fenceline and I snapped a couple of pics.

All the riders were OK that came across us.... except some a$$ on a 29er who thought it was cool doing intervals around the begineers loop... yeah good work hero.

hmmm thought I got away from that cr@p when I stopped racing road.

Someone's been watching too much Tokyo Drift!

Very Cool!

Lithgow Enduro- Write up

Well last Sunday was the first of the Chocolate Foot Races, using the Lithgow course.
And up until this weekend had a real dislike for the course due to the rutted, rooted nature of the course and the toll it takes on the body. The previous 2 times I have raced an 8hr here I pulled the pin by the half way mark.

So the day began at stupid O' clock (2.00am) for the 3.5hr drive through the back roads to Lithgow. The scene through central Canberra was interesting with all the creatures of the night still out at 2.30am drinking. Here I am steeling myself for a 19hr day drinking black coffee and their still out drinking..... yup there was a small sense of self satisfaction there.

The rest of the drive was uneventful except for the fog around Goulburn which slowed the driving for about 1/2hr due to the limited visibility. I rolled into Lithgow just before 6ish, topped the car up with gas and then off to Macca's for another coffee and read the newspaper for 1/2 an hours before heading out to the course.

Driving into the start area, I pick a spot and start unloading the bike and setting my little table up. I line up 8 750 bottles for the 8hrs and throw one in the bike.
I set out 3 gel flasks with a mixture of Hammer Gel (vanilla and raspberry which is my new favourite) and Leppin shots.

I then sit in the car chilling before getting changed and heading over to the pre-race briefing. Once this is out of the way everyone heads off in the general direction of the start. I line up about 4 rows back and were off.

From my hit out the day before, I know how sore my ribs still are and just take it easy for the first portion. I'm quite happy swinging over on the fire roads and letting people through where they want.

At this point 3 riders I recognise get in front of me and I have a bit of a marker to chase, Dreggsy Grantly Butterfield and Kevin Wells.

After the first lap the results show I came through in 10th place, thought I had no idea where I was in the field. The time was about 34.30 I was feeling comfortable so just aimed to about that pace for as long as I could. On the next lap I got in front of Kev on one of the fire roads before he came screaming up on the next section of single track. At this point I had alot of pain in the ribs and to hear "Dave, get off the brakes!" as I'm standing trying to cushion all the vibration to them didn't go down well.

I over the next 3 laps I worked my way up into 5th place before stabilising there for the rest of the race. I was losing about 3 minutes a lap to 4th (not that I has any idea) but my lap times were consistent up until about the 1/2 way mark at 4hrs.

Here the times started blowing out to the 40min mark, they remained here right up until the last lap where I threw down a 38.5min lap. At about the 6hr mark I started playing mental math games to keep me amused to work out how many laps I had left, then started counting them down.

By this stage the body was sore, and hands had blisters from gripping and bracing the bars on all the downhills so I was glad at the end of the day to cross the line in about 8.15hr for 13 laps.

Analysis



Overall I was happiest about the pacing I managed for the race with a quickest lap of 34.5min and a slowest of 41.3mins. The race generated a whooping 560TSS with over just on 5000cals burnt. The quadrant analysis shows just how steep and punchy the climbs were in places with alot of time spent in quadrant II.



On another note I decided after the race I'm getting ride of XTR cranks. The entire race I never touched the dog. I spent the entire time in either the 22 or 32. The problem with this was the number of ratios that were unusable due to cross chaining, So I've decided to go to a double up front with a 27/40. I've order a FSA afterburner 386 crank as a trial. This will give me most of the gears I had previously with the triple but I should loose alot of the overlap.

I have a double on the hardtail with a 29/40 and gripshift for the front derailleur. This works really well as I can get all the gears with no rub at all.

But time will tell if it's going to work.

Chocolate Foot Race 1

Full write up to come

Making Mexican

This



not this,





Well as some of you may know I had an eventful Wagga 6hr completing only 2hrs before crashing out. But I will get to that story later in the piece.

Monday wifey got put into an air boot, so she is more mobile (well for a cripple)



Franken-Foot

And I have spent most of the week nursing my ribs which maybe a bit more damaged than I first thought (I initally thought bruising, now maybe cartilge damage)

On a positive not I taught myself how to tear down a set of Rockshox Reba forks and re-build them, I replaced the bearings in the dually (not as hard as I thought), and I also replaced the bearings in my power-tap, so over-all a productive week.



Bag of not very good bearings
The Race

Sunday, was the first time I had been to Wagga to race a MTB so I managed to navigate my way to the RSL/ Golf Course for the start with plenty of time to spare, and get registered and set-up.
Kick-off was 9.30am (a reasonable hour), and after a quick last minute change to where I had left my gear in transition we had sat through the race briefing and were on our way.

I settled back into about 10th-12th wheel on the way up the hill, and worked into a rythem catching a couple of people and being passed by a couple. By the first section of single track I got caught behind a kite (goes up well, not so good going down) and he fumbled under the pressure a couple of times. I think alot of us have found ourselves in this situation before head of the train, where you know there are faster riders itching to get past. I tried to calm him down to he didn't make a spectatular mistake and I have to stop and get him medi assistance. Eventually he pulled over and the train rolled away from the station.

By this stage the front runners were off and gone, but I was happy and coming to grips with the course and just trying to get through the first lap with no mis-haps.
I got jumped by a guy on a 29er through a flat section and tucked in behind til he fumbled coming back along spinal tap.

Then is was off climbing back up and over the hill before the descent into transition.

A couple of riders got past me across the top but I tucked in and got towed back up the hill for the second lap.

I stayed this these guys fore most of the next lap before they got away up the hill on the way back to transition.

Through transition and and it was short stop, bottle change and off tucked behind another couple.

This lap was uneventful till the end where I tried to close the gap through Brad's Pit and f&*ked it up badly. I was way too enthusiastic, rolled through the first part at 45kph, launched the jump, completely missed the landing and piled in front wheel first.

There was a rider stopped at the top of the course at that point and he's yelling at me if I'm O.K But I can't breath as I have knocked the wind out of me in the crash. I sort of get my arm up and wave at him then try and drag my bike off the track so no one else lands on me.

I'm kind of sitting there getting my breath back looking at how mangled the front wheel is knowing I have a 15min walk back to transition and realise that the day is probably done. However I begin to smile, because I realise that 1) I'm OK (well so I think then, a rider ended up in the spinal unit because of crashin there the year previous)and 2) the course is a sh!t load of fun. I have to say that this is probably the best course I have been on in recent memory, in fact I would be prepared to ride a 24hr on this course as thats how fun and entertaining it is.

The Weekend

I have entered for the first round of the Chocolate Foot Enduro Series at Lithgow (on a track I really don't like) on Sunday. I thought my ribs were just bruised until last night when they started to play up during the night and I am now suspecting maybe cartilge damage. Well worst case scenario I go and do 6hrs of sloe laps and try and ramp t up for the last couple.

All the best for those riding the Australian Marathon champs this weekend, hope you have packed your walking shoes as you will need it by the sounds of the course.

Wagga 6hr

Off to Wagga on Sunday. Should be good have great things about the club running the event and that it's a good course. Also can't argue with $20 for 6hrs of pain!

Note from the Doctor...

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple of weeks...but I have a valid excuse. So keep reading.

What does this guy and my wife have in common?


Yes that's right they have both ruptured their achilles tendon!
Wifey in her second pre-season game managed to detach her tendon going for the ball.
So for the last two weeks I have been pretty much chief cook and bottle washer with not alot of time of too much else.
Wifey is on crutches at the moment and in a cast for the next week or so till she may get an air boot to support the injury.

Couple of photos below of the injury