3 Degrees No Wind

3 degrees and no wind. Cloudy, but only a few drops of rain here and there. A long-sleeve poly undershirt, my heavy cycling jersey, my cycling jacket, long pants, booties (to keep the wind out), a headband, and a helmet cover. I was warm enough while riding, and got really warm when stopped. But when I was fiddling with some adjustments outside after I got home, I got a bit chilled.

The new Castelli Chiro 3 gloves worked great. I may have finally found the right glove for Vancouver. Thanks, Angela, for the great Christmas present.

3G 2014

The Grunt, Grind and Guzzle, 2014 edition, was tonight. The stats:

The Grunt on bike from Lonsdale Quay (sea level) to the bottom of the Grouse Grind: 23:40 (50 seconds faster than last year). The Grind (the Grind) to the top of Grouse: 43:32 (50 seconds slower than last year). A sad last place in the Guzzle, drinking a beer as quickly as possible.

Thanks to Dale the world's greatest race master, and all the other contestants that made it such a fun event.

The Grunt, Grind and Guzzle

This year's Grunt, Grind and Guzzle, aka the 3G Triathlon, was tonight. My stats:

Bike (rolling time measured by my cycle computer): 24:34
Grouse Grind: 42:40. This year, I almost managed to stick to Sharon "Grinder" Yuen, my pace bunny, all the way up.
Guzzle (down a pint of beer): Third amongst the participants of all three events. One down from last year, since Enzo managed to avoid a DNF this year by getting the beer down his throat, instead of on his lap.

That's a personal best in the first two events. It helps that I'm hauling 3 fewer kilos up the hills this year.

As always, a great event organized by Dale and Sharon. I'm looking forward to next year already.

The Triathlon 2012

Well, my winning strategy didn't work this year. A number of brave friends did all three events. I was the two time defending champ on the strength of being the only person to enter all three events in each of the years.

Enzo crushed us all on the bike. I was second at 27:50 (2:30 slower than last year). Willie kicked everyone's butt, including Sharon "Grinder" Yuen's, on the Grind. I did a PB on the Grind at 44:10 to finish second among those of us who did all three events. I was also second in the Guzzle event, overcoming a brain freeze to finish behind Willie.

Congratulations to Willie the overall champ. Enzo was right up there with him, but a mishap with the beer put him out of contention at the last minute.

A huge thanks to Dale for organizing and continuing the tradition, and to Vaibhav and Larry Arnett who rounded out those who competed in all three events. Also thanks to all the others who participated in one or more events. It was great to see the ICBC crowd again.

The new name for the event is the Grunt, Grind and Guzzle.

Fixing Bicycles, Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Ed Luciano at Mighty Riders, my favourite bike shop, has co-founded an awesome program to help people get back on their feet by learning to fix bikes. The program is called Cycle Back. CBC Radio One did an excellent piece on them yesterday morning. You can contribute by buying a bike from the program, or donating old bikes for them to fix. Take the bike to Our Community Bikes or Pedal Depot. You can also give cash, of course.

Mighty Riders is not only the best bicycle shop in the Vancouver area, but they have a heart!

Whinging of an Old Man

Now that I'm "between contracts", I'm getting out for rides on some of my old routes. Today I did the ride to Granville and 71st via UBC, which is just under 60 kms round trip (see my old post for a map). I used to do a lot of 2 hour rides. I'm doing the same rides 5 to 15 minutes slower than I used to. I shouldn't really be surprised, I guess, that I can't ride as fast at 53 as I could at 40, but it still hurts.

Whinging aside, it was a beautiful, sunny day, and not cold by my standards.

The Triathlon 2011 Edition

I won the triathlon with the same strategy that worked for me last year: Be the only person to compete in all three events. :-)

ICBC to the Grouse Grind on bike: 25 m 20 s
The Grind: 47 m 12 s
A beer: Before anyone else finished theirs

PB on the first two.

Getting Fit to Your Bike Works

When I bought my bike at Mighty Riders, they measured me up to make sure I was buying the right frame. Then when the bike was built they put it in a stand and watched me ride and adjusted it further. It was definitely nice to ride.

However, I was still finding that my feet would go numb after an hour, and other parts would sometimes go numb sooner (I won't name the parts so this blog won't get filtered).

Ed at Mighty said, "Bring it back. We'll check your fit." Apparently, it's now their standard practice to make people come back after they've had their bike for a few months. So we put the bike on the stand two weeks ago and they checked out my style.

First, they made me go buy new shoes. I knew my shoes were on their last legs (ha, ha), but they said the shoes were flexing so much that it would affect my comfort on the bike. Fortunately, Mighty Rider's sister store, On the Rivet, had some good deals on shoes. My feet are a weird shape so I had to spend more than I originally planned, but over the life of the shoes it will amount to about $10 per year to be more comfortable.

When I got back to my bike they had flipped the stem to get my handlebars up a little higher, and changed the angle a bit. They said I should probably get different bars so we can move the brake hoods a bit, but we're leaving that for the next time.

Back on the stand and pedaling, Ed said, "You've got to start the push down with your knee over the crossbar. Think about pushing your foot outwards, not straight down." Fortunately, by chance I'd seen a video clip of someone in the Tour de France this year who was doing exactly that, otherwise I might have thought he was pulling my leg.

I think the pedaling style is probably what has helped the most. I just felt way more comfortable the minute I started to pedal that way. And when I start to feel uncomfortable, it's because I'm forgetting to pedal correctly.

They sure know their stuff at Mighty Riders. After Ed watched me pedal for a few seconds he said, "Go home and measure your thighs by putting a string around them. Your right thigh will be bigger than your left." It was, by more than a centimetre.

Canadians in La Vuelta

Ryder Hesjedal, one of four Canadians riding in the Vuelta a España this year, won today's stage and finished second on Tuesday. Since I started following the grand tours on the Internet (1994?), this is the first time I recall Canadians winning a stage.

The Tour of Spain is the third of the three big three-week cycling races, along with the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.

Mt Seymour Again

Friday I did Mount Seymour again. 59 minutes from the old kiosk where the road starts the serious climb, to the far end of the parking lot. My iPhone said I was at exactly 1,000 m at the top, and coming off the Ironworkers Bridge I was basically at sea level. At the kiosk, I was at 118 m.

I had a mental collapse coming around the last hairpin turn when I couldn't see the parking lot. I just became completely unable to push myself anymore and I allowed myself to slow down to 10 kph (from 12 or so). Once I crested the small rise, the parking lot was right there and almost flat. Something to remember if I do this again: Be prepared for the fact that you can't see the parking lot from the curve.

Another thing to remember: After the second hairpin, the slope gets a bit easier and there's a couple of minutes where I could up the pace to about 16 or 17 kph.

I hadn't done a good job of marking my time the last time I did this. I remembered 55 minutes as my time, but it could be that I was slower then. Watching my speed this time I think I was going as fast or faster than last time. Most of the time I'm doing around 12 kph.

So That's What Fixies are For

http://mightyriders.blogspot.com/2009/08/so-hot.html

Another Nice Route

Now that the weather's nicer, I'm not so terrified of going over the Second Narrows Bridge. Just scared. Here's another interesting route.

Stanley Park Loop

Here's the Google Map of my Stanley Park loop. It's just over 9 km long. When I have more time I'll annotate it a bit more.

Stanley Park, Three Laps, Each One Faster

The headline tells almost all of it. The missing part is that I did the first lap faster than I think I've ever gone before: 17 minutes flat. The next two were 16:55 and 16:40. I'm feeling the effort now, and I suspect tomorrow I'll feel it even more.

Winter Cycling Vancouver Style

I went for an hour ride last Monday, out to Port Moody along Hastings and the Barnet Highway. It was -7 C when I left and -4 C when I got back. I used to commute all winter in Ottawa, but I was wearing big winter boots in really loose toe straps, not clip-on racing shoes, and I had a coat the covered down to my crotch. Going out dressed like a racer at those temperatures, I need to put on some wind protection for my crotch, and wear booties even if it's dry.

To top it off, I had a flat. There's so much crud on the road, and I took one of those big staples in at the edge of the tread. At least I was in the sun, so I didn't freeze while changing the tire. Had it happened a few hundred metres later, I would have been in the shadow of Burnaby Mountain. As it was, I was warmer standing in the sun than riding. Obviously that's the effect of the wind when I'm riding.

Whinging aside, it was really nice to go out and just ride.

Bicycle Maintenance

Courtesy of Ed at Mighty Riders, here's the ten-minute course on important bicycle maintenance:

1. Buy a bike with cartridge bearings. These are basically the same type of bearings as you find in a car. You don't have to oil or pack them. They've been common in the bottom bracket for years. It's worth the money you spend to get them in the wheels and headset as well. You should check your wheel bearings from time to time for play and tighten them with cone wrenches if they're loose. At twenty months of abusive Vancouver commuting, I need to adjust mine a bit.
2. If you have pulleys in the derailleur that don't have bearings in them, take them apart and pack them with grease. Note which one is the top and which is the bottom. There is a difference. Better yet, buy ones that don't need maintenance for about $20. Make sure you get the right pulleys for the number of speeds you have.
   
3. Keep your drivetrain clean. When the chain is squeaking, and not before, grab a piece of rag, spray on your favourite cleaner, and run the chain through the rag until you get all the gunk off the outside of the chain. Then lubricate the chain on the inside (drop oil on the top of the lower run of chain, never on the sprockets). Wipe off the excess oil. The italics mean it's very important to wipe off the excess.
   
4. Don't use a two or three part lubricant. They just gunk things up.
5. If you have rim brakes, run a cloth or sponge over the rims frequently to clean off the road dirt. Use acetone to clean off the rubber from the brake pads that can stick to the rim.
   
6. From time to time, clean the part of the brake and derailleur cables that run inside the housing. There's a trick to this that I'll post in pictures.
7. If you have an old bike, you probably have sprockets, chainrings and a chain that aren't all the same age. You also probably don't have the same wear on each sprocket or each chain ring, since you probably ride a lot in certain gears. (I have a one-tooth difference across most of my sprockets. That and the hills in Vancouver mean I actually wear out most of my gears at about the same time, but your experience will likely be different.) The next time you have to change any part of your drive train, change it all. If one part is worn too much, the other parts will wear out fast, even if they're brand new.
   
8. If you're starting with a completely new drivetrain (chain rings, sprockets and chain), change the chain as soon as it shows signs of wear. The tools that measure chain wear (aka stretch) often don't accurately measure wear. I'll post pictures of how to determine your wear.
9. You don't need to oil any of the other little moving bits on the derailleurs themselves. As long as you shift, they'll keep themselves clean.
   

I'll get some pictures and expand on some of the above in the near future.

Mighty Riders

Mighty Riders is a great bike shop. They've gone far beyond my expectations for making me happy with the Surly I bought from them. 20 months after I bought the bike they worked on the problem of the squealing cantilever brakes because they want me to be happy with the bike. That's not something you get many places anymore. If you're ready to buy a bike that fits your way of riding, rather than buying off the rack, then go to Mighty Riders.

Winter Bike Maintenance

I'm pretty happy with my Surly Cross-Check that I bought from Mighty Riders. It's an off-the-shelf cyclo-cross frame that Ed at Mighty Riders fitted out to my specs. I notice the difference riding a bike that was bought after I was measured and the frame was chosen to fit me, not the other way around.

The other nice thing is that my primary spec was to be a low-maintenance, year-round sporty commuting bike. We've achieved that. All the bearings are cartridge bearings, even through that meant that the wheels are more expensive than most bikes I've bought in my life.

Now that all I have to do is clean and adjust the chain and derailleurs, I do it. It's a lot more fun to ride a bike that's always working nicely, even in Vancouver's winters. I'm finding that at this time of year, if I clean the derailleurs and chain every two weeks they work fine. The last two weeks that wasn't enough, as the weather was so bad that shifting was getting a bit slow by Thursday.

A good tip I got from Mountain Equipment Co-op is to buy a chain wear measuring tool and change the chain when it gets slightly worn. I was able to keep using the same rear cassette after one change of chain. Unfortunately, the second time I changed the chain I had a little bit of slip on the cassette and had to change it, but I'm still using the original front chain-rings. I'll have to look into buying individual cogs for the cassette, because the reality with commuting riding is that I'm mostly using the same cogs every day.

The only thing I don't like about the Surly is the brakes. They're cantilever brakes, and the rear brake always squeals. Also, I eat pads like crazy in the lousy Vancouver winters, and the cantilevers with their five degrees of freedom are a pain to adjust or set up to new pads.

To their credit, Mighty Riders is going to work with me to make the brakes work. I just have to pick a week when I don't want to ride. But I always want to ride!

I can't say enough good things about Mighty Riders. For me, they've gone beyond what you usually get for "free adjustments" after you buy a bike. They're happy to help you if you want to do the maintenance yourself. What other bike shop these days puts the mechanics out front in full view of the customers? I've heard of people being turned off because of the "attitude" of some of the staff, but I've never felt intimidated by them. If you're going to buy a bike called "Surly", what do you expect?

Anyway, the attitude comes partly from knowing their stuff. I finally bought a floor pump because they insisted it made a difference, and they were absolutely right. I used to ride 700X25c tires. Now I can commute on 700X23c tires with Kevlar belts and I get fewer flats than I did with the 25s. The pressure keeps me from getting impact flats, and the Kevlar keeps me from getting punctures (not all of the time, of course, but better than before).

The Joys of January

I rode my bike to work every day last week. It's been six weeks or more since I've been able to say that, what with holidays around Christmas, and the Vancouver black ice. I think I'm a little more chicken after my crash last February so I might have missed a few days that I would have ridden last year.

The problem with winter cycling in Vancouver is that we have so many days that are right on the edge of freezing. For example, last week we had two days with snow on the ground overnight at my house, but down the hill on Commercial Drive (maybe 25m lower) there was only rain.

This translates into conditions that are hard to guess. The day I crashed last year I had ridden about 10 kms already, over a range of elevations, and had pretty good traction. Then suddenly in one roundabout I'm sliding along the pavement on my hip and shoulder.

We get days where the fog off the ocean touches the pavement and freezes. Now that I'm getting too old to crash I'm trying to talk myself out of riding when there might be ice. But it's frustrating because the freezing nights are usually because the sky is clear, so those are the days where the afternoon might nice.

The last couple of weeks have been less icy, but only because we're going through the typical Vancouver rainfest. So one rides every day, with water streaming off one's face...

Yet Another Route

Here's another ride. If you want flats around here you go to Richmond or Delta, which for me means going over the top of Vancouver. Then it's flat like Saskatchewan, or flatter, since you're on the delta for the Fraser River. There're no great routes going north-south in Vancouver, so I often end up on rather busy streets. Here's the map.