Road Discs?

Last week I pointed you to Lennard Zinns' Next Big Thing article. Well, he's at it again with round two called More Big Things. This time, he predicts that road discs will become more mainstream, and might even be used in racing. If you've been reading this here blog for any length of time, you know that disc brakes are something I espouse. I've written about them before, including listing the pros and cons.

Lennard makes some interesting points, though. Let's take a look, shall we? One of the arguments that is often used is that the bike has a disc--the rim--that works well for stopping. There are two problems with this. One, you are wearing away at a structural component. Every time you hit the brakes, you remove metal from the rim. If you ride a lot, or know someone that does, chances are that you've seen or experienced a rim failure due to excessive wear of the braking track. Second, as Lennard points out, every time your rim gets wet, you lose braking power. Why is this acceptable? Also, aluminum is a lousy braking surface.

Lennard goes on to say that the biggest drawback is that they are heavy. The calipers are heavy, the rotors are heavy, the hubs weigh more and can't build pretty radially laced wheels and expect them to hold up. All true. However, I think that if they were more widely adopted, there would be a concerted effort to drive the weight down. As it is, road disc brakes are just mountain bike brakes adjusted to work with the leverage ratio of road brake levers. If they were road bike specific many of these arguments could be better addressed.

Lennard suggests that one weigh to reduce the weight is to use a smaller rotor--true--but that, he says, leads to more heat build up--again, true, to a point. One of the nice things about discs is that you can brake later. You don't need to drag your brakes as much, so it is possible that while the heat generated is significant, there is plenty of time to cool them down between uses. He also suggests that using different materials will help. This is true, and it's something that I think we'll see if companies like SRAM and Shimano start making road bike disc brakes, not mountain bike disc brakes adapted for road use. Where Lennard errs, though, is suggesting the use of Carbon-Carbon brakes like those used in Formula 1 racing. While they do work very, very well at elevated temperatures, they don't work well at all at more normal operating temperatures. They need to be heated up to greater than 400 degrees before they start working well. There is no way you'll be able to get a bicycle brake that hot. I've tried. It's really easy to get a car brake that hot, though. That being said, there are ways to dissipate heat--fins on the caliper, different pad materials, different rotor shapes, using MMC (metal matrix composite) rotors to help conduct the heat away from the pads--and if road bikes use smaller rotors this will have to be addressed.

I firmly believe that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages when it comes to disc brakes. Their overwhelming adoption among the off road crowd highlights this. When a disc brake designed from the ground up for road bike use becomes available, I'll be the first in line.

Eerily Quiet

This morning was... odd.

First, the weather. It's 54 degrees out there. Granted, today the forecast calls for rain and looking to the west, I think that they're going to be right. But, be that as it may, 54 is much warmer than what we've been seeing lately.

Second, it was quiet, too quiet. Normally there is quite a bit of traffic on the roads--everyone seems to go to work at the same time, right? Not today. It was so quiet in fact that I thought it might be Sunday and my schedule was off by one day. Man, I'd hate to think that I got up early and rode into work when I didn't need to... wait, let me rephrase that... I'd hate to think that I stopped in at work on a day I didn't need to and and didn't just keep on riding, since I was up.

Finally, even though I rode hills today, they didn't hurt like they have been. Frankly I think that E. was taking it easy on me, but nevertheless, it felt good. Maybe increasing the regularity of riding the hillier route is helping. Maybe the stars were aligned, everyone overslept and there was a warm mass ahead of a vicious storm that made everything just right. And that's fine with me.

Since this morning was so good, I'm going to push my luck and make one request to the weather gods: I don't mind the rain during the day--heck, I'm stuck inside at work anyway--but can I please have a nice tail wind on the way home? That would make today's oddities complete.

To Remove Excess Weight

I love my full suspension Cannondale Jekyll. I know that Cannondale has since moved on to other designs, but It rides well and, thanks to a Manitou SPV rear shock, pedals pretty well--at least for a 4-year old 5" travel bike.

When I'm on my light-weight hard-tail, though, I keep thinking about how light it is. And when I get back on the Jekyll, it seems like such a beast. A smooth beast, but a beast nonetheless.

Now, I'm not a great mechanic, but I've decided to take matters into my own hands and take some steps towards making it lighter. I'm pleased to say that, after some tweaking and such, I think I've taken my Jekyll to what I consider to be a very nice weight. All told, I think I managed to shave somewhere between 5 and 8 lbs off the bike.

As all of my modifications are not specific to the bike, I'll post my methods here. Remember, if you don't feel comfortable making drastic changes to your bike, take it in to a good local bike shop and pony up for them to do it.

For this, you'll need a 4, 5, 6 mm allen keys. Also, you'll need a chain whip and cassette puller. Depending on your crank type, you'll need one or more of the following: External bearing bottom bracket tool, crank puller/extractor, traditional bottom bracket wrench. Unless you're running a chain (like a SRAM) with a quick-connect link/master link, you'll also need a chain tool.

1. Remove your front and rear shifters.
2. Remove your derailleur cables.
3. Remove your front and rear derailleurs.
4. Take off your rear wheel and remove your cassette.
5. Remove your chain. 
6. Pull your crank and remove your bottom bracket.

At this point, you might want to take the time to clean all those areas of the bike you normally can't really get to with all those extra parts installed.

And that's it! Stand back and admire your work (or the work of a fully qualified bike mechanic). Also, make sure to pick your bike up and feel the difference. The next time you're out on a ride (if you actually get your bike to move forward and somehow keep it that way), you'll really appreciate the difference several pounds can make.

In fact, I'm not sure I even have the heart to put the new parts on.

Seca

Frankly, it seems too early in the year to be posting a press release like this, but, advancements march on and Light and Motion needed to kick things up a notch. It seems like that is what they are doing with the Seca light.

Light and Motion Announces Their Seca Line of LED Light Systems:
Three Models Built Specifically To Outperform HID

April 23, 2008, Monterey, CA— Born from a need for high-performance lighting on the trails behind Laguna Seca, Light & Motion is proud to announce the arrival of Seca. Seca is the first LED bicycle lighting system to make good on the promise of besting the top HID’s on the market. Seca provides the first beam pattern that is custom tailored for the needs of cyclists. One look at Seca and you’ll be convinced; this is the beginning of an entirely new generation of bicycle lighting.

“This light is insanely bright,” said Eric Squires, Sales Manger for Light & Motion. “I have been riding the Seca prototypes for months and it’s the first LED system to convince me that LED can beat HID for output and usable light on the trail.”

Between May 15th and August 15th, Light & Motion will release technical details about the Seca line through the website at http://www.theledrevolution.com. In addition, they’ll be sharing a behind the scenes look at Seca’s engineering and development process. Those who register will have access to the latest technical information on Seca sent to their email inbox every few weeks. Light & Motion will also announce special offers tailored exclusively to those registered.

About Seca:

The Seca (starting at $349) sets a new standard for high-performance bike lights. With output to 700 lumens, Seca delivers higher quantity and quality of light than the top performing HID systems. Seca is designed to address bike specific lighting needs both on the road and on the trail. This means not only more light, but more light where you want it. Seca’s beam pattern offers an abundance of light in front of your wheel, powerful light down the trail (piercing the darkness up to 200 ft in front of you) and plenty of ‘spill’ light for enhanced peripheral vision. To top it all off, Seca is less expensive than most HID systems.

Seca will be released officially on August 15th, 2008. To sign up for periodic information updates, visit the Seca launch site at http://www.theledrevolution.com.

So, anyone who was writing off Light and Motion--or who thought that they would continue to rely on their HID technology for their high end--should be reconsidering. It looks like they are in this game still and the Seca looks, at the moment, to be competitive.

Sea Otter Round Up

Like many of you, I did not make it to Sea Otter this year. It's too bad, too, since Sea Otter is becoming a sort of Interbike Spring, what with all the new product launches. So, since the next best thing to being there is looking at pictures, I've scoured the 'net to find good reports of what to expect in '09. And that's not a typo. Here we are wrapping up our review of '08 components from SRAM and Shimano and they are showing off some '09 stuff. It's getting as bad or worse than the car and computer industry. As some point we need to wear out the stuff we've got, right?


Maybe not.


Anyway, back to Sea Otter. VeloNews does a decent job of showing new products from a myriad of companies HERE. Be sure to click the links at the bottom to see their take on more Sea Otter goodness.

Also, check out Lennard Zinn's thoughts on the Next Big Thing in cycling, wherein he mentions that he's not very good at making predictions, but hey, this time he just might be right.

Once you're done there, head on over to CyclingNews and see James Huang's reports from the Otter, here, here, here and here. As per his MO, James takes a little more in depth look at the products be shown and offers some insight as to their development. It's not all just Bold New Graphics.

There you have it.

OK, one more thing. Be sure to check in tomorrow for some interesting light news. I'd love to have posted it today, but I've been asked to wait until tomorrow when the press release goes live. With that clear as mud teaser, you'll just have to wait and see what coming tomorrow.

Three Ways to Use a GPS

As you know, I've been playing with GPS's lately, and it occurred to me that they make excellent bicycle computers* for a few reasons... well, three reasons, actually.

Display of Information:

Let's face it, most cycling computers are a compromise. They have small screens and can display only a limited amount of information at any one time. Often, there is much button pressing to see various aspects of your ride. The GPS, on the other hand, is not small. Because it's not small it has room for a nice large screen, which may or may not be color. This allows it to display all the information you want right there on the same screen. The Edge 705 can display up to eight items. That's the other thing, most of the GPS's out there let you decide what to display. If you've got a heart rate monitor, show your heart rate, but if not, turn off that display and show something else. Nice.

Logging Information:

The second way that GPS's rock is that they log the ride stats for retrieval later. Most also connect to a PC so you can upload your rides to different websites--like MotionBased, a Garmin-owned site--so you can share your ride with others, or just keep a training log of where your rode and what the ride statistics were--e.g., where you rode, how fast you averaged, how far you rode, etc. Many of these websites allow you to view or download your route in Google Earth format--it'll be a .kml file.

This allows you to review your ride and take a look at the terrain. Frankly, I find it fun to look at the topography after a ride and see what the hills really look like.

Routing:

This is the one feature that to date I have not needed to use on my bicycle, but intend to anyway. The Edge 705, and others, will enable you to select a destination and then it will determine the route, based on select criteria that you input. You decide whether or not to allow routing on primary roads, or limit it's road selection to secondary roads. You also tell it your mode of travel. It calculates the distance and takes a stab at predicting your arrival time. The Garmins that I've used with this feature predict arrival time with an amazing amount of accuracy.

Now, the reason why I have not used this feature much on the bicycle is that when I ride I rarely have a destination. Usually, I'm out for the ride itself, but if I was touring, or riding in a strange city, that might the feature I'd rely on the most. As it is, I tend to use the other two--information display and logging--the most.

But none of it works if you forget to plug it in and charge the battery.



*This assumes that you are using one with either a wheel pick up for speed/distance, or are using a newer GPS with better reception. If you are not, then it'll just be frustrating. Seriously.

Small Parts

I am not a clean man. I mean, not that I'm not clean now. That is, I took a shower this morning, and everything. What I'm trying to say is, I'm unorganized and messy.

Right off the bat, the road cyclists in you are saying things like, "Typical mountain biker." C'mon, though, that's just not fair. I've met quite a few mountain bikers (well, one or two, at least) that clean their bikes from time to time. Moreover, I know a number of road cyclists (well, me, anyway) who like having a road bike because they (I) never need to clean it. No mud = no cleaning.

Anyway, being messy means I have various cardboard boxes in my garage with random assortments of parts. Some parts I'll never use again. Others will be critical to me the next time I decide to change things up in my stable of bikes.

The problem, though, is knowing which is which.

The last time I really cleaned out my garage and decided to get rid of everything I was never going to use again, I got rid of something that was absolutely necessary for me about 6 months later. I cursed my one-time clean ways.

But, I started to notice, the other day, a specific part that seems to be everywhere. EVERYWHERE, I tell you. And, I almost never want it. It's very small. I get new ones all the time, though not by choice. The only time these are even remotely useful is in really muddy rides which, as I believe I've mentioned before, I try to avoid.

The part: Presta Valve Stem Cap

I've found these little buggers:

1. laundry room
2. dresser drawer
3. coin drawer/ash tray of car
4. glove compartment of car
5. door compartment of car
6. trunk of car
7. seat-pack(s)
8. hydration pack(s)
9. together with spare cleat-bolts and other assorted items in an empty 35mm film canister
10. zippered jersey pocket
11. tool box
12. every one of my random cardboard boxes full of parts which fill up my garage.

And yet, I can't seem to bring myself to throw them away when I find them.

A note to inner-tube manufacturers: Thanks, but I'm good with this part. I've had my fill. For life. I don't believe I will ever need any more of these. Ever.

Hydration Packs

There is quite the variety of hydration packs on the market today. Just for fun, I took a screen shot from Bike Nashbar (see link over there --->).

That's not even the entire first page! Under Hydration Systems, they list 52 different packs. And they only carry three companies: Camelbak--by far the biggest contributor to the 52 variations--Hydrapak and Nalgene. They don't even carry Deuter, Ergon, Wingnut, Vaude, Dakine or Fox. What a crowded market!

And yet, every year, there are improvements and, it seems, every year another company wants to make a go at it. This time around it was Ergon. We've been looking at their BD-1 and have wrapped up the review. Check it out HERE, then come on back 'cause I'm not done.

[hold music]

Oh good, you're back.

What I find most interesting is that with all of this variation, all of these different options, so many different approaches to the same problem, there is still room for improvements. The BD-1 is a good example of a "clean slate" design--that is, looking the problem with a fresh mind, not building on any preconceived ideas--and the result is good. But it could be a little better. As I stated in the review, the pack puts the bladder further away from the rider so the hose needs to be quite long. If you are tall, the problem is worse.

That was the biggest issue I had. It made drinking from the pack harder than it should--I mean, it's made for drinking! They, Ergon, are introducing their own bladder any day now, so that problem should go away.

All in all, though, if you aren't able to find a hydration pack to fit your needs, you've got some odd needs. Seriously. There is a pack for every type of ride and every budget--though not necessarily at the same time.

Features

In my post last week about the Edge 705, Where am I, ark commented that he was disappointed that temperature wasn't one of the many things that the Edge could display. So am I.

Here's why.

The other day I was in Bi-Mart--those of you living in the Pacific Northwest might be familiar with that store--and, since I needed to kill some time, I was perusing the bicycle aisle. I do that from time to time to see what accessories are available and what they are selling for. All of the accessories on the pegs were either Bell branded or Slime branded. I looked at the computers--there were two, both Bell branded--and they were approximately $12 for the wired version and approximately $20 for the wireless. And they both had temperature! Seriously, why isn't temperature something that is available on every bike computer?

Now, I'm not saying that these computers are any better that what bike shops have. Frankly, I'd be shocked--shocked !--if they survived a single ride in the rain, but the fact remains that temperature is a very inexpensive feature to add. If you, the manufacturer, are already throwing in the kitchen sink, why not add one more item?

Ugh... Mornings

Let me just cut to the chase... I am not a morning person. This is the hardest part about commuting by bicycle, to me. I have to get up, get on the bike--no breakfast before riding--and face the elements, traffic, etc. It seems to take me forever to get warmed up, too.

Take this morning for example.

I have not been bicycle commuting for about 2 weeks now. I've managed to make excuses every day why I needed a vehicle in town. I've been riding, mind you, just not to work and back. I have also only been riding in the evenings or at night. Today, however, I decided that it was time to get back in the saddle, to not let anything stand in my way. Today, I was commuting by bike, come hell or high water.

Today, as I was riding, I remembered something I've learned in the past... and one reason why I dislike racing. If you want to ride at a particular time--morning, night, etc.--you have to train at that time. You need to condition your body to ride at certain times of the day, just like you have to condition your body to ride for a certain length of time, or a certain distance. And, just like any other conditioning, if you fail to keep up with it you lose it. What does this have to do with racing? Most races start in the morning.

I am not keeping up with my morning ride conditioning. To make matters worse, we rode hills this morning, so it was a slow struggle to summit the small climbs. Of course, once out of the hills, I was finally warmed up. Too bad the hills don't come last.

I have got to be more consistent with my commuting. This now and again commuting is too painful. My hat's off to you who manage to ride every day, regardless of distance or weather or other obligations. You are my inspiration.

Epic Night

As I've mentioned in the past, I ride at night on a regular basis year round. There is usually 3 to 6 people on these rides and they start around 9:30pm. Why so late? That's an easy one. The kids are in bed/asleep by then. We're all, for the most part, family men, so working rides in around the family is just one of the hurdles we jump through. Normally the rides are around an hour to an hour and a half.

Lately, though, we've been wanting to do a longer ride. Our appetite is only being whetted by the shorter rides, and the weather has been dry and warm-ish.

Last night, we did that longer ride.

We did a 24 mile ride--off road--with 2800 ft of climbing. What fun. There is something about being out in the dark that long. First, there are the critters. The longer you are outside, the more of them you see. And see them we did--shrews, mice, deer, etc. Very cool.

It was so fun, in fact, that we plan on doing more of the longer night rides in the future.

As a group, we used a mixture of DiNotte lights--two 200L's (one Li-Ion one AA powered), one 600L--NiteRider--a MiNewt X.2 and a SolMate--and a Princeton Tec Switchback 2. All of the lights performed as expected, no-one was left in the dark. I was using one of the 200Ls and the 600L and neither light showed the low battery warning. As a precaution, though, I was packing an extra 2 cell battery--they're small!--since I could use it with both the 200L and the 600L.

It also gave me my first chance to put the Edge 705 through it's paces. Though Garmin provided me with the wheel sensor/cadence pickup, I did not use it. I really wanted to see how well the GPS handled the tree cover--something that has been a problem in the past.

Here is what I discovered, in no particular order:
-The little joystick used to navigate the screens is dirt simple to use.
-Having the option to show as many, or as little, information on the main screen is fantastic. I used it showing 6 items--speed, ascension, heart rate, clock, distance and ride time.
-The 705 does not show temperature. [sorry, ark]
-In 2.5 hours, I only used 25% of the battery. Next night ride, I'll set the back light to stay on the whole time.
-The stem mount works very well, particularly since Garmin includes a shim to help place the GPS more level when mounted to angled stems.
-The Edge 705 got a position fix--cold start, inside my house--faster than any GPS I've used to date.
-I never got a "poor signal" notice.
-The unit is small with a large screen.

That's it for now. I'll be using it extensively in the coming months and I'll post more thoughts as time goes by.

Where Am I?

At the end of 2006 I had exactly--I counted--zero GPSs in the house. Not a single one. Oh, I had used them before. I've borrowed from friends, had some on loan for review, that sort of thing. But I owned not one. Then, in short order, I acquired--semi-permanently--a Garmin Etrex. Shortly after that I was given a Garmin 76CSx which is now mounted on my motorcycle. Later in the year, I picked up my Tilt--PocketPC phone, geek that I am--with a built in GPS, as I mentioned last week.

For those of you keeping track, that's 3. Granted, they all serve a different purpose. The Etrex is small enough for bicycle use, the 76CSx has routing capabilities--something I hope to use more often--and a nice base map and my phone is with me 100% of the time and is connected to the internet.

Today, I received a new toy... er... piece of equipment to review. The Garmin Edge 705. Unlike the aforementioned GPSs, this one is bicycle specific.

It has a base map, has a microSD slot for additional maps, measures--and logs--speed, altitude, calories burned, distance, climbing and descending and more. It'll also handle--depending on options--heart rate, cadence and can use a wheel pickup so you don't lose distance data when a good satellite fix isn't possible.

It is, in short, the latest, best cycling GPS Garmin offers.

Naturally, I'll post more after I get some time with it.

As you can see, I'm cultivating a GPS fetish to go along with my light fetish.

Brief Update -- Flats

While I don't have anything witty for April Fools Day, I thought I'd post an update on my Tubeless Road tire flat from the other day.

As I mentioned in the comments, in order to fix a puncture in a tubeless tire, road or mountain, you should really use a tubeless tire patch kit. I happen to have one of those, but have never used it. Instead, the very few times I have had a puncture, I've thrown some Stan's goop in the tire and re-inflated it. I have one tire that is years old and just recently had to redo the Stan's fix. The tire had been on a hook for quite some time. I think that it works well, doesn't take much of the stuff, and is simpler than applying the patch.

But would it work with the higher pressure road tires?

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: I put one cap full into the tire, pumped it up to my normal 95psi--recommended for my weight--pressure and went riding. No loss of pressure during the ride. And this morning when I checked the tire it was as good as new. So, this is now my fix for Tubeless Road as well.


If you really want a good April Fools Day laugh, go HERE and HERE.