peteandtheartofbicyclemaintenanceandcycl

Pete and the art of bicycle maintenance and cycling blog

50 years old, mid-life crisis kicking in,, kids a bit older and a wife who reckons 'just give up - you are too old for it"

What does the Pirate do, Revisits his competive cycling roots.

A u-beaut website with all the racing bike tips you will ever want:

Cycle performance tips.com

The tale of the Trusty Rusty

The Rusty Red Rocket - about the 5th re-incarnation of the trusty rusty blue rocket

The 160 km round taupo cycle race

Round Taupo cycle challenge was the catalyst for my cycling renaissance. For many years I had told myself, now there was a challenge! (round Taupo cycle race) 160 km was certainly going to be outside my comfort range. And every year, some event or circumstance conspired to stop me from doing the race. As I approached the ripe old age of 50, I thought to myself now if I don't do it soon I will be too old.

So, I started training. The round Taupo cycle challenge website had a training schedule, which I sort of followed and to hone my racing edge, I entered in a couple of local 80 km/100 km fun rides (go flat out) into my build up. It was fantastic. Way back in the dark ages when I was a colt cycle racer in Nelson, a good bunch might be 20 cyclists and that was exciting. A Peleton of 20 cycles would stretched out and snake its way around corners at a fierce speed. My first fun run around Lake Ferry with the Wellington Vets had about 600 cycle entries and the bunches were as many as 50 or more cyclists. It was fast. It was colourfull, it was almost as good as Tour de France in my book.

Screaming about the country en lycra clad mass on fragile racing bikes was not without its hazards and I was witness to numerous crashes. I think I will write a section on them later.

Back to the old trusty rusty. My Dad had bought me a shiney blue 10 speed racing bike way back in the early 70's. It was a cracker and I used it to race with the Nelson Amateur Athletic and Cycling club. I soon grew out of the frame, but an oversized seat post enabled me to continue using the frame for the next 30 years or so. Modifications came thick and fast: High pressure tyres were good for training, but lighter racing tubular tyres provided less friction and more speed. So I got a set of tubular wheels and I would change wheels over for racing and put the old rugged high pressure tyred wheels back on after racing for the weeks training schedule.

Road racing in winter, then strip the bike down completely and use the old trusty rusty blue rocket as a track bike for summer.

I got lots of use out of the ol trusty rusty blue rocket and put in lots of miles. Probably thousands. And things started wearing out. So I replaced them, rebuilding the bike several times. In its last version, I had fitted the bike with aero bars, assymetric chainwheels etc. About all that was left of the original bike by that stage was the frame, front dereillieurs and head stem. By the year 2000 the frame was well rusty from a combination of honest sweat and the ravages of Wellingtons almost constant blustery Northerly salt spray. Despite all its rebuild re-incarnations, and our long history together, I had to admit to myself that it was pretty much time for a new bike.

I need a new bike

I explained to Mrs Notman that if I was going to do the around Taupo race, I would need a new bike and that it was going to cost about $2000 for a half decent one. Mrs Notman naturally thought that was a fiscally sound thing to do. NOT! and said no way.

So, baring in mind that the bike would have to stay together for the training, pre-racing and last 160 km for the race, I set too and re-built the trusty rusty for its 4th complete rebuild. It cost about $1000 but enabled me to complete my first around Taupo Challenge in a reasonably good pace of 5 hours 18 minutes.

That Bike has been around for a while

Subsequently, when I was out racing, a good part of my race was spent chatting about the old trusty blue rocket. I'd be in the peleton fair flying along and a guy would come alongside and say "wow that bike has been around for a while ... you know that the frame will snap?". Then I would say, Nah, it is forged from solid caste-iron from the volcanoes of Taiwan. It might sag, but it will never snap. All that rust is from honest sweat and indeed the bike is getting lighter and faster every year. Besides my evil wife won't let me buy a new bike, so I re-built it pretty much from scratch. There would be a pause then "oh, bit like grandfathers axe?" ... Yup, like grandfathers axe.

Then a few minutes later another cyclist would come along and I would again explain the volcanoes of Taiwan and the evil wife and the grandfathers axe etc etc.

This would carry on throughout each and every race.

The Frame actually snapped

Training for the my second round Taupo race, my training buddy, Brett Grant and I went for a 80 km cycle ride from Cambridge, near Hamilton. The ride was great Round Taupo training with lots of rolling hills and it was a good day. Just as we got back to where we started in Cambridge, I boosted it on a round about and just as I flew onto a bridge, there was a "snap" and the whole bike went very wobbly. Uh, oh, I backed off and carefully coasted the 300 m back to the car. Sure enough the antiquated trusty rusty blue rocket had finally succumbed and snapped on the riser just above the cranks ... probably where all the pressure goes on.

Doh!

So I got my new bike

I got over lamenting the loss of the trusty rusty blue rocket by buying a new GIANT OCR zero carbon aluminium composite racing bike. What a difference. For a start, the old trusty rusty blue rocket, bless it's soul, weighed in at 12.5 kgs. The new black beauty weighed in at 8 kgs. That and having 18 gears as opposed to just 10 and about half as many spokes, made the new black beauty a much quicker machine.

Moral of the story. All that money spent on resurrecting the trusty rusty blue rocket was well wasted in a fiscally stupid decree from 'she who must be obeyed'. The new black beauty cost $2000 and was way the heck better. Imagine the state of the art rocket I might now have if I had gotten a $3000 one using that $1000 I spent on fixing up the old trusty rusty blue rocket!!!

I have been racing the new precious black beauty ever since. There was a bit of a running in period which involved about 100 punctures including a tragic puncture 20 kms into the best ever Round Taupo: Training and the series of fun rides had gone very well and I was in good condition. Jumping up a few starting groups for my second Round Taupo found me in very good company. I reckon I was in a bunch of about 100 cyclists ... then we caught up to another bunch of about 100 cyclists. The mega-bunch was sensational and scary at the same time. Dropped drink bottles came out of nowhere and being shoulder to shoulder there was no way forward or back. But oh the joy! Tucked in the slipstream of so many riders ... I practically didn't have to pedal up hills and the bunch was eating up the miles at a fierce pace. It was a meal ticket to a personal best time ever.

.... Then I got a puncture.

To cut a long story short, demonstrating great maturity and self control, instead of sitting on the side of the road, crying and withdrawing from the race, I fixed the puncture, hooked onto the back of the next peleton and finished the race in 5 hours 15 minutes ... but if only I hadn't got that puncture. I eventually found the problem to be 'drifting' rim tape exposing the tube (105 lbs pressure) to an occasional spoke hole which 'herniated' the tube and resulted in a periodic puncture. Some you beaut old style sticky cloth rim tape has since (touch wood) solved the problem.

The birth of the trusty red rusty

The old trusty blue rusty rocket got abandoned in the shed until 2009 when we had a lot of rainy days. I wasn't going to let my precious black beauty get worn out in the rain, it cost too much for a start. On top of that I had spent $1000 on the old trusty blue rusty rocket which only really needed a frame and would be as good as new. Ross Leger sold me a frame that he had got off Trademe Monster for $100.

Surprisingly, exchanging all the gear over to the trusty red rusty frame was a straight forward affair. I expected some in-compatibilities, but in the end I didn't even have to adjust the deraillieurs. That was impressive. So now, I have the trusty red rusty as a commuter/trainer/wet race day racer and a potential light weight cycle tourer.

The trusty red rusty is very 'retro' and serves as a reminder of how good the new black beauty is. That carbon fibre makes a difference. The steel framed old trusty red rusty is a retina loosening bone rattler in comparison.

The only original trusty rusty blue rocket components now surviving on the trusty red rusty are the gear levers and the front deraillieurs

... it pretty much has become like 'grandfathers axe'.

Pre-start conversations

Where's your speedo?

No, not the name brand skimpy swimming togs made by speedo (the ones that cousie Tracey reckons ought to be banned). Modern cyclists are often armed with all manner of electronics componentry. There are readings of your cadence, heart rate, speed, average speed, top speed, distance, time ... you name it. They even have speedos that give you speed and altitude calculated directly from Satelite information.

Often while waiting for the pre-starts, I get asked where's your speedo? I responded that I am 'old school' and I don't carry any telemetry. I reckon modern cyclists spend too much time looking at their speedos and not the tyre infront of them or even paying attention to where they are going! I have seen far too many crashes to worry about how fast I am going.

There usually follows much head nodding in agreement

Is that your heart rate monitior?

Then they see my watch. It is a dive computer that I am too lazy to take off and replace with something lighter for racing. Considering the risk of getting it damaged in a fall, I really ought to be making an effort to use a lighter more disposable watch.

They ask is that your heart rate monitor? No, I don't do heart rate monitors. My triathlon team won one and since everybody except me had one, they gave it to me. It is useful for training, but I never really know what my maximum target heart rate should be. Indeed, I almost had a heart attack the other day when I was training. I glanced at my heart rate monitor as I passed a 'hot cycling chick' and it was reading 240 beats per minute.

That was a concern on a number of levels. First 240 minutes is fine for a hummingbird, but I was pretty sure that was way and above my target maximum. Secondly it might indicate that despite denials, I might infact just be a dirty old man ... then I realised that it was probably just my heart rate monitor recording both the hot cycle chicks heart rate (from her monitor) and my heart rate ... that was kind of reassuring: I wasn't necessarily going to drop on the spot from a heart attack. But it also meant that the device probably wasn't going to be of much use during a race in a big bunch where my monitor might well be corrupted by other proximate heart rate monitors.

Also, there was the time in one of the Round Taupo Races when I was descending Kuratau Hill at light speed in close company of about 8 cyclists. We were fair flying down the hill in tight formation, swooping around the corners like World War 2 fighter planes. Then we all became aware of this urgent "beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep" sound. Criminey, that didn't sound good at all. Maybe somebody was having a heart attack and was going to drop on the ground. Worse still, maybe somebody was getting over excited about screaming down the hill indicating that they were way out of their skill range.

We all started looking nervously at each other and given the circumstances, extended our personal space the best we could.

Fortunately and miraculously we all made it safely down the hill. Talking about it afterwards, some heart rate monitors have alarms set at maximum and minium levels. It is possible that somebodies heart rate had gone close to max as they hit the brow of the hill at the end of a hard climb and then dropped as we descended setting their alarm off.

Anyway it was most concerting.

Nah its my dive watch

Appreciate that all these pre-start conversations occur with me surrounded by many man in tight lycra .. that's another story (and I won't go there).

So I say, nah, its my dive watch ......... it tells me whether I am bent or not.

That usually is show stopper, and we can get on with some serious racing!

4-up time trial fiasco

A few weeks back (time flys fast don't it???) I trucked up to the PNP Team Time trial on the off chance that I could make up a team. On reflection that was a bold strategy as there was a nervous chances of falling in with a group WAY out of my league and everything ending in tears.

An email to the organiser got an encouraging response "Rock on up". So I did.

It was a lovely day, but I started getting nervous when I noticed a whole bunch of teams in co-ordinated team colours ... representing various cycle clubs ... and cyclists with carbon fibre wheels and touting specialist flash aero-dynamic helmets. Signs were starting that it was highly likely that I was going to be way out of my league.

A team of my race mates Scott and Greg Dobson and very fast looking Reuben Blackwell were short of a team mate that had pulled out at the last minute. I thought I might have had a snowballs chance of keeping up with them. At least I was able to keep up with Scott for some of the races last season. So maybe things weren'' looking too bad?

I was able to keep up with the crew for a what I thought was a fairly brisk warm up. I kept asking what is our race strategy? I never actually got a reply. I think the plan was to go ballistic and pass as many teams ahead of us as we could and stave off as many teams behind us as we could.

On reflection, (especially after dissing telemetry) 4-up time trials are the very race that telemetry would be vital. I think a good race strategy would have been to start sharply, average a pace close to 35 km/hr after the start and through the hills (my weakest link) then after the hills. Then we could up the ante to maybe 37 km/hr as we turned into the second half of the race where it was slightly up hill and up wind. Then we could go nuts 40 km/hr plus on the run to the line. I like that strategy and I think it would have worked. Recently on the PNP Wainuomata race I was able to average 40 km/hr for the race, so if anything the above strategy might have been conservative.

Anyhow the start came and we took off at a very sharp pace and roared up the first hills. I was left at the back of the bunch hanging on for dear life and quickly going anaerobic. On the last climb to the flat section to the first turn around, I thought, "Nah, these guys are way too fast, they only need 3 to count for team time, I am going to leave them to it!'. So I eased back and Scott, Greg and Rueben dissappeared up the road.

At this point was torn as to whether or not I should retire or just carry on and do the course as a training ride. I thought it wouldn't hurt to do the later and I was able to hold and possibly catch up to a pair of women cyclists 'the Chicks' that had started ahead of us and dropped their 3rd man. Indeed I was trying to tow their 3rd man back to them (bit naughty really as teams weren't supposed to collaborate ... but it was all a bit academic ... I was going to have to tow the dude back to the chicks at a fast pace. Since the chicks had dropped the dude in the first place, it was never going to happen!).

Again I had the opportunity to retire at the halfway mark and persisted with my mission to salvage at least some training time out of the adventure.

Soon after me, to my utter amazement I came across Scott standing beside his bike on the side of the road.

What the !??? The teams 3 rd man of our clearly talented but clearly ill-disciplined team had been abandoned on the side of the road ... either Scott or me had to finish to record the Team time.

"Harden up Scott ... get on my tail and we can finish this thing".

Scott leapt on his bike and caught up to me. We upped the pace and dropped the chicks third man.

Scott complained of 'lung burn' which was something like I had experienced during the climb up that last hill and backed off as I reached my anaerobic limit. So I could clearly empathise. I asked Scott if maybe he had the flu coming on or something like that. Scott didn't so.

Scott bravely held on as I upped the pace as much as I was comfortable with. At the turn around for the home leg, Scott had recovered enough to take turns at the front and our pace picked up some more. The Chicks were clearly in sight now and Scott up the ante another notch and we wound them back. By the time we caught up to the Chicks Scott had completely got his breath back and we fair flew to the finish line. In the end I finished 1 m ahead of Scott to finish the 'Team Time'

'Team Time' - Well our talented but ill-disciplined 'Team Time' had come back to my 'pretty much individual time trial efforts'. I was chuffed to later learn that my efforts had beaten a couple of 5 man teams. But we could have had a much better result if we had a plan and worked together. But it was a great experience and I will know what to do next time!

The team trial postscript - that night I come down with a wicked chest cough. It felt like something between a cross of pneumonia and hooping cough. I suspect Scott too had succumbed to a flu strain (nah not swine flu) and although we felt good at the start of the race it was wrecking havoc on our performance. Our 'lung burn' was the flu making itself known and we were sure to know about it afterwards!!!

It has been quite a while, bit of a hiatus with a damaged shoulder and work getting in the road of serious training.

Mrs No and a group of friends had a fabulous cycle adventure through the infamous Central Otago's "Rail Trail" - a tour expertly organised by NZ Bicycle tours is captured in this picassa site

Otago Rail Trail adventure 2011

2012 THE COMEBACK TRAIL

25th February 2012: I am on the comeback trail and have been ramping up the training and looking at rejoining the PNP road racers. I was too lazy to wake up early and go to the interclub race at Te Horo. I was actually a bit nervous expecting to end up doing the ride of shame (on my own by myself ... after being dropped by the bunch). But I could have fitted in somewhere between the break 4 and limit groups.

25 February 2012 PNP Martinborough Pave

The next and intriguing race to launch my comback was the PNP Pave (pronounced par-vay) scheduled for 25 February. The pave race was 6-8 laps of a 7 odd kilometer course with a 2.5 km section of gravel road. My plan was to use my old 27" rusty red rocket with 1 1/4" high pressure tyres. It is close enough to a cyclo cross bike and while it would be a bit slow on the tarmac, it should have been manageable enough on the gravel.

My plans were put on the back burner when I got tagged for Marshal duties. PNP shares the Marshaling duties which is fair enough. As a racer, you just turn up like a movie star, run your race and bugger off. However for that to happen a lot of people have to get the equipment trailer to the start, distribute road cones, signage and marshals around the course, set up the timing equipment to record results and take the entries. In short, a huge amount of work goes in behind the scenes to organise and conduct the race. So it is only fair enough to 'share the love' and this way everybody gets to have a go.

As it turned out the Pave race was probably not a bad one to sit out. This was because the gravel section of the course had unfortunately been recently graded. Racers were faced with a solid wall of thick smoothly graded gravel with no 'ruts' to lock into and hammer on. Subsequently there was lots of crashes, gravel rash and carnage. However, dispite the grief most of the field seemed to finish the challenging course.

I took a few snaps with the trusty olympus mu and created a bit of a poster that sort of summarises the race (at least where I was it was perhaps the positive part of the race - on the tarmac infront of the start/finish line).