July 2007, it was new wheels time. I still thought that Hope hubs and Mavic rims were some of the best wheels going, but they were a little porky considering my lack of bulk. So, Stans ZTR Olympic rims seemed to be a good option to drop some weight; I didn’t really fancy building rims without eyelets onto Hope hubs with their notoriously uneven spoke tension. So, built wheels from Just Riding Along using American Classic hubs was the way to go.
I had several emails back and forth with Jon from JRA, regarding spare spokes, and whether to go with DT Revolutions or the slightly stronger DT Super Comp. I went with Revolutions, seeing as all my other wheels were built with them and I hadn’t had any issues.
Without spending insane amounts of money, these wheels are some of the lightest going, especially when you consider that Mavic’s top end wheels are almost twice the price, and 150g heavier.
First Ride
Hard test, their first ride was 10 at Kirroughtree, five hours of rocky punishment. I ran a Maxxis Crossmark on the back, and one of my favourites, an IRC Mibro on the front. All went well, the wheels felt super fast, accelerating out of corners and maneuverability in tight spaces were awesome.
Going Tubeless
OK, so this is one of the best things about these wheels, tubeless usage becomes so easy. I was going for the adventurous option, using just Stan’s yellow spoke tape (no rimstrip) and a pair of non-tubeless and super-light Crossmark eXCeption tyres. It took about 30 minutes and a lot of compressed air to get the tyres on, but boy was the end result light!
Second Ride
Another bit of a test, a 7-day stage race in Poland and the Czech Republic. It was pretty rocky, which twice resulted in me tearing the tyres. Thankfully standard tyres mean that popping them off the bead and throwing a tube in is super easy. Not being near a compressor did mean I couldn’t inflate the tyres, but even so, some of the euros were totally blown away with how light the wheels were with tubes in.
Better Tubeless
For 2008 I decided to use rimstrips to make mounting tyres easier. I still need to use the compressor (proper tubeless tyres make do with just a track pump), but it takes about 30s. This does incur a minor weight penalty, and you do have to remove a rimstrip when you puncture, but it’s worth it to get the tyres on easily.
Servicing
The hubs do have a tiny bit of tension adjustment in them, to allow take-up on play that develops, but this only works so far. After 14 months I replaced all four bearings in the rear wheel. These are tiny, 22mm outer diameter, with a 17mm inner diameter, so they don’t feel as smooth as bigger bearings in the likes of a Hope or DT hub. The replacement itself is a doddle, taking about 10 minutes including cleaning and re-greasing the freewheel mechanism.
The rims have for the most part remained true, although the front rim has developed about 3mm of lateral buckle, something which could easily be trued out of them. I believe that due to their construction, their strength is far superior to heavier offerings from DT and Mavic.
Overall
I love these wheels. Apart from my minor niggles with the size of the bearings in the rear wheel (JRA and other suppliers offer many hub options), they are fantastic race or trail wheels. I’ve given them a total battering and they’ve more or less only lost some of their shine. Customer service from JRA has been supreme, and they’re backed up by the fantastic folks at Paligap. Go get some!
Yesterday I hopped down to Peebles to watch the fifth round of the Scottish Cyclo-Cross Series. It was nice to be a spectator for a change, even though it looked like great fun. I forgot my camera, and had Magnus (the dog) with me, so photographs were iPhone only, and thus not high-quality enough for posting loads of them.
The course was a cracker, and certainly lived up to the ‘Euro-style’ billing. Lots of muddy grass, steep run-ups following hurdles, more steep bits, and some super slippy off-camber descents.
Kenta Gallagher got off to a mega start, pulling out a fair gap on a chasing group of Iain Nimmo (Squatra Porcini), James Fraser-Moodie (Pedal Power) and Rab Wardell (Sandy Wallace Cycles). Around the fourth lap the chasing group was split up when Moodie decided to go off on his own, Nimmo dropped back a few seconds with Wardell a few seconds further back.
On lap six Moodie bridged up to Gallagher and pulled away on his own. He went on to take the win with about a 30s gap to Gallagher. Nimmo was in third, with Andy Wardman taking fourth.
Despite not riding cyclo-cross this season, I’m still hooked on it! I wait impatiently for coverage of the Scottish CX series, as much as the World Cups and Superprestige (Watch these live online) rounds.
When it comes to the bigger events, there is one man I’m sure we all idolize, Sven Nys! He’s a tower of power in a ‘cross race, and no slouch on a mountainbike either, scoring a 9th place at the Olympics this year.
Sit back and enjoy this awesome compilation of his greatest moments from last year, especially around 35seconds where he’s pumping his arm while running up some stairs.
After winning the third round of the Inners TT Series, it made sense to try and do the same at the fourth and final round. A days rest after the last round of the SXC, and I was ready to go.
It was proper dark for this one, so I borrowed a nice bright HID from Tom ‘Wild Boar 24’ Owen. For the first part of the climb I didn’t need it, only the technical sections were worthy of it to start with. After the quarry I turned it off for the fireroad, so as to gain a small psychological advantage over those chasing. I started two minutes ahead of Andy Wardman, and looking back on the fireroad I could see he had already dropped time on me.
After the first bit of the descent it was back to ride-run-ride on the rocky old-skool section. There seemed to be a lot of traffic in this section, as people were having trouble with it. I had an over-the-bars, but got straight back up and off running.
On the descent I kept missing corners, and had to stop at one point to tuck my keys back into my top to stop them whacking me in the face as I went over the drops. Definitely some time wasted there.
I got to the bottom in one piece, phew! Andy Barlow had decided to ride his ‘big’ hardtail today, and even stopped to lower the saddle for more control on the descent. I beat him and Andy Wardman by a single second, taking the series win also, by one point!
Thanks very much to Helen and Steve for all their hard work organising the series, and thanks to all the folk who turned up for all the great banter.
Here’s hoping the rumoured winter series is as good…
Since I hadn’t finished a race at Glentress at the last 4 attempts, I had to give this round a go despite only ridden one other round at the beginning of the season.
The course was a less climbing-centric version version of last year’s, with a superb new rooty singletrack section that skirts the skills-area. I’d done two practice laps on the Saturday, and after a bit of tyre-pressure experimentation, I was ready to go.
The start was pretty brutal, big-ringing it up the fireroad. I was pretty near the back already, completely lacking in the power required to keep up. Once off the fireroad, things settled down, and apart from dropping my pump near the end of the first lap, I kept a steady pace.
By the end of my 4th lap my legs were really feeling the effort. A look at my watch told me if I wasted 6 minutes, I would get lapped, and thus could record a finish without doing another lap. After some soft-tapping, Gareth came past on his way to the win, leaving me to just cruise in. A little sprint with Richard grabbed me the second-last finishing place.
I realise this wasn’t up to my usual standards, but all I wanted was the finish, especially after a fairly sparse year as far as racing goes.
I did the Penrith Merida last year, so had a fair idea of what to expect. Or so I thought!
This year I got onto the front row, so as to avoid the three minutes waiting to get past the finish line. Conditions were wet under-tyre, but sunny, and thus dry from above.
The first main climb was the same as last year, about an hours worth of granny ring climbing up a bumpy grass , followed by a great fun descent. The second main climb was a reverse of what we did last year, complete with the stolen signs at the top. I made it all the way to a summit with one other guy ahead of me before we realised the error. There was about 20 people following us. 20 minutes wasted.
From that point on I was pretty demoralised, the walk up to even the point of the missing sign was a bit OTT for a mountain-bike race, and it was followed by a walk down too! The remainder of the route consisted of about 50% road, and a little bit more walking.
I soft tapped for a while, and chatted with Stu. Then I got a second wind and put the foot down again, totally motoring the last 10k.
I enjoyed the mud, but not the walking or road so much. Steven Hallsal entered on his ‘cross bike, finishing about 10 minutes behind me due to a puncture, so it wasn’t really a proper mountainbike course.
On the plus side, I did get a small t-shirt at the end for the first time ever (which was conveniently in a paper wrap so I didn’t get it muddy like the last 6 times), and a Gore Sportive Buff.
I might go back next year, but I’ll need to be pretty keen. Or take a ‘cross bike.
Vo an I decided to have a little tour up north for the weekend. Not having an appropriate touring bike, I whacked a rack on my winter bike (as well as some 10spd Campag niceness) and made do.
Day 0
Train to inverness two hours late, passed time with copy of new scientist. Girl across from us thinks she’s Juno. Staying in Inverness SYHA, nice enough.
Day 1
Vo’s not feeling well, so he has sleep while I do a 30mile loop of the Moray Firth. Went back to meet Vo, and in the afternoon we scooted down the road to Fort William. Staying in Glen Nevis campsite. 102miles.
Day 2
A late start and two punctures for me meant we had to go over the Rest and be Thankful in the dark. Going north-south the climb up the back is one of the dullest roads imaginable. Descent super interesting with just little road lights in the pitch dark. 98miles.
Day 3
Raining today, so after cycling round Loch Lomond we decided to bail on the last 40miles and just get the train home from Stirling. 50miles.
So at the first round of the series I was 6th, 5th at the second round, and on this attempt I posted the win!
Conditions were wet and muddy, just like how I like it! Got stuck in the big ring similar to the Selkirk Merida, but I’d pre-empted this and made sure I stayed in the middle ring all the way to the top. On the muddy techy section I had to do some running, but even with access to a smaller chainring, I would have been wasting time trying to ride some of the stuff.
Notable entry of the night was Stephen Jackson of GMBC, a man I have not seen at a race in a good few years!
Hoping for second time luckier after last year’s mechanicals, the Selkirk Merida is an event I’ve really been looking forward to, with lots of effort going into making sure my knee didn’t play up.
It was wet, for the second year running, but I had enjoyed the conditions last year, so this year was going to be no different. This time I’d prepared a spare front wheel with a knobbly tyre on it, hopefully avoiding whatever issue it was that caused me to puncture last year.
I lined up with the few others on the line with about 20 minutes to go. We were informed that we were facing the wrong way, and turning round meant there was about 800 riders in front of us. I followed quick-thinking Hamish Creber who dived into the carpark and along the back of the wall, climbing over a fence to be on the front again.
The road start was an easy 4 miles as expected, just drafting behind the pace-van until the fireroad. As soon as we left the road I jumped round to the top 10 riders, and a gap was quickly made on those behind. From there on it was just all about staying on the bike, and keeping fed and hydrated.
Over the top of Minch Moor I was still feeling good, but on reaching the bottom again, I discovered I was stuck in the big ring. I knew I wasn’t as strong as last year when this happened, so I stopped and botched it into the middle ring.
Next up was an over-the-bars stack at the bottom of the really muddy descent where the 50k riders join, it took me a while to get it back together, and I felt I was struggling on the huge fireroad climb. At the top I munched a packet of crisps and a banana, and set off feeling a lot better to tackle the last section.
Just like last year I felt the finish was a bit easy, a few little climbs followed by a huge descent with nothing to really drain the last of the power from your leg. Despite this I was glad to be finished.
Stats
2007: 8th, 4h 32m, ~30m on leader.
2008: 9th, 4h 43m, ~30m on leader.
From comparing the difference in riding between the two years, I feel pretty happy with the result. My knee also gave me no bother, so hopefully some solid training between now and the end of the season should see some other pleasing results. Roll on Penrith!
Things have been pretty hectic for the last 2 months, so I’ve not really been keeping up to date with the whole blog thing, and so now I’ll post a composite update on my travels…
Malaysia
At the beginning of June I travelled to Kuala Lumpur for ZoeCity. Had a wicked time out there, only really spoilt by lack of being able to ride a bike, and the gym in the hotel being pretty lackluster. The Petronas Towers are pretty cool, as well as the Trader’s Skybar opposite.
