I can tell I'm getting better at this.

Last few weeks I noticed when I accelerated when I was at above 20mph, my rear wheel made swooshing noise.

Yea, this is what I have now. Mavic Aksium (source: Mavic)

I thought the hub was not tight enough, so the rim had play a bit. Nope. I checked and checked again, the play was less than 1mm side to side.

So I asked on the bike forum I go to, and they said, it's the noise the wheel set can make slicing through the air at high speed.

Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Really!!!!!!!

I never though I could ride fast enough to make that noise. This never happened last year, and it's still early in the season, I can easily accelerate at above 20mph.

This is awesome.

New chain lube

I've been using Finish Line dry lube in a spray can.

Yea, this one. (source: Finish Line)

It's "dry lube" so I expected my drive train stayed clean, but it stayed clean only for a couple of weeks.
So, I did some research about a chain lube that stays clean ride after ride, and ended up buying this.

Out of focus a bit. This phone camera is a bit tricky.

Many people said it's best to use "wax lube" regardless of the brand, and many recommended this one. Hmm.. Wax lube. Ok.
As you can see in the picture, it has clear blue-ish liquid part and white wax part. When you shake it hard, it becomes like this.

After shaking it. It's all milky white solution.

 The solution has super low viscosity. It's almost like skim milk, or milk+water mixture. I had to be careful not to spill all over the floor when I applied on the chain.

To test how good it is in keeping my drive train clean, I'll apply it on my bike and ride for 200 miles (not at once, but over a few days). Usually 200 miles is when my drive train turns black.
I'll post shots later.

These are the 0-mile shots. I just cleaned it up yesterday.

 

 

I just got a repair stand

Every time I washed my bike or cleaned the chain I always thought to myself, 'I need a repair stand.'

I've been looking at ParkTool PCS-10 for some time, waiting for a special deal or something.

I ordered one from Feedback last weekend.

It was 25% off at REI and they offered free shipping.

After days of waiting, I received it today.

Tada~

The box.

My bike on the stand.

I paid about $97 and it's pretty good. It feels sturdier than I expected.

One thing I don't like about it is there's no height adjustment, but I don't care that much.

I'll use it tomorrow to clean my chain. How exciting!!!

What's your post-workout food?

Mine? Chocolate milk.
No kidding. That's actually really good source of pretty much everything you need after the workout.
Check out the nutrition label on it. It has all you need right after the intense workout.

It has all you need (source: Google search)

It was last summer I heard about drinking chocolate milk instead of any other fancy stuff. I didn't believe it simply because it sounded too easy and simple. But, after I checked out the nutrition label on it, I was convinced this was a really good stuff.

Usually when I return from 2+ hr ride, I drink a glass of chocolate milk first. That gives me enough time to take a shower and cook pasta.

What do you eat/drink after your workout?

Powerade powder

Today was my 3rd ride of the year and I went to store to get some sports drinks, and I found this one.

It's Powerade in powder form. Do you see what it says on the label?
"MAKES 2 GALLONS"
2 Gallons? 2?

The regular type was on sale and it was a dollar each. For that powder I paid $4, and I can make 2 gallons of that magical blue liquid.

I tested it today, and it tasted and worked just like the regular one.

From now one I think I'll buy powders and add water to it.

Biking season is back... sort of.

So the winter is ending in my town.
Today, some said it's summer already.
Today's high was ~78F, so I guess it's almost summer.
It's still very early to be this warm, and I'll see how long this lasts.

To greet the new biking season, the first thing I did was buying a new jar of Nutella.
Some of you may not know what that is, but it's that magical thing you put on your toast bread in the morning.
It tastes soooo good, and there's no match.

What's more important is how many Calories it's packing in 1 serving.
Check this out.

That's right. One serving, 200 Calories.
Eat 2-3 slices of toast with this on top + a glass of orange juice, you're ready for 2 hr ride.

One thing I noticed since I started biking is that it's important to eat enough calories during the season, but you don't want to have full stomach (riding alone is hard already. carrying all that stuff in your stomach around is just not a pretty idea). So, smaller volume with high calories is something I always look for.

Plus, Lance Armstrong eats it, too.

So, all you cyclists out there, get Nutella now.

Tony Martin

Well, it's still off-season here where I live. So, I keep writing about others rather than myself.
Today, I want to introduce Tony Martin to all those non-cyclists.

First time I heard his name was in the documentary called "Changing Legends". Chasing Legends was big part of why I started biking. I'll talk more about it some other time.

Anyhow, back to Tony.

Tony Martin started his pro career in 2008 with Team Highroad. Team Highroad has been home for many amazing cyclists. I guess I'll talk about Team Highroad some other time as well.

In the Chasing Legends, there's a part Tony chased after a known climber Gárate (the former champion of Spain) in stage 20. Tony Lost to Gárate but it was a pretty impressive performance.
Regarding Tony's performance in stage 20 Phil Liggett said, "He's gonna be a wonder kid. He's gonna be a great bike rider...He's got a super future in front of him"

I guess he was right. In 2011 Tour de France, Tony Martin won the individual time trial (stage 20).
I couldn't find a good video in English.

After that, Tony Martin became a time trial world champion. Now he wears the rainbow jersey (only champions can wear this). I wonder what kind of performance he'll show this year.
Earlier this year he mentioned he wants to wear yellow jersey in TdF and win a gold medal at London. It'll be an interesting year to watch him.

This is Tony in Rainbow jersey during the Tour of Beijing time trial. He starts at 2:00.

LiveStrong wristband

Oh, the yellow Lance Armstrong band!!!

If you bike, you may have this.
If you run, you may have this, too.
If you never do anything physical, you still may have this.
Is there anything else you can do with this other than wearing it?

I found a good use for it.

It grabs onto the break lever.

This way you can prevent your bike from moving when you lean it against a wall or something.
It doesn't grab onto the lever very strong, but it's strong enough to keep the bike still.

Lance Armstrong is awesome, and I like my LiveStrong wristband.

Evelyn Stevens

Do you know Evelyn?
Many people recognize Emilia Fahlin, but it seems Evelyn Stevens is not drawing as much attention as Emilia.

Emilia. She's blond. She's Swedish. She's a cyclist. Did I mention she's blond?

Don't get me wrong. I think Emilia is an awesome cyclist. She's 2009-2011 Swedish time trial champion, and she's only 21. 3 national championship win at age of 21 is pretty impressive.
I'm mentioning Emilia here because they are teammates and I saw many people talking about Emilia, but no one really said much about Evelyn. Evelyn is more intriguing to me because she has a very unusual history as a professional athlete.
Go to her wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Stevens

She's 28 years old, but her record starts in 2008, when she was 25. Plus, this 2008 record is not even professional (Cat 3/4 means she's starting out). Considering most pro cyclists start as junior and they show some results in their early 20's already, winning record starting at age of 25 seems a bit odd.

Then again, she's US time trial champion in 2010 and 2011. I'm sure she'll win the championship race this year again (I'll explain what time trial is some other time. Google it if you can't wait).
Hmm... wait. She started at 25 and 2 years later she's US champion? Really?

Evelyn used to work in finance on Wall Street and she discovered her talent rather later.
This article is her story on Wall Street Journal.

She's a top US cyclist now, but I hope to see her becoming a world champion in near future.
She's with Team Specialized-Lululemon now (formerly known as Team HTC-Highroad).
This video is not the really about her, but she's in it. So, here it is.

THE MAN WHO LIVED ON HIS BIKE

This is a great work. Probably one of the best I've seen.
The original is at http://vimeo.com/35927275




THE MAN WHO LIVED ON HIS BIKE from Guillaume Blanchet on Vimeo.

How to store your bike during the off-season

For many cyclist winter is a sad time of the year.
In October and November I tried to bike as much as possible, but when the temperature drops below 50 the wind shear is just unbearable.

So, for us living in the unfortunate part of the country winter means off-season.

Then, you have to store you bicycle somehow, but is there something to consider?

Imagine you're storing your car in a garage for 4-5 months. Of course if you ask different people they answer differently, but they all come up with a short list of things to do.
Some may change engine oil, some will wash their cars, some would even wax it for some reason.

What about bicycle?
Is there something that really needs to be done?

One important thing is moving the derailleurs (not deraillers) toward smallest gear rings.

Do you see that in the picture? I mean move derailleurs toward the green arrows.

Top view of the front derailleur. Move your derailleur (and chain) toward green arrow direction (inward)

Rear derailleur. Move your derailleur (and chain) toward green arrow direction (outward)

This is fairly important. To understand why, you may need to know how derailleur works.
Derailleurs are nothing but guides that align your chain to remain in certain position. Wherever the derailleurs go, chain will follow.
Imagine you're shifting rear derailleur from the outer-most gear to the second to the outer-most. First, the derailleur moves (because you're shifting). The chain does not move onto the new gear right away.
It stays onto the old gear until it gets to the shifting point.

If you look closely once every few teeth of the gear has different shape. Look at the picture below.

Do you see the blue arrows and the shape of teeth is different than their neighbors? That's where the shifting happens.

The teeth of that shifting point is smaller than others, so the chain can go in-and-out of the gear smoothly. Ah~.

Ok. Now, as you noticed the derailleurs are spring loaded, meaning there are springs applying force in one direction all the time. Take a look at the first two pictures above.
Do you see the green arrows? That's the direction of this spring force.
For example, in case of the rear derailleur, the spring mechanism inside of the derailleur is always pushing it outward.

When you shift gears you apply tension to the cable (there are a cable coming out of the derailleurs. One cable per a derailleur. Check your bike) and pull the derailleur toward the red arrow direction.

Inside the shifter (near your finger tips), there's a notched mechanism so it lets you pull the cable only so much, and that makes the derailleur stay in a certain position. (Imagine you're shifting from outer-most to second to outer-most, yet your derailleur ends up between some other random position. This notched mechanism prevents it from happening. It's like the derailleur is moving step-by-step and the size of this step is fixed by the shifter.)

Now you see how shifting works (beyond the chain and gears). You move shifter, shifter pulls the cable, cable pulls the derailleur to the next position, chain hits the shifting point on the gear, chain moves, you're on a new gear.

Shifting the other direction is pretty much the same except now you're not pulling the cable. The shifter let go of the cable, so the spring brings the derailleur back to smaller gear direction. This also happens by the step specified by the shifter mechanism.

Problem happens when you store your bike for a long time with derailleur in red arrow positions. Then you're constantly pulling the cable, fighting the force of the tension. A few hours or a few days in this position is fine. However, if it stays in that higher tension position for a long time (a few months) the cable gets stretched out.

Of course you can adjust the cable for smoother shifting, but when the cable is stretched out too much you need to get new cables. Other types of bicycles are a bit better, but for road bikes replacing cable is not really a simple job (it involves unwrapping bar tape, replacing cable and housing, re-routing the housing, putting the bar tape back on, and adjusting derailleurs).

So, move your shifter toward the green arrow directions during the storage.
If not, you may end up getting new shifting cables in the spring.

1st post

Well, this is my first post on this blog, and I don't expect to write much until weather gets better.
It's snowing outside and it's far from the biking season to resume.
Hmm. I wonder what it would be like to have a winter home in Australia.
I'm craving for some good biking time.