Statrix Redux

I got my BikeFriday NWT back today. The main portion of the frame has been replaced, new parts added, and Green Gear is absolutely as good as its word. I’m not sure why I had a problem but they took care of it 100% and I’d buy another bike from them in a heartbeat. Indeed if I had the cash I’d probably buy a Tikit tomorrow. Instead I’m going to order some more stuff to finish the upgrade.
I’d dropped off my bike at the Honolulu location of The Bike Factory Hawaii on Cooke St. They took it out to the Waipio store where their BikeFriday guy, Duane, works as a manager and a week later, voila, one upgraded BF.
Of course I immediately took it out for a spin putting some 20 miles on it. The ride is, well it’s never been better. Which is to say it’s great. I’ll be completely honest and say it’s probably impossible to tell just from riding if the Chris King headset and the Phil bottom bracket actually improve the ride but hey, I know they’re down there and I feel good about it all.
I’ve also added a few things. The biggest item is a Rixen and Kaul KLICKfix Daypack Handlebar Bag:

I “needed” this for my summer ride so I can keep stuff at hand. It was loaded up when I took my test ride and I found no difference in handling. Of course I’m used to loading up my Quickbeam with all sorts of stuff on the front so a couple a kilo of stuff isn’t going to make much difference.
In any case I can now get back to getting ready for RAGBRAI on the bike I’ll be riding!
[And because I did 20+ today I’ve only got to get in 30 more miles this week to hit 120 and it’s only Monday. Piece of cake – I’ll get at least another 15 tomorrow leaving not a a whole lot needed this weekend on my Hilo bike.]
Aloha!

The last couple of weeks have been a bit on the crazy side and I haven’t even had a chance to comment! Right after my post about my mom’s implant I had to spend a day in meetings on Maui. Luckily I’d already completed my training miles for the week. Most folks would love to spend a day on Maui but as I really didn’t have a chance to do anything besides attend an 8-4 meeting and dinner it wasn’t a vacation. I did have a nice dinner at Bistro Casanova in Kahalui.
Luckily my training plan called for a light week when I got back of only 75 miles. It’s really not all that much. Still, because of my schedule, I had to do most of it early in the week because, as always, I just don’t have time later in the week, at least not until the weekend.
The past two weeks I’ve been attending classes at work on a reporting tool we use and it’s mucked up my schedule but good. Instead of going to the gym in the morning I’ve had to be at my desk as I’ve still got to do my regular job even with 6 hours of class a day. It’s doable as my boss lightened my load and didn’t give me any new requests, but there’s still the recurring jobs I handle and a few other things. Still it all worked out and I’m sort of back to normal this week.
Of course all this meant I had to cram in 110 miles last week. Most of my miles came on Sun-Tues and then it was just regular commuting for the rest of the week. I had to do that because this past Saturday I was very busy with some obligations and that meant limited riding.
This week is…um…even worse, though it’s not because of work. I’ll be heading to the Big Island (where I do have a bike) but I’ve got to get in 120 miles and won’t be able to ride my normal steed nor routes. That meant I had to do a nice long ride yesterday, Makiki to Kailua and back. It’s not particularly difficult but on a single speed it’s a bit more challenging than on my geared BikeFriday.
Out…

And back…

Please be aware that the times listed include breaks, sitting around, rests, coffee, and such. I’m slow but not quite that slow.
And finally today…hopefully my BikeFriday will be back from the shop with a new main frame. It’s been out in Waipio for the last 10 days (I dropped it off in Honolulu the Friday before last). I’m really looking forward to training on the bike I’ll actually be riding again and, dare I say it, having gears again. I’ve gotten pretty strong on my single speed (or so I’m told), but it’ll be nice to spin a bit instead of grind. My middle aged knees are throwing a party.
So…that’s about it. I’ve been crazy busy but still getting in the miles. Hopefully I can manage all of the miles on the training plan even though I’m squeezed for time. In truth I’m 239 miles ahead of the plan at the moment. I’ve ridden 919 miles in the last 8 weeks and the plan called for 680. Still I don’t want to slack because I suspect I’ll be paying for it later on.
Aloha!

I’d really like to complain this week about how tough it’s been…but it’s been tougher for my mom. She had an ICD implanted this week to help out her heart (and she’s got a lot of heart).
She came over from the Big Island and checked into the hospital for the procedure on Wednesday morning. I took a couple of hours off and was there when she checked in. She does have heart trouble, but to be honest she looked great and seemed a lot less worried than either I or my sister Ulu.
Once it was time for the procedure I took off and went back to work. After work I visited again as she out of surgery and back in her room. This time she was a bit groggy, but deservedly so. I stayed until it was time for me to go deal with some volunteer work but a bunch of the family was on the way so my mom wouldn’t be alone for long.
An ICD is an “implantable cardioverter-defibrillator” and is designed to kickstart the heart in case of trouble. I don’t know a lot about them but my mom trusts her doctor and has had second opinions so I’m down with it.

I asked for a remote control so I could give my mom a jolt from time to time but apparently the docs thought I might just misuse such a device (as if one were even available). Perish the thought. 🙂
In any case I’ll be visiting her for a few days next month so we’ll see how it’s all going.
As for me? Well I’m certain I worried more than she did (she may not be so certain however).
I ended up catching a bit of cold sometime during the week, probably stress related though there is one going around. I still managed to ride 110 miles this week even though I didn’t ride on Sunday (or at least not much) and can’t ride tomorrow. That was my goal for the week so life is good. Next week is a light week of only 75 miles so I can recover a little. Then the mileage begins to climb culminating in 175 just before RAGBRAI.
In truth I’m a couple of hundred miles ahead of the schedule recommended as a minimum by RAGBRAI so I’m feeling pretty good about things. I’m also doing 30-60 minutes a day in the gym before work, often doing upper body stuff (which biking does nothing for as far as I know), so I’m getting in plenty of training for an old, fat guy!
Aloha

I just took delivery of a new Garmin Oregon 450 GPS unit. I really, really didn’t need it but…well you know how gadgets are for gadget geeks!

My justification for it is based solely on the fact that it has a barometric altimeter and I wanted to compare the readings I get with it to the readings I get simply by using MapMyRide. Oddly enough, since getting the unit on Tuesday I haven’t yet compared that data…be right back….
Okay, on a ride I did Tuesday from Niu Valley to Makiki around the inside of Diamond Head: 10 miles of flat riding except for the bit around Diamond Head.

MapMyRide gives me these figures…

• Start Elevation: 21 ft
• Max Elevation: 194 ft
• Elevation Gain: 236 ft

Garmin Oregon 450 said…

• Min Elevation: 4ft
• Max Elevation: 175 ft
• Elevation Gain: 349 ft

Now one should note that “Starting Elevation” and “Minimum Elevation” aren’t the same thing so they aren’t really comparable.
As for the maximum elevation it seems that the Garmin may be close to right. I traced the route using Google Earth and discovered that what I believe is the high point shows 172 ft in Google Earth and the Garmin said 175 ft. Given that the unit is about 3 feet off the ground…hmmm…it could also be just luck.
The difference in the total gain, 236 vs 349, may be due to how often points are taken in MapMyRide. I’ve heard it said that if you make the points much closer together you’ll get a more accurate reading. Since the Garmin is more or less constantly checking it’s going to give you those increases of a couple of feet that might be missed by MMR.
In any case I’m having fun with it.
I also picked up a cadence monitor and a heart monitor as well. They do work with the Oregon 450 even though it’s not listed as a fitness computer. It turns out that one has to upload track data manually into the various Garmin fitness apps in order to preserve the cadence and heart data, but it’s there if you want it. Sweet.
Here’s an example of the charting available from Garmin using their online version, Garmin Connect.
This was from a short flat 4 mile ride I did last night. As you can tell I coast a lot (cadence), but I am on a single speed so sometimes I just get ahead of myself. I may end up changing the number of teeth on my cog when I replace it in the future. But then I do like coasting so…
Finally to be sure the heart monitor worked I checked it against the one built into the elliptical machine I use at work every morning. They are dead even. I’m going to assume they are both correct or at least wrong by the same amount. I’ll never really know I suppose. Still I was able to determine, rightly or wrongly (assuming they are both equally wrong) that at age 53 and overweight my resting heart rate is 50 bpm. Wow! I knew it had improved with all the biking but 50! That’s lower than my age.
Aloha!

It seems there’s a documentary on RAGBRAI that’s going to be airing on the Documentary Channel in July. It’s called “A Million Spokes.” I don’t think we get that channel here in Honolulu on cable, but Dish folks might.

FEATURED PREMIERE:
Sunday, July 17 at 8:00 pm
FEATURED ENCORE:
Sunday, July 17 at 11:00 pm

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get in a decent ride before the weather decided that we needed a real scouring. Thunderstorms moved across the state unleashing rain, hail, lightning, waterspouts, and bringing us downed trees, power outages, as well as some spectacular fireworks.
My friend Andy Collins took some images last night and gave me permission to post them here. Pretty wild stuff.

Thanks Andy!

I’m getting dangerously close wearing “bike clothing” these days. I’m definitely in the “bike in normal clothing crowd” for the most part. I wear regular shorts with mostly regular stuff underneath. I generally wear long sleeve t-shirts so I don’t burn. I don’t wear bike shoes opting instead for Teva sandals on platform pedals. I’ve ridden that way on daily basis for the last three years and that includes century rides, metric centuries, and camping trips. I’ve had no problems.

But now because of RAGBRAI it looks like I’m going to own at least a couple of cycling jerseys. I mean it’s really not possible to go on a ride like this and not get a souvenir.

So I ended up pulling the trigger on a RAGBRAI 2011 jersey and a Pork Belly Ventures jersey. Sigh. What next? Clipless pedals? ;-0

Aloha!

I was just informed that I was chosen in the RAGBRAI lottery and won’t have to scramble to get a waistband. Yeah!

More later.

Aloha!

For the most part I’m not terribly interested in a lot of data about my rides, at least not until recently. My recent interest stems from my training for RAGBRAI. I’m more or less following the suggestions given on the RAGBRAI site for mileage leading up to my week in Iowa.
Of course to be thorough I need to track my miles. In the past I’ve only tracked time using Joe’s Goals. You can see my tracker in the sidebar. Now however, because of a fitness program at work, Joe’s Goals, and MapMyRide, I’m doing a bit more.
My favorite way of tracking things is using the MapMyRide App for my HTC EVO phone. However the battery life for the EVO is pretty dismal. On my last ride to Haleiwa I had to swap batteries two-thirds of the way through the ride resulting in two different tracks recorded. That in itself isn’t a problem, I don’t care about the number of tracks as much as I do the fact that on extended rides I’ll never be able to charge up my batteries. Until now…
I did some research on small solar panels. Many of them seem fine until you do the math and figure out that while they may put out enough juice to power a low-end phone they don’t have enough horsepower for a smartphone. I’ve heard iPhones are particularly finicky about power but luckily my EVO sucks up anything it can find. Still some panels won’t do anything, or worse.
Then I came across GoalZero (also found as Goal0). They make a variety of products in all sizes for outdoor applications. You can read about them and their founder, Robert Workman, at their site: GoalZero.
Their smallest kit, consisting of a solar panel (Nomad 7) and battery pack (Guide 10) looked like it had enough power to do the job for me and remain portable. Nothing else I’d come across fit the bill so I figured I’d give it a shot. If, I figured, I could put the panel on the rack on my bike and charge either my phone or battery pack (or both) while riding I could use my GPS and have enough juice to take photos and blog a bit while riding.
Earlier this week my package arrived. I immediately gave it a try to confirm it all worked. On my laundry day this week I took everything to the roof and tested it out. The whole thing is about the size of a trade paperback so it’s very portable. Sure enough it put out enough to charge my phone. In addition I can use the Guide 10 powerpack (4 AA NiMH batteries) to charge the phone as well. Either way I should be good to go.
I still haven’t given it a thorough try on my bike so I’m hoping that afterwork today I can give that a go. Here are some images of everything up on the roof at work. Of course I was using my camera phone to take the images so you won’t be able to see that connection, but everything else is there.
 

It’s clouding up outside so I don’t know how it will go in a couple of hours when I get off of work and ride home, but I’m hopeful. My ride is about 90 minutes so it should be a good test if it’s still sunny!
Aloha

Leave it to me to get a bit nuts over the replacement of my BF NWT frame. The two parts I’d have the hardest time working on myself are the headset and the bottom bracket. It seemed reasonable to me that, since I’m getting a new frame, or actually that part of it which contains the headset and bottom bracket, I might as well upgrade those two items. I’d always meant to upgrade my Friday because I pretty much figure I won’t be buying another New World Tourist (I might, of course, by another Friday).
So what does one upgrade the standard BF headset with? The headset that was on my Friday was their generic model, low end to be sure, but fine as far as it goes. I’d had to have it tightened once and I’ve always kept my eye on it lest it start loosening again.
I ended up deciding to go with a Chris King GRIPNUT. Mine will be silver.

On the BF store page it says:

This is the best headset available in the 1 1/4″ size. Lasts a very long time with next to no maintenence. Stays tight if well adjusted.

Who am I to argue? Besides everyone on the Yak pretty much says the same thing and they are experienced Friday Folk.
That was a no brainer. But it got me thinking. As long I’ve got the Friday in for work, why not swap the BB as well. The stock BB on mine is the low end Shimano BB-UN26 68×113 English JIS. Basically it’s a ten dollar item. There’s nothing really wrong with it but mine was probably nearing the end of its life anyway. I had a BB go out on a previous bike and, while not particulary dangerous, it’s just easier to have one that’ll last.
So…what to get.
This time the name that comes to mind is Phil Wood. Yes they are expensive, at least compared to a ten dollar Shimano part. It may be a solution in search of a problem but if it’s everything folks seem to think I may forever avoid the problem altogether.

So that’s what I did. Chris and Phil will now grace my Friday. Necessary? No, probably not. Indeed they definitely aren’t needed. But I can think of a number of things it would be far worse to spend my money on so I’ll gladly have them.
Besides, now I’ll have something to blog about when my bike does get put back together. How well do I think they work…time will tell.
Aloha