Category: Kit

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VJs in the Pink = run fast!

UltrasportAfter finally throwing my 5 yr old VJ Falcons in the bin after the sole eventually fell off (Ive been gluing them since the summer) and the National Compass Sport inter clubs competition this weekend I thought Id better purloin myself a new pair rather than running in 15yr old fell shoes.

Luckily UltraSport,one of the UKs major Orienteering and Running suppliers is only 15 miles away in Newport so I called in on Friday to try a few pairs on. I quickly decided that having run in VJs for the last 20 years or so I’d stick with them but would try their latest shoe the Supra. (Although all comparisons with 1980s Japanese cars end here)

Even better was that Ian of Ultrasport was kind enough to offer to start supporting me with some generous deals on kit going forward. He has just had lots of Craft clothing delivered that seems incredible value (see website for details)

So whats with the pink then ? Well Cath and Holy bought me a Pink Canterbury thermal base layer long sleeve top for xmas, and Cath dared me to wear it for a run on The Chase(normally hidden under biking gear). So feeling I’d better at least try out the new shoes before trying to race in them off I went for a 20 min run up to stepping stones and back on Saturday afternoon.

So here comes the top training tip, wear pink and run fast. The looks you get as a bloke running in an ultra tight pink top encourage you to run quickly to justify the wearing of such colours to stop the cat calls, mind you I should probably of picked somewhere less public to run, but I can think of a couple of car parks on the chase I certainly would not wear it in !!!

Anyway back to the Supra’s. Older style VJs although lasting forever, being tough as nails , giving huge grip from the ‘dob’ spike sole have always been very hard on the feet, with what seems only a bit of cardboard between your foot and the sole. The Supra’s however have a proper trainer style mid-sole and give a level of comfort. Everything else is traditional VJ, hard wearing and loads of grip. Lets hope they do the business on Sunday and help get Walton Chasers through to the final.

http://www.ultrasport.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=50_52&products_id=429

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Garmin Edge 500

Broken Edge 305A couple of weeks ago an innocuous fall on my Edge 500 & 305singlespeed resulted in a smashed screen on my trusty Garmin Edge 305. A quick email to Tris of ‘The Heart rate Monitor Shop’ who helped me last year when I lost my previous Edge gave some great advice and I decided to upgrade to the new EDGE 500 which as well as being better all round with regards to battery life, weight etc is also ANT+ compatible so if I ever want to add a power meter I can now do it, anyone want to give me a second hand power-meter wheel 😉
Garmin Edge 500Many thanks to the Heart Rate Monitor Shop who again gave me a generous discount, it even arrived 19 hours after I ordered it. The Edge 500 can use my existing Cadence and HR strap and it is a doddle to set up. Garmin seem to have looked at the failings of the Edge 305 and corrected them for the 500.
The buttons are now on the side and will not clog up with mud, it is smaller and lighter and the GPS signal seems to be picked up better. The mounting is much better too using rubber rings and a twist on lock to attach it to the bike.
Bizarrely my first use of it was Cross Country Skiing (more of that later). The only problem I now have is compatibility, I have to export it to GPX to get it into Sport Tracks or up to my online training diary, rather than direct as I did with the 305. I’m sure there will be new releases of the software soon though.
The Edge 50o is really a step forward from the 305 and I’m glad I went for it power-meter or no power meter. I think I can also rig something up to wear it on my wrist for running !

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German Bling

Cube Reaction-redAlan Hartley (author of the Sportident timing software AutoDownload) and I go back a few years, first meeting in the Pludds village hall when I was 10 at a South West Junior Orienteering squad training weekend. Since we shared a house together as students in Cardiff we have often ridden together (with me chasing his tail technically) and watched each other fall off many times over theCorratec Bow XT 2010 years – well mainly Alan watching me, ask him about Bedwas! For the last few years we have both been riding Giant XTCs and for various reasons we have both ended up with new race bikes at the same time. And both German.
Alan has a Cube Reaction XT and I have the Corratec Bow. The spec of them is very similar, XT groupset, Elixer CR brakes and alloy frame. The standard wheels on the Cube are slightly better and it comes with a Fox fork as opposed to the Bow’s Reba.
What both bikes also have in common is the style-thing that European bikes tend to have: bling frame graphics.
Both of us like our new bikes and will be racing them on Saturday down at the Military Challenge in Aldershot. Achtung everybody, the Germans are coming !

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New Race Bike – Corratec Bow XT World Cup !!!!

Last Friday and a knock at the door brought a big brown box with Corratec on the side. Mmmmmm…. I wonder what that is.
I’ve ridden it a few times and have now put my race wheels and saddle on it. Initially feeling much shorter than I am used to, a few tweaks to the shock rebound, tyre pressures and I am now completely amazed and besotted by the bike. It just simply is so much better to ride than the old 2005 XTC. It is so stiff at the rear end that it climbs really well, the turn in is very confidence inspiring, so much so that where I was struggling just to turn round on a fire road on the XTC the Bow just tracks perfectly. I am also going quicker through the single-tracks, the shorter setup suiting my riding technique better it seems. So out with the old school long setup and in with the new, mind you those wider bars do take some getting used to on the narrow trails !
Thanks to Corratec and the UK importer Raleigh for supporting me with a generous discount on the bike and watch out for me in a Corratec race shirt from time to time this year !
Corratec Bow XT World Cup

Corratec Bow XT 2010

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Bike Testing

I have been thinking of changing my race bike for a while, not because I don’t like it, just that the frame is now 5 years old and I can get a whole bike for not much more than a new frame and bits. Carbon frames are now the norm but I would like to stay with Aluminium (had too many gates close on the bike on MTBOs in the past) So what to buy…….
A fellow GB team member, now Corratec Product Manager for the UK distributor Raleigh, indicated a deal could be done on a Corratec Bow, but to make sure I like the bike I have just picked up a demo model to try for the weekend.
The demo model is a 2009 Equipe which is of a similar spec to the 2010 XT World Cup model I have as an option.
The Bow is unique in its design, having a top tube that divides and then runs all the way to the rear becoming the seat stays. This is suppose to produce a very rigid design giving it very good climbing characteristics. An initial look over the bike seems promising with a full XT groupset and Avid Juicy 7 brakes, but the own brand wheels are a tad heavy. The bike is a little ‘shorter’ than i’m used to but friends who have ridden my XTC have always commented on how ‘long’ it feels so perhaps it is no bad thing.
A quick lunchtime blast without touching the setup has shown the bike to be less twitchy than the XTC and the wide handle bars require more input to get it to turn, however this may be due to the aggressive tyres on the test machine.
This is not a bad thing and perhaps may suit my riding style more, I certainly was not hanging about on it.

Next job is a quick service, to sort out the front shock pressures, and play with the stem and seat position before heading out on Friday to give it a proper test on Follow the Dog with the Berkswich Primary School Dads ride.
Ill then put my race wheels and map board on it to give it a final test on Sunday but I think I may have found my new steed !

http://www.corratec.com/en/bikes2010/mtb/superbow/superbow_wc_xt.php

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Spring? and ‘Hope’fully normal training resumes !

New toys and the enjoyment of getting back into training after several weeks of disjointed riding were the feature of this week, with no competitions this weekend though the weather has shown that winter is nearly here.
My left knee now seems back to normal now, though I have found that perhaps I was irritating it by having my seat too high on various bikes, particularly my turbo trainer. On rest night next week I will get all the bikes out and a tape measure and try to optimise not just seat height but  for/aft position too. Most people who try my race mountain bike tend to comment it is very ‘long’ so in will be interesting to put some figures to it.

This week I finally received my new light a Hope Vision 4. This 4 LED light is one of the best on the market and as I got a good price through Ada I decided I’d give it a go. Although the weather forecast for Friday evening was horrible the ‘Berkswich year 2 dads ride’ went ahead and I got the chance to try out my new toy. One of the other Dads had his Chinese Ebay specials out for their first outing which looked very good value to but I think their lumen claims are a fair way off the mark. The Hope 4 was just awesome, particularly on low where the battery is alleged to last 30 hours. I used the full power on a couple of descents and immediately pulled a huge distance out on the two Simons, one an ex bmx racer who is normally all over my rear wheel.

The weather got worse and the mud and sand mixed with brake discs and chains was making horrible a noise but my noise got very loud on a climb out of the Sherbrook Valley. I stopped and eventually diagnosed it coming from the rear brake. Wheel removed showed the spring to be mangled up inside the caliper. After removal I tried to get the pads to seat but ended up riding home carefully with only the font brake. Lesson, a spare brake pad srping will join the little bag of spares and tools I always carry in my pack. For interest this now contains :
Chain Splitter, 2 allen keys, 1 tyre lever, 1 Tube, 1 Rear mech hanger, 2 SRAM power links.

With several good rides under my belt this week I am hoping to resume a full training schedule next week but have decided to lay of the running for a few more weeks to make sure I do not get any niggles returning.

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Singlespeed !

With an improvement in strength on the hills this winter’s training goal, coach Ada has decreed that I should get a singlespeed mountain bike. Not wanting to spend much money as I need a new race frame this year I decided to try and build it from bits.
Bringing together all my spares, old bits and Cath’s bike I started to think of how perhaps I could end up with not just a singlespeed but a bike better suited to Cath. Cath has been riding an ancient steel framed Diamondback Apex which we bought second hand from a friend at least 9 years ago. It has early air front suspension , V brakes and a very old school long framed design. It has always been too long for her and we have tried various stem and handlebar options over the years to help shorten it.
After much prevaricating I decided to build Cath a decent bike with all the best bits and hack the rest into a serviceable singlespeed for me, lucky Cath! Merlin Cycles, near Preston, had a great deal on their 2004 aluminium frames, complete with headset and seatpost – £99. Caths new bike was built around this and has the following spec: 15 inch Merlin Frame (new), cheap FSA chainset (new), XT rear mech, Deore front mech, Hope XC / Mavic 819 wheels (tubeless), Magura Julie disk brakes, Rockshox 2004 SID team, and various original bits of finishing kit – not bad for £160 + old bits

On to the singlespeed then. After various conversations and web research I settled on a conversion kit from Charlie the Bikemonger.  ( who I can reccomend highly) They have some great videos
       

showing how to bodge a singlespeed using a cost effective kit which Keith Floyd style seems to involve drinking beer between tasks. The kit consists of some spacers to use on an existing Shimano freehub, two cogs (16 and 18 tooth), new shorter chain bolts, an 1/8 chain and a chain tensioning device to make up for the frames lack of sliding dropout all for about £40. STX RC V brakes (1995), XT 110 bcd 5 arm 18/36 chainset – (1992), XT / Mavic wheels (1995 ish) and the yet unidentified front air shock completed the setup, however much to my dismay the diamond back was just too small (15 inch) to be comfortable and the seatpost was just too far past its max, it also was in desperate need of a new headset. After the first build I gave in and again visited Merlin to get another one of their 2004 Malt frame deals, this time with a bottom bracket thrown in rather than the seatpost, and moved everything across onto it, only to find the old air shock headtube to be too short. A work colleague kindly gave me a very old set of spring / elastomer Manitou forks which although very soggy fitted but it was obvious that they were just too soggy to be of much use.
An evening of web research led me to try boiling the elastomers on the stove and replacing of the fork oil with Castrol GTX ( much thicker) which has more or less made them serviceable again. Fantastically luck did eventually catch up with me and I didn’t need a chain tensioner to start with, the chain fitting perfectly, but after 3 or 4 rides the stretch on the chain and lumps and bumps has had it off a few times so the tensioner will be going back on soon.

First impressions of singlespeed riding is I love it and would ideally like to build a modern spec quality singlespeed at some point to make things more comfortable but for the time being my thrown together budget bike should do the trick.

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‘Source’ hydration packs.

One of the major sponsors at the World MTBO Champs in Israel was Source, a manufacturer of bladder drinking systems and sandals (yes sandals, a strange product combination).
I have tried various bladders over the years and had settled on Platypus up until now, together with my Ground Effect resevior dog sac.
All competitors received a complementary 3litre WXP Tech bladder together with a talk about how to survive the Israeli summer temperatures. The bladder seemed very good with a detachable feed tube with a special close off valve, a great opening system to make filling easier and claims of no lingering plastic tastes and easy to clean.
The competition rules stated that all competitors had to carry at least a litre of water so a bladder hydration system or 2 water bottles were needed. After the model event I realised my existing sac though great in UK conditions on long races, was just too big covering too much of my back overheating me. Impressed by the free Source WXP bladder I bought a Source 2 litre Spinner sac and tried it on the long qualifier. It has good space for a tube, pump and tools plus two handy mesh pockets for gels and bars.

To cut it short I was very impressed. The 2 litre Widepac was very simple to fill and the quick connect hose fitting made threading it through the sac really easy. The sac sat snuggly on my back and the delivery of the liquid perfect.
On the four races I have used it on so far it has performed very well and I would recommend it as an alternative to the other major brands particularly as it seems to have a lesser price point.
Source do a complete range of sacs from the light weight racing Spinner right up to the 25 litre Whistler.
http://www.source-vagabond.com