#263 - BottleTree Park RC Track

I bought this TA05-IFS when I stopped playing RC. I couldn't
resist the Inboard Front Shocks.

My TA05-IFS resting on my very very old Yokomo car stand.
In the background is my Sanwa M8 bought in 1998(?). It was the
coolest radio back then. Now the battery is held in place by
2 rubber bands.

Good thing I brought my arsenal of 48pitch pinions.
I came with a 22T in my car, I ended up using 30T.

The other track in BottleTree Park for Offroad EP buggies.

I think I last held a transmitter in 2005. After that, I played

football, got operated on the right knee, paddled DragonBoat

and Outrigger Canoe for 3 years and been biking for the last

4 years. I have been RC free for the last 7 years.

 

... and I heard my fellow former RC addicts clap their hands.

 

However, Deck has been bitten by the RC bug again and he

was bitten very very hard this time. I think he has more cars

now than when we were still considered RC addicts. He even

has the holy grail of expensive RC Cars (i.e. 1/8 on-road).

 

Anyway, he's been bugging me to go with him to the RC car

heaven in Singapore which is BottleTree Park. In BottleTree

park, there is a track for on-road cars, another track for off-road

cars and lastly, the operator of the tracks, RaceWorks have their

hobby shop there.

 

Raceworks stock all kinds of car kits and of course, spare parts

for whatever stuff that you might break when you are playing

at the track. Nitro cars are not allowed and so there is electric

outlet for each pit table. The pits are also well lighted and

very airy due to the number of fans on site. You can even play

at night when the air is much cooler because the tracks are

well lighted.

 

Hence for those who are into RC, just pick your poison,

on-road or off-road and RaceWorks will make sure

you keep on running and that you'll enjoy your time there.

  

Anyway, I told Deck I will go provided that I will spend

very very little $$$ on this outing. Note that during the late

90's, Rio and I buy 250$ for 5 sets of tires for 1/8 on-road,

a gallon of fuel for 50$, glow plugs for 8$-10$ (?), set aside

a bit more money for spare parts (in case we crash hard), set

aside money for lunch and finally set aside taxi money to

and from the East Coast Track .... and that is only on a Saturday

practice!!!! What if we were racing on the next day???

 

So there, the condition was that I spend very little. My sub-C

NiMH are all dead and LiPo is now king. So I talked to old friend

Winnie from Swan Models in Orchard Plaza and she hooked me

up with a decent LiPo pack. I got just 1 pack because nowadays,

LiPos can be recharged once they cool down and they don't

loose their punch even on the 2nd charge (unlike NiCds and NiMHs).

Deck then lent me an iMax B6 LiPo charger which can balance

charge my batteries at 5.0A charge rate.

 

So, Boxing Day came and we took a cab to BottleTree Park

and when we got there .... ahhhh heaven :-) Our batteries were

already charged and so we went out and drove for our 1st pack.

 

While driving for the first time after 7 years of NOT driving RC

cars, two things came to me :

                                   1. I am undergeared and

                                   2. I don't have off power steering

   

Anyway, gearing was solved easily, throughout the afternoon

I kept going up by two teeth on the pinion while keeping the

spur 72T. I ended up using 30T (from 22T). I don't know my

final ratio as I forgot my internal ratio ... I also forgot how to

compute the final drive ratio ... errr whatever, from driving

the car, I can tell that I am geared correctly. I also brought a

temp gun (useful for taking engine temperature) and my black

can motor was coming off the track after 5 minutes of run at

71degrees Celsius. So there, I wasn't frying my motor.

 

As for my off power steering, I tried to increase the droop

on the rear of the car to create more power transfer ... but it

wasn't working. I tried to add 1mm and then finally 2mm of

droop BUT there was no effect whatsoever. So I just drove

my car with a terrible off power push. On power steering

was another story though. It was phenomenal. The car steers

on power like it was on rails (<== overused RC car cliche).

 

We got there at around 12+PM and decided to leave at 7PM.

I told myself while we were getting the taxi on the way home

to NOT enjoy this too much as this hobby is very expensive

.... now the only thing I know that can cure off-power push

is a front one-way hehehehehe ....

 



#262 - Time Atac XS Absalon Pedals

Pic from ChainReactionCycles.com to show the pedal while it
was still clean and shiny.

 Ahhhhh these are purportedly Julien Absalon's pedal

of choice. Why he uses this instead of the more expensive

(and lighter?) versions, I still couldn't fathom. But the white

color and Absalon's signature is enough to let our test rider

go and buy these pedals.

 

 

 

The pedal after a few weeks. The Orange 'spray paint' is the
platform area. Compare with the platform area of XT pedals.

 

Just a bit of a background, the tester's first clipless pedals

are XT pedals (the older ones). He changed to Eggbeater 2s

because there is this fad in our group to lighten our bikes.

But after a while, his Eggbeaters got spoiled. He bought the

bearing package from Crankbrothers and this time around he has

started to feel all those things that I told him he will feel

(e.g. feels like standing on a wire). Why he didn't feel all

those during his first months is beyond me.

    

We have always lusted after these Time pedals with Absalon's

signature and he decided to give them a try. In short he agreed

to be a guinea pig hehehehe. But it looks like I will follow

his footsteps? Read on....

 

   

  

So on with the review! The pedals were delivered to the

office with the rest of the stuff that was needed to build

NoLights Louie's Scott Contessa.

   

The pedals came in a box with instructions and cleats.

The instructions say that if you mount the right cleat (marked

with a capital 'R') on your right shoe and the left cleat

(marked with a capital 'L') on your left shoe then you will

have to twist your foot 13degrees to release it.

   

If you find that 13degrees releases your feet too easily,

then you can mount the right cleat on the LEFT SHOE

and the left cleat on the RIGHT SHOE which gives you

a release angle of 17degrees.

   

Since our test rider, Bal, is used to a 20degrees release

angle on his Eggbeater, we mounted the Time cleats to give

him a 17degrees release angle.

     

As you can see from the picture above where I spraypainted

the platform area in orange, the platform is a lot wider than

XTs. It is even wider than the new XT's platform. So that is

definitely a plus.

    

The arrow shows that the adjustment screw is no
longer flush with the pedal body.

 

Also, the spring tension is adjustable just like XT pedals

and this adjustability is missing in all CrankBrothers pedals.

The only thing that XT pedals have over this adjustability is

that XT pedals have a wider range of adjustment whereas these

pedals seem to have only three settings (there are adjustment

marks of 1, 2, and 3 in the pedal body). The adjustment

screw can be turned by using a small flat tip screw driver.

     

The pedal is NOT as freely spinning as Shimano pedals.

Also, the surprising bit is that even if the pedal body is

composite (plastic?) it is nearly as heavy as the all metal

XT pedals. We were not able to weight it BUT manufacturer's

claimed weight is 350g per pair.

    

Clipping into the pedals will give you a very loud 'Thunk'.

This is good as you don't have to pull on the pedals just to

check if you are already clipped in. Anyway, no big deal as

both Shimano and CrankBrothers pedals give an audible

sign when you clip in.

   

Clipping out of the pedals is what surprised me! Clipping

out also generates a loud 'Thunk'! Time Atacs have similar

retention system as Crankbrothers BUT you will not hear

any sound from Cranbrother pedals when you clip out.

    

After a few rides, Bal the tester also complained that although

the release angle of Time Atacs is just 17degrees, it is harder

to unclip than the 20degrees release angle in his Eggbeaters!

So we remounted that cleats in the correct Right-Left fashion

(i.e. Right cleat to Right shoe) which then gave us a 13

degree release angle and now our tester is much happier.

    

Again, after a few more rides, our tester then complained

that the spring tension of the retention system coming from

the factory is soooo stiff that he is scared that there will

come a situation where he will be unable to unclip. Easy.

I just unscrewed the spring tension screw (counterclockwise).

No surprise that the turning is notched such that the 'notch'

coincides with the 1, 2, 3 mark on the pedal. What surprised me

is that I was ABLE to unscrew the spring tension screw past

the #3 mark! See the picture above. I was able to unscrew

it such that the head of the screw is not flush with the pedal

body anymore. I think I can even unscrew it further.

But I didn't do it for fear of not being able to put it back

just in case it is possible to unscrew it all the way.

    

Anyway, now that the spring tension is weaker, our test

rider is happier as he can now unclip easily.

   

Also, I seem to remember reading somewhere that Shimano

cleats will go into Time Atac pedals. We tried and it didn't

work. We then tried to clip in with CrankBrother cleats

and we were able to clip in.

    

There you have it. Now the question is will I follow

our test rider's lead and get the Time Atac XS Absalon

pedals? Basically, it is as heavy as XT pedals. You can adjust

the release angle like CrankBrothers. You can adjust the spring

tension like Shimano pedals. The float is good for people with

bad knees (like Crankbrothers pedals)... So in short, it is a

combination of most of the good points of Shimano and

CrankBrothers pedals... I think my next pedals will be

Time Atacs :-) 

 

 

 

 

 



#261 - Lacorte Cup Micro-Mini DH Race

Owen is calling the guy at the end of the DH course
so that guy can start the clock. Bike stand is Arnold Lacorte
- pic by Nick McHugh

 XC racers in Singapore are luckier than the DH guys.
There are no more XC races in Sg BUT at least they
can get their feet wet in neighboring Malaysia.
The Malaysian Jamborees cater to all racers from
National Racers, to Weekend warriors, to Aunties and
Uncles, even to Boy/Girl Racers.

 

But if you are interested in the Downhill side of things,

there is no beginner friendly DH races in Singapore.

Errrr scratch that, there are NO Downhill races in

Sg. Ok, some may argue that there is the Redbull

Night DH race and also that DH race held in

the Singapore Flyer. BUT those races happen once

in a blue moon. So while waiting for the moon

to turn blue, what do you do? Twiddle your thumbs?

 

Anyway, PadyakPinoy Sg has a core group of riders

who are into DH racing. There are also lots and lots

of newbie riders who are into DH ... but are intimidated

with the jumps at Gangsa and the main DH route in Kent

Ridge. The thing is people have to start somewhere ...

and so there's this mild and short DH section in Kent Ridge

where people started to practice... and when that place

was identified, CrestPursuit Owen said :

"Let there be a beginner's DH race here" and

lo! there was a race... and they saw that racing is good.

 

Hehehehe of course, it didn't happen as simple as that.

They talked about how to have a "start gate", how to time

the race, where to get medals, what are the prizes, etc.

 

In the end, it was agreed that this will be a beginner's

race. If you have raced DH before, too bad! You are disqualified.

But apart from that rule, anything goes.
You can use whatever bike you have. The "entry fee" is just

10$. The 10$ fee went to buying BEERS and CHIPS for

everyone. People approached the organizers to be marshalls,

mechanics, photographers, pom-pom girls, whatever.

Lastly, Owen took care of the prizes. So now that

everything is set ... there were people who asked :

What if you don't have a DH bike and ARMOR?

Arnold replied : No excuses!!! I will lend my race winning

Tomac DH bike AND armor to whoever needs it ...

and that my friends is why the race is called

The Lacorte Cup :-)

 

 

 

Tropang Putikan's Anton trying his hand at DH race course.
- pic by AirTime Mark

 XCers went for the race. People on DH bikes went

for the race. People on hardtails went for the race.
Even non-competitors went to the race just to show
support, say 'Hi', and share some laughs.
 

Everything went smoothly. Also, I almost forgot,

if you are racing, then you need to go for at least

one practice session! Safety First!

 
Morning was reserved for the seeding runs. 

The race took a break for lunch and then the heavens

opened and there was a torrential downpour. These

people just waited for the rain to stop and then continued

racing in the mud. Even the photographers had their

expensive DSLRs and Remote Flashes out!

 

Everything that was expected from a DH race was

there. There was even a HOTSEAT! :-)

 

 

Nick McHugh - Attack! - pic by AirTime Mark

Tropang Putikan's Gerald, is back to try the race course
... a few months after he broke his back
- pic by AirTime Mark

Eventual winner - Vince
pic by AirTime Mark 

Owen tackled the course on his On One Inbred
but he is disqualified from competing as he has
already done a DH race before - pic by AirTime mark

Incredible Hulk AKA Merlion (that's his real name)
tried the course on his Lynskey
pic by AirTime Mark

Master Bobot on his Turner
- pic by AirTime Mark

The Hot Seat ! :-)

The Organizers, Racers and Volunteers
- pic by Nick McHugh

AirTime Mark and Arnel
- pic by John the Mechanic

Ahhhh what can I say... the race was a total

success in terms of fun FUN FUN. Now those

guys who joined this race already has some idea

of how it is to race DH. They have even become

sooo confident that last I  heard, a few of them who

have long travel bikes (NOT full blown DH rigs)

will be competing in Batam's Light DH race !!!

 

The next installment of this race will be held

on February 2013 .... from what I hear, a few guys

from my group, Tropang Putikan will be going

for this round :-)))

 

By the way, here's a short video from Rey Toots

about what went on that day (might NOT play on phones).