#272 - Monday evening .....

 

Monday evening and I just got back from an 'easy' ride
in ECP. This coming Sunday is the WaCycles Jamboree and
I am soooo unprepared.

 

Unlike my first race last year (KipMart) where I had
around 4 years to train, this coming race I only had

3 weeks to get back in shape :-( ... and so, I had this thinking

that the best way to get back in shape was to climb

and climb Mt. Faber during the week night rides. After 2

sessions of climbing (Tue & Thu), I tried to do 2 laps of T15 +

1 lap of ButterFly Trail ... and I failed miserably!

I only managed 1 lap of T15, that is
without the hard climb from the Bukit Panjang side which we
call Personal Challenge and 1 lap of ButterFly. I also pretended
to be Absalon on his 1st race out on his BMC by throwing my
new Jamis Dragon (steel) into the bushes after I took a spill
for the ... 3rd time (I think).

  

I called our resident roadie, Roadie Rio and posed this
question : what do you do if you only have 1 month (or less)
but you want to race? You know the answer will be bad when

a cyclist starts to prevaricate like a doctor who doesn't know

how to tell you that you just got something incurable.

   

The answer : nothing much you can do.
So I said, please expound on that. The thing is, if you just
want to race to arrest the laziness that has been slowly but
surely creeping into your brain and body, then the only thing
you can do (with 3 weeks to go) is just go for looong easy-medium

rides. This will prepare your legs, your ass, your whole body

for the battering that it will get on race day.

 

BUT if you were NOT riding since the start of the year and all
of a sudden you woke up one morning and told yourself you want
a medal (Top 300?) in Wacycles ... then you need to get some
pixie dust, sprinkle it on yourself and think happy thoughts
so you can fly ... or pedal furiously. on a mountain bike.
you get the picture.

   

Sigh, so that's the verdict. So last week, we only went to
Mt Faber on Tuesday. Thursday was supposed to be a long ride
(Fort Rd - ECP - Changi V - back) BUT it rained, so no long ride.
I then went for the 2nd practice day of our group last Saturday.
It was supposed to be 3 laps of T15 ... and I could only do 1 lap
arrggghhhh. I swear those benches at Zheng Hua Park were calling
me! I even heard a voice when I was climbing Personal Challenge.
The voice was saying : Come on, get off the bike and push it.
Sooo much easier. Why are you doing this? It's so nice to sleep
late on a Saturday morning.

  

And so, it is now Monday night. Race day will be this coming Sunday.
It's not looking good .... and did I tell you that we're already
registered for the Iskandar Jamboree ? :-( groannnnn

 

 

 

 

 



#242 - Weekend Ride

Saturday morning brought nothing but rain ... and in the

afternoon, more rain. By the time the rain stopped there

was nothing left of Saturday to go trail riding with. Well,

technically, there was some time left but the trails would

be very muddy. 

With that in mind, I didn't really have much choice but

but to go and do ye olde city ride loop. But the rains have

put a damper on my enthusiasm that I didn't even bother

completing the loop. I went to the Sg Flyer/F1 pitlane

and did a u-turn home.  

and the next day, Sunday, I was still feeling lethargic.

I read in one of the threads in MTBR that I will need

to put in 'easy' days as well as 'easy' weeks in my routine

and so I made the quick decision that this week shall be

one of such 'easy' weeks.

I went up RRR, went to T15 and back again and that was

it. On the way back to Zheng Hwa Park from T15, I saw

the posse that I should have been on had I been up to the

task of some vigorous trail riding. Efren, Sugar Rush Rey

and Neil were on their way to do reverse Flowy Trail when

they saw me. Efren and Rey saw my Jamis HT and triumphantly

proclaimed that they have caught me testing my 'new' HT that

I  shall be using for the future Malaysia races that we plan

to go to. I corrected them and told them that that HT

was actually my first ever bike which I just restored.

Now they said that I had waayyy too much bike.

Hehehehe just wait till they see my carbon hardtail ;-)



#234 - Reviving Doglas

Only thing left of the original bike is the frame

        

Yup, I named my first bike Doglas hehehehe.

Before I started mountain biking, I saw lots of

videos in YouTube where these cyclists pretend

to be Imperial Guards taking out their speeders

for a spin in the forest moon of Endor. When said

Imperial Guard is alone on a ride, almost always

they have a dog with them. A nice, romantic notion

hence I named my first bike Doglas ... as in a dog.

Anyway! After my first endo at the last DH section

of BT loop going to the carpark, I convinced my wife

that having a FS bike will ensure that I will no longer

endo ... that is of course untrue, but that is a story

for another day. Once I got my first FS bike, Doglas

was disassembled so I can transfer all the stuff from

my HT to the FS. ... and so for 3 years this frame

has been hanging on my wall.

Now that I have a surplus of low-end stuff and I

finally knew how to assemble my own bike, I thought

I should go and assemble Doglas again.

The only thing that I don't have tools for is for the

removal of the old headset (with dirty bearings) and

installation of a new one. Mechanic John from Hup

Leong helped me with this. I also bought new shifter

cables and housing which Shimano conveniently

package in a set and which are also available in Hup

Leong for 30$ plus (can't remember the exact amount).

Mechanic John also helped me seat the crown bushing

for the fork that I will use and later when I got home

... surprise, surprise, he installed a rubber stopper for me

on my fork's steerer tube. This rubber stopper will see

to it that when I turn my bike upside down and wash

it at Esso, all the gunk from the steerer tube will not

find it's way inside the star nut and be deposited there.

Thanks mate! ;-)

I have already listed my reference materials from YouTube

for building my bike and so what follows are weight

information that some may find interesting.

            

See the old school bearing above? Heavy isn't it?

See the wonders of modern bike technology? From the 290gr

BB above this pic, the modern day BB is just 91gr. I think the

newer pressfit BBs should be even lighter than this.

I had to weigh this non-series Shimano crankset with the

Shimano M520 pedals attached as I can't get them to budge.

Since the other crankset had the pedals on them when I

weighed them, I had to weigh this with my XT pedals

included. This is a Deore 170mm crankset. The biggest

chainring was changed from 42T to 40T. Remember that

I took out the biggest chainring (40T) from the 3x10 speed

crankset that came with my Reign? Instead of the 40T,

I attached a bashring to that crankset. Thinking that I have

not used the 11T on my cassette yet, I took out the 42T

from the Deore 3x9 speed crankset and attached the

40T that I got from the 3x10speed SLX crankset.

... ok, you might all think that you read somewhere

that we can't mix and match these 3x9 and 3x10 parts.

Note that I have these parts lying around in my house

and don't have to buy them. Basically, if they don't work,

then all that I have spent is the time to do the experiment.

BUT this change did work. I used a normal 3x9 XT FD,

3x9 SLX shifters, Deore crankset with the biggest chainring

changed to the biggest chainring from a SLX 3x10 crank

and it works. But I do notice that shifting from the middle

ring to the biggest ring is a bit 'sluggish' ... but I can live

with that.

This is an 11-28T SLX cassette. I think this is

a DH item?



Above pic is of a Deore 11-34T cassette.

Lots of weight saved here. I will be using my bike

on Mt. Faber Climb nights, ECP spin nights and

maybe cruising in T15. I think I don't need a 34T

or a 32T for that.

I took the bike for a spin today at T15 and ... it

was ok. What struck me though is that the ride

is sooo jarring! Also, almost every downward

direction of the trail gives me vertigo! I have an

On-One Inbred HT and if you want to have 'fun'

while riding an HT, I recommend the On-One

or similar such bike. This Jamis is for remembering

what got me started and how it was during

those days ...

However, your results may vary. I personally

know a guy (let's hide this guy's identity under the alias

of Boom Ravilas ;-) )  who usually uses his Jamis HT

even if he has a Giant Trance. I asked him once why he

likes using his Jamis HT. He told he is much faster

on his Jamis HT than on his Giant Trance !