#268 - Back to the Trail

This was taken today (Sunday). I just put it here
because I don't have a 'cover' photo for this entry.

So, let's start biking again.

It is normal for Malaysia Jamborees to be 45km

in length. Bearing this in mind, I thought of starting easy

since I still have Dragon Boat practice in the afternoon

(hehehe) ... But the thing is there's nothing to inspire me

to go mountain biking. No new bike, no new crankset,

no new anything at all ... sigh.

 

Never mind, I have a new iPhone 5 and I just jumped

from Starhub to M1 .... and so let's test if M1 signal is better

than Starhub ;-)

 

Off I went to hunt for a cycling app in the Apple App Store.

There are the usual apps like BikeMate, MapMyRide, RunKeeper

... and then something caught my eye ! Cyclist Ultimate! That must

be some really powerful app, to call itself Ultimate. Anyway, I'm

not reviewing the app. Just wanted a little something to keep track

of my bike rides.

 

I started here. I'm looking back. I'm actually going to climb
RRR which is behind me. In this pic, left side is exit of Durian
Trail and right side is the RRR entrance to BT MTB Trail.

So off I went. I turned on the Cyclist app at the RRR

entrance to BT MTB Trail (see pic above). I climbed

RRR, went to Zheng Hwa Park, went to T15 via Chestnut

BUT instead of going to the PCN (which is on your

left hand side when biking towards Mandai), I turned right

to this grass patch which eventually makes a U-turn back

towards the direction of Chestnut Ave.

 

I came out of T15 via this exit that leads to Bukit Panjang.

... and then I bumped into Sugar Rush Rey with his wife in tow.

After a few minutes of chin wag, I went back to Zheng Hwa

Park and then up to RRR again and finally I turned off the

Cyclist app once I got near this wine shop at RRR (see pic below).

Phew ! 

Summary of the ride. That was just 15.5km ?!
I'm in trouble.

I then proceeded to see how I did ... and I was

disappointed. Not at the app. But with my route.

That was just 15.5km ?! I was exhausted! ... and

it was just 15.5km? Tsk tsk tsk and I want to go

for a 45km jamboree? Sigh, so again, I need to

train more or throw more money at the bike.

Hehehehe but since all I can afford for now is

just this free Cyclist app, most probably I will

take the training route and not the throwing

money at the bike route :-)

Map of the ride. Notice that I didn't get to Mandai.
I made a right turn near the entrance to the PCN in T15.

Notice something in the map above?

There was never a time when the GPS signal

got lost? M1 signal is great huh?

I finished here. I'm looking back again in this picture.

 

 



#267 - USE Sumo XCR ShokPost

I had to nick this pic from ChainReactionCycles.com
as I don't have a close-up picture of my suspension seatpost

 I have learned this long ago (during my RC days). Constant racing

normally forces you to look into your technique and endurance. This

means you (I mean me) tend to spend on just the necessities like gels

and recovery drinks.

 

No racing means boredom and no training ... and hence more time

checking out stuff in ChainReactionCycles.com

 

To make the story short, I ordered this suspension seatpost

from USE through CRC because I wanted to use my aluminum

hardtail more. Especially in Malaysia Jamborees.

 

It says here that I did get the USE Sumo XCR ShokPost
27.2mm in diameter, aluminium, 390mm in length and
medium spring

I ordered the one with Medium spring rate because it says

there in the CRC website that it can accommodate a person who

is 120 to 170 pounds (or 55 to 80 kg). I am around 66 kg, so just

nice. Anyway, without further ado here are the pros and cons of

the seatpost :

 

PROs



1. bouncy bouncy boing boing boing - supposed to be 2.5" of travel !

I used it in T15 and Tampines YOG Trail and you really can

pedal on the places with small stones and your butt will

thank you for it.

 

2. relatively cheap - I get the impression that the alternative

for this seatpost would either be a Syntace P6 Carbon Hiflex

or a Lynskey Titanium Seatpost 

 

CONs

1. very heavy - this is the price you have to pay for comfort.

How heavy? I didn't even bother weighing. Just heavy. Trust me.

 

2. When you mount this on your bike, be prepared to give some

allowance for the saddle height. Remember that this is a suspension

seatpost ... and therefore there will be some sag. So when you are

NOT on your bike, there's no sag ... when you seat on your saddle

then there will be sag. How much sag? Not sure ... there's nobody

to measure it for me ... but maybe 10mm?

 

3. Related to #2, imagine you are seated on your bike, pedalling

happily along T15. In this situation there is sag on your seatpost.

You then see a downhill section and you go and stand on your

pedals and get OFF your saddle. What happens? The seatpost will

extend. Now, pretend the DH section is over. You want to get back

to seating on your saddle ... just remember that the saddle is now

higher than when you left it and that your shorts may snag on it.

 

4. Related to #2 and #3 ... this is not so bad ... pretend you are

spinning. But you are a bad spinner. If you are on your full sus bike,

maybe the bike would begin to bounce. BUT if you are on your

full sus bike, the distance from the saddle to the BB does NOT change.

Using a suspension seatpost, that distance from your saddle to the

BB changes when you bounce ... I didn't feel any negative effect

but know that this might play havoc on your knees.

 

 

So with sooo many things going against this suspension seatpost,

will I use it again? Hmmmm I already bought it, so most probably

I will play with it. But now that you know all these things, it's up

to you to decide if this seatpost is for you.

 

By the way, I first thought of buying this seatpost when I saw

one of my friends have a seatpost on his Ragley hardtail with

a rubber accordion on it. I immediately assumed that he had

a USE ShokPost on his bike. I didn't even ask him about it.

Now that I wrote this ... did I really see a USE ShokPost on

his bike or was it a Gravity Dropper Turbo ??? Both have

rubber accordions?! Argghh

 



The USE XCR ShokPost mounted on my aluminium Brand-X frame.
... and yes, it is mounted backwards




Do you guys still see this at the PCN in T15?
I haven't been there for a while.

 

 

 

 



#266 - MTB XC Jamborees

Rochelle and me at Zheng Hwa Park last Sunday.
Pic taken by Cheryl of PPSg Girls

I haven't been blogging as much as I would like to and

there are two reasons for that ... three actually if you count

laziness.

 

Anyway, Reason #1 being that if you noticed last year,

Nusa Iskandar Jamboree was held on February. Followed

next by Kip Mart Jamboree and WACycles. This year I

did not hear of any Nusa Iskandar Jamboree or KIP Mart

Jamboree ... and WACycles Jamboree will only be on June.

So nothing to look forward to ... me and most of my friends

have neglected 'training'.

 

Reason #2 is related to Reason #1. Since there are no

jamborees, I went back to dragonboat paddling. So my

focus nowadays is training for dragonboat. Not so much

on mountain bikes.

 

Anyway, finally the jamborees have begun trickling

in. Yong Peng in mid-May. Plentong is end-May and

WACycles is end-June.

 

I don't think I will be ready for Yong Peng seeing my

endurance is back to zero now. Plentong ... now if you

go to their FB page/invite, I read some one said that we

should take note that this is not a jamboree. It is an EPIC

ride! Why does that make me nervous. I have heard/read

of numerous river crossings and bike portages on the past

versions of this Epic ride. I wonder if the organizers have

'tamed down' the route this ride will take or is it as tough

as ever?

 

Most probably, I will go to WaCycles Jamboree as it

is very near Singapore. So if you  have been slowly turning

into a potato ... it's already 2013! Go get your training

sorted and done. <== actually, I'm talking to myself ;-) 

 

 

No dates on this flyer but their FB page says
the Epic Ride is on 26th May 2013

Flyer for WaCycles Jamboree

Flyer for Yong Peng Jamboree

 

 

 

 

 

 



#265 - MR500 2013

Calm before the storm

 

Jetty @ Lower Seletar Reservoir

Finally! I managed to come back to Dragon Boat Paddling!

The only problem was that I told myself (and a few friends) that

I will NOT be paddling competitively. I mean NO races! I would

just paddle to keep myself fit and also to complement my MTB

training. So it was a good plan. Paddling for upper body training

and Mountain Bike for lower body.

 

But March 16 came and there I was walking the very familiar

route from Khatib MRT to Lower Seletar Reservoir at the ungodly

time of 7 in the morning! I was carrying my old Crumpler bag,

my old BurnWater carbon paddle and I was lugging along

a plastic bag of bottled water and my breakfast. It felt like

2006-2009 again!

 

8AM came and the rest of my teammates from Spanish Armada

had already assembled under the tent which was put up by the

Armada's long suffering Core. Thanks guys!

 

El Capitan of the Spanish Armada has briefed our team on

what to expect for the next two days. We have lots of newbies

in our team and this will be their first taste of DB racing.

 

After all the preliminaries were done, I found myself in the

front right side of the boat with the Mixed Crew of Spanish

Armada behind me. The first heat of the day for us is the

Mixed 'Open' (just a bit of disclaimer here, I tend to call

heats as 'Open' if they are not closed to Expat, Schools,

Corporate or Community Centre teams).

 

From my previous experiences, first heats, especially

in boats with many newbies are bad for two reasons :

first, things haven't sunk in yet and so the crew is not really

focusing on the proceedings. Second, the crew have lots

and lots of nervous energy which tend to mess up the

race piece which we practiced countless number of times.

 

I heard the race official say 'Are you READY??!! Attention!!!

HOOOONNNKKKK (<== airhorn). I started the race piece

but I can feel that there is something wrong behind me. We

seem to be sluggish. The boat corrected within a few seconds

and then we went on to do our maintenance paddles. My partner

on the left (the Armada Coach) must have drunk 5 cups of

coffee before the race because he seems to be faster than me.

Now, my excuse is that I haven't raced for 3 years and so, instead

of reminding him to slow down a bit, I upped my pace to match

his. Bad! After a while, I heard the all important command to

'Charge' ... this means that the finish line is just around 50

meters long. I felt that we were nowhere near 50 meters from

the finish line and so I lifted my head and looked ahead.

I almost panicked when I saw that the 2nd to the last buoy

was still a few meters ahead ?! It seems the charge was

called early. The thing is the crew behind me has already

started to call 'Up! Up! Up!'. Also, we were still in the middle

of the 'long' 20 paddles and NOT yet in the 'power' phase.

Arrghhhh split second decisions! I gave in to the crew

behind me and upped the pace BUT the problem was we did

not train to charge at longer distances and so the power died

before we reached the finish line.

 

 

Canadian DB Tent

 

Hearing Spanish being spoken by lovely ladies will surely make your day :-)

Haaahhhh!!! That was very bad for my first race of the year.

Once we got to dry land. Our steer/captain told us that he has

no choice but to call the charge early as we were getting left

behind. The captain and the coach also filed a request for a

rerun of the heat because as it turned out, the sluggishness that

I felt at the start was because some of the crew did not hear the

commands coming from the race officials.

 

After a few minutes, we were told that our request has been

granted and we will have our rerun. Now the Armada Core

is in a quandary. Just a few minutes after the rerun, the Mixed

Expat Crew will be going for their Qualifying heat. The Armada

bench is NOT deep. A lot of people in the crew who will do the

rerun will also be doing the Mixed Expat Heat. So, the question is

whether to just disregard the rerun and keep the crew rested

or do the rerun so that we will have a fall back plan just in case

the Mixed Expat Heat doesn't turn out good.

 

In the end, it was decided that we will do the rerun.... at least

I have a chance to redeem myself. I should have controlled that

boat as was expected of me.

 

After a few minutes' rest, we were back in the water again.

This time the start was good. The drummer confirmed that by

saying she almost fell out of her seat. During the maintenance

stage of the race, I told the left side pacer to sloooww down his

pace by a little bit and when he did he confirmed that he can

feel the boat gliding along (yes, we talk during races).

I heard the call for the charge ... and again it happened during

the 'long' part of our maintenance. I heard the crew go 'Up! Up!'

again ... and I wanted to scratch my head at that time because

we are absolutely not going to go 'Up' if we just came from

paddling long ... there has to be a transition. Although I realised

it at that time, I didn't know what to do and so I went along

with upping the pace. This on/off paddling (from long to fast)

will produce a bit of 'hesitation' in the movement of the boat.

After a few strokes the boat/crew corrected and we finished

strongly ... now off to the Mixed Expat Heat.  

 

 

Our neighbors, AustCham DB

Outrigger Canoe paddling buddies @ the SurfAid Tent

The Mixed Expat Heat is the target race for Spanish Armada.

Good thing that with each heat, some of those things that I

forgot were coming back to me. Talking to long time friends

from SPC also helped to clear my head. Now I know what to

do when I hear the charge in the middle of paddling long...

and so by this time, I was more confident when we went out

for our heat.

 

The start was called and our start was perfect. However, in my

peripheral vision, I noticed that FDS (Filipino DB) was already

3 seats ahead by the time we finished our start sequence. Hmmm

I need to remember that for the future. That means while we

were doing Power 10 paddles, they were doing more than that.

Anyway, our maintenance was perfect. I had to remind the left

side to slow down a bit and control their exuberance as some

of our crew were fresh. The charge was called and we had a good

transition to charge. In the end I didn't know where we finished

as apart from FDS who managed to keep the lead they got from

their start, all the other four boats in the heat crossed the line

side by side. ... and now the agonizing wait starts.

 

 

The Spanish Armada ladies crew

Team Captain of SurfAid Team

The wait was finally over and there was good news and bad news.

Bad news is that the rerun was no good. We still did not get in.

Good news was that we got into the Grand Finals of the Mixed Expat

Race!!! Also we managed to beat our own time. During practice

the best we could do was 2mins 9secs for 400meters. This time

around, our time was 1min 54secs.

 

 

... and so more waiting.

By the way, that is what normally happens in DB races, you

wait and wait and wait ... But don't worry there are lots of

interesting things to see :)

 

Anyway! The Finals came and there we were sitting in Lane 2

(nobody in Lane 1). Before the finals, my friends from SPC asked

me which lane we will be in and when I told them Lane 2, they

told me that that lane was 'bad'. Now, normally, in situations like

these, SPC steers are expected to stick to Lane 3 as much as possible

WITHOUT actually going into Lane 3. However, I haven't seen our

coxswain practice steering so much and so I kept that information

to myself.

 

In the finals, the common denominator of all the boats in there

are that they are the 'A' boats. This means they all have 'B' boats

(or even up to 'C' boats). The Captain and Coach of the

Armada were beaming with pride because only Armada sent out

one single boat to qualify and there we were seating

in the start line of the Finals.

 

The race finally started. Everything again was as perfect as

can be. The start was perfect, the middle was perfect and finally

when the charge was called, the transition from maintenance to

charge was there and so we charged strongly. ... Since there

was no one on our left, I can only feel the boat on my right

side. I can feel that we crossed the line almost at the same time

BUT when I lifted my head at the finish line, I saw that the

other boats were either 1 or 2 seats ahead of us :-(

 

No medals for us then. ... but still ... hehehehe soon, very soon.

 

 

 



Noriko of Okinawa DB donning Spanish Armada colours.
Thanks to Kei, Noriko and Zhi Hao of Okinawa DB for lending
us their strength

FDS ladies crew

Spanish Armada Coach telling the ladies crew how it went down.

Sharon and Reena of SurfAid Team

Long time friend and Coach of German DB Team

Ladies of German DB ;-)

  The next day of racing was for the Men's Open and the

Women's small crew.

 

This is not what we prepared for and so our orders were

to paddle like this is the last race of the day ... and have fun.

 

I talked to our coach the previous day on how we are getting

left behind during the starts. I told him I suspect that the other

teams are doing more 'Power' paddles than us. He said that

that may be so but it was already too late to change the start

now. I agreed to this and we reached some sort of compromise

that the first 30 paddles of our maintenance would be a little

bit faster to compensate for the 'short' start.

 

The captain took me aside and whispered to me that since

this is an all men's crew, I can bring the whole race piece

up a notch.

 

So with fresh orders, we waited at the race starting line

for Judgment hour. The start was finally called and I was

surprised at the power I have behind me. The start was

strong. The first 30 paddles of the maintenance came and

I did an up 1 for all those 30 paddles. I let them recover

for 20 paddles and then we went for 10 power paddles

again. For the last 30 paddles, I went up a notch again

and so when the charge was called, there was no need for

a transition. Everybody just charged. That was the best

race piece I felt in two days ... scratch that... I mean best

ever since I came back to DB ... and the first thing I

did when I got to the shore is go to the nearest bush and

vomit. I thought nobody saw me but when I came up it

seems my friends from SPC saw what I did and told

me : tsk tsk tsk you are getting too old for this.

 

What was surprising was that although I think this was the best

race piece for us (and we beat our time again from 1'54" to 1'51"),

it turned out that our efforts was not good enough.

 

Well C'est la vie ... or is it Que sera sera ?

 

Stef from Spanish Armada

Team Spanish Armada

Spanish Armada Mixed Crew coming back from the Heats

 

 

So that was MR500 2013 for me and the Spanish Armada DB team.

In this race I have seen the Core Team of Spanish Armada overcome

countless obstacles. In fact, we don't even have enough people!

... and yet at the end of the day there was the Armada Mixed Crew

sitting at the starting line of a 400m race. Of course, the best

ending was if we won a medal. But sadly, that did

not happen ... yet :-)

 

If you guys are interested in DB paddling you might want to

head on over to Spanish Armada's website and check out how

you can go for a test paddle with the team.

 

 

 

 

 

 



#264 - Warhammer

Orcs and a platoon of Space Marines

Cue in 'Blame It On The Rain' by Milli Vanilli as

I was assembling the Orc 'army' that I bought around

 ... ten years ago.

 

December 2012 must be the wettest month that I have

experienced in the 18 years that I lived here in Singapore.

 Rains may last whole day and even if it stops a bit

making you think that you might squeeze in a quickie

trail ride, you know at the back of your mind that the

trails are very muddy. I've already killed the suspension

of my Giant Anthem due to mud. So I'm not going to go

and kill the suspension of my Titus X or my Giant Reign.

 

Anyway, I was thinking of posting a review of some lesser

known movies like Sukiyaki Western Django or Zatoichi

The Last ... but naahhhh. Instead I roamed around Funan

to look for a cheap and good 50mm f1.8 lens for my camera.

 

Bad news is cheap and good camera lens, of course,

do not exist. Good news is I went to 5th floor of Funan

and found nerd heaven. There's this shop that sells table

games like WarHammer and you can also play there.

There's also a shop that specializes in 1/10

Touring Car Drifting.

 

But what I am interested in is in painting my Space

Marines and my Orcs and then creating a diorama

called "Ambush!" and then photographing it using a

macro lens (if I can get one).

 

I've assembled all my Orcs now and have sanded all

the lines from the moldings. Next would be the
painstaking process of painting them ... IF my

paints still haven't dried up :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



#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).