Monthly Archives: May 2009

Rain & Glueing Tires

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I’ve been in rain for the past two weeks. I haven’t ridden much at all. Plus, I’ve been driving across the country. I hardly ride inside at all, so I had to ride some in the rain. I don’t ride too far wet if I don’t have to. But, I don’t mind riding in the rain if it’s not too cold out. I usually only ride by myself if it’s raining. Road spray is bad enough from my own wheels, let alone someone else’s. Rain has been good for the garden. It’s doing pretty good.

Leaving to go to Arkansas for Joe Martin Stage Race NRC. I glued a tire onto a super light wheel that I’m going to use for the hill climb TT. I’m getting sort of anal about glueing tubulars onto carbon rims. It is kind of weird how many rolled tires I see. Especially in cyclocross. But, on the road too. I’ve gotten to the point that if I’m home, I’ve been using a ratcheting tie-down to strap around the tire until the glue dries. It is overkill in my estimation, but it doesn’t take much extra time and it’s better to be safe than sorry I guess.

To tie the above two subjects together, the best tires by far to race in the rain are Vittoria tubulars. I’m not so concerned about the tread pattern. The rubber is so much better than other brands that the tread pattern is nearly irrelevant. If you are looking for a specific tread, then the KX or CG pattern would probably be the best for a wet criterium. The new CX , 320 thread count, would work great too. In a 23mm size would be best. But, any Vittoria is better than any other tubular tire. And any tubular tire is usually better than most clinchers. If you’re riding clinchers, I’d use Michelin PRO Grip in the rain. I’ve ridden one wet criterium with these tires and they worked 90% as good as Vittoria sewups. I wasn’t big on riding carbon rims that day, but I’ve gotten past that with SwissStop yellow pads. And, don’t ride high pressure. 90 psi or less.

Update from Joe Martin later this week.

Tire strapping method.

Tire strapping method.

Vegetable garden is appreciating the moisture.

Vegetable garden is appreciating the moisture. Bromont in the background treeing a squirrel.

2009 Joe Martin Memorial Stage Race 2.5 mile TT **Results Below**

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Joe Martin NRC started this afternoon. We chose to drive the 300 miles this morning. Not exactly sure why. My reason was that I’ve been on the road for the last couple weeks and wanted to sleep at home. It probably wasn’t the best idea for a 8-10 minute effort.

I have been coming to Joe Martin since I was a junior. I used to race with Joe Martin. His wife, Nancy, is a friend. The race is over 4 days now. This year the hill climb time trial was not after the 2nd road race. I always ride better time trials the 2nd stage of a day. I must not warm up properly or something.

Enough of that. It was hot, mid 80’s and muggy. Super sweaty type weather. And the pollen is everywhere. When we were warming up, our eyes were watering. I haven’t been to a NRC this year, so it was pretty nice catching up with all the guys I haven’t seen for a while. Floyd started a few guys ahead of me. I haven’t seen him since……for a long while. He’s as friendly and goofy as ever. (Number folding photo below.)

Anyway, I rode up the climb a couple times and knew that I had to ride negative splits-Easy at the start and hard at the finish. I thought I was doing that until the last kilometer. That’s when I was going to punch i. And there wasn’t there to punch. I had to talk myself into standing the last 500 meters. I actually got on top of a gear, but that is the only high spot of the day. My arms were as wasted as my legs. Guess I was just out of oxygen. I think that is usually the cause of that feeling. I’m not sure of my exact time, but I think it is the slowest I’ve ridden here. The mid 9’s. Rory Sutherland won last year in 8:11 and it looked like he was catching Tom Zirbel half way up this year, so I’d assume his time is going to be + or – 10 seconds of last years time.

Brian Jensen rode under 9 minutes, which will be a good result. Not great, but OK. Tommorrow is a 110 mile or so road race. It’s supposed to be down pouring rain all day. And loose 15 degrees in temperature. I’ll actually look forward to that.

Thanks to Stefan Roth for forwarding the results.

Floyd's secret pyramid energy source number folding method.

Floyd's secret pyramid energy source number folding method.

They weighed our bikes at the start.  Mine was .29 kg too heavy.

Weighed our bikes at the start. Mine was .29kg too heavy.

Start.  I tried to get him to let me off a little early.

Start. I tried to get him to let me off a little early.


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