Yesterday I rode 50 miles. And 2 hours of that was in the rain. I hadn’t trained in the rain for a long time. It kind of made me feel tough. I was enjoying it for the first hour or so, but it got pretty old after that. I was riding West of town, where it is pretty hilly. The problem was that I wasn’t getting warm enough on the climbs to offset how cold I was getting on the descents. When I got back to Austin, I pretty much couldn’t feel my hands. I think I must have nerve damage from all the times I’ve frozen my hands recently. My right hand was going numb just training in San Diego in the warm weather. It took 1/2 an hour in the bathtub to feel normal. That’s not good.
I’m getting a bunch of new parts for my bikes. Today sometime, I’m getting some TRP CX 9 Cross Brakes. They are mini V-brakes that work with road levers. They are supposed to get rid of any chatter you have in your fork. I was descending some pretty crazy stuff today coming back into Austin and I can categorically state that cantilever brakes suck in the rain. They suck in general, for stopping. I have Swiss Stop yellow pads on and they would barely slow me down enough to corner on a descent. It was nearly scary. Hopefully these brakes will have more power along with eradicating the fork chatter.
Today I’m meeting up with a friend to ride 5 hours at noon. I got a text saying, “I need to get in 5 hours.” I can hardly wait to ask him why he needs 5 hours. I want to ride 5 hours, but I’m not sure I need to. If he has the form to ride 5 hours at pace, I’m going to be hurt. I’m hurt just walking up and down the stairs right not. Tomorrow is gonna be worse.
Does anyone out there know why scars turn purple when they get cold and wet?
I saw this license plate down the street while dog walking Bromont and Stanley. Lance can't be too thrilled with the position here.
Stanley is being the ultimate host, allowing Bromont to have his dog bed and toy while he just lays on the floor.
Steve,
I believe it has to do with the scar tissue that has built up, and this tissue will not have many if any blood vessels at all, so there is a decrease in blood flow to that area.
I installed the CX-9 brakes last night. Observations: the pull is still pretty long on the levers and clearance is super-tight at the rim. This is on Campy (10) levers and Neutron rims. I ended up having to use a Travel Agent on the rear–I couldn’t get enough clearance to get the brakes to engage solidly before bottoming out at the bars. The front was better, no clue why. I did a few hours on them this AM and (1) they stop about 1,000 times better than the TRP canti’s; (2) I noticed no rubbing when out of the saddle, cornering, etc….but it’s close, very close; and (3) the only down side to the Travel Agent is visual…it’s a tad mushy, but the brakes are functional which is more than I can say about canti’s on the road.
Does Lance have a visor on the back of that helmet?
After my first and only set of mafac-style cantilevers, I was off of those things. Yes, they were Mafacs. The ‘magic’ happens on those things when you get the straddle cable just-so. Too much fiddling! Asian cantilevers set up quicker for the same braking power.
Unless you run linear brake levers, you will constantly be managing the space between the brake pad and the rim as Joe_Beer illustrates. I have *plenty* of space between the rim/pads with linear levers.
Some of you cannot imagine riding without brifters, but cyclists somehow managed to have 5 0r six gears prior to brifters. It’s still all about the engine.
The helmet thing is back when the Giros had winglets. Worse are the bunched up arm warmers and moobs. Definitely needs a redesign.
In my experience with numb fingers – cold or not – I think it has to do with multiple crashes and age. It only gets worse.
John
Interesting article on reducing chatter: http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/01/bikes-tech/technical-faq-with-lennard-zinn-lz-suggest-some-new-years-resolutions-for-the-bike-industry_154565