Toronto Crit

7 Flyers started the race and 3 stayed in until the very end.

Results are here: http://www.pedalmag.com/index.php?module=Section&action=viewdetail&item_id=13519. Note how many riders were pulled from the course!

Here is QB's report:

What a great race, certainly the whole atomsphere made it something special relative to the two other bike races i have been at. The crowd was amazing and the racing was frantic.

You know it is going to be a tough night when there is a crash on the practice lap!! A tight course with some tough corners when you are in the peleton made for about 8-10 crashes that I saw.

The DH Flyers were a force to be rekoned with, as Edgars was leading the charge for most of the race. DH had 3 riders in the top 30 of 105 starters, which was quite respectable in my humble opinion given this was a race of attrition. Amongst the Masters 2/3, Edgars was 10th, Gord was 13 and I was 19th.

The average speed for the group was 43.2km/h, stunningly fast from my perspective given the turns and speed bumps. This compares reasonably well to the 45.2km/h that the pros and elite 1/2 cycled in the 7:30 race.

My garmin suggested a max speed of 50.9km/h, an average heart rate of 166, which was almost a flat line, and a max of 176 (at the finish line) and a 2,000 calorie burn.

A great team event given the cheering from the sidelines - thanks for all of the encouragement - it makes a difference!!
Thanks in particular to Dan - "QB - ITS NOT THE BIKE, ITS NOT THE BIKE - RIDE FASTER"

I would love to see a couple more of these where we get a good number of riders from the team out to the same race. It certainly keeps you going when you see a darkhorse shirt up ahead - thanks Edgar and Gord!

Blackwell 50mm Carbon Clincher Cassette Body, Bearings and Internals

When picking up a pair of the Blackwell Wheels, we need you to specify which system you are running. Shimano and Campy take different cassette bodies, but so does SRAM Red (PowerDome). SRAM is compatible with the 9 speed Shimano Hub, but not the new Shimano 10. The difference is that the splines on the Shimano 10 are too tall to accept the SRAM Red cassette.

Changing the cassette body is very straight forward as the instructions from Blackwell are clear and well illustrated. Making the change gave me chance to take a look at the internals of the Blackwell hub on the 50mm carbon clinchers.

The tall splined Shimano 10 cassette body.

The older style Shimano 9/SRAM compatible.

Six pawls on the inside means excellent engagement.

Bearings are high grade EZO 6901 (non-drive) and 6902 (drive) series. Check the EZO site here (http://www.ezo-brg.co.jp/english/technology/tec_s/s_003.html) if you are interested in the details. High quality, easily replaceable stuff.

Read about my first 100 km on these.

Recumbent Fit

This client had specific needs and some general worries. Due to an accident years ago, an upright bike was out of the question. Leg length and mobility of the left leg was an issue that needed to be solved. Slipping off on flat platform pedals was an every day occurrence and dangerous for any rider. This three wheeled recumbent was the best choice for comfort, power generation and for long distance rides. As with all clients, we got to work using the fit axioms as the starting point and then adjusting according to the the limits of the body.

The first step was to choose the right pedal. Ideally I would fit everyone on Time RXS road pedals, with their cafe cleats. These are very adjustable on their own, take Lemond wedges very easily and have a very walkable cleat. This client wanted to be able to walk around in the shoes and due to mobility issues, the TIME RXS were out of the question. I recommended the Crank Brothers Acid and Specialized BG Tahoe MTB Shoe. These pedals have 4 sided entry for easy engagement, are a simple spring-clamp mechanism and the shoes have an excellent walking tread with pontoons on the sole to work as an interface with the pedal. These pontoons, rest perfectly on the wide body plates of the pedals (that afford lots of forgiveness when clipping in and help with power communication). These pedals do not have left and right cleat adjustment and I would be limited by the number of shims I could insert as I needed to keep the cleats from interfering with walking.

Pedals on, adjustments were made and success! Power generation increased, there was no chance of slipping of the pedals while riding and the entry system proved to be easy. I adjusted for a leg length difference by adjusting cleat placement on each shoe and adding shims. The cleat clamping mechanism chewed up the front part of the shim, but the stack and cant were not affected.

As this is a recumbent, measurements are not exactly like a road or time trial bike, but we shortened the distance from the middle of the gel saddle (very comfortable by the way) to the BB to reduce the amount of reaching that the client was doing in order to compensate for range of motion issues. Ideal knee angle on a time trial bike is 145-150 degrees and we were able to achieve 128 degrees, with a smooth pedal stroke. The pedal stroke was made more efficient as well by aligning the knee and ankle as much as possible. Once again a pedal system with left-right adjustable cleats would have been ideal so that I can more easily place the knee over the ankle, but as walk-ability was key, the Crankbrothers pedal system were the best choice.

Niagara Classic Road Race

What started out as a cool day, ended up as a cool one. Flyers Paul and Quentin hung together for about 3 laps, when the Effingham Hill finally shattered the group into leaders and the rest. Once the hill was wet, the risk of slipping was quite high. Road conditions deteriorated a bit on the rest of the course, but nothing too bad.

Quentin finished a strong 22nd (37 seconds off the lead) out of the 71 in our heat and Paul 48th (6 minutes 57 off lead).

Ahhhh, Albion Hills.

OCUP #2, Albion Hills, windy and cool, very tough to get warmed up. The Flyers continue to chip away at the field in their races. Edgars is looking forward to a little ride called the Toronto Criterium, maybe stretch his legs out before the Canada Cup...Benefit? Disadvantage? stay tuned....

Flyers grind it out at MTB XC O-Cup #2

Hi Flyers,
pary bell here, a new racer on the team with an update to this past weekend’s O-Cup #2 at Albion Hills.

We had 2 Dark Horse Flyers out working our butts off and doing our best for the espresso! The course was fast, with a ton of climbing. There seemed to be a large quantity of double track (I even saw someone give it a try with a cross bike!!) which seemed to favour a very fit rider.

I was racing in the Master Sport 35-39 men category where I came in 23rd with a time for my 3 laps of 1:53:11.10 on the 30km course. Not great, but getting better.

Edgars Apse, on the other hand, did really well racing in the Master Expert 30-39 men category. He finished in 18th place with a time for his 4 laps of 2:07:49.91 on the 40km course.


Here is a photo of me grinning through the pain in my great Dark Horse Flyers jersey near the end of Lap #2.




Up next for me is the Mansfield 8 hr on May 24 followed up with the O-Cup#3/Canada Cup at Hardwood Hills on June 1.

-pary

100 km with Blackwell Research 50mm Clinchers

I had the Blackwell Resesarch 50mm clinchers out on the club ride this morning for a windy 100km. I'd say that the first 70 km was either into a cross wind or head wind from the east. Certainly a lot of work.

The first set of aerowheels that I ever rode were some 3 year old Zipp 404 tubulars. They were light and clean and then I glued the tire to the wheel. Now I am sure that I will get the hang of it soon but the mess I made with the glue was legendary and there was a bump of the stuff on the rear wheel, such that when it spun, there was an audible noise from the road and the whole bike pulsed. Completely my fault but certainly something that made me think twice about riding tubulars. I rode those wheels in a half ironman despite the bump (pumped up to 175 psi!) and had the fastest bike split for myself at that distance.

Over all I liked those Zipps. Good graphics, responded well when accelerating but I did experience a bit of brake rub when I stood up and pedalled hard. I can only guess that newer generations have solved that issue.

So yesterday after wrestling my brand new Vittoria Corsa Evo CX tires on to the Blackwell 50mm wheels I was ready to give it a go. The only qualms that I had were the Equinox brake pads that I had not heard of before. But first on the ride.



These are stiff wheels. No speed sapping brake rub when out of saddle! Hit a bump and keep on rolling. I usually ride Mavic Ksyrium ES wheels and when comparing the ride quality (road shock rolling over potholes, spinning downhill, accelerating) the Blackwell 50s beat them hands down. And with a total wheel weight of this set (less skewers, rim tape, wheels and tubes) of 1587 grams, these were comfortably within the range of a light wheel (maybe only 100 grams or so heavier than the Mavics).

Braking on a carbon wheel is different than on an alloy one. When you can just pull the brakes on an alloy wheel and you feel a grab of rubber to metal; on carbon the feel is more like the pads are gliding over the brake surface - not a bad feeling but certainly different. The braking surface is a raised bump on the wheel and is lowered away from the clincher bead to reduce the chance that the heat from braking will blow out your tube. In general there was no pulsing when braking normally, the Blackwell 50s slowed down in a controlled manner and when I needed to make one emergency stop (tired, 85 windy kms into the ride) I stopped as quickly as I would have on an alloy wheel. Now I did leave behind a little trail of carbon brake pad, but that is to be expected.

The hub action was great and when ever I coasted, a loud buzz eminated from the rear wheel that made me quite happy. I am not sure if the loud ratcheting noise really indicates good performance, but I like it. Not quite a

Chris King Angry Bee, but still noticeable.

How was handling these in the wind? No problem from the front or when the wind was at a slight angle. I did get pushed around a little when there was a direct cross wind but nothing alarming at all. With a wind to the rear and slightly off to one side I imagine that there may have even been a bit of a sail effect.

These wheels are available now for test rides through Hello Vélo . More info from Blackwell Research. And some details on the internals here.