Your The Texas Time Trial Primer

[super slim]

I get on my plane at 5am Friday, so you should be almost have done when I leave. Alvin & I should be on-site by 12 noon or so, so we will be there with Jim & Maria cheering you on and offering any support needed. Crush it!

Me..? I am slowly recovering from my crash last Wed night. Last night was 5 days from the "slide at 35) and everything is healing pretty quickly except my hand. I think this one might take the rest of the year since it is so deep. I might have to right "one-handed" in the TTT! What out for Larry ...

My hand after 5 days - yes it does look "better" than it was on day 1: Yes - I rode without gloves. I will never do it again - Even if I am "just warning up!"
View attachment 5555

My left leg - about an 8"x10" section- cropped so it was not x-rated for the forum:
View attachment 5552

left arm -
View attachment 5553
and right arm (I still can't figure out what I hit to get this huge bruise, when I fell and slid on my left sideView attachment 5554

I am pretty hopeful that everything but my hand will be 99% healed up for Saturday's ride - That is, if I can stay off the bike! haha Well, that one is easy - I dropped it off at Jim & Maria's last night, so there is no temptation to ride it all!

Larry your grazes have healed very well, but your hand is horrible and the photo should be X rated!

Have you tried soaking the hand is salt water?
What has the doctor recommended?

 

[RojoRacing]

Larry your grazes have healed very well, but your hand is horrible and the photo should be X rated!

Have you tried soaking the hand is salt water?
What has the doctor recommended?

His Dr. recommended no more disc front wheels and gunner bars outside. If he was planning to ride a DF bike he'd be screwed and depending on how he holds his narrow bars he may still be a little screwed but on stock Vendetta bars that part of your palm doesn't even need to touch.

 

[super slim]

His Dr. recommended no more disc front wheels and gunner bars outside. If he was planning to ride a DF bike he'd be screwed and depending on how he holds his narrow bars he may still be a little screwed but on stock Vendetta bars that part of your palm doesn't even need to touch.

With a hand like that, I assumed he had already gone to standard drop bars, so ONE hand can do all the work with 3 times the leverage!!!!

 

[RojoRacing]

With a hand like that, I assumed he had already gone to standard drop bars, so ONE hand can do all the work with 3 times the leverage!!!!

On a DF bike which typically like to ride strait with no hands it's actually easier to ride one handed if you hold closer to the middle right by the stem. The bike wants to go strait so all you need are just the slightest inputs to keep it steady, on the contrary holding out wide makes every little bump in the road upset the steering. I don't know how that compares to on a cruzbike though.

 

[RojoRacing]

Just chilling out waiting for a plane with my cinnamon sugar pretzel

 

[trapdoor2]

Just chilling out waiting for a plane with my cinnamon sugar pretzel View attachment 5562

Sorry, that only qualifies as half a doughnut. Yer gonna need to upgrade yer power supply!

 

[LarryOz]

With a hand like that, I assumed he had already gone to standard drop bars, so ONE hand can do all the work with 3 times the leverage!!!!

Nope - I am committed to my little stubby bars for now. I rode them for about 2 hours each day Sat, Sun, & Monday and I felt fine. Of course it will be interesting to see if I say the same thing after 12-hour of riding. Truthfully, I have been riding them so long that when I ride the full drops on the Vendetta I experience just what Jason described with the twitchy-ness when I reach wide now. I feel more secure and smooth with the stubby's at this point. I might not be able to lean into the bars for maximum climbing power, but that would probably hurt my left hand anyway at this point. I'll just do the best I can do with what I have right now! I am keeping my injusred palm totally cover in "silver sulfadiazine cream" which is used for burn healing, plus I will be wearing a glove over it too. It stays moist, keeps put germs and promotes the skin to heal quicker. See you in Texas!

 

[RojoRacing]

I successfully landed in Texas earlier today and got the V s built up. The good news is the wheels made it through unharmed. The bad news is my flop stopped spring mount rivet fell apart and dropped into the frame because I removed the spring for travel. There's no way to fix it without some advanced tools so I'll just have to go without it, what ever will I do

 

[DavidCH]

I am lost... what on earth is "flop stopped spring mount rivet fell apart".

All i can think is "flop a lot".

Guess that means when you hit a bump the V will rattle?

 

[RojoRacing]

Just waiting for the team boss to pick me up.

 

[3WHELZ]

Wow, that is a nice looking ride!!

 

[ccf]

It was really windy and I should have not ridden full disc wheels I guess.

@LarryOz how high were the winds? I'm going to the event at the Hellyer Velodrome this weekend, and I've made @RojoRacing wheel covers for both wheels. But the winds are forecast to be 12-13 mph, and I don't want to end up on the pavement. What wind level is too high for front wheel covers?

 

[LarryOz]

@LarryOz how high were the winds? I'm going to the event at the Hellyer Velodrome this weekend, and I've made @RojoRacing wheel covers for both wheels. But the winds are forecast to be 12-13 mph, and I don't want to end up on the pavement. What wind level is too high for front wheel covers?

I would say stuff above 15-20 it starts getting twitchy, but the real issue if they are forcasting gusts. If it is constant it is easy to make adjustments. On a velo drome you should be OK. I just rode full discs last night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and it was 15-20mph winds. It was not too bad, but not gusty. Although, it still felt a little strange when it got close to 35mph, so I would back off when approaching that speed. I have gone down because of wind and gotten bad road rash - do not want a repeat! haha

 

[ccf]

I took it out today on a paved trail by the Bay in winds that were 12 mph according to the NWS. Gusts pushed me around a bit on the trail. I had a couple stretches without gusts where I pushed it up to 32 mph, and it was no problem. Sprints will be first, and the NWS forecast is 4-6 mph at that time with winds increasing to 12 mph later in the day. So I think it should be fine.

 

[benphyr]

Gusts.. We had quite the winds on Friday, took down many, many evergreens in the City. I biked home in it and wow it blew me around. I had to stop 3 times because I was gusted into the curb from 5 feet out. We were having sustained high winds with gusts recorded as high as 121km/h, that was slightly before I was biking and I was still getting stung in the face by road grit and rock salt that were being picked up and hurled across the landscape. That was on my conversion kit which has fenders and therefore is the commuter. When I got home I quickly pulled out the QX100 to see the differences. Wow, what a difference. I didn't hit any gusts quite as strong, but the front end doesn't get pushed around hardly at all in comparison. I'm not sure which of the differences would have these impacts but here are some easily discernible differences and my suspected impact, these would be the QX100: wider handlebars (slight impact), shorter cranks (maybe), lower seat (slight impact), slightly more upright seat back (no impact), no fenders (possibly catch more air), rear suspension (no impact), wheelbase (slight impact), and the unknown difference of rake and trail that could easily be the largest factor and would only be exaggerated by the difference in centre of gravity.

 

[Bill Wightman]

I think this thread is at low volume now but just wanted to comment on wheel covers. I have been building base miles on the new V20. Most of the time has been in a vertical orientation. Maybe up to 1500 miles now. I recently added wheel covers to the back. I do not have a power meter or a closed oval course so my inputs are subjective. I ride a 5-mile loop around Johnson Space Center here in Houston for 55 miles twice a week at night (and a 65 on rural roads on the weekend behind a fast group). I get a good run south and a good run north and I have to average the two speeds to get a feel for improvements. The other legs are congested with cars and other road hazards.

I have noticed three things that stand out. There is a 1 - sweet spot cadence for me on a sprint at 85-90 rpm, 2 - that the little plastic screws in the WheelBuilder covers are slow, and 3 - that waxing and polishing the wheel cover/rim makes a difference in top speed. Nothing quantitative, just noticeable. I think in aircraft lingo the polished finish is called hydraulically smooth. Try to keep protrusions inside the boundary layer, at least in areas that are not already turbulent. My knees are modifying themselves to the new loads. The cadence sweet spot is between so slow and powerful that your knees are talking back to you and too fast such that your brain says this seems inefficient and uncontrollable. My upper body is getting stronger. I have some of the middle finger numbness I read about elsewhere in the forum. Am trying to mitigate that to an acceptable level. I am going to experiment with wheel covers on the front even though it may be a wash with the 90 mm deep wheels I am currently riding.

The most fun thing about this bike is that I can catch any group I see ahead of me unless they are Cat 1/2 racers in a peloton. They wear you down in a good way though.

 

[ccf]

For one I'm ditching my gloworm x2 headlight and using a Gemini Duo this year

Where did you mount it?

 

[trplay]

. I am going to experiment with wheel covers on the front even though it may be a wash with the 90 mm deep wheels I am currently riding.

If you want the biggest bang for the efforts get some silicon sealant and make a smooth transition between the rim and tire by filling in that little bitty canal. This isn't by feel but proven in wind tunnels. Not only this but if you're running tubeless it makes it rock solid for anti burps. If you use rim brakes a little more work. If you have disc brakes easy peasy.