New Bike Related Stuff

Training isn’t exactly exciting right now since it is difficult to make ride reports interesting when all the rides involve long stretches of pavement. Unless you count as interesting the perfectly good clothing iron that was sitting neatly in the middle of a bike path I was on today. But aside from the random household appliances, the only noteworthy event has been the recent purchase of some cycling related items courtesy of a few Christmas gift cards.

First up, is an insulated water bottle from Polar Bottles. After several weeks of my water bottles freezing 30 minutes into a ride, I decided to try an insulated bottle from REI. Of course, as soon as I purchase this, the temps range above freezing. We’ll see how it works later. 

Second are a few Hammer Heed packets.

I received a sample of Melon flavor Heed at the Gravel Grovel in November. Not willing to risk a adding a new nutrition element just before the race, I stowed it away for later. I’m somewhat old fashioned in that I usually just use Gatorade in addition to water on my rides and races. However, I had read some decent things about Heed, namely its cramp preventing ability. I finally tried the sample last week during a 35 mile training ride over to Fort Ben to see how my body handled it. If there were….negative results, I was still close enough to home that I could limp back or call my wife for a quick rescue. Luckily I experienced no ill effects. The flavor of the Heed is not all that great, as it tastes rather thin (if that makes sense). And, like all energy supplements I have used, I can’t really tell if there if there is any impact on my performance. However, the ride went very well and I felt good and stayed strong throughout the ride, including hill repeats, so that justified the purchase of two more flavors, Strawberry and Lemon Lime, also from REI.

Lastly is the really fun stuff: a new set of Continental Cyclocross tires for the Barry Roubaix. And yes, that is the actual name of the tire. Not terribly inventive!

 

My recent Youtube recon of the BR suggests that aside from some dirt and sand double track, the majority of the course is fairly well packed dirt and gravel road.  I had been using Kenda Kross Supremes (700 x 35) for my attempts at cyclocross, as well as at the Gravel Grovel. I've also been using these for some pavement riding of late.

 

As I mentioned in my Gravel Grovel race report, I was not happy with how the Kendas worked on chunky gravel and I missed the volume of my normal mountain tires. For the BR I wanted something that was smaller than my 2.1 inch Maxxis Ignitor tire, and larger than the Kendas, while still providing decent grip if needed.

Online reviews suggested these are fairly decent rolling tires, despite their knobs. I got a set of 700 x 42 (1.6 inch width) which I see as a compromise size between the Kendas and my normal tires. Hopefully the 42's will provide some volume to smooth out any gravel and be able to handle the BR sand and dirt doubletrack.  The tires look good and might also work for any MTB short track racing I do this year as well.

Outside the new items, training is going well. My ride yesterday started  with me feeling downright crappy, but after about 10 miles I started feeling much stronger (maybe the Heed?) and it turned into a decent training ride. Unfortunately during my hill repeats in Crown Hill Cemetery (including the 90 foot Crown Hill climb, which for Indy is quite high) my rear shifter broke. The front still worked and I was in a mid-range gear so I was able to still finish the workout, but the verdict on the shifter (an X-7) is still out. If I can’t fix it I will try to find a replacement (probably X-9) on ebay.