Bike Riding, Statistically Speaking.

11:23 am, March 12th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Posted in bikes, boythings, roundups, whinging by Jarod

The summary of this post is that I’ve been riding a hell of a lot more in 2010 than I was in 2009.

The long version includes some quickfire stats…

• In the first 70 days of this year, I’ve ridden half of what I did in 365 days last year. (1230kms for 70 days of this year, 2389kms for the whole of last year)
• Last year I did 101 rides in the 365 days of the year for an average of 23kms per ride. This year I’ve done 37 rides in the 70 days already gone for an average of 34kms per ride.
• If I continue at my current pace (which I won’t, winter for one will slow me down) I’ll be heading towards 6000kms for the year. Truth is that I’ll be cutting back in a big way after Dirtworks in May.
• The Salsa is still my favourite bike by far. More than 60% of my kilometres this year have been on it. Need to start to get on Greeny more.
• As the following graph shows, I’ve made a distinct effort to ride further in the one sitting than I did in 2009. In 2010, 40-50km rides are the order of the day, whereas 20-30km rides were more common in 2009.
  

I’m still going okay with that fine balance of not riding enough (and being horribly unfit) & riding too much (and over training). As Paul Petch says, training is the easy part, it’s forcing yourself to rest that’s difficult.

Greeny’s Sliding Dropouts

7:46 pm, March 3rd, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Posted in bikes, boythings, photography by Jarod

It’s official. I’m in love with Greeny’s Sliding Dropouts.

From when I bought the Kona Unit in November until just before the WSMTB 4 hour race a few weeks ago, I was running a 32:18 gear ratio on the Greeny. Just before the race though, I changed it to 32:20 and I’m pleased to say that it couldn’t have been easier.

Wrap a chain whip, use a lock ring tool and the old cog is off. Chuck the new cog on, lockring tool it tight and reinstall the rear wheel. Loosen the slider bolts, adjust the tensioning screws, tighten the slider bolts. Aaaaand you’re done!

Today I changed from the 20 tooth cog down to a 17 tooth, and I’m pleased to say the whole process took about 5 minutes from start to finish. When compared to a cog change on Whitey (when he was still a single speed), it’s about 5 or 6 times quicker. Who’d have ever thought having the right hardware for the job would make that much of a difference.

So essentially, Greeny’s Sliding Dropouts are awesome. But I suppose that can be expanded to say that all sliding dropouts are awesome.

Kona Unit Update

10:23 am, February 23rd, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Posted in bikes, boythings, photography by Jarod

Time for a few more photos of Greeny. The main change since my last update on Greeny is that he’s now sporting some 120mm Fox F29’s. They’ve transformed the bike again, making it far easier to ride for longer distances.

When riding Greeny with rigid forks, after about 30-40kms my upper body would be absolutely smashed. The biggest positive with the Fox Forks is that they even out the little bumps. This reduces fatigue and over a longer distance ride, makes my body less ouchied. The other significant factor is that it helps me maintain speed through rocky technical sections.

One small downside is that the 120mm forks have a larger axle to crown measurement compared to the Kona P2’s. This makes the headset higher, which in turn slackens the headtube angle (by about 1.5 to 2 degrees if my calculations are correct). No matter. When I get them serviced for the first time they’ll be reduced down to 80mm or 100mm, then it’s back to nice twitchy handling. Hurrah!

Thus far I’ve only done about 50kms on the forks so time will tell exactly how good they become. But if initial impressions are anything to go by, they’re going to be great!

52/365 – Dirty Legs

8:33 pm, February 21st, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Posted in 365, bikes, boythings, photography by Jarod

Today I did the WSMTB Club’s 4 hour race. I got dirty legs and a crushed spirit.

Quite tired. Shall post a proper review in the coming days.

42/365 – ride ride ride

8:47 pm, February 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in 365, bikes, boythings, local, photography by Jarod

38/365 – Raaaaaaaaaaaawwwwr

7:10 pm, February 7th, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Posted in 365, bikes, boythings, photography by Jarod

26/365 – 52kms of Centennial Parks Finest

7:45 pm, January 26th, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Posted in 365, bikes, boythings, local, photography by Jarod

I really really really shouldn’t have, but this morning I rode 52kms of Centennial Park. Why shouldn’t I have? Well, now I’m feeling extremely tired, have a sore throat and generally feel eww.

Classic over training I guess. Oops.

20/365 – Oh Kona Unit, How I Love/Hate Thee

10:00 pm, January 20th, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Posted in 365, bikes, photography by Jarod

It’s the most fun bike ever, but a creaky drivetrain makes it the most frustrating one in my stable as well.

The style of the photo was well stolen from Laura’s latest 365 photo.

4/365 – Commuting By Bike to Work

7:27 pm, January 4th, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Posted in 365, bikes, boythings, local, photography by Jarod

I want to focus on my bike riding in 2010. In general to increase my fitness and stamina, but also just cause I’m enjoying being on the bike. As a result of this I’ll be riding the Casseroll to and from work a bunch more.

It’s a simple equation really. I can drive to work and it’ll take me between 30-40 minutes. But if I jump on the bike, I can do the same stretch in 45-55 minutes. I’d be crazy not to ride to work more often.

Speaking of which, this is me on the way home from work today.

I took the long way home (46kms) instead of the more direct (20km) route. Sadly this meant riding into a massive headwind. But as a plus, it’s aaaallllllll extra training.

2009 in bikes.

6:15 pm, December 28th, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Posted in bikes, boythings, roundups by Jarod

Seeing as Liz has gone and gotten all statistical on the year’s ass, I figured I’d do some number crunching of my own…

For the last year and a bit I’ve been keeping a diary of where/when/how long I’ve been riding places… and it turns out I’ve ridden for 145(ish) hours. In that time I rode for just short of 2800kms. Not too shabby for a year where I got lazy for large slabs of time.

– 879kms on Whitey the mountain bike of fury.  During the year and it’s been both a single speed and a full geared bike.  I also rode Whitey in both the Highland Fling and Dirtworks… and in both races he performed flawlessly, giving me zero mechanical issues.
– 1515kms of awesome Salsa Casseroll‘ness (161kms of that using fixed gear).  Can’t get over how much I’m still enjoying the Salsa.  It’s simply a joy to jump on, and cruise for a few hours at a time. Indeed of late I’ve just been ‘cruising’ laps of Centennial Park.
– 85kms on Greeny the Tonka Truck of my stable.   My venture back into single speeding and the world of 29′er wheels. The 85kms might not seem like heaps, but it’s not too shabby seeing as I’ve only owned him for the last month or so.
– 309kms on the ill fated & now sold Gary Fisher.  It was a good bike (made better by single speeding it), but sadly just a size too big for me.

Also of note was the 571kms (of the total 2800kms) were commuting to and from work (that’s about the equivalent of riding to work for three weeks straight). That’s one number I want to get a whole heap higher in 2010.

Speaking of 2010, I’ve already registered for the 50km Dirtworks, and I’m also in a 4 man team for the Mont. Should make for an interesting first half of the year. Well, if I can get my backside into gear and get a bit more training in…

The Race to Two Hundred.

8:41 pm, December 20th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in bikes, boythings, internets, roundups by Jarod

It’s not been official until now, but Liz and I are racing to 200 posts on this, our humble blog. As it stands I’m at 188 (189 with this post) and Liz is at 186. That puts me three ahead with eleven to go, but I’m still behind the eight ball cause Liz has stacks of momentum (and won’t stop baking stuff!). She’s made 10 or the last 15 posts for pete’s sake.

Now in a slight retrospective, these are a few of the stand out posts (in my mind at least) that I’ve made.

2010 Kona Unit Single Speed

Gary Fisher Cobia, made into a single speed

The Salsa Casseroll Single Speed

The Giant Iguana Single Speed Frame

Strange that all of them are about single speed bikes. Well… not that strange I spose.