Short bike trips.

Perhaps something to look forward to for 2013. We have gone a weekend for TOMRV, longer trips to Colorado, and down drive-and-rides.

Check out this blog - BikeOvernights

http://www.bikeovernights.org/post/harvesting-the-fall-bounty-in-iowa

Juicing Body & the awesome Beville Juicer.

Mark Sisson’s Primal Life

Mark is a very knowledgable triathlete who can provides a lot of common sense about exercise & nutrition.

Check his site out (link above) - I think what he has to say will resonate with many long distance cyclist.

Creative Healing Space

Anyone looking for a very good massage, I  highly recommend Amanda Reed, LMT. She was a soigneur for a Pro cycling team in Colorado. Currently living in Fairfield studying Ayurvedic  Science, she has a gift for diagnosing symptoms and causation of ailments.

Check out her website below for more information.

Contact her and set up an appointment today.

link          Creative Healing Space

http://www.creativehealingspace.com/

That time of year, again.

Time to check your batteries for your bike lights. AJs bike shop in Fairfield has stocked the ever powerful Planet Bike, Super Flash - Turbo!

This rear light has received some highly rated reviews. I have had one motorist stop me and comment on how effective it is at dusk.

Autumn approaches....

and thoughts turn northward to Decorah, Iowa.

A nice weekend getaway.

http://www.troutruntrail.com/

Good job, Alan.

You proved yourself a worthy Google Jedi Master.

May the fork be with you.

/jd

USA Pro Cycling Challenge (Dowd I Did It!)

USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Breckenridge on last Friday.

I have included a few photos as the group comes up the first switchback on Hoosier Pass, as they come head on and of Cadel Evans, 2011 Tour De France winner and the Yellow Jersey pushing past us. Lastly Don Thomas and me.  Don is a local of Summit County (Almost as good a photo as the one Dowd posted of me).
The race started out of Breckenridge at 9,600' elevation and climbed over Hoosier Pass 11,542.  The climb starts in earnest just past Blue River and the bulk of the climb takes place in around 3 miles (approx 1,800 feet of gain in 3 miles).
As one sign said "Hoosier Your Daddy?" (The answer is "Hurst". He would have kicked all their tails!)
Come join me next year! Lodging is free!

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/08/news/christian-vande-velde-strides-into-the-ring-and-throws-a-knockout-punch_236453

Alan is make small steps: trouble with uploading images, latest problem.

Alan is still working on his first post.
He ran into some issues finding the Post button.
He later commented that it was pretty intuitive once he had a visual aid help screen sent him.
More recently though, he has found other problems with added an image.
I have the image below showing Alan explaining his difficulty.

Keep trying Alan, I know this isn't easy without a blood transfusion.

Alan M. Is learning to blog.

Let's see how long it takes .... C'mon Alan I am cheering for ya!

Today's biking staycation focuses on the High Tressel bridge near Woodard, Iowa.
Fantastic views on a beautiful bridge over the Des Moines River Valley.

For more details, check out this link;

High adventure on the High Tressel bridge.

Bentonsport, Boneparte, Cantril. Bike Van Buren takes a route through some of the most scenic parts of Iowa.
Check out this link;

Bike Van Buren county villages.

Bike Chains

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 11:50 AM, marks, alan <alan@midwestdevelopment.net> wrote:

Greg,
Nice comments. On the instructions, can we add that tension should be put on the chain when measuring.
I used the 1,500 to 2,000 mark as an a minimum time to think about measuring.

On Aug 2, 2012 11:39 AM, "Titus Gregory" <gregtitus@lisco.com> wrote:

My two cents...  

As Alan mentioned, some manufacturers recommend replacing a chain every 1,500 to 2,000 miles.  (Campy makes exactly this recommendation for it's 11-speed chains.)

I disagree with that recommendation because it's based on the following assumptions:

1.  All cyclists have very similar riding behavior and therefore wear chains equally (poor assumption).

2.  All cyclists ride under very similar weather conditions all the time (poor assumption).

3.  All cyclists don't maintain their chains very well (pretty good assumption, as most don't).

4.  All cyclists don't know how to determine if their chain has too much wear (excellent assumption).

I'll advocate that a chain should be retired when it's reliably determined that it has stretched 0.5% (approximately one sixteenth of an inch) over 12 inches.  If it has 500 miles on it, and is stretched that much, it should be replaced.  If it has 12,000 miles on it and has just reached one-sixteenth inch of stretch, it should be replaced.

Why replace a chain at 2,000 miles when it still has plenty of stretch left in it?  I suppose if you're a chain manufacturer, you'd be happy to see people doing that.  Personally, I'd rather change my chain when it's worn out (like my last one was when it reached 0.5% stretch at 5,235 miles), and save on a couple of unnecessary chain replacements (at $60/chain = $120, not to mention the savings of prolonging the cogs and rings).

If you keep your chain clean & well-lubed, you can go a lot farther than 2,000 miles without having to replace it.  I don't care what the manufacturer says about replacing it at a set number of miles (ignoring how you ride or how well you maintain or don't maintain your drivetrain, or whether you're riding a lot in mud and grit, or only on clear, sunny days).

If you have a way to accurately measure the wear in your chain, you can avoid replacing chains that have lots of good miles left in them (and save that chain money for the eventual replacement of your cogset and chainrings).

Keep it clean, monitor the wear, save money, (and enjoy a properly functioning drive train).  If you don't want to bother with it, who cares?  It's your bike.

One more point:  determining the wear on the cogs and rings has not been addressed.  That's for another time.  So are tips on how to maintain a chain and measure its wear.  I'm sure Feist, our master mechanic, can come up with good suggestions.

Pasta lumbago!

Greg

References: 

More on how chains wear out and what chain checking tools on the market (in 2009/10) are accurate:

file:///Users/greg/Desktop/Chain%20wear%20&%20checking%20tool%20article.webarchive

How the 1% stretch number is determined...

All the chains on modern road bikes have 24 links per 12 inches (12 with outer plates, 12 with inner plates).  This is a global cycling industry standard.  From a fixed point on one link of a new chain, to the exact same point 24 links away from it, it's exactly 12 inches.

1% of 12 inches = 0.120 inches

one-eighth of 1 inch = 0.125 inches, so you can appreciate that one-eighth of an inch is really, really close to 1% of 12 inches.

If a chain has worn and you measure from the same fixed point to the same fixed point 24 links away, and that distance is 12 and one-eighth inch, then you know you have 1% wear on the chain.

With today's tighter tolerances for chains (to work well with 10 and 11-speed cogsets), it's been found that 1% of chain stretch is too much.  That's why the recommendation is to change out the chain when it reaches 0.5% (or one-sixteenth inch).  As noted above, the number of miles on the chain doesn't really tell you how much stretch is actually in the chain.  You have to accurately measure it to really know.

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We have a blog! It's really the ideal place to blah, blah, I mean blog, blog, blog to your heart's content.
Go here:
http://feistbikes.blogspot.com/

For current weather conditions:
http://www.wunderground.com/US/IA/Fairfield.html

How to unsubscribe:
http://support.google.com/groups/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46608

 

--
--

We have a blog! It's really the ideal place to blah, blah, I mean blog, blog, blog to your heart's content.
Go here:
http://feistbikes.blogspot.com/

For current weather conditions:
http://www.wunderground.com/US/IA/Fairfield.html

How to unsubscribe:
http://support.google.com/groups/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46608

 

--
Joe Dowd