May 2022

2nd May: It was a double first for me today, it was the first ride with my new Wahoo Elemnt Bolt v2 and the first ride with with my new Stages Ultegra 8000 power meter. I bought the new Bolt because I'm planning a couple of cycling holidays and I wanted a device that could recalculate routes properly, not just show a breadcrumb trail. I bought the power meter because of Zwift. Having power data becomes second nature with Zwift because it is provided by your smart trainer so I wanted it for my 'real life' rides as well.

I did a ride today that I know well but I drew it out in Ride with GPS because I wanted to see how the new Bolt did. It was impressive, even if you're on the metrics screen, rather that the map screen, it pops up at the bottom of the screen and tells you the road name to turn into and the distance so I was very pleased with that. The weather was perfect, grey and overcast with a bit of a breeze so quite a fun ride. I think my post-covid symptoms are starting to fade. The long uphill drag along the East Lancs that I struggled with last ride was a breeze, I shot up it so that's a relief. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, the front tyre I re-taped recently didn't lose a single PSI over three days so I'm calling that a win! 26.0 miles.

14th May: It's bonus month at work so I treated the Strael to something I wanted for ages, a set of aero wheels. I chose a set of Scribe Aero Wide+ 50D, they're even lighter than my Hunt Carbon Aero Disc 30 wheels at 1,449 grams and feature a 50 mm naca profile carbon rim with Pillar Wing 20 aero spokes. The wheels come with rim tape fitted so I transferred my tyres over and, amazingly, fitted them with no tyre levers AND they stayed up perfectly from the moment I fitted them with Muc-Off No Puncture Hassle sealant 😀.

It was a gorgeous sunny day so I set off and did some of my usual routes. The field with the nine ammunition storage building was dry and covered with stubble so I cycled over to take a look and took a pic of my bike. The wheels felt fast and smooth with no twitching at all front wheel despite the breeze which was reassuring. I wasn't feeling massively fit so I didn't stay out for too long so another 20.5 miles.

The trials and tribulations of tubeless tyres... again.

Well, I had today all planned out. A nice chill in the house followed by a test of my new Wahoo Elemnt Bolt v2 GPS bike computer in the afternoon. How wrong I was. I went to check the bike and found the front tyre completely flat, oh joy 😕. After my initial set up of the new tyres, I had doubts at the back of my mind and luckily ordered a roll of tubeless rim tape from Hunt as a spare so I decided to change the rim tape. Probably because it had been seated for a while, the tyre came off pretty easily with one lever so I took the wheel into the back yard and blasted all the sealant out of the tyre and off the rim with the hosepipe and left them to dry for a bit. I then removed the two wraps of Muc-Off rim tape and attacked the sticky residue the tape left with a microfibre and a bottle of isopropyl alcohol. I soon gave up on this because the residue was extremely persistent.

I decided to do two wraps of the Hunt tape but this time, every time I had stretched six or seven inches of tape onto the rim bed, I massaged the tape into the dip in the centre of the rim bed with a length of 13 mm chromed steel bar I had (I have another if anyone wants it for the cost of postage?). To make sure the tape was seated, I also jammed a wadded up handful of t-shirt into the side of the rim bed behind the hook on each side of the rim and squished it all the way around to make sure the two edges of the tape either side of the central depression were stuck down properly. I then poked a hole in the tape at the valve hole and fitted the valve with some sealant smeared around the rubber cone. The tyre went back on pretty easily and I soon had it seated with my Airshot device. I opened the second bottle of sealant that came with the Muc-Off kit and squeezed half of it into the wheel. I inflated it to 60 PSI and gave the wheel a mad jiggle in every possible direction to disperse the sealant and attached it back to the bike. It's only been half an hour but, touch wood, the tyre still feels rock hard. Hopefully it will still be hard in the morning. Or possibly not 🤷.

Review: Revolubes chain lube.

When I bought my Kickr and started Zwifting, I started looking for a chain lube that was as clean as possible and wouldn't pose a risk to anything that touched it by accident. A bit of Googling brought up a product called Revolube. Revolube isn't a traditional wet lube or new-fangled dry lube, it's a surface friction modifier.

This is what Revolube say about the product, taken from their website:

Our well-developed and proven technology provides you with extraordinary performance under load, ensuring smooth drivetrain operation under any condition by bonding chemically with the chain's material, forming a microscopic, mono-molecular, wear resistant and dry coating, embedded into the chain’s surface.

You apply it by degreasing your chain as thoroughly as possible and using the provided pipette to apply a tiny drip to each link. You then gives your cranks a good spin to work the lube into the links, leave it a while, and run your chain through an old t-shirt to get the outside of the chain as clean and dry as possible. I found the product ideal for Zwifting. The chain runs smoothly and silently while the outside remains clean and dry and isn't a danger to legs or clothing. I re-applied at ~400 miles as a precaution but Revolube say 700 is entirely possible.

I haven't been able to test it in the rain yet but given that calcium sulphonate is added to grease to make it more waterproof, I have very high hopes - a great product!

April 2022.

18th April: Well, after a 2 year break followed by 1,200 miles on Zwift over 6 months, it was time to hit the road again. The Continental Grand Prix GT tyres on the Strael were three years old and fairly worn so I read a few reviews and bought a pair of GoodyearEagleF1 tubeless tyres and a Muc-Off tubeless kit. I removed all the rim tape from my Hunt CAD 30 wheels and applied the Muc-Off rim tape. Getting the tyres on was a massive pain in the arse because the tape covers over the dip in the rim bed leaving nowhere to tuck the beads. I think in future, it would be better to use something rounded to force the tape down into the dip in the bed instead of relying on air pressure to do it. 

Anyhow, I fitted the valves and added a good slug of sealant to each wheel, inflated them and gave each tyre a really good shake around to distribute the sealant. The next day, the rear was flat so I added more sealant and that seemed to do the trick. A few days later, the front one went down. I resolved the issue by adding half a bag of sealant to each wheel. Excessive but it seems to have done the trick, having said that, the front is very low now - tubeless, eh?

 Anyhow I headed out and did a selection of my usual routes. My legs felt fantastic although I felt like I couldn't get enough oxygen which is probably because I had Covid-19 a couple of weeks ago. A surprisingly enjoyable 22.0 miles.

24th April: Well, with my new tubeless tyres topped off again, I headed out again to some of my old favourite routes. It was a bit cooler, and a lot windier, that the last ride so I wore my black long-sleeved decathlon top instead of the jersey I wore last time. After six months on Zwift, I'm still relearning the ropes of riding IRL 😁.

My legs felt pretty good again but I still felt I couldn't get enough oxygen into myself, especially on the long uphill drag along the East Lancs. No doubt a side of having Covid-19 but hopefully it will clear up eventually. A fun ride and nice to see some of my old haunts again. 16.6 miles.