New combination Wahoo/GoPro mount

 I currently have my Wahoo mounted near my stem and my GoPro mounted on the bridge of my aerobars. This works OK but I'd rather not have to look so far down to see my Wahoo. I also have to think about how this will work during Lejog when I'm on a rented bike. I wanted to design a mount that would place both the Wahoo and the GoPro on the bridge of the aerobars. All the designs I found on Amazon have the GoPro mounted upside down, below the Wahoo. The problem with this is it makes the GoPro controls and lights less accessible and records video upside-down.

I designed my own mount.

Haven't ridden it yet, keen to see what falls off.

Sherry's first ride in two years

 After years of procrastination I finally got Sherry on a bike ride for the first time since she broke her arm in a fall. I was surprised that her bike tubes held air and all I had to do was wash the dust off her frame and clean and lube the chain.

I didn't chose a good day for the ride because the Pacific Air Show was taking place off Huntington Beach. I've been caught by this event before and it sucks because there's like 20,000 idiots standing on the bike trail looking at the airplanes and completely oblivious to the fact they're blocking a throughway.

Sherry's crowd tolerance and bike handling skills were tested beyond her ability so we headed up to PCH where she was a lot more comfortable.

We got to the Bistro St Germain with no further issues and enjoyed their Croque Monsieur.

On the way back we took Atlanta to avoid the crowds and Sherry started to complain about her backside. Apparently she had not worn undershorts, for some reason, so - lesson learned.

Total ride distance was 27 miles at an average speed of 11 mph. I hope we can do this again soon.

Training for LeJog

I'm planning on riding LeJog again in 2022 with Peak Tours. I remember how hilly the route is, especially the first two days. For a country with a highest elevation of only 3700', it is very hilly. I decided to start focusing on hilly routes to try to get my climbing legs back. So yesterday I rode the Sam Woo ride which has more climbing than I'm used to, but not as much as LeJog. Amber came with me. The weather was perfect, overcast, about 70F, and a light 10mph breeze.

We got to Dana Point without any drama but shortly after eating lunch at the Brig I started feeling decidedly unwell. It was either the egg burrito I had for breakfast or the hot sauce I added to my hash browns at the Brig. We turned inland and my stomach got worse. The Aliso Creek bike trail is closed but you know how we cyclists are when a trail is "closed". We have to push on to see if it really is closed.

We walked and carried our bikes around construction equipment, then rode over some dried mud, then carried our bikes over 100' of boulders. 

We were seriously committed at this point. Then there were gates and fences everywhere. They were serious about cyclists not getting through. I scouted and found a section of fence I could move so I created a gap and we passed through. We were on the wrong side of the creek, but we expected we could find a way over.

As we were looking for a way back onto the route, we came across two other cyclists trying to pass through the closure in the other direction. We gave them directions and explained what they would have to deal with. They were undeterred by the idea of carrying their bikes over the boulders. They were just as stubborn as us. I must admit, if I had known how difficult it would be to get through, I would have simply taken Los Alisos Blvd. Part of the problem is we were half a mile up the trail before there were any closure signs. A sign at the start of the trail might have dissuaded us. Probably not, though.

We got to Sam Woo a bit later than planned (the trail closure probably cost us 30 minutes) and normally I love the dim sum here, but my stomach was still unhappy so I nibbled at a few pieces. Fortunately there were only 20 flat miles left. We had a headwind back to the coast, two unpleasant miles on PCH, then 13 tailwind enhanced miles to the end of the ride. Total of 87 miles with 3,000' of climbing. Average moving speed was 14.2 mph. Not bad considering I had a bad stomach and we had to deal with a major road closure.

Can I ride a double metric century on my Brompton?

Yes, yes I can. If it's flat enough and not too hot. I designed a flat route that didn't go too far inland and rode it yesterday. It turns out to be exactly 50km from the pay section of Yorba Linda park to the Jack-in-the-Box on PCH and Warner. All I had to do was go down and back twice. This route is all bike path, which is an added bonus. The down side is that 36 miles of the 124 are on the beach path, which is full of inattentive beach goers.

I took the custom made aerobar bag I bought from EOGear and attached it to the QR aerobars I have on the Brompton. This gave me enough room to carry a vest in case it got cold in the morning or evening. This turned out to be a good move as it was only in the 60s when I started and it didn't warm up until 10:30.

My target time was 10 hours - I would expect to take about 9:30 on my road bike. My target moving average was 14mph with one hour off the bike. It was calm and cool when I started and I had a 15mph average the first time I got to the Jack-in-the-Box. I got a sourdough Jack sandwich and tossed the meat because it tasted vile for some reason.

Returning to my car I still had an average of 14.2 despite having to ride the beach path at 10mph because of the oblivious beach goers. I ate half the egg burrito I had stashed there. That's 100k done.

When I set out on the second leg I realized quite a strong onshore flow had developed and I struggled to hold 14mph. This is where the Brompton is at a disadvantage to a road bike. Even with drops and aerobars it's difficult to hold an aero position for very long. Perhaps a shorter rider would be more comfortable, but I'm not.

Turning north at the beach, the headwind became even stronger and I was struggling to hold even 11mph but the good news is that the idiot pedestrians didn't slow me down at all. By the time I got to Jack-in-the-Box the second time my average was down to 13.7mph. I had the chicken teriyaki rice bowl this time and it was good, but I left the chicken. I find protein on a hard ride bothers my stomach and this was turning into a hard ride. Hopefully I would have a strong tail wind for the return trip.

Turning around I found the tailwind was awesome so I made it my target to get my average back to 14mph as quickly as possible, and then hold it there. I had spent a total of 51 minutes off the bike, so if I could do that, I would have a sub 10 hour 200k.

Because of the pedestrian traffic on the beach I was unable to move my average until I started to head inland. Then I got down onto the aerobars and held 17 for 15 miles until my average got up to 14mph again. I relaxed for the last seven miles and got back to the car with a 14mph average and a total time of 9 hours 51 minutes.

This is probably the furthest I would ride my Brompton.

On a side note, I twice rode past a guy on a Zizzo folding bike and it was creaking like crazy. I'd go nuts riding a bike that made that much noise.

Upgrading to the new Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

Old Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

I have been riding a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt for a few years now and, once I had figured out its limitations, I was pretty happy with it. I use it mainly for recording rides and navigating routes. The biggest limitation was that maps look like crap on the black and white (not even mono-chrome) display. It's good enough that I no longer use a regular bicycle computer. When Wahoo announced a new, color, model, I was interested.

New Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

The obvious difference is the color screen which makes maps pop beautifully. Its a 64 color display so you can't watch videos or anything but they gave us color without diminishing the battery life. It's not obvious from the images, but the new Bolt is slightly larger and I had to move my aerobars slightly to get it to fit between them. It also has several nice features from the more expensive Roam model such as "navigate back to route" and an automatic backlight feature. Here's a photo from the end of last night's test ride taken in complete darkness with no flash. It came on automatically about 7:30pm, around 15 minutes after sunset.

The buttons and UI are pretty much the same as the old one so I had no learning curve to speak of. Deregistering my old Bolt and registering this one were a breeze. The only real problem I had was that the maps have to be selected while you have a Wi-Fi connection so I had no maps for the ride. I fixed that within a few minutes of getting home.

Like the old Bolt, it has a highly customizable screen with lots of metrics and the ability to ANT+ to heart rate monitors, power meters, and other devices. You can exchange routes and workouts with most popular training websites such as Strava and RideWithGPS.

You will want to buy this from Wahoo, REI, or other bike stores. There are some sharks trying to sell this on Amazon and eBay at inflated prices. Do not bite.

Riding the Pedal Path on the Brompton at night

 I've been doing some night riding on the Pedal Path on the north shore of Big Bear Lake recently, testing out my new dynamo package. I decided to try to get some video using my GoPro and it highlights one of the limitations of the IX-SX front light. The beam is really narrow.

You can see that when the trail is straight, the light illuminates it quite well, but tight turns are dark. I overcooked a couple of turns because I couldn't tell how tight they were. In the end I turned on my helmet light so I could look around corners. The Edelux II I have on my road bike has a wider beam, which means some light is wasted on straight sections, but I can see around corners better.

CycleChat.net

I've been participating in a UK cycling chat group at CycleChat.net and there's some very knowledgeable people in the group. I posted a question about floor pumps that are suitable for a Brompton (there's not much space between the spokes) and some clever chap suggested I take the good chuck from the bad pump and put it on the good pump. Saved me some money!

While I tend to get quick responses from the chat group, I can't say the same about getting stuff for the bike. Amazon is taking 2+ weeks to get anything to me, my LBS took 10 days to get a new bottom bracket in and still doesn't have my Wahoo Elemnt. Mind you, I tried to order one from Wahoo directly and UPS couldn't ship it, so it's probably all UPS's fault. They should rename their service "Priority two week delivery".

After 20 years or so as a member, I have left RUSA. They're not the group they were when I joined and I feel I've got everything out of them I can. I'm also worried about running events or being involved at a volunteer level because of the risk of lawsuits. It was good while it lasted, and I'm still going to do endurance rides, but they won't be constrained by a bunch of rules. I'm pretty sure Paul Rozelle is not going to host a Crackerswamp 1200k this year and that was the last thing keeping me in the group.

I did a fun ride on a really gnarly, hilly bike path on the north shore of Big Bear Lake in the dark last night on my Brompton. It's weird the way you seem to be going fast in the dark when you are actually going quite slowly. Still almost overcooked a corner. I had just installed a new chain so I was making sure it worked. I hope it lasts longer than the original Brompton chain.

Hopefully I'll get my new bottom bracket installed in time for the weekend ride.