Bride of Frankenbike

I keep going around in circles, well rectangles actually. SoCal must be the epicenter of the criterium. I count forty-two crits, GPs and circuit races on the SCNCA calendar this year. The distinction between those forms is pretty arbitrary, Bicycle John's "Grand Prix" is on a 1km four-corner nearly flat course while several criteriums are more complicated, with more than four corners and some short hills.

Since the vast majority happen on the flat with really long runs into awesomely fast sprints, it occurred to me that using my nice road bike for this is a little like drag racing with a Ferrari. You might do well, but if something goes wrong the repair bill would be a lot higher than it would be for a Mustang. Also there's lots of stuff on the Ferrari you'll never use. So why not re-think what we're doing here? A few observations:

I know that for a sprint I'd like to reach 35MPH+ and do it somewhere between 120-140RPM. I figure 53x15. In that gear you're turning 90RPM at 25MPH (typical pack speed) and 141RPM at 39MPH. Second point, the front brake is critical and the rear is only useful for scrubbing off a little speed while moving in a straight line. Third, who cares if the bike weighs 14 pounds or 18, as long as it jumps when you put the hammer down?

So here's the non-existant "Criterium Assault Vehicle" in a nutshell:

• cheap track bike frame, or road frame and single-ator
• track crank with 3/32", 53T ring
• AC Racing 15T 3/32 freewheel
• 3/23" chain with master link
• track bike rear wheel
• front wheel built on disc brake hub
• one good quality hydraulic disc brake (front)
• one rim brake
• winwood cross fork

The rest of it's going to be more or less normal. The disc brake really completes the fantasy here. Hydraulic disc action is vastly more linear and powerful than any rim brake. The real huge problem with my idea is the fork. There may be other carbon fiber crossbike forks with disc tabs, but they're all going to have some design characteristics in common. The rake is 45mm which is going to make the average road bike (with steeper frame angles and 40mm rake) have more trail and become generally more squirrely. (If you don't believe me, have a look at this. Given that the article was recommended by the late, great Sheldon Brown, I believe it.) The fork coupled with a track frame would be even weirder.

So maybe just a track bike with brakes. That setup would have the advantage of looking great, but I'm sure somebody's done it already. I guess what I miss is a time in the past when people would just try oddball stuff to see how it worked out. C'est la vie!

Sharing Routes Using That Internet Thingie

When I started in with my GPS I had a plan to record rides and upload them to Google Earth to share with others. For a variety of reasons, mainly that the damn thing would drop out under trees or just randomly, this didn't work all that great. The Garmin ETrex Vista is better for following routes than creating them. There are a number of websites which allow you to create routes and share them with your friends (or your enemies, up to you). Here's a quick review:

www.gmap-pedometer.com
This is a basic tool which allows you to double click on route points on Google Maps and it traces your progress. There are mileage markers, an elevation profile and map, satellite, hybrid (map overlaid on satellite view) and topographic views. You save the route and Google gives you a link to it. On the downside, if you aren't using Explorer on XP then kooky things can happen. Also, lockups are not unusual. This basic tool is what lies beneath every other one I've found except one.

www.toporoute.com
Very new, and will probably improve. This is a frontend for gmap-pedometer which adds a really cool feature, "Follow Road". While this is turned on you just click points along the route you are recording and the program fills in the interim points. On the basic pedometer, it's purely "connect the dots". Downside: this feature does occasional screwy things, you'll know when you see it. Ironically, the "topo" view isn't there!

www.mapmyride.com
This is probably the oldest frontend for the pedometer and has the most features (including "Follow Roads") and routes . You'll find thousands of rides in the database. Downside: very commercial, map is somewhat small because of all the extraneous stuff on the screen.

www.bikely.com
Fairly new and quite international, and necessary if you're going to be doing brevets in the San Diego area. Downside: not that many routes saved (as yet, that'll change) and you must get a free account to make any significant use of it.

www.runningmap.com
Obviously made for the runner, the only one not using Google. Last I looked it had not road following feature and was limited to 500 points, but if the gmap-pedometer site is locking up your computer this may be useful. A nice point, when you browse to a point on the elevation graph and click it lights up on the map. Every point has a distance from the start, so it's easy to calculate slopes between any two of them.

www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx
This isn't a mapping site, but has a java widget that convert gmap data to gpx format. REALLY COOL! This means you can map out a route on the pedometer, converts (a little clunky, you cut and paste the text it makes) and upload to Google Earth. Makes you wonder why Google doesn't incorporate it.

My Excuse

I haven't been keeping up the blogging because I've been spending way too much time trying to make this crap from Polar work right. The WIND speed sensor (which doesn't measure airspeed, in case you were wondering) has an advertised battery life of 3000 hours. My new one came up 2941 hours short. I tried all kinds of things assuming it can't be dead, it's brand new for cryin' out loud. In the end I bought a new one since I didn't want to wait around for Polar to send a new one. Having two will make switching between bikes much quicker, as it came with a new CS600 mount as well.

PS: In the end I sent it back to Polar and it was returned in working condition. We'll see how it goes.

More Polar CS600 Advice

The CS600 is the follow on for the old 720/725 units. I think they still make 725s, perhaps for the running market. The coded wireless parts represent a big step forward, making the installation easier and performance almost seamless. Now for my BIG gripe. They still use an IR interface, and the one they make sucks horribly. Here's roughly the sequence of events:

11/17/07: I ride the PAA/John's Bike group ride, Burbank-Acton-Burbank (90 miles, 5h9min - my teammates like going fast and I don't like being dropped). John's had a one-day 20% off sale for PAA members and I score the complete CS600. My next easy day is Monday so...

11/19/07: I read all the instructions and find the part where Polar says something like "Oh, you wanted to USE the software, you'll need a Polar USB/IR interface!" I get one at Helen's in Arcadia, which was the closest shop to Pasadena which had one on hand. Prior to this, I hand recorded some data on the CS600 under "No Bike" to check the WIND WearLink (which worked much better than the older, non-WIND unit) so I could make sure data upload functioned. The installation of ProTrainer5 was easy, as was the transfer of my old data. There's a little weirdness: if you have old PPP data in that you create a fake "Team Member" (ProTrainer appears to be geared to use by a coach, you have a team which will be one person in most cases) add yourself, then delete the fake one.
I installed the driver for the USB/IR unit, hooked it up and....NOTHING. What followed was a classic case of modern living. We have scads of really awsome techno-gizmos which are, in a real way, dirt cheap. The problem is that the installation and use of these devices can be complicated and confusing. Here's the thing, I make my living as a computer system administrator. I deal with Windows and Linux on multiple platforms every day and what followed was difficult for me. Good luck to the typical user. In any case, after waiting more than 30 minutes for tech support we conclude that the problem MUST be in the CS600, and not the IR unit.

11/20/07: As luck would have it, my job brought me out to Burbank during the day so I stopped by John's with the idea of trading my CS600 for a good one. Just to be sure, I brought my work laptop and tested the unit John's had on hand. STILL NO DICE! So, the problem is not the CS600 unit, but the IR.

11/21/07: Just to be sure, I go into Best Buy with the CS600 and locate a demo laptop with a built in IRda device. It recognizes the CS600 as a valid device right away. During my lunchtime at work I try the Polar IRda on several computers and still nothing. Thanksgiving is coming up so I put the problem away for a while.

12/5/07: Turns out Helen's has another Polar IR device on hand. They trade me and send back the first one. The new one works, but let me make note of something: I thought I had de-installed the driver, so I went through a re-install. After I was all done with my test and went to close and detach the USB device I noticed that it was labelled "IRda #2"!

12/6/07: Normally, the install of the Polar WIND Power unit would be considered somewhat cumbersome, but compared to the crap I went through it seemed easy and wrapped up in about 30 minutes. The task was made much easier than it might have been because I've switched to the Wippermann Connex type chain which is really easy to remove and install. Compared to the wired unit that came with the 720, this was a breeze. A few notes:

• There is a typo somewhere that suggests that the IRda will work within 10cm. I think this should be 10mm!
• The CS600 mount looks flimsy to me. I've met at least one guy who had broken his, so be gentle. Careful positioning makes things go more easily.
• My previous Polar power unit didn't work properly with my original chain and that problem went away when I added 1" to it. I don't know if the new one has the same problem yet, but I'll be checking.
• At this writing the USB/IR interface doesn't have a driver for Vista. I expect this will have to change.
• I recommend installing the drivers and then rebooting your computer prior to connecting the USB/IRda interface the first time.
  
• Here's Polar's page on uploading.
  
• Check this out.
  

Resolved

I'm going to:

• blog at least twice a week
• stay on my training regimen
• get to know my PAA teammates better
• never say to the guy coming last at the regroup "have a flat?"
• stop obsessing
• start enjoying
• remember there's more to life than the bike.

Hiatus, Part Deux

I've been busy. One time a biker passed me on a hill saying "Can't talk, breathing", and that's how I feel in general. Since my last entry I've ridden around 2000 miles, a lot of it pretty hard. Enough about me (strange from a blogger), I'll talk training later. A few reviews:

Wippermann 9 Speed Nickel Connex Chain: Wins. I got 1900 miles from one (last time I kept track I wiped out a Shimano in under 1500). This makes it about the same cost per mile, but it wins on convenience, even over the SRAM with master link.

Polar CS600, with power: Without going into too many details (waiting for phone support for 30 minutes, returning to bike shops multiple time and so on), it does function, and the ProTrainer software is a step up from PPP version 4. I haven't investigated the resonance phenomenon, but will eventually. This wins over the 720 since it has the following:

• More readable display
• 1-sec record rate
• More info in display
• Display flexibility
• Fewer data dropouts (none so far actually)

I also suspect that the accuracy is somewhat better. Power spikes occur on occasion still.