Racing - Sprinting By The (Power) Numbers

This is related to my jump/sprint numbers from the other night.

Me getting led out at the now defunct SUNY Purchase Tuesday Night Sprints, probably 1991 or so.

My good friend and former teammate sent me a link to this interesting sprinting article: "The Profile Of A Sprint" from The Science of Sport website. It's a great article, opening with one of those bike cams mounted on a couple pros' bikes (on the Giant team). Go ahead, watch it, I'll wait.

Clip from above linked article.

Okay, so that was exciting, right? Really chaotic, and, frankly, it's really difficult for me to tell when the rider should jump. I guess that's why they have markers every 100 meters for the last kilometer (or more), because if I were in such a sprint I'd have one eyeball on them and another on the riders around me.

I'll sort of follow along their article and inject some of my own thoughts.

Sprint Length

First, they state that a pro sprint typically lasts about 10-15 seconds at the end of typically flatter (and therefore less selective) stages, allowing for a large number of riders to arrive at the finish together. I'd want to add here that for at least the Tour de France, the Champs Elysee stage seems to end up being a much longer sprint. One winter I studied a number of stage sprints while on the trainer and found that most sprints were short, like 10-13 pedal revs in the wind. This is well under 10 seconds in the wind.

A notable exception? The Champs consistently seemed to be 20 revs or so, or almost twice that of a "regular" stage. Not having every sprinted on the Champs I can't tell you exactly why this is the case, but I'm guessing it has to do with the wind (tailwind?), the slight down hill nature of the finish, and the fact that it's a super prestigious stage for a sprinter to win so they'll go a bit earlier.

Good Sprinters are Good Sprinters

What's really interesting is that in the Grand Tours from 2008 to 2011 there were 79 field sprints. 54 of those sprints were won by 5 riders. 19 others accounted for the remaining 25 sprints. This means that there were really just 5 really effective sprinters for those years. That's a very, very, very small number.

Power Numbers

Now for some nitty gritty - wattage and speed. What's incredible is that the power numbers aren't out of this world. For the six sprinters studied the average peak power was about 1250w, a number that even I can hit.

Sustained power, for the average 13 second sprint, was about 1020w. Again, this is a totally attainable number by a number of riders, me included.

My "good" sprints have been about 1250w peak with the best sprint being a sustained 1100w effort for 18 or 19 seconds. Typically my peak will be about that, like 1250w, but depending on the sprint my sustained effort is usually shorter and usually is in the 1050w range.

Top speed averaged about 41 mph. That's fast but not outlandishly fast.

Basically even the best pros are sprinting at numbers you might see in a Cat 3 race.

Of course there's a huge difference between the pros and a Cat 3. Cat 3s aren't racing for 3-6 hours before the sprint, they don't have a massively fast (and tough) final hour, and they typically don't have to hold 30+ mph before they get into the sprint.

Thoughts

I think that the numbers only tell part of the story. Obviously hitting the numbers counts. But reaching the end of the race in good position, with as much in reserve as possible, is critical. I'm sure there are much stronger sprinters out there that don't get the job done regularly, and there are weaker sprinters out there doing super well. Race craft counts for a lot, but it's good to know what sort of numbers the big boys are hitting. At least it's a point of reference.

Racing - CCAP Tuesday Night Criterium, May 31, 2016

May 31, 2016 was my first race of 2016.

Not only that, it was literally my first ride outside.

I've been riding, it's just that I've been riding the trainer "not so seriously" since last summer. I have to say that it was weird to go out and see 92 degrees on the thermometer for my first race. I usually have a race routine down by the end of May but not this year. I scrambled for a couple days to get everything together. I checked the race wheels, put the rack on the car, gathered my tool box stuff, first aid bin, tracked down bottles, a cooler, freeze packs for the cooler, my kit, gloves, camera, all sorts of stuff.

My bike has a few significant changes compared to 2015. First, it's the black bike, a bike I haven't raced since I think 2013 or 2012. It has an older style Campy Ergo lever, they're a bit worn, so the bike shifts a little less crisply than the red bike. Second, I've been experimenting with a 2 cm longer position, so the bars are 2 cm further away from the saddle compared to the red bike. The black bike also has older crit-bend bars and I'm not that keen on the drops. My FSA bars are much better on the drops. Third, I have 170 mm crankarms on the bike. I am trying those out as well, versus the 175 mm cranks that have served me so well in my good years since 2004 (best seasons being '05, '06, '10, '15). I used 170s two years, 2008 and 2011, both seasons being pretty unsuccessful.

I also had two worries about race day itself. First, I hoped that with all my preparation that my bike would be okay. I checked and double checked stuff but without a shakedown ride I wouldn't be sure that my bike would be 100% until I got on the thing. Second, I hoped that I'd be okay on the bike. My last outside ride was August 4, 2015, when I did my last race for the year, a Tuesday Night crit. I don't think I did a report although in the end I led out a teammate in the A race.

With all the extra stuff I needed to do before the race the field was lined up before I had my number pinned on. I was definitely a bit rusty on the whole race day thing, unable to think clearly enough to just take my jersey off and pin the number. Realistically it would have been very quick, but instead I fidgeted with my SRM and helmet and who knows what else while the Missus pinned me up.

Field lined up. They were there for at least a minute before I got there.

Fortunately the race hadn't left before I lined up. The bike felt pretty stiff steering-wise and I wasn't really comfortable with my directional control on the bike.

It was when I started off that I realized my bottle of water was still in the cooler at our race base. Therefore...

Retrieving my bottle during the second neutral lap.

Note the field on the road.

On the second neutral lap I stopped to grab the bottle. My dad, the Missus, and Junior are all sitting in a row.

I didn't see this in my focus on getting my bottle - Junior reaching out to touch my bike.

I feel bad because with all the stuff happening the one thing I don't want to do is ignore Junior. However, here, while I'm busy sticking the bottle into my cage, Junior is about to reach out to touch my bike. I didn't realize this at all.

I rolled out, the group was going a nice 12 or 15 mph, and I linked up at about Turn 3 on the course, the last turn.

Sitting in the field.

During the race I realized that in my winter experimenting with stems I'd ended up with a tight headset. On the trainer it doesn't show at all and I didn't really notice it in my wobbly pedaling to the registration desk. No warm up either so no chance for me to notice it then. However, once under way, it was painfully apparent to me that my headset was too tight. It made the bike hard to steer subtly, resulting in me swerving back and forth. It wasn't a lot, I wasn't swerving feet at a time, but it was definitely not ideal. So my apologies for any swerving I did out there.

In the last group, which was about to disintegrate.

As the race went on I realized something else - I didn't have the ability to rev the engine like normal. I could plod along at a steady pace but when riders made efforts I really couldn't move.

As one rider said to me after the race, I'm starting like it's March, but everyone else is 2-3 months into their season. I guess that this means that I'm better when everyone is worse, meaning I do better in the spring races when everyone collectively is doing worse. The better everyone gets the worse I do. I felt super rusty out there.

Rider after rider went off the front, forming groups, coming back, all sorts of stuff. It was actually pretty interesting from a tactical point of view. I could only watch from the back of the field.

When I was in the third group, and, really, the fourth since teammate Jeff had started a bridging move to the second group, I decided I should see how it'd go if I tried to bridge. Rev the engine, so to speak.

It didn't go well.

I mean, okay, I did a reasonable effort, but my jump was weak, my sustained power wasn't all that great. The longer reach didn't seem to hurt me but the shorter cranks... I'm seriously considering going back to the 175s.

At any rate I blew up pretty hard after my effort and sat up. My race was done, at least in the group.

Blowing up after doing a little bridge move.

I pedaled slowly, for the next 15 or 20 minutes, after racing for all of 30 minutes. Realistically our neutral laps were faster than what I was doing at this point.

On one lap Xander, ever the nice person, kindly pointed out the gap to the next group behind. I could barely get out of the saddle, forget about pedaling faster, but I like that that's how he was thinking.

Xander giving me a time gap.

I decided that I'd do another effort at 2 to go, to get baseline sprint numbers. I wanted to see what my peak, 5s, 10s, and, possibly, 20s numbers were on the bike as it was right there - 170s, longer reach, etc. I decided to jump into the crosswind on the backstretch and not necessarily go to the line. The cross-headwind after Turn 3 didn't seem so bad so I ended up going a bit further than I expected.

End of race (time) sprint.

I sprinted on the 2-laps-to-go lap, but I was lapped several times by then.

Sprint numbers?
Peak: 1064w
5s: 1014w
10s: 979w
20s: 801w
30s: 608w

I guess I took it relatively easy on the jump because it's a solid 200w lower than I'd expect in the same situation. My 10s is also lower by about 100-150w and my 20s about 100w lower. My 30s is about on par so I think I went easier but longer. I have a feeling that with 175s my peak would be higher but I'm not sure.

In comparison my best ever numbers were 500w higher for peak, about 300w higher for 10s, and a whopping 350w higher for 20s. I haven't seen those numbers in a while though, not since 2010-ish.

When I rolled up to our base camp after the race Junior spotted me and yelled out and ran over. That was nice.

Junior sees me.

So going forward the plan is to get the red bike rolling again, meaning replacing the BB30 bearings and retaping the bars. It has the newer Campy lever shape, the FSA Compact bars, and my normal reach. I'll stay with the 170s on that for a bit but if things really seem sour I'll move back to the 175s.

Training - Unexpected Bonus

As I've mentioned in the past few posts, I've been dieting steadily for three weeks now. I've noticed that I usually have a couple-few "easy" days, where it's easy to stay at or under my goal, and then a day or two where it's really hard. This cycle repeats itself pretty consistently.

Today's been one of those hard days. I struggled all day after consuming a massive-to-me 1030 calories before noon. I'm ending the day a little above my recently-revised 1510 cal goal. I've been cold and getting massive head rushes when I stand up, so I'm definitely in an aggressive energy-depleted state.

This isn't the unexpected bonus that I allude to in the title though, and I want to mention a couple more things before I get to the unexpected bonus.

Two days ago I breezed through the day falling asleep perfectly satisfied with my 1365 calorie day. Yesterday, although I ate 1700 calories worth, I rode for almost two hours, burning off a good chunk of that. My powermeter told me I burned about 900 calories, so that's a huge net loss day since I definitely burned more than the 190 calories I went over my 1510 calorie goal.

My weight's been steadily declining. I started my diet in mid November weighing in at a hair under 179 lbs. This morning, for the second time in the last three weeks, I saw a low 169 lbs reading. I want to be at least another 10 pounds lower at 159 lbs. Based on my current progress it would take at least three weeks, although I expect my weight loss to taper so it may take four or five weeks.

If I could get another 5 or 10 pounds lower, hitting 155 lbs or lower, I'd be super psyched. That would be another three weeks minimum, and realistically it may not happen. I need four to six weeks of training to get to some kind of fitness and I know I'm going to lose much of my training time before the first races of the year.

In 2010, my (recent) banner year, I saw a couple readings at 149 lbs (meaning that was at the low range of my weight cycle if you will), I steadied at a weak but light 152 lbs before I started training, and I hit the season at 155 lbs or so and feeling as strong (or weak?) as normal. I stopped weighing myself regularly after I saw 155-158 lbs every time I stopped on the scale.

If I can get close to that I'll be totally psyched.

So what's the unexpected bonus?

My cycling legs are starting to come back.

See, to make my admittedly aggressive calorie goals, I've resorted to eating a bit more if I'm hungry, then getting on the bike to burn at least as many calories. If I go 200 calories over then I want to burn, as indicated on the powermeter, at least 400 calories.

(How do I get calories from my powermeter? By using kilojoules, which happen to be about the number of calories burned on a bike. Although a kJ is not a calorie, the human body's inefficiencies end up making it so. On a bike ride a kJ of work is equal to anywhere from .95 to about 1.2 calories. Reference stuff here. I figure that trying to use the actual conversion wouldn't be easy, and I'm probably in the "more efficient" side of things, meaning I'm probably using .95 calories per kJ of work. Therefore to make things totally clear I'd like to do twice as many kJ of work as my caloric overages. If I eat 200 cal more food, I want to burn 400kJ on the bike.)

At first, with a 1790 calorie daily goal, staying under my number wasn't very hard. I recalculated after I lost about 6 pounds, using a more aggressive set of variables. I ended up with a much too aggressive 1260 calorie daily goal. After two days of that ridiculousness I redid the numbers using a slightly less aggressive set of variables. This gave me 1510 calories per day. It's aggressive but manageable on the good days.

(The most important variable is goal loss per week. Right now I'm letting MyFitnessPal decide my caloric needs and I'm using a 1.5 lbs/week weight loss goal. The reality is that I'm losing almost twice that number. I'd be happy with 2 lbs/week, but when I used that goal MyFitnessPal told me 1260 cal/day. I revised my goal to 1.5 lbs/week and got 1510 cal. On the intake side I'm very strict about recording everything I eat. It seems to be working.)

On the less than good days I still want to hit about 1700 calories. This 200 calorie overage means I need to do about 400 kJ of work on the bike, and that's about an hour of riding.

What's happened is that with my aggressive caloric goals, I tend to go over regularly. I plan my food, entering the food (and related calories) before I eat them. Therefore when I'm still hungry at 6 PM I know what I am about to eat and I typically choose to eat food after checking with the Missus if it's okay for me to do a trainer ride.

Then I eat my calories and get on the bike.

At first my rides were as pathetic as pathetic can be. I struggled to turn over the pedals, and on one particularly bad ride I actually struggled to stay in the 90-100 watt range. It takes me almost an hour to do 400 kJ of work right now. In contrast I might do 600-700 kJ of work in an hour long criterium or 500 kJ in an hour of training.

Significantly, because of my aggressive calorie goals, I've resorted to riding the bike more than I expected.

Yesterday I had yet another caloric overage day. By early evening I was sitting at about 1400 calories, good if I stayed there, but I had some really strong hunger pangs. I decided to go for it, eat a bit (300 calories), and then get on the bike.

Incredibly I didn't feel horrible on the bike. I found myself holding 160-170 watts for long stretches of time (for me that's 5-10 minutes). I did ease to super low watts, like 90-100 watts, but the harder bits surprised me. With no recent training, with the low daily caloric intake, this really shocked me.

So that's the unexpected bonus - feeling okay on the bike.

I'm not strong for sure, definitely not strong, but better than "weak". Last night I kept going until I realized it was after my self-decided "get off the bike" time. I got in 1:55 on the bike and climbed off feeling fresh and (relatively) energetic.

Bonus? I at 200 calories over but did almost 900 kJ of work. Even using my 2x ratio I did well, and the reality is that I ended somewhere like 600 calories under my goal number for the day. That's a good sixth of a pound of fat worth of calories, give or take.

Back to today. I'm 100 cal over but I think that's all I can expect. I don't want to ride so I'll leave it as it is. Net net, for the last week I've made strong progress so it's all good.

Goal visualization. Me at 155-158 lbs at the end of 2010. In the picture I'm wearing 29" waist jeans. Right now I'm in 31" waist jeans, and I was wearing 33" last winter.

Interviewing Phil Keoghan at Interbike 2010.

Picture by Julie Kelly

How To - SRM PCV Battery Replacement

One of the "drawbacks" of the SRM powermeter system is the lack of "user serviceable batteries". To be technically correct it should say "easily user serviceable batteries". The computer head ("power control") and the cranks ("power meter") are both designed to be serviceable, just not with a nickel to twist off a battery cover. You need a bit more than that to service them.

The Power Control 5 (or PC5 or PCV in Roman numbers, and we'll go by PCV since that's what SRM calls it) falls under this "not so easily serviceable battery" bit.

I have two of them, one that came with the Cannondale's SRM system and one that I came with a used SRM system I bought off of an eBay seller.

When I bought the Cannondale the crank battery died almost immediately. SRM very kindly replaced it under warranty - it was maybe a year old at that point and I hadn't used it anywhere near the 15,000 km that it might last.

Since then I've replaced one crank battery. I went to replace the other but when I checked the battery it was fine - apparently the wiring harness was the culprit.

The PCV (remember that's the computer head) battery worked fine though. It happened to fade just about when I bought the used SRM system so I've been using the second PCV all this time.

Now, with two bikes rolling, each with an SRM power meter on them (the cranks), and with each SRM power meter holding different offset values (some variable you have to program into the PCV), it's easiest to use two separate PCV heads.

(To program the offset you have to do something akin to reprogramming the clock on a cyclometer. You can do it each time you switch bikes but it's sort of a pain. This is why I looked for a used SRM system, not just the cranks.)

Now I need to replace the PCV battery in that original, came-on-the-Cannondale PCV. I put it off until I had a rolling bike, meaning I put it off for a couple years. With the now-red Tsunami finally on the road I ran out of time.

Here's a short pictorial on how I did it. It took about 30 minutes total and if I was better it'd have taken 10 minutes or less. I note how much time it actually took to do the stuff in each picture - the extra time came from me being super careful or checking and rechecking too much or overthinking things.

PCV head, 4 screws removed.

Green "drum" is a stack of batteries.

Time: 1 minutes to remove screws, 1 minute to remove battery from silicone glue stuff.

The PCV has clear glue that was holding the battery in place. I popped the battery out with a small flat blade screwdriver.

The new battery to the right.

I wanted to reuse the wires so I saved them off the old battery, cutting them at the solder points.

Time: 1 minute to cut leads clear of battery.

You'll notice the new battery is shorter than the old one. It doesn't hold as much of a charge but unfortunately the taller original battery isn't readily available. I read of one person that got them custom made for him. He was selling them too but I never got a response to my request for a battery or two. I bought some lower capacity batteries from Mouser Electronics. They'll be good for the 6 or 8 hours data capacity of the PCV.

I bought a few batteries while I was at it. One for this one, one for the other, and one spare. 

New battery soldered.

Time: 2 minutes to solder each end.

I soldered the two wires on, red to positive, black to negative. I did check the battery first to make sure it was putting out 3.7 volts and it was.

The black stuff is brush-on electrical tape. It's great stuff, just brush it on. It's sort of like black tubular glue, consistency-wise, and it dries to a semi-hard state. It doesn't transmit electricity so it insulates the connection. In my case I "painted" the whole end of the battery just to be safe. I'm not sure but I think I got the stuff at Radio Shack.

In the picture above I have not brushed the black/negative wire/connection.

New battery soldered, both ends covered with brush-on electrical tape.

Time: 1 minute to brush both ends with brush-on electrical tape.

I got specks of the brush-on electrical tape on the surface below the PCV (and a bit on my fingertips too).

Battery in place.

Time: 1 minute to reassemble.

I decided to use the brush-on electrical tape as the glue to hold the battery in place. The black gunk was a bit wet when I put the battery into place - the battery didn't move so I figured it was okay.

All set!

I'm holding at an angle because the flash makes the LCD screen look like it's not working right.

It's on the charger, as evidenced by the "+" symbol on the right side of the screen. We'll see how it goes.

The second PCV, still going strong.

Note the different color buttons.

If you look closely at both PCVs you'll see there's some "loop" of "hook and loop" on the sides. This was to hold the PCV on the Cane Creek Speed Bars when I used them. I haven't been strong enough to use them recently so they're sitting on a bookshelf waiting for me to get stronger. I hope to have a better solution when I put the Speed Bars back on the bike.

The download cable, fixed with brush-on electrical tape.

The download cable for the SRMs tend to crack and break at the plug end. This is just like any other power plug that connects to a device - think of a DVD player or a toaster or whatever power cord that has to bend a bit.

With the SRM download cable the black bit is pretty rigid and the white cable is pretty flexible. This leads to a conflict of sorts where the two meet. Inevitably the rigid black plastic cracks and breaks, and shortly after the flexible white cable separates from the black plastic, exposing the wires. Eventually the download cable fails.

This download cable, that I got used with the eBay SRM power system, arrived already cracked. Given a bit of time the cable would have failed. I used the brush-on electrical tape, liberally applying it to the area where I could see the wire innards amongst the cracked black plastic. The download cable works fine and it appears to be plenty durable.

Racing - June 19, 2012 @TuesdayTheRent

The last time I was here I got shelled in two quick laps. Quick in the sense that, yes, the field was going fast, and quick in the sense that I got shelled quickly.

I knew I hadn't been training but this was pretty bad. The Missus even said that I should train a bit more. She knows me well enough that although I don't berate myself too much when I get shelled I still feel disappointed that I wasn't in the mix. For me racing is about being in the mix, whether it means helping a teammate or going for a place myself.

Since that last race I trained a bit more. I took the approach that this was the beginning of my season. I have no base so I figured I should work on that - when I start cramping 20 miles into a ride I know that I'm lacking something serious.

I also had some mechanical issues that I never fixed. In the past, through 2011, I worked on my bikes a lot while I was in SoCal at my annual 2004-2011 training camps. Although the long days wiped me out  the short days gave me a lot of time to fiddle with the bike - spend an hour or two on the bike and I'm left with 5 or 6 hours before the host family returns home.

This year not only did I not go to SoCal. I didn't train that much. I didn't work on my bike. I had this weird problem where my bike would shift out of the big ring spontaneously - I discovered my big ring had a bunch of bent teeth, teeth that would try to dump the chain into the small ring on every pedal stroke.

With that fixed, the brakes tightened up a bit, and some other miscellaneous maintenance stuff done, my bike felt a lot better.

I also trained a bit more. Instead of riding once a week I could ride twice, even three times a week. I managed to do two races at the Nutmeg State Games, going on the attack in the M45s and hanging tough in the Cat 3s.

I've also gotten a bit better with my schedule at home with Junior. I can get more things done, I'm better at focusing at a task, and a lot of stuff comes to be automatically that didn't before. Amazing how a little tyke can do all that to an adult.

All this meant that Tuesday June 19th would be better. Before we left for the race I had the bike packed, my number pinned, and even an entry form filled printed and filled out. Ironic on the last bit - I had a bunch of forms left from the 2012 Bethel Spring Series but gave them away because "I didn't need them anymore". Now I have to print them to get more.

At any rate after the Missus got home we packed up Junior and headed out. We practically flew along until we got to the entrance to I291, when traffic ground to a standstill. Apparently an accident closed the left lane of I291, backing up traffic for miles.

Instead of arriving with 45 minutes in hand we got there with just a few laps left in the B race. All my prep came in handy as all I had to do was present my release, pay, slip on the jersey (and helmet and gloves and Sportsiiiis and start Strava), pee (in the portapottie) and line up.

With this type of warm up my SOP in Bethel I figured it would be okay. The race went fine for about 30 minutes, although I was hurting the whole time. About halfway in the field splintered chasing a prime.

I was already dangling dangerously near the back of the reasonably sized field (30 or 35 racers I think). I saw friend Laura S struggling, trying to close a gap that really someone else should have closed. I gave her a good push to get her to the next wheel, but then that guy left a gap. She went around again and I knew that that was the move that would blow her up.

I couldn't even stay on her wheel so that was that for me. The last few guys rolled around me and then I was clear to sit up completely.

My heartrate, every time I had looked down, read 158 or 159. I know that I can hold the mid 160s when I'm working really hard, so not breaking 160 seemed a bit low. I figured I was having an off day, where I couldn't rev the engine very hard.

After downloading the SRM I learned that I was looking down when my heartrate dropped a bit (which makes sense). I didn't see the 160-164 stuff, but I was there. So it wasn't as off an off day as I thought, and that's actually worse. It means I can't go much faster than what we did there.

Curiously enough, at the end of my lap off the back, my heartrate had dropped to about 130. I recovered quickly, it seemed.

I don't look too cooked, do I?

Photo by David Wells

I know that at my best I'd make huge efforts, really suffer for a bit, recover, then go again. I was never good at long continuous efforts, like climbing rock steady for 5 minutes. I did better when I had to surge a couple times to stay on wheels then sprinted over the top of said climb.

My heartrate curve seems to show that my recovery is starting to come around. I need this to happen since I use big efforts sporadically and rely on some off periods to try and recover quickly. The choppier the pace the more I can recover.

Tuesday, though, the pace felt relentless. I never had more than a few seconds of soft pedaling per lap and that wasn't enough to allow me to recover. After running an aerobic deficit for most of the race I finally popped.

For now I'll be working on just getting on the bike. Pedaling certainly beats not pedaling, that's for sure. I'll also try and get some exercise in while in the house looking after Junior, stuff I can do without getting on the bike.

Sunday is the Keith Berger Crit. I'll see what happens there.

Equipment - Garmin Pedal Power?

Garmin postpones pedal power release indefinitely.

If what Look says is true, Garmin needs to redesign the pedal axle. Look had to do it too, but since they're using their own pedals, they could without rocking the boat too much. Just look at the pedals - they differ substantially from the outside (and the inside).

Note how thick the axle is towards the outside of the pedal

(Image from Look)

In comparison, the regular Keo Max's axle tapers and ends short of the outside of the pedal

(Image from Look)

Garmin is sourcing third party pedals so that makes the job of redesigning the pedal a bit more difficult.

Unfortunately for them it's not a simple thing. My understanding is that the pedal axle really can't be tapered because then it flexes too much, causing power readings all over the map. Either they need a much more rigid (or predictably flexible) material or they need to significantly beef up the axle.

It's one thing to ask a pedal manufacturer to print your name on the outside of the pedal, or use a different color plastic for the body. It's another to ask them to redesign their actual product so that it fits your needs.

If they want to stick with pedal based power (and the left/right measurements it offers), Garmin has a few choices that I see.

First, they can make their own pedal. This is pretty complex, with all the standards and cleats and all that. It also costs a lot, and, frankly, making pedals isn't Garmin's core business. Which, of course, is why the outsourced the pedal to begin with.

Second, they can partner up with a pedal manufacturer to create a new pedal specifically for the Garmin system. This obviously isn't working with the current pedal supplier. I imagine that it won't work with Speedplay, since they severed that relationship when they first bought the pedal power concept.

I do see the possibility of them teaming up with a different pedal vendor, maybe one that makes boutique type pedals, that is a direct competitor to Look/Polar, and is willing to work around Garmin's needs to market a version "1.1" of whatever pedal they currently sell.

As an industry outsider, Mavic pops to mind first. They just started making inroads into the pedal market, they are pushing hard on other gear, and they have a well established business that could support some of the R&D costs such a pedal would absorb.

Third, Garmin has literally hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, in revenue. I could see them simply buying someone who can make the pedals for them. They'd have whatever secondary business (think of someone that works with carbon, aluminum, and bearings, so maybe wheels or cranks or hubs or similar).

They'd have a built-in option to put the power elsewhere (like a better BB version or some other place no one's used yet), and they could have the company create a pedal specifically for the power system.

Again, as an industry outsider, I'm not sure who is on the market, who is willing to commit to pedal development. The company would be a smaller boutique type outfit, maybe a Chris King or an Enve.

One thing is for certain. If Garmin doesn't develop something, someone else will, perhaps someone from the list above.

Good for us riders. Bad for Garmin.

Equipment - Midsummer SRM Maintenance

With the hopes of racing today at the Rent, I wanted to straighten out some of the issues I've been having with my bike. Due to some pretty intense storms (tornado watch was in effect) the races were called. This left me with some time to do a good hard ride on the trainer. I hoped that fresh legs, a fueled body, and a fixed up bike would make me fly.

So what did I do to the bike?

First off, on Friday, I finally reinstalled my front derailleur cable. The new stop had plenty of time to set, and it seemed pretty solid, so I figured, what the heck, I could use the small ring, might as well install the cable.

Cable stop oozing epoxy. I'll sand it down.
In the winter.
No cable in it in this picture.

It took me about 2 minutes to realize that the 0.4 mm cable used in Nokon housing is a bit thinner than the 0.5 mm cable I had as spares. SOC ran into this problem recently and I just pshawed him, and then I ran into it. Ugh. SOC was right, the slightly larger cables barely or don't fit.

I ended up reusing the front derailleur cable, already quite short, with an unsoldered end (thinking about this with a clear mind I should have soldered it to begin with), and a bit crushed where the clamp bolt clamps it.

If you have to know, it took for freakin' ever to install that stupid front cable, like 3 hours. It should have been a few minute job so the Missus looked rightly surprised many hours later when I admitted to her that, no, I hadn't ridden, and, in fact, I just got the cable hooked up.

I have to admit that I did fiddle with the bars too. My levers have been a bit too low on the bars (I know, me complaining about low levers, go figure) but, seriously, I figured I needed to raise the levers a bit. The tape looked really ragged too (even the Missus suggested that it be time to rewrap the bars), so I figured I could take care of everything at once.

I relearned this trick for fitting Ergo levers on crit bend bars - I just slide them as high as they go before the crit bend prevents them from moving further. When I "discovered" this I realized that, oh, that's how I did it almost 20 years ago, when I first installed Ergo levers in 1992. I just forgot when I built the Giant TCR and I forgot it for the bikes I built after that.

Levers slammed up all of, oh, about 5mm on the bar, I e-taped the Nokon housing down, planning on doing a few rides on the trainer to make sure the levers felt even. There's this cardinal rule about wrapping tape - if you wrap your bars right after moving your levers, one lever will be higher than the other. If you don't wrap the bars right away, you'll find that the levers were even and you could have done it right away.

I left them unwrapped.

I managed to do a trainer ride on Saturday, like I did on Wednesday and Thursday, and it made a huge difference to be able to shift into the small ring. I could spin more, felt my legs load up quicker, and basically felt like I was riding a bike again. Since it was (and I checked) the first time I rode in the small ring since MAY 31 (!?!) it's been way too long.

The levers felt even so that was a good sign too. Of course they were, they weren't wrapped. So I left them alone.

Because if you wrap them after one ride, you'll figure out the levers sit crooked. You have to ride them at least twice before wrapping with tape.

With steady riding throughout the week, I felt pleasantly fatigued by the time Sunday rolled around. So pleasantly fatigued that the Missus and I barely got anything done.

Then, Monday, I redid the SRM battery in my spare spider, one I got off someone on eBay a while back with a "new" battery. Well, that battery lasted maybe a month, but at about $19 a pop, they aren't too expensive, and they last at least a year under normal use. They're supposed to last like 10,000 to 15,000 km, or 6200 to 9000 miles, but that's like a few years for me. A year is fine.

Soldering iron. Butane powered, no plugs needed.

Voltage checking stuff.

Tip on SRM battery replacement - check voltage of battery before installing in spider. Then check voltage at the end of the wires (i.e. beyond the solder point) after soldering. It would suck if you put it all together and it didn't work. This set up garnered 3.2 volts, what it should have garnered.

Done right, with the soldering iron at good temps, it should take about 15 seconds of heat to melt the solder and "stick" the wire to the whatever (terminal, post, etc). The first time I did this I probably heated the battery for 15 minutes, not 15 seconds. I even had to redo it after a solder failed, so I added even more heat. It's got to be why the battery didn't last very long, about 8? months.

To be fair the PCV head I got from the same seller has been going strong and I've been using that while I figure out a radical plan to revive the original PCV head - non-PCV owners probably don't know this but there is no stock battery produced now as replacements for the PCV, at least not the same spec as the original battery. You can get a lower capacity battery or try and go for a radical solution. I'm leaning towards the latter.

While I had the crank spider out, I really wanted to replace the rings on the crank. I have two sets of the Cannondale SI chainrings and both show considerable wear after a combined total of three years of use. These certainly aren't the beautiful cold forged Campy rings; they're just machined soft aluminum ones. I don't have any other 130mm BCD (bolt circle diameter) rings, just a whole slew of almost-useless-to-me cold forged 135mm BCD rings...

Except for one pair of rings. I couldn't resist fondling some chainrings I bought for the tandem, a matched 55T/44T, in 130mm BCD (in soft aluminum, alas).

Yep, a 55T. Oh yeah!

Holy big chainring Batman!
It don't even fit in the picture!

So, yes, I stole some chainring bolts off of the donated Athena crankset I used from about 1995 to 2001 (the others are Record or Chorus cranks which have an odd bolt in there) and stuck the big, thick, heavy rings on the newly-battery-ed spider.

(The donor was the designer of the 1997 kit, the first kit I wore that had argyle on it. I'm sure Vaughters took note of this for his future Slipstream kits.)

I took my original SRM crank off the bike and discovered two things. First, the arm wasn't really tight on there. It was snug, okay, but not tight. Second, the lockring holding the spider to the arm was only finger tight. It wasn't rocking but it was close to it.

Note to self: check these things a bit more often.

I mounted the 175mm arm to the fresh battery SRM spider (replete with the beautiful huge chainrings), snugged the lockring firmly, and installed it on the bike, firmly.

Just before it went on the bike.
The lockring (out of view) is tight.

Then, because the enormous 55T ring is a tad taller than the 53T it replaced, I had to adjust the front derailleur.

A two minute job, right?

Uhhhh....

You guessed it.

Problem was the derailleur mount, welded on the frame, was set up for regular and compact cranks, i.e. 53 tooth max and about a 48 tooth minimum. The 55T macho ring had no place on this bike.

A little digging around got me my nice round file, and, after covering the chain, chainrings, and front derailleur with a cotton rag, I modded my front derailleur mount so my derailleur would clear the 55. I carefully removed the rag and I think got zero metal shavings into the drivetrain.

Yay!

Not in the big ring.
You can see the silver chainring bolts. Dirty bike. Cable still has to be capped.
Pay no attention to file marks.
But it works.

By now my fingers were black with various oily grease, mainly from the bottom bracket and crank fiddling. Since I planned on putting on lighter than black tape, I knew I'd have to wait a bit, else I'd ruin the tape just installing it.

Because, as you know, the best way to finish washing your hands is to install new bar tape. The new tape will suck up whatever tiny bits of oil or grease you missed, ruining the tape in the process. Even if your hands look clean they're not (as any doctor will tell you).

Therefore I had to get my hands really clean. I took a dinner break, washed dishes by hand in the sink, washed my hands a dozen times, and, finally, with hands scrubbed about as clean as a surgeon going in for open heart surgery, I wrapped my bars.

In white Cinelli cork.

Oh what a joy. I forgot what it's like to use Cinelli cork. It wraps so nicely, so smooth, looks so pro.

Poor picture but you get the idea.
This is after 90 minutes of riding.
With clean hands.
Note big floor fan. Critical for trainer training.

And white tape, yes, because, well, because that's all I had left. But it's so pro looking. I won't be rewrapping my bars every week or two like I did for a season in the mid 90s, but I figure I'll be replacing the tape a bit more frequently than, oh, once or twice a year, like I have with the black tape.

With the spider swap and bar tape, another bit of maintenance that should have taken only a few minutes stretched out into hours, and I skipped yet another ride.

But my bike, she is beautiful.

Well in a functional way.

Now I just have to ride it.

Training - Back On The Bike

So... it's the middle of December again, and once again I'm finding myself thinking about next year. It seems like just the other month that I was suffering in the heat at Somerville or Harlem or one of the Renlentless Rents.

Like usual I've been musing equipment because, frankly, I do that whenever I ease back on the riding. As soon as my brain haze clears from race sufferage, I start thinking, "You know, if I had an aero gizmoid, I could probably save a heart beat or two at speed, and that would make it just a bit easier to hang in at the races. Hm."

I've taken the step of ordering my new aero-style frame. I'll be mounting the right size tire to optimize the aerodynamics of the Stinger6 wheels. I'll have some other things I want to try, all in the quest to reduce the power necessary to hang in at the higher speeds of a Cat 2 race.

I'm also in the process of refitting my current equipment, important since I'll hang a lot of those parts on the new frame. I read about "refitting" a lot in my military history books, where a division is sent back away from the frontlines in order to "rest and refit". The books mention stuff like half of the tanks in one of the biggest tank attacks in World War 1 were "casualtied" because they simply broke down.

Even in World War 2 there was a lot of attrition, basically from overworked engines and drivetrains failing from abuse. The infamous Tiger tanks, 60 ton behemoths that were semi-mobile bunkers, were powered by gasoline engines so tuned to the edge that when you got under way the exhaust pipes bellowed out three foot bursts of flame. Think drag racing or rally racers, with foot long flames shooting out of the exhaust. Now imagine that kind of tune in a Mack truck.

(In night movement that would light up a nice 50 meter radius area - making the whole "doesn't smoke like a diesel of the era and is therefore more discrete" reason for using gas engines a bit ludicrous.)

Those giant tanks would churn through engines, drive wheels, and tracks like you wouldn't believe. They required frequent air filter changes (every couple hundred miles), huge amounts of fuel (a hundred miles or so took something like 200 gallons - and you thought your SUV got bad mileage), and constant maintenance on a slew of batteries (I think there were 28 of them but I may be wrong). Engines had to be overhauled, filters and track and other expendables checked and replaced regularly, and guns sighted and cleaned and barrel exchanges kept up.

And that's before you even got shot at by the other guys.

Likewise, racers (and just regular riders) wear down bikes over the course of a season. That pristine bike in the early season, with its crisp shifting, the sticky and undefiled tires, the perfect paint, the beautiful tape...

The chainring teeth get a bit rounded, the chain rollers wear down, the cassette cogs get thin and shark-fin shaped. All this makes the shifting sloppy, gives the drivetrain room for a bit of play whenever you press on the pedals.

The tires develop a flat plane across the top of the back tire. If you rotate the tires then both tires start developing this flat plane in the tread. Any color in the tire loses its pureness, getting gray and black and dirty. Little nicks and cuts appear everywhere.

The paint, oh the paint. The chain slap will take care of even the most carefully armored chainstay paint, and heaven forbid you drop a chain off the cranks - the bottom bracket shell will never forgive you. Minor adjustments of the front derailleur, cable housing rub, even the constant rubbing of a muscular calf or thigh will damage the paint.

And of course, the tape. My tape is in shambles, the gel (but not adhesive) backed "carbon" tape a sad failure in my eyes. The stuff gets slippery when damp, it moves around under pressure (apparently I grip the bars hard when I sprint), and, well, let's say I wasn't impressed with it. Even good tape, like the Cinelli wrap, will compress over time, even if it doesn't move. If it's anything other than black then the tape will also get darker, grayer, the grease and grit and road stuff embedding itself deeper and deeper into the unwashable tape.

For me there's one more thing other than the standard stuff - the SRM cranks and head units. Batteries wear out, grit accumulates on the BB30 bearings, and everything gets dirty. The stuff needs to get worked over nicely, refreshed.

So this is my "refitment" period, my retreat from the front lines to refresh my equipment.

And that's what I did with the SRM crank over the course of a couple "sessions". My initial attempt at SRM battery replacement failed miserably, the power reading failing within a few days. I didn't think things through and got too nervous about stuff. I took the crank off, made sure nothing had melted or short circuited, and rode around with just the regular crank spider on. No power, no cadence, just speed.

When I went and fixed spider the first time I tried to keep the battery facing the same way as before. But it didn't make sense - the (+) and (-) wires crossed each other. This time I snipped off some unnecessary mounts from the battery body, flipped it upside down, and cleaned up the wire routes.

Presto, bingo, things were much smoother, much neater, and they worked.

Much neater than before.
(I looked for a "before" picture but it must have been bad - I didn't take one.)

I covered the positive joint (red wire to battery) with some liquid electrical tape, literally a small dab spread around with a cut off zip tie. I decided to leave the convoluted negative side alone but in the future I'll bend the battery terminal to fit under the screw. No soldering needed for that side if I do that, just the positive side. Well, I do have to heat up the solder to release the old battery, but I should be able to install the new battery's negative side with no heat involved.

I also used a volt meter to check the battery and the circuit board where the wires attached (since they both came unattached at some point). They matched pretty well, the 0.001 number flickering up and down just one digit.

About to seal it up.

The black round thing in front is the lockring tool for the lockring that holds the arm to the spider. Red can in back is liquid electrical tape. Zip tie was used to spread said liquid electrical tape. All this "fine motor skill work" was inspired by my friend SOC's fine motor skill work. Incidentally, speaking of fine motor skills, I picked up a lot of my childhood plastic models and such, including some Tiger tanks, hence my current Tiger tank thought process. Not that I don't read my war books all the time. Anyway...

After letting the liquid electrical tape dry for a few days, I checked the voltage again. The same readings. This was a good sign. I took the right crank off my bike (only a couple minutes work), removed the spider, installed the SRM spider, and put things back on.

It seems to work. And I feel much more confident about the soldering under the white plastic cover.

I didn't do a calibration but did a "gut test" by taking a short spin on the trainer. The numbers were depressingly low. It took a lot of effort to get them over the 200 watt threshold. It stabilized, pedaling kind of hard, at about 270 watts.

In other words it seemed normal.

Tonight, after letting the crank settle for a few minutes, I decided to do a 20 minute test. I had to have some number to think about, to focus on. I haven't prepared for a 20 minute test - no emphasis on carbs, no coffee before the ride, no mental buildup, nothing. I just got on the bike, pedaled for a bit, saw the power seemed right, and decided, look, I gotta do it.

Plus a low starting point is always good. It's hard to improve on the best day of your life. But a poor day... there's tons of potential.

I tried to use music to motivate but found my brain wandering after just 60 seconds. This is about 120 seconds less than normal. So I popped in a DVD I made of helmet cam clips, cranked the volume, and used music, visuals, and emotions to push myself.

20 minutes later, two clips into the DVD, I eased off, exhausted.

I started out thinking I was stronger than 2009, and in February (?) 2009 I did 268 watts (or something like that) for 20 minutes. Since I'm better now than I was then, I decided to try and hold 275 to 280 watts, let myself suffer down to 255 watts or so, then use my natural sprinter surge in the last minute or two to push back up to whatever I could push.

I thought 268 watts might be difficult but attainable.

I got into a rhythm and eased into the effort. My legs started loading up right away, the sign of a less-than-carb-rich diet. I haven't been starving myself but I have been focusing a bit more on protein and fiber. I'm not having pasta and rice regularly, in other words.

I got into the hurt mode, feeling the muscles work, feeling the different muscles fire at different spots in the pedal stroke. The big ring worked well but I eased a bit to try and keep some speed in my pedaling.

I checked after a few minutes.

220 watts.

What?!

I did a self-check. My legs were suffering. I was definitely sweating. My lungs weren't hurting but they rarely do. I was breathing awfully consistently, pretty hard. I had no heartrate belt so I didn't have that, but it felt like I was going pretty hard.

I pushed a bit, trying to get the power back into the mid-200s. It seemed so hard, the faster cadence just did not want to come to my legs. I eased the gear to spin up a bit, then geared up to get the wattage back up.

My legs protested.

I tried to think about the emotions and excitement of the races I had on the TV screen, of the immense reservoir of power I felt.

My legs still protested.

I drove hard, pushing, risking overcooking it, risking blowing up before the finish.

250 watts.

Ultimately I had a bit at the end, and, after riding an extra ten seconds (the longest ten seconds ever, every single time), I eased. I hate it when I do a 20 minute test and it's really 19:54 because I eased too early.

I cooled down, collected all the empty bottles, and headed up to the computer. The SRM downloaded fine. I checked the data. First off my extra 10 seconds of effort got me to 20:00. If I hadn't done it, I'd have lost 10 seconds of power.

With that in mind...

20 minute max average power: 218 watts.

That is terrible.

That's 105% of your FTP, give or take, which makes me a 207 watt kind of guy.

That is terrible.

I happen to know that I was at 73.2 kg this morning, not bad, not good, kind of where I've been for a while.

And that makes me a 2.9w/kg racer.

That puts me smack dab in the middle of the Cat 5 racers on the power chart, and at the very bottom of the Cat 4s.

That would be great if I was a Cat 5, but I'm not, unfortunately. This is crazy terrible.

Now, granted, I didn't do anything to prepare for this 20 minute test. I didn't eat properly - snacked on trail mix all day, ate a NOW bar for dinner while I warmed up, then rode the 20 minute thing. I didn't have a lot of consistent riding in - it's been late night riding, not very hard, and sporadic at best.

I've also just gotten over a big cold that flattened me for about five days. Even Sunday I was feeling really off. Today was okay but I felt exhausted at the end of the day.

But I did the 20. I got my number. It's a low one, yes. It's a good starting point. Anything will be an improvement. I'll see gains even in a short period of time.

My morale will go up.

Because... it has to.

I scheduled my SoCal training trip already. I hope to do three Palomar rides, Red Trolley (the crit), and get some quality time on the bike. I want to have some legs when I get there - to fly a few thousand miles to get shelled in a lap, that just wouldn't do.

Although I know I held on fine in the 3s, I can tell you that the fast guys there, the 2s and the Masters, absolutely haul.

This year I have to race with them.

How To - Wired SRM Powermeter Battery Replacement

So...

I have an SRM.

(waits for applause to quiet)

SRM calls the cranks and the computers two different but similar things. The cranks are the Power Meters (because I guess they measure power) and the computer on the bar is the Power Control. I don't know why, but it's the only place you can click a button or something. So it's the Control.

For short, the cranks will hereforetowith (that's lawyer speak according to a non-lawyer) be called the cranks or the SRM. The computer will be called the Power Control V or PCV or head unit.

I have a wired SRM. That means I don't have the "wireless SRM" (cranks) or the Power Control VI or VII (PCVI, PCVII). I have the regular wired cranks and the PCV.

Okay, SRMs have a bunch of things going for them and one thing not. The good things are all the stuff that you never want to deal with, the stuff that you don't realize you want until you don't have it. Some things you want in a power meter include things like accuracy, ease of use, reliability, ease of data download, data analysis, and durability.

There's one bad part: batteries.

The PCV head unit takes a fancy rechargeable battery pack that is no longer manufactured. Seriously. Someone is getting them made kind of on the side, but you seriously cannot buy them anymore. The battery pack, from the guy who does it on the side, costs $10 per battery pack plus $10 shipping for however many batteries you get.

The cranks take a non-rechargeable battery. Depending on the crank, you may find a round battery, a rectangular one, or two rectangular ones. There may be other variations, but the moral of the story here is simple: before you order a battery, figure out what's in your crank. Then order that one.

Luckily someone still makes the crank batteries.

As anyone with an SRM will tell you, when you start riding, you need to reset some variable thing. I have no idea what it is, but the crank tells the PowerControl some number and when it's stable you hit Set. The full version (it takes 5 seconds) is as follows:

1. You wake up the crank (spin the crank back a revolution or two) and wake up the head unit (spin the back wheel or hit a button on the it).
2. You hit Mode and Set at the same time. You get smaller font number down low - that's the head unit's value for this variable. And you have a bigger font number in the middle - that's the crank's opinion on what the variable should be in the computer.
3. When the crank number (the larger font) stays still, you hit Set. The lower number changes to whatever the upper number displayed.
4. Hit Mode to exit. You're done.

Now, a little while ago, I was getting ready for a race. I woke up the crank and head unit, went and hit the Mode + Set, and watched the crank number.

It kept moving. Like a lot. Like up another 100-200-300. Normally it'd be in the 250 range. This time it was bouncing up to and over 800.

On my rides I'd get some crazy power numbers. 3000w max. 1200 average. Etc.

A good way to tell if your crank batteries are dying is see if the crank number keeps moving in one direction. That's my experience. If it does, you need to replace the battery.

Waitaminute.

You'll point out that I said up there that the one bad thing about SRM are the batteries. And you're right, I said that. The SRM units are not necessarily user friendly when it comes to battery replacement. So, at least in my mind, they decided to do the work themselves. If you want to replace the battery, you need to send the unit back to SRM.

However, if you have relatively still hands, can work with small parts, know how to solder, and have the guts to put a solder near your $2000 cranks (that's a guess on current eBay prices on the crank), then you can do it yourself.

This covers only the crank. I'll do a head unit later.

First order of business - find out what battery you need for your crank.

My initial foray into my SRM spider.
I realized those holes are for lightening. Cool.

Open the case (use a thin screwdriver to just pop off the white casing). Carefully examine the guts. You should see a battery like the one above, maybe two, or a round battery that resembles a stack of quarters inside a cannister.

Now Google the battery specs. You'll see some sites come up. I chose one. There may be others.

I opened it up more. Cool.
Note large o-ring on big part of crank, small o-ring hanging off of white cover.

Now wait for the battery to arrive. You have to wait because the batteries cannot be air shipped. It's got to pound pavement all the way to your shipping address.

I ordered a couple since I have a primary and backup SRM system. Both, mind you, have dead or dying crank batteries.

Soldering at work.

Note my various tools, from left:
1. Soldering torch. Radio Shack, if you must know.
2. Black oven pan, so I don't drip hot solder onto desk pad.
3. Moving up, some electric solder from Radio Shack
4. Box above that batteries came in.
5. Little batteries (two of them) in a plastic bag. The sense of scale here is important. These suckers are little.
6. Clear tube is the cap to the soldering torch. Important because it holds the flint to light the soldering torch.
7. The crank arm.

I use a butane torch because no need for electric outlets. No chance of touching soldering iron to wire. No electric burning smell by default. Plus refilling them with butane is cool.

I had to put the pen there to hold the battery in place.

There are these tiny brass looking wire things that loop around the spider. Don't mess with them.

Basically you heat up the wire. The solder melts and the wire pops off.

Then the hard part. You need to heat the wire again for the new battery, touch the solder to the joint, let it flow, and you're done.

Don't dwaddle with the soldering iron else you'll keep it hot, the solder won't set, and the wire just pops off.

Next time I'll use some kind of clip. I got stressed with the balancing act I did to hold the wire, battery, and everything else in place.

Although SRM checks the battery to make sure it's up to snuff when they install a new battery, I don't. I don't have the tools to check the charge/discharge and other stuff they do when they install a battery. I guess I can always redo it if I do it myself. But to pay someone else to do it, well, they have to get it right on the first try.

I started thinking of ways to mod this, so I could either install a rechargeable battery (and a recharge port) or adapt the connectors so there'd be no soldering.

I didn't think of anything so I didn't do anything. But I'll keep thinking.

Someone else, either SRM or someone, is trying to make a transmitter that would pick up off this wired arm and transmit Ant+ protocol up to the head. That would be totally awesome.

Make sure you remember which battery is dead and which one is not.

Luckily the new battery has some extra mounting pins on it, else I might have soldered in the old battery. That would really suck.

Getting closer. Magnifying glass so I can see minute details.

It got tedious, especially with the hot torch. I ran out of time at work and had to head home, the crank carefully transported with a half connected battery.

Once home I redid both connections and popped the cover on. The white cover is a bit stubborn so it takes a bit to pop on. The o-ring in the center doesn't help any. Make sure both the outer and inner o-rings are seated properly. Press firmly around the perimeter of the white cover.

Ultimately the small ring holds it in place, but until you get the rings mounted you need to get it at least close to in place.

And... well, I could use the same picture for before and after.

So... now for a month or two of testing. I hope this works. First indications look good, but I need to wait for some bumping around and stuff before I call it a success.

I actually did all this work in mid-September. About 3 weeks later, so far so good. Wattage is back to mortal numbers. I'll see how it continues. If things go well, I'll do the other spider during the winter sometime.