Racing - 2013 CT Masters Crit M40+ Cat 1-4

This report is basically a joke because I made only a couple laps before a seat post bolt broke.

Before anyone starts asking what brand post to bad mouth I should point out that the nut that holds the seat down (aka me) changed the bolts from the perfectly good stock ones to some aftermarket titanium ones. Therefore the seat post manufacturer, Thomson, has nothing to do with the breaking bolt.

It has to do with me changing something that didn't need to be changed.

One lesson re-learned today - don't change something that isn't broken.

I re-learned another lesson today - always bring spares and back ups to a race.

The Missus asked if I was going to bring the black Tsunami to the race. I've recently made the red Tsunami my primary race bike, to the point that I haven't ridden the black bike in almost two months. I need to get the bike to the shop to get the headtube faced and the BB30 reamed to spec, but I haven't done that yet.

I also want to finalize my bar/stem configuration. The red bike is close but no cigar so until I figure out the red bike I don't want to make the same less-than-complete changes to the black bike.

So, when the Missus asked me if I was going to bring the black bike, I said no.

I mean, look, it was raining, it'd have to spend the whole trip on the roof rack, then sit out in the pits in the rain during the race, then ride the rack back in the rain.

Even after I thought about having a spare bike, complete with things like, well, an unbroken seat post bolt, I decided that, no, it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

So we left with just one bike on the roof, three pairs of wheels for said bike. I had my clinchers, the only aluminum braking surface wheelset I regularly use, plus two carbon sets ("primary" and "spare").

Pre-Race

At the venue I decided to go conservative and kit out the bike with the aluminum clinchers. I figured that the aero benefit of the carbon wheels would be outweighed by the fact that I hadn't ridden in the rain on those wheels in a while. I also dressed aggressively, going with no shoe covers and summer long finger gloves despite the 55 degree rainy conditions.

A Bethel Spring Series (new-to-the-scene) racer struck up a conversation with me, asking about equipment. He showed me his bike, outfitted very close to mine, and I gave him some thoughts on how I'd upgrade his bike. That made me look around and realized that, wait, I could keep the aluminum front wheel and use a carbon rear wheel.

Plus the Stinger 9 had a Vittoria wet weather tire mounted to it, and I wanted to see how that worked in the wet.

I headed back to the car and switched the rear wheel.

I ran into another Bethel Spring Series racer, this one a long time friend and one of the staff of the BSS. He pointed out that it was pretty cold out there, once the water got through whatever layers you had on. In particular he questioned my aggressive choice of gloves and footwear. The wind vest was fine, but my hands and feet...

I did a lap out there and realized that, yeah, he was right. I switched to winter gloves (water and wind proof) and put on some ancient Cannondale water/wind socks. I think I wore them just once or twice before, and I've been hauling them around in my gear bag for about 20 years.

I felt better immediately, my feet toasty with no chilly water or air hitting them, my hands also toasty due to the lack of chilly water and air.

Race

The miserable weather, combined with all sorts of conflicting events, meant that all of maybe 12 racers lined up for the M40+ race.

Almost the whole field.

This didn't bode well for me - without incredible fitness I rely on being able to sit in the protected field. 12 riders didn't really constitute a "field" so I'd be exposed to the wind much more than normal. In such a situation I expected a couple of the strong guys to take off, leaving behind the rest of the riders.

For some reason the sprinklers were going full bore.

Someone said that "Sprinter Della Casa" was here.

I replied that, with such a small field, a break would win the race.

Someone else countered that the small field already counted as a "break".

With that the race started.

I last raced here in the rain in 2010 in really sketchy conditions. Ironically it was the "All Weather" tires that caused the problems at the time, slipping and sliding everywhere. This time my bike felt fine. I had the same front wheel on but this time with Maxxis ReFuse tires, my heavy training tires. They felt really grippy to my fingers even in the showroom and in the wet they worked great. I ran 80 psi in them, just because. I've run as low as 55 psi and as high as 105 psi, but for me 80 to 95 psi is okay, and I prefer to run a bit higher if I know I'm going to be cornering hard.

The rear Vittoria was great too. I'd automatically pumped up the tire to 120 psi, the pressure I normally run in my 23 mm tubulars. I had left putting on the rear wheel a bit late so I just left it like that and decided today would be an experimental day. To my pleasant surprise the Vittoria rear tire worked extremely well, even at the high pressure.

With both tires gripping nicely I even experimented with riding over the yellow line in the first turn, at the top of the hill, and even going into the last turn.

I felt much more secure on the bike on this wet day, compared with the race from 2010.

I couldn't sit directly on a wheel due to the spray and the fact that it took a half second for the brakes to start working, even if I was just feathering the brakes. This meant sitting slightly to one side and a bit further back than ideal for wind protection, which in turn meant I'd be working harder than normal.

Sitting off to the side to avoid spray.

Nevertheless I felt pretty good. The cool, wet conditions reduced my poison ivy craziness, the soothing chill driving away the insane itchiness on my arms, torso, legs, neck, etc.

All this happened in just two laps.

Then, on the backstretch, as I started getting warmed up, I heard a pop and I fell a bit forward on the bike.

My saddle had just dropped down.

I knew exactly what had happened before I looked.

Looking down when my bike popped and my saddle dropped.

I'd found some Ti bolts for the Thomson posts I use on my bike. At $14.95 for a set I figured it was harmless fun. Unfortunately I heard some creaking after I installed them and I realized that something with them must be bad. I kept putting off replacing the Ti bolts.

I couldn't put it off any more. One had just snapped.

There was a wheels in, wheels out pit.

My spare bike was at home though.

This meant my race was done just as it had started.

I coasted and soft pedaled to the start/finish area, where the Missus and Junior waited under a tent. I couldn't go too fast because I didn't want to drop my saddle. I knew the Missus could see me across the course so she'd know that although something went wrong she'd also know that I wasn't hurt.

I rolled up to the tent and stopped, explained what happened. The irony of me changing out the bolts and then deciding to leave the spare bike behind. I even had the original seat post bolts in my gear bag in the car (but they weren't in the pits so I couldn't go get them, fix the post, and get back in the race).

Ah well.

Junior took a while to realize that the weird looking bike racer with a helmet on was his Pops.

Then he smiled, his arms and legs kicking a bit in excitement.

All was good.

Equipment - Sidi Shoe Overhaul

Each winter I go through a bit of rebuilding, replacing, and purchasing cycling equipment. What I do depends on what I want, what I think I need, and what seems to be the most practical option at the time. Sometimes budget comes into play - it's very unusual that I buy a complete bike, for example, as I've only done that twice in 30 years, once when I got my Basso and once when I got the SystemSix. I usually replace a few parts on an existing bike, sometimes the frame.

More often I refit equipment, replacing wear items like cassettes, chains, tires, and bar tape. I'll regularly check to see if a new this-or-that improves my bike. I almost always get more cycling clothing, known as "the kit", at least when not referring to doping kits. And, in the past few years, I've been experimenting with helmet cams and related equipment.

This winter I focused on a few equipment related things. First I really want to build up my used-to-be-orange-and-now-red Tsunami, using some updated and improved parts. Next I wanted to get some taller race wheels, hopefully to get some more top end speed. Finally I wanted to refit some worn equipment to decrease the chances of an equipment failure.

"Refitting" is a regular thing in business or government. In World War 2 battalions and divisions and even armies regularly lost most of their armored equipment in battles. Once a particular battle ended (usually at the end of a given day) and the losing side withdraws from a particular area, the victorious side goes out and retrieves their broken equipment. In particularly ferocious battles they don't wait for the battle to end - crews will go retrieve or even repair tanks under fire in order to be able to use that tank right away.

Although initially I thought that a force that started with, say, 100 tanks might go out and retrieve a dozen or so damaged tanks, I learned that oftentimes a force can lose something like 80% or 90% of their forces during even short battles. Not only that but many battles concentrated a country's forces in a very small area, so a large battle in a small area may in fact use most of a country's armored forces.

In situations like these it's imperative to salvage everything possible. This makes retrieving, and refitting, damaged equipment incredibly important. Once refitted these "casualties" can return to the fight, effectively canceling out the casualties.

Pictures of tank refitting areas, close to the front lines, show crews replacing major things like turrets, engines, cannon, transmissions, things like that. These are not minor repairs. It is major work to virtually rebuild a tank using its hull as a start point.

With this in mind I looked at my Sidis in a different light. Instead of trying to figure out what new shoe to buy, something I'd been doing since the fall of 2011, I started looking at replacement parts for my current shoes.

They've been serving well since the Missus got them for me for my birthday a while back, but now time has started to affect the shoes. I don't want the shoes to have a failure during a race so I decided that I needed to overhaul the shoes in preparation for the 2013 season.

The metal buckle handle flaps around.

The silver metal buckle should lay flat but the springs holding them flat failed on both sides years ago. Tilting the shoe slightly causes it to swing away from the rest of the buckle. When I pedal the silver buckles flap like little wings, clicking merrily away.

The instep strap has SIDI in big letters on it. The end of it sticks out and catches on things.

It slides into the black piece on the side of the shoe and a little tail sticks out the end of that black mount. The problem is that the tail has has caught on stuff, bending it outward. Now it sticks out and catches regularly on my cranks. It's kind of like catching your fingernail on something - it sort of returns to position but the next time it catches on something it practically folds backward on itself. Not a good thing when it consistently catches on the crank arms.

My shoes, as they were before the refitting. One Tecno 2 buckle, the round things, has already failed, on the left shoe. I have a grey one in place.

The original buckles. They show the scars of two falls.

The stack of replacement parts.

From top left - replacement buckles, instep straps, two sets of Tecno 2 buckles.

Not shown: a pair of white buckle straps ("clicker" strap) and a pair of heel pads.

I got red and white just because I wanted to do something different. I'd have gotten new shoes but these has a perfectly suitable base, the replacement parts cost less than half of an inexpensive pair of Sidis, and 

The instep straps consist of two parts - the instep and the clicker strap.

New buckles shown too. The old instep assembly sits at the back.

I replaced all of the Tecno 2 buckles as well. I don't want to be sidelined by a failed wire thing.

To replace the Tecno 2 buckles (and yes, it's spelled "Tecno", not "Techno"), you need to first press out a pin holding things together. A screw on the other side holds down the clear wire. In the above picture I've removed the screw and pushed the pin out.

Removing the Tecno buckles was a pain.

Once you press the pin out you need to pull out the gear thing underneath - the ratcheting wheel thing. It does come out, believe it or not, but it requires a good deal of firm force. There's a tab that keeps the ratchet assembly from rotating, and the catch for that tab is made with a soft plastic or hard rubber. When I removed the ratchet mechanism I damaged all but one of those catches.

Basically the bit that's left on the shoe is a hard rubber item, it's not hard plastic.

Because it flexes a bit you can take the guts out without breaking it.

The catch is at the top of the black base that's still in the shoe - it's just above the stitching that is normally covered by the buckle. The tab that catches it is on the pice with the silver lever, opposite the lever.

Pulling the new string to seat the new guts.

The other side is straightforward, just the screw and a cover thing.

Note the paperclip in the background, used to push the pin through.

The shoes refitted, from the top.

On the bottom I have new heel pads. Mine were so worn I couldn't believe it.

I'll be doing the cleats as well, maybe in a few weeks. The cleat area has a lot of screws and the shoe feels noticeably heavy up front - I'm considering replacing the numerous screws - there are five screws, not just the three cleat screws - with some lighter ones.

So how did the shoes turn out? Well I've done two rides on the trainer so far. I overtightened the front buckles, as usual, even keeping them "too loose" since I know they are way too tight when "too loose". After some adjustments my feet got some blood flow back to the toes.

Surprisingly the insteps made a huge difference. The old ones curled over itself at the top, sort of over the top of the Sidi logo, and therefore they didn't support the top of my foot as well as the new ones. The new insteps have made the shoes feel much more supportive.

The heel pads make refilling my bottles much safer - trotting into the bathroom on slick plastic soles is sketchy at best. With the heel pad it's much better.

I have a second set of Sidis, I think Genius 5s, with two velcro type straps instead of the Tecno 2 buckles. Those need new heel pads, new velcro, but the ratcheting buckle and straps seem okay. I may revive those shoes as well as a backup. Currently they serve, with SPD-R cleats, as my track bike shoes.