New Bike Build: Part 3

Bike Build Part 1	Bike Build Part 2	Bike Build Part 3	Bike Build Part 4

From the cover of The Bicycle Wheel, by Jobst Brandt

If you're wondering why it took me so long to blog about my wheelset purchase, simply Google "bicycle wheelset" and see how quickly you can make a decision. With so many options when it comes to selecting wheels, it can be a bit overwhelming. Wheelsets are touted as one of the main areas where performance increases can be greatly gained -- but it can come at a significant price. Armed with a modest budget and sufficient time to delve into the many wheelsets out there, I feel I was able to find one with an excellent balance of price and performance.

There are many options to think about. Carbon or aluminum; deep or shallow; wide or narrow; sharp or blunt; clincher or tubular; carbon or aluminum brake track; tubed or tubeless. They can be best-suited for flat time trials, mountainous road races, sprinting in criteriums, long steep hill climbs, or just everyday training. And of course, aesthetics does come in to play -- no matter how much I pretend I don't care.

Aero vs. Light. One "problem" with the Noah frameset is that it really needs to have deep wheels to look right. To me, the thick aero frame just looks silly with small rims. I'm building up an aero frame, so it makes sense to have aero wheels. Besides, I have a spare set of light rims that I can use for climbing if I really want to, so for this wheelset I'm going to seek deeper rims.

Depth. An issue with a too-deep front wheel is control in crosswinds. Having a deep rear wheel, however, helps maintain control. My ideal setup would be something like a depth of 40-60mm in front and 60-90mm in the rear. Enve has the 6.7 wheelset (60 in front and 70 in rear) and many racers seem to like the Zipp 404/808 combo (58 in front and 82 in rear). Both those wheelsets are out of my price range but I chose to use them as a starting point in terms of rim depths.

Clincher vs. Tubular. The benefits of going with tubular wheels are they are lighter, corner better, are harder to pinch-flat, and safer to ride when flat. The problems with tubulars are they cost more, require some skill to glue on, have potential issues with brake heat, and are a not easy to deal with when you get a flat. Simply put, clinchers are for training and tubulars are for racing. I don't want to buy two wheelsets, so I need to decide on one type. Since the majority of rides I do are training rides, I decided to stick with clinchers.

Rim Width and Shape. The latest trend with wheels is wider rims and a more-rounded (blunt) edges. The main reasoning is to more closely match the width of the tires, creating a straight profile and therefore eliminating extra drag. The wider rims also allow lower tire pressure giving the rider a smoother ride, lower rolling resistance, and better cornering performance. It seems to make sense and wind tunnel testing backs up the claims. The blunt edge provides a more aerodynamic surface on the trailing end of the wheel, as well as helping deal with crosswinds. I decided to go with the newer "technology" of wider rims with blunt edges.

Rim profiles of some of the wheels

Braking. The downsides of going with carbon fiber brake tracks are lower brake power and reduced modulation capability. Those problems are made worse in wet conditions. Additionally, they require special brake pads that are sometimes even manufacturer-specific. I suppose you could also say that the sound of carbon fiber braking is a downside though it is not a performance issue. The downside of aluminum brake tracks is that they are heavier. To me, the choice of carbon fiber or aluminum brake tracks was not a priority, though my preference would be aluminum.

Other factors. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this build, I enjoy sprinting and frame stiffness was a factor. Wheel stiffness is also important to me, so finding a wheelset on the stiffer side is desirable. Aesthetics does matter somewhat as silly as it may seem. Personally, I don't like the look of certain wheel logos (e.g. Easton and Zipp), but I do like the look of others (e.g. Enve and HED). And of course, removing the logos is also an option.

There are tons of wheelset manufacturers out there. I mean tons. I looked at Bontrager, Boyd, Easton, Enve, FFWD, Flo, Fulcrum, HED, Mavic, November, Oval Concepts, Psimet, Real Design, Reynolds, Rolf Prima, Soul, Williams, and Zipp. Even with all those I know there are many others missing, but I still need to keep these posts under 10 pages. Here is a quick comparison on some of the options I looked at (sorted by price):

	Depth		Rim		Approx.
	Front	Rear	Width	Brake	Weight	Approx.
Wheelset	(mm)	(mm)	(mm)	Track	(g)	Price
Enve 6.7	60	70	24.0	Carbon	1,590	$	3,000
Zipp 404/808	58	82	24.0	Carbon	1,700	$	3,000
Easton EC90 Aero 55	55	55	21.0	Carbon	1,580	$	2,800
Oval Concepts 945	45	45	19.0	Aluminum	1,760	$	2,300
Rolf Prima 58RSC	58	58	19.0	Aluminum	1,920	$	2,300
Reynolds Assault/Strike	41	62	25.0	Carbon	1,530	$	1,800
FFWD F6R-C	58	58	19.6	Aluminum	1,840	$	1,700
HED Jet5/Jet7	54	75	23.0	Aluminum	1,800	$	1,600
Psimet 50/58	50	58	23.0	Carbon	1,540	$	1,500
Soul C5.0	49	49	23.0	Carbon	1,540	$	1,500
Boyd 60/60	60	60	23.5	Carbon	1,660	$	1,500
Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLS	52	52	19.0	Aluminum	1,700	$	1,300
Fulcrum Red Wind	50	50	20.8	Aluminum	1,760	$	1,300
November Rail 52	52	52	25.0	Carbon	1,530	$	1,300
Bontrager Aura 5 TLR	50	50	23.0	Aluminum	1,720	$	1,200
Williams System 58	58	58	19.0	Carbon	1,690	$	1,100
Real Design Sixty	60	60	19.0	Aluminum	1,800	$	1,000
Flo 60/60	60	60	24.4	Aluminum	1,940	$	900

To shorten the list, I removed all the wheelsets over $2,000 as well as all those with rim widths less than 23.0mm. Here is the shortened list (sorted by weight):

	Depth		Rim		Approx.
	Front	Rear	Width	Brake	Weight	Approx.
Wheelset	(mm)	(mm)	(mm)	Track	(g)	Price
Reynolds Assault/Strike	41	62	25.0	Carbon	1,530	$	1,800
November Rail 52	52	52	25.0	Carbon	1,530	$	1,300
Psimet 50/58	50	58	23.0	Carbon	1,540	$	1,500
Boyd 60/60	60	60	23.5	Carbon	1,660	$	1,500
Bontrager Aura 5 TLR	50	50	23.0	Aluminum	1,720	$	1,200
HED Jet 5/Jet7	54	75	23.0	Aluminum	1,800	$	1,600
Flo 60/60	60	60	24.4	Aluminum	1,940	$	900

My next choice was brake track material. I went back and forth on this a few times. Heavy wheels are a problem both when climbing as well as when accelerating... braking becomes an issue when descending... the majority of time spent riding is on training rides where braking is important... I really like climbing up Lemmon... and on and on. In the end I decided to go with aluminium. So my choices were between the Bontrager, HED, or Flo.

Bontrager. The Bontrager rim shape is not as rounded as the HED and Flo rims, but they do provide the ability to go tubeless (one of the only carbon rims out there that is tubeless compatible). I'm not very interested in going tubeless, but if you are these are a fantastic option. With just a 50mm depth wheel in the rear they aren't as aerodynamic, but they are almost 100 grams lighter than the HED wheels, and over 200 grams lighter than Flo.

HED. Steve Hed has been a big player in the wheel market for a long time. HED is mentioned alongside with Zipp and Enve as one of the top manufacturers out there. Their wheels feature the wide C2 rims, as well as Stability Control Technology (SCT), meant to provide excellent performance in crosswinds. They also focus on lateral stiffness in the design of their wheels. A bit on the heavy side, and more expensive -- but a very attractive option for me.

Flo. I wish they had a 40-50mm offering but right now they only have 30mm, 60mm, or 90mm (or full disc). They are wider than the Bontrager and HED wheels, which I believe results in their better aerodynamic performance (see graph below). But they are a bit heavier at almost 2,000 grams. I looked at going with a 30mm in the front and 60mm in the rear, which saves 150 grams albeit with a bit of an aerodynamic penalty. I felt though that the 30/60 combo looked a little strange (depth difference being too great). For a TT bike, I think the Flo 60 up front with the Flo Disc in the rear would be a fantastic wheelset.

Drag vs. Yaw Angle

I checked EBay and found a set of HEDs with the Jet 5 up front and Jet 7 in the rear. The set was barely used (reportedly bought in May 2013, raced 3 times, 300 miles) and at a great price. I talked with my friend, Jason (who has a set of Jet 5s), and his opinion was to definitely go with the Jet5 / Jet7 set. For races with long sections of grades above 5% these wheels won't be ideal and I'll probably opt for a lighter set, but for everything else I'm thinking they will perform very well. Look for a review of these wheels here in the (hopefully near) future.

HED Jet 7 (rear) and Jet 5 (front)

In Part 4 the build begins! I'm hoping to be descriptive enough and provide enough photos that the posts are useful to anyone who does their own build project.

Bike Build Part 1	Bike Build Part 2	Bike Build Part 3	Bike Build Part 4

Small Gains

I met with the doctor again today after some more x-rays hoping to hear, "You can take that brace off now and burn it." Unfortunately, like Cousin Eddie's daughter getting cured off the Wild Turkey, I'll need to slowly wean myself out of the brace over the next two weeks.

I spent one glorious hour sans brace today, and will be out of it for two hours tomorrow. Three on Saturday, four on Sunday, and so on and so forth until the brace-burning ceremony the day after Christmas. After I'm out of the brace for good, I start physical therapy -- which is currently set to be twice a week for 6 weeks. Once all that is finished (mid-February), I head back to get more x-rays and another check with the doctor to make sure none of the vertebrate fell out. Well alright, they don't fall out but I have no clue what they check for and as Hirsch put it, it's really none of my business.

I wish this could all happen quicker. I wish I could be back on the bike before the end of the year. I wish I was typing this post right now without the brace.

But I'm a man. I can be patient. If I have to. I guess.

It felt great to be free of the brace for an hour today, and I'm really looking forward to two hours tomorrow. It isn't going as quickly as I'd hoped for, but baby steps are still steps -- any progress is better than none. Sometimes personal records are just one second faster.

I'll take it.


And be extremely thankful for it.

Losing the Crown

I may have made a slight modification or two

An unfortunate consequence of being off the bike for so long has been the steady stream of Strava e-mails notifying me that I've lost a KOM. Alright, so by "steady stream" I actually mean three. Or maybe four, I can't remember. Now, I haven't really been very interested in obtaining KOMs, but the few that I have err, had (especially one on OST) were fun to "own" -- if just for a moment. When the notice came in a few days ago that yet another crown had been unceremoniously ripped from my pointy head I must admit I was a bit bummed. It was an unwelcome reminder that I'm still on the sideline, losing fitness every day while others are getting stronger.

A warning. I had a little fun with this post, and likely will offend anyone who knows their history.

Way back in '09 (that's 1509) a guy named Hank received a crown and became the KOE (King of England). I think he was 18 years old at the time; I'll Google it later. He held his KOE for nearly 40 years and during that time he had many "accomplishments", including:

• Marrying a girl named Catherine
• Having a bunch of jousting tournaments and festivals
• Marrying another girl named Catherine
• Invading France (I'm pretty sure he won)
• Marrying a third girl named Catherine
• Separating the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church
• Marrying another girl (I forgot her name; it wasn't Catherine)
• Spending tons of money on jewels, weapons, palaces, ships, and rugs (fancy ones)
• Marrying another girl (forgot name)
• Having a son named Eddy (not Merckx) who ended up taking the KOE
• Marrying yet another girl (a "J" name I think)
• Executing around 30 people (including one of the Catherines)

I'll Google all this later to fact-check and update (maybe). I'm pretty sure he only had one wife at a time. Obviously I needed to pay closer attention during history class.

Another "accomplishment" Henry VIII had during his KOE reign was weight gain. He put on around 200 lbs sitting on his throne! They (some museum somewhere, I think) have his armor and it could fit a horse (well, not a horse; but it is really big). His obesity was so bad it led to his death at the age of 55. He spent a lot of time desperately trying to have a son to inherit his KOE -- hence the six wives -- and unfortunately his only son (Eddy) died at the age of 15 (with no children).

Fatty McFatPants (aka King Henry VIII)

Side note. Back in High School I stayed at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA (a ship converted to a hotel). The ship is said to be haunted but my buddies and I spent all night ghost-hunting and found nothing. King Hank the Eighth had a daughter named Mary (who became Queen Mary when Eddy died), but I don't think the ship docked at Long Beach is named after her. So this paragraph is basically worthless.

The (other) Queen Mary

Another (more useful) side note. Catherine number 2 (or 3, I can't remember) was executed because she cheated on Hank. After it was removed from her body, Catherine's head was placed atop the London Bridge for all to see and be reminded of what a fantastic, fat king they had. The bridge ended up demolished because kings like Hank kept adding building structures to it (recall "London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady"), so in the mid-1800s a new bridge was built to replace it. That bridge was sold in 1967, completely disassembled, and shipped to Lake Havasu City, Arizona to be reconstructed. In March of 2000, my partners and I started our company (Kelly, Wright & Associates). Our very first project was to evaluate the natural gas utility line that ran inside the London Bridge. There are a bunch of bats that call the bridge home, and their byproduct (guano) kept triggering the natural gas detection system. So there you go -- Henry VIII to bat dung in just three steps.

The London Bridge, before it moved to Arizona

Now, if there's one thing I remember from my history professor it's that, "Those who something something are condemned to repeat it." And there's little doubt that repeating something considered a condemnation is to be avoided -- so it would be prudent to figure out what went wrong with Hank v8. Though admittedly an odd thing, I doubt the problem is with the recurrence of wives named Catherine. It seems to me Hank's problem was that he sat on his fat butt spending money like a modern American politician eating anything unfortunate enough to end up within reach of his fat, porky hands.

Hurry up and finish that albatross, fatty

I wonder if Hank would have me beheaded or hanged, drawn and quartered for calling him fatty.

The problem with being king is you can lose the motivation to become better. You can just sit on your throne collecting Catherines and buying fancy rugs. Eating horse burgers and executing ex-wives. You can become complacent, apathetic, bored, lazy, fat. Being king isn't necessarily a bad thing -- after all you can invade France -- but don't settle for just being king. Seek to conquer new kingdoms, to expand your territory, to have more sons (the analogy sort of breaks down here).

If you've been able to collect a few KOMs, hopefully Mark C. will come take them from you -- and when it happens, don't be bummed about it. Instead, welcome the opportunity to become better.

PRs > KOMs

To those who have stolen my crowns:
I am coming for you and I will show you no mercy. It may take some time, but I promise that some day you will see a blur, barely making out the word "Ridley" as I fly by. You'll feel the weight lifted as I snatch back my crown and you'll hear the roar of the people cheering as I restore peace to the realm!

Bike the Bluff Race Report

Bike the Bluff Criterium

Event:	Bike the Bluff Omnium
Date(s):	June 15-16, 2013
Road Race:	59 miles, 2,200 ft elevation change [Strava segment]
Criterium:	30 minutes, 0.7 mile square [Strava segment]

It's a bit late, but recent El Tour race reports have encouraged me to post this.

Road Race

The pace was pretty light in the beginning, with some surges here and there on the rolling hills and some wind to deal with. I did well moving around in the group, able to close gaps and shift around to find good positions out of the wind. Scenery was great, weather was great, and I felt strong. There was one crash that happened behind me. It sounded pretty gnarly but I talked to the guy afterward and he was alright (just some cuts and road rash). About half way I was already into my second water bottle and was starting to feel a slight cramp in my calf. Hmm, not good. I had thought about taking a 3rd bottle in my jersey pocket but decided against it. Big mistake. With ~30 miles left I only had half a bottle left and a few hill surges later I had cramping in both calves. I pushed on and stayed with the group, fighting the cramps and hoping for the best. The plan was to try to create/join a break around the 50-mile mark (final climb to the finish) with a buddy but he was cramping too and I knew that there was a good chance my legs would seize up if I tried to go too hard. I moved up into 2nd position and held my position there for a mile or so, watching for any moves to jump on to (but sort of hoping no one would go). Then there came an aid station with guys holding out water bottles. Whew!

I moved over, grabbed a bottle, and in the process my legs started cramping bad -- enough so that I dropped back to ~15th place while trying to keep the legs moving and drinking some water. Other guys were in the same low-water situation as I so there were riders scrambling to grab bottles. In all that mess, about 10 guys had pushed forward hard on the climb and were getting some distance from the rest of us who were grabbing bottles. I stopped drinking and went after the front guys, my legs close to seizing up completely. I was able to grab the wheel of a guy and hung with him for a mile or so, getting some water in me and somewhat recovering from the effort to catch back on. The lead group of ~10 was still up ahead. The other guy and I traded pulls and worked hard to try to catch the front guys, but they were pulling away from us. Luckily though, we were pulling away from the rest of the field. We ended up catching a guy from the front group and then then 3 of us traded pulls. With 1 mile left I was starting to think about the final sprint and then one of the guys I was with went hard. It caught me off guard and a slight gap formed. I pushed hard to close the gap and my legs seizing up bad. Dang! I held on with them for the final turn, and even pushed in the sprint but my legs were so cramped up I couldn't put any power into the pedals and couldn't get past them at the line. 12th place. I was pretty bummed because I felt strong and know that I could have done better if I had taken more water. Interestingly, I was 1.5 minutes faster than the 1st place finisher last year... not that that means much though.

Map and Elevation profile for the BTB Road Race

Things I learned. The altitude in Show Low (roughly 6,500 feet) is high enough that dehydration is an issue. I tend to drink a lot of water throughout the day but I definitely needed more for this race. I needed to drink much more pre-race and I should have brought that third bottle in my jersey pocket. The first two-thirds of this race were pretty uneventful -- the action happened on the final climb to the finish (last 10 miles of the race). With wind being a factor it's unlikely early breaks will be successful, so the early part of this race is mostly just about sitting in and conserving energy. When the final climb starts, it's time to set a strong climbing pace (based on known personal power curve values) and hope to get away from the main field. The final couple miles are relatively flat. If solo, a hard time-trial effort to the finish is needed. If in a group, conserving energy for the sprint becomes necessary.

Criterium

My legs were pretty upset with me. My plan at this point was to simply hold on and finish with the main field. At the start whistle, a guy took off right away and no one followed him. I saw the move and thought, "way too early, it's super windy" so I stayed with the pack. He developed about a 30 second gap and stayed there. The pace wasn't super fast, but there were a few times it picked up (for primes) and the field strung out a bit. There was a couple times where I was just barely holding on. I moved around in the pack well and again did a good job of staying out of the wind. At some point the group split and I was able to stay in the front group. Amazingly, the guy that attacked at the start stayed away solo a half lap ahead of the field the entire race (finishing first). Turns out he was the same guy who got 1st place in the road race.

I wasn't feeling great but I wanted to do something. The wifey was watching and taking pictures near the start/finish so when I found myself in good position, the pack was somewhat lazy, and I had a nice opening I went for it. There were 3 laps to go at that point and I pretty much knew that the move wasn't going to stick but figured what the heck. I pushed hard through the start/finish area in a seated sprint and then went fast through corner 1, standing and sprinting hard out of the corner. I sat and pushed hard again, getting as aerodynamic as possible because it was into a strong headwind. I didn't know if anyone had gone with me or not, I was just focusing on putting 100% into the effort. I rounded turn 2, pushed really hard again and looked down under my armpit to see if anyone was with me. One guy went with and was directly on my wheel. Sweet! The wifey has video of part of this and you can hear the announcer say, "That was a quick way to close some time up right there but I do not think they're going to be able to close that gap." I wasn't really trying to reach the guy at the front, I was just trying to get/stay away from the pack.

It felt really good to escape the pack, even if it was just for a moment.

The start of my attack with 3 laps to go

I was pretty cooked at this point so as we came up to turn 3 I signaled for the guy who came with me to come around and take a pull. He did but as soon as I tucked in behind him I could tell he let up. I didn't have enough in the tank to go back around him yet, so I recovered for a minute and then heard the pack behind us. It was over before we even finished a lap. Bummer. I recovered and reintegrated into the group, trying to recover enough to have something left for the group sprint. In the final lap I tried to get in a good position but didn't have much left to move up sufficiently. My legs ached. I was in 7th spot coming into the final corner, couldn't get a good jump and got passed by the racer with the Fuji. 8th place. At least I wasn't cramping. I felt pretty good about my breakaway attempt and a couple guys said it was a strong attack -- that I had put a "hurt" on the rest of the pack. Of course, it put a major hurt on me too.

Things I learned. Pay closer attention to the strong riders. Know who placed well in the road race and watch them in the criterium. Mark guys who would benefit from a breakaway. When I attempted to break free of the pack with 3 laps to go I did so right before the corner turning into a headwind. With a headwind, the pack is at an advantage due to drafting, so it would have been better to attack during a crosswind or tailwind. I should have waited until after turn 2 to make my attack. Another good spot to attack would have been right after a prime (a sort of counter-attack).

I placed 6th overall in the Omnium, so that was pretty cool -- and I know I could have done better without the cramps. I'm very much looking forward to this race next year.

Cody, me, Ryan, and Evan

Strava Premium

If you are considering spending the $59 for one year of Strava premium membership, here is my personal list of reasons to do so.

Note: I am in no way affiliated with Strava, nor have I received any compensation for my opinions. I do, however (as a Premium member) stand to gain by any additional features that Strava may add via financial gains they derive from members I convince to upgrade.

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No Power Meter

If you do not have a power meter, here are the features that I think a cyclist will enjoy most with Premium membership:

Goals. There are two types of goals available: Weekly and Segment. For Weekly Goals, you can set a weekly distance goal (e.g. 150 miles per week) or a weekly time goal (e.g. 6 hours per week) -- but not both. If you achieve your weekly goal a notice is included on the ride that you achieved the goal on, similar to if you had achieved a PR or KOM. You also see a progress bar on your dashboard displaying how close you are to achieving your weekly goal. For Segment Goals, you select any segment you want (or you can create a new segment) and set a time goal for riding that segment (as well as a due date). When you set a segment goal, it notifies everyone who is following you and they are invited to join your goal (if they are Premium too). If you achieve your goal it is again mentioned on the ride like a PR or KOM. Strava will keep track of all your previous goals (whether accomplished or not).

26-minute Segment Goal for Molino Basin

My opinion. 2 / 5 -- I have the distance goal set but don't really pay much attention to it. I have set a couple segment goals (e.g. top of Mt. Lemmon in 2.5 hours), but it didn't really motivate me to go harder than I would have gone anyway. Obtaining a high ranking on the Leaderboard or achieving a Personal Record is sufficient enough motivation for me.

Suffer Score. If you have a heart rate monitor, you can set custom heart rate zones and obtain a value for how much you suffered on a ride. You can also view a chart dispaying how much time you spent in each of your heart rate zones. Additionally, you can sort all of your rides by their Suffer Score to see which ones you suffered most on. There have been some challenges in the past that awarded special prizes for individuals who had the highest Suffer Score on a ride done during the challenge (e.g. Oktoberfest).

My Suffer Score for a ride down to Sonoita

My Opinion. 3 / 5 -- If you don't have a power meter I could see how the Suffer Score could be used to assist in training in lieu of the appropriate value from a power meter: the Total Stress Score (TSS). Additionally, it does feel satisfying to return from a super hard ride and see a nice high Suffer Score with the word "Epic" displayed above it. I suppose one would be motivated to suffer more knowing that it will result in a higher score -- you just need to remember that rest days are important too.

Training Videos. The latest addition to Strava -- the ability to watch Sufferfest videos while training indoors. Currently there are three videos available, but only if you use a smart phone (Android or iPhone). Strava says that it will soon be available on the website, and more videos will be added. The videos that are currently available are:

1. Fight Club -- 58 min, Time Trial
2. Revolver -- 45 min, Speed
3. Rubber Glove -- 58 min, Fitness Test

Strava Sufferfest Training Videos

My Opinion. 2 / 5 -- I haven't used this yet, but will probably try it out. Essentially, you are getting some of the Sufferfest videos for free, but you will have to watch them on your phone (or, in the future, computer). I usually watch recorded stages from professional races or just listen to music when training indoors -- and the majority of my indoor training is Base training, so the Sufferfest videos will likely be completely worthless to me. If you train indoors often, or at least some during a Build period you may find them more useful. I suppose the Fitness Test may be nice, but I would put more stock in a test performed outdoors (like the 30 minute test) than one done indoors on a trainer.

Personal Heatmap. Originally provided by a third-party before Strava closed their API, the personal heatmap provides a map view of your rides with color representing quantity of rides on all the routes you've ridden. Blue indicates a route that you've ridden a couple times and red indicates routes ridden the most. Here is my heatmap from Strava Premium:

Personal Heatmap from Strava (with Premium membership)

My Opinion. 1 / 5 -- This was better before Strava took it over. You had the ability of changing line width, color, and transparency as well as date ranges, activity type, and map display (satellite or map with or without terrain). You can still access this (without Premium membership) with the Strava Multiple Ride Mapper. You'll need to click on "Connect with Strava." It is worth checking out and playing around with, but since it's free the heatmap is not a reason to upgrade to Premium. For comparison, here is my heatmap from the Strava Multiple Ride Mapper:

Strava Multiple Ride Mapper (free)

Filtered Leaderboards. Premium memberships provides the ability to filter leaderboards by age group or weight class. There are six age groups (<24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+) and six weight classes (<124, 125-149, 150-164, 165-179, 180-199, 200+). You can view any group or class, but if you are not in it, your placing will not be displayed. Obviously, in order to be useful, you must enter your age and weight under your profile settings. The weight class is rider weight and does not include the bicycle weight.

Yes, I selfishly chose a KOM Segment to use for a screenshot

My Opinion. 1 / 5 -- For me, this is completely worthless. When looking at leaderboards I usually only care to see how much power others produced to obtain certain times. By the way, I only consider power values obtained via power meters (not from Strava's power equations, which rely on user-entered rider and bike weights). I suppose if you really want to see how you stack up against others in your age group and/or weight class, this feature is useful -- but I never use it. If Strava added a Race Category sort option, I would probably use that, but only out of curiosity and I wouldn't put much stock in the results. If you really want to know how you compare with other riders, pin a number on your jersey and line up at the start line. It's much more fun than sorting a leaderboard.

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With Power Meter

If you do have a power meter, here are the additional power-related features that I think a cyclist will enjoy most with Premium membership:

Goals. In addition to the Weekly and Segment goals, if you have a power meter you can also set a Power goal. You specify your goal in watts, the time interval for the goal, and a due date. the intervals available are 5, 10, and 30 seconds; 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and 30 minutes; and 1 hour. Estimated power values calculated by Strava (if you don't have a power meter) do not apply.

Setting a Power Goal

My Opinion. 3 / 5 -- Used in conjunction with the Power Curve (described below), setting Power Goals can be somewhat useful. Of course you can set these goals for yourself without purchasing Premium, but you may work harder to achieve the goals if your Strava page displays it. I have set power goals for 5 seconds, 1 minute, and 1 hour and it did add a little bit of extra motivation when I was doing 1-minute Kilo Intervals.

Power Curve. The power curve displays your maximum power output over a duration of time. You can display power as either watts or watts per kilogram (of body weight). You can have 1 or 2 curves displayed with different time spans. For time spans you can select last 6 weeks, a specific year, or a custom date range. I usually have 2 curves displayed, one showing the current year and one showing the previous year. You can click on the curve at any point to view the values as well as click on a link taking you to the ride that it is associated with. If you have set any Power Goals (described above), they will be indicated with red circles on your curve. You also have the ability to show your estimated FTP (though not necessarily as accurate as the FTP test).

My Opinion. 4 / 5 -- The power curve is a great way to analyze the type of rider you are (sprinter, time trialist, etc.). It is also a great way to determine what areas you should work on. You are able to easily gauge progress over time and the graph assists with both race analysis and race preparation. There are free options available to view your Power Curve (like Golden Cheetah), but the one offered by Strava is quickly accessed and easy to use. It would be nice if they added zone shading, but that isn't a huge deal.

Fitness & Freshness. Also known as the Performance Management Chart (PMC). This chart displays your Fitness (or Chronic Training Load, CTL), Fatigue (or Acute Training Load, ATL), and Form (or Training Stress Balance, TSB) over time. Strava refers to Form as Freshness. I will likely discuss (at length) the PMC in a future blog post. In Strava, the PMC can be displayed for the last 6 months, last year, or all-time. The graph will also display Fitness, with Fatigue and Form display being optional. At the bottom, each days Total Stress Score (TSS) is displayed in bar-graph form with links to the associated rides.

My Opinion. 4 / 5 -- The PMC is one of the better analysis tools to use in training (some may argue it's the best). It gives you the ability to taper and peak for races and helps tremendously by providing a visual representation of how high intensity workouts and rest function together to make you a stronger rider. The graph is easy to use and it is helpful having links to rides in the TSS bar graph portion. The major fault of the Strava PMC is the inability to set date-dependant FTP values. During training, your FTP will increase (hopefully). When you change the value of your FTP it should apply to all future rides in your PMC, but with Strava, it applies to all past rides too. This is incorrect and many have asked Strava to fix it. Their response has been that the fix is in the works but it has already been over 7 months since they added the PMC and they've yet to fix it. Again, there are free alternatives for the PMC (Golden Cheetah), but Strava's version is easier to use (but less customizable). It would be nice if they had a custom date range capability. For advanced Tapering and Peaking methods, the use of an Excel spreadsheet proves very useful -- I'll provide more information on that in a future post.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the only feature worth Premium membership if you don't have a power meter is the Suffer Score and I would say it's a pretty weak feature. If you do have a power meter, the main features you'd benefit from are the Power Curve and Performance Management Chart. Those features, however, are available elsewhere for free so they are pretty weak as well.

But....

I consider Strava the best community-based training website available. Others, like Garmin Connect, Map My Ride, and Ride With GPS fall short. There are many areas of Strava that could be significantly improved -- a club page with the ability to display group ride calendars with meeting times for example -- and from what I've seen, Strava is very much willing to roll out new features and updates, showing that they care about what their users request. By purchasing a Premium membership, you are helping support their efforts and will likely benefit from future added features and updates. It would be a shame if Strava became stagnant due to insufficient revenue.

At just about $1 per week, Premium membership isn't much of a financial burden. If you have a power meter, I would definitely recommend at least trying Premium for a year -- if nothing more than to get a feel for how the Power Curve and Performance Management Chart work. If you don't have a power meter, I would say stick with the Free version unless you simply want to support the website's endeavours. To read more about the features and updates that Strava has come out with, visit their Blog. As always, your thoughts regarding Strava and Premium membership are welcome in the comments below.

Insurance for Cyclists

Unfortnately, I never really thought much about insurance before my accident. Hopefully you will never have to deal with this, but in case you do maybe you can learn a bit from my experience and be covered.

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Automobile Insurance

The minimum car insurance requirements in Arizona are $15,000 for medical and $10,000 for property. With the economy being what it is, there are likely a lot of drivers out there with just the bare minimum coverage. If you are hit by a car and the person has just those minimums, you will only get (up to) $10,000 for your bike and (up to) $15,000 for your medical expenses. There are very few instances where a 4,000-lb Isuzu RLL contacting a 20-lb Specialized Allez will be sufficiently covered by the $15,000 minimum medical coverage. Unfortunately, there is also a risk that the driver won't have any insurance at all.

A quick side note. If you get hit by a car, no matter how good you think you feel, call the police, have the accident documented and go see a doctor to get examined. Especially if your helmet touches pavement. You will have a ton of adrenaline from the accident and you won't notice all of the damage that was done to your body. It may take days for you to realize that you've got something wrong, and if you didn't get the accident documented it's too late. Get a CT scan if you hit your head, you may have a concussion. It's much better to be safe than sorry. Don't be a hero and don't feel like you are doing the driver a favor (you aren't) -- report the accident and then get checked by a doc.

Also, if you sustain serious enough injuries or significant property damage, you may benefit from hiring an attorney. I am not a fan of lawyers and am not big on suing anyone, but there are a lot of areas where the expertise of a lawyer will be beneficial to you. For example, knowing what to do if/when the hospital mails you a lien notice. If you are going to hire an attorney, do not talk to the driver's insurance company (let the lawyer communicate with them).

So, what do you do when the driver's insurance won't cover your expenses, either because their coverage is too low, or because they don't have any insurance at all? You can purchase "un-insured motorist" and "under-insured motorist" coverage on your personal car insurance policy. Then, if the person who hit you doesn't have enough insurance to cover your bills your own insurance will kick in. When your insurance is used in these circumstances you won't need to worry about your rates going up -- they won't. To add them to your policy is fairly inexpensive and well worth it if you need it. If you ride a lot in a busy city there is definitely a risk of getting hit -- so it makes a lot of sense to be covered in case that happens.

In my experience (3 days in the hospital, some fractured vertebrate, patellar cartilage damage, and concussion), the medical settlement amount would have been between $100,000 and 150,000. That includes lost wages and pain & suffering which will vary by person and severity of accident. I've been told that typical vehicle-bicycle collisions average around $100,000. Based on that information, I would recommend cyclists carry at least $100,000 of un-insured and $100,000 of under-insurance coverage.

Additionally, you may want to add MedPay coverage, which will directly pay for your medical bills up to the amount you select. If you have a $1,000 medical deductible, you may want to carry the $1,000 MedPay coverage so nothing is out-of-pocket. You do have the option of having your MedPay coverage higher than your deductible, which would mean cash in your pocket, but you aren't trying to make money -- you just want to cover yourself if the unfortunate should happen.

Another quick side note. The law requires that you are not allowed to insure yourself for more than you insure others, meaning if you want $100,000 of under-insured covered you will need to also have at least $100,000 of liability coverage.

For damage to your bike, the insurance company will reimburse MSRP plus sales tax. It is a good idea to keep a record of everything you have, with the date it was purchased and it's MSRP. They may deduct a percent for depreciation (something like 2-3% per year). When they pay you for the damage they then own your bike -- but I've been told that often then never come to claim it, so there is a chance that you will be able to salvage parts off it even after being reimbursed for those parts. You'll probably want to get something in writing from the insurance company stating that they are releasing the property back to you. Keep this in mind when you start buying replacement parts, you may want to hold off to see if you will be given back an item that was not damaged beyond re-use. Since there is a good chance that you will retain the damaged property, you should include everything you can in the claim, even if the damage done was very minor.

I put together a template that you might find useful for documenting your property.

Click here to download the Property Template property-template.xls Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet [20.0 KB]

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Home Owner's Insurance / Renter's Insurance

There are a few instances where your home owner's or renter's insurance will come in to play. Your insurance policy may cover damage from fire, lightning, windstorm, hail, explosion, riot or civil commotion, direct loss from looting, aircarft, vehicles, smoke (if loss is sudden and accidental), vandalism, theft, and falling objects (though damage to the falling object is not included). Your insurance coverage may be different so you'll want to check. I would think the main items you'd want to make sure you have are fire damage and theft coverage. You will also want to check to see what your deductible is and consider lowering it if deemed cost effective.

By the way, the "falling object" coverage will not cover damage to your bike when, during a race, an unfortunate crash results in multiple bikes and bodies falling on it. It is meant to cover falling tree limbs or shade structures. Yeah, I know... bummer. You still need to adhere to the "only race what you can replace" guideline.

You will want to document as much of the property you want covered as possible. Keep all your receipts as proof of purchase and take pictures of everything inlcuding the serial number on your frame. If you no longer have receipts take pictures and write down as much information about the item as you can. The more thorough your documentation the better. In Strava, you can input all of your components to track mileage and time for each -- take advanatage of that feature.

Side note again. You may want to write your persoanl information on a small piece of paper and tape it to the inside of your head tube so it's hidden from the thief but available for verification if you retrieve the bike and they've ground off the serial number. If your bike is stolen, immediately notify the police, send flyers to bike shops all over Arizona, notify all the Play-It-Again Sports style stores, and keep your eyes on Craigslist and Ebay. You can even set up a Google Alert. If you see your bike on Craigslist or Ebay contact the police immediately.

I've received conflicting information regarding property replacement value from home insurance coverage. One source (lawyer) stated that replacement value is MSRP plus sales tax. Another source (insurance agent) says it is "retail cost at time of replacement." In either case, you want to be able to prove that you owned the property and be able to identify manufacturer and model. So don't just take a picture of your bike, get close-up photos of your shifters, derailleurs, etc. For any expensive item (e.g. power meter) you want to have as much proof as possible.

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For more information, BicycleLaw has a good article (click here to view).

Like I said, I hope none of you find yourself in a situation where you need to contact your insurnace agent and hire a lawyer. If you do though, hopefully you will be covered enough that your financial burden is minimal and you can focus solely on recovering and getting back on the road. If you have any questions or if I missed anything feel free to comment below.

New Bike Build: Part 2

Bike Build Part 1	Bike Build Part 2	Bike Build Part 3	Bike Build Part 4

When looking at components, I compared cost, value, quality, weight, function, durability, ergonomics, and aesthetics. With the frameset chosen I had a starting point to use as a sort of gauge. An aero road bike designed to perform well on flats, but not so heavy that it would be a problem on the climbs. Not necessarily an inexpensive frame, but I think arguably one of the better values available. I decided to leave wheels out of this blog post as there are a lot of options available and I felt they were important enough to warrant their own post.

Shifters and Derailleurs

Instead of purchasing a complete groupset, I decided to break out the shifters and derailleurs. I wanted to go with the best value, not necessarily the highest quality. There are other options out there, but the main ones on my radar were:

Campagnolo Super Record* Record* Chorus

Shimano Dura Ace* Ultegra* 105

SRAM Red Force Rival

* Available as mechanical or electronic: EPS (Campagnolo), Di2 (Shimano)

In case you're interested, I left off Campagnolo's Athena, Centaur, and Veloce; Shimano's Tiagra and Sora; and SRAM's Apex; (as well as others). I need to keep this blog posts under 10 pages.

Campagnolo is more expensive than Shimano and SRAM, but if I'm not mistaken does provide the ability to take apart and repair the components. A lot of Campy fans have pointed this out but I personally don't see it as a major selling point. The risk that I'll need to disassemble and replace pieces of a component are pretty minor. It's more likely I'd be buying an entirely new component. Another benefit of Campagnolo is the quality of their components, but both Shimano and SRAM have stepped up to the level that Campy set and it appears to me that they compete well in terms of quality. Campy fans may argue but I feel confident stating that the quality and repairability of Campagnolo does not adequately justify the additional cost. Another benefit of Campagnolo is that, when comparing similar product lines, they tend to be slightly lighter. This is not a rule for all tiers and the weight savings is pretty minor so I am ignoring it.

SRAM is based in the United States (Chicago to be exact), which I like. Unfortunately, they don't have an electronic group available yet and I'm not a fan of their double-tap shifting style. I really like the aesthetics of SRAM's Red groupset but when visiting bike shops I've tried out the SRAM shifters and they felt strange to me -- not sure what it was, may be just that I'm used to Shimano, but they didn't quite fit my hand. Shift style and ergonomics are highly subjective and likely based on past usage bias. For me, I preferred the feel of the Shimano shifters as well as the method of shifting.

SRAM Double Tap Shifter

I know 11-speed setups are talked a lot about right now. I'm just not convinced that it will be a big deal to me, so I'm ignoring it for the most part. I had a 10-speed 53/39 crankset with an 11-25 cassette and it worked very well for me. I've done steep (in excess of 10%) climbs with an 11-28 and still didn't feel like I needed an extra gear. 11-speed will likely become the norm, but right now I don't see a reason to seek it out intentionally.

Another new trend is electronic shifting. Campagnolo has EPS (Electronic Power Shift) and Shimano has Di2 (Digital Integrated Intelligence). Everyone I've talked to who has it says that it is well worth it -- but of course there is some bias there. I've read some so-called unbiased reviews that also claim electronic is the way to go and there do seem to be some good arguments for it. Shifting is easy and precise, chain rub is reduced or eliminated, and cable maintenance is gone. The downsides seem to be price and weight, but could also include repair issues, and of course the dreaded mid-race (or mid-ride) dead battery.

Campagnolo and Shimano both have two options for Di2. The main difference is weight. Here are the weight differences between them (just shifters and derailleurs):

	Campagnolo	Shimano
Super Record / Dura Ace	589 g	604 g
Record / Ultegra	602 g	753 g
Difference	13 g	149 g

The weight difference between Super Record and Record is non-existent. For Shimano, the price difference to go up to Dura Ace is significant at around $1,100, which means you'd be spending $7.33 per gram saved. You'd be better to spend money on lighter handlebars (3T Ergonova Team vs. Pro is $3.28/g) and/or a lighter saddle (Selle Italia Tekno Flow vs. SLS Kit Carbonio Flow is $2.74/g). Those two upgrades together would save you 184 grams and only cost $540. There is a small difference in shifting noise from Dura Ace to Ultegra, and the rear derailleur shifting under heavy (sprinting out of the saddle) loads is described as "clunks" instead of "slides" -- but it's doubtful those differences are worth much. VeloNews has a very nice article comparing Dura Ace and Ultegra Di2 systems (click here to view).

For me, I ruled out Campagnolo completely because the value is relatively low. I'd be paying a lot of extra money for slightly lighter, slightly higher quality, and perhaps slightly more durable components. One could even argue the quality and durability are the same for all three manufacturers. If you're a Campy fan feel free to comment below.

I really wanted to try out electronic shifting, which ruled out SRAM. That, coupled with my dislike for the double-tap shifting and shifter feel has kept me in the Shimano family for this build.

The last choice was easy for me. There is no value in going with Dura Ace Di2 over Ultegra -- not unless you are willing to squeeze every gram out of the build (which I am not). So I chose Ultegra Di2. I searched online for the best deal and ended up finding a very gently used "upgrade kit" (shifters, derailleurs, wiring, and battery) on Ebay at an incredible price. It will be interesting learning how to install an electronic system (coming soon).

Ultegra 6700 Di2

Crankset, Cassette and Chain

Since the crankset, cassette and chain wear much faster than the other components, I like to separate them to determine value. The chain wears the fastest, while the crankset and cassette (in theory) wear at the same rate. With the chain wearing fast, something inexpensive and durable (not lightweight) is desired. I'm willing to deal with some extra weight here and justify it by taking the cost savings and applying it to weight saved on components that last much longer. I've been a fan of the KMC X10.93 chain because it's inexpensive, durable, and has the quick-link. The KMC chain weighs 290 grams vs. Ultegra weighing 272 grams (when comparing 116 links). The cost difference between the two is only about $20, but since I replace my chain every 2,000-2,500 miles (about 4 chains per year) it quickly becomes unworthy of the added cost.

By replacing the chain often, the life of the cassette and chainrings can extend beyond 5,000 miles so weight becomes a little more of an issue. I've been able to go a full year before needing to replace the cassette and chainrings. Since I'm going with Ultegra shifters and derailleurs, and I think the dark gray color that Ultegra offers looks better than the silver when installed on a black bike, I decided to just go with Ultegra for the crankset. For the cassette, I already had an 11-25 model 105 that was going to go on the Allez so I will go ahead and use it on the Noah until it wears out. When it comes time to replace it I will likely switch to Ultegra for the weight savings. Ultegra weighs 35 grams less at a cost of around $0.50/g.

Ultegra 6700 Crankset (dark gray)

Bottom bracket. The Noah frameset has a pressfit 30 (PF30) bottom bracket (46mm diameter and width of 68mm). Using the Ultegra Hollowtech crankset, I will need to install an adapter and there are a couple different options. Wheels makes the least expensive option with two separate cups that fit into the frame. I utilized these on the Allez and I didn't care for them at all. About once a month I would remove the crankset, take out the cups, clean everything, re-grease it, and put it all back together in order to get rid of clicking that would develop when the cups became slightly out of alignment. Shimano has a one-piece adapter but it doesn't look like very good quality and for a few dollars more, Praxis Works has a new option that appears to be very promising.

Praxis Works Conversion Bottom Bracket

Other Components

The other main components are the three areas of contact, the handlebars (and stem), pedals, and saddle. The style of handlebars tends to be subjective and I've been wanting to try out the 3T Ergosum with the flat-ish tops to see how they feel so when Chris at ProBike offered me some for a smoking deal I went for it. I like having the manufacturer's of the handlebars and stem match and I liked the 3T ARX stem I used on the Allez so I'll go with it again, this time using the Team version with the red stripe (matching the black/red color scheme of the bike). The handlebars are the Stealth version (all black) and I thought about going with the black/red there too but thought it might be too much color coordination so I'm going to stick with just black for now. One thing I learned about the Ergosum handlebars is that because of the way they are shaped, you should buy one size larger than you normally would -- so, if like me you use a size 44cm, you would buy a 46cm.

3T Ergonova Team Stealth

3T ARX Team

For pedals, I wanted to stay in the Shimano family. I looked at a couple options here: Dura Ace, Ultegra Carbon, Ultegra, and 105. The weight differences for these models are:

	Weight	Price
Dura Ace	248 g	$400
Ultegra Carbon	260 g	$200
Ultegra	317 g	$200
105	325 g	$110

To go from 105 to Ultegra is $11.25/g but from 105 to Ultegra Carbon is $1.40. To go from Ultegra Carbon to Dura Ace is $16.67/g so this decision was very easy for me, I went with Ultegra Carbon.

Ultegra Carbon Pedals

For the saddle I'm going with the Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio Flow. I've tried a Selle San Marco Zoncolan which was alright, a Fizik Arione which was uncomfortable, a Specialized Romin which was alright, and a Selle Italia SLS Flow which I liked most. The SLS is the less expensive option to the SLR, with the SLR weighing 90g less at about $2/g.

A quick side note. I found a great deal at ProBikeKit for this saddle which, coupled with a $15 off coupon code came to around $150. I noticed they were selling like mad on Ebay for over $200 so I ended up buying four saddles and selling three of them on Ebay, effectively making my saddle free. Well, it did take around a 30 minutes of my time to unpack and repack the saddles, print the shipping labels, and put the box in the outgoing mail area of my office.

Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio Flow

In Part 3, I will discuss wheels. With an aero road bike, I think deep carbon wheels will look and perform best. I will be looking at aerodynamics, weight, aesthetics, braking performance, cross-wind performance, maintenance, technology, and price.

Bike Build Part 1	Bike Build Part 2	Bike Build Part 3	Bike Build Part 4