Two questions today

Paul D said:

Secondly, 42x16 on my fixed/singlespeed means i'm mastering spinning nicely.
However, my commute is ~50mins/15 miles of said spinning, and towards the
end I'm starting to get mild cramps in my calf muscles (both legs, although
not necessarily at the same time) when pushing fairly hard at maybe 120rpm+
for minutes at a time. Unfit, or something else I might be doing wrong/able
to change?

The inability to freewheel (Is it fixed or singlespeed?), can mean that
you'll be more sensitive to saddle position. It's not something I've
noticed, but with odd exceptions I've not ridden my fixie more than 10
miles in one go.

If you're pushing hard at 120+ rpm, I offer my congratulations. I lose
the ability to put significant power in at a bit less than that and
tend to be more "Following the pedals and trying not to slow down." ;-)

Jon

Paul D said:

not necessarily at the same time) when pushing fairly hard at maybe 120rpm+
for minutes at a time. Unfit, or something else I might be doing wrong/able
to change?

FSVO "unfit", but that's pretty hard work. Even pros get aches from
time to time, and that's not because they're "unfit".

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Paul D said:

Firstly, I've got a well used pair of open pro's, the front one of
which is currently doing service on my commuter. The braking surfaces
are pretty worn - do open pro's have wear indicators in the walls?

No. That's the easy question. Next question I guess will be when to
replace. I'll pass on that!

~PB

Pete Biggs said:

No. That's the easy question. Next question I guess will be when to
replace. I'll pass on that!

Before a) you can see the inner tube.
b) The sidewall detaches from the rest of the rim and rolls alongside
you.

Either would be bad.

Jon

Paul D said:

Secondly, 42x16 on my fixed/singlespeed means i'm mastering spinning nicely.
However, my commute is ~50mins/15 miles of said spinning, and towards the
end I'm starting to get mild cramps in my calf muscles (both legs, although
not necessarily at the same time) when pushing fairly hard at maybe 120rpm+
for minutes at a time. Unfit, or something else I might be doing wrong/able
to change?

I'd look at the seat height / leg extension, I found after training in
lower gears I needed to raise the seat a couple of cm's. I guess your
legs muscles get better at extending, but I'm no Joe Beer (not with
capitals, anyway). How do you find this gear ratio on hills? I'm
building up a fixie with 39/15, which is close to your 42/16, but I'm a
bit leary of the hills on my commute...

Paul D said:

Two topics, unrelated except they both occured to me whilst riding home from
work today.

Firstly, I've got a well used pair of open pro's, the front one of which is
currently doing service on my commuter. The braking surfaces are pretty
worn - do open pro's have wear indicators in the walls?

open pro's start out with 1.5 wall, and probably go bang at 0.6

Quoted message said:

Secondly, 42x16 on my fixed/singlespeed means i'm mastering spinning nicely.
However, my commute is ~50mins/15 miles of said spinning, and towards the
end I'm starting to get mild cramps in my calf muscles (both legs, although
not necessarily at the same time) when pushing fairly hard at maybe 120rpm+
for minutes at a time. Unfit, or something else I might be doing wrong/able
to change?

unfit, not enough to drink, or you should eat more banana's 😉

--
---
Marten Gerritsen

INFOapestaartjeM-GINEERINGpuntNL
www.m-gineering.nl

Paul D said:

Firstly, I've got a well used pair of open pro's, the front one of which is
currently doing service on my commuter. The braking surfaces are pretty
worn - do open pro's have wear indicators in the walls?

No; I think CXP22s are the only Mavic 700c rims with a wear indicator.
Does the braking surface feel as though it has a pronounced "half-moon"
rather than flat profile all round the rim? If so, probably time for a
rebuild.

David Belcher

David E. Belcher said:

I think CXP22s are the only Mavic 700c rims with a wear indicator.

A719, Open Sport (replacement for MA3) and probably a few other new 700c
models have wear indicators.

~PB

Paul D said:

Two topics, unrelated except they both occured to me whilst riding home from
work today.

Firstly, I've got a well used pair of open pro's, the front one of which is
currently doing service on my commuter. The braking surfaces are pretty
worn - do open pro's have wear indicators in the walls?

If there were, you'd be able to see them. They're usually small pits or
a groove right round the rim. When these disappear, the rim has become
too thin.

Quoted message said:

Secondly, 42x16 on my fixed/singlespeed means i'm mastering spinning nicely.
However, my commute is ~50mins/15 miles of said spinning, and towards the
end I'm starting to get mild cramps in my calf muscles (both legs, although
not necessarily at the same time) when pushing fairly hard at maybe 120rpm+
for minutes at a time. Unfit, or something else I might be doing wrong/able
to change?

120rpm is too fast. Try a 14T sprocket if you really are spinning out
the 16T; that would mean you were commuting at nearly 30mph, but you
might be the [censored] son of Jacques Anquetil and Beryl Burton for all I
know ;-)

"Jon is Away!" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Paul D said:

Secondly, 42x16 on my fixed/singlespeed means i'm mastering spinning
nicely.
However, my commute is ~50mins/15 miles of said spinning, and towards the
end I'm starting to get mild cramps in my calf muscles (both legs,
although
not necessarily at the same time) when pushing fairly hard at maybe
120rpm+
for minutes at a time. Unfit, or something else I might be doing
wrong/able
to change?

The inability to freewheel (Is it fixed or singlespeed?), can mean that
you'll be more sensitive to saddle position. It's not something I've
noticed, but with odd exceptions I've not ridden my fixie more than 10
miles in one go.

Its a flop flip hub so I've got a 16T track cog on side & a 16T BMX
freewheel on the other. Probably 75% using the single speed (had a crash on
ice whilst back pedalling on the fixie & a bit cautious using it in the cold
wet mornings now). However, I'm well into the mindset of fixed riding, so I
don't coast much on the SS, except on the long downhills.

Quoted message said:

If you're pushing hard at 120+ rpm, I offer my congratulations. I lose
the ability to put significant power in at a bit less than that and
tend to be more "Following the pedals and trying not to slow down." ;-)

Jon

Having concentrated on getting a smoother circular pedal stroke for the last
few months I can now go for a good few minutes at quite a high pace. What
scares me is that moment on the fixed when you just lose the rhythm
momentarilly at high speed and then find your legs out of time with the
pedals...and the back wheel all over the place!

I do find I subconsciously push harder using the singlespeed as I know I
have a 'get out' freewheel, whereas I hold back a little from getting
completely tatered on the fixed.

Pete Biggs said:

David E. Belcher said:

I think CXP22s are the only Mavic 700c rims with a wear indicator.

A719, Open Sport (replacement for MA3) and probably a few other new 700c
models have wear indicators.

And in the case of the A719 at least,the wear indicators are hidden
inside the wall (a small milled slot, which will get exposed as the
outer wears).

Tim

"sothach" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Paul D said:

Secondly, 42x16 on my fixed/singlespeed means i'm mastering spinning
nicely.
However, my commute is ~50mins/15 miles of said spinning, and towards the
end I'm starting to get mild cramps in my calf muscles (both legs,
although
not necessarily at the same time) when pushing fairly hard at maybe
120rpm+
for minutes at a time. Unfit, or something else I might be doing
wrong/able
to change?

I'd look at the seat height / leg extension, I found after training in
lower gears I needed to raise the seat a couple of cm's. I guess your
legs muscles get better at extending, but I'm no Joe Beer (not with
capitals, anyway). How do you find this gear ratio on hills? I'm
building up a fixie with 39/15, which is close to your 42/16, but I'm a
bit leary of the hills on my commute...

I actually read somewhere long ago that when starting out on a fixed after
1000's miles on a freewheel, to lower the seat by up to 10mm to help avoid
the 'bouncing' when spinning fast. I can't say I altered my seat at all, but
my legs don't feel like they're stretching. Maybe that's the point, bad seat
position but I've lived with it for so long I'm certain I'm right...hmmm.

I choose 42x16 (71 inch) after messing around with my 9 spd bike in
september, doing runs to work & back in one gear. It's a bit low for the
flat and consequently I'm about 2-4 mins slower on it (single speed - slower
still if I can't coast down the hills) than my geared bike over the 15 1/2
miles to work, but it is do-able up all the hills on my commute and
surrounding area (east dorset), which are mostly short and sharpish. I
thought I might go for 78 inch at one point, but it really wasn't fun up the
hills. I'm considering going to a 48 ring and changing the freewheel for an
18T (a 72 inch gear & freewheeling downhill) and keeping the 16T fixed (81
inch so I can go downhill faster, but uphills will be a struggle).

"David E. Belcher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Paul D said:

Firstly, I've got a well used pair of open pro's, the front one of which
is
currently doing service on my commuter. The braking surfaces are pretty
worn - do open pro's have wear indicators in the walls?

No; I think CXP22s are the only Mavic 700c rims with a wear indicator.
Does the braking surface feel as though it has a pronounced "half-moon"
rather than flat profile all round the rim? If so, probably time for a
rebuild.

David Belcher

Half moon - oh yes, hence me worrying a little. I think it's the end of the
road for my trusty open pro's. Anybody want the pair (with 105 hubs) for a
brakeless fixie for a few quid?!

"Zog The Undeniable" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:43fb5f79.0@entanet...

Quoted message said:

Paul D said:

Two topics, unrelated except they both occured to me whilst riding home
from work today.

Firstly, I've got a well used pair of open pro's, the front one of which
is currently doing service on my commuter. The braking surfaces are
pretty worn - do open pro's have wear indicators in the walls?

If there were, you'd be able to see them. They're usually small pits or a
groove right round the rim. When these disappear, the rim has become too
thin.

Quoted message said:

Secondly, 42x16 on my fixed/singlespeed means i'm mastering spinning
nicely. However, my commute is ~50mins/15 miles of said spinning, and
towards the end I'm starting to get mild cramps in my calf muscles (both
legs, although not necessarily at the same time) when pushing fairly hard
at maybe 120rpm+ for minutes at a time. Unfit, or something else I might
be doing wrong/able to change?

120rpm is too fast. Try a 14T sprocket if you really are spinning out the
16T; that would mean you were commuting at nearly 30mph, but you might be
the [censored] son of Jacques Anquetil and Beryl Burton for all I know ;-)

Not pushing 120rpm all day long, but it equates to a bit over 25mph -
perfectly feasable for downhills and some of the miles of flat I have to do.
As detailed in an earlier post, I chose a 71 inch gear in order to get up
the hills on my commute, sacrificing a bit of flat speed.

Pete Biggs said:

David E. Belcher said:

I think CXP22s are the only Mavic 700c rims with a wear indicator.

A719, Open Sport (replacement for MA3) and probably a few other new 700c
models have wear indicators.

Thanks for that info, Pete - the products on the website seem to have
changed since I was on there a couple of weeks ago (though usually 2006
stuff seems to appear on makers' sites the *other* side of New Year)!

David Belcher

Paul D said:

Half moon - oh yes, hence me worrying a little. I think it's the end of the
road for my trusty open pro's. Anybody want the pair (with 105 hubs) for a
brakeless fixie for a few quid?!

Potentially interested for the hubs. Email to discuss. (I would email
you, but I can't demunge your address with Google Groups!)

Jon

Paul D said:

I choose 42x16 (71 inch) after messing around with my 9 spd bike in
september, doing runs to work & back in one gear. It's a bit low for the
flat and consequently I'm about 2-4 mins slower on it (single speed - slower
still if I can't coast down the hills) than my geared bike over the 15 1/2
miles to work, but it is do-able up all the hills on my commute and
surrounding area (east dorset), which are mostly short and sharpish. I
thought I might go for 78 inch at one point, but it really wasn't fun up the
hills. I'm considering going to a 48 ring and changing the freewheel for an
18T (a 72 inch gear & freewheeling downhill) and keeping the 16T fixed (81
inch so I can go downhill faster, but uphills will be a struggle).

I used to run 72" fixed in Edinburgh, but dropped down to 69" because
my knees were getting sore after the climb home and I didn't fancy
buggering up another joint (Bad wrists due to an excessive of
climbing). Are your dropouts long enough to allow that variance in
chain? If not, you might want to carry an extra link or two separately
and use two magic links, thus allowing rapid chain length modification.

Jon

"Jon is Away!" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Paul D said:

I choose 42x16 (71 inch) after messing around with my 9 spd bike in
september, doing runs to work & back in one gear. It's a bit low for the
flat and consequently I'm about 2-4 mins slower on it (single speed -
slower
still if I can't coast down the hills) than my geared bike over the 15
1/2
miles to work, but it is do-able up all the hills on my commute and
surrounding area (east dorset), which are mostly short and sharpish. I
thought I might go for 78 inch at one point, but it really wasn't fun up
the
hills. I'm considering going to a 48 ring and changing the freewheel for
an
18T (a 72 inch gear & freewheeling downhill) and keeping the 16T fixed
(81
inch so I can go downhill faster, but uphills will be a struggle).

I used to run 72" fixed in Edinburgh, but dropped down to 69" because
my knees were getting sore after the climb home and I didn't fancy
buggering up another joint (Bad wrists due to an excessive of
climbing). Are your dropouts long enough to allow that variance in
chain? If not, you might want to carry an extra link or two separately
and use two magic links, thus allowing rapid chain length modification.

Jon

Yes, dropouts long enough, just.