The countdown is on in full force now. At posting, there are only 11 days left until Kunisaki.
This was an extremely long week of bike woes and training challenges.
After completing the group training race last week, my legs were completely spent. By the time I rolled out of bed Monday morning, I decided to try to work some of the gunk out of my legs by doing some easy spinning around the base. I did just over an hour, but didn't really accomplish much gunk cleaning.
I got on the bike again on Tuesday and wow was I still stiff. It just seemed the powertap readings were extremely low for what my perceived exertion ("PE") was telling me I should be at. I biked up to Ueki's and while I was there I changed out the hub batteries, hoping that would fix the problem. By the time I was finishing my 3 hours of L1 riding, I was still thinking the readings were off.
I got out my manual and hit the diagnostics. Here's the snapshot of my powertap SL computer on test screen six:
This screen should read on the middle line right around 512. Mine... not so much. I hit the net and found out that regardless, provided the torque zeroing is completed properly (which means when the wheel is spinning, no pedaling, the bottom line matches the center line), the power readings should still be correct.
I pulled a few powerfiles up and confirmed times/power readings from hills that I did on Tuesday were similar to what I've done before. For now, disaster averted. Probably going to end up buying a PT pro if even to just purchase/resell while the PT SL goes to get repaired.
Wednesday was 4 hours of L1/L2 riding. Coldest day in 3 weeks. Temps never made 50 degrees AND it had to rain pretty nicely on me. I even left the house at 6 am in hopes of beating it, but by 6:30am, it was raining. Power readings continued to look spot on in power file analysis.
Thursday was sprint day, and I clocked a personal best 5 second power. Only by a handful of watts, so nothing to write home to the folks about. BUT.... for me, any increase in 5 second power is a good thing.
Then came Thursday night. I had picked up a set of brake cables/casings and shifter cables/casings to do some long needed replacements. Not wanting to pull the handlebar tape off, I decided to do just the shift cables for now. Front derailleur cable, no big deal. I start working on the rear derailleur cable and find that the casing tip is stuck in the "chainstay cable stop." No worries, I didn't know the technical term either. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about (not my bike):
So, I grab the needle nose pliers and start working the casing end cap out. Then it happens. *POP* The cable stop is in the pliers, no longer attached to the bike. The cable stop is supposed to be connected to the chainstay by a pair of tiny rivets. There's obvious rust on one of the two rivets holding the stop to the frame, but that doesn't solve anything. At this point, the bike is unrideable. No cable stop means no rear derailleur shifting.
I've written a note to Specialized to seek warranty service for this problem. There's no reason that pulling an end cap out of the cable stop should break that thing off. Ueki is checking with the Specialized distributor here in Japan as well. But, all of this doesn't solve the problem really. It will take weeks or more to get a new frame here if I can get warranty replacement/service. So, in the meantime, I took some good ol' fashioned ingenuity and worked out this:
The cable stop still has some portions of the original rivets that allow it to "seat" in the correct position on the chainstay without sliding. I wrapped some electrical tape in the front of the stop so that if I start to see some wrinkling, I know the cable stop is sliding. Then, I took some old computer mount rubber, just the right width and wrapped the hose clamp around it. (The rubber is to protect the carbon chainstay all the way around).
So far so good. I have the screw "flat head" horizontal so I can see if the screw is starting to back itself out at all. I rode power intervals on Saturday and today I completed a 5 hr, 161 km L1/L2 ride and so far no sliding or shifting problems. Hopefully in the next two days, when Specialized US offices open, I will get an email back about warranty service.
What a week! Today marks the 20th straight day on the bike. Tomorrow is the full body massage/day off. Finally!
All this and after today my CTL is at it's highest point of the year so far (128) - probably the highest it will see for a couple months as I do some shorter, more intense work before I start the taper to Kunisaki.
This was an extremely long week of bike woes and training challenges.
After completing the group training race last week, my legs were completely spent. By the time I rolled out of bed Monday morning, I decided to try to work some of the gunk out of my legs by doing some easy spinning around the base. I did just over an hour, but didn't really accomplish much gunk cleaning.
I got on the bike again on Tuesday and wow was I still stiff. It just seemed the powertap readings were extremely low for what my perceived exertion ("PE") was telling me I should be at. I biked up to Ueki's and while I was there I changed out the hub batteries, hoping that would fix the problem. By the time I was finishing my 3 hours of L1 riding, I was still thinking the readings were off.
I got out my manual and hit the diagnostics. Here's the snapshot of my powertap SL computer on test screen six:
This screen should read on the middle line right around 512. Mine... not so much. I hit the net and found out that regardless, provided the torque zeroing is completed properly (which means when the wheel is spinning, no pedaling, the bottom line matches the center line), the power readings should still be correct.
I pulled a few powerfiles up and confirmed times/power readings from hills that I did on Tuesday were similar to what I've done before. For now, disaster averted. Probably going to end up buying a PT pro if even to just purchase/resell while the PT SL goes to get repaired.
Wednesday was 4 hours of L1/L2 riding. Coldest day in 3 weeks. Temps never made 50 degrees AND it had to rain pretty nicely on me. I even left the house at 6 am in hopes of beating it, but by 6:30am, it was raining. Power readings continued to look spot on in power file analysis.
Thursday was sprint day, and I clocked a personal best 5 second power. Only by a handful of watts, so nothing to write home to the folks about. BUT.... for me, any increase in 5 second power is a good thing.
Then came Thursday night. I had picked up a set of brake cables/casings and shifter cables/casings to do some long needed replacements. Not wanting to pull the handlebar tape off, I decided to do just the shift cables for now. Front derailleur cable, no big deal. I start working on the rear derailleur cable and find that the casing tip is stuck in the "chainstay cable stop." No worries, I didn't know the technical term either. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about (not my bike):
So, I grab the needle nose pliers and start working the casing end cap out. Then it happens. *POP* The cable stop is in the pliers, no longer attached to the bike. The cable stop is supposed to be connected to the chainstay by a pair of tiny rivets. There's obvious rust on one of the two rivets holding the stop to the frame, but that doesn't solve anything. At this point, the bike is unrideable. No cable stop means no rear derailleur shifting.
I've written a note to Specialized to seek warranty service for this problem. There's no reason that pulling an end cap out of the cable stop should break that thing off. Ueki is checking with the Specialized distributor here in Japan as well. But, all of this doesn't solve the problem really. It will take weeks or more to get a new frame here if I can get warranty replacement/service. So, in the meantime, I took some good ol' fashioned ingenuity and worked out this:
The cable stop still has some portions of the original rivets that allow it to "seat" in the correct position on the chainstay without sliding. I wrapped some electrical tape in the front of the stop so that if I start to see some wrinkling, I know the cable stop is sliding. Then, I took some old computer mount rubber, just the right width and wrapped the hose clamp around it. (The rubber is to protect the carbon chainstay all the way around).
So far so good. I have the screw "flat head" horizontal so I can see if the screw is starting to back itself out at all. I rode power intervals on Saturday and today I completed a 5 hr, 161 km L1/L2 ride and so far no sliding or shifting problems. Hopefully in the next two days, when Specialized US offices open, I will get an email back about warranty service.
What a week! Today marks the 20th straight day on the bike. Tomorrow is the full body massage/day off. Finally!
All this and after today my CTL is at it's highest point of the year so far (128) - probably the highest it will see for a couple months as I do some shorter, more intense work before I start the taper to Kunisaki.