happy x-mas

Otto and The Electric Eel

Dorschgeknallter Dorsch, ....ähm...., Aal, elektrischer.

via

Assos - my ass!

Starting again with that whole cycling thing I had to get a bunch of stuff. Sitting on a bike for days makes picking the right setup between bike and ass a challenge. For the bib I must say, since I didn't had any idea of what to buy or not I finally went with Assos. There was an interesting article about these Italian guys which develop most of the padding cuts and materials and as well for and with Assos in my favourite mag, the Fahrstil. Having researched that the Mille S5 is/was one of the state-of-the-art-bibs for longer distances I wanted to get me one. Somehow Assos changed their complete line inventing the S7 products. So I had to go for one of those in the first step. I tried the T.cento - an 10mm padded bib. Sitting on that was fine, but after 160...170km I always felt some uncomfy irritations on the inner sides of the thighs. Doing a few times 200+ was not so much fun as they product was claimed to provide.

Fortunately I could get hold of a T FI.Mille S5 as well as a T.équipe_s7. Now that was fun. Riding and switching a few times between all of them. The Mille is a great product in general. You can ride it for long stretches without any trouble. These side flaps on the T.cento are really a disadvantage. They are simply too much at this position. Besides that, this 10mm foamish material is already too thick, I had many rides where I was sliding around on that pillow and had to maintain a certain position actively. That shouldn't be like this. So the comfort of the T.cento virtually dropped down with each mile riding the Mille or the new T.equipe. Since I used only these both bibs I was free of any trouble due to padding thickness or these side flaps. But - and this is a very small but nevertheless important factor - the front of the T.equipe has a slightly deeper cut than the Mille. Every time you stop and need to water the flowers this becomes a serious plus for the T.equipe.

I used the T.equipe in the Transcontinental Race without any problems, and kept the Mille for daily commuting. So there are approx. 6,000km on the T.equipe, 1,800km on the T.cento and some 1,200km on the Mille, I'd say that counts for field testing.

Mille, T.equipe, T.cento - all with typical reflective stripes

Mille, T.equipe, T.cento

Mille

T.equipe

T.cento

T.cento side padding, way too much for me

Why? Because you can. - Transcontinental Race 2014

Why? I still don't know. Because you can? Seems to be a valid answer, at least to me. Left Hamburg on Monday morning, heading towards London, 875 km which took me 2 1/2 days and was quite some fun, besides the profile on the island.

Hamburg - somewhere in Netherlands: 354 km

somewhere in Netherlands - somewhere in Belgium: 320 km

somehwere in Belgium - London: 201 km

After hanging around at the nice AirBnB flat and meeting some riders over a briefing beer, I was more or less wasting time with sleeping, eating pasta and getting a pair of new cleats. I was then sent off by my better half and did what I usually do once I sit one a bike for a bit longer - eating miles.

day 1: 355 km

day 2: 375 km

day 3: 381 km

day 4: 183 km

day 5: 288 km

day 6: 271 km

day 7: 341 km

day 8: 319 km

day 9: 355 km

day 10: 283 km

day 11: 279 km

This makes 3430 km in the end, pretty much exactly what I had planned as route before - no wonder, I prolly did just 10km detouring or short cutting here or there. Seems the effort in route planning in front of the screen is worth every kilometer on the road. Was a pretty quick start, this stormy wind pushed us all on an early ferry. Feeling well I rode til I was a bit tired and it started to drizzle. Nice bus stop sleep for a few hours. Having crossed Paris on Sunday morning I was heavily surprised being 8th on CP1 - I expected a harder competition in the 2nd race with nearly 100 starters. Two nice days with not much trouble, a bit rain, but what else than riding should one do in such a weather? Shittiest day was in the Alps, not my terrain and maybe a bit crazy to do 3 big passes in one day, plus the punctured while climbing the Stelvio. Anyhow, I could recover quite nicely on the following two days heading south in Italy, followed by a nice and relaxing ferry ride. It was a little bit of a touristic ride, having picked tomatoes from the field, some Kiwis from the tree, checking out Rimini beach life and racing with some Italian locals in their after-work-training. Even the two (of my three) punctured couldn't spoil the fun I had along the Croatian cost. One of the most beautiful rides in this race. Having met Steffen earlier in Italy (he's a nice and calm guy - I like his relaxed view on the things) and Mark later on the ferry as well, we did some fun ride towards CP3. Unfortunately Mark had some trouble with 2 broken spokes on the drive side. Kotor was somehow weird, they had a blackout as I arrived there. A crowded city in darkness, everyone on the streets and you try to find a pizza shop which can serve you. Power came back and as well my hunger. Hanging around and having a chat with a couple from Portugal and another one from the US time just went by. Later Mike and Matthias stopped by for a short chat. The night climb on the Lovcen was pretty nice, not a hard climb, easily doable in the saddle. Funniest thing - I expected to have a quiet night goin up there but met Adrian on the gas station. The brave guy was trying to keep up with Steffen and had so much less sleep since he didn't take the ferry. We had 2 hours of nice chatting over which we nearly forgot to enjoy the view down the bay. Until that day it was just some bicycle trip for me, exhausting in the Alps but generally quite enjoyable. Sure, you are not amused by some cars passing a bit to close, or some steep gradients in between, but overall it was pretty much what I could do a bit longer. So it was a bit surprising that we had a competition reaching CP3, but I was fine with that. There was still one third of the total way left. Having a nice sleep in the picnic area, a proper breakfast and some nice gossip chats about the latest news from the race - life was good. But then the discussion turned to become serious about the race as a competition and I realised that Steffen made a very clever move the previous night, putting over 100km between us. Well - in that way Mike was so right when he said "You are allowed to race." I didn't feel like in a race, I just cycled as long as it felt right to do every day, I did it as fast as I accepted it to become not too much exhausting. I wanted to be on the safe side with my resources. So knowing that 4th place was prolly lost already (Steffen would enter Greece giving him a home-run), there were not much options left. Some guys were down in the bay, Adrian sitting next to me - better doin some miles. It was okayish the next days. Riding did not surprise me much by the road qualities (maybe one more  good thing having grown up in the eastern part of Germany), it was more a mental challenge. Kids trying to catch you and sell you some corn - maybe the only way they could assist their family in getting a bit income. Rubbish everywhere. I mean, plastic waste simply in each hole along the way, every dry river bed was filled with that shit. There is no sense for these topics in Albania or Macedonia. But first dog fights at night. Wohooo. I really hated it. It's a difference if you just ride and do 100 km at night. You take care of the road, watching your way, trying to be not hit by a car or running over some lazy cat. But always in standby for an instant sprint, exhausting. I got a few SMS telling me that Mark was still on the road following a similar route and Adrian took a more inwards way via Bulgaria. I expected that Mark couldn't find any replacement or spare in Kotor. Having told him about one last years rider (forgot the name) who also had some broken spoke and could find some spare in Thessaloniki I expected him to stop there. And the roads until then weren't much easier. So all I had to do was keeping some distance between us. Which was doable. At darkness it was still annoying to struggle with these dogs, especially once you were in the traffic. It was like a bad movie - being chased by dogs on one side, trying to keep my track and not being hit by a truck on the other side. No wonder that it was more than welcome to have a very nice sleep at the beach. The sound of the waves just made me sleep in a second. Next day was kinda fun since I met a Belgian guy who was watching the race tracker. Really kind company for a few miles. Later that day it happened again in Alexandropolis. About that I forgot to get some food and lost a bit time against Mark. I knew he would put all in to chase me. But no fun at night again - several dog fights on my way to and through the Turkish border. I was pissed about that. Really, I said to myself - if Mark got the balls and the legs to catch me and get the 5th place - well. I don't ride more that night. I knew that there were some climbs to do on the D110 and I disliked to do them at night. I got me a smokers room in a cheap hotel, had a shower and fell asleep. It was pretty early for my taste, but prolly it was the right thing to do. Mark would need so much more miles than me, he did not had much recovery while sorting the things out for his wheel. He should be a bit tired too. So it was logic that I would start once the sun rises (the wolves turn back to lazy dogs in the morning). Having just less than 300 km to do I decided to put all in over the first hours. The road was good, just a few road works, wide shoulder, good asphalt. That day was cookies, coke and ice cream. Avoiding the heavy traffic of Istanbul I had to do some climbs, but it was much more relaxed going the smaller roads. Still - you can compare this with Berlin rush hours but not with the main roads and highways in Istanbul. Well. And then it was over. You ride through this forest, a bit down, a small community with street life and shops, and then you are at the Bosporus. Just follow the street, enjoy the restaurant life and some ships in the water, a few curves and then it's done.

10 day 9 hours 17 mins - 3,430 km

pic by Matthias Wjst (wjst.de)

 I still don't know. Was I lucky, was it just all too smooth for me this time? What if I would have thought about "racing" a bit earlier? Would it have made the things in my head more complicated? Or would I have ended up under 10 days, or at a better position? I really don't know. I was following the race last year and found it a thrill. I didn't had a road bike that time, I stopped with an old steel frame road bike couple years ago, I was more into my MTB and a heavy robust steel travel bike. I didn't feel ready at all. Long time. Even after buying me the bike, getting all that important things together (which will be another post). When there was the announcement for the race I felt a bit shy. Not this year, I'm not ready. But maybe this was just a lie. When they opened the list again for one day in April I was procrastinating alone at night, entering my data. And expected to hear nothing anymore. Mid of June I asked Mike if there will be some news because there were some empty lines on the list. And hell, it became a serious thing now. Doing miles. Long stretches. With the stuff on the bike. Even with 2,500km done in July alone I didn't feel ready. But it is kinda okay, it keeps your expectations low. A thing which helps me in my job as an engineer quite often. A healthy pessimistic view and you prepare much better than you would actually need. Leading to a nice result. All I wanted to do is not missing the finishers party. So far it worked out. Everything else was a huge surprise to me. Well okay, I had my bad day. I'm not trained to climb that much like on day 4. It went better after the Alps. Maybe I should have planned a similar route like Adrian, approaching the Stelvio from north, avoiding some climbs on the way. It was a good example that the shortest way isn't always the fastest or easiest. I will keep that in mind. Because. You never know. It was too much fun to not do it again one day. Or something like this. Because you can.

Some pictures from my holidays

The race: http://www.transcontinentalrace.com/
The race blog: http://reportage.transcontinentalrace.com/?page_id=99
The trackers: http://trackleaders.com/transconrace14f.php#maintabs-1
My tracker: #50
Some more pics by Matthias Wjst: http://www.wjst.de/images/index.php

SHUT UP, LEGS!

Never trust a Shimano Techdoc ...

...at least use ur brain first.

Shimano 11-fach Ultegra, die 6800er. Soweit es geht ist die ja schon gut abgespeckt, ergo sind die Kettenblattschrauben aus ... richtig, Aluminium. Und da wir ja schöööön vorsichtig mit dem Spielzeug umgehen wollen, erstmal das entsprechende Techdoc gezogen.

Auf http://si.shimano.com/#seriesList/38 findet sich zum Beispiel für die Kurbelgarnitur das Dokument DM-FC0003-03 - in den jeweils verfügbaren Sprachen. Mittlerweile in 3ter Revision. Aber immer noch mit einer kruden Angabe zum Anzugsmoment für die Kettenblattschrauben. Steht da doch tatsächlich 12 bis 16 Nm!

Auha. Nun ja. Als braver Endverbraucher macht man das nun erstmal. Hah! Besser nicht. Sondern man stutzt besser erstmal ... und kommt drauf, dass das eigentlich zuviel sein dürfte. Sonst sieht das nämlich so aus:

Empfohlene Anzugsmomente für Alu-Kettenblattschrauben liegen irgendwo unter 10 Nm. Paul Lange gibt's mal an die Angelzubehörfirma in Fernost weiter. Und ich warte auf die Ersatzschraube. Cheers.

Gilles Berthoud latex saddle cover "rubber" - better call it "rubbish"

It all started with their saddle, the Aspin. Fine product after all the trouble with the poor Selle An-Atomica. To protect my nice leather saddle while being off the saddle a cover would be cool, so their product should be the best option ever. Ordered directly at their shop and was impressed. For a while. I mean, I cycle troughout the year, and yes that's what Gilles Berthoud saddles are made for. To be ridden every day. Understandable to use their cover also every day while being at work having the bike standing outside. So it was quite nice, put that little black piece of latex on the Aspin and find a dry saddle while heading back home.
It went like this for not even a year. Until a few months ago. One day I realised some tiny little holes on the front, there where the saddles nose is located. Uh, ehm, damn. What happened? Taking the cover off it felt also a bit thin in this area. And - surprise - looking onto the inner side, there were tiny litte circles, matching the saddles washer shape. How that? Looking a bit closer it seemed that the washers had something to do with these marks. Along these spots the observed holes were located. I'm an engineer. I like techy stuff, chemistry, thermodynamics, physics. I had a feeling to look a bit into the washer-latex-thing. Bingo. There is a tramendous impact on the latex molecules once in contact with copper-based metals such as brass, like the washers. Copper is cutting the double bond on the isoprene and the degree of polymerisation is going down. In German this effect is called "Latexkrebs" (latex-cancer), describing that the latex doesn't stop to get destructed. It builds some very sticky glue and the holes are getting bigger and bigger. That seems all not to be a big surprise, look into all the larp or theater accesoires or even at the fetish stuff. There is always a warning not to bring metal into contact with the latex material. Surprise. Do they have chemistry in school in France? Do you run a production without checking the usability of your prodct at Gilles Berthoud? Do you create something meant to protect your other products but not making sure that they will work together?

Well, nowadays you write an E-mail and ask the guys about it. So I did. On their homepage, by my E-Mail. Two times. In English. Without any response. No feedback, no ticket, nothing. Well. They are probably not capable of reading and understanding English. Asked a friend to put my request in French. Sent this out as well. No response either.

I throw it here:

 "Mesdames et Mesieurs, j'ai commandé un couvre selle chez nous (11.12.2012, numéro de commande 5694, lien: 203COU100 couvre selle imperméable latex noir http://www.gillesberthoud.fr/fiche_detaillee/fiche.php?refArticle=203COU100).

J'ai utilisée cet couvre sur un Gilles Berthoud Aspin. Malheureusement, pendant les dernières semaines, des fissures s'ont formées dans le latex. Cettes fissures se trouvent surtout sur le nez camus. Là, le latex est en contact directe avec une rondelle plate en laiton qui est part du selle. Malheureusement, le latex ne résiste pas du tout le laiton. C'est un fait connu que les molecules latex sont détruites par le laiton.

Voyez, s'il vous plaît les details sûr les photos qui j'ai attachée. Le latex n'est pas un matérieau convenable pour les couvres selle.

Pourriez-vous me proposer une solution, s'il vous plaît?

Je vous remercie de votre aide et je vous prie d'agréer mes sincères salutations."

Seems they care a shit about their customers at Gilles Berthoud. No response since nearly two months on that as well. Fun fact - on the date I sent the french E-Mail to them someone wanted to leave a reply to this updated blogpost, showing the beginning of destruction. There was no contact ID left, so it was not released as a comment:

""Designed for protection, NOT FOR RIDING." ist auf der Verpackung zu lesen (ist sogar auf den etwas unscharfen Fotos zu erkennen). Meint konkret, wenn man selbst auf dem Sattel sitzt, möge man den Überzug voher entfernen - denn dieser soll nur als Regenschutz diesen.

Dieser 'Rub-ber' ist egentlich eine lohnende Anschaffung, denn sich auf einen nassen / durchweichten Ledersattel zu setzen, ist nicht nur unangenehm, sondern auch der schnellste Weg einen Ledersattel zu ruinieren."

This comment was left by "Gilles". I mean - is there someone so stupid at Gilles Berthoud that they believe I do ride with that cover on the saddle?! Seriously?

Insert LOLs here.

But funny, I observe the cover since I don't use it anymore. It's alive. It converts into some sticky oily glue, I call it "Blob". Don't touch it, it's a mess to remove that shit from the fingers.

Bottom line:

1. Gilles Berthoud has the most crappiest customer care ever - none at all.
2. Gilles Berthoud product development should go back to school.
3. Gilles Berthoud saddle cover will leave sticky shit on your nice leather saddles.
4. Gilles Berthoud saddle covers are only suitable on plastic saddles, no Gilles Berthoud, no Brooks, no Lepper, nothing with any rivets.

Save your money, don't buy that shit, it's ripp-off!



how it started


brass washer marks on latex


 saddle nose, few weeks ago


 bigger holes every week


as today, fully gone


Latexkrebs


inside


also now on the rear washer positions


outside


outside front


outside rear

ELEVEN vélo - stupid, but Hipster

Herr, schmeiss Hirn hinter die Bärte!

ELEVEN vélo beschreibt sich ja selbst als Designschmiede von allerhöchstem Niveau. Kann man ja machen, den Mund so richtig schön voll nehmen. Aber dann muss man bitteschön auch was hinter der aufgerissenen Fresse haben. Ein wenig Rechtschreibung zum Beispiel, oder vielmehr Namenskunde.

Finde dendie Fehler*:

Was hier für teuer Geld (AU$30 ca 18€) angepriesen wird läuft unter "Art" - Fehlersuchbild oder "sry-but-I-was-to-stupid-for-copy-paste" würde besser passen.

‘Grand Tour Legends’ Glicée poster.
~ Each print numbered.
~ 42 x 29.7cm / 16.5 x 11.7" (A3).
~ Printed on archival paper using 8 colour archival ink.
~ Min 25mm / 1" gutter for mounting and framing.
~ Shipped in heavy weight art tube via Standard Air Mail.
Printed inhouse by ELEVEN vélo.

Aber wahrscheinlich sind wir nun lediglich endgültig in der Post-Fixie-Hipster-Ära angelangt, man muss noch nicht mal wissen was da eigentlich auf dem fancy Rennkäppi steht oder wer mal irgendwann seinem Fahrradrahmen Namenspate stand. Sechs, setzen.


*Auflösung:

1. Veluta - wahrscheinlich ist hier die Vuelta gemeint
2. Bernard NINULT - wahrscheinlich ist hier Bernard Hinault gemeint