Fi'zi:k Tundra 2 saddle // short term test review

After a good bit of hesitation I finally decided to get a new saddle for the XC bike. The choice was the beast looking Fi'zi:k Tundra 2. I use Fi'zi:k saddle on my road bike as well for many years so I know how good these saddles are. I always had my eyes on this beauty but I fell in love with it at the Irish Cycling Show and there was no turning back! 

I just got this saddle recently but I think it well worth to write few words about 'cause it is an absolutely great saddle for XC riders. I got this fitted on the bike straight after the show and used it for 3 proper off-road spins so far. 

Ready for testing

I've spent about 10 hours riding time on this saddle at this stage and the first thing that I realized besides the low enough weight was the really comfortable riding position on the bike. I like the way the nose of the saddle is pretty narrow and it isn't too wide at the back either. This provides easy possibility to slide behind the saddle on some seriously steep and technical descents. The shape of the saddle is very flat looking from the side, there is no curve at all like we see that on the Gobi model from the same manufacturer company.    

The padding is pretty thin and kind of hardish in my opinion but I'm happy with that since I prefer less padding and harder saddles in general. The added flexiblity increases the comfort on more extreme terrain. I managed to try out this saddle in pretty much every situation (tarmac, fire road, steep technical climb, rocks, roots, etc...) and it was simply comfy all the way!

Description                                         

• weight: 220 gr                                            
• dimensions: 290 mm x 125 mm                    
• shell: Nylon Carbon reinforced
• front cover: White MicroTex
• central cover: White MicroTex
• rear cover: White glossy MicroTex
• rail: Hollow Manganese 7 mm

Pros

• comfortable
• durable looking cover
• cool design
• low enough weight

Cons:

• very high profile (seat height needed proper adjustment)

So, after this very short term testing I'm very happy with the Tundra 2 so far. It's a great saddle indeed for every rider who prefers high performance saddle on the bike. I'm glad I've picked this model and I'm sure it will serve my perfectly through all the training and racing hopefully for many years to come! I'm simply loving it! :)

Brand new ThinkBike.ie CC gear for 2012

It felt like Christmas time returned to the Lower Rathmines Road for a short time this afternoon when this box has been delivered. Opened it up quickly and there it was: brand new & refreshed ThinkBike.ie CC club gear for 2012. 

The main design of the kit remains the same but few changes are there: new logos instead of some of the old ones, but the biggest difference is the Dublin crest and the text that marks Rathmines.  

My new set of XS kit for this year :)

I'm glad I could get my hands on this hot, new gear and can't wait to wear it proudly for the first time when I will be out on the bike! Exciting times! 

Forced to turn back // Torn off rear mech...

So, there I was, having fun up on Threerock just as I normally do. Toasty hot day, dusty dry trails, listening to my favourite song through my earphones and riding the sweetest trails on the back of the mountain. It was too good to be true I guess 'cause all I heard was this horrible sound. The kind that I heard before and I don't really want to hear too often. The rear mech hanger got torn off...

I knew it straight away I have a pretty long walk before I get back home. There was nothing else to do but start pushing the bike back towards the top of the mountain. Luckily I found a rubber hair band on the fire road that I could use to secure the mech to the chainstay so at least it didn't bounce against the ground and the spokes anymore...When I got up to the top I met a fellow mountain biker, who helped me out with some cable ties to secure the mech properly, so I can freewheel home at least on the downhill part of the way. 

Hair band & cable ties can fix everything! :)

Once the DIY repair was done I was ready to roll (as much as I could do that) with the broken bike...Rolling downhill, walking on flat and uphill. Wasn't the type of fun I bargained for when I left my house. But hey! I was on my way back home and that was good enough for me! :)

The end of my freewheeling session, non-stop walk from this point

Once I got to Dundrum, there was no more downhill to enjoy so nothing else left to do but get off the bike and start walking. Luckily I don't live that far from there so it wasn't too bad. 

Nice little "adventure" for today. This little incident has ruined my spin and now I have to get a new hanger sorted for the bike as well. Ah well, it's a technical sport, things like this could happen. Although I hope the next time when this will happen to me is about 5 years from today! :)  

Note to self:

- always carry an extra rear mech hanger just in case

- never have funny thoughts about guys who ride with backpacks, one of them just saved me today! Fair play to him!  

Riding my bike & living life // Summer mode is ON!

 

After about a week and a half non-biking time I was dying to get out on the bike! I got some nice overtime built up at work so I'm off for couple of days and I got to admit that the timing couldn't be any better: summer has arrived!!! Clear sky, super hot days, sunburn and everything! :)

What to wait for then?! I was on my way in no time!

I managed to get 2 spins done in the last 2 days with the total riding time of 4 hours and 20 minutes, which I'm pretty happy with mainly 'cause I'm on 24/7 Baby Alert at this stage. This was the main reason why I stayed around the local mountains, kind of hoping to be able to get back home fast enough if I need to. :) 

Excellent view!

The plan was that I had no plan. I've decided I take it as it comes but the only criteria was to visit most of my favourite places around Dublin. Here is the list of these super cool places that I never get bored with: Ticknock, Fairy Castle, Threerock, Wicklow Way, Tibradden, Kilmashogue. 

Fun time on the Metro trail

Now, the only thing I can tell is that when I ride my bike only once a week it does not help to stay fast that's for sure. These spins aren't Strava worthy ones or anything but I sure did have fun and enjoyed the hell out of my time on the bike! I was riding all over the place, riding trails back and forward and enjoyed the mega hot summer days with temperature that I don't remember when I seen in Ireland for the last time. I might even risk it to say it out loud: summer is here! :)

Near Tibradden

Enjoying the sun on Threerock

Managed some sweet max. speed on the Kilmashogue fire road: 65,4 km/hour...

Mountain biking is fantastic in weather like this but also can be done in pretty much every other conditions. The only thing that can't really be fun on a crapy day is a proper BBQ! So, we didn't want to miss our chance: fired up the grill and got some lovely chicken breats thrown on it. After the savage spin this was the perfect way to finish the day! 100%  loved it! :)

Chillin' with the BBQ & my bubbly (strictly non-alcoholic one)   ;)

Here it is, the best home made chicken burger in town! :)

The last 2 days were absolutely fantastic: spent lots of time with my wife Anett, went for mountain bike spins, got lots of rest, had lovely food and I did all this in proper summer conditions! Needless to say: life is great! :)

Irish Cycling Show '12 // What a weekend it was!

Huh, what a weekend I've had...wow! The first Irish Cycling Show was absolutely brilliant event and I have to say, whoever wasn't there at the RDS this weekend possibly missed out a fun filled two days! I spent 3 days there (1 day to set up and 2 more days when the show was open to the public) on the ThinkBike stand.

Ready for all the visitors! ;)

Of course besides all the work I've been doing I had plenty of chance to look around and find stuff that I'm interested in: Trek, Kona, Rotor, Q-Rings, USN, some sweet Titanium Bikes, Stunt Show and all the nice gear! 

With Stephen Roche

But of course one of the most important thing to me was that one of the biggest, legendery cyclist was present: Stephen Roche who won the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and the World Championship in 1987. I met him once before (Tour of Ireland, couple of years back) but it was such a nice opportonuty to see him again, chat for a little while and of course get a nice autograph as well that goes to my collection on my wall! I'm truly amazed how nice and friendly personality he has! Wow, what a champion! Was fantastic to meet him once again! :)

 

I met countless friends and cycling buddies over the 2 days and had some great conversations indeed about new bikes, gear and about the show in general.

At this point I'm pretty tired but still buzzing and thinking about how good the weekend was. I'm already looking forward to next year's event, I hope I get to be there too! It would be super cool to see the Cycling Show back in 2013! :)

Irish Cycling Show '12 // Busy weekend to look forward to!!

What day is it?! It's mountain bike Saturday!!

After a quiet busy week at work and even more busy weekend at home I managed to get on the mountain bike and do my usual Saturday XC spin that I've been missing for a while. The day was 100% the best for it after all the bad weather during the week. Warm and sunny day, no wind, just perfect! Exactly the one I was hoping for! :)

Ready to hit the road

After last week's Orwell Randonnée and that some repair on on my bike understandable enough how much I was looking forward to some muddy cycling action up in the mountains! I knew it was gonna be a good spin and it turned out I made no mistake. It was brilliant! :)

Lovely view on the way up to Threerock

Enjoying the climb on the fancy, new road surface. :)

Since I haven't been on the MTB for about 2 weeks now, I just wanted to get out and ride wherever the bike takes me. No planned route, just take whatever comes. After I got up to Threerock I got to the bottom of the Boneshaker and started to climb on the technical trail up towards the top. With all the rain previously the bastard was even more difficult than it nornally is! :) 

After a quick ride on the Upper Metro trail I started to do some very mucky natural trails on the other side of the hill. 

Beautiful view of the Dublin Bay from the end of the Upper Metro

 

Mud, rocks, roots, more mud, roots, bigger roots, even deeper mud...I could go on all day about the conditions up on some forest trails. Was excellent to trying to stay upright and grab the last bit of traction on some steep technical climbs! I loved it! :)

Ouch...very challenging conditions!

Once I got the job done around my favourite trails on Threerock I cut accross the mountain and got on the Wicklow Way to ride back towards the lower carpark on Ticknock. 

Checking out the Wicklow Mountains

After I had a fuper fast descent on the Wicklow Way I got a little more climb done on the fire road and some more natural trail riding around the back one more time before I turned back towards home. 

Taking my time up on the mountains, was just too nice to get back home :)

The way home is always extremely short and fast, it's practically downhill all the way to my place. So it took me no time to arrive home and realize how much mud I've been taken home on the bike. It will take a while before I can ride the bike again (I'll be working at the Irish Cycling Show with next weekend at the RDS), so I decided to clean the bike straight after the spin. I just couldn't leave it the way it was.

Washing bike in the sun can't go wrong, can it?

This afternoon's spin was just simply great: 2 hours and 15 minutes of speed, fun and mud. I can't tell how greatful I am about the weather today after all the depressive weather in the last couple of weeks. This spin got me charged until I can get out again. Great stuff! :)

Repairing Tune Kong rear hub // No more creaking noise

So, here is the story that was driving me crazy in the last couple of weeks. There was this horrible creaking noise coming out of my mountain bike so I wasted no time to find out the source of that. After a very precise "investigation" it turned out it was coming from the freehub body. Strange enough though 'cause it really seemed like it's coming from the middle of the bike...

The project was to take the freehub body off and re-grease the internal parts after we cleaned everything properly. 

Removing the axle from the hub

The hub without the freehub body

And there it is: the super light alloy freehub body itself

Now, it seems like an easy job (mostly it is pretty easy indeed) but since I never done repair like this and I was also worried about ruining the sensitive and light parts of the Tune Kong hub, so I asked for help from the guys in the workshop. Better to be safe than sorry, as they say! :)

Thanks to ThinkBike's great mechanic Tomek, who got the issue sorted for me quickly. The wheel is back to normal and I can ride the XC bike again this weekend! The freehub body runs like a dream and there isn't the annoying creaking noise anymore, which is definitely the best part I think! Happy days! :)

Orwell Wheelers Randonnée '12 - report

Yesterday I completed one of the most difficult (as they say) road sportive in the Irish Leisure calendar, the Orwell Wheelers Randonnée. The distance of this event isn't too long but the amount of uphill that the riders have to cover is pretty serious, we had to cross some of the finest climbs through the Wicklow Mountains. This was definitely one of the most tempting reason for me to look forward to this bike ride! :)

I'm sure after yesterday each of the 300 riders have their own story about the day, here is mine: 

My regisrtaion was kind of in the last minute followed a super quick conversation with the lads in the shop. So, I hopped on-line and signed up before they did close the entries. Done & dusted, happy days! :) 

The night before I got all my regular routine done: bike is cleaned and checked, so as the gear and all the clothing for the day. Prepared my food for the ride and had a huge portion of pasta dinner before I got to bed nice and early. I was all ready to go and the only thing I was hoping for at that point was a nice day for the spin. 

After a quick breakfast and got the car loaded and I was on my way to the venue. 

Nice & sunny morning it was but still cold enough...

After I arrived I was sitting in the heated car for a little while just to get warm before we head out. In the main time I was trying to figure out what to wear 'cause I knew a bad decision could cost me a lot later on the day. I got changed just about 15 minutes before the 9 am start of the event, but until that I had all the comfort in the car. Yes, I'm one of those! :) 

9 am sharp, off we went! The route was familiar to me so I knew what to expect along the way. 

The route of the 2012 Randonnée

 

The start (photo: Orwell Wheelers)

The peloton was quiet big so it took a while before the line has streched out. By the time we got to Enniskerry everyone settled into their own pace, so as I. I had company along the way, we had some good chatting going with the lads from the ThinkBike.ie CC. Then when we hit the first real climb of the day everybody got quiet 'cause we all needed the breath to keep the bike going.

Yes, it was "The Wall" and it hasn't been any easier this time either. That climb is a short but extremely steep (20% + ) killer! Huge effort but got up on it nice and fast.

Hitting "The Wall" (photo: Orwell Wheelers)

Go! Go! Go! (photo: Orwell Wheelers)

After that I kept going up towards the Sally Gap just right next to the Lough Tay. And at that point I've seen something truly amazing: the top of Kippure was covered in snow!!! Amazing! Good climb it was, I pushed that one too! It turned out I had to pay the price later though...

Snow in May, it was a little unexpected! (photo: Orwell Wheelers)

Got up top the gap, took the left turn and started the downhill back towards Laragh. For some reason I really don't like that road...it's donwhill but not fast enough, the surface is bad and it is too opened so even the slightest wind is a pain in the back...

Luch time on the way down from the Sally Gap :) (photo: Orwell Wheelers)

After we passed Laragh we kept going towrads Rathdrum. I was feeling still fairly ok at this point but I felt I don't really have the power in the legs. When I got to the feeding point I picked up a banana and some oranges, got my bottle refilled and kept going before I started to cool down. 

And then I hit the wall: shortly after I started my climb up on the Shay Elliott climb I just got into trouble. No power left whatsoever. I got to realize: there was no room for any chancing, got into the lightest gear and started to spin up to the top in this very slow and steady pace. It felt like the climb took me forever... I honestly thought I shouldn't have push the previous climbs so hard 'cause the pace I was doing on them got me into problems.

Once we got back to Laragh and started to head back towards Dublin I think I kind of got back to normal (as normal as it can be after al those heavy climbs). I settled into my zone and just kept going back towards home. Passed Balinastoe, crossed Enniskerry and before I realized I was back to Dublin and finished the Orwell Wheelers Randonnée 2012!

The proud ThinkBike rider at the finish :)  (photo: Orwell Wheelers)

Shortly after the finish: tired but happy :)

After I cleaned myself down a little I got something to eat and packed all my gear away I was on my way home.

Sitting around in the aftrenoon was soooo good! :)

One more sportive is under my belt: fantastic route over some of my favourite climbs through the Wicklow, coldish but sunny day, great company along the way. All this was very well run thanks to the Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club. What else we could ask for? It was great just the way it was! :)

My Orwell Randonnée in numbers:

  

Total distance: 138,7 km

Clear riding time: 5 hours and 42 minutes  

Total elevation gain: 2159 m 

Calories burned: 3239 calories

Max. speed: 59,7 km/hour

Avarage speed: 24,3 km/hour

Food and drink taken: USN Vooma Gel (with caffeine) x 2, banana x 2, cereal bar x 1, orange x 6 slices, USN CytoPower HP drink x 1.5 litre, 

...check the full ride on Strava!

"The Orwell Randonnée is like the Wicklow 200 just without the easy bits!" - this is what I heard about this event before and after I completed my first Randonnée I think this sentence is true! 

This sportive will be on my list for the upcoming years that's for sure! I can't wait for the next one already! :)

Back on the road // Orwell Randonnée - upcoming event

I did not plan any more road events for this year but today I got roped into the 130 km long Orwell Randonnée this coming Saturday. The question was asked, the decision has been made quick and the answer was even quicker: 

"Yep, why not? I'll be there! "

After a quick online registration (which I was lucky with because there was only 300 entries allowed for the day) everything was sorted. I'm part of the ThinkBike Road Squad for the 130 km long spin that is not a race but there is no secret: I want to have it done as fast as I can and I'm sure I wont be the only one with a plan like this! The route goes over some very good climbs so I hope to make some time up on them. The only thing I hope for is a nice day for it but honestly, I'm so excited about Saturday I don't even care about the crapy weather that is pretty standard lately. Bring it on! :)

The itiner for the day

Now, I haven't been on the road for about a month at this stage 'cause I've been so "busy" with all my mountain biking. So, the first thing I did was to get out for a short but intense road spin straight after work. Did some flat, did some climbs and tried to have a good rythm going. 

Back home, time to rest now

I'm ready for Saturday and I'm sure it'll be fun to participate in one of the best road sportive of this year's calendar. I'm really looking forward to it and I hope I can report to you guys with nothing else but great experience about the Orwell Randonnée 2012!