Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

Today John Archibald smashed Stuart Dangerfield's 2003 course record (1:22:13) for the Buxton CC Mountain TT with a blistering 1:17:09. Adam Wild in 2nd place also beat the previous record with 1:21:41. Joscelin Lowden won the women's event in 1:0:24 from Sarah Storey 1:01:21.

— Buxton Cycling Club (@BuxtonCycling) April 19, 2019

Haha, I needed another 3 miles or so...

I finally got to race on my Aende Lopro on Tuesday night. What a lovely thing to race on.
I rode in the Coventry Cyclings k12/10 which is weirdly 10.2 miles.
I dropped the chain after about 1/2 mile with a clumsy change into top (6 speed single ring, friction down tube), had to stop and then get rolling again.

Surprisingly comfortable on 21mm tubs although out of the saddle efforts are odd with the small front wheel and best avoided.
Oddly I was 2nd fastest on the return leg finishing 7th overall with a 24.03 beating quite a few tip top TT set ups.

All in all very happy and a nice change from racing a modern carbon bike.

The only change I might make is to go for an indexed shifter and maybe a 7 or 8 speed block.

1 Attachment

but my next step is probably enlarging the hole at the bottom of the bars with a drill!

Huh? Where do you recon the obstruction is? For me the problem isn’t the exit hole, it’s that the cable outer seems to get stuck halfway through the bars, approximately where the it passes the armrest bolts.

I still haven’t had another go because my new cables haven’t arrived yet.

out of the saddle efforts are odd with the small front wheel and best avoided

Then something is wrong with it. I remember back in the olden days Tony Doyle saying he could chuck his lo pro pursuit bike about just like his madison bike, and that has been my experience on my Rourke lo pro.

I can’t seem to get anything more than the inner and teflon liner from Nokon cables in there, I’ve tried standard cable outers too.

I do suspect even if successful then the gap between the bars and the top of the break will be too small.

Re your hope that you can get away with a gap in the links I don’t think it’ll work, even a straight 3 link shortage in one attempt meant any corners further meant the cable couldn’t return so the brake stayed on!

Ok, I'll put it another way, until I get a little more used to it, I'll be keeping out of the saddle efforts to a minimum. It certainly corners well.
I think a single speed specific chain-ring might be a sensible option down the line too.

Archibald went past me in a blur. Ludicrous pace. I was on a road bike to be fair.

I can’t seem to get anything more than the inner and teflon liner from Nokon cables in there, I’ve tried standard cable outers too.

Same.

I do suspect even if successful then the gap between the bars and the top of the break will be too small.

I think your frame is smaller than mine, but on a 56cm frame with slammed Ventus I seem to have enough space between the bottom of the bars and the top of the brake.

Re your hope that you can get away with a gap in the links I don’t think it’ll work, even a straight 3 link shortage in one attempt meant any corners further meant the cable couldn’t return so the brake stayed on!

This is roughly where I’m at at the moment. I’ve threaded the beads onto the Teflon liner from both ends and rigged everything up apart from the actual cable. I’ve tried feeding some dummy cable through the system and it feels like there is a kink inside the bars where I’d expect the gap in the cable outers to be. I can get it through, but the cable run is definitely not smooth.

I have to take a break now but I’ll try with a section of proper cable later, however, my Vision brake levers only work with stupid proprietary cables and I only have one, so I’m hesitant to fray it or put a kink in it while fucking about trying to test if this routing is even possible.

Does anyone want a large white pro bike kit ski suit? Worn once by me over bibs for a team pursuit. No use to me, yours if you pay postage!

Possibly forum user christono is too modest to post his recent ride in this thread, so I will do it for him.

I invited all those who completed the Hard Day in January ride to take part in the Hounslow's Good Friday Club 25. I did point out to them all that if they could cope with the HDiJ they should be easily capable of putting up a respectable 25 time, and that anyone doing tough rides like that early in the year seemed to me to be wasting a lot of hard effort if they didn't bother to race.

Well, the outcome was that only christono took up the invitation, but he certainly justified what I had said. Riding first ever 25, on an undulating and tricky course, he finished in 1.2.00.

This included going off course twice: we don't know how much time was lost, but even the break in rhythm alone would make a measurable difference. He rode a 94" fixed, which most would find too high -it did look a bit tough on the final ascent of Hawthorn Hill (see photo, note- this pic gives a false impression of the gradient), but clearly he must have coped with it everywhere else.

In fact he had already proved my prediction the week before our event by recording 22.30 on the Q10/19, which seems pretty phenomenal for a first ever TT.

1 Attachment

It’s not an easy course - so doing that time on your first 25 is outstanding, congratulations Chris (coming from a novice TT’r myself). And it was a bit windy yesterday too.

Impressive. And without loads of slippery aero clobber too.

He rode a 94" fixed, which most would find too high

That would be spot on for me in the unlikely event that I was going to get round there at just over 24mph. It's always a compromise because while Hawthorn Hill is slow, there's a fairly long fast bit on the Drift Road which is wasted if you just gear for going up.
Somebody should invent a mechanism which allows you quickly to change gear part way through a race 🤔

Great rides @Christono

In reply to Tester:

Yes, it's called a derailleur!

Worth hunting down an oval A900 fork to be used alongside a HED trispoke?

Or has aero fork tech advanced enough to not bother?

As an alternative I have a set of Alpina TT forks.

Well done Christono.

My season started worse than last season. My fitness is way off. Since the CX season ended first week of Feb the most I've ridden is the 2-mile commute to my son's nursery and back. Was aiming to go sub-25 this year but have a long way to go...

Yes, but only if you're pairing the Hed 3 with the right tyre

20mm veloflex record for teeth rattling aero gains?

Comes up a smidge too wide but you're on the right lines

On that note, anyone have a spare Oval A900 fork in 1 1/8 700c?

I’m going to hunt down some gp4000 20mm, which are probably going to be a little wide, but the Hampshire roads where I ride can be cack.

Drop me a pm if you want some non club folk to ride with in manc area. Lots of social stuff but it gets the miles up.

I really can't imaging that the bone shattering ride of a hed3 with a 20mm tire will be fast on real world roads in the uk, by the time you start swerving to avoid potholes or going into the base bars because you're in agony, you've probably lost more than you gained over just a standard road wheel..

I'd be tempted to sell it to a hipster and buy something more modern and wide that will allow a decent size tyre at a pressure level that allows you to ride straight and hold your position, or just run a standard rim from your road bike/track bike/whatever you have...

just my 2p...

Never found much issue with a 20mm on my Hed, even on the Hounslow 100. Hed 3 is still a reliable fast wheel across a wide range of conditions.