Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

https://www.shopforwatts.co.uk/products/anemoi-mk2-extension-system-dual?syclid=cpkotcch33ns73dh94pg

£1800 for the Mk2 Anemoi

One for the Shiv and one for the road bike...

A report from clubman may be forthcoming.

Finally, the report is up!

I wrote it immediately after the event, but owing to an email mix up it's only just been published. I should have chased it up sooner than I did and I can only hope late is better than never.

https://www.velouk.net/2024/06/12/report-result-hounslow-district-wheelers-100/

If a club race is on a course with no map or info do you get the course info when you enter? Buxton CC have a series which I assume is near me but no real way of knowing, could be miles away!

It's a secret 🙂

They call it out as new course, even though the number is in the middle of a known sequence. This is good infosec practice, to reduce predictability. Unfortunately, the promoting club have leaked the details on their own web site. Also check the warning to avoid a DQ for dangerous riding.

Sounds ridiculous, I’m out!
Wrong side of Buxton for me, thanks for intel

Do people using bestbikesplit find it to be accurate? Ie if I do the same time it predicted for a 90km bike leg but 60watts more do I assume
Bestbikesplit is wrong
My power meter is over reading
I’m wasting loads of power by not optimising (partly as I got a new emergency replacement bike the week of the race!)
I’m open to all 3 being partly true!

Does anyone have Zipp Vuka risers in 10mm?

Pretty sure I do…

I can haz?

Zipp Vuka risers

The clip-on version? I'll have a look if Ed doesn't find some first, we definitely have a Vuka Clip set in the parts bin at my parent's house, but I can't remember which risers.

Thanks both. I might also consider 25mm if you have them and want to sell them but 10mm is what I want to drop the drops by so 25 would really be too high (give me another few years and I might need them)

Road bike national champion finally confirmed.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/therell-be-no-celebrations-says-new-road-bike-champ-after-disciplinary-hearing-upholds-his-ride

Well, that’s the first one for the year entered. Not sure what form or fitness I have at all. But that’s what this is for I guess. Will be the first outing on the Planet X I picked up last year for cheap (carbon, proper TT wheels and cockpit etc). I’ve replaced the headset bearings, put proper carbon pads on, swapped the dodgy front calliper out, and hopefully I can get the slightly aged QuarQ power meter working with the addition of a magnet and a new battery. I’m a good few KGs lighter but unsure if my legs are firing as well as last year when I was doing my hilly commute a lot more regularly. I’d love to get under the hour, considering I managed 1:00:46 on a road bike with extensions, I’d hope the new bike is worth 46 seconds!

https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-course/26657

I’m also considering entering this the week after, but I’ll be coming off a night shift at 630am lol.

https://events.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/events/26659-cleveland-coureurs-25

Anyone fancy these.

Profile design sonsonic ergo 35 aero bars with kismet highsided armrests. (The pads could probably do with replacing at some point as you need to unstick them to make adjustments, but they are all good for now).

£110 posted.

Rrp for both is about £300 (I don't have og prifile design arm rests)

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This year I redesigned my BTA bottle mount and it allowed me to get a lot lower on the front and "hide" behind my arms (comparison below). Last year it as all a bit last minute when I realized that my large bottles wont fit, and had to do a quick and dirty solution before my half ironman. Some other small changes : new rear disc, corsa g2.0 now matching on the rear, custom grip at the end of extensions housing the shifer that gives me a more comfortable grip, longer reach by moving pads forward.

In this new position I averaged 38.6km/h over 87.5km, with only 205W. Now, the obvious low hanging fruit is to actually train properly for the next one. And then there are some others like a TT helmet, better skinsuit (better than LFGSS one?! Impossible!) figuring out the impact of my bento box...etc.

I quite like the idea of aero testing, and Im seriously playing with the thought of buying an Aerosensor. I love data analysis, and just the whole technical aspect of it is fascinating. More of a hobby purchase to spend my time than a justified "I need this to be faster" one. I'll also set a goal of X km's trained on the TT bike before I pull the trigger...

I want to make sure that I'll have a proper spot where I can go back again and again, but I live in central London. Any ideas? I found this stretch of road near Rainham, takes me 20m by train to get there, and hopefully theres a time of the day when it isnt that busy. I'll probably check it out next week.

Last but not least, if I purchased one, anyone interested in renting it at a very sensible price? I dont know what that pricepoint is, but in a setup where people could take it more than once to go back and test new things..etc. Not to profit, just to get back some of the costs and make it more accessible.

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Have you tried with lower arms and your head further down? Tucking my head furhther down got me faster in shorter events.

Havent yet, the current position is based on a bikefit. I want to test lower stack and lower arms as well.

Then again, I never tested "arms up" so who knows.

Tried the TT bike for the first time today, before the first TT of the year on Sunday.

My god was it all wrong. Very dodgy and clearly mistreated carbon cockpit that I’m happily disposing of. Narrow arm rests that cut my arms. And I just couldn’t get the position to work from roadside adjustments. Hoping that I can bodge together something workable before the weekend. Failing that I’m just nicking the wheels and putting them on my road bike.

So, a slightly panicked bit of alteration to the TT bike. New cockpit fitted. Feels much more comfortable and familiar. And perhaps a marginally better position than on my road bike.

Just need to re-cable the brakes and gears. Still have the emergency back up plan of just using the road bike with extensions and wheels off the Planet X. Either way, I’m just relieved to have a workable and solid feeling cockpit rather than using the death trap carbon cockpit the bike came with (stripped threads, non-original bolts digging into the bars, snapped carbon etc). I did not feel comfortable yarding on the carbon bars at all.

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Well. That was a pain. went to replace the broken barre adjuster. Realised it was snapped and seized in. Bolt extractor didn’t work. Too tight to drill in situ. Drill out rivets. Remove and retap. Rivet it back (badly). That ate a lot of time to sort the bike for tomorrow that I don’t have. Fuck. Lol.

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Not enough sleep. A rush to the start. Not enough warm up. Bars that were slipping so much they were 15 degrees to the right by the end. Lol.

1:04:14 - felt very average. Found it hard on the 2 loop course. Much more riding than on an out and back. And it felt quite windy and the small rolling inclines were definitely felt.

But a start point for the year to improve on I guess. Also I think both tubs needs replacing on the bike. Lol.

Which tubs for TT? Pirelli P Zero TT or Specialized S-Works Turbo Time Trial?

Both £30 on Merlin, realised that both need replacing on the bike.

When a 5 minute job turns into a whole evening... My TT frameset was also a deal, but it was a whole day's worth of work chasing threads, fishing ripped cables out from it, getting stuck BB out. At least once its done, its done!

As for the tubs, TT specific tubs can be quite flimsy so if youre also planning on doing more rides outside with the same wheels to get more comfortable on the bike (not just race day), I'd get something other than those.

Some of it may be the angle of the photo but you are very far back behind the bb at the moment which is limiting how low you can get on the bike, I’d look at seeing how far forward you can get on your saddle and then put a longer stem on to keep the body length. You could also cut the end of your base bars off where they are to curve back upwards again mostly for style points but also you’ll save 30g or so and reduce the temptation to be in the base bars as they’ll feel less locked in than the aero bars.

Re tyres buy whatever ranks lowest on the rolling resistance website. Unless you want to ride lots then maybe look at Vitoria corsa that are probably a bit tougher!