Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

I had zero chance to dial it in before Sundays event. Hopefully I can get the rollers out this week and do some more adjusting. I’m generally pretty comfortable in the extensions, and I don’t actually like the feel of the base bar - so there’s no huge temptation to use them unless I want to pull on them.

I’ve managed to get a late entry for a TT on Sunday, so keen to try and iron things out a little bit before then.

I need to do more miles on the TT bike, but I’m going to see if my road bike wheels fit tonight - more comfortable and less puncture anxiety for training! Buying tubs is already expensive, so I’d rather buy TT ones for £30 each, rather than pay twice that just for some puncture resistance while also suffering worse rolling resistance.

As for moving forward, I’ll make some adjustments and take more photos - what you’re saying definitely sounds about right!

As for moving forward

Moving forward, I'd ignore any position advice from a triathlete😁

Also, how hard is removing old tubs and mounting new ones? Should I use glue or tape?

It's only hard if you want to re-use the tub, otherwise just tear the fuckers off. You want to get as much of the residue left behind off as you can, so getting a tub glue removing compound is worthwhile in my experience.

Tape is way easier to apply (and far less time consuming) than glue. It won't give quite as good a bond, but as I assume these are mainly for flat time trials then you should be fine with tape.

The harder the better. Glue, done right, gives the best results in both safety and performance, but it's a huge faff. Tape is a piece of piss and works fine for most purposes.

Its a right pain to remove it properly, but with the right tools (some plastic/wooden scrapers, goo remover) it can be made a lot easier.

Glueing is straightforward following detailed instructions.
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I never taped myself, but witnessed a mechanic doing it and it was very swift, instructions here.

OH! And if you're swapping wheels, dont forget to swap your brake pads. Metal shards from using the alu wheels can gauge the carbon wheels.

Ah. Hadn’t thought about the pads. Might be more faff than it’s worth.

I just swap the pads themselves, not the shoes. If the wheels are similar enough width then you dont need to setup the brakes again.

That's what I do - push the metal pads out and push the carbon ones in. It's a bit tricky with the calipers on the Shiv under the chainstays and behind the (obvs massive) chainring but even with my levels of patience it can be done.

I've only ever used Tubasti glue before which works fine but for a noob like me was a mess, was like bubblegum and applying in a fully carpeted flat resulted in some, ahem, glue residue on carpet. I've just bought some new tubs so this time have gone for the Effetto Mariposa Caragna tape for the first time. As tester says fitting looks a piece of piss and tidier, bit bloody expensive for not very much tape tho.

And cheap quick and easy way I found to remove tubs, get a plastic tyre lever, get it under tub and push it thro so the lever is above both sides of the rim, then twist your hand/lever 45 degrees and just push the plastic lever along the rim and it should dismount tub easily in seconds as you go round the rim. A chopstick also worked I found.

Then rummage through your cutlery draw in the kitchen and pick a metal spoon or fork where the end of the handle fits best in the groove of your rims, then scrape this around the whole rim a couple of times, using sunglasses or goggles as that dried glue can be like shrapnel. Takes fuck all time but smoothes out the glue/rim ready for the new glue or tape application.

Depending on how precious your cutlery is, or how agitated your other half is about using kitchen cutlery for bike tinkering, the last step may be best done stealthily :)

Thanks for all the advice.

Ordered the Pirellis and some of the fancy tub tape (and a spare roll of cheap stuff in case I fuck it up). Now to just dial in the position.

Also, got the start sheet for Sunday. I quickly did some maths and worked out that the average age of entrant is 55!

The tape video looks a lot easier pulling out the tape backing strip than when I used to do it with Jantex tub tape. One of the hacks was to put a pencil in between the tub and the rim to give you access to pull the backing out.

Tufo tubs aren't the best but I remember using this video guide they made when taping tubs on, works a treat pulling the backing tape off slowly with the tyre mounted

https://youtu.be/59CxVhL_TUc?si=cf4kgttHkLArpPHq

Turns out the disc rear is a clincher, lol.

How bad an idea is it to run a 28c gp5000 with a latex tube? Will I be sacrificing a lot, to the extent that it’s worth buying a tt clincher?

No

That’s what I hoped! Merci!

Do you want a faster tyre?

I’d be happy with that! Tubs are a ball-ache and unless you spend lots of money a GP5k with a latex tube will probably be faster than most of them. 25mm or 23 may be better if it’s a narrow rim.

Yes, but is the extent to which it’s faster significant? Is the effort to gains ratio worthwhile?

I am not into tubs that’s for sure! Dismounting the front took fucking ages. And I’ve put the gp5000 on now, so it’ll do!

Ride a 299mi 12hr or lose a race by 1sec and ask me again about whether or not the gains are worthwhile :)

I was asking because I think I have a couple of race tyres here that I'll probably not use and you might be able to make use of them. Vittoria Corsa Speed TL in 23mm. I think they were the fastest things you could buy for a while.

Oh cool. Well I have to buy something at some point as the gp5000 is off my road bike so will need to come off at some stage anyway, so if you have spare tyres I wouldn’t say no!

Had a fairy ridiculous time trying to ride on the rollers for the first time in over a decade. Seems they are easier on a fixed gear, or I’ve just totally lost the knack! Some hilarious bails.

At least you can ride rollers. I can now stretch my arm to touch the bars on the turbo. :)

Getting my bike ready last night, I had the option of either GP 5000STR or the TT version. BRR reckons it's a 3w total penalty for some puncture protection and, as I'm racing away tomorrow and don't have the luxury of spare wheels etc it was a no-brainer.

I've spoken to people who've travelled crazy distances to race on Corsa Speeds or Veloflex and not finish their races...it seems a bit mad unless you're guaranteed perfect surfaces and/or inserts to at least get the line.