you should buy this then...



lots of juicy bullshit inside...

well... as much as i don't care about politics... i don't care about the political aspects of the sport...it's just a bunch of really good oscar winning actors and actresses playing out a show for us to see...

This post has been edited by butthead: Mar 15 2013, 03:41 PM

your tire still looks fine by my standards....

people do swap front and rear tires... but, let me remind you... when you swap rear tire with the front, especially when the rear is more worn... the grip level of the front decreases and the danger lies in the fact that once you lose the front... you lose control in the blink of an eye and the bike just let goes under you without any chance of saving it...

while the rear for no scientifically explainable reason... there is a slight chance that you can save it like you have a six sense that it will let go on you before it happens... i am not sure how to explain this.. but if the front lets go, it goes immediately and you will hit the deck faster than you can say "shit"...the rear is sometimes salvageable...front, not so...

on the car, it is the reverse where you prefer to understeer than to oversteer.. on the bike, somehow it is reversed because i think the bike has to deal with toppling over where the car stays planted upright however way it slides off the road...

This post has been edited by butthead: Mar 15 2013, 03:35 PM

the one from David Walsh! ok that'll be the 3rd book to complete my collection. In fact both book I purchased earlier has given me more than I would imagine about how a pro cyclist world is (forget about the doping stuff), their daily routine, training, diets, etc was written in details.

oth, regarding the tire, will there be any differences in term of easiness of mounting the tire for a wider tire (25mm) and a thinner tire (23mm) ?

Or it all depends on the brand of the tire? I found that my 25mm schwalbe ultremo is a bit hard compare to my 23mm vittoria rubino pro and conti 4000s (both 23mm).

And about the tire tread, some is wthout any tread design, and some has a few pattern on the tire. so would the slick (like my ultreamo) will have less grip?

the books are to be taken lightly... they are liars in the first place after all... what makes their words in the book credible now?

as for the 25 vs 23 debate... i guess the only answer i can give is to try it out yourself... it works for some people and doesn't for others... as for the 25mm, you don't pump the same pressure as your 23s... you run it slightly lower and usually around 90psi depending on your weight... i have no issues with 90psi and it still holds up quite well in terms of rolling resistance and comfort...

i like 25s myself and recently, due to my 25 running down to the kevlar and multiple successive punctures... i switched back to 23 for a short period of time as i have not yet procured a replacement... riding up inclines feels a bit like the tires squishing around more than the 25 although running at higher pressures of 100-105psi...but then again, my weight could be playing a factor in how it responded for me...other factors also could be the tire layup and the rubber compound... if you are comparing the same tires of different widths, then your feel would be more validated on the ride quality of both sizes... different tires more less gives a not so definitive answer...

threads or no thread is a question of full slick for dry roads vs. a bit of all weather for the rainy days... with those thread depths, it might not help much but it is at least there to help dissipate water under the tire... unless you lean into corners like motogp riders... i'd worry about the compound more as that is the magic thing that gives you grip...not so much the threads...

This post has been edited by butthead: Mar 15 2013, 07:48 PM

looks like Andy is having more problems than just finishing races...

Must Read: French politician says he ran into a drunk Andy Schleck

can't even press the right buttons it seems...

finally! finished truing my wheels, again! not sure if my wheels will be ruined faster now that i've trued them again and again. this will be part of my learning process.

rear wheel is now perfect; hoop and lateral, tensioned within the specified limits. front wheel perfect lateral, but somehow the hoop can't be perfected. dunno why. got about 1mm off.

what puzzles me is why mavic assembled the rear wheel with spoke tension way way way off max limit. the tension was way above 165kgf, whereas as per manual, the max tension is only 140kgf.

do they intentionally tension it up that high? or am i doing it wrong? do they overtension the spokes to compensate the decrease in tension with tyre/pressure on?

This post has been edited by miaopurr: Mar 16 2013, 02:41 AM

For 25mm, I pumped it up to 90psi, and on the front tire which is still using the 23mm, I pumped it to 100psi. So far so good, no issues on the ride. Sadly I couldn't test the grip properly as there are no real hills descend to try out on my weekly ride. No rainy days to try either. It is a sad boring pancake flat route

Anyway, for the SRAM Red groupset price in KL, is there an option to opt for the one with Quarq power meter? Wondering how would the price be for the complete groups with the Quarq crank?

This post has been edited by mrjgx: Mar 16 2013, 05:42 AM

aiyah... 1mm off you can't feel the wheel hopping when you ride lar...

did they specify drive and non-drive spoke tension or they list the same for both side?

your bike shop can order them in but you have to let them know way in advance as i think they ship it together with their own shipment...

don't think anyone keep stock of the SRAM quarq power meters....quarq cranks are usually considered separate purchases.. i believe they can work out a deal for you if you want to purchase an entire Red group... they will just deduct off the Red cranks and put in the cost for the quarq cranks...

i would suggest not to get it first as you are not sure what frame you will be running on in future... for now, you will most likely use GXP... but future, it might be BB30 or even OSBB in future...unless you can live with sticking a GXP into a BB30 frame via adaptors... i would say if power meters is among your consideration... you might as well hold everything off and get it all done in one shot when you purchase the frame and group together...the quarq cranks won't be cheap, mind you... no less than RM4k by my guestimation..

Owh thank you for your advise. But to hold it off until I can purchase everything in one go would be not feasible. I have spent 4 hours last night reading about all the power meter products available on the market, their pros and cons etc and have come to conclusion that what I need is the Quarq with the Red crank, but then I need to have the red groupset for my merida..and it will be problematic if I were to change bike in the future is it?

After so many convincing reviews, I know a wheel upgrade is not going to make me a better cyclist but a power meter and applying the knowledge to use it properly on my training will be the key. In fact price wise powermeter seems to be around a good wheelset price that I intended to splurge my money on.

So which is the best for my situation? future frame upgrades will not be this year but a power meter seems possible. I thought earlier I could just buy the Quarq with Red, put it on my merida, and it can be transferred to my new bike another year (likely the Tarmac).

Butthead what's your take on pedal based power meter? Polar look pedal has it, and am not sure about the garmin vector whether its out in the market or not.

drive side only. non-drive side is only for truing, tension negligible.

Hey i just had my ride this morning. I notice my front will pulse like when the abs kick in with some vibration when i hit the brake. Is there anything i should worry off? I had my bike serviced by the shop before today morning ride.

My brake pads and the brake lining are aligned properly. THis doesnt happend on the rear brake/wheels.

i would think it is better not to get the power meter now irregardless of what you do... if you get the frame first, then the power meter is OK...

the best scenario now since you can't wait for everything to come together is get the full Red group which i assume you will transfer to your eventual frame watever it is, but stick with a GXP crank first on the scultura... this will waste you some money by buying the GXP crank and then later the quarq crank...

but, reason is your scultura does not have BB30 and neither is there such a thing as converting to BB30... so, BB30 is out of the question now and you are still not sure of your future frame... best is to get a normal GXP crank which you can write off or sell it when you get your eventual frame and get the quarq crank then...at least this way you can maximize the crank and get the right one for your future frame which might have BB30 or OSBB which i believe you want to maximize on the axle stiffness rather than sticking to a weaker GXP Quarq crank that you will transfer over, right?

My logic is simple, it is better to sacrifice a cheaper GXP Red crank rather than a crank which you have to use converter adapters later on which you might not be 100% happy because you could not fully utilize your frame's benefits and neither do you have money to reinvest on the right quarq crank then...

with my limited knowledge on power products... i am not sure if the pedal based ones are good... and are they even out yet? i know for sure they have one thing that neither quarq, powertap or srm could do which is to measure left and right foot power outputs.. i believe quarq also has a similar feature called powerbalance which estimates your left and right foot power output, but it would not be as accurate...

as far as using power meter goes... i am not sure if it would really benefit us... i believe SRM is better than quarq but the problem being SRM is a pain where even the battery change has to go back to the vendor... KL would be creative mill in my friends case...so does calibration.. quarq allows the user to perform battery changes (CR2032) and also vector calibration themselves...not sure of how important is this criteria...

as for usage, power meter would give better readings on perceived efforts over the standard HRM as little things like sickness or health issues can mess up HR readings...while power meters give an additional dimension by letting you gauge your effort by logged power readings against your HR...in my view, unless you are really into competition and have very strict training regiments like riding intervals and riding full all out for extended duration to log your data... the data extracted might not make much sense to you and neither does it help improve your levels...the data captured can be very mind boggling to look at if you just ride normally and within your limits... you have to know how to record and utilize the data captured to make full use of it.. that or you have a trainer...

speaking from a friend's experience on owning a complete SRM.. i am not sure about using garmin and other Ant+ capable products... he also thought initially that the SRM would help him on competing in endurance events.. but later only did he find out that his readings is also quite inconsistent where some days he thought he was doing well but the logs shows that he was not comparing to other recorded logs and vice versa...

so, it is very complex and takes a lot of understanding, monitoring, analysis and comparing between logged rides if you really want to use it as a training tool... having the SRM power control also helps as i understand that there are some on the fly analysis which units like Garmin can't perform... Garmin only shows some recordings from the captured data and some additional functions if i am not wrong...it is one of the things i do not plan to have as i could not fathom it and neither do i want to complicate my life as i am just a leisure rider..

in terms of the software... i believe the SRM software is also providing much better functions that cater to serious riders.. which is why it is the choice of the pros...

p/s...also too far out of my budgets...

This post has been edited by butthead: Mar 16 2013, 03:42 PM

ada itu maciam ka??? because the more the drive side is pulling.. the more the non-drive side has to pull as well to get the wheel to center properly... anyways... as long as there is no loose spokes it should be fine...

you might need to toe-in the pads... running the pads parallel to the brake tracks might cause juddering... that or your brake track is not flat (which is unlikely)

It takes a while to digest your points but I finally get it. To put it simpler here's the correct upgrade path for me. Get the normal red groupset first, then later on when I do the frame upgrade, get the one with the Quarq, sell off the old GXP crank. I agree with such recommendation, although I may lose a bit of money but that's the trade off as I am not going full blown for the complete ultimate bike.

At the moment I'm pretty much has narrowed down my power meter choices to Quarq. The power balance is to measure the effort for half of the pedal rotation, downstroke and upstroke, not for the left leg and right leg if I'm not wrong. Calibration can be done via iphone app too!

SRM is out of the question, too expensive and battery replacement is not DIY so I'll skip SRM any day. Polar look keo power meter is not ANT+, so I'll skip that either as I can't be using Garmin head unit (need to have polar's line up).

Powertap is a hub-based power meter, so changing wheelsets is not a practical way to use a hub based power meter.

Garmin vector is no where to be released, unknown dates and stuffs. The did acquire it from metrigear if i'm not mistaken, and there is from Stages (left crank arm power meter), which is pretty cheap.

All in all, Quarq seems the best option though and it is as reputable as SRM in the power meter industry. And I like to do a bit more of analyzing my training to a different level (I like to analyze things). It's time to compliment my HR training with a power meter.

At the moment I can't do much of the analysis post-ride be it outdoor or indoor as i'm using the sigma, but come to think of it, rather than getting a high end wheelsets, looks good on the bike but I still ride slow, I better off by getting a proper training tools for my engine. I'm going to spend my money on bike upgrades anyway, so better choose the path correctly. There are books to help in training and logging with powermeter, especially the one by Joe Friel (which I have and applied some of his HR training practices), but still I can't train with the suggested power trainings. Nearly getting dropped by an uncle who was once overweight seems to be the wake up call for me!

An investment on such tools I think will be very beneficial than a wheelset, i may not do racing but I do enjoy being fast on the road and see myself improves bit by bit. (whatever yank my chain as you may call it)

fuuu...

wall of text...

from FB... Alert. beware!

A fellow cyclist's windscreen was smashed this morning at Bukit Jelutong, parked at D'Bayu, some stuffs got stolen.





Btw, the thief smashed WINDSCREEN really daring! THe bukit Aman thief case normally only smash side window...

i tot d'bayu is not a secluded place? got pedestrians right? that's very daring indeed!

yeap. i read one of those wheelbuilding books. lace, handtighten all nipples, dishing, and then start tensioning the drive side to the desired tension whilst maintaining the dishing. measure spoke tension only on drive side. the non-drive side has lower tension.

Strong finished, but even a strong fall! shame

yup... GXP first would be the way to go... you don't want to end up with a headache of not being able to use a 30mm spindle down the road with your more expensive crank...

i don't see the pedal based system gaining reputation anytime soon for a couple of reasons... pedals are usually abused quite hard... used it to stand bikes on curbs, might scrape the ground a bit on hard cornering (crit pros lar), and worst of all... the part to most likely hit the deck first if you crash your bike... it might be good theoretically, but not in actual world applications...

regarding the powerbalance...it is a left right measurement function... the problem is, if you start lifting your right side on the left side downstroke... it affects the output measurements on the left side because the right lift will contribute to the downward motion of the left side and vice versa...


as for training with a power meter... i see that not even most pros will use the power meters day in day out... on days where they are just doing base miles... they just go along with normal computers...

some days, berty is fitted with an SRM



some days, not


they most likely use it to measure their full out efforts to see if they improve between a period of time in training or critical race days which is why they usually claim how much peak wattage they can hold for a period of time... GC guys are reportedly capable of holding up to 400watts and above for as long as 30 minutes and sprinters like cavendish reportedly puts out about 1300 watts on finishing line sprints...

something you might want to start getting used to before you dive into it...

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/races

although, it is not your training logs and you can't relate to it as you don't feel the efforts.. it might be a good chance to see if you can grapple with the amount of data that the power meters can throw at you...

usually the softwares can summarize for you peak power over a period of time in forms like this

Peak 5 minutes: 433w vs 462w

Peak 20 minutes: 388w vs 393w

Peak 4 hours: 259w vs 288w

which could help if you repeatedly do the same route or climb over a period of time to track your fitness improvement...

if i am not wrong, it should be also capable of giving you a training stress score called TSS that gives you some sort of like ranking for your workout that lets you look between power files even more easily without delving into the details..you can google it up to see what the TSS scores is all about as i part understand it is about how much stress you are puting your body into from the power files...

and as time goes by where your weight drops further and your power starts increasing... you start to see your power output for every kilo of your body starting to go up which is the standard normalized measurement for comparing power output between different riders..GC contenders are said to require at least upper end of 5w/KG to win the tour with Michele Ferrari claiming the magic number to be 6.7w/KG which is what armstrong targets to achieve in his peak periods before his arrival at tour starts ...

it's complicated as i say... you might want to head to 53x12.com or trainright.com to apply for their coaching after getting this...haha

p/s... some simple explanation i found on TSS, not sure if it is correctly explained
http://www.twowheelblogs.com/training-with...mple-definition

This post has been edited by butthead: Mar 16 2013, 08:00 PM