http://homepage.mac.com/rsmith85/blogwavestudio Asortablog: When inspiration takes me... rsmith85@mac.com 2006-12-06 20:03:22 +0000 hourly 1 2006-12-06 20:03:22 +0000 http://homepage.mac.com/rsmith85/blogwavestudio/LH20060128161519/LHA20061206200007/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/rsmith85/blogwavestudio/LH20060128161519/LHA20061206200007/index.html

Cool Bikes

Date Created: 06 Dec, 2006, 08:00 PM

Mate from America pointed out this site, kinda cool stuff so I thought as I am on a role with posting stuff, I would link to it. SURLEY BIKES: http://www.surlybikes.com/ Kinda like: On-One: www.on-one.co.uk Planet-X: www.planet-x-bikes.com Enjoy!

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Time Flies, I don't

Date Created: 06 Dec, 2006, 07:30 PM

Well it is now a ridiculously long time since I added anything to this website, so i thought I would now! Went on a fantastic cycling weekend with some mates up in my home county of Northumberland. We cycled from Morpeth, along to hadrians wall and then up to Once Brewed YHA. About 40 miles, but not really more than a warm up. Unfortunately one of our new arrivals to the group (the last trip we did was the coast to coast, this time we had lost a recruit from that trip but got another willing recruit) slightly underestimated how much work even just 40 miles is, it took a long time to get there, but we did! The next day the lost recruit turned up in his car, and unfortunately his replacement dropped out due to the results of saddles on an untrained bum and hills on untrained legs. It rained and rained so we spent the morning waiting it out in the visitors centre and a museum. Finally we went off for a cycle to Bellingham, which involved some excellent fast bridleways. Very rocky but my road bike and tyres didn't have a problem and I managed to keep up with the rest on their mountain bikes. Last day involved too much mud on the off roads for skinny road tyres, but I made it up most of the hills. A great holiday, perhaps I may put up some photos when I can be arsed! Been running a bit recently, cycling a bit and playing rugby which seems to stop me running and cycling for half a week due to broken bits of my anatomy (back, knees, shoulders, ankles, legs etc.). So not really pushing it too much. Found a great website for some pretty good rants. Sent an email thanking the author and got this reply: >Thanks for your effort, I love finding information like this on the web. " You're very welcome. Always have time for a man who going weight-weenie over a Planet X bike... (I've got the carbon Chorus bottle cages on my Pinarello) Cheers, Sam"

So check out the website: http://ravenfamily.org/sam/bike/index.html You may want to check out the whole site actually as it is all very funny! Have fun All!

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Shaving Weight: Not my legs!

Date Created: 03 May, 2006, 12:13 AM

Well my bike is certainly light, even with those 32 spoke DN6/105 wheels and spare tyres (that I had off my old bike). I had a look around a really great bike store in Keswick at the weekend (The one attached to the Pedlars Cafe) and picked up a few of the bikes on display and despite trying a £2k Trek OCLV with Ultegra my Larger Framed Planet-X with specially selected components still was lighter.

But I really think that I can knock the weight down a bit more on the bike and so today I fitted some Planet-X Carbon Fibre Bottle Cages to my steed. I got these purely on a whim and love them to bits. They seem solid enough to cope with riding because of their flexibility and gripped the bottles brilliantly despite riding on Sheffield roads (really badly surfaced). Back to the weight though, these bottle cages weigh in at 22g each which gives me a total of 44g for the two. The bottle cages previously attached (Elite Ciussi Gel) weighed in at 82g each e.g. 164g in total. Therefore a weight saving of 120g has been made over the previous setup which on a bike as light as this is pretty impressive (0.3 pounds) but expensive at £36. Thats 3.33g per pound sterling. Strewth! Next up: - Tyres: Perhaps not the lightest but a set of Vredestein Tricomp tyres will drop a few gramms (approx 50g per tyre) and should increase performance anyway due to better grip. This would then give me some spares to have incase I shred some tyres somehow. Also light innertubes would make another 30g difference each. - Saddle: Still waiting for Planet-X to release a new version of their saddle. Currently riding an X-Uranus saddle which is hefty so should be easy to knock a hundred grams off and increase the comfort. - Pedals: Running heavy spd's designed for mountain bikes at the moment. A set of light road peddles should improve peddling efficiency and cut another 100g off the bike. - Wheels: A bit extreme and not really worth the money but if I suddenly become rich then a set of Neuvation R28 SLs will find their way onto my bike. These would save around 200g off my current setup but this would be about £2 per gram. Argh!

So the question is how light could I go? At the moment my bike weighs in at about 8.1kg down from 8.2kg. I think that by loosing the heavy tyres, saddle and pedals I could knock it down by another 300g making the bike weigh in at 7.8kg (17.2lb) New wheels and this would be down to 7.6kg and perhaps new cranks could knock it down to 7.5kg (changing the rest of the groupset would save about 70g but would cost over £300 so not great). That would be 16.5lb which is unbelievably light for a bike this big and made out of Aluminium. After this rant I think that I need to go out cycling. Its easier and cheaper for me to loose 0.5kg than for my bike to do so.

]]> 2006-05-03 00:13:43 +0100 http://homepage.mac.com/rsmith85/blogwavestudio/LH20060128161519/LHA20060424181441/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/rsmith85/blogwavestudio/LH20060128161519/LHA20060424181441/index.html

REVIEW: Planet-X Superlight Team Frame

Date Created: 24 Apr, 2006, 06:58 PM

I was very sceptical when I received this bike frame from Planet-X as I had managed to test ride quite a few other bikes but had to order this one blind. There were very few reviews on the frame on the internet (the Cycling News one did not exist at the time) but the frame angles/geometry seemed to be well thought out and were similar to other frames I had tested. I talked with Brant at Planet-X to see if he thought the bike frame would fit me (being 6'6" tall I was pushing the geometry) and he thought that I may be pushing it. I had tested, a couple of days before, a Giant TCR Composite (well above my budget but I wanted to know if I should keep saving) and comparing this with my current bike and the specs on the Planet-X website, I came to the decision that with a long seat post the bike would fit me perfectly.

At the time (2005) there was only one colour available for the frame (a powder blue) and when the frame arrived I instantly was attracted to the decor. The graphics on the frame were understated and almost retro which suited me perfectly and the colour was stunning. I received the Planet-X full Carbon fork + Cane Creek headset with the frame on a special deal (to make space for the new ones coming into stock I presume) and this made it an even more economical deal (this is a cheap frame for the quality even at full price). The fork had the more common shiny Carbon Weave decor with Planet-X logo branding and looked a treat with the frame.

First impressions of the Frame after looking at the colour were as follows: 1. Welds were large and visible but very neat and solid looking. They are not untidy at all but could possibly be smaller. 2. The tubing was very interesting as the top-tube and down-tube were tear-drop shaped. Not sure if this was good or bad when looking at it but certainly different. 3. Very simplistic: No toggles, bells, whistles or seat doodahs. Fantastic as they always go wrong eventually. It required a seat clamp but this is great as I have sheared bolts in the past and found it a pain. 4. Rear Mech Hanger was detachable, excellent news as if you bend aluminium it doesn't bend back. 5. This frame weighs nothing. Amazing.

On the Go: Finally I managed to get the frame built up with Planet-X finishing kit, 105 Shifters & Mechs, Dia Compe Brakes, Truvativ Triple Crankset (Peak district and me being unfit do not mix), 105/DN6 Handbuilt Wheels. First Ride: This bike flies, it is very light and responsive and feels nothing like any other aluminium framed bike that I have ever tried. It removes lots of road noise but still communicates what is happening to the bike. 500 Miles Later: Wow, still getting that fabulous feeling, it taunts me to go faster and yet is stable when I want to go slow (or can no longer go fast). Handling: Excellent for long distance riding as it doesn't do anything unpredicatable. Fast when required but just as happy going along the long ups and downs of the Peak hills and Northumberland. It feels light and responsive, great for climbing due to the stiff chain stay and seat tube and yet not jittery at all when decending. This frame is more comfortable than my Steel bike of old (something I did not expect) though this may be due to the large amount of carbon seat tube and the great carbon fork. Even after centuries my behind has been in one piece and I have been able to cycle the next day. Weight: Very light weight for an aluminium frame. Considerably heavier than a pure carbon frame but at a fraction (and a very small fraction at that) of the cost it gives you money to spend elsewhere.

Negatives: - Large welds are not the prettiest but certainly do the job. - I personally would rather have a non-integrated headset so that I could fit a Chris King headset to the frame (I think it deserves one) but this would buck the integrated headset theme that is currently working its way through the bike world. Comparisons: I have not been able to test other bikes with this exact component setup so that I can compare just the frames. This bike frame does seem to balance comfort with stiffness perfectly, much better than other bikes I have ridden. The geometry fits me perfectly unlike some other bikes, so again this is a plus point to the Planet-X Superlight Team Frame.

Conclusions: At this price I really couldn't ask for better value, performance, comfort and great looks. If I had another £3000 to spend on a bike, do I think that for me it would perform that much better than the Planet-X Superlight team frame? Probably not and at least with this one if I come off the bike and total it I will not be crying till the end of time (perhaps only a few days till I could get another one). It really annoys me that a frame that is this good could get marked down for not being the lightest, most technologically advanced frame available. If you look at what this frame aims to deliver it fulfills all the criteria perfectly. Before I end this review I would like to tell you about Planet-X. I ordered the parts one afternoon and they arrived the next day in perfect condition. The order was missing the Stem, so I rang them up and got through to a PERSON (hurrah!) who appologised and the day after I received the rest of my order. Service that is this good is rare and this gives the Frame a few more points on my scorecard. A well deserved 9.9/10 Because no frame is perfect no matter how much you pay! UPDATE: See HERE for a change in my bike spec! For more pictures see Here

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Website Hosting - A Minefield

Date Created: 12 Mar, 2006, 02:20 AM

After producing a website for the British Superkart Racing Club I was in the situation of having to find a company to host the website. I always seem to think that hosting is very expensive and wanted to find a company that would host the website (with enough room to grow) for a reasonable amount.

I did a google search (probably the first thing I always do...) and came up with hundreds of sites offering hosting, offering reviews of hosting companies and providing customer feedback of the various hosting companies around. It was excellent to have so much information, but after getting excited about a couple of options it turned out that they had quite a few negative reviews from customers and often were lacking in some way.

I host the www.cryt.net domain with a company called UCVHost.net who offer ridiculously cheap hosting, which for my current needs (personal only mainly email) is sufficient, but reliability and high capacity hosting were in question. .Mac that hosts this blog do not provide scripting and db support, nor the space or price that I was looking for. They also are very much targeted towards small sites (personal rather than business), which makes them perfect for me, but not the British Superkart RC. Eventually though I stumbled across a company called Bluehost, who were rated very highly by a lot of websites and there were very few customer complaints or negative feedback floating around. Their packages also seemed extremely good value.

For $7 a month they offer: 10Gb Disk Space 6 Domain Hosting on 1 Account 250Gb/Month Transfer PHP, Mysql, SSH, FTP etc... Plus a free .com domain for the life of the account. Which seemed like a ridiculously good offer. So I decided to try Bluehost. So far (about 2 weeks in) everything has been fantastic. Setup was error free, the control panel really easy to use and support fast and efficient where required. I will update this when the year is up to see if they have maintained my faith. http://www.bluehost.com

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Gearing Fixed and all my problems due to a few springs...

Date Created: 08 Mar, 2006, 12:17 PM

I spent a few hours last night working on my winter bike to try and sort out the problem with the gearing. Everytime that I cranked really hard on the peddles in my 34 compact x 13-21 gearing options the wheel was forced out of the wheel hanger on the drive side. Frustrating when you are a few miles from home, worrying when it is 9pm, dark and you are still 15 miles from home.

Well I thought that I had fixed it so I found the steepest hill around and tried to crank up it... and no-luck it popped again. I decided to take it down to the bike shop and get it fixed. It took all of 30 seconds for Albert (from Albert Butterworths Bike shop, my favourite in Sheffield) to find the problem and fix it. It appears that the gear hanger on my bike is slightly thinner than the ones that exist on more modern bikes and this was causing the spring (in between the quick-release bolts and the hanger) to act as a washer which was reducing the friction keeping the wheel in true. After these were removed the problem was fixed. So there we go, the moral of the story is that old bikes have some quirks that only an experienced bloke will know about. Thanks once again to A. Butterworths for great service.

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A Fantastic New Bike

Date Created: 03 Mar, 2006, 12:18 AM

Finally I have got myself a fantastic new bike. Thanks to all the guys at Planet-X for this bike, it looks a dream. Specification: Planet X Superlight Team Frame (Aluminium Triple Butted and Heat Treated) in Light Blue Planet X Pro Carbon Fork Planet X Superlight Oversize Team Bars and Stem Planet X Pro Carbon Seat Post Planet X DN6 Rims on 105 Hubs, 32 Spoke Wheels Shimano 105 Mechs and Shifters Dia Compe BRS200 Brakes Truvativ Elita GXP Triple Crankset SRAM 12-26 PG970 Cassette Planet X-Uranus Flaming Grey Saddle It is fast, nimble and significantly better than its owner. Looks like I will really have to work on my fitness to deserve this one. Hopefully soon I will get some Carbon Fibre Planet-X bottle cages, purely for the looks (no need to loose any weight on it). The frame from my limited experience is fantastically proportioned, feeling very fast but at the same time stable enough for effortless long rides. I have only spent just under a hundred miles on it due to bad weather and conditions, but hopefully soon I will be able to put it properly through its paces. More soon...

Shimano 105 Shifers, Superlight Team Bars and Stem

Truvativ Elita Crankset, Shimano Mech, SRAM Cassette, Elite Ciussi Gel Bottle Cages.

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Alpkit: E-shopping the way it SHOULD BE!

Date Created: 02 Mar, 2006, 05:46 PM

Well I have now ordered 3 items off the Alpkit website (2 last year and one yesterday) and have to say that not only are the bits of kit exceedingly good value, well constructed and easy to look after but the service is among the best that I have ever come across on the internet.

I placed my order for a sleeping bag and headtorch in the early afternoon last year and after a series of emails informing me of my orders status I received the sleeping bag with a personal thank you note (the correct order as well) the very next day. They actually thanked me for my custom, this shouldn't be surprising but in a world of shoddy online sales this was amazing especially considering the free next day delivery.

Fast forward till march and I ordered one of their full length carry mats for camping when it is just too cold for a 3/4 length blow up mat (when I actually use the 4-season bag that I got from them). The product was of an excellent quality, came with all the repair bits needed and a really well thought out system of compression straps. Perhaps it is a bit heavy but at £25 I cannot really argue as I carry a 3/4 when I really need to cut down on weight (mind you I now have my eyes on their wee-airic). Again I ordered it one day, plenty of emails, and it came the next day. ALPKIT: I LOVE YOUR SERVICE. I have yet been able to test the air matress, but if it works as well as the rest of the alpkit stuff then I will no-doubt be impressed. Check back soon for gear reviews.

So the morale of this story is: 1. Easy to navigate and use websites will always get my service. 2. Great value is always going to attract me 3. Great service will get me coming back for more and recommending your products/service. Well done ALPKIT for managing all three. Other companies that do exactly the same: Planet-X-Bikes: http://www.planet-x-bikes.com Crucial Memory: http://www.crucial.com Oh dear that is a short list.

Update: Just thought of another company which deserves to go onto the great service list: Komplett: http://www.komplett.co.uk

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A Week without Cycling

Date Created: 26 Feb, 2006, 12:44 PM

Unfortunately being ill most of the week has scuppered my training plans and so I didn't get out on my bike. Hopefully I will be able to start again on monday, but cycling gave me my cold last week so I do not want to rush back. Hopefully I will get my bike tuned up on monday to stop it from pulling the rear wheel out of alignment when I push very hard up the hills.

On another note, I did manage to get out climbing last saturday but mainly just because of the amazing weather and not wanting to loaf around all day. I am just about getting better, but the improvement is slow and mainly due to being scared most of the time (probably due to knowing a bit too much about what would happen to my body if I fell). Still enjoying it though.

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A Better Week

Date Created: 17 Feb, 2006, 07:13 PM

The week started poorly as I did not make it out on my bike beyond a bit of city hopping to save time, and collecting my new bike from the store. I am very impressed by the new machine as it is light weight and a pleasure to climb with. Tuesday I managed to get out for a 12 mile ride up towards Redmires but as usual forgot to write down my times, miles etc. for publishing. Wednesday saw a fabulous 21.5 mile route where I averaged 12.7mph, which wasn't too bad for me considering the climbs and how dodgy my gears have become. My steel bike needs a bit of a tune up. Thursday I was busy all night and so I did not manage to get out, but today (friday) I went for two cycles. The first one was only my Redmires run (11miles) but I did it on my new bike as the weather was fabulous. I do not have any stats from the ride as I do not yet have a speedometer on my new bike, still trying to choose one. I timed the run at just under 40mins door to door which is pretty fast for me despite feeling tired. I had forgotten to eat all day (very unusual for me) due to how busy I was and so felt not great. I then got a call from a mate and met up for a night time ride where we repeated Wednesdays run. Great fun, but again my bike played up and then my sugar levels dropped (really should have eaten something) which almost killed me on the ascent from Stanage. I nabbed one of my mates powerbars and this got me home (just). Anyway, apart from stopping a lot to try to get my gears/wheels working properly our moving average was not bad. Distance: 21.47 miles Average Speed: 13.9mph Time: 1.32.14 Max Speed: 34.5

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Fabulous Weather

Date Created: 07 Feb, 2006, 07:51 PM

Sheffield, normally relatively dry even during the winter. It is always overcast, but it only rains infrequently. Anyway I decided (almost stupidly) to go out for a ride in the weather, not thinking once about the tyres on my bike or how wet it truly was. I needed to get some miles on my bike after a late lecture. Day Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Tuesday 7th Feb 06 0hr25min19sec dtd 5.08miles 12.0mph 27.9mph Monday 6th Feb 06 0hr49min11sec dtd 11.06miles 13.4mph 31.2mph

Well about 3 miles into my ride I was going past a side junction and a car decided to pull out into me (just as I was going past him) even though I was easily visible (2 front strong lights, 1 flashing + 1 flashing rear) and managed to clip my shoe but nothing else. Heart certainly started pumping a bit faster. No damage to the bike. Considering this, the weather and my general lack of grip I decided to call it a night despite enjoying the flat and uphill sections. Pity as I would have loved to do a nice circuit. At least I got out though!

]]> 2006-02-07 19:51:09 +0000 http://homepage.mac.com/rsmith85/blogwavestudio/LH20060128161519/LHA20060206194353/index.html http://homepage.mac.com/rsmith85/blogwavestudio/LH20060128161519/LHA20060206194353/index.html

Training Update

Date Created: 06 Feb, 2006, 07:48 PM

A pathetic week of training last week. I forgot my speedometer on wednesday and so I have no idea how quickly I went, then thursday/friday the ground was slippy and at the weekend I had a migraine. Any excuse eh... Finally managed to get out on my bike tonight, but as with most night time rides I couldn't go extremely fast due to poor lighting conditions. Still I changed my route slightly so as not to have to go through the crap road section near Redmires resevoir and instead did a loop via Crimcar, up Crimcar Lane (a heck of a climb really, but didn't go below 10th gear) and back via the Sheffield Pub and Crosspool. When the nights get lighter I will expand my route up to Redmires and then do the loop on the return trip. Fantastic!

Day Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Monday 6th Feb 06 0hr49min11sec dtd 11.06miles 13.4mph 31.2

Campagnolo Vento Wheels Just a quick update on these wheels which I have on my winter bike. They seem pretty solid and are a great set of hoops for training on. Going out in the dark tonight they got a battering but they are still true despite hitting a pretty massive pothole going relatively fast. My rear wheel went sideways but after controlling the skid I checked out the wheels and they are still true. Nice! Vittoria Rubino Wire Bead Tyres Not great bits of rubber these for anything but dry conditions. The first few times that I rode in the dry they seemed ok and reasonably grippy round the corners. After taking them out tonight in the dark and slightly damp conditions I got the fright of my life as they just didn't seem to grip much at all. Found myself braking before corners that I normally take flat out. I think that after a bit more testing these may be going the way of the dodo. Not really too worried as they came free with my wheelset :-)

On-One Retro Long Sleeved Jersey Finally got to wear my new On-One Retro Jersey. It has nice long sleeves, easy to access rear pockets and a full length zip. The material is slightly thicker than the short sleeve tops making it excellent for autumn/winter/spring training and the construction is fantastic. My only complaint is the length of the body, just about fine for with bib shorts but not long enough if I was not to wear them. The colour of the jersey is extremely green and shiny which really is not my style but as I bought this for winter training the high visibility of the fabrics colour is actually a great feature. Who would have guessed? Rating: 4.5/5 Comments: A bit longer and easily a 5!

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Bike Training

Date Created: 31 Jan, 2006, 11:33 AM

Finally I am beginning to push the miles up on my bike. I am limiting myself to my normal 11 mile run because of revision and not wanting to kill myself, but I can finally see an improvement in my times. Day Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Saturday 0hr45min11sec dtd 10.98miles 14.5mph 39.8 Sunday 0hr43min43sec dtd 10.98miles 15.0mph 40.2 Tuesday 0hr41min28sec dtd 10.98miles 15.9mph 35.1 Unfortunately today my max. speed was significantly lower than normal due to a slow moving bus on the last hill into Sheffield. It was travelling a bit to fast to overtake it but only fast enough to be freewheeling. My brakes seemed to be catching a bit today and giving me a bit of a jolty ride. I am not sure what is causing it, but it may just be the new-ness of the brake pads.

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A Fantastic Sunset at Stanage

Date Created: 31 Jan, 2006, 12:04 AM

Picture taken on the 18th November 2005

Stanage Edge, a haven for trad. climbing. The weather is not often this nice in November. If you fancy a copy of either pictures in Full Resolution (5.0mp) then email me.

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An Almost New Italian Bike

Date Created: 28 Jan, 2006, 04:39 PM

After my rear mech decided to shear off at the rear gear hanger on my bike whilst going to the pub one night I had to do some serious repairs to get my bike to go again. Not only was my rear mech destroyed, my rear wheel was no longer healthy, my front wheel needed truing (but this has been the case for a while) and my gear shifters had given up also. I weighed up the options for replacements but because my shifters had died and were not fixable (shimano, great stuff but not good to repair), my rear mech also needed replacing as did my wheels and cassette I thought it was about time to start again. I purchased a new Campagnolo Mirage Compact groupset with a 13-26 rear cassette and a 48/34 175mm crankset. I also purchased some 2005 Campag Vento wheels to replace the hand built ones which had given up the ghost. All in black and very nice looking.

I took the bike to "Albert Butterworths" bike shop to get it all fitted. He seemed like a nice bloke over the phone, his shop was small and he turned out to be a fantastic mechanic. I would rather spend my money for repairs on a small company with good service than a large company that doesn't really need my money. The bike went in on Monday and was finished by Friday, working perfectly and this was when he was extremely busy. Fantastic service especially as he had to realign the rear mech hanger as it had been twisted when the rear mech sheared (great to have a steel bike).

The bike is almost all an Italian bike now. The Frame (lugged steel) is made by OLAGNERO who is a small bike maker in Italy. The groupset/wheels are Campagnolo. Even the tyres are Vittoria (It). All I have to do is replace the bottle cages (have some italian ones for my new bike so may get carbon for that and put the italian ones on my winter steed). Finishing kit is old ITM and TTT which may get replaced (especially the bars as I like shallow ergo drops as I find them comfier). Anyway I have refitted my bike speedo today and went out on my training loop (short but lots of hills to sprint up) and got a ridiculously slow time for the ride due to not cycling enough and brake cable stretch which meant that my rear wheel barely was turning up one of the hills. A quick fix of that and I was away again. Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed 0hr45min11sec dtd 10.9miles 14.9mph 39.8

The bike itself performed really well and was much much quicker than before (with the old parts). The cable stretch mentioned above really slowed me down, but this should stop in a few miles and is easy to fix. The wheels seem very nice, great rolling and not too heavy, but by no means as light or great for climbing as a light weight set. Mind you I am a heavy bloke and do not enjoy blowing through spokes so these should do me well. I have a pair of 32spoke DN6 (MA3 esque)/105 coming for my new bike so I will have something decent to compare them too soon. I will post a full review of the parts after I have actually put some miles on it.

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