Short term review: Vittoria Open Pave CG tyres.

Well loved Shimano R500 wheels and Vittoria Open Pave CG's. Pretty much indestructible.

Anyone who has done much riding will tell you that wheels - and in particular tyres - are the most important single component if you're seeking to get the best performance out of your bike. But like with most things in life, there's a trade off with tyres: light fast tyres tend not to be tough or long-lasting and are more prone to punctures, heavier tyres are more durable but tend not to roll as nicely. I've tried quite a few different tyres and have found some which had great potential they never quite lived up to. For example I was a big fan of the Grand Bois tyres initially for their lovely supple ride, but found their high price, lack of puncture protection and short lifespan too much of a hurdle to overcome.

Enter the Vittoria Open Pave CG. The kind folk at Abbotsford Cycles sent me of the 25mm wide model of these these tyres to test. They are the clincher version of a distinctive green-banded tubular tyre popular with the pros on rides like the Paris-Roubaix. They're a nice, light folding tyre - sub 300g - and they look the part right out of the box. They were easy to fit and the light file tread reminded me of the Vittoria racing tubulars I used to use in days of old. The sidewall and tread appear to be smartly a single piece of rubber, eliminating a weak spot I found a fatal flaw on the Challenge Griffos. 

By Tasmanian standards, this is a very very nice gravel road.

I have been running the Open Pave's for a couple of weeks now in all conditions and I have to say I'm most impressed. On the tarmac, they are smooth and fast and responsive like a good light high pressure road tyre. They roll along with a pleasant hum, their grip is impressive - inspiring confidence in the wet. But they also handle dirt road astoundingly well. I've given these tyres an absolute pounding on the sub-standard roads around home. Even my venerable Gatorskins develop cuts and small holes over time and repeated gravel runs, but there's not yet a mark on the Open Pave's. 

In general, only a madman rolls down bumpy dirt roads with 100psi in their tyres as it's generally a recipe for shaking the fillings out of your teeth. The Open Paves have a suppleness to them that - while it certainly doesn't made the ride plush - certainly smooths out the bumps and reduces the road buzz far better than anything else of the same width. 

I note the Open Paves' are available in a 27mm tyre as well, which would probably be more to my liking for the sorts of conditions I ride in regularly where the road changes from tarmac to gravel and back every ten kilometres or so on some of the quieter routes I prefer. I'm going to use them in the 360km Oppy ride coming up in a couple of weeks in preference to the red Rubino Pros I usually ride on long road events. 

A few of the online reviews I've read have suggested the Open Paves are a good commuter or winter tyre, but I think this is selling them well short. This is a tyre perfect for spirited road riding in all conditions. They're an ideal tyre for Audax cycling, combining the elusive mix of fast-rolling, toughness, suppleness and strength. I'll keep riding these to see how well they last but at this early stage I like them so much that when they wear out, I'm definitely buying another set.

Yes, I have tested lots of different tyres!

Review: Boeshield T9.

Despite the fact I pay a fair bit of attention to the rest of my bike, I'm a bit slack when it comes to maintaining my drivetrain. I do tend to pull may chain off every few months and degrease it but I've never been too fussy about what lube I put on the chain once it's time to go back on the bike. At least until recently.

I first came across Boeshield when a small bottle was included with a folding kayak we bought as a lubricant and anti-corrosive for the frame members. I heard good things about it an when I saw some online at Abbotsford Cycles I thought I'd give it a try. It comes in both an aerosol spray and a standard bottle, I prefer the latter.

In short: this is seriously good stuff. It's thinner than most chain lubes but really works its way into the chain links, seriously quietening the whole works. I've tried just about every way to lubricate a chain from paraffin wax to sewing machine oil and just about every specialist bicycle chain lube out there and this is the best I've come across by far, it makes a difference I can actually notice. There's a slight downside in that Boeshield T9 isn't as weather-resistant as claggier chain lubes and can sometimes need to be reapplied after 200km or so - although that's really only a matter of whacking some on your chain, waiting a couple of minutes and removing the excess. Highly recommended.

1,339km so far this year.

First impressions: Challenge Griffo XS33 tyres

I've been looking around for a decent set of gravel tyres since my trusty old Schwalbe Marathons wore out. The Marathons are brilliant tyres but they keep messing around with the model names, so it's hard to figure out what the equivalent new models are. Besides, it's a good thing to try something new. I saw a Challenge Griffo on a mate's bike and liked the look of them.The reviews of Challenge tyres on the internet are mixed with some people saying they're a bit prone to punctures, although some others says this problem has been fixed by the addition of puncture protection in recent times. Hoping I was going to get some of the second type, I ordered myself a pair online a bit before Christmas. They're not exactly cheap at $A70 a tyre.

The tyres came the other day and I picked up some tubes and fitted them the other morning. They are nice looking (and even nice-smelling) tyres, light and 33mm wide with a tan sidewall and a low-profile raised diamond file tread with some small sidelugs, presumably to assist with cornering traction. They go on easily too despite a reputation for being tight. The red puncture proof strip in some Challenge tyres wasn't present in the tyres I received, nor was the PPS logo on the sidewall. I'm assuming this stands for (Puncture Protection System). 

I'm wary of initial impressions after finding Grand Bois tyres lovely in the short term but puncture prone once they have a few miles on them and I have sneaking reservations I might get bitten again. I managed to get a gravel ride in last night and I have to say I'm impressed. I inflated the tyres to a modest 70psi or so in the hope the greater width would soak up some of the bumps and that they most certainly did. The tyres felt grippy on tarmac and plush on gravel, making light work of a few ruts I hit and cornering well. Supple was the word that sprung to mind. Some of these qualities are common to all wide tyres, but the Griffos rolled well too, something not all wide tyres manage with the same elan.  I think I might have bored my riding companion by mentioning several times "I like these tyres". I'm enjoying the Griffos for now and hope they live up to their initial promise. At the same time I'm looking closely at what Challenge might have to offer for my touring bike.

Yes I know my stem is off-centre.

146km so far this year. 

Short term review Garmin Edge 810

Thanks to a better-than-expected tax return and the fact I'm doing a lot more miles than usual, I was recently able to justify dropping a few dollars on a Garmin Edge 810 cycling-specific GPS unit. I'd had one on my wish list for a while but at around $650 they're a fair investment. I had a look at a few of the online stores but decided that buying from a local bike shop was a better-value proposition since I would get local maps and local power adapters and could take it back in if there were any warranty issues. For only a few dollars more than the basic unit I picked up the kit with the speed and cadence sensor and the heart rate monitor.

The unit is relatively easy to set up on the bike. There's an out-front mount provided which positions the unit ahead of the handlebars, and a couple of pretty handy stem mounts too. The unit's menu system is pretty easy to understand once you've fiddled around with it for a while.

There's a lot to like about the Garmin.  The display screens are very customisable and easy to read. The backlight makes use during night riding much friendlier than a regular computer and the screen is easy to use even with gloves on.  The heart rate and cadence monitors work really well. The inbuilt navigation system is pretty neat too and I can see it coming in handy on brevet rides and tours. Battery life appears to be good and uploading data is straightforward. Charging using the supplied USB cable and moving the unit between bikes is a breeze. And the unit's accuracy is impressive.

There are a few niggles though, and some are more than a little annoying. My unit has several times turned itself off during a ride, an intermittent bug which seems to be brought on by changing screens on the move, but only now and again. The fault has happened a couple of times for no apparent reason too. It's happened perhaps half a dozen times in 400km, so it's hard to know exactly what's causing it. Secondly, the screen, rather than being glass, like most smartphones, is plastic and very susceptible to scratches.  I have learned this from unhappy experience. A thin-film screen guard is highly recommended.

Finally, I'm not overly impressed by the unit's computer and internet integration. While the Garmin can talk to a smartphone, the connection is bluetooth and is pretty unreliable. When the connection works it's relatively easy to upload to the Garmin ride tracking website but there is not integration for other websites, such as Strava. True, there are workarounds but you expect better from a premium unit. There are some other features via the link to a smartphone, such as live tracking and live weather, but they are of little practical use. There is also no ability to customise the unit through the PC, something that would be much easier than using the on-screen menus.

I've had a few Garmin units over the years, from a handheld GPS to a wrist mounted Foretrex. As a general rule, I've found them to be reasonably reliable but stolid and a bit unexciting. If you've got an Apple iPhone for example, it's not hard to think that the Garmin unit suffers a bit by comparison in terms of innovation and imagination. On the whole, I'm very happy with my Edge 810. If cycling GPS technology continues to improve at the rate is has in recent years, I see great things ahead. A GPS with an inbuilt camera for example, is something that makes a fair bot of sense and I hope is not too far away.

4731km so far this year.

The joy of mudguards

There are three things that make a bike complete. The first is a good generator light set, which means you have light to see by and to keep you safer any time you want to ride. The second is the ability to carry a modest amount of luggage without difficulty. And the third is a set of mudguards - which makes winter riding so much more pleasant.

There's nothing less fun than riding along in a in light rain or wet roads, getting soaked by the icy cold spray from your own wheels. Make no mistake, if you ride for a long time in  a heavy downpour you're still going to get wet, but mudguards drastically cut the amount of water hitting the rider and any riders behind. It means you don't have to stop and put on a  raincoat if you're near your destination or if you think it's just a passing shower. Puddles, wet roads and dirt roads are suddenly so much more navigable. And if you've set your mudguards up properly, your shoes stay much drier too.

There has been a fair bit of rain in Hobart these last few days and I've noticed a lot of the riders I see on the cross-city cyclepath have been absent. I wonder how many might extend the range of weather they considered rideable if they invested in a set of mudguards.

First impressions - GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition.

Over the last few days I've had some fun messing around with a GoPro camera. For those not familiar with the device, they're a tiny "action" video camera which comes with a waterproof housing and a variety of attachments for clamping them to your bike or helmet or parachute harness or whatever. We have a couple at work for shooting multimedia for the website so I borrowed one for the weekend to familiarise myself with the technology. While I think they've got a long way to go, they're a pretty nice piece of kit.

I played around on a couple of rides - the Bundle of Styx on the weekend and on one of my normal morning "faux commutes" up the Hobart bike track and back. Both times I got very reasonable footage. I mounted the camera to my handlebars. The wide angle lens captured the bike's brake levers -  which gives a real sense of being on a bike - and occasionally the light and front wheel. I bought but didn't try a helmet mount. From the footage I made a couple of short videos using a couple of different software programs, mainly for my own amusement. The results, while amateurish in the extreme, pleased me greatly - which is all that matters in this game because just about nobody else will want to look at your bike videos, except perhaps other cyclists and maybe your spouse for a few minutes the first couple of times before making highly sarcastic comments. I found I became a lot better at putting together my short clips with each attempt. Even though I clearly have a long way to go as a videographer, I learned a lot and enjoyed myself immensely putting the videos together. The YouTube clip below doesn't really do the high definition output of the camera justice, although it does give a bit of an idea what can be done with even fairly mundane footage and rudimentary skills.

Before I headed out I had a look at a few videos shot by cyclists and spoke to a couple of GoPro owners. There were two consensuses. First was that the chest mount harness was considered best for cycling use because that position insulates from bumps better than on-bike mounting points and because it gave a more first-person view. The second piece of advice was that handholding the camera was a good idea to capture a variety of shots, such as of pedals turning and wheels spinning, to break up the sequences a little.

First: the good. The camera takes lovely footage. The high resolution is wonderfully crisp and real. Low light performance is good, although it does get overwhelmed a little by strong lights , like headlights and street lights but generally it handled transitions from dark to light well. The camera is light and the waterproof case is a very handy addition. There is a wide range of accessories available and once you have the settings sorted, it's pretty easy to use (Although I buggered up one lot of video by inadvertently changing some settings). The sound recording capacity is pretty good for such a small camera.

Then the bad. The camera has just two main buttons which drive a very odd menu system which is hard to get the hang of quickly. The clamps for attaching to a bicycle are expensive, of indifferent quality and even when tightened the camera tends to be knocked out of position by sharp bumps and didn't fit my seatpost - another mount would be required. (The nice but expensive mounts make by K-Edge look pretty good for most cycling purposes.) The battery life was - on the near-new unit I tested - unimpressive at around 40 minutes, although I suspect we may have a faulty battery. There is no way to see the footage you're shooting or even line up the camera without putting on an additional, battery-draining LCD screen or use the woeful GoPro app on a smart phone via wifi. And there's no way to review footage on the road.

There's another slight drawback that's not the camera's fault at all. Going for a ride for me at least is an exercise in clearing my mind, getting rid of the distractions and stresses of the day. Messing around with a camera, stopping to change or fix mounts and thinking about when to turn the camera on and off is a bit of a diversion from  the main business at hand. I'm going for a ride, not making a movie. I imagine this becomes less of an issue once the novelty factor wears off and with practise.

I've got no doubt that more and more cyclists will mount cameras on their bikes in the coming years - it's fun and gives you an unmatched and highly watchable record of your ride. No doubt the technology will come ahead in leaps and bounds too - I can see a combined GPS and video unit not too far ahead - and the camera offers a good way for cyclists to record and report incidents involving motorists. But I probably won't be buying a GoPro any time soon. at $A500 I think the  top-end unit is well overpriced and I'm not overly impressed by some of the accessories which must rates as some of the most expensive pieces of plastic this side of printer cartridges. All that to one side I've had a lot of fun playing with the GoPro and reckon I might shell out for one of the superseded models - probably a GoPro Hero 2, which can be found on eBay around the $200 point.

Online shopping

I'm a huge fan of online shopping. Living in the wilds of rural Tasmania, I don't always have time to get to the bike shop during weekdays and on the weekend they're too far away. Going online is a terribly convenient way to shop.

That having been said, when I do buy online, particularly from offshore, I feel bad about not supporting my local bike shop. It's a case of use it or lose it and we need to support our local retaillers or we'll have noone to blame but ourselves when they're gone. (On a not unrelated and totally self-interested note: support your local newspaper too. Same reasons apply.)

With all that in mind I'm delighted to discover that Australia's greatest bike shop Abbotsford Cycles has a stunning new website and offers online ordering. In my admittedly biased opinion, Abbotsford is the best bike shop in Australia for people with an audax or touring bent to find their gear. And anyone else. Their Brooks saddles have always been keenly priced and there's a bunch of other specials on there too. I highly recommend Abbotsford Cycles for all your cycling needs. They're a long time supporter of the Audax club in Victoria and damn fine folk to boot. If you can't get to one of their the stunning shops, give their online store a try. I will be placing my order as soon as I finish this post: for some Boeshield T9 lube and some of that lovely-looking Phil Wood grease I've always wanted.

3075km so far this year.

Long term review Grand Bois Cerf 700x28c tyres

Like their slightly wider counterparts, the Grand Bois Cerf's are a very nice tyre. They're light and supple and roll beautifully. I've done almost exactly 1200km on the set I bought from Compass Bicycle in June and I'm very impressed. With a heavy heart I'll be taking them off the bike today though - they're just to prone to punctures for my liking.

The Grand Bois tyres in general are a lovely tyre. They roll beautifully and seem to go even better up hills, which is where I need help the most. They run nicely at a range of pressures - from 80psi for cruising around town and on unsealed roads to 100psi for spirited audax riding. But I suspect one of the things that makes them so delightful to ride - the seeming lack of any sort of puncture protection within the tread - is also the source of their greatest downfall. Most modern tyres have a thin strip of material, often kevlar, sandwiched between the tread layers. It tends to reduce punctures but also adds weight, reduces the suppleness of the tyre and very slightly increases rolling resistance.

For some reason, the Cerfs haven't worn particularly well for me. After only 1200km of use on sealed road and bike paths the rear tyre is worn far more than I would expect. I'd estimate that tyre had another 1000km of travel left in it, which is a real shame for a $60 tyre.

Whether it is related to the wear problem is hard to say for certain but I've also suffered a series of punctures with these tyres - four in the last month. At first I suspected that the problem was my failure to properly find and fix the root cause of the first puncture but looking at the tubes I've spent this morning repairing, each of the tiny pinhole punctures has happened in a different spot. One seems to have been caused by a tiny piece of glass, another by a small piece of wire. I suspect that many modern tyres would have shrugged these off. The Grand Bois Cypress suffered a similar run of flats before I hung them up too but I put that down to back luck. I guess I'm a slow learner. Four punctures in a month is more than I've suffered in the last couple of years and it's why I'll be sadly handing up the Cerfs and putting the Continental Gatorskins back on. A much lesser tyre, but at least I'll be spending more time riding and less time changing tubes.

2942km so far this year.

The app happy cyclist

I haven't really been doing the miles lately (nor updating the blog) mainly thanks for work and weather. Of the two work can probably take more of the blame, sometimes a ride in the wind and rain can be just the invigorating thing one needs, as I found out today, racing the rain squalls down the valley.

One of the things that has sparked my interest of late has been the iphone app Strava. I've been using Cyclemeter for the last 18 months or so and I'm very happy with it. The app is reliable and does more things than most people would ever want from an app. My favourite feature is the app talking to you at pre-set intervals, informing you how you're doing. It's quite a nice addition to the top pocket of the handlebar bag.

Strava takes a different approach. The app itself offers a similar, if simplified interface for logging rides, but it's online that it really comes into its own. Think of it a social networking for cyclists. Apart from "competing" with your own times, Strava logs the times of every other cyclist who rides sections of road nominated by users as "segments". These are usually hill climb. The app then ranks you against other riders automatically, producing a league table for the segment. So for any given ride, the app or website may inform you that you've done a personal best, or even ridden such and such a segment faster than anyone before.

I'm a pretty slow rider so there's no King of the Mountains results for me in there, although it is quite amusing to know that on my meanderings I'm recording the slowest or second slowest times for sections near and far.

There's a paid version of Strava, which adds some features. I'm always keen to support apps and websites when they provide useful features. I'm holding off with Strava for a few reasons. One is the app is still pretty basic, displaying only time, distance and  average speed on the front page, which makes Strava pretty useless as a bike computer replacement (the workaround here is to use something like Cyclemeter and upload the GPS file to Strava.) It lacks auto-stop,meaning if you stop for a coffee, you need to remember to stop and restart the timer. Somewhat obviously the whole concept is oriented to the go-fast brigade, with little interest shown in how you're competing with yourself. For example, while the website notes only your fastest time for any particular segment, there's no way of seeing your other times. Cyclemeter offers this within the iPhone app.

Strava offers a little applet for your blog, which is handy, although mine displays miles not kilometres despite the opposite being my preference and doesn't seem to update correctly. These little niggles are perhaps outweighed by the fun of seeing just how many speedy cyclists there are out there to 'ride against'. The free Strava app is well worth a look. I'll see how Strava develops before laying out for the Pro version, which estimates watts and gives a 'suffer score' - whatever that may mean.

1607km so far this year. 

Son Delux hub

A fair proportion of the search engine queries which land people on this blog are about lighting. A lot of people in particular are interested in dynamo setups. I use a Son hub and Edelux front light on the bike I ride about 80 per cent of the time. As I've said before, I'm a huge fan of dynamo lighting because it's always there, ready to be turned on as required and never runs flat. The only drawback is a relatively high initial expense. Cyclists have been spoiled by rapid advances in lighting technology in recent years, particularly with LED lighting which draws less current than the old halogen setups and doesn't burn out bulbs every hundred hours or so. 

Despite about four years of good service from my old model Son hub I decided to again raid my savings account for a Christmas treat to myself and splurge on one of the new smaller, lighter Son Delux hubs. These were originally designed for 20 inch folding bikes but by happy accident were discovered to be perfect to drive the new generation of LED lights.

I built the new 32-hole hub up onto a rim a couple of weeks ago and have done a few shorter rides so far and I'm very happy with the result. The resistance of the hub is not noticeable at all when it's turned on, so I've taken to leaving my front and rear lights on during the day. A few friends who has driven past me in the daytime have mentioned how effective the front light in particular is. I haven't done a night ride yet - the daylight hours in Tasmania at this time of year are very long.

I note from Jan Heine's website that Son has a newer model out to address some minor aesthetic and technical issues with this hub. He's written an explanation here. The differences are too tiny for me to be bothered with, this is a hub I'm planning to be happy with for many thousands of kilometres from now.

(If you found this post useful, you might be interested in my posts on the  Schmidt Edelux  LED front light or the Busch & Muller Seculite Plus Rear Light. I'm expecting to post a review of the Busch & Müller DToplight XS Plus in the coming weeks.

4179km so far this year.

The stylish randonneur

Most of the time I ride in a pair of old Shimano touring shoes which look like sneakers but have the advantage of stiff soles and standard SPD cleats. Being easy to walk in they're perfect for most purposes but the soles are a bit too soft for longer Audax rides. My faithful Shimano SPD-SL road shoes are just about worn out after years of faithful service, so I've been hunting around for a high quality replacement.

Way back when I raced bikes on the road in the mid 1980s, leather shoes were all the rage. They had both leather uppers and thick leather soles and big slotted cleats which locked in onto the back plate of a pedal. Toe clips and straps held the whole lot rock solid. They were impossible to walk in for more than a few steps because the large, often metal, cleats  protruded from the base of the sole. Despite the fact that the SPDs are a much better system, the old leather shoes were far more comfortable - particularly on long rides.

Since I've been salting away a few dollars each week into a "bike account" all year I've been able to lash out and treat myself to a few bike items in the lead-up to Christmas. When I saw a company called Dromarti offering old-style leather shoes I didn't need much prompting. (I've since noticed Vittoria offering a similar pair of leather shoes with the model name 1976.)

At $A275 shipped, they were't cheap but my first impressions based on around 100km of riding are generally favourable. The shoes are made by Italian footwear firm Marresi and come in either black or a very fetching brown. They're as stylish as all hell. Like leather walking boots, leather cycling shoes take a bit of time to wear in and we still have a little way to go but the wonderful comfort of leather I remember from way back is there in spades with the added stiffness of a plastic sole. They're ok to walk in too, though they feel a little narrow after the Shimano shoes. Something tells me this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

4011km so far this year.

1000km review: Thorn Audax 3

Having done 1000km+ on the Thorn it seems an appropriate time as any for a longer-term review of the Thorn Audax 3 frame I bought earlier this year. On the whole I'm very impressed, although of course there's a few minor niggles that hold it just short of perfection. (Mind you I should be pretty happy since I built it up myself!) One of my biggest complaints is that I haven't had enough time to do as many miles as I'd like. It hasn't been my best year on the bike, I'll hold back on the excuses.

Positives first. The Thorn rides well, the steering is responsive but not overly so and it isn't greatly affected by the weight of a handlebar bag. I haven't noticed any toeclip overlap. The relatively tight rear triangle means the Thorn accelerates well enough to feel sporty and makes light work of a quick stab up short rollers, but at the same time it's comfortable for long distances and rides fine no-hands. The ample braze-ons on the Thorn meant that fitting racks and mudguards was a breeze. I'm deliriously happy with the Gilles Berthoud front rack with its intergral light mount and matching decaleur to hold my handlebar bag snugly in place and of course my Son hub and matching Edelux are a match made in heaven too. The Tubus Fly rear rack is light and handy for strapping a raincoat to or mounting a couple of light panniers for a longer jaunt.

Minor niggles then: I'd like to be able to fit wider tyres. This is one of those compromises that comes up with touring-style frames. If you want cailper brakes then there's a practical limit to how wide a tyre you can fit. On the Thorn, with mudguards, that limit is about 28mm, although it's happier with 23mm tyres so I'll stick to those for the time being despite preferring wider rubber. The integral pump peg, while handy, is designed for a pump which appears to be no longer made, the magnificent Zefal HPX. I'm still sorting out some minor wheel and tyre issues, but once those are done I reckon we'll be as close to perfection as you can get!

3,952km so far this year.

I have a lovely Brooks saddle sitting on my desk. It's quite distracting with its shiny black leather, copper rails, oversized rivets and "B17 Champion Special" stamped on both sides. I bought it this morning to go on my audax bike - the new saddles just aren't comfortable enough for me for long distance rides and I've been juggling one saddle between two bikes for a month now. Considering the money I've saved lately by riding to work, a new $100 saddle seems a reasonable treat.

They're heavier than the newfangled plastic and alloy models but there's something about these relics of a bygone age I find compelling. They're organic, they breathe and stretch and mould to fit. They also look beautiful, as comfortable as an old pair of shoes and I recommend them highly. I'll put this one on the bike tonight.