Creaks, squeeks and noises

I finally fixed the creaks on my Giant. Turns out it was a combination chain, bottom bracket, fork and pedals. First I tried cleaning the chain and lubing it. That reduced the noise, but I still had other noises. Next I cleaned the bottom bracket and noticed one bearing wasn't turning properly. I had Barney's replace the bearing, which made it much better.

After I got the bike back from barney's the noise was much better. After a two weeks, I felt compelled to get rid of the noise. I started by cleaning the seat post and fork. Since I sweat alot, the seatpost and seat tube had lots of salt. I gave it a thorough cleaning and applied a little bit of lube to seat tube. The fork took a bit more work. First I removed the handlebar, then I removed the fork from the frame. The top wasn't too dirty, but the bottom was full of black oily gunk. I didn't think dirt, sand and grit could get in there, but looks like the wet conditions on Major Taylor Century got lots of dirt in there.

I rode the bike for another weak, but there was still a little creaking noise on every revolution of the crank. Finally, I decided to take the pedals off, give them a thorough scrub and lube. I wouldn't have though it would cause it.

Now that I finally figured out what caused it, it should be easier to diagnose in the future. The noise from the chain tends to be higher pitched squeek. The pedals tend to have a low frequency creak just after the apex of the crank revolution.

The fork creak tends to happen when I'm out of the saddle. The saddle creak on climbs with low cadence.

Castelli Pave Nanoflex bib tights

I bought Castelli Pave Nanoflex bib tights and felt compelled to blog about it. Over at biketiresdirect.com they had it on closeout sale, so I decided to give it a try.

Nanoflex bib tights

When I first started riding, I bought myself some cheap Nashbar bib tights. Back then I felt expensive cycling clothing is mostly hype. Although there's hype around cycling clothing, the truth is the cheap stuff doesn't fit as well and tends to wear out faster.

Last year I bought Pearl Izumi Amfib tights, which work great for under 30 degrees. One big downside is the fit. The legs are a bit long and the shoulder straps a little loose. I bought a size small, thinking that would be the best fit. I haven't tried XS amfib tights, but given how much it costs I don't plan on buying another one until my current one wears out.

In contrast, the Pave Nanoflex bib tights fit great and look good. It compresses where it needs to and doesn't feel like my legs are in a vice. The range of motion is good and the compression snug. The amfib in comparison feels tight around my quads and loose around the torso. Comparing the cut and material between PI and Castelli, it's clearly due to design.

I had a similar experience with Castelli jacket compared to Pearl Izumi. Although cheaper brands are cheaper, they just don't fit as well. In terms of material, I've noticed Castelli clothing breathes better than Pearl Izumi. Overall, I'm unsatisfied with Nashbar clothing. Satisfied with Pearl Izumi. Castelli clothing is very satisfying.

Odd creak

I've been trying to figure out what part of my giant is creaking, but it's hard to find. Back when I rode Major Taylor, the bike developed several loud squeeeeeks and creaks. The most annoying was a high pitched squeek coming from the bottom bracket.

I had barney's order a replace bb86 and got rid of that aweful squeek. On the trainer, I don't hear anymore odd noise other than me breathing hard. On the road, there's still a creak. At first I thought it was the chain, so I washed it last saturday. On sunday, the creak was still there. I tried to diagnose it and thought maybe it was the seat post.

When I got home, I removed the seatpost, cleaned it, cleaned the clamp and the frame. The creak was still there. Next I checked to see if anything was rubbing the chain and I noticed the new front derailleur chain guard was rubbing at one point. I took that off. I like the idea of having a guard to prevent the chain from scuffing up the carbon frame, but not if it's rubbing and making noises.

I hope this got rid of the creaking noise.

Broken tooth on chain ring

This year's Major Taylor Century had terrible cold, wet weather. I ended up bailing with Gary at the first rest stop. We ended up with 52 miles. When I got home, my bike was a total mess and was covered with dirt, grime and junk. Around mile 25, my crank started to squeeek very loudly. When I got home, I did a quick wash/rise with simple green foaming cleaner, but it was still squeeking.

Last weekend, I decided to give it a complete wash and clean out the bottom bracket. It was rather dirty. When I took off the crank and chain rings, I noticed the wear. A few of the teeth were dented and bent and 1 tooth actually broke the tip.

On the last photo, the tip broke off the tooth on the far left. I have no clue when it broke, but it's definitely got wear. Since my chain ring is badly beaten, I'm thinking of replacing it with either a mid compact or rotor Q ring. I haven't decided.

Retaping the handle bars

Now that I've had the giant for over a year, the white bar tape was looking grungy. I decided to buy some tape from nashbar and retape. This is only the second time I've tried to retape road handlebars. The first time was retaping my wife's old Trek road bike. This time it was a bit easier. At first I tried nashbar blue, but after it was on, I decide it looked ugly. Good thing I ordered white and blue. It was pretty cheap 6.00 for each.

For a newbie, it turned out ok.

OPQ wins TTT

I like Tom, he is a good guy. What surprised me is boonen says he was under geared.

Experimentation with Clif Shot Mocha Gel

This summer I've been experimenting with nutrition and trying to figure out how to avoid lulls in energy. The first two years I didn't have any issue with cramping or dehydration, since most of my rides were less than 1 hour. On the longer rides, like centuries I didn't push myself. My goal was to just have a good time and finish.

At this year's King Tour of the Quabbin double metric, I managed to stay with the A guys for the first 100 miles. Right as I was getting dropped at mile 99, our average was right at 20 mph. Luckily, the last rest stop is at mile 100, so I was able to regroup. I saw lots of 7HW people at the last rest stop and tried to cram down as many calories as I could.

When we took off again, my legs were feeling tight and I felt a little dehydrated. As I expected, once they kicked it up, I couldn't hang on. I managed to tag along with some 7HW people and finish the ride with an average of 19mph. After KTOQ, I started to pay more attention to proper hydration and eating. Before that, I tried to follow the rule of drink before your thirsty and eat every hour.

Now that I've been experimenting with Clif shot gels, I've noticed a few things. If I eat 1 gel right before I start my lunch ride, I'm able to push hard going down reservoir street. At the turn around point my legs feel fine. If I eat a nectarine, plum or asian pear before a ride, I'm able to push hard down reservoir, but I start to fade half way up reservoir. I've also tried eating a gel at the turn around point to see if that helps. So far it feels like it doesn't help going up reservoir, but I do have more energy at the end of the ride.

The last few times I climbed Wachusett summit, I ate a gel 15 min before the climb. As a result, I've beat my personal record several times. In the past, I would eat a Clif bar 15 min before the climb, but that wasn't enough time to digest. The only way to know "when" to eat the clif bar, I'd have to experiment to gather some data. Since it's close to the end of the cycling season, I will leave that for next year. I like the taste of clif bars, but they are hard to eat at 22mph. On group rides where we stop to rest or regroup, I can cram down half a bar.

I don't pretend to know nutrition science and my methods are 100% guess work. But even without rigorous scientific method, I've been able to increase my lunch ride average up to 20mph. One could argue that is the natural progression through the season. I honestly don't know. Slowly, I'm learning about how to feed my body so that I get consistent performance.