Thoughts about MapMyRide

When I first started road riding, I used MapMyRide to plan out trips. Fast forward three years and I know most of the roads in Worcester county, so MapMyRides isn't useful to me anymore. I was a paid subscriber of MapMyRide for 3 years, but the latest changes to the UI suck.

The usability has gotten worse. Instead, I use Strava. The interface of Strava is simpler and more user friendly. To be fair, Strava's focus is social riding, while MapMyRide does a lot more. I used to log all of my workouts on MapMyRide, but due to the clunkiness of the UI, I don't use it anymore.

The worst part is the iOS app for MapMyRide. It flat out sucks, looks ugly and slow.

New Wheels

For my birthday, my family got me a gift certificate to Nashbar, so I got a new set of Mavic Aksium M10 wheels. The stock wheels that came with my Giant Avail are ok, but they are a bit heavy.

The spoke count is considerably less than the stock Giant P-R2, which is the standard spoke setup. I can't wait to try these out in Western MA on greylock, mohawk trail and east hawley hill.

Follow up on Castelli tights

On Sunday, I went for a ride with the temperature hovering around 39-40F. I wore the nanoflex tights for the first time. Happily to my surprise I felt comfortable and didn't feel cold at all.

Nanoflex big tights

The tights themselves are snug and fit better than my Amfib tights. A couple of minor nitpicks. As I was walking around the house, I felt the tights crimp the back of my knee. To alleviate that, I pulled the tights up higher on the thigh. The downside of the nanoflex material is that it was hard to get a good grip. With some persistence, I got the tights higher and it was comfortable.

For temperatures below 24 I would use the Amfib tights instead. For temps above 30F, it felt fine for me and I'm a whimp when it comes to cold weather.

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.