Tagged: Fixed Wheel

Fixed Wheel Time Trial Build

With Time Trial season fast approaching, I’ve been busy building a bike ready for this year. I’ve not quite finished collecting all the bits together, but it’s finally looking like a bike.

As with last year I’ll be riding fixed wheel. Part of the delay in sorting a bike was down to the decision of if I should move to a geared bike. I decided to stick with one gear as I really enjoy riding fixed and think I need to get used to utilising the gears on my road bike, before trying gears for time trialling.

My first TT this year is in Frome, with the Frome and District Wheelers holding a 10 mile event, I’ve ridden this course before so have a time to try and beat.

Here is progress so far, I have an adjustable stem on order to try and find the optimum aero position.

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Bob Jackson Vigorelli Rebuild

You may remember a while ago now that Ed took his long serving Bob Jackson Vigorelli frame to Argos Cycles to get a fresh paint job on the frame he’s ridden for 2 years. You may also have seen the finished frame. Well over the past couple of evenings Ed (along with a little help from myself) has rebuilt the bike, with 90% new components, giving it a bit more of a new-school/old-school feel & bringing Ed into the 21st century with an ahead stem & outboard bearing cranks. I took a few photos before it hits the hills, so here they are:

Riding fixed on 110.9 gear inches AKA 1 week 3 TTs

Last week I attached a 13 tooth cog to my bike. This combined with my 55 tooth chainring gave me 110.9 gear inches.

I was scared and excited, would I go really fast? or more likely, be unable to turn this almost proper time trialling gear.

I ended up riding three TTs.

Tuesday: VC Bristol/Kingswood Tri
Wednesday: BSCC
Thursday: Dursley RC

I hit pb’s for two of the three, only missing a third pb, by 5 seconds with a gruesome headwind. I was really happy with the weeks racing and felt good on the bigger gear. I need to keep riding it to increase strength though.

All through the week I was wondering how I was feeling so good and not getting tired. It subsequently hit me this Monday morning when I woke up feeling like crap!

I’m hoping to feel better to ride the Inter Club TT tomorrow night.

Even after attending three events I failed to take a single photo.

I would really like these wheels.

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Clock Watching

Last week I rode in two time trials and set PBs for both courses. I’m pretty pleased with this, as it shows progression and also that the weather conditions were favourable for once!

Tuesday was up at Iron Acton with VC Bristol as a guest rider and Wednesday at The Lake with BSCC

I took 18 seconds off my course PB on Tuesday and 29 seconds on Wednesday. The conditions played a part in this for sure, but I’d like to think I’m getting faster as well.

I was really happy with going sub 20 minutes round The Lake as this was an aim for this year!

I’m gearing up to 111 gear inches for this week, in the quest for a sub 23 minute 10.

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Bob’s Back!!

Well here it is, my newly painted Bob Jackson Vigorelli.

Back in April it went off for a bit of a makeover and now it’s all done.

To say I’m pleased would be a bit of an understatement. I collected the frame about two weeks ago and did plan to get it built up right away. But as with all things plans change, and I’m now trying to save up for the new parts I think it deserves!

If you ever need a frame painting or any other work doing head to Argos Racing Cycles most probably not the cheapest job, but most likely the best, and they’re here in Bristol as well.

The grey, that is captured best in the last picture, is a satin finish and the colours are gloss. This is something that they’d actually never done before. The colours if you hadn’t guessed are loosely based on the Trackdropouts cycling kit.

Hopefully I will get the frame built up in a month or two.

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Frome and District Wheelers Open 10

On Saturday I headed down to Frome for the second Open 10 they were holding this year. I’d ridden the first one back in February and was looking forward to seeing how much I could hopefully improve my time by.

The event was organised by The Frome and District Wheelers.

The course included five roundabouts and a steep descent, nicked named the ski slope, that thankfully you only had to go down, in the race at least!

It was a super hot day and after being at work in the morning, all I really wanted to do was eat, drink and relax.

There was talk of a strong wind, so I made a decision to ride as hard as possible. Particularly from the off, as it didn’t take long to reach the ski slope and gain a slight rest of sorts.

I felt a strong headwind to the first roundabout, after that I forgot about the wind due to how hot I was, a dry mouth and dripping with sweat took my mind off it!

My time of 23.35 was 1.10 quicker than in Feb and good enough for 12 place.

I was pretty pleased with this as it shows a definite improvement! There was one key moment where I really felt a sense of progression, on the return leg up a slight incline. Back in Feb on an 88 gear inch I remember mashing up it out the saddle and feeling destroyed at the top. This time on a 103 gear inch, I rode up it in the saddle smoothly.

It’s been a busy week since Saturday, hence the delayed write up. Look out for a report on the recently ridden BSCC 25 mile TT Brian Weatherly Championship.

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To the lake! Scenic time trialling

Last night was the first of the Chew Valley Lake time trials, part of the BSCC Classic League

I drove over after work as otherwise I don’t think I’d be able to get there on time. The weather was looking crap, but when is it anything else at the moment!

I didn’t really have a time to aim for as although the course is 8.24 miles its fairly lumpy. This meant I couldn’t get away with riding fixed as easily as the previous weeks visits to the U7B and UC115

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I set off slightly slower than usual, as there’s a hill to climb out of a junction, which means a slow out the saddle grind to get up it.

After letting out a small yelp as I reached the top I then settled back into a rhythm. This lasted about a minute as I progressively got slower and slower, and barely managed to keep the pedals turning. The section from Chew Stoke to West Harptree is pure doom.

Coming out of the junction to head to Bishops Sutton the driver in front of me didn’t seem to know where they were going. I tugged on the brake and pedalled slowly behind them, they decided to turn off and I stomped on the pedals to get going up to speed again.

The last two corners are both tight and in quick succession, I lost speed here also as there was a lot of loose gravel on the road which looked very slippery.

My final time was 21.24 with an average speed of 23.1 mph. I was actually quite pleased with this, as I think it’s about 2 minutes faster than I did last year. This shows how much difference a few aero bits and a much bigger gear can make!

It was good to see Jamie from Headset Press making it out to ride his first TT, this course was also my first taster of time trialling last year.

Due to PJ not being able to make it and Andy riding his third choice bike, I managed to post the third fastest time of the evening. The times are here good work from Sam who’s aim was to go under 20 minutes, which he absolutely smashed with ease!

Hopefully next week Tim will be racing again and the weather will be a bit better at last!