#Rapha500 2011 Festive Challenge: In 24 Hours

Rapha does cool stuff. No lie. Rapha is a London-based cycling clothing and accessories company with U.S. offices in Portland, OR. They have developed a reputation for exposing deeply-rooted grit in some of the best cyclists in the world. Furthermore, Rapha motivates the layfolk by issuing occasional challenges, such as the Festive 500.

What's the Festive 500, you ask? From December 23-31, Rapha challenges riders the world over to shun holiday laziness and culinary indulgence and instead ride 500 kilometers--no riding on trainers. 9 days, 310 miles, or just over 34 miles/day on average. Well, that's lame. Not really, but I like to come up with alternatives that add a bit of epicness to something that's already cool. My idea? Ride all 310 miles in 24 hours or less. This translates into a 13mph average minimum, including rest stops.

Tomorrow morning, the 23rd, I'll leave at 5-6 AM and ride four 78-mile loops to the North and East of Madison. I'll be looping back by the house every lap, so I can fuel up, warm up, rest, use the baño, etc. I've planned a 24-hr Walgreen's into my route, just in case.

Here's an overview of my loop:

I'll post updates below as I ride along. I'll also be updating via Twitter @Morsebici. Or check #Rapha500 & #24hrRapha500.

Lap 1 - 0-78 miles:

Change of plan. The temperature this morning when I left at 5AM was 12 degrees. A full 10 degrees colder than expected. I embarked nonetheless. Things felt manageable for the first 30 minutes or so, until my toes were extremely numb. I use 3mm neoprene booties over full leather shoes, but even with thick merino wool socks underneath I was numb. Ice block numb.

I pulled off at a McDonald's at about mile 20 in an attempt to warm up. I was thirsty, but all 5 water bottles were ice blocks. Even the bottles in my handlebar bag were solid. Lovely. I was sorta hungry, but the food was frozen, too. Hmm. I grabbed an Autotrader magazine and lined my shoe covers with several layers of its pages, vintage Tour de France style. No go.

I did get to watch the sun rise, however:

The camera was frozen, and would struggle to function. Can't blame it. My neck gaiter was frozen solid.

My feet got worse, and my arches and heels started to go numb. At about mile 40 (65km), I called in the SAG wagon (the Mrs.). I nursed my ice block feet to a service station, which was not easy to find along the farmroad-laden countryside. I'll be recalculating the remainder of my 500k attempt.

**UPDATE**
Attempt recalculated. I'll be riding smaller 22 mile loops around Lake Mendota. That and I'll spread the riding out in a realistic manner. Plan B on the 24hour ride is to ride during spring break.

The new route. 

The new itinerary:

12/23 - 33 (Complete)
12/24 - 44
12/26 - 66
12/27 - 44
12/28 - 44
12/29 - 44
12/30 - 35

Bern Brentwood w/ Winter Knit Insert

Over the past year or so, my cranium has been adorned by the Bern Brentwood for commuting purposes. This particular model is manufactured under Bern's "ZipMold" process, where the PVC shell is molded with liquid-injected foam. The result? The helmet is very light, very strong, and is less susceptible to becoming extremely brittle as typical helmet foam does. 

The trouble is that I ride in the winters here in Wisonsin, and extra layers on my head dramatically change the fit, i.e., the helmet doesn't fit. Thankfully, Bern thought of this and developed the Winter Knit (Hunter). Here's a shot of the helmet as-is (with a ContourHD mount on the side). 

It was Movember. What can I say?

The Mrs. said, "Stick your chin out." So I did. The winter kit snaps into place where the visor kit once resided. 

Close-up of the kit and 'stache.

I rode all last winter with this kit, along with some other goodies that will show up here once the snow and sub-zero temps arrive. I usually ride with an Ibex skull cap and neck gaiter down into the single digits. Much colder than that requires goggles and a breathing mask (foreshadowing).

Happy riding. 

Kid Coaster Brake Fix

This doesn't even show how bad the coaster brake was malfunctioning. I could almost get a full pedal rotation at times before/after brake engagement.

Step #1: Remove wheel from bike. 

Begin disassembly of hub. I prefer to leave the cog side together (it has a cone setup) and disassemble from the non-drive side. I use the coaster lever as leverage to loosen the nut. 

Lay out each part in the order of disassembly. Seems obvious, but reassembly is much easier this way.

After cleaning everything, reapply lube to bearings and contact surfaces. I prefer to use Park Tool Polylube for hubs such as this. Begin reassembly process. 

This is the driver for the coaster brake process with the coarse thread. 

Apply lube to bearing here. 

Reinsert axle and coaster driver assembly. Be sure to do this from the correct side, as each side of the hub has a different diameter. This should be the smaller of the two since the other side needs to fit the expansion wedges. 

This spring-loaded piece threads over the coaster driver and applies pressure on the expansion wedges, activating the friction braking system. 

This is what they look like mated together. 

With the expansion wedges installed. This is the larger opening side of the hub. 

Lube and install this bearing.

Begin threading this cone/coaster placeholder. Don't thread on all the way. 

Insert this piece over the expansion activator piece, in between the expansion wedges and hold in place. You will thread the axle from the other side. 

Thread the axle in from this side. The nut and cone are locked together, so use a wrench on the nut if you have to.  The threads should be smooth at this point, however. 

With the axle completely threaded through. 

Install dust cover. 

Install coaster lever. This is effectively the cone wrench for preloading the bearings. Once the bearing play is removed, follow the next 2 steps. 

Install washer. 

Reinstall nut. As with most cone and bearing installations, a couple iterations are typically necessary to remove bearing play and have proper bearing preload. Once you have this step right, you're done. Reinstall the wheel. 

Much better braking and forward-pedaling reingagement. She's ready to keep on riding. 

So Begins the Freezing of Lake Mendota

I snapped a few shots on my ride home from school this afternoon. Temperatures have been dropping lately, as we enter the deep freeze of upper-Midwest winters.

The ice shelf is forming along the lakeshore. 

A few ice-covered rocks.

Geese and various waterfowl. Presumably from the Great White North.

I quite enjoy riding through the winter here in Madison. I suppose soon I will install the studded tires on the Casseroll once the cold is legitimized by the presence of snow and ice. Am I weird to say I look forward to it?

Photos of Fall 2011 Riding in Madison

I share with you a select group of photos taken this fall in Madison. Enjoy.

Sunrise over Lake Mendota. 

Leaves falling in Bob's Woods.

Blanket of leaves inches thick.

Taken no more than a couple weeks after the previous set of leaf shots. 

Velo Orange RAID Wheel Build Complete

The Casseroll has been up and running now for a few weeks due to a successful wheel build project. To review, I was having trouble with spoke pull-through on the stock Salsa Delgado Cross rims, so I needed to make a change. I ended up with the Velo Orange RAID 32h rim & Sapim 1.8/2.0 double-butted spokes & nipples. I paid extra-special attention to tension on this build, and enjoyed fantastic results. I rode the past few days in the 40º rain, so the rim isn't terribly visually appealing, but I snapped a few shots of the hub flanges of the wheel build. I am also including a snapshot of the Excel file I used for my tension strategy.

I like to use Livestrong hub shiners.

A shot of the High/Low flange.

Sorry. The bike is dirty. But so it goes. Here's the Excel file showing individual tension, and average/min/max analysis by wheel side.

The wheel tensioned very evenly on both sides. I am used to a higher tension of the left side in relation to the right side (more in the 70% range). What I'm finding is that the high/low flange design of the White Industries H3 hub affects this relationship, with shorter spokes drive-side vs. longer spokes non-drive side. However, the wheel rides smoothly and has held very true so far. Looking forward to many miles. 

Today's View From the Handlebars

A rainy fall afternoon through Bob's Woods.