Poland conquered, now for the work of Vitruvius..

[kfjatek]

[SMILING FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES][SMILING FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES]
You can do that anytime u like.

Yeah yeah.

In the meantime, I'm taking the TT for a cheeky ride in RP.

[Worrying Will]

Don't treat a tt as a race where results matter as they don't it just personal glory. I would if you can fit it in get out there and so one now and set a base. I did a 25 mile ride as part of my 10 mile tt so it's a good training ride as well.


Cracking swim times

sent from the clan

[Jack Hughes]

You can't tell anything about the bike position and handling without riding it hard (calm down kevy). And it's hard to ride it hard outside of a race environment.

And it's good fun.

And it will be another opportunity to instil fear into your rivals.

[kfjatek]

I will do some, just not now. Need to get more comfy on the new bike first.

It's awesome and super fast, but I'm still a bit wobbly on it.

[Kevy427]

It's awesome and super fast, but I'm still a bit wobbly on it

Lay off the cheap Wodka before riding it?

[kfjatek]

It's awesome and super fast, but I'm still a bit wobbly on it

Lay off the cheap Wodka before riding it?

That may well be the solution. All the swerving is also making the route longer..

In the meantime, I've been busy with some gentle customisation to expose the new steed's name. jon.e will appreciate this:

Kingston upon Thames-20140225-00133.jpg

[jonathon.e]

It's awesome and super fast, but I'm still a bit wobbly on it

Lay off the cheap Wodka before riding it?

That may well be the solution. All the swerving is also making the route longer..

In the meantime, I've been busy with some gentle customisation to expose the new steed's name. jon.e will appreciate this:

Kingston upon Thames-20140225-00133.jpg

That is very apt
I did try to find a translation for Nighthawk but apparently it is the same in Polish.
Very nice and very stealthy

Enter a TT
The fitter you get the less ready you feel as there are always more and more minute details that pop up. The time isn't important, 10 miles at race pace will give you ample feedback to knock more time off next time than a similar time spent training. A race is well worth the time, go for it.

Nice swim times too

[kfjatek]

I did try to find a translation for Nighthawk but apparently it is the same in Polish.

That's where Google Translate falls over itself. It would be Nocny Jastrząb ['notznyh 'yastszomb]. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it.

I did say it would be a stealth machine; needs to have a fitting name too!

[kfjatek]

So - took the Nighthawk for its first longer spin today (80km). Observations:

- It's still fast. Sometimes too fast, in fact. 63kph on gentle downhill in Windsor park felt like a bit too hasty (esp. for the road surface) and had me ease off a little. Generally it feels like cruising speed on flat with no wind is 33-35 kph right now, which is good.

- It might be me, but the bike feels surprisingly stable in the wind - ESPECIALLY in aero position. Probably the extra weight on the front makes it easier to keep in straight line, the 50mm deep section front wheel doesn't wobble as much.

- The elbow pads were too narrow for me - I could stay in the aero position for a few minutes, but given that I'm quite broad-shouldered keeping my elbows so narrow was painful to the shoulders. The T3 Aura Pro cockpit isn't exactly your most adjustable piece of bar kit, so was a bit worried that I might need to swap stuff or come up with some sort of contraption, but it turned out just now that the pads could be moved another 5-7mm out, which hopefully will solve the problem.

- Frame-based hydration will likely be the name of the game for me in the end. Installed the behind-saddle mount with two full bidons and - rather than catapulting them as feared - the whole bloody thing just fell off in the middle of the ride. What an utter piece of junk.

- The bike was making funny noises and I thought it was my brand new low-cost lighting contraption, but it turned out to be one of the spacers on the head tube coming loose ( installation error? I'm starting to worry about the Btown quality - my brake handles got installed the other way round too - not particularly troublesome, but it does rub my OCD-prone self the wrong way..). Megacluster follows - check sh*t list.

[jonathon.e]

Brake levers probably installed by one of our Yankee colonial cousins getting miffed about being served tea at Btown cycles.

General rule of thumb is after first five miles of new bike, check everything, small bits not tightened here and there will cause lots to work loose.

What rear hydration system was it?