Stem Change

The OE 110 stem

Today I changed the stem of my Red Roadie. It initially came with a 110 mm stem. I thought the reach was too far. So, I got a new Merida stem in 90 mm size. Two centimetres can make a lot of difference to riding comfort. I am yet to ride with the new stem. Let me it check out.

I procured it from a guy in Bangalore called Venkatesh Shivarama. He owns a cycling store called Wheel Sports. It cost me Rs 1500. Extreme Adventures quoted me a price of Rs 3000. I am sure that material is different. Though they said it is not carbon but alloy only.

The decal on the new stem is a little different. Otherwise fitting size is same. There is no need to remove or add spacers.

I spoke to Someswar about the fitting. He explained it is nothing difficult and asked me to try and promised he would fix it if something went wrong. So I did, and something did indeed go wrong. The central bolt was tightened so strongly that everything inside came off when I unbolted it. It's somewhat similar to when you try to unscrew the cap of a fountain pen and it comes out with the nib still fitted inside.

The OE stem came off fine but I could not fit it back on.

Someswar, who had a delivery to make in Jadavpur for a new bike was coming to this side of the town in any case. He turned the bike upside down and out came several small bits and pieces. He reassembled the whole thing and fitted it back. I asked him not to tighten the bolts too much as I would like to fine tune the angle of the handle.

He checked the bike for wheel balance and found it was not true. He did some tightening of the spokes. The wheels are quite true now. This is an art you have to master from experience.

He also tightened the cable of the gear.

Few Adjustments

I did a few adjustments last night to the bike before my morning 20 km ride today. First I reduced the pressure on my tyre and next I tilted the handle a wee bit up. Both added to a more comfortable ride this morning.

First the tyre pressure. I was keeping the tyre pressure at 110 psi. That's the recommended and suggested number that you see everywhere on the internet. The ride always felt very hard on the small potholes or uneven surfaces. I reduced it down to 80 psi last night on the advice of one particular blog. My weight being between 60 and 65 kg, 110 psi was too tight for me.

The potholes became more bearable this morning. Of course, I didn't wear my cycling bib today, choosing to go with the general Slazenger running shorts that Chenku gave me, otherwise it would have been more comfortable for my bums.

Now the handlebar angle. My bike came with a 110 mm stem. That's the usual norm for a racing cycle, where you are supposed to lean forward on the handlebar to make your body more aerodynamic. But it made my reach a little too long and leaning forward on a long ride is not comfortable. I ride on the hoods. The hand grip on the hoods was angled down a little, making braking a little difficult and uncomfortable. I have the option to change the stem and go for something shorter like 90 mm, which I will probably do. But in the meanwhile I decided to tilt the handle up a bit so that I can grip the brifter (brake and shifter lever) more comfortably.

I loosened up the four allen bolts and tilted the bar up a bit. The guy who fitted my bike, Someswar Rao, kept it at a neutral position. I was a little hesitant to change it. But once I did, it made a lot of difference. 

A Quick Ride Together

After the ride near Laltu's house

Chenka and I cycled together today. Apparently after some 30 years. I started from home on my Merida at around 6.15 and reached Elgin Road-SP Mukherjee crossing. Chenka came from his house and joined me. He was on time, for a change. 

We turned left from Exide and again right from Rabindra Sadan. Turning left again from Planetarium, we went past the Victoria Memorial towards Fort William. Took Red Road and then took Council House Street. After crossing HSBC, GPO and Reserve Bank we turned towards Strand Road to come back. The section of Strand Road was pretty bad for a racing cycle here. Near Babu Ghat long distance bus stand the traffic situation was pretty bad even in the morning. But after that it was pretty clear. We went towards Prinsep Ghat and then towards the RCGC main gate. One needs to cross a small bridge here. After this it's a straight road upto Rabindra Sadan where we turned right into Harish Mukherjee Road. From Elgin we took the main SP Mukherjee Road and went upto Southern Avenue where we turned left towards the Lake. From Lansdowne crossing we turned right towards the Lake Gardens flyover and finally reached Laltu's house. This journey for me was 20 km. After this coming back home was another 3 km. 

I kept the Garmin Forerunner 15 on and here is the result from Strava.

At Laltu's we had a small adda session with tea from the road side stall below their house. Finally after about 20 minutes we parted our ways and came home. 

Chenku rode my refurbished Hero. I took the Merida. We swapped our bikes near Fort William but he soon returned it to me saying he was feeling uncomfortable and uneasy with the dropped handlebars. 

The last time he and I rode together was apparently in 1987 when the two of us went to our village Kuberpur near Madhyamgram for a day trip. That would have been a good 80 km ride. I am sure we can do it again. If he buys another bike we can go again this winter. I cannot go to Kuberpur with the Merida because the roads are really bad but with the Hero, I can. 

A Happy New Year Ride

Pic credit: Geetanjali Roy. Taken on 1st January 2017

Today is the first day of the new year 2017. I took out my Merida road bike after quite some time. I had planned to basically show it to Bobby. He had told me last week that I should get a road bike (when I went to his house with my Hero). Today's trip was principally meant to be an answer to that :-) I also wanted to ride for 50 kms at a stretch. My goal is to be able to do 100 kms at a stretch in the next 3/4 months. I guess I should get there sooner rather than later.

As things turned out, Bobby had left for US already and I didn't know this. At the end of the day I clocked some 43 kms in about 3 hours. This is my longest cycling trip so far. The average speed could have been better but for a few short walking stages.

So how did the body react to this stress? After about 12/15 kms the waist region on the back was aching a bit. But that is a question of fitness and practice. I guess once I start doing the waist stretches more regularly and ride more frequently it should get sorted. Some core strengthening exercise also have to be included. The pain was gone after I stopped and reached home. It is not a lingering pain, so to speak.

I also need to change my stance a bit and not ride so much on the drops. Necessity being the mother of invention, today I learnt to ride more on the hoods. But my ability to brake with the hands on the hoods is a little compromised. I need more practice obviously. If you are a novice and wondering what all this means here is a link to a good site on the subject

In my experience I realised that after 30 kms my body was wanting a short rest. This came in the form of a traffic light near Nicco Park and a stretch near Chingrihata where I had to walk as the road was all dug up there. I am sure this will go with practice.

I also felt very thirsty and had a bottle of water near Bobby's house, which is at around 18 km mark. I also took a short break near our school on the way back. One of the first things I did therefore, after coming back home, is to fix the bottle cage on the down tube. Next time I don't intend to buy drinking water. 

I did wear the Pearl Izumi bibs again today. Makes the journey a lot more comfortable than if I had nothing like that. But the roads of Calcutta are difficult for the road biker. The mastic asphalt stages are particularly difficult. Because they embed small stone chips on the road surface and they stay a little raised. In cars you don't realise it but on a road bike it's terrible. The worst stage was from Ruby to Park Circus. I don't think I am going to take that route any time soon. 

Today I took the Garmin Forerunner 15, rather than Strava because I wasn't sure if the phone's battery would be enough to last the entire journey with the Strava on. The Velo 9 kept the odo moving. I had forgotten to erase the trip meter. But that's fine. I am not training for the Olympics. The Garmin was capturing data in any case.

A Bottle Cage

A bottle cage is an important accessory one needs for anything beyond half an hour's cycling, particularly in this humid Calcutta. Today I went for a 43 km, 3-hr long ride on the road bike and I started feeling thirsty at around 12 km. At 18 I bought a small bottle of water and quenched my thirst. 

After coming back home, one of the first things I did is install the bottle cage that had come a few days ago from Merida. It has a hideous green colour that does not go too well with the red of the bike but then I have to do with it for now. 

Installation wasn't anything hi fi. New road bikes come with pre-punched and threaded holes. Those holes are covered by bolts with heads that need an Allen key. One needs to take those bolts off and fix the cage. The cage also came with its own bolts, which I am going to keep for any replacement need later. 

For precise understanding I used this video from youtube. I was a little foxed and after seeing this video realised that one needs to take off the bolts from the bike first :-)

For now, I think I am going to use a regular water bottle. I don't see any need to invest in a proper sports bottle. 

Incidentally, my other bike - the refurbished Hero - does not have any pre-punched holes. I think I shall get two rivnuts punched. This is a decent video on how to tighten a rivnut .

November 4, 2017

Tonight I installed the second bottle cage on my Merida. Tomorrow I am going to go on a 75 km practice ride. Intend to carry one bottle with plain water and another with electrolyte mixed water. This was my strategy during the Roopkund Trek.

These bottle cages from Merida are of decent quality. In a bad cage the bottle can come out if the road surface is bad or bumpy. It has not happened with me so far. And I have ridden on quite a few bad roads. I even had a mild, low speed fall where the bottle took the knock and had a significant scratch on it. However, the bottle never came out of the cage.

Having improved my cardiac and muscular efficiency through regular running and cycling, I feel less thirsty these days. The other day I completed 50 km without a stop and did not need to drink any water. Did not even stop to wipe my face clean. I sweat much less these days. I know it is bad not to drink water during such heavy exercises, particularly to keep electrolytic balance intact. But I took it as a challenge not to stop. Also, while wearing a bib I remain conscious that too much water might demand a pee break and with a cycling bib it might get embarrassingly difficult.

An Evening Ride

Went out with the Hero last night. I took a different route this time. From Golpark went towards Bijan Setu. On the other side of the setu went towards Jahaj Barhi of Kasba in search of our school friend Biswapriya Ghosal. Couldn't locate him and came back to the main road. Turned towards Garia from Ruby and then again right from the Anwar Shah Connector. When I reached home it was a good 17 km plus, though while riding I thought it would be more than 20. The thighs felt sore as usual.

I find I get a sore butt after about an hour of sitting on the saddle. To gain more mileage the first thing I need to do is get my butt used to the idea of long hours on the bike. At least two hours at a stretch. But finding two hours free time for cycling looks like a big order right now. Too many distractions in life.

But one thing I am fairly confident about nowadays is crossing a bridge. Perhaps due to the gears that the bike has but I am not scared of crossing any bridge. Last night, for example I climbed two bridges. Particularly the Jadavpur bridge was pretty high. But I could quite easily do it on first gear. 

The Kasba Connector has pretty decent surface for taking out the road bike. But traffic is also fairly heavy. As of now going out early in the morning looks like next to impossible. The road bike feels risky in heavy traffic.

On The Road After A Long Time

It's been some time since I rode the road bike. The principal reason for this is I need to go out with the bike early in the morning and finish it all before Calcutta wakes up. And that wsa not happening. Another major reason is since it is a road bike with a very thin tyre, it is very hard on the ass when I am on even a little bad road. And Calcutta roads are reasonably bad. Southern Avenue is passable but most other roads make you really rattle on the bike. 

So I have been riding the 'Ole Hero quite a bit of late. Just the other day on Guru Nanak's birthday I did a 17 km afternoon ride. But I kept on postponing the Red Roadie ride for quite some time. Meanwhile, due to the Hero's fat tyre my speed wasn't anything great. So that was another reason to bring out the Red Roadie.

Early this morning I went out with the Red Roadie for a short spin - complete with the HRM strapped to the chest and the Forerunner on the wrist. I have decided to go out for a half an hour ride every morning. This is to renew my fight against diabetes. On Monday I discovered my HbA1c had gone up to 7 from the earlier 6.1. So today was the first day of my new daily exercise regime. 

Front shifter of the Shimano Sora

Once on the road I realised I have totally forgotten how to shift the gears !!! That's typically me :-) The bike has two derailleurs (Shimano Sora SS). One in the front and another in the back. It has two shifters. With one on your right hand you change the rear derailleur, with the other on the left hand you change the front derailleur. For these two again there is one lever for the upshift and another for the downshift. 

As you can see this is too much for a small, old brain like mine to remember. And as is my wont I quickly forget everything after a few days. I have a mindset problem. For smaller things in life, I always tell myself: "never mind. I will work it out as I go". I did work out the shifter on the back but the front remained a mystery to me this morning. 

I got the confusion cleared just now from this video. But I know I will forget it all after a few weeks. That's why I am writing it all down. Each brake lever works as a shifter. The right lever is for the rear and left for the front. If you push the small lever on your right hand the gear will move to the smaller cog (technically called a higher gear). So if you are picking up speed push the smaller lever on the right hand side. If you are getting slower or moving up a bridge, push the larger lever to the left. The gear goes back from 9th to 8th and so on.

For the front derailleur, it is the opposite. You push the small lever and the chain moves from the larger cog on the right to the smaller cog on the left. This helps you to go up an incline. You can use that for riding against the wind also.

One thing to remember. It takes a lot more than a gentle push of the finger on the larger lever to push the front derailleur up from the smaller cog to the larger cog.

Here is my effort on Strava for all it's worth. As I say, my speed is way slower than the elite marathoners'. My first goal is to come out of this ignominy !! But if the roads were a little better and didn't slow me down I could have done that today itself.

And here is the view as seen by Garmin. The Garmin maps are just a little more reliable. Incidentally I never knew Garmin activities can be shared like this :-) On analysis of all this data I realised that in terms of effort put in, as evident from the heart beats per minute, this ride was nothing compared to even a short 1km run. I guess from the next ride onwards my focus will be on pushing the beats per minute up. Upto 170 is okay for me. But when you are cycling it is difficult to look at the watch on your wrist. Now I know why people in the west spend a lot of money on those attachments for tying the watch up on the handle bar.

One odd thing happened after the ride. This morning I had that typical burning sensation down the throat that you get after an acidity attack. After the 8 km half an hour ride when I came back I suddenly started feeling very sick. I puked out some watery something and then lied down on bed for a long time. Took a Pan 40 and skipped office to take rest.