Road a quick 12 mile loop to Cycling Concepts and back yesterday as I only had about an hour to spare, but I really wanted to get to check out my new Hutchinson Tubeless Fusion 3 road tires. I road them at 95 lbs. front and 100 lbs. rear.
Just want to thank Dan for leveling my seat, as I was slipping foreward on the saddle, this made all the difference on the ride back home!
First Impressions of the Hutchinson Fusion 3 Tubeless Tires:
1. The are more supple than I expected. When I first got them they appears hard out of the box, but on the wheels they ride softer than I expected.
2. They are soft, but not mushy. This may be due to the lower tire pressure, but if you did the same thing with regular tube clinchers you would get mush. This is a good thing.
3. They spin up quickly, not super fast, but not sluggish either. They also accelerate when standing on climbs well. They are not as responsive as my old Vittoria Open Corsa's, but much faster than Gatorskins.
4. The ride is smooth, as smooth as the Vittoria's, but this is hard to say as this was also my first ride outside this year on my R3. As compare to my Specialized Sirrus and my Tommaso Team Custom, the R3 ride is incredibly SMOOOOOOOOTH! I could be riding on bricks and the R3 would feel smooth. Since I have only ridden it a half dozen times altogether with the Vittoria's I can't really give the Fusions all the credit here. However going over rough beat up roads as I did yesterday, the lower tire pressure sure felt good absorbing the bumps, and left me wanting to ride longer, all good things. With the Open Corsas, I use much higher pressure and they tend to bounce more leaving them to jar ones kidneys a bit, but not as much as Gatorskins.
5. Cornering is responsive and feels sturdy. As compared to gatorskins which I purposely slow down around corners with, the fusions are great, but compared to Open Corsas they are equal or just a shade below. Although again I have not ridden them on any tough fast corners as of yet, the fusions appear awesome, might be the lower pressure and thick side walls allow more tire to be on the road making it grip better.
Overall I am glad I made the switch, and depending upon durability, these will remain in the foreseeable future. If you have tubeless ready tire, like the Shimano Dura Ace 7850's on my bike, then go for it, you will not be disappointed.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
"Angels" - Indoor Hills
Angels, a sufferfest Video, at Cycling Concepts at Garmin Connect - Details. The ride was hard but felt strong even after working hard last night in Newington. Angels is a hill workout with the main set being 3 intervals of 8 minutes long with 4 minutes in between as recovery. I actually enjoyed the work, and felt great, giving me hope going into the new outdoor season. Maybe the indoor work is finally paying off after a lack luster beginning to the indoor season.
Riding with no data is better....What?
Funny how you get used to having Data when you ride indoors, or even outside. Last night I did my usual indoor ride at Newington Bike without my trusty Garmin at my side, I left it attached to the computer. The upside is that I found myself riding by feel, as I always used to, and liked it. I just wish I had the data to analyze the difference between knowing my HR, and not knowing during indoor workouts. I am curious to know whether I road harder with data or without.
When I ride with the Garmin, I feel I watch my HR and regulate my effort to reach certain HR's zones, which as an old fart I do liberally. When I ride without the Garmin I ride by effort and fatigue. When I get tired I slow down, (Dah). However last night I did not get tired often, so I just kept raising the bar a bit.
The problem now is that I don't have any data to compare to show how I felt translates into reality. I would love to compare HR's on Garmin's Training Center software. This would provide me with real information about whether I bumb down my rides based on my HR and that Data watching is not always a good thing.
I also loose the miles on my yearly goal of 2500 total miles for the year. This year I have only not had my Garmin twice on rides of 10 and 15 miles for a total of 25 miles. This is insignificant now, but last year I lost a bunch more, as I did not ride with the Garmin on all my commutes, loosing 10 miles a day 3 times a week for about 3 months, (A guestimation). Since this year I do not commute, as I change job locations, and am now too far to commute regularly, this loss will not be significant. The answer may lie in placing my Garmin in a rear pocket during 1 ride per week, and comparing the results...A sort of lab experiment on myself...KEWL.
Stay tuned for the results of this experiment to be posted sometime later this summer.
When I ride with the Garmin, I feel I watch my HR and regulate my effort to reach certain HR's zones, which as an old fart I do liberally. When I ride without the Garmin I ride by effort and fatigue. When I get tired I slow down, (Dah). However last night I did not get tired often, so I just kept raising the bar a bit.
The problem now is that I don't have any data to compare to show how I felt translates into reality. I would love to compare HR's on Garmin's Training Center software. This would provide me with real information about whether I bumb down my rides based on my HR and that Data watching is not always a good thing.
I also loose the miles on my yearly goal of 2500 total miles for the year. This year I have only not had my Garmin twice on rides of 10 and 15 miles for a total of 25 miles. This is insignificant now, but last year I lost a bunch more, as I did not ride with the Garmin on all my commutes, loosing 10 miles a day 3 times a week for about 3 months, (A guestimation). Since this year I do not commute, as I change job locations, and am now too far to commute regularly, this loss will not be significant. The answer may lie in placing my Garmin in a rear pocket during 1 ride per week, and comparing the results...A sort of lab experiment on myself...KEWL.
Stay tuned for the results of this experiment to be posted sometime later this summer.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Mounting Hutchinson Fusion 3 Tubeless on the R3...
I had to take a personal day today due to a flooded basement from the rain and melting snow of last night. I finished around 10:30 am with the cleanup, so I decided to go to Cycling Concepts to have Sondre help me with the install. Good thing, because there were several errors I would have otherwise missed. A good reason to have a relationship with your LBS is their expertise and experience with these things. Sondre is a very good mechanic and is always very helpful to me, and knows I like to do most of the work myself. CC allows me the luxury of doing my work there on new things with their help.
I took off the old Vittoria Open Corsa I had on, but forgot my tubeless stems that came with my 7850 wheels, so I went back home to get them. Had to have Sondre show me how they went on, as they were directionally different. I would have put them on wrong, and maybe messed the install up completely or had leaks otherwise.
Sondre took on wheel and I the other, and began mounting the Hutchinson Fusion 3's to the rims. We had to partially unscrew the stems to get the bead to mount correctly to the rim, but the most difficult part was getting the last bit of tire over the rim without levers. It took both of us to get it over the lip. We used Stan's in the wheel to give it added flat protection, in the manner viewed on the video by Stan himself, by pouring it into the tire, and slowly turning the wheel until it was at the bottom of the rim. After mounting the tire on the rim, we inflated it with compressed air. The rear leaked a bit at first, but the front went on without any leakage at all. I then inflated to 120lbs with a hand pump, and rear snapped into the rim with a thunk. Sondre said to leave it a 120lbs until I ride and then reduce the tire pressure to around 100lbs in the rear and 95 in the front.
I brought the wheels home and put them back on the R3, and now I am ready to roll, hopefully without a flat!
Bought Sondre and Dave a pizza for their efforts from Michael Angelo's next door.
I took off the old Vittoria Open Corsa I had on, but forgot my tubeless stems that came with my 7850 wheels, so I went back home to get them. Had to have Sondre show me how they went on, as they were directionally different. I would have put them on wrong, and maybe messed the install up completely or had leaks otherwise.
Sondre took on wheel and I the other, and began mounting the Hutchinson Fusion 3's to the rims. We had to partially unscrew the stems to get the bead to mount correctly to the rim, but the most difficult part was getting the last bit of tire over the rim without levers. It took both of us to get it over the lip. We used Stan's in the wheel to give it added flat protection, in the manner viewed on the video by Stan himself, by pouring it into the tire, and slowly turning the wheel until it was at the bottom of the rim. After mounting the tire on the rim, we inflated it with compressed air. The rear leaked a bit at first, but the front went on without any leakage at all. I then inflated to 120lbs with a hand pump, and rear snapped into the rim with a thunk. Sondre said to leave it a 120lbs until I ride and then reduce the tire pressure to around 100lbs in the rear and 95 in the front.
I brought the wheels home and put them back on the R3, and now I am ready to roll, hopefully without a flat!
Bought Sondre and Dave a pizza for their efforts from Michael Angelo's next door.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Indoors again at Nick's
Recovery Ride at Nick's house today doing "The Hunted" a www.thesufferfest.com video -Garmin Details.
Worked very easy for the first part of the ride, but picked it up a bit near the end. Was the first time Nick and I have ridden together for 2 weeks or so, as he was traveling. Most of the time we were chatting about his travels and his vacation and riding in Florida. Must be nice!...
This time of year I always get a bit lougy from allergies, and it hit me today. After the ride I felt much better though, as riding always makes me feel. We did get the outdoor bug, and am looking forward to riding outdoors again...Soon!
Worked very easy for the first part of the ride, but picked it up a bit near the end. Was the first time Nick and I have ridden together for 2 weeks or so, as he was traveling. Most of the time we were chatting about his travels and his vacation and riding in Florida. Must be nice!...
This time of year I always get a bit lougy from allergies, and it hit me today. After the ride I felt much better though, as riding always makes me feel. We did get the outdoor bug, and am looking forward to riding outdoors again...Soon!
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