Schwalbe Ultremo ZX TL Road Tubeless 1st Ride...

Garmin Connect File for 1st Ride

With the weather about to turn bad for the day, I thought I would get in a quick lunch time ride on the new Schwalbe Ultremo ZX Tubeless tire I put on yesterday.  Here are my thoughts on the tires:

Ride Characteristics:

Spinning Up to Speed:

The ZX were quick to spin up, and rolled smoothly along a paved rail trail that had branches and twigs all over it.  They seemed easier to spin up than the Fusion Tubeless, and that would make sense as they are lighter. 

Comfort:

The ride was very comfortable although short.  Tubeless are usually more comfortable as you can lower your normal pressure about 10psi.  This gives a bit more give on the tires and lower deflection with decreases rolling resistance. 

Cornering:

N/A:  I cannot tell yet as I road them on a flat straight rail trail.  Will update later on this.

Ascending Hills:

N/A: Flat ride,  more later.

Descending Hills:

N/A: Flat Ride,  more later

Roll Consistency: 

The ZX were easier to maintain a cadence once spun up to speed, and were consistent throughout the ride.  Making them a good choice for Tri Bikes.  This might also mean they are good on ascending hills, but have not experience with that.

Speed:

Well for me the ride today was about 1 mile and hour faster than my fastest time so far over the same ground for this year.  This could have been my enthusiasm for being on the road with new equipment, Placebo effect. However again this would make sense with lighter tires meaning so much more than static weight to performance.

Longevity

This is a big one for me. Will they last the test of time better than a regular road tire.  Only time will tell, and I will update this post on their overall value when I change them out at the end of the season. 

Conclusion

I think I will like these tires as I liked the Fusions.  My expectation for these new Schwalbe ZX TL Tubeless Road Tires is and was very high from all the hype.  I hold off on any judgement until I have had at least 300 miles on the ZX's.  This should be about mid July, and I will report back.

Schwalbe Ultremo ZX TL Tubeless Tire First Thoughts

Schwalbe Ultremo ZX TL Kit



After waiting for 6 Months for them to show their face on a bike shop shelf, I finally found a Schwalbe Ultremo ZX TL Kit.  I had received a gift certificate to the W.E. Stedman's Bike Shop in Wakefield, RI from my Parents some time back, and had time to go redeem it on father's day weekend.  Low and behold what did I find on the self, but the Ultremo Tubeless Kit that I was for so long waiting.  I could not resist the instant gratification of buying them right then, and walked away with a discount even.  Love Stedman's as it is an OLD SCHOOL bike shop.
Monday I posted the picture above on Facebook, and Dave from my LBS in CT (Cycling Concepts), whom I had told I wanted to try the Ultremo's wrote me an email to see if I wanted to order them, how ironic.  He has a set of tubeless rims that he uses with tubed tires, and is curious to see if the new Schwalbe's are something better than the prior generation Hutchinson Fusion 3 Tubeless.  After work, I went over to CC and we changed the Fusion 3 with the Ultremo's. 
Comparisons before my first ride are that the Ultremo's are lighter feeling and have a thinner sidewall than the fusions.  They also have a thinner profile.  They are way more obvious as Tubeless is prominently displays as a decal on the side of the tire, as Schwalbe in general like their graphics large and prominent.  The ZX also went on much easier with the supplied soap for the sidewalls, and putting the sealant in was a breeze.  The tire went on tight, but no where near as difficult as the Fusions.  This may be due to the thinner more flexible sidewalls.  The thinner sidewalls may also lead to better cornering.  The main contact area of the tire is also thin, which hopefully does not lead to a shorter road life, as the tire is not cheap.  The fusion tubeless only lasted me about 1500 miles max, so hopefully they will be better than that. 
Downside of tubeless road tires is the cleaning of the rims as the sealant is like glue when it dries and requires complete or near complete removal to get the next set of tires to seat correctly on the rims. I first remove the main leftover sealant with solvant and a scotch bright pad cut the width of the rim.  I then use a pick to clean under the Lip of the 7900 rims.  It takes a bit of time and work to get the sealant off the rims, but since it is only once per year, and no flats on the road for 3 years, Tubeless is worth the effort.  Nothing worse than a ruined road ride changing a tube on the side of the road.  Hands all messy getting your bar tape black, and then becoming frustrated trying to catch up...Yikes. 
Now for the test ride. Hopefully the tire will better mimic the regular road tire compared to the Fusion, as I think tubeless has come of age, and the need for better performing tubeless tires has been a must.

February Goal Achieved...

Thanks to Aimee making today an indoor ride at the shop, I was able to reach my February goal of 250 miles 4 days early...NICE!  This will give me a few extra miles this month with two shop rides left this week.  I usually do about 15 to 20 miles a ride at the shop and around 12 at home/school.  So the extra time should provide about 30 extra miles added to my current total of 260.  I might make 300 this month. For winter indoor training, that is huge.  My legs feel pretty good despite all the miles, so I am excited about getting outdoors. 
In comparing this year's to date totals to last year's, several things stuck out in my mind.  1 was that I had 200 more total miles thus far...HUGE!  Also, My cadence and speed are up as well...NICE!  In the past both numbers are lower, usually, indoor because of the rest periods, but I have been working hard with Power and Cadence that enables my speed to be up slightly.  Last year I had  a 100 miles outside, while this year I only have 15 or so.  This might make the transition to outdoor riding harder, but we will see. 
I believe that making monthly goals and being able to track my progress toward them is key to more miles.  It really helps me get off the recliner and into the saddle on the dreary days like yesterday.  Knowing I only had 20 miles left,  made me ride yesterday.  The goals also make me bring my bike to work on days when I might not have otherwise.  Setting realistic and attainable short term goals has been the key thus far.
Once I get outside I may have to increase my short term goals to realistically match my totals and keep me motivated.  This may in turn require me to rethink my long term goal and move that upward as well.  However, I will stay on the conservative side, unless otherwise indicated in future analysis. I am pumped to be ahead of schedule as last year I was always behind, or injured...Knock on wood!

Feb goal almost done on a dark rainy day...

As you can see above, I am almost at my Feb. goal with 5 days left to the week.  This gives me a cushion in April when I most likely will take a week off before outdoor season starts.  Today was a dreary cold rainy New England day, just cold enough to make it a lazy day.  But I got on my bike and managed a 10 mile ride to Angels in my living room torture chamber.
Tomorrow we have a gathering of indoor riders at CC, just to get together before we can go outside.  Should be a fun ride thanks to Aimee K.  Thanks for pushing Keith Aimee, will give me a reason to ride tomorrow.

PowerTap...First Thoughts..

Well I have had my Cycleops PowerTap G3 Hub and wheel for two ride now, and just wanted to quickly write down my thoughts.  The catalyst for making take the leap to power was using www.trainerroad.com with virtual power during The Tour of Sufferlandia (www.thesufferfest.com ).  I recognized the benefits of training with power over heart rate right away.  Power provides you a more accurate means of determining Intensity during training sessions.  This translates into a more precise way of developing consistent efforts at or around threshold leading to better pacing on the bike.  With HR you end up using perceived exertion more often to determine how hard to work to get to your heart rate zones often leading to overworking and under working during work/rest intervals.  Power provides instant feedback of intensity.

PowerTap and Garmin Edge 800 Pairing and Settings

The PowerTap pairing to the Garmin Edge 800 was quick and easy.  On the Garmin 800 you go to Menu, Settings, Bike Settings, Bike Profiles, Bike, Ant + Power, PowerMeter (set to ON), then Rescan while spinning the wheel. This will par the PowerTap to the Garmin 800.
Big Mike for Cycling Concepts gave me a tip about calibrating.  Each time you turn on the Garmin to use with the PowerTap, you bring up the light dimmer page by clicking the on/off button once, and then select the top far right icon (Power) and tap the Recalibrate button on the screen before pedaling.  Once Calibrated you can then start riding. Mike said that this should be done prior to each ride.
Second, that when place power on your main training page, you need to select Power - 3s Avg. instead of just Power.  My first ride I had just Power on the screen and the reading was to up and down for me to use, as it read instant power fluctuations.  This would be great if working on pedaling technique on rollers/trainer, but for intervals I found Power with 3 second average to be a more consistent predictor of power use.  Last night ride was done with this setting and more closely resemble the trainer road workouts I have enjoyed. 

First Take

After riding with power on both trainer road and now on my G3 PowerTap, I am a believer in training with power.  I have use Hear Rate for Decades (people who know me would say Centuries), but for cycling Power will provide a better platform for building consistently strong efforts, which will lead to better on road riding.  Maybe for me it will not mean faster, but more enjoyable and consistent leading to more miles.  NICE! 

For this year to date I have surpassed 500 miles.  Last year at this time I only had 333 miles, that is a significant improvement, as I felt I road a lot indoors in the beginning of last season.  I guess not!

PowerTap Wheel Build...

Yesterday I built up a my first wheel.  I choose to built a PowerTap Wheel after trying a PowerCal and Trainer Roads.  I just felt I needed more consistent data than the PowerCal provided, and more often than Trainer Roads alone. It is also true that I am a data geek, and needed the PowerTap to provide more accurate and consistent data. The Folks at Cycling Concepts provided me with the G3 PowerTap Hub. They had a Demo Wheel from last season that they sold me at a significant discount saving me around $400 off list (thanks Dave). 

Next was the choice of Rim.  I have had a custom wheel set built for me before with Mavic Open Pro, so that was my first choice, and my brother Nick choose a 340 Stans rim.  I looked at both, and then at the RR540 from DT Swiss.  I felt that the Open Pro was the same old same old, and Sondre said they would not have a black one in for 2 weeks, OUT!  The Stans was my next choice, but I was too soft according to Sondre for my Weight, always a factor.  Sondre recommended the RR540 from DT Swiss.  I check that out, but was on the heavy side.  DT had a new rim the RR440 Asymmetrical rim that intrigued me, as it most matched my Shimano Dura Ace.  Dave said they were not available until the end of March, so I found one at Wheelsmith.com and ordered it.  It came in on Monday last, and I built the wheel on Tuesday, a vacation day.

Sondre choose the DT Swiss Competition Spokes and the DT Pro Lock Nipple in Red Anodized Aluminum.  This color scheme matches my Dura Ace 7850 front Wheel which I have chosen to use with the PowerTap Wheel instead of building a new one. 

 

Now that I had all the parts I needed to start the build.  Before I actually built the wheel, I had to get the hub off of the old wheel.  I snipped it off in minutes.

Once I had the hub off the old wheel, Sondre choose the right spokes size  for both Drive and Non-Drive side, and laid them out separately on the workbench.  Starting with the drive side I put the Inward facing spoke in first making sure the the rim decals, valve hole and hub decals faced correctly offsetting by 3 holes to account for the 3 cross pattern for the 32 hole configuration (Chosen for strength and weight bearing ability).  After the inward facing drive side came the inward facing non-drive side spokes.  About half way done...

Up to now was the easy part, now it got a bit tricky.  The outward facing spokes on the non-drive side and drive side require a crossing of the other spokes.  It was over the first two crossed and under the last cross. The non-drive went like silk.  But the drive side ran into a glitch when the spokes shortened and I could reach with my fingertips, one of the nipples slipped into the rim. I took a bit of jiggling around but it finally came out.  Sondre then showed me how to use a nipple wretch to attach the rest of the nipples to the spokes.  Although I was done lacing I was hardly done with the build.

The next step involved using the nipple wrench to tighten each spoke down until the thread on each did not show anymore.  Being as careful as I could to get them evenly done.  I then tightened each on full turn, and then felt for tension.  The spokes that were obviously still very loose I tried to tighten to what I felt the others to be.  Then came the first truing.  Truing and rounding a wheel takes patience and touch.  Taking an 1/8 turn at a time one side or the other to push and pull the wheel into alignment.  I then turned another 1/2 turn on each, and rounded and trued again.   

It was now time to dish the wheel. (Dishing is when you check to see whether the wheel is centered or not using a dishing tool)

I was way off, and needed the wheel to go toward the drive side.  We also checked for spoke tension with of all things, a Spoke Tension Meter.  22  kilograms force was the Max Tension for the Drive Side for this wheel build, and I was at about 18, quite a ways to go.

Sondre was not in the shop, he went to a meeting about Mountain Bike Racing, so Mike told me how to move the wheel toward the drive side, but I would not believe him, so I went the wrong way, (Sorry Mike).  I am a bit stubborn and Mike has only Build 2 wheels to date, so I tried it the way I thought it should go...Not a good idea.  After dishing and figuring out I went the wrong way, I had to loosen the non-drive side and tighten the drive side twice.  I also had to Round and True the wheel twice more, before I had it dished, round and true. 

Video of the final spin.

 

 

Sondre had come back by then, checked my work, and pronounced it Adequate. Sondre changed the cogs from my R500 wheels to the new wheel, put a tube and trainer tire on, and I finished by connecting the PowerTap to my Garmin Edge 800.

I left the shop and headed over to Cycling Concepts in Glastonbury for our Tuesday Night Indoor Ride to test the wheel.  I rolled extremely well, but I had trouble with the Power Reading on the Garmin.  Dave Pilone thought it might be a conflict between the PowerTap and PowerCal, as both were connected the my Garmin.  I will wear a different HR Monitor tonight at Cycling Concepts in Rocky Hill to see if that will make a difference.  Hopefully it will, or I need to change the way in which it reads from the PowerTap Hub. 



Just want to again thank all the great folks at Cycling Concepts for their help and continued encouragement and enthusiasm for the sport of cycling.  Below you see Keith the owner in his Cycling Concepts kit.

 

 

Yearly Mile Goals ahead of schedule....

Above you see my goals graphically displayed as they are on Garmin Connect.  Their goal planner has improved ememcely over the past versions.  I love the use of graphs on anything, being a data geek, and the use of the graphs gives me a distinct idea of where I am and need to go.  The top graph illustrates my Feb. Goal, and it being Feb 11th, I need only 116 miles more to reach it.  Thanks to last weeks Indoor Two Ferry Ride, I am well on my way to my goal, and should surpass it with time and mile left over. 
I am way ahead of my mile compared to last year's indoor numbers, and should continue this trend. I hope my outdoor number match my indoor ones.  This will allow me much more flexibility throughout the riding season.  I just have to remember that miles are my goal not speed, and to take it a bit easier to prevent overuse injusry. 
Right now my legs feel great, and I hope this trend continues.

Goals Set on Garmin Connect

As I stated previously, my cycling goal for 2013 is to do 3000 miles.  So this morning I went on Garmin Connect and played with their Goal Setting Tool, and created an annual goal of 3000 miles.  This is fine for a long term goal, but wanted to break it down finer into smaller chunks of Monthly Goals.  Therefore, I decided to create midterm monthly goals of 250 miles.  That will be tougher to do in the Winter Training Months, but do-able.  Example, January totals as of today, 1-26 with 5 days left, I have 50 miles to go to reach my monthly goal of 250.As this week is the Tour of Sufferlandia, I should have no problems.
I am hoping that monthly goals will motivate me enough to ride longer with less intensity, but if I see my number drop, I may have to break it down to weekly goals. I hope not, but onward and upward as they say...
Today - HHNF or Hell Hath No Fury!  20 miles more..

First FTP Test Results of 2013...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/261152158#.UPGkPeX2dWo.gmail




OK bit the bullet and tried Training Roads getting ready for the Sufferfest Tour at the end of the month. Great program, and you get one month with money back offer and can cancel at anytime. I thought that since we did not get to do the Threshold Test at CC that I would try to determine my FTP using Training Roads, and did their 20 minute FTP Test. By the way, it is exactly like the Spineval version without coach Troy cheering you on, so I just use iTunes. 20 minutes is a long time without distractions.

Well, if you have an ant+ stick,which Nick and I do because we have the FR60 Garmin Watches, you can connect your speed and cadence, HR, and ever Ant+ power meter. So I made the mistake of connecting my PowerCal and it did not register during the test so I got no Power Data, not even the Estimated Power that Training Roads uses....Darn IT!

Thank Goodness for Garmin and Connect because their power data automatically calculates your best 20 minute Power Output that then can become your FTP. So according to Garmin my FTP is 187, not great but a start. I am going to do it again with Training Roads Monday using their 8 minute FTH Test and disconnect my PowerCal, and see what their Estimated Power with the Kinetic Trainer Gives me.

T