.... the jackal rides and run....

On Sunday me and KL did a short loop around ECP-Loyang area (usual stuff). To make it more challenging and in anticipation of our fixed gear build, I decided to use a single speed on the entire ride. The route is mainly straight with a couple hills to boot towards the end. I used 53t x 17t, giving a gear ratio similar to the 48t x 16t that I'm planning to have on the fixed gear. The straight road - no problems; with a cadence of around 90rpm, I was doing right about 34-35km/h. The hills - I thought it would be hard but on the contrary, no issues, in fact I think I can still use an even higher gear to complete the hills. I did not even stand up to pedal on the loyang hills. At Parbury road, a short 12% grade slope, no problems too. For this one I stood up and gunned up the slope, no dramas. On this gearing I am very confident of doing Faber more so from the Morse road approach. Kg. Bahru approach....well....I think its possible for me and I am itching to try!! The problem for this g...

Last weekend, we got the frames DIY-rust proofed. We got a couple of cans of LPS3 - Rust Inhibitor and only used up about 1.5 cans. Sprayed right into the frame and fork, wherever we could get access to the insides of the frame. That was a quick 30 minute job. I left it hanging at home by the window grill and within a day, the liquid stuff has formed a sheet of tacky-like gum. Good stuff and will protect the insides for at least 2 years before a re-application is called for. Regarding 'the build'....well still waiting on Totalcycling's order!! Damn those guys are slow. Everything else is IN. So yesterday I did some experimentation. I installed the Shimano BB UN54, fixed on the crank, bolted it in and measure the chainline. It was approx 46-46.5mm.....way off the 42.5mm perfect chainline theoretically required by the DA hubs + cogs of the rear wheel. Upon further observation I noticed the drive side BB cup lip still had a good 1-1.5mm to go (I gave up cos that was like the l...

The Wheelset : Front and Rear Dura Ace 7600 Track Hubs laced onto Silver Mavic Open Pro's using 32 DT Swiss Competiton DB spokes. There are supposedly hand-built in the USA by a company called wheel master. They are by no means 'Peter White-quality' but they came pretty cheap considering the hubs alone are pretty expensive (~USD250 a pair). This set set me back a little over SGD550 plus shipping. If I got it built here, it would have cost at least SGD700+. This wheelset was purchased from an online store called Velomine. Look pretty good and its quite light as well, not as light as a road wheelset but hey, the hubs do weigh quite a lot! The cup & cone, loose bearings design of the hub ensures that the wheel spin freely and effortlessly. The hub design employ high flanges for better wheel stiffness. Design wise, its pretty unique! First check seems to show that the spoke tension is ok, well at least quite uniform in my opinion. Of course the important thing about buildin...

I expect everything to be in by this week (headset!). Everything else is here by the way. Received the Sugino Chainring and Cog this past week (also the Garmin GSC10 etc.). Here's the gold 'spare' cog I got via KL. 18T in GOLD. This will be the backup cog for hilly areas. I figured that using 48T front and 16T rear will be something for relatively flat areas. This combination can give me speeds >30km/h at 80rpm, which is something I am comfortable with. Beautiful 48T chainring from Sugino, great finish in my opinion, though I do expect the colour to come off at the teeth area with usage. It'd be a miracle if it doesn't! Here are the combination using the Sante crank, with the chainring in the inner and outer position. IMHO, outer looks better, but inner don't look as bad as I thought it would be. Now it boils down to whether the 107mm BB will give me an acceptable chainline on wither positions.

Dropped by GHC at Queen St. today hunting for a 70-107 bb namely the Shimano BB UN54 series. They did not have this but offered a Taiwanese equivalent from VP Components. KL and me also KMC Z410 SS chain for 10 bucks each, looks to be ok quality and for the price, well you can't complain much. So 'almost' all set. Still lacking the wheelset and chainring. The 107BB should in principle give me a 41-42mm chainline for the inner chainring.

The CiOCC fixed gear build is underway. Currently acquiring parts from all over the world to make this build reality. The track frame will be built with predominantly Japanese Parts. Some may say its heresy on an Italian frame but like I care! (current Colnago is built on Shimano Ultegra SL/Dura-Ace Mix). So far have managed to secure mostly vintage Shimano/Japanese parts, namely :- - Shimano 600 120mm stem (from my parts bin) - Shimano 600 27.1 Aero Seatpost (from my parts bin) - Shimano 600 Aero Pedals + Toe Clips (Ebay) - Shimano Exage Action Aero Brake Levers (LBS) - Shimano Sante Crank (from my parts bin) - Shimano Dura Ace NOS 1" Threaded Headset (TotalCycling) - Shimano Dura Ace NJS Stamped 16t 1/8" Fixed Cog (LBS) - ALPs Industrial 'Road Champion' Handlebar NOS 42cm (LBS) Other components - San Marco Rolls Saddle (Ebay) Pending/In Consideration - Shimano Dura-Ace 7600 Track Hubs laced to Mavic Open Pros (Velomine) OR - Formula/Velocity Deep-V wheelset (SGD200 ...

Welcome 2010! I just wanted to do something different to kick off the year. I was actually targetting 15 loops so I'm really short of the target! Left home at about 4.30am (only managed 3+ hrs of sleep) and the climb started a little after 5am. By the 8th (or was it 9th??) loop, exhaustion was creeping in which was kind of weird since the last time I did it, I did not feel this. Should have gotten more rest man.....still, managed to complete 11 rounds before meeting KL at Kg. Bahru for the last 2 rounds. Went slower than before, on average slightly over 10mins per round. I was also concentrating on NOT GRINDING and it worked because my knee felt 100% even after the climbs. Previously, they felt a little sore especially the left knee. Wanted to go into Sentosa after that but damn thing now is cyclist are charged....2 bucks for the person and 1 for the bike! WTF?? Never had to pay a single cent cycling into Sentosa and I didn't plan on starting so we turned back. Here's the S...