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

Swapped out my old 110mm stem with a new 100mm stem (Same brand and series from Oval Concepts, love their bars!). This setup : hands on hoods, the front hub is blocked. Feels more comfortable from today's trial ride. Only time can tell if this will solve my elbow problem. Today, I made arrangements to meet Ben for Faber but he did not make it so instead I went alone for the usual ECP - Loyang - Siglap route. As usual, I just told myself to "take it easy" and as always, this was not the case. I did pretty good speed at ECP, average speed was 31+ km/h prior to Coastal. I was 'following' 2 caucasian guys, about 4 bikes away, to try not to draft. At the turn-off into Coastal, they went ahead and I stopped for traffic (safety first). So, solo on Coastal, I did a modest 36-37km/h average and caught up with these 2 guys again. Had a bit of rest drafting @ 35km/h. Its amazing that they were doing this side by side and chit-chatting at the same time plus there was headwind...

What a day! I love being a bum. In this day and age....its a true privilege! All is not wasted in terms of cycling as I took the morning to swap handlebars between the FG and the Z3. So no more short drop traditional on the Z3. Its now got the traditional bend/drop OVAL R701 from the FG. This bar allows me to place the hoods at a higher position and give a flat transition between tops to hoods, unlike the aggressive sudden bend exhibited by the shallow version. I'm hoping this will reduce some stress on my right hand as I always thought the FG bar had a more stable platform for the hands compared the the shallow version. So as above, one can see the flatness between the tops to the hoods. The hoods are now effectively 2cm higher compared to the previous setup (93cm vs 91cm). Reach remains relatively the same (within 1cm I think). Oh yes, cool red bar tape! Looks to be good quality too (Bontrager)...so here's a full pic below....