Creaking and squeaking

Monday's ride over the backside of Papa Bear -Bear Creek Rd. if you aren't familiar with Berkeley- and Happy Valley was a lot of fun. But it also bothered me that the new KOM was making a lot of noise. The saddle creaked, and so did the handlebars. Tightening the bolts did nothing to alleviate the noises. It may even have made things worse.

The remedy turned out to be very simple: undo the bolts, apply some grease here and there, and tighten again. That took care of it and creaks and squeaks are now a thing of the past.

On Tuesday I ran 8.8 miles in the hills. On Wednesday I rode on rollers for 1:15, burning my customary 1,221 calories. On Thursday I had a pretty busy day going over to Marin for work, so I rested. On Friday, it drizzled and rained all day and I went for a run. It was clear when I took off, but as soon as I was down the hill a light drizzle started. I ran intervals up Bay Forest for a total of 7.5 miles (7 laps). It turned out to be a great choice.

Saturday was clear and I went on a 40 mile ride through Orinda and Moraga. I felt good and rode the hills quite fast. All went well until some guy passed me on the last hill. By now I was pretty tired -and I probably should have eaten something too- so I had to let go of him. Even so, I felt good and I think I got a good workout.

On Sunday I rode 28 with Alistair going up past Bort Meadow and coming back over Redwood. It was sunny but rather cool, especially on Redwood Rd. This time of year, Redwood is shaded for most of the day and it is also protected from the wind. That means it can get quite cold there, and near the bottom, ice may form in the early morning and at times it lingers until noon.

The bottom or Redwood near Pinehurst, and the intersection between Pinehurst and Canyon Rd. are some of the coldest spots in the East Bay.

Today 7.25 mi run in the hills. Overcast skies, cool weather.

Dazzle camouflage

I was riding with Alistair this weekend and he was wearing his '08 Team Specialized Jersey. The jersey is bright red with a large white S cutting across the front and back (see picture). When you look at it really stands out. Yet when racing in a pack I -and many others- had always noticed how hard it was to find him, or his team mates in the group.

Then I was reminded of something I read a long time ago about camouflage. There is such a thing as "very visible" camouflage, technically called Dazzle Camouflage or Razzle-Dazzle.

It sounds counterintuitive but when you paint an object in bright and large patterns it plays tricks on your visual system, especially when the object is moving.

Dazzle camouflage was used briefly in WWI to confuse enemy gunners. It was said to interfere with the gunsights that were used at the time. But I can attest to the fact that you don't need a gunsight to be confused. What matters here is the contrast, the size of the patterns, and the speed of movement. When these three interact within certain ranges, things can become very difficult indeed.

Here is a picture of a British warship painted in Dazzle. The British abandoned this type of masking when radar was introduced. Painting dazzle is more expensive and time consuming than "regular" camouflage.

What happens in dazzle is that your visual system wants to break up the image along the very visible edges and then your brain puts pieces together that don't belong together. I.e. it is as if you parse a piece of text the wrong way and make words out of groups of letters that don't belong together. That makes all subsequent recognition next to impossible. The trajectory, the speed, even the boundaries of the object all become hard to find, let alone the actual recognition of a person.

The newer Specialized Team jerseys have a smaller S pattern and less contrast making for a much improved experience.

On Saturday I went to Hellyer and did a three hour track workout. I am still trying to get used to the fixed gear. Things work well as long as speeds are reasonable. But I do not like going all out on a fixed gear.

I rode a 200 m time trial with flying start and got to 15 s -which is pretty slow-. I know I was holding back for fear of locking up once past the finish. Apparently my intentions were obvious because one of the guys came over afterwards and told me, you didn't look like you were going all out on that bike? Well so much for that.

I wish we had a track in Oakland or Berkeley so I would not have to waste so much gas just to get a workout. Driving to a workout is not something I like doing.

On Sunday, I rode with Alistair and Barbara up Redwood to Chabot park. I tuned up KOM some more beforehand and we are getting close to perfect. Some minor glitches (the saddle squeaks a bit) remain to be worked out but the bike is almost perfect now. It is a great ride.

KOM

I finally built up the frame that I bought almost a year ago. It had been sitting in my bedroom, nicely wrapped up in the original box it came in. Why? Not sure. It is true that I did not have the components at first and then in early Spring, I was reluctant to buy new things given the economic uncertainty. For a while prices were dropping and I probably held out for too long trying to get the Record UT Crank I wanted.

Then there were a number of incidents that stopped me every time I wanted to get going. Components I already had were suddenly needed to fix mine or Alistair's bike. The Ergomo I got for Alistair broke and I had to use the Campy bottom bracket I had earmarked for my frame. When I finally decided to get the Campy UT crank, I was unable to find a 175 at a reasonable price anywhere. Eurobikeparts had one for $350 but when they sold out I could not find another for less than $500.

To add insult to injury, my '06 carbon record crank lost a bolt and nut and nobody anywhere had a replacement for it. I ordered one set three times, and three times the order got canceled weeks later because the parts were out of stock and no new ones had come in. This may be hard to believe but it is true. I lost the bolt/nut combo in July and I still have not been able to find the torq bolt that I need. Record carbon uses non-standard, "special bolts and nuts." What a great idea that was!

Last week I decided enough was enough and I was just going to build it. I did and it took less than a day to do although I had to scavenge the chain from my tri bike. I was able to go ride the KOM that same afternoon. It felt great. The frame is super stiff and super light. And even though it is one of those "cheap Chinese frames that gets an Italian label and is then sold at exorbitant prices in the US" as Peter Koskinen would say, I still love it.

I want you to know that I did not pay an exorbitant price. I got the frame cheaper than what the lower end Kuota's sell for. Actually the whole bike was a super, super-deal and it cost less than some high end used bikes I was offered for sale by friends of mine.

Economists may not agree, but I say deflation is for real!

Friday: 20 miles with new bike.

Sat: 30 miles with new bike.

Sun: 7.25 mi run in the hills (with ultra-light shoes)

Mon: 1:10 on rollers. I felt pretty tired. Not sure why.

Tue: rest

Wed: 8.75 mile run in the hills (ultra-lights)