Sunny Sunday

What a wonderful day!

 I left the house 8 o'clock. I wasn't in the "go far away" mood, but I had a complete plan. First I rode out to Box hill and did the Zig-Zag climb 6 times. After when I finished the climbing I went straight in Richmond park and rode 6 laps. I did 178km and my time was around 6 hours. 

The weather was a bit windy but the sunshine was amazing! I got my new "sun-lines" today! :D

 I hope in the next couple of months all weekend will be the same! 

I got home around 2 o'clock and I had a lovely lunch in the back garden.... welcome summer! 

Bar-brake on top of the Box hill

Feel the speed...

Sun-lines

"Holy shit" shoes- The Bont story

Two guys came in our shop last Saturday. They looked some really good road shoes. I thought that I show mine one. When I given it for the guys, one of them just told : "Holy shit... WFT?" 

I realized in the next moment, that I have this shoes more then 6 months ago and I didn't post on the blog! 

N.G. (the guy, who is the Bont distributor in the UK) walked in the shop with a pair of Bont shoes nearly 9 months ago. I felt in love with this shoes in the first second... and this love just been stronger when I realized I can order in pink color! I had to wait n

early 3 months, because Pink wasn't in stock and mine one came straight from Australia. 

Bont is a small family based company in Sydney since 1975. (you can read the whole story here )

Order is really easy with size vise. You can find a really smart sizing chart on Bont's page. If you know your size, after you have to choose your color (8 colors available), your pedal type (you can order Speedplay or usual type) and your closing mechanism(shoe leeds, straps or combinated). All type are fully heat moldable, basically when you get it, you can personalised for yourself.  It is not cheap, costs around £240, but if you have deeper pocket, you can choose full custom model (laser scan tech) which one cost around £600. 

I use mine one nearly 4 months ago and I am really happy with it. After I did the heat molding, the first 700km was a hell.... shoes brake my feet everywhere, but after this period they works fine! I use with Speedplay pedals but I ordered the standard cleats fitting type. I could fit the cleats with the Speedplay adapter without any problem.

I used Sidi, Specialized and PI shoes before, but you can't compare these ones with the Bont. Unbelievable stiff and light! I will order one more pair i

n white color and I can't wait when Bont will start to make the off road version! I know, it is not the cheapest option, but if you look something unique design and very high quality products, choose the Bont! 

Gallery

 

Snapped spoke...

I went for a short 3 hours ride this morning. The route was Croydon-Box hill-Richmond-Croydon. When I started to climb up Box hill on the Zig-Zag road, I just heard some strange "ping" noise and the next second I felt something wrong. After I stopped and realized I got a broken spoke. Ohh well... wheel wasn't too bad, I fixed the broken one to the next spoke and finished my ride without any problem. The cornering was a bit tricky and over 55km/h, when I looked down, I felt I will get epilepsy...

My wheels built with Sapim CX Ray spokes. Personaly I never was a big Sapim fun... and after this I definitely change my spokes for DT Swiss aero light! 

I am off now, one really good friend of mine comes to visit me from Hungary. Have a nice Sunday everybody!

Tufo order

Thanks God and Sonic Cycles, my Tufo order has arrived today. Finally I have proper tubs again. I got 3 S3 Lite and I also ordered 4 tub tapes and 4 bottles sealant fluid. 

Tufo S3 Lite is on of the lightest road tub on the market. 700X21 weight is <210gr.

Also really good stuff the Tufo tub tape. First of all , you don't mess around your expensive carbon rim, secondly you can carry one with you next to your spear tub and if you get some unfixable puncture, you can change easily the tub and safely carry on  your ride.

Tufo is a small company in Czech Republic. If you don't know  this company , give a look for it!

Scalpel- Episode 3.

Finishing kit:

I think one of the most personal units on everybody's bike, the finishing kit! We are all different, everybody has a favorite saddle, grip or handlebar.

The original setup was:

-FSA K Force handlebar

-FSA K Force seatpost

-Fizik Tundra saddle 

-Cannondale SI stem 

-Sram grips

I didn't keep any from the old bits.

New setup:

Grips:

I put straight on my old Ergon  Team one. One of the best endurance grip on the market, without any question! If you never tried before, you should! 

Saddle:

I changed the original seat, because the Ritchey seatpost dosn't work with the wide carbon rails. I chosed the new Fizik Antare model, wich one is road specific saddle, but looks good for MTB use. 

Stem:

it is on the Scalpel is a different story. You havn't too much choice on the market, but I found the most bling-bling one. I ordered one from LeoRacing, it is made by FRM exclusive for LeoRacing. It is carbon-alloy model. 149gr in 115mm long with Ti bolts.  

The handlebar and seatpost are the new Ritchey Superlogic range. The low rise handlebar is 64cm wide and 150gr. The seatpost is 350/27.2 and 157gr, thanks for the 1 bolt head design. I use Ritchey parts ages ago, and I never had any problem with this bits. 

The bike will be done soon. I just wait the fork back from 88+ Belgium, I have to sort out my tires, it isn't too easy fit the Conti Supersonic tyres with Stan's. And I have to order my new pedals. I don't know this moment which on is going on the bike, but I have couple of idea......

KOTD update

Just a quick update. If every informations are correct, it looks that I rode the best time on the last weekend! I well happy! :)

King of the downs- 184km time trial....

I found this sportive ride on the web couple of weeks ago. The organizer was Evans Cycles and the course looked really interesting. "Why not?"- I thought and  did my entry quickly online and waited the day. 

17/May/Sunday

I woken up early, 4:30. I felt a bit tired but it was normal, because this day was my last training day before my rest week, after 3 weeks hard training and nearly 1700km. I thought this sportive can be some nice training ride.  I planed to catch the 6:07 train from Croydon. I had  breakfast and a quick forecast check. I chosed summer top and short with arm and knee warmer(I had to realized later, this was a mistake!). 

Short ride to the train station. Little incident was on the train, too much cyclist on the board, but Southern handled the problem well and we got an other train. 

The event center was well organized, I got my start number in my hands after 3 minutes. 

I started the ride around ten past seven. 

The course was really good, but the weather wasn't. It started to rain after 35km, and some English monsoon arrived and followed me with some 35-40km/h wind on the next 120km. I wasn't able to open my energie bars or shift on my bike, because my hands were ice cold (I rode the whole event with 2 energie bars and a bottle of SIS drink). But I just rode and rode and enjoyed!  The course went over 10 "major" climbs. Every second was a pleasure, but I could share just with myself. I didn't meet anybody, who wanted to ride with me.... couple of guys tried to keep up with me before we went out the second loop, but it was a joke... (Sorry, I was tired, but why should I ride with 26km/h when I can ride with 30km/h...). Basically I did a long time trial. 

The rain stopped on the last 30km, but the wind didn't give up. 

I finished with 6 hours and 26 minutes. I am really happy with this time, I think it is acceptable after 3 weeks load and considering the bad weather conditions. 

The organization was excellent, really good course, amazing feeding stations and nice goody bag after the ride. I will be there again in  next year!