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Sea Trials - Day 2

by Matt Smith

August 14, 2011 - Filed under: Company

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Just before ship builders hand over the new ship to the owner, they perform a series of sea trials. Well, I am doing something similar by trying the bike out on some of my tougher training spots. Not having the legs for another Donut Ride today and looking at the early weather radar, I figured I would do a short ride.

I decided to head out to Bluffer's Park Marina which is just below the Scarborough Bluffs on the eastern side of the city. Getting there is a nice steady uphill ride with a couple of long (long is a relative word here as this is Flatland) low slope hills that take Kingston Road to the top of the Bluffs. Going out along Kingston Road is not bad, coming back is brutal. The road conditions on the way back are more suited to a mountain bike with full suspension. There are parts of the road to make some of Italy's nasty roads look down right smooth in comparison.

One of the "climbs" is a 750 m climb of around 4%. Even with a slight head wind, the climb was smooth and relatively easy. I was even able to snap a picture of the Garmin while doing it (I was doing 25.3 km/h and the heart rate was 144). By the time I hit the top, the legs were the only thing hurting but considering yesterday, that was somewhat understandable. The second picture shows the view up the road.

When I got to Brimley Road, I made the turn to go down to the marina. From a high point of about 178 m down to 90 m at the bottom of the hill, the grade of the road is generally 9 to 11% over the 800 m. The cassette on the bike at the moment is an 11-23 with a 50-36 compact crank. So, no cheating on this one.

The last two shots above show the start of the climb. Given the difficulty of the slope and the lack of easy gears, there was no way I was even going to attempt a picture during that climb! Also, the road is not the smoothest as it undulates making the climb even more difficult.

Much to my surprise, I didn't really have to dig deep even with legs which weren't in the best condition. Usually, I have to get out of the saddle on that climb (my R3-SL has an 11-23 cassette as well) but this time I didn't. And another surprise, the Garmin showed that my heart rate maxed out at 166 which while in the red zone wasn't quite at the maximum.

Now, this doesn't mean I am about to start doing mountain climbs with an 11-23. I am dumb, but not stupid.

The climbing sea trials aren't done yet. I still have 3 or 4 more hills to go play on. One set I did on Friday during the intial shake down but this time I really want to give them a go now the bike setup is getting dialed in. And thanks to Alistar for reminding me to set up the brakes. Adding some toe to the pads definitely helped the shudder. Now it is only shuddering at low speeds.

Now, here is something the reviewers aren't going to tell you about. This will probably one of the easiest bikes to clean. I noticed the bike was dirty (but not needing a full bath) when I was adjusting the saddle height after the ride so I went and got a damp cloth to clean the spots off of the frame. Lo and behold, I was able to get into all the tight spots like between the BB and rear wheel and seat post which on the R3-SL were very hard to get at unless you had tiny fingers. I very much doubt that the engineers were thinking about that when they were designing the frame, but, hey some of the design decisions resulted in greater clearances. Bonus!

You can receive instant updates on the Crazy Light project by following me at http://twitter.com/#!/cervelomatt

Also, to read the original blog series, you can check them out at http://crazylight.cc