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The First (real) Ride

by Matt Smith

August 13, 2011 - Filed under: Company

Comments (2)

Just got back from the first real ride on the R5ca. As I have done on previous builds, I would do the Donut Ride to really see how things performed.

This one was no different except for the fact I followed the hammer heads up Jane Street to Kettleby. The frame did very well as did most of the components. Except for some minor shuddering (which I had real problems with during a couple of very short shakedown rides yesterday where it was quite pronounced); rear derailleur up shifting; and loose seat bolts (my bad), it did very well. Too bad the old body wasn't up to it!

On the way out, about 20 km into the ride, I started to notice some rattling as I would go over bumps and cracks. It was getting worse and I thought it may be with the headset which I had initial problems with yesterday before we reseated it. At a light I started the old routine of bouncing the bike on the wheels to see if I could locate the rattling source. First the front wheel and then the back. I could feel the seat being loose so I had found my culprit. Only problem was, my multi-tool was in the saddle bag on the R3-SL back home. Now, I had to start asking people in the group (luckily it was a BIG group) if someone had any tools. Luckily Cheryl came through with a tool and Kevin, another long time Donut Ride fixture like Cheryl, had of all things a formal set of allen keys in his jersey pockets.

With saddle firmly bolted down, it was into chase mode to catch the group. When we made it to Keele, Kevin suggested that we take the über bike up Jane, so off we went. This is usually a group of the strong riders and sure enough Darko, probably the strongest rider in the group (and many time provincial champion) came with us on his time trial bike of all things! We knew we would be in trouble as Darko was looking to some quality time on the TT bike.

Expectations were suitably met as the average speed up Jane was 38 km/h. There was one 5 km stretch that the Garmin 500 showed us doing 45 km/h average. Jane is a slightly rolling road but mostly flat. I have the feeling it was Darko on the front for that stretch.

Once we passed through Kettleby (that's the remainder of the group making the turn in the picture), it was over to Keele and back down to 17th Sideroad through a series of real rollers. It was at this point the restrictor plate popped in my engine and I got dropped. As would have it, two other guys popped around the same point so we were able to work together to get us back to the bakery but not before everyone had already left.

Kevin was still part of the group who made it to bakery as the last group and we decided to try to time trial it over to Kennedy along Bloomington. Only this time we were into an east head wind. Kevin hauled my sorry butt over to Kennedy (probably repaying me for buying him stuff at the bakery in the past; always plan ahead folks!) and we were able to catch the group as they were about a kilometre from Bloomington after just turning onto Kennedy from Vandorf Sideroad.

Down Kennedy we roar on our way to Unionville. It was a group about the same size as that going up Jane but luckily this time without any of the players who could rip your legs off without getting their heart rate over 130.

As you have probably surmised, it was a fast ride. A very fast ride. The current setup accelerates very nicely and climbing seems to be easier even with tired legs. So it looks like Richard and Don did a very good job of engineering and building this frame. The THM brakes work very nicely. If I can localize the shudder during braking with the front brake, these brakes will do very nicely. I actually locked up the rear wheel a couple of times without really having to apply a lot of pressure.

Shifting, well, either that is with the cassette or the cabling. Not sure. I think I will get Chris to swap out the cable for regular cable to see if that solves the problem. At least it will eliminate one variable.

BBright? Well, how much is BBright and frame, I don't know. But as I mentioned, the bike is zippy and accelerates really well. I know I had a 15 m gap to close at one point on Jane when people started popping and I must admit this was one time I wasn't worried about catching the back rider.

And the wheels, yes the wheels. Why the Reynolds DV 32 ULs? Quite simply, those are the only tubulars I have at the moment. I am hoping to get a new set shortly. Which ones will they be? Well, you will just have to weight and see (sorry about the bad pun there).

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

2 responses for this Entry

Hermione says:

January 10, 2012

Nice write up. This is why I keep telling a lot of newer riders that it's the Engine that matters most. No matter how fancy of a bike you're on if you are not up to par the bike will not matter. Sure you'll suffer less but....well you get what I'm saying.

Alistair Scott says:

August 13, 2011

Toe in your brake pads and the shuddering will disappear. I have had the same problem with a set of mv 32's and 66's. This fixed the problem both times.

Alistair