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Giro di Goodwood

by Matt Smith

October 09, 2011 - Filed under: Company

Comments (3)

Three years ago, I was in Italy preparing for the Gran Fondo associated with the Giro di Lombardia which is commonly known as the race of the falling leaves. It being fall here in southern Ontario, we were treated to an amazing day for riding with the temperature soaring to 27°C (80°F). We decided to do a civilized version of the race of the falling leaves except we left out the race part.

While we didn’t have the Madonna del Ghisallo at the top of one of our climbs, we still were able to do about 1,100 m of climbing today and that is without any mountains. Not as much as you would have with the Giro di Lombaria Gran Fondo, but about 300 or 400 m more than a typical donut ride.

We started out as usual from Jet Fuel and of course, Thorben and Ireen were late. I’ll bet an espresso that Thorben will be late submitting his PhD thesis when the time comes. We were joined by Mike, who was on the previous Goodwood trek, and by Mo, who is a regular on the donut ride and who lives in nearby Cabbagetown. We did our usual exodus out of the city via Kingston Road and were joined by Joe again near the Toronto Zoo. At least this time we didn’t have to stand around waiting for him to find us.

When we finally got outside the city, we had a quick conference as to what route to take to Goodwood. Mo bid us farewall as she needed to get back to the city and we finally agreed to head east along Whitevale Road to make our way over to Westney Road North which is a hardpacked gravel road. Unlike the previous gravel road adventure back from Goodwood a month ago, this one was well travelled and had no boulders, just a few pot holes. Another major difference was that it was all uphill. While not 7 or 8% in slope, more like 2 to 3%, it was still up hill for 10 km. This will probably be the closest I get to a long sustained climb this year. Although I am tempted to email Francesco to try to get me into the Giro di Lombardia Gran Fondo and fly over for a weekend to really try out the bike, I don’t think I can quite pull that one off.

Yes, as you can tell, I really would like to be able to test the bike out on some real climbs. Having straightened out the issues with the head set (a missing washer) and the seat post (well kind of, I got myself a 3T DORIC LTD seat post for the time being while I get the Schmolke seatpost hopefully sorted out), the bike is doing really well. Since the original build, I have put 2,500+ km on it according to the Garmin 500. I have close to 2,000 km on the Reynolds RZR wheels and am having a hard time taking them off the bike. No, it isn’t that kind of hard time as in a problem; it is that they have performed so nicely that I don’t want to take them off! Even with the heavier Vittoria tires, the wheels perform really well. Yes EVO Corsa CX tires add an extra 150 or 160 g to the bike but I would rather have the durability over the weight while pedalling around this berg!

One of the more interesting developments in the last month is that I will probably pull the trigger on getting a power meter. Damon has been pestering me to get a meter almost from the time he started with Vroomen•White•Design except that I have always balked at the weight of these animals. Mike was even complaining that when Thorben gave him his old PowerTap wheels, it added a whack of weight to the bike.

I know the Garmin folks have announced their Garmin Vector pedal-based power meter but that may require a switch from the Speedplay pedals I have which have allowed me to dial in a position which works almost perfectly. It is a very clever wireless system which from the looks of it doesn’t add much weight to the bike.

However, I did stumble across a system which is still in development from a small group of engineers based in Dublin, Ireland. Brim Brothers have come up with a brilliant system which adds zero grams to the bike! Yes, zero! Me like that! It is a shoe based measuring system which has the sensor located between your cleat and the sole of the shoe. A wire from the sensor runs on the outside of your shoe to the meter/battery/transmitter which then transmits the data to an ANT+ device such as the Garmin cycling meters.

They showed off the meters at Interbike this September and hope to have the system ready for some time in 2012. The beauty of this system is that if you have multiple bikes with the same pedal system, you just clip in and go. No swapping pedals, wheels or cranksets. So, from my perspective here, it would be neat to be able to use these to compare the R3-SL with the R5ca on a couple of really unpleasant climbs.

Now, one of the more pleasant surprises so far is that PowerCordz are doing really well! While we were not able to use them with the THM Fibula brakes (which by-the-by are doing quite nicely in their own right), the shifting is doing nicely both front and rear. The cassette on the rear is the KCNC Ti cassette and it doesn’t always play nice with the SRAM rear derailleur. Mind you, I have never been able to get any non-SRAM cassette to play nice to date. Down shifting, no problem, but up shifting, that is a different story and depends on where you have the chain on the cassette when you do try to up-shift. I will be swapping out the cassette soon for the normal SRAM cassette which does have the special grove in the cassette to aid in the shifting.

And finally, the overall look of the bike does garner stares. Tuesday while trying to get in a late ride before the sun went down, I decided to try to do a ride on the Leslie Street spit. Little did I know that they were filming along Unwin Avenue so I was held up for a few minutes waiting for them to finish a car scene. When they finally came to our waiting point, the film crew pulled over to the side of the road and the car being filmed had a female driver who upon stopping looked over to where I was waiting and noticed the bike. I was very surprised to see the expression on her face as she nodded in approval the bike I was riding. Well, I didn’t make it to the spit as I shortly discovered they had repaved a horrible section of the road and decided to do loops which many cyclists used to do before the bridge was closed (and since replaced) and the just paved section in question previously beaten into submission and made horribly un-ride able. So, doing loops of Commissoners, Cherry Street, Leslie and Unwin, I encountered the filming a few more times and only afterwards realized it was Piper Perabo who is the lead actor in Covert Affairs.

3 responses for this Entry

David says:

October 20, 2011

Nice blog Matt. Durham and York Regions really are the best places to ride. One quick point though: The shoe-based system might not add weight to the bike, but it still affects your overall weight when riding!!! When you're going up a hill your body, bike and all other items attached to you affect your ability to go up! What you had as a snack affects your power-weight ratio; a long hair-style affects... Also, doesn't it affect your pedalling?!? Shoes should be weightless so your pedal-stroke is effortless. Carrying even an extra 100g on your feet would tire you out after 2-3 hours.

Jeff says:

October 18, 2011

Hey, I know where that first pic is exactly. I was through there on the holiday monday, what a great weekend for riding. I'm surprised you opted for a gravel road to get to Goodwood - wouldn't Scarboro-Pickering Townline be a better choice? Up to Webb Rd, over and up again to Goodwood. A great route and north of GW you get some lovely tarmac with almost no traffic, plus lots of rolling hills. Forget the Donut ride, Durham is where the best riding is :)

Don says:

October 12, 2011

Re power and adding no weight to a bike is the Cycle Ops PowerCal with HR. It may not be as precise as a PowerTap but it is far less expensive. If 95% accuracy is acceptable then it offers a good possibility.