In May, I was given the Nike + wristband to test. I generally run on a treadmill but have entered a 10k outdoor run in July so this would be a useful training device. The Nike + pack comprised of a shoe sensor and a wristband. Whilst manufactured by Nike, the shoe sensor can also fit Adidas trainers, so not restricted to a shoe brand when buying the product. The wrist band is both a monitoring device and a watch. It comes in a choice of 3 colours; I have the charcoal with yellow backing. I have not worn it as a time piece, only as a monitoring device when running. But I’m sure the style would suit some people.

On set up you have to download the Nike software onto a pc, easy enough. Enter a few personal details onto the devise, again easy enough. The biggest set up step for me, was calibrating the device. I measured a kilometre distance outside using a car. I then ran this distance and used this distance and time as my calibration input.

With set up now complete, I did three separate runs using the device to monitor distance, pace etc. On completion of the runs, I downloaded the data onto the pc. The feedback was good in that you can see graphically your run and compare runs. The route I was running was new to me so I did not know the exact distance. I was however disappointed with the time for the distance covered as measured by the wristband. As mentioned, I am used to running on a treadmill, but even taking into account running outdoors, my times were significantly slower. So much so, that after five runs I checked out the distance in the car. I also used the mapmyrun.com website to measure the route. Whilst both the car and the mapmyrun.com measured a route of approximately 9.4kms, the wristband was measuring between 8.25kms – 8.44kms. This was hugely disappointing. The calibrating run I did initially was accurate and whilst my time over this distance has improved, I would expect the device to accurately reflect this.

I have since gone out for 2 more runs with the watch but whilst I have been able to download the runs onto the website I cannot access the data. I have tried on three separate occasions with no luck. I am not sure if it is my device or the website.

Two weeks later, I am now able to access the data. I am not sure where the problem was.

Would I recommend the device? It is certainly a fun devise. I liked being able to see my runs graphically and monitor progress. However, the calibration problem defeated the purpose of the device, I am hoping the problem was my human error and not a device issue. Given more time, I would recalibrate the device. If on that occasion it monitored runs accurately and reflected any changes in pace then yes, I would recommend as a purchase.

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There are various different types of bike fits, the most basic are the static variety which merely take your measurements while standing still, and the most comprehensive are the dynamic fits which involve a fit technician evaluating your position relative to an ideal.

ProFeet is a well established store that specialize in ski boot and running shoe fits, typically involving the creation of a custom insole to correct any misalignment in your stride. They recently started doing bike fits and the head technician is Jonny Morrison.

As ProFeet happens to be on my way to where I typically ride, I happened to walk in on the store one day shortly after they set up the cycling fitting station and noticed that Jonny was using the Retul system. Other systems I’ve used before involve the usual rulers and more ‘mechanical’ methods of measuring body angles, but the Retul system uses LEDs mounted on the body and a stand with receivers to track your body’s movement accurately and provide you with a more accurate representation of your pedaling style.

I was curious… how close to my other fits would a fit with ProFeet be? Was the Retul system a gimmick or was it actually capable of giving data that was not only accurate but ‘usably’ accurate?

The whole fit process within ProFeet takes about 2 hours.. mine took a little longer because I was asking questions left and right for the purposes of this article, but generally speaking 2 hours should do. ProFeet’s scheduling isn’t particularly accommodating to late night workers, so you may struggle to find a time in the near future… just keep that in mind when trying to find a booking.

1) The goals – The first part of the fitting is Jonny asking you what you want to do, how you ride, etc.. to some extent you will be fitted depending on what kind of bike you ride… as I ride a regular road bike, he’s unlikely to go for a time-trial position… but during this interview process is when Jonny assesses what you want and what you are experiencing that gives you discomfort. Luckily for me, I did have a minor issue in that when I changed saddles, it affected my saddle height due to the reduced padding.

2) The physical assessment – After the interview, Jonny sent me down with one of his colleagues who is a sports therapist and evaluated me for flexibility issues and any limb-length discrepancies. These come into play when adjusting my bike position as my flexibility and legs will determine the range of possible alternatives. Turns out, like many others, I have some minor length differences between my two legs.. and my flexibility is ‘alright’.

3) The power exerted on the feet – After the assessment, I went back upstairs to meet Jonny who had taken the insoles out of my shoes and placed these odd pads within them. Per his explanation, these pads, typically used to create shoes for people with severe diabetes, would measure the ‘pressure zones’ of my feet. Upon putting them on and pedaling for a bit, it turned out that I used my big toe of my right foot quite a bit. This could possibly mean that I had my cleat position a bit too forward as well as having a leg length discrepancy put too much effort on one leg in the down stroke vs another (due to my fixed saddle height).

4) The foot beds – After step 3 above, Jonny said that due to my output data, he recommended I get some insoles.. now.. don’t get me wrong, I had a the usual feeling of customer paranoia… being that, well you’re in an insole shop, the likelihood is that they will try and sell you an insole is quite high.. but I said.. what the hell.. if I’m going to try and ‘fix’ an issue that I know I have, I might as well jump all the way in and see if the ‘comprehensive’ solution works. If I had all the time in the world, I’d perhaps go ‘variable’ by ‘variable’, but then yours truly would go nuts.

Jonny therefore put me up on a chairs that they use to fit insoles for not only ski boots, but also running shoes, and created some insoles to put in my shoes. Once these were done, we moved on to the next part of the fit. However, it would have been great to see if the new cleat position and the new insoles rectified the issue that was identified in step 3 above.

5) The Retul System baseline on both sides – Now came the magic. During this period, Jonny put sticky dots all along one side of my body and asked me to pedal for a while. During this period, the Retul system basically took measurements on my back angle, leg compression angle, etc. while moving… while pedaling. This is something that is typically done ‘by eye’ with other fitting systems.

6) The Retul System to adjust the leg wobbling – Once both sides were baselined, Jonny started to make adjustments relative to his ideal position for me. He took some time to adjust my setup so that I’d reduce the amount of leg wobble that I experienced. By the time we were done, I could see, via the Retul output that my knee no longer tracked in a circular path, but rather a straighter one.. I also noticed only my left knee tracked straight whereas my right knee in a loop.

The end result has been quite interesting… I was given some measurements that were generally speaking quite close to what my previous bike fits (what I used as my control variable) had yielded with the only difference being the seatpost setback being zero in order to accommodate the new fore/aft position of the saddle. During this process, I wish Jonny had more spare parts so that we could have tried various setbacks rather than just the one I had (and the one he kindly let me try by borrowing his seat post), but we were able to make do. In the end, only time will tell if this is the correct position for me, but I now have a better fit, particularly in the knee and foot area than I had before. It is amazing, however, to see how close non-computer systems came to my fitting (minus the knees and feet). What was different with Profeet’s Retul system  above and beyond others was the knee tracking and foot power adjustments. Call it.. the ‘final details’ in a bike fit.. not all fittings offer this.

RECOMMENDED.

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The Elite Hygene Corsa Water Bottle is one of those product.

The biggest problem with the product is the two part construction of the lid. As far as I can tell, it isn’t designed to come apart easily, so the fact that it comes apart easily without a clear way of keeping it together other than super glue makes it the biggest fail of the cycling kit I’ve purchased in the last 3 years. I bought two bottles and BOTH have had issues. One bottle, maybe it was bad… two? Design flaw.

Here are the list of issues in no particular order:

1) The top screw in lid actually separates, but it isn’t supposed to. This accidentally separated for me one time at home when I was shaking the bottle to mix my powder drink. The top part flew off (spraying electrolyte juice on my computer) but the screw in part (the red bit) stayed on the bottle. You then snap that part back on, but it doesn’t feel secure.

2) The first bottle died when I had a zero tablet in the bottle and as the tablet dissolved and created pressure within, it popped off the top in the similar fashion as described in # 1 above. Too much traffic in the road to go back for it. None of my ‘cheaper’ bottles every had this issue. Sure, they got pressurized which usually led to a small burst of water when I opened it up, but none of them hardly ‘popped’.

3) The second bottle just got thrown away as I took it out of the dishwasher and noticed that the gap between the red and black of the top part accumulates water and thus it smelled quite rancid. Yes.. as in water was sloshing around between the gap of the two halves, which aren’t supposed to separate (at least in no way that I can see or replicate easily).

All in all quite a bad product and would not recommend it to anyone. Two failed bottles is not a bad-luck scenario, and even if it was designed on purpose to have a pop off top and a screw in base, the pop-off bit is way too easy to pop off accidentally.

1/5

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Last friday I was probably one of the first to enthusiastically order my Cyclehire annual key (£45) that allows me to have the first half hour of every ride I take for free for the whole year.

I downloaded an iPhone app called London Hire which tells you where the stations are and how many bays they have, but sadly can’t tell you how many bays are free. It is helpful, though, and I highly recommend you use it. It also gives you an idea of how vast they’ve made the network to start off with.

This morning, I went to the bike bay closest to where I live and crossed my fingers that all the bikes wouldn’t be taken. Thankfully they weren’t. I grabbed the closest one and tried unlocking it and the unlock succeeded, but I couldn’t take it out of the bay. What I later realized is that you actually have to lift it up a bit.. as its weight makes you feel that you can’t pull it out.

I got on the bike and started off. From the second I took off, the looks started.. I got looks from people crossing the street, kids, men in white vans, women, etc.. I actually got stopped by a few women at cross walks and at a stop light to ask me about how the bike was.. Curiosity factor is definetively high right now.

When arriving at the docking station near work, I did find that I got quite lucky as there was only one spot left. I could see where there may be, in the future when more people are doing this, that parking will become a problem when everyone is coming in to work and parking the bikes when you go home.

The ride itself isn’t so bad. The bike is a bit lethargic in its ride, but comfortable. The saddle they’ve chosen is designed to fit most people, so my race-saddle accustomed posterior was actually uncomfortable on the saddle. I had to shift around quite a bit (perhaps the nose was slightly not level). You can adjust seat height though, but no fore/aft, so I felt like was constantly trying to push myself back (I’m 5’9″). The brakes work well, and the ride quality is nice and plush. Definitevly a great short ride bike.

All in all, It was a fun experience and one that I will continue to use on an ad-hoc basis. It’s a great alternative to the other forms of transport and allows you to take quick rides to meet you friends and the pub, but not be worried about HAVING to cycle back after a few pints. Always consult your doctor before trying anything new and also don’t forget to use a helmet: mine has saved my life twice.

Accessories to consider:

1) A nice helmet that fits you well and not like a top hat.

2) Cycle insurance: http://www.eta.co.uk/2010/06/23/london-cycle-hire-has-name-and-first-docking-stations

3) A Road ID bracelet: http://www.roadid.com/Common/default.aspx

The Jawbones are Oakley’s latest cycling friendly sunglasses.

I’ve had mine for about 7 months and they replaced Oakley’s Half-Jacket (I think).. which I had for about a year.

I was attracted not necessarily to the aesthetics of the Jawbones, but mostly the interchangeable lens system that it promotes.

On that side of things, I think they have been a success. The light lenses that the glasses came with got me through the winter, and now I use the dark ones. If there is a rainy day, I just swap the lenses accordingly..

From a looks-perspective, the fact that half the Tour de France peloton is wearing these makes wearing them in public with cycling people a simple fit-in. They’re cool. However, leave your cycling social circle, and you could argue that they are ugly.

From a quality perspective, they have lasted well so far, and seem well-built enough, however the lenses scratch easily.

From a visibility perspective is where I’d say I’m a little disappointed though.. firstly, I have the ‘vented’ lenses, and they don’t solve the issue.. I still get fogginess when stopping particularly.. also, because of the overly closed design of the frame, my peripheral vision is not as good as it was with my previous half-open Oakleys. However, this closed design has also prevented a few bugs from entering my eyes from below the lenses! So.. I guess there is always a trade-off.

In summary, I would recommend them, but keep in mind that they are not perfect and you may not need to ‘upgrade’ if you live in a consistently sunny area (like Florida) or get annoyed at fogged up glasses.

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Interval training on a turbo isn’t easy. Sure, it’s not as long as going out on a ride, but the intensity of the workouts can be just as hard when packed into a non-stop session with no ‘coasting’ or stoplights.

The hard part, though, unless you have a coach, is to come up with plans for yourself. Sure, there are books, but they can be a drag to read and then figure out or even program into a personal plan or computer for you to follow.

This is where a website called turbotraining.co.uk comes in.

The site allows you to not only search for plans based upon what equipment you have, but it will also ‘play’ the plan out for you. Very interesting and ‘economical’ way to get coaching.

Of course, check with your physician before starting any kind of regime.. the last thing you want to do is keel over in a turbo, then your neighbors need to call the cops and you’ll be all over the TV in an awkward situation…

Thanks to my friend Gareth for the tip on the site.

I find that I have to wear something underneath my helmet when I ride for several reasons:

1) To reduce the amount of sweat that accumulates in the front of the helmet

2) To reduce the skin irritation of the bacteria-laden padding on the helmet (even if you wash regularly)

3) To extend the life of my helmet

To that extent, I’ve been using Zensah’s beanie, which I’ve found to be excellent during the winter, spring, and fall.. but for the summer, with the sun and all, at times it can run a bit hot.

All-cotton caps can be ok, but they can also run a bit hot and don’t do so well with the sweat once they’re water-logged.

I recently found this company called Walz that just makes cycling caps. They will make you custom caps that have your logo too, which I did.. with faston2wheels.com written on it naturally, but the nice thing is that you can have them made of a moisture wicking material which is perfect for the summer. I got mine in the mail today.. they do ship to the UK. It looks well made and the textile ‘pores’ are definitively large enough to look the summer part.

Check them out.

Image by .mw via Flickr

Update: I already went on my trip, but wrote the following bit below before going on my trip, so read it assuming I hadn’t gone yet until where I say it ends…

I’m going on my second Pyractif cycling trip soon, and I want to take my ‘good’ bike with me but not have to fear the airlines either damaging it or losing it (and if they do, that I can at least recoup the value).

So, the best place to begin is with bike boxes to ensure that there is as little damage as possible, and secondly, with bike insurance ‘in case of…’.

Last year when I traveled to Pyractif in the Pyrenees, I went to a now-defunct store called SBR in Fulham (the company is still running it’s just that store seems to have shut down) to rent a bike box. It was just a shell, but it worked well enough in getting my bike down. I basically disassembled the bike and packed it in there with bubble wrap and other items. Seemed to work well enough, and aside from a few paint scratches, it did not create any problems for BA.

Whilst at Pyractif though, I saw a whole bunch of other types of bike transport types, and one in particular caught my attention, the Pika Packworks bike bag. It looked pretty solid, and was clearly designed for the job in-spite of not being a hard-shell box. However, being that they only had USA distribution, it would be impractical for me to have it shipped to the UK.. so I was left with the local options.

On the high end, I found the Scicon Aerotech Evolution Bike box and on the low end, the dhb Elsted in between there were many options including the Roof Box company. All the reviews I read of for the softer bags were not encouraging so I decided I wanted a hard case for travel if I couldn’t get the Pika. The next problem was whether I was going to actually spend the money to get a box that at most I’d use twice a year. Considering that these boxes are massive, take a good bit of space, and have low utilization my options were to either buy it and loan it / rent it or to rent it. However, being that SBR, the closest store that I knew rented them had closed I was left with only the buying option.

Then I discovered Bike Box Alan.. with similar looks to the Scicon, the Bike Box Alan is cheaper and supposedly sturdier as you can see from the video on their website.

In the process of calling Bike Box Alan (since they rent them) I was then lucky to find out that my local bike store Prologue Bikes rents the Bike Box Alans as well as the Scion boxes for a reasonable price!

Anyway, the next bit was to actually get the bike packaged. I took the bike to Prologue where Tom helped me take my bike apart and put it in the box. I was given a Scion box with some battle damage, but that was structurally sound, it looks like these boxes are tough… by the time Tom had finished wrapping it up, it was safe to fly.

/ Update: Ok from now on, it’s after the trip.

The bike made it to Spain in one piece. One thing about the Scion bike boxes is that they allow you to skewer the wheels onto the shell of the box, but if you tighten the skewer all the way in, you will have the skewers sticking out and rubbing on whatever comes in contact with the box. This created an issue for me because when I arrived, one of the skewers was slightly bent from the airline handling. My recommendation is to tighten the skewer just enough, but not so that the shaft of the skewer pokes out of the screw bit.

On the return, the airport was a pain about getting the bike box into security so I had to open it up. Be prepared to do that.

Overall, I was happy with both the Scion box and with Prologue’s assistance on the matter. I recommend them and using a hard shell case. Those people that flew with the softer variety to our camp had some funny results, and one had damage. The majority of boxes were either the Scion one that I had or the Bike Box Alan, with the difference being soft bags.

In part 2 of this post, I’ll discuss insurance products.

Let me start by warning those of you that are lovers of Campagnolo kit that this post isn’t going to make you happy and that you’ll probably have an opposing view in your experience. Please go ahead and voice your thoughts on the comments section. However, I feel that I should at least share my experience should you or someone you know be on the fence on choosing between groupsets, as I was (not too long ago).

Having been a Shimano person for a long time, the thought of trying something ‘new’ was quite intriguing. Not only that, the allure around the Campy kit was quite enticing… Everything from the history of the brand, the country of origin, the aesthetic smoothness of their kit across the different levels, and even the thumb-lever shifting mechanism appealed to me. Although the additional speed of the new 11-speed kit was interesting because of the gap it filled in a wide range cassette like an 11-27, I knew that it wasn’t THAT crucial to making my bike riding experience hugely better. Frankly, I was more intrigued by the new Ergo hoods and shifters in my ‘justification’ for choosing Chorus 11 over Shimano’s Ultegra.

So perhaps that’s a good place to start.. the positives.

The new Campy hoods/levers/shifters are simply wonderful. I wish they were compatible with all major systems. I found them very comfortable and easy to use; the hand ‘just felt right’ on them and they looked cool to boot.

Now, to the bad part.

Quite simply, no one was able to get this groupset to shift right for me. I had over 5 mechanics look at it, all from different stores and one in a different country. They all tried many things, but the results were always the same. It shifted fine on the bike stand, but on the road, the groupset either shifted well in one direction or in another or struggled in the middle. Additionally, in combination with my Easton EA70′s all sorts of funny noises came when the chain was at the highest cog. It is pointless for me to go into the details of what I heard or experienced as I’m now beyond crowd-sourcing a mechanical solution for the variety of issues. I trust that 5 qualified Campy mechanics which cumulatively spent in excess of 10 hours reviewing the issue, TRIED EVERYTHING. I even had a swapped out rear derailleur in the process, but it didn’t resolve the issue.

After my training camp in Spain, I decided to vote with my feet and swapped the entire groupset for Dura Ace and voila, everything worked SOOO much better. I’m not referring to how something feels, such as ‘solid’ or ‘smooth’ as you hear in many forums when discussing the difference between groupsets. I’m merely referring to the thing shifting when I tell it to shift.

So, what’s the point of this story then? Is it just to vent my bad experience? Maybe… although I’ve already tried group therapy when I spoke to others that have had similar stories.. the point, is that Campy 11 speed (and maybe just Chorus) isn’t, in my book, reliable.

Reliability aside, Campy has other flaws beyond the ones that I mentioned above.. flaws that only became more apparent to me once I owned the stuff and had to do stuff to it:

1) My old saddle-bag tool was no longer ‘complete’ as I needed to buy a star-shaped tool (torx) to fix certain Campy things. Why couldn’t they just use an Allen?

2) Mechanics that were ‘comfortable’ fixing Campy were not as easy to find as those comfortable with Shimano. This meant that replacing something as simple as a chain became a longer trip to specific bike stores that had the special tool or the people qualified to fix stuff. Not so bad in a metropolis, but not good when you take cycling trips and there is one local shop in the middle of nowhere.

3) Cycling camps that I’ve gone to all have spare Shimano-compatible parts… Campy? You’re on your own and the basic kit like chain tools are in excess of 100 pounds!

4) In general, as above, this stuff is expensive!!! The mid-range cassette (Chorus) from Campy costs the same as a Dura-Ace??? What?

5) Stock of Campy stuff in many bike stores is limited, thus finding stupid little things like brake pads isn’t always something you can just walk in and get, you have to order them online many times.

6) Girls do not look at you or your bike any more than they did when you had Shimano.

In summary, I was very disappointed with Campy. Very. I wanted it to be good. I wanted to be able to brag about how much better it was than the Shimano that comes in all bikes you see in ‘normal’ bikes so as to make up for the fact that I’m slow. I wanted to buy into their story.. but in the end, reliability wins every time. Function over form. Until I test out SRAM to see how it compares, I will remain a loyal Shimano-man.

Campy, if you’re reading this and want me to review a bike you set up for me, please feel free to get in touch via editor [at] faston2wheels [dot] com and I’m willing to give the groupset another try!

For this reason, we cyclists use all sorts of waterproof gear. Overshoes are a must just to keep your toes from falling off, but on a rainy day or even puddle-filled day, that can sometimes not be enough. The constant splashing, even with mudguards, can leave you with soaked and cold feet.

Cue in the need for a waterproof sock as the last layer of defense against cold and wet feet.. at least in theory.

Seal Skinz has made quite a name for itself lately as a purveyor of waterproof kit. At the Annual Cycle Forum in Earl’s Court, they have a cute booth attendant stand inside a water tank up to their ankles in water and seemingly stay dry.. quite the sales technique.

So, being that there isn’t competition out there anyway (I haven’t seen a single alternative in a store) I figured I’d give them a try.

I used a pair this past Saturday which was absolutely the wettest winter day to go cycling. Melting snow was everywhere in Richmond park, puddles of freezing water everywhere, and rain coming down hard to boot. What better test conditions than those? I also used a fresh pair on Sunday, which was quite the opposite.. a sunny day.

On Saturday, my feet did end up wet and on Sunday not really that much. Why the uncertainty? Well, this isn’t the first Seal Skinz product I’ve used (will review the other one shortly), and I’ve started to notice the same issue. The material they use to keep the product waterproof (I’ll call it ‘The Shower Curtain’) doesn’t seem to be very breathable, at least not for me. I think for sure on Saturday the socks kept my feet ‘drier’ than they would have been otherwise… the outside of the sock was soaked solid, whereas the inside was just wet, but more of moist wetness.. which still is not pleasant, but far outweighs a full soaking.

In summary, I think that because of the lack of great breathability, the socks create a little bit of clamminess which can come back and haunt you if the day is cold enough… I think I will still use them, particularly on very wet days as they are still better than nothing at all, but a more breathable option would be very nice indeed.