| Title | Description | Author |
| Midwinter Checkup (Electronic accessories) | Whether you have a cyclecomputer, heart monitor, GPS or power meter (or all 4), check the mounts. Road vibration can crack them over time, letting a device bounce off during a ride -- and maybe into a wheel if it's connected by a wire. Gently pull and twist the mount to find fractures or loose bands or ties. | Jim Langley |
| Can a shoe be too stiff | In November I purchased a new pair of Shimano R215 shoes on closeout. I made sure they fit and even wore them for 2 hours while watching TV in the den. They felt great, no numbness or hot spots. On my first ride the stiff carbon soles were noticeable right out of the driveway. It felt like every ounce of power was going right to the bike. Could have been just a placebo affect. After only 3 miles into the ride the outer blades of my feet were killing me. When I got home from my 30 mile ride it felt like I had two broken feet. I am not a podiatrist but I believe my problem was that the shoes were actually to stiff for my feet. It took Sidi several years before finding a carbon layup that was the right blend of stiffness without being too stiff. Other companies like Northwave and Specialized offer several high end carbon soled shoes in different stiffness to address this issue too.
I probably could have tried orthotics in the shoes but I just thought shoes should not hurt that much and that quickly too. I decided to go back to my old shoes the next day and listed my Shimano's on eBay that very night. | Wallace Wormley |
| Rim Blowout | This fall riding home from work one day I heard a loud boom from my back wheel. While removing the tire to fix my flat I noticed a 1/3 of my rim sidewall was blown off the rim! I am a light rider and was on smooth flat road doing about 17mph 80 PSI on 700x28 tires at the time when this happened. That night while searched the internet for new rims, I also wanted to see what may have caused this to happen. Was there something defective with my rims? They were from a very popular model from a well know manufacture. My wheels have about 10,000 miles on them and while yes they do see a lot of bumps from commuting they were true and very well maintained. The cause of the failure was everyday wear from braking. Rim sidewalls are about 1.5mm thick and mine were .5mm thick when they failed. Had I done my research earlier I would have know that I was way passed replace status and in the dangerous failure range. Now as part of my normal maintenance routine I check the thickness of my sidewalls. Most newer rims also have wear indicators on them to alert you or your mechanic it's time to replace your rims even if they look fine and still are true. | Wallace Wormley |
| Save your shoes | Carbon soled shoes are and light and stiff bike but can be a problems off of the bike. They are even more slippery to walk in. They can get scuffed up easily and before long look like crap if your shoes don't have a good heal pad. Shimano's fall in to this category. A little Shoe Goo® is an easy way to alleviate that problem. You can built up a nice heal pad. You could also use them on any shoes with worn heal pads too. It's available at most sporting goods or hardware store. | Wallce Wormley |
| Allergies | I suffer from seasonal allergies and for years would take a over the counter sinus medicine in order to get sleep after a days worth of riding. I found something that works better for me. I use a saline mist spray (like Simply Saline or Ocean) right after my ride. It removes all of the allergen. It's cheap drug free (just water and salt) and best of all it really works! | Wallace Wormley |
| Training diary | I recently upgraded my PC and the training diary software that I have used since 2001 Crosstrak is no longer made. You can still find it online and it's now free but it does not work with Windows Vista. I am now using the free online tool from Bicycling.com. It has a lot of really nice features and I especially like the map my route using Google earth. Beware since it is free you will have to register with your email to use it. They are a publishing company and will spam you with a ton of junk mail. There is no such thing as a free lunch. | Wallace Wormley |
