West 5 Cycles
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London to Paris
There is nothing that gets you cycling faster than picking a goal that might just challenge you a little bit. So I have gone for mine. I will ride from London to Paris in August in support of the National Autistic Society. That is my challenge. Which bike am I doing it on? Good question – given that there are some serious hills between London and Paris I will probably have to put up with doing it on the road bike instead of the fixie, although the thought tickles my imagination. If you fancy coming along – there is more info here. And if you are feeling charitable, you are welcome to sponsor me by clicking on the link on the left.
Powertap training
So I took the plunge – got hold of a powertap wheel and got on the programme figuring out just what sort of power all this fixie riding has made me capable of. As a good nerd I of course have coupled my purchase of the Powertap with the book ‘Training and Racing with a Power Meter‘ by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan – so I can be utterly nerdy and even (hopefully one day!) understand what all this new-found data actually means. (I think next time I’m in Boston I need to go back to the MIT campus store and buy one of their T-shirts that says either ‘God said: (very long formula with greek letters) and there was light!’ or ‘Talk nerdy to me’.. either will fit me perfectly.)
Anyway – it’s been an interesting couple of days. Partly because currently I’m having to use the roadbike as the wheel has a 10-speed hub, but I’m told there is a way of converting the hub to work with fixies.. so more on that later when I figure it out. Also, because all the data is really rather illuminating.
Firstly, the stress at work from the last month or so is really showing up in the ratio between heart rate and watt output. So initial readings were looking rather humble. However, it’s amazing how much decent sleep, proper food and getting back to training consistently can improve – even in a matter of days!
Secondly, looking at all the data and particularly my results for 5 sec, 1 min, 5 min and Functional Treshold Power (the kind of watt output one can sustain over a 1 hour time trial) I have already learned that all this fixie riding has given me a lot of endurance and skewed my cycling talent towards time trialling. This I have learned from my watt/kg figures – which look a lot better for the longer term power output than the sprinting. Hunter talks about ‘neuromuscular power’, which for me is apparently weak since I can’t generate massive sprints – or at least not yet.
The figures are improving every day so need to figure out just how big a set-back all the all nighters of late have had on my power generation and when the results start plateauing.. then it’s time for the serious training programme!
Fixie travels – Ritchey BreakAway Fixie frame
Forget getting somewhere nice and thinking how great it would be to explore the area on a bike, looking longingly at anyone passing on a bike. Moreover – perhaps you are such an avid fixxer that any old bike suitable for travel just won’t do – Brompton’s (for suit-wearing office workers?), Dahon’s (for less sophisticated and sentimental suit-wearing office workers on a tighter budget?), Molton’s (for folks with a penchant for clever design and far too much money to burn?), roadbike in a bike box (good idea, but the box is still huge!) – no, what you want is a folding fixie in a box!
And guess what – Tom Ritchey has just the thing for you. A very neat design for a fixie frame that breaks up into two parts – the Break Away steel frame uses the seat tube to help align the two halves of the frame and features an incredibly beautiful solution locking the two halves together both up at the seat collar and at the down tube. A very neat solution that comes complete with a hard-case featuring lots of neat innovations for protecting the frame and components inside and wheels on the outside for easy manouvering. The roadie versions of the Ritchey BreakAway has had brilliant reviews in the cycling press, the titanium frame earning accolades for being a timeless, beautiful and racy frame on par with many ‘normal’ bikes out there, so can’t imagine the fixie version is going to let the side down. Tom Ritchey takes bikes seriously and it shows!
