Saturday, June 6, 2015

My bike ride today Antipolo City and diversion at Cardona

Wheels of Happiness

Today I rode to Antipolo. I followed the advice that on some days, you have to stay seated while riding up.  That is what I did.  I did not stand.  On some days, you have to practice standing up.

Then, after joining the Recyclists at Simple's Lugawan, I  went to diversion to practice anaerobic riding.   One does not really get to master a hill (especially a steep hill) I stayed seated.

Advice when seated:     pedal forward instead of downward,  pull up too, use the core muscles too (back glutes and abs) instead of just quads and leg muscles to climb.   Stay low.   So that is how fixie riders climb the hills.

I hope these little rides prepare me for Sagada.  It is going to be tough I guess when we are at Sagada, or from Sagada to Halsema.
Wheels of Happiness

How to clean lubricate bike chains


Sagada Ride

Wheels of Happiness

Now it can be told and announced.  TULOY ANG SAGADA RIDE.

This information was forwarded to me by VM, Cataps ( he gave me the info sheet this morning) and Secx Noe (he told me the other day.)  The odyssey will cover 4 days:   June 11 to June 14.

Distances and landmarks/dates

It will cover a total distance of:

Angono to  San Jose Sta Fe    264 km  June 10

Sta Fe to Banaue                      124 km   June 11

Banaue to Sagada                     64 km  June 12 (hard ride kaya ito?)

Sagada to Baguio City              144 km  June 13

Expenses will cover:    lodging   P29,000 and gasoline/fuel P10,000

Monday, June 1, 2015

Robust repair of Campy front derailleur

Wheels of Happiness

Angono, Rizal  Philippines
June 1, 2015

                         It looks like its an electrical prong




Yesterday  I used the Fuji bike with Campy groupset.  Twice, the chain was derailed:  one before Cardona Iglesia and another after descending at Namay.  I was even trying to catch up with Richard and Ariel.  (VM passed me at the last derailment)  The culprit - the repair on the front derailleur using fiberglass broke down and so the chain was jumping.

So after going back via the Cardona diversion (strengthening ride) , I put all my efforts into having the front derailleur repaired. I found copper prongs of an broken down socket which needs little cutting and drilling.  I used snip to trim the excess metal and scissor to enlarge the hole.  It took some time to enlarge the hole so that the attaching screw will fit.

I now have a robust repair (vs the old  fiberglass repair which set me back by hundreds of pesos and which was pretty fragile).   So sometimes, relying on others to repair your bike may not be a good idea after all.