Hamster wheel

Keeps on spinning...

A week or two ago SRAM announced GX group the trickled down version of the hugely successful 11 speed XX1. The GX promises to deliver coveted 11 speed, 10-42t geared drive train to the masses.

Shimano on the other hand released their big dog XTR 11 speed a year ago with option to go full electronic on shifting part (Di2). Critics and fans alike screaming "fail" on Shimano for not embracing the 1x11 trend and still sticking with front derailleur, plus XTR not cheap and well beyond the reach of most of the mountain biking public (hamster included).

Today Shimano strikes back on SRAM with the announcement of XT 11 speed group with boat load of options.

Read the press release here

The fuzz really is that with the launch of new XT group the lower tier mountain groups namely SLX, Deore will soon be sporting 11.

Shimano might not topple the king of high-end 1x11 group from SRAM but it will surely bring the fight on OEM, and general mountain biking trope.

Ernest Hamster

Bike update: Commencal EL Camino

Installed Wolf Tooth 42t giant cog on EL Camino 29 er.

Today "Mega range"

Drive train
Shimano XT M771 11-36 cassette (shiny)
Shimano ZEE M640 Shifter (again 1x10 specific)
Shimano ZEE M640 rear derailleur FR (max 11-36 cassette)
Shimano Deore 3x10 crank converted to 1x10 with Race Face NW 32t chain ring (middle ring position, stock bolts used with spacer).
Shimano XT chain with KMC 10 speed missing-link

Installation
Remove chain, remove rear wheel, remove cassette.
Remove 17t cog along with the spacer.
Install WTC GC "shimano" label facing up, install cassette on wheel, torque to spec.
Put the wheel back on bike, install chain (process easier with missing-link).

Tuning tips

Chain length crucial to get this "conversion" working properly.

B-tension screw, quarter turns for precise adjustments.

Adjust the shifting tension with the RD clutch engaged.

Had no problems with installation and tuning. The only issue encountered was unfortunate snapping of the chain on added chain link. Misplaced my additional links that came with chain so the LBS mechanic sourced some 10 speed link from another brand on his parts bin.
The Result was a badly bruised calve from pins of the pedal HULK mash!
Temporary solution until I can get a hold of a single link from XT chain is to put an additional missing link. Rode the bike yesterday with no issues on macgyver hack.
Yet to try the GC on some knee busting climbs, but for now I am satisfied with drive train setup.

READ THIS
Wolf Tooth does not recommend the use of short cage derailleur with 42t GC they have option 40t for that. I need the extra range so...42t regardless.

Play nice guys! WTC 42T cog and ZEE Shorty RD

If you are sensitive to little changes in shifting on your drive train like the gap from removed 17t cog you can opt to purchase 16t replacement from Wolf Tooth or One-up for around P800. If that does not solve your "not shifting smoothly" woes then you can yet again open your wallet to splurge on One up RADr (short cage compatible) or RAD cage arm replacement for P3000. Wolf Tooth also offers a cheaper alternative to fixing shift quality issues with the Goat link, this one not yet available locally.

For optimal 1x10 expanded range hack throw in a narrow wide chain ring up-front, if you are still dropping your chain on rough conditions consider a chain guide.

Review of Wolf Tooth GC 42t cog for Shimano soon.

Ernest "no baller for real deal?" Hamster

Guess who's back?

Won't lie had a couple of rides, bike updates and  hamster wheel that I forgot to post before hitting the beach...my bad.

Bike ride
Participated on Audax type event organized by Centurion Bike group (first week of March).

With the Siglo Siklista's A-team, yours truly and another portly Siglo member oscar we proceeded to Rizal to participate on said endeavor.

Bonked badly on the 1st checkpoint and decided to end the misery there, did the first 40 km and now had to endure 40 km trip back alone.

Ride home was interesting. Met a veteran roadie along the way that found the time not to be obsessed with Strava, instead he helped a fellow biker in need of that extra push to survive. Thank you sir.
Got to interact with some kids on Cardona waiting shed, lookout of sorts gave them snacks, talked to them about the importance of eating vegetables and staying in school.

Upon finally hitting upper parts of Rizal my water bottles are almost empty so I needed a refill. Stopped at beverage store to purchase a much needed fruit shake, parked my bike outside the establishment for couple of minutes when a shady looking dude was planning to take the bike. He was already going to grab the bike when I barged out of the store to prevent the theft and secure my property.

Crawled pretty much on remaining ride home the fun was gone but at least I have bunch of stories to tell.

Ernest "praying for a miracle" Hamster

Bike update

Saint...
I Just love saying that. So the winner of Hamster "next top pedal" is the Shimano Saint PD-MX80.

Nine pins per side to grip like crazy

Ride report coming soon.

Ernest "Trail bike on road" Hamster

7-Eleven Trail 1500

For this year 2nd 7-Eleven epic mountain bike race  instead of participating I volunteered to do Support work for Team Siglo Siklistas.

Experiencing the race event from a different perspective I gained valuable knowledge on how to maximize distribution of supplies, the art of cooling down a rider, "feeding" efficiently and advantage of having a SAG (support and grub) when racing.

Along the way got to meet people that make up local mountain biking community and got to rub elbows with other Team SAG and supporters.

Race day Sunday
Arrived at Timberland before the first rays of the sun shinned upon the 1500 strong. Wall 1 road was already littered with parked cars on the shoulder. With resorts official parking already filling up was lucky to find a spot before the entrance with a help from team member and race participant Oscar who arrived earlier. Unloaded my gear and proceed to wait for other Siglo Siklistas.

Two bags, one Hamster
The hard part of doing SAG for the first time carrying two bags. Weight is tolerable but since I need to carry two small backpacks instead of just one big...one I ran out of real estate on my back. Initial attempt of strapping the other bag on my chest proved futile, as I pedaled further up Wall 2 the elevation started to climb the bag slipped slowly onto my arms and finally on the handlebars. So a creative method of carrying the bag was needed. Problem was solved by combining the two backpack straps that usually go on your shoulder to one and mounting it like a body bag. It worked but dismounting off the bike was a pain.

Photo courtesy of PMTB

Thou shall not pass
Plan was station my ass with supplies to key feed zones along the race course. BOOM along Sapinit/Giant road was the first key junctions where the majority of trail branches, second Jason's also know as entrance to green zone and exit of nursery.
That was the plan but we did not expect that BASIC fire road going to BOOM was blocked by the organizers probably to avoid last year trail gate crashers.
Only transition/feed zone accessible was at Jason's. Waited for all Siglo team racers to pass providing them with much needed support.

Final Feed zone

Final push
Last 3-5km green zone technical trail, while black diamond the final challenge before crossing the finish line with brutal steep climbs and equally fast holy sh*t down hill sections.

7-Eleven Trail 1500
So concludes second year of 711 Trail event.
For the participants, finishers, and podium placers congratulations you are all winners in my book having to endure one of the toughest race in our country.
Kudos!

Team Siglo Siklistas. Photo courtesy of Gle

Ernest "SAG r us" Hamster

Bike ride, bike update

Bike ride Two weeks worth of night ride with Siglo Siklista's
Jan.22
Broke my 3 yr old pedal, hitched a ride home from mom.
Shout out to guys of Siglo who assisted me THANK YOU.

Jan.29
Fun 50 km ride, capped the night at El chupacabra.

Bike update
Installed Shimano XT BR-M785 brakes on Commencal el camino. Been running ol' reliable Shimano single piston Non series hydro's BR-M486 for around a year. Got them cheap from fellow Siglo member and now the time to step-up to something significantly better.

Dual piston, Ice tech rotors standard

Welgo platform pedals mentioned above now in mountain bike heaven along with box full of parts that Hamster destroyed. Pedals served me well for 3 years through epic rides, races, countless crashes and every crap in between rest well friend you have served me well.

Well...duh

Potential replacement criteria:

• wide platform
• longer, replaceable pins
• reasonable weight

Candidates are:

Spank Spike or oozy trail pedals

Most expensive of the bunch 

Shimano Saint pedal

Favorite for durability, with only the weight as a penalty

Nuke proof electron, neutron pedals

Nylon pedals, reasonable price, great reviews

Couple of hundred pesos cheaper than the SPANK, great reviews

Xpedo Spry

Middle price range of the bunch, wide but thin platform

For the mean time temporarily transferred Beater SS VP commuter pedals to the camino.

Ernest "destroying bike components since 2011" Hamster

Bike update: Commencal EL Camino

Completed, installed shiny new 10 speed mostly Shimano drive train on the camino.

• Shimano ZEE RD (free ride version)
• Shimano ZEE Shifter
• Shimano XT 11-36 cassette
• Shimano XT chain
• Shimano Deore triple crank and bottom bracket (stock chain rings removed)
• Race face single narrow wide chain rings (32T installed)

EL Camino not quite XC

Deore cranks and bottom bracket was purchased used. No issues whatsoever with the crank, removed all of the stock chain rings, replaced with race face narrow wide chain ring. Since the stock crank bolts that holds the middle and big ring a bit long, when installing the RF NW chain ring you need to put washers on bolts to fit the chain ring properly or buy single ring specific male, female bolts which is shorter. Mechanic did the former.

The BB however needed new bearings, and repack luckily good ol' LBS provided the service.

No issue was reported to me by mechanic on installation of the drive train. Opted to replace the old Barradine rear derailleur cable housing with a new one.

Spank that zee Mr.Rocket ron

Bling

On the bling department the ZEE RD does not fail to impress with its pronounced gold colored shadow clutch switch, stubby short cage, all business at the back. While the XT chain, cassette, along with anodized green RF NW chain ring rounds up the additional swagger of drive train. 

Battle scars, tell your stories my friend

Hamster initial ride

Won't lie I opened ULYBY bike shop myself. Got the bike and gawked at clean cockpit setup, along with minimalist drive train a bikini better than business suit right? Pedaling the bike immediately notice how silent it is, while shifting crisp and solid. Gone slight delay, with clunk present on old drive train. Ratio spread on smaller cogs (where I spend most of my time on road) proper I did not notice any weird high jumps even on lower cadence. Yet to test the bigger tractor pull cogs due to lack of hills en route home.

With Pope arrival today, host of events that we will be attending here in Manila. Weekly night ride, training rides will have to wait for next week.

Ernest Hamster

Bike ride

Night ride with Siglo Siklistas

Hamster dreams of stars

Butt still hurts breaking-in the new saddle of the camino. After this ride the cheapo seat going to SS beater could not take the ass beating anymore.
Started in middle of afternoon along usual route to QC while climbing nearby bridge could still feel the burn on my legs from the last ride. Arrived quite early at the meeting point, proceeded to HEC BBQ with Doc arvin. Waited for the other dudes to arrive before we took of.

QC, manila, makati, capped the route at El chupacabra.

Enjoyed this ride a lot, thankfully the only part on my body that got sore my buns. Hamsters legs, lungs working fine.

According to strava clocked-in 89 Km worth of rides this week. On Sunday will capping 100 km by touring WWII historic island of Corregidor on Manila bay with Siglo's Oscar, and uly owner of Ulyby bike shop.

Strava or it did not happen!

Ernest "fueled by juice and..." hamster

Bike ride

Removing the ego
Fairly new to this bike thing with only 3 years worth of rides under my saddle. When I started other bikers would pass me left and right, today they still do but with a little more effort. Since return to riding with the Siglo Siklistas my stamina improved the usual MOA route would usually be 3 hours long with only 20-25 km covered with lots of rest. Now the only time I stop is when I have to adjust my cycling underwear being swallowed by my huge butt.

Have developed a route which is fairly straight, covers a lot of kilometers with only two stop lights, not a lot of vehicles, and without getting in the way of roadies on morning rides.

Along the route would usually encounter other cyclist some cruising, some looking for trouble. Even if you exercise respectful overtaking some would take it as a challenge...well if in the first place you do not want to get overtaken by a 300 pound man with weird looking bike then DO NOT ride slow.
In such situations the bad hamster in me would not take this sitting down, but during such stupid pissing contest I know that I would usually lose because I am not that explosive out of the saddle, giving too much weight to power (hehe), and need to sustain stamina through out the route. So in this situation I would maintain my speed, wheel suck when they pass and let them take the blunt of the wind. In their minds they know that THEY won over a fat, weak, guy but little do they know that they cannot sustain such high output for long. And when they get gassed I continue on passing them and be on my marry way doing my laps.

Riding with different folks can teach you a lot. Specially with bikers having that "mamaw" badge, I know that I will not reach that level anytime soon but at least I won't get dropped that far.

Strava or it did not happen!

Ernest Hamster

Hamster wheel

Happy bun's, happy ride
Beginning to sound like Britney Spears here "Ooopppsss I did it again" purchased something I think, I need. This time convinced myself that SS beater needs a NEW saddle.

It just so happens that yesterday my son wanted to play with his cousin's. So I picked them up, drove them to blue bay for fun family bonding and Hamster retail therapy. I did not catch her name but the staff at Paulina's patiently answered my queries regarding price of ZEE brakes, chain ring bolts (lack thereof) and giving me the receipt for the saddle thanks!

They say that no one bike seat perfect. YES I adhere to that train of though so while browsing the store display immediately looked for a longer nose model. The saddle that was previously on the camino (hah! Get to this in a minute) nose was not long enough to seat my junk, and was always digging in area before my family jewels down there.
Instead of giving SS the new saddle I opted to put the thing on the camino why? Because Main bike! Now the SS gets the trusty old workhorse seat.

Removed the WTB pure-v saddle on camino, cleaned all the gunk on seat post clamps, adjusted the for and aft, rail position, the DDK saddle looks great on the bike.
While the oldie saddle clamp on the SS needs a little spray of WD40 to remove the surface rust which was present (SS Beater has a lot of this). Test fitted the pure-v on SS and told myself that beater beginning to not look like a...beater. With saddle, new v-brakes, and probably 9 speed drive train hand me down from the camino.

Got to test the new saddle around the block for quick ride while wearing one of my uncomfortable thin shorts. Immediately noticed that the saddle felt rock hard, but now my junk n balls sitting on right position not dangling, and also the digging on the area I mentioned above was gone. Only real concern for the saddle durability, had purchase a similar low priced saddle before it only took me 3 trails rides to destroy it. Would probably swap the DDK's for the WTB on trail runs but for now since I plan to ride road more the seat stays on.

DDK saddles
WTB saddles

Ernest "this buns..." Hamster

Bike ride

Friend reminder
Before coughing myself to sleep at around 11 pm last night I felt bloated from all the eating, drinking, partying on last quarter of December. My voice still hoarse, my body weak, and occasional phlegm would trickle out my nose. Put myself to sleep by browsing the interwebs for bike related stuff I do not need, luckily I did not get the night buzz I usually have the combination of cooking, driving, and hosting parties took its toll. Deep asleep I would not usually remember my dreams but this one got noticed.
Friend passed away this summer and he was in my dream. On occasion my deceased relatives close to me would show up on such but this was the first time my friend appeared. Honestly I miss the dude, could still remember the first thing I said to him when he got back from work stint in middle east "tara bike tayo!" now what if he got into biking? Would he still be with us today? That got me into thinking...I need to RIDE my bike NOW.
So I woke up, got dressed, drank a glass of water and proceeded for first new year bike ride.
Manila route similar to last ride with tito romarico. Instead of just doing laps around Mall of Asia which is boring. I did the slightly long route, took the most straight streets which I could get up to speed and pedal like a Hamster.
Twenty KPH my minimum and no matter who's in front of me I needed to maintain that on 32T ratio up-front. Would occasionally get up to 25 kph but that was it.
Sure enough the spin bonanza ride proved effective. Did 3 laps around CCP, MOA, area and logged in 38 km on ride total. Looking at the data a small chunk of route was missing during the beginning of the ride at least 2-3 km give or take. So YES I did 40 km today not bad effort coming from binge fest that was the holidays and the ghost of a friend past.

Strava or it did not happen

Ernest Hamster