Category Archives: Product Review

Tempus Fugit…or how MMT learned to love ZWIFT

Dear Rouleurs

Where does the time go?? August has zipped past and MMT has done almost no work on this blog.  Last blog, MMT was willing Julian Alaphillipe on to win the TDF 2019.  Then a couple of really interesting and unexpected events occurred.  Alaphilippe finally cracked at altitude, many days after the pundits predicted.  He finished a highly credible fifth in the GC.   Geraint Thomas passed the baton of team leader to a hitherto unknown 22 year old Colombian Egan Bernal wrote himself into the history books.  In between there was the landslide on stage 18 that caused the stage to be abandoned and stage 19 to be shortened. MMT is still seeking to source a copy of Procycling to read the event summary.  This race was one for the ages.

MMT has shamelessly stolen the GC and Sprinter’s results from the letour.fr  I’m sure that the UCI and ASO lawyers have better things to do than sue MMT for breach of copyright 😉

Here’s the GC Top 10 rankings

Probably the two biggest disappointments where Richie Porte failing to fire a single shot in the race and seeing the emotional abandonment of Roman Bardet.

Here’s the Sprinter’s Top 10 rankings

Isn’t it great that 2 former Orica/GreenEdge and Aussies, Caleb Ewan and Michael Matthews finished in the top ten.  Caleb Ewan’s 3 stage wins means that Robbie McEwan’s record of 12 is now on notice.

Now the other big thing going on in MMT’s life is ZWIFT….yes that’s right MMT bought a very expensive but really good TACX Neo 2 trainer.  Clearly the ZWIFT advertising in the TDF got to MMT.  MMT has done almost 500 km and 3600m of climbing.  In short, MMT was surprised at how tough some ZWIFT courses were.  Doing a 9km lap round virtual Central Park NY contains about 150m of climbing some which is 12%+.  MMT is knackered after 3 laps.  Similarly London has some nasty punchy hills.  There’s a Strava segment called Tempus Fugit, which consists of boards laid over the top of a stairwell coming up from a tunnel running under the Thames, is 15%.

Doing ZWIFT at night, after the junior members of Team MMT have gone to bed, has been a tough ask.  Nevertheless, MMT has done a minimum of 2 sessions a week and generally enjoyed the experience.  The TACX trainer has all manner of tricks, being able simulate running over rough ground, like cobbles and being able to free wheel down virtual hills.  As it give fairly accurate power readings, MMT was greatly disappointed to discover how few watts he was actually generating.

So that’s it from MMT. It’s time to start listening to la Vuelta podcasts.  Until next, ride safe.

MMT

Cermanic Speed is the future of road bike drive trains….WTF??

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT is still grappling with time poverty and sleep deprivation. With Bubba Mark 2, only 3 months away, MMT is beginning to think this will be a tough year. As harbinger of things to come, MMT watched Richmond’s AFL premiership hopes for 2019 nose dive last week. Alex Rance hobbled off the MCG with a season ending ACL injury. So AFL may not be a source of solace for the coming winter either. MMT digresses.

When MMT feels this out of sorts, thinking about buying a new bike always cheers MMT up. In the deep contemplation of road vs commuter vs gravel bikes as alternate replacements for MMT’s Venerable Wilier Laverdo, He re-discovered last years announcement from Ceramic Speed, a Danish bike components company.

Sometime in September 2017, ceramic Speed released a prototype road bike that contained a radical new drive train. This drive train based on a drive shaft rather than a chain meant that its power efficiency could reach 99%. That’s damn impressive and could give a rider a very significant speed advantage over his chain equipped competitors.  According to Ceramic Speed, a standard chain based drive train, like Shimano Durace has a maximum efficiency of 97%.

All of this is achieved by a pinion style drive shaft system. A total of 21 bearings play a crucial role in the functionality and efficiency of Driven. The bearings transfer torque from the front ring through the drive shaft, then onto the 13-speed rear cog.

Engineering aside, it looks amazing, like something out of a science fiction movie. MMT …sooooo… wants a bike that has this. No doubt this will cost big bucks when its eventually productionised and available to mug punters like MMT.

MMT could imagine Dave Brailsford, Manager of the team formerly known as Sky, signing up for this. One wonders how Shimano, Campagnolo and SRAM will respond to this incredible looking piece of engineering. All of this speculation cheered up MMT no end.

Until Next time, Ride safe

MARV

Post-holiday angry rant part 3 – coffee cup thievery

Dear Rouleurs,

This blog will be the 3rd and final instalment of MMT’s angry rant series.  MMT can’t possibly maintain the rage for longer than a week, well not without really hurting someone 😉  So this angry rant is dedicated to the dickhead who nicked my Sttoke reusable coffee cup at work. For those of you that are unfamiliar with this astonishingly good and seemingly unbreakable cup, this is what they look like.

 

To the thief who heisted MMT’s cup – May you, your children and their children be cursed to drink appalling US-style coffee for the rest of their lives. 

MMT, replaced his black Sttoke with white one and wrote his fucking name and mobile phone number on it.  May be that will discourage further thievery.

Until next time, ride safe

MMT

Oh no, oh no, oh no….my Zonda rims are cracked

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT had a dreadful trip to his friendly neighbourhood bike shop, Good Bikes’ last week.  MMT’s venerable Wilier was making a few awful noises from the vicinity of the bottom bracket.  May be it needed replacing as it had been ridden on for nearly six years.  Similarly the left pedal was behaving very weirdly under power.  All in all, it seemed high time for a service.

So MMT rode his Wilier to work and dropped the bike off.  A few minutes of explanation ensured.  The mechanic, Nathan, was advised to ring me if the price of repairs was exceeding $300.  Nathan called MMT a few hours later and his news left MMT aghast.  Apparently the rear rim was showing signs of cracking and needed replacing…..crap….Keep in mind that these were the $800 Campagnolo Zondas, bought just over 2 and half years ago.

Fortunately, MMT had kept the original Fulcrum rims.  MMT had spent a frustrating Saturday afternoon, a few weeks ago, fitting spoke reflectors and had intended to use these as his winter wheels.  So the Wilier stayed at the shop, until the old rims were retrieved and fitted. Nathan showed MMT the cracks and MMT was horrified at what he saw.

MMT reckons he’s done about 15,000km on these rims and can’t believe how these stress fractures have occurred. For starters, they are all on non-cassette side of the rim. One of them has cracked clean through, with clear daylight visible. MMT can only shudder at the thought of what may have happened had the spokes given way entirely.

MMT is not a happy camper…

Until next time, ride safe.

MMT