KOM Ballet School Hill

After yesterdays effort up the hill to the Ballet school, I thought I test how fast I can go, still on my 22 year old Basso steelbike, again with 7.5 kg backpack. And it seems it was quite fast..

http://www.strava.com/segments/6435409/

and if you are bothered to look at this, check the heart rate...still a lot left in the tank.

Welcome 2014 Season

Here comes some good news, pushed a little bit this morning up the ballet school hill in Richmond Park. On my 22 year old and 12kg heavy commuter bike, with mega inertia wheels and a 7.5kg backpack on my shoulders...

http://www.strava.com/activities/112741937/segments/2477079282

not a bad start after an otherwise totally f*'%£;& up winter.

Have you been Specialized? Aka "The increasingly popular con with warranty"

Dear Sir or Madam at Specialized UK

I purchased an  S-Works Tarmac SL4 road frame at Sigma Sport, Hampton Wick, in February 2013.

The frame’s performance totally satisfied me for the whole season of 2013 and helped me to rise from BCF Cat4 to Cat2 level, to win two races and a getting  4^th place at the National road-race championships of the Masters B.

I only use my S-Works  Tarmac for club training and racing so that it has been ridden for only approx. 5,000 km max.

It is equipped with a Campagnolo Record group set and 50mm carbon wheels. All in all this has been  and still is my dream-bike, I would not want to exchange it to anything else. I decided to purchase this frame because of its great reviews for hill climbing and because of its lifetime manufacturer warranty.

In November 2013 I discovered a damage on the underside of the downtube that appeared to look like a crack. This came at the same time as an observed change of handling on fast descents,  which made it feel much more “wobbly” and unsafe then previously, usually at speeds above 45km/h.

The bike has never had any crashes or any other form of mechanical impact on the frame.

Right after new year 2014 I was about to turn the bike in for a service at Sigma Sport. When we started talking about that down tube damage, we concluded that this didn’t look like a scratch and inspection by Specialized would be recommended.

The bike got disassembled and sent to Specialized. This was more than 6 weeks ago. Specialized have refused to accept this damage as a crack, claiming it is only a superficial scratch.

Meanwhile I have consulted with a Carbon repair specialist who confirms that the damage undoubtedly is a crack in the carbon fabric, as it is in a location where it should not happen if it was only  a crack in the paint. Also, the morphology of the damage clearly indicates a crack rather than a scratch.

For this entire time of more than 6 weeks I had to train and prepare for the new season on my commuter bike, which is by no means comparable. In this time I have also missed various important winter series races

My racing season was supposed to  start next Saturday 15 Feb 2014 at our very own London Dynamo hosted Surrey League E123 race. I still don’t have my bike back.

Specialized claim that the discussed damage is a scratch in the paint, my quoted carbon specialist and Sigma staff all disagree and say it’s a crack in the carbon. The riding behaviour makes this bike unsafe for racing road races with fast descents.

Sigma Sport staff provided me with Specialized’s note saying that they guarantee that the frame's structural integrity is in working order but that they “recommend to observe the damage and if it is getting worse”.

I wonder if it can be right to sell a frame of your top-end line, with lifetime warranty, but deny a customer a replacement in such case of unprovoked damage, considering that it must have occurred within less than 9 months of use.

Can it really be that Specialized want me to ride a full season of races on a cracked S-Works Tarmac?

As a member of the largest London based racing club, London Dynamo (650 members), and as part of its Cat1/2 performance team with an international racing programme for 2014, I really cannot afford to be out of racing mid-season, if this damage eventually leads on to a fracture of the frame.

Not to mention the risk of injury if this should happen.

Kindest regards, Riko Sibbe

This email will also be posted to you.

I am also considering to send this out to various social media

The wettest winter in my memory - and the one with the most punctures I have ever had...

Since the end of October I have ridden about 2,500km, mostly through the daily commute to work and some weekend riding, on my own into the Surrey Hills. The unusual precipitation over the past 3 months and subsequent flooding of the country has had significant impact on the choice of routes and quality of rides.
The strong rainfall has flushed a lot of debris onto the countryside lanes, in particular in the hills where the erosion of the geology flushes razor sharp flint stone debris onto the road. In some instances the flint and the chalk, which it is embedded in, deposits as calcified beds on the roads, with flint splinters sticking out like nails from an oriental nailbed. Last Sunday morning I hit one of those on a descent at 55km/h and got the front and rear tyre exploding at the same time. Twenty minutes later my clubmate Dan got the next puncture. This same fate seems to catch up with many many riders at the moment, you hardly find a stretch of road where there is not any group of riders helping and waiting one of their own puncture victims. I have had 17 punctures since last October.
With a portable lightweight mini-pump you really don't get the right pressure back on the tyre so that any further riding is very compromised. With a single spare innertube you don't even get through a 4 hour ride anymore. You need two tubes, patching set, piece of tyre fabric (for lateral cuts in the side wall of the tyre) and 2 CO2 cardridges, plus your emergency pump. With your usual kit, containing mobile phone, housekeys, spoke key, allenkeys and tyre levers and of course your food supply you almost end up requiring a backpack to carry all this stuff. Looking forward to normal training days again, on clean roads.

First Surrey League Roadrace 2014, Longcross MOD testtrack, hosted by London Dynamo

We organized 3 races, Cat4, Women Cat3/4 and Elite/1/2/3  handicap
I didn't race yet and decided to volunteer as "Finish Line" coordinator.
We went out there for 7:30 a.m. in order to build up all the kit required for such an event. The first race started at 9:00 a.m. The Elite Handicap race at 11:30. The weather condition was alternating between brisk and sunny to "armageddon like". To start with, a strong gust lifted the brand new London Dynamo gazebo off the ground and trashed it by tumbling it a few times over. Fortunately nobody was hurt.
The racers had a tough time, fighting the cold, the strong gusts and generally winter fatigue. Everyone still seems a bit in hibernation mode...nobody to blame.