Category Archives: Bike

Black absoluteBLACK rotor lockrings.

Elite bottle cage. Love the side profile of these, but up close they’re a little busy and plasticy looking for my liking (heavy too).

Tune Wasserträger 2.0 bottle cage is a much better fit with the matte carbon and gloss black logos. On it goes!

Elite bottles are a little harder to get in and out of them than the Celoco cage I had on there before, but it’s still a looser fit (which I like).

Blat.

R U OK?

OK I’m late to the party (R U OK? Day was last week I think?), but I’m pretty sure R U OK? Day should be every day in any case.

Just wanted to say that cycling has changed my life. As an Artist I’ve always felt the need to have high highs and low lows in order to create, and I feared that nothing good would ever come out if I was always happy. IE: I was wrong.

When I was at an all time low my therapist told me that all I needed was to get some sun. I fucking wanted to bash her face in for suggesting something so stupid, fast forward a few years and shite, she was right.

Much thanks to Gina, who took the risk of offering me some advice (because I’m a stubborn c*nt and usually bite people that offer me advice). My body was broken, and she saw me on the couch all day every day. One morning as she was leaving the apartment she looked back and said “you just need to move your body”.

Much thanks to Nick who encouraged me to hop back on the bike to have ZEN meetings at the park instead of ZEN meetings over burgers and beers.

Much thanks to a lot of you (you know who you are). I pinch myself often now that I have a group of truly great human beings around me.

To anyone out there feeling crap. I’m not one to give advice, but man… exercise has been great for my mental health. I’ve literally not had a bad day since getting back on the bike in December last year. This has literally got to be the best stretch of happiness and stability I’ve had in all 50 years.

I’m here though, all the time in the world, accessible and always happy to share as much as I can, so feel free to reach out if you want to chat.

#FINDYOURZEN #MYZEN

cSixx 50T chainring.

Black YBN chain.

Barely Illegal.

My cSixx 50T chainring came in the mail today. Not exactly light, but it’s a direct cinch mount, so once you minus the XMCS spider (43g) and chainring bolts (6g) it works out to be 46g lighter than the XMCS 52t chainring (165g) setup.

cSixx suggests the nafrrow wide ring is Shimano 12-Speed compatible, but again I had some sticking with the quick link. Not as bad as the XMCS chainring, but it’s still there. No such issues with the Alugear narrow wide chainring which very specifically is made for Shimano, but I put a YBN chain on (211g vs 235g for Shimano chain) and voila, no issues at all, so I’m now sure the YBN quick link would be the “fix” for the XMCS chainring.

Really happy with how it all looks, even with the cheeky Roval front wheel. Definitely tempted to get a lighter wheelset, but I’m in no rush. A set of CRW 5060’s would drop the total weight down to 6.4kg’s. A set of ZEN Carbon Bike wheels would see 6.3kg’s.

Last week one of the Moderators of the Weight Weenies Forums reached out to me to ask if I would be interested in potentially joining the moderation team.

For 7+ years only 2 of them had been running the forums, and only a few weeks ago they added one more. This morning we hopped on a zoom call to discuss, and man, it’s always awesome to put faces to the names hey?!

One of them lives in England, the other in the US. Big energy, great vibes! We’re all on the same page and I’m super excited to be joining the team.

Visit: https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum

Fastest bike I’ve ever ridden.

I’ve been riding the S5 and only the S5 for the past week or so and yup, it’s hands down the fastest bike I’ve ever ridden. I usually average 30km/hr each ride on the Tarmac SL8, but on the S5 I’ve clocked 32.4km’s/hr average and that was on a day with 30-35km/hr winds (the following day was 40-45km/hr winds and I clocked 31.8km’s/hr).

My initial impressions of the S5 weren’t so hot. It felt like a plank of wood (much like the Dogma F), but I’ve taken a kilo out of it since and gotten my fit right too. The XMCS 155mm cranks are working out for me and from a visual perspective I’m super happy that there’s 15mm more seatpost showing.

Right now I’m using an Alugear 48T chainring as the 52T XMCS narrow wide chainring doesn’t work with a Shimano 12-speed quick link. The chainline isn’t perfect with the 48T in the smaller cogs on the rear cassette (which I’m using a lot on the S5) and I’m thinking a 50T would be perfect so I’ve ordered a few things to try out; 50T ring, lighter YBN chain (since I’m no longer using Shimano HG) and I’m still waiting for my Hylix seatpost to come in the mail (as well as a few more smaller weenie bits).

One thing that I really had to address was crosswinds. The bike came with 30C tyres which ballooned out way past the rim. I replaced them with 28C Conti GP5000 TT TR’s which also ballooned out past the rim and in 30km/hr winds the wind would catch the front wheel in a sharp and abrupt manner.

These ENVE 5.6 wheel specs are now far from modern (19mm internal width, 29mm external width) and designed to be used with 25C tyres. I begrudgingly ordered a GP5000 TT but then realised I had a 29C Aero 111 in the parts bin so I thought I’d at least give it a shot, and man, the Aero 111 truly is magic. Even though it balloons past the rim, the front wheel was perfectly manageable in 40km wind gusts.

I then realised I have a perfectly good set of Roval CLX II’s in storage so I’ve put the Aero 111 on the front wheel and now have that on the bike. The Roval front wheel is 35mm wide and it’s lighter than the ENVE 5.6 too so… happy days!

Super happy with the bike. Riding position is pretty low, long and aggressive forcing me to sit more on the nose of the saddle. Took me a while to get the angle of the saddle right but I think I’m there. Very tempted to order a lighter set of ZEN Carbon Bike or XMCS wheels. Was tempted to go deeper, but pretty decided on 50/60 if I do. A 1,100g wheelset would get the bike down to 6.2kg’s but honestly it feels plenty fast as is and I god damn love the sound of the ENVE hub now that I’ve removed the dust cap and some grease out of it.

CURRENT SPECS:

Frame: Size 51 2023 Cervelo S5 Five Black
Groupset: Dura-Ace 9270 12-Speed Di2
Direct Mount Hanger: Cervelo (16g)
Bars/Stem: Cervélo HB14 380 x 90 (271g)
Bar Tape: Burgh stealth lightning (55g)
Bar Ends: CarbonWorks (2g)
Bottle Cage: Celoco + CarbonWorks bolts (9g)
Brake Rotors: Galfer 140mm/140mm (79g/79g)
Brake Pads: Shimano K05TI-RX (12g/12g)
Cassette: ZTTO SLR Gen3 12 Speed ​​11-28 (117g)
Cassette Extras: SRAM stealth ring set (5g)
Crankset: XMCS carbon 155mm (330g)
Spider: XMCS carbon (43g)
Chainring: Alugear 48T (116g)
Chainring bolts: XMCS (6g)
Pedals: Xpedo Thrust SL Titanium (165g)
Wheelset: Roval Rapide CLX II front/ENVE SES 5.6 rear (705g/853g)
Tyres:  Continental Aero 111 29C/GP5000 TT 28C (272g/247g)
Inner Tubes: RideNow TPU 65mm/Magene Exar TPU 85mm (20g/35g)
Saddle: Berk Lupina Short padded 132mm (90g)
Bolts: Ti-Parts stem, handlebar, Di2 mount (31g)

WEIGHT: 6.83kg

Post ride glow.

FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1104629935091496
Discord: https://discord.gg/XX8wS6ZD4z