Murray 1200 Preview

New through-levers for brakes have

Their cables very low and discrete.

I bought a couple of pairs, but the idea really started when I tried this old pair of  aero levers out.

Packaged Fairing has arrived

Shoes - Shimano left, Rumble right

A buff, or tubular scarf to protect from sunburn.

I have had 4 of these lights (black, right) for a few weeks, and have just started using the Garmin, (the other thing attached to the handlebars, left) to record distances for training.

Trike with 56mm diameter pipe

Hi


Within a month I will be embarking on my second ever Audax 1200k ride with 350, 350, 250, 250k days.  This is the flat-as Murray 1200 run by my friend Simon Watt.  This forces me to lift my game a bit from my standard ride-to-shop and ride-to-go-to-nightclass routine. So here is a bit of a summary of prep sofar and prep planned.

Clothing

For a while I have been struggling to get the right bike shoe. Anaconda used to stock the "Fluid"ones I liked but then stopped stocking them. I bought some Shimanos from a local bike shop but they had the cleat too far away from the toe as per the pic. After 20 plus years of recumbenting, I am just used to one cleat position and it gets hard to deal with any other, and I can't click in! Anyway, at a family lunch, my son had some Rumble shoes which are available through Wiggle, and I bought some online and, hooray, they fit, and hooray I can click in with them. One problem sorted.

Its summer, I'm a white guy and I sunburn.  So while its ok slathering on sunscreen on my face, it's improbable that I can do it all the time properly during sunburn hours for 4 days straight.  So I bought a few tubular scarf things called Buffs. They seem of sofar, I have worn them on the bike twice. They are said to be uv 50+ protecting.

Training

Its been 6 weeks or so since I did my last Audax 200k ride, and I am now booked in for another, a Great Ocean Road 200  this coming Wednesday. As the ride profile shows, the trick is to not go too hard too early. The biggest uphill is from Deans Marsh to Lorne, and its worth saving a bit of energy for that. Anyway, befor Christmas, me and Jamie Friday did the same stretch of road in pouring rain.  I can't see conditions being that challenging again!

As well, I have done one session of 3 hours and 80k or so last Sunday on our local set of hills on the Kew Boulevarde. To help this sort of training (record the k's) I have got the Garmin do dah (oh yeah, gps. thingy) out of storage and by various combinations of button presses have worked out how to make it tell me how far I've been on training rides.

Feb 23: About 45 hilly km today. Have got into the routine of using the Garmin so I almost know what I'm talking about regarding distances now.  Its helpful for riding on the boulevarde too.  Simon Watt told me to stay over 10kph on the hills, and I am trying to stick to that.

Aero

I bought and installed some through brakes which are lighter and have more aero cabling than the ones I had before.  And I ordered a custom fairing which has arrived, but I fear it may not suit my bike perfectly!

I'm not sure I will get to this, but I think I can make a lighter and more aero tailbox than what I have now.  I bought some coreflute and found a 56mm pipe on some hard rubbish, and these along with should be all I need to build it.  The idea is to have the trailing edges of the tailbox round rather than square. Here is an example of an aero tailbox with rounded edges.

Lights

I ordered 4 front lights from China and they have arrived. They were recommended by the NSW recumbents facebook group and several esteemed Audax riders including Dome Deli use them. I have been riding home from night school using 1 of them and they seem very good.  They don't look terribly flash: thieves have not taken any yet!

Spot Trackers

This actually isn't my prep, but Simon Watt is threatening to lay on Spot Trackers for Murray Tour riders. This is great news Simon, my friends and family can be happy dot watchers.

Will continue reports of training etc, next post follows here .

Regards

Steve nurse