欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

Limits (pedal) powermeter

The latest update on the progress of the product came a few days ago (or a bit more?). It focused on the mass production of the components in the factory located (assuming by the appearance of one of the factory workers, presumably a young woman) in China (or Taiwan?).

The update before this told us about the projected start of the shipment but this time there was no mention of the shipment inauguration.

There were no pictures of the finished products at all. Are they hiding those from us or they don't have any? And what happened to the tests done by outsiders? I remember they said test would be done by several testers. Are some experienced riders testing the products or not yet?

We, my crowdfunding colleagues and I, are very curious and getting impatient. Yoda will say, "Patience!" I know but it is almost the end of April and they wrote that they were pretty confident that they would start shipping the product by now.


Prepaid SIM registration

In the wake of that terrorist attacks in Paris, the government of Luxembourg changed some rules and now these prepaid SIMs are only allowed for sale when the purchasers identify themselves.

Those SIM already circulating in the market sold before this regulation change were valid for the moment but the users of those SIMs would be eventually required to identify themselves. Notifications would follow.

This was the gist of the message sent out to the public. I received a text message a few weeks ago and I went to a local post office (as my carrier is Post) and identified myself. The procedure was easy. It is done.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Limits pedals and other things]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車レース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2016/04/29(金) 14:50:50|
2. Bike Races
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0

La Redoutable, the beer for the climbers!!

I stayed in Liège from Wednesday to Sunday morning at an very inexpensive place. Unfortunately I had to work on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday so I drove back in the early morning of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday only to drove back again to Liège after work arriving there just to sleep in late evening.

Sunday (17th of April) I went to see Amstel Gold Race and stayed at a camping ground near Maastricht and spent the Monday next to see (to be exact, to drive to Liè to help my friend see) Philippe Gilbert at the hotel where the his team were staying.

After this event, we moved to the climb of la Redoute to paint "PHIL" on the road there. It was a sunny day and we did not risk the chance of painting while it was sunny and the road surface was dry. The weather forecast for the coming Friday was not so promising.

Customarily we go to the local Carrefour (in Remouchamps, where Philippe Gilbert grew up and most of his family members still live just next to Aywaille, which manages the terrain of La Redoute). I found something new. It was also marked 'new' (in French, of course).

It was a new line of beer. They were in 330 ml glass bottle. They were called "La Redoutable" and they were simply a fruity non-filtered beer with 9 % of alcohol in it. The name comes from 'La Redoute' of course.

http://www.laredoutable.be

Please refer to the URL above.

I did not see the glasses there at the Carrefour (Market to be exact) but I now see them on the site. The average gradient of the climb mentioned is 9 %, which does explain something.

I bought 6 bottles of them to give them to people who might appreciate them. They went to three people (One rider, one soigneur and one mechanic) at Tinkoff and three people (ditto) at Trek-Segafredo. I later regretted that I had not bought more. They were available at selected locations.

http://www.laredoutable.be/agrave-propos-de-la-redoutable.html

Please refer to the URL above for their availability.

Back to the topic of the title
At the Youth Hostel in Liège, where I spent several nights, I had Spanish people (at least Spanish speaking people) for my roommates. They were there mainly (at least) for the Liège-Bastogne-Liège amateur race events. Why do I know that? Because they had bikes with start numbers for the event. On Friday nights (the night before Saturday event), their bikes were also there in the room with their masters.

Every year, the numbers of bikers at this Youth Hostel are growing. Roadies everywhere now!

They were a Cervélo S5 with Shimano components (Ultegra Di2) and Rotor cranks, one Cervélo S3 with equally Shimano Ultegra Di2 and Rotor cranks and a Specialized with SRAM wireless electric shifting gears and the ubiquitous Rotor cranks. I understood that their preference of Rotor cranks might have been because of their common origin (from Spain). They were neither BH nor Orbea.

Anyway, none of the bikes had cable shifting system fitted on them. Wow! What does Fabian Cancellara say about these phenomena!


In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [End of an era (of cable shifting)?]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車レース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2016/04/25(月) 18:34:41|
2. Bike Races in Belgium
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0

These are the two things that are currently on my way. Their delivery time is not fixed but I'm hoping that they will arrive in late April or in May.

Limits power meters were funded at Indiegogo and Reelight NEO lights were funded at Kickstarter. I participated in the crowd-funding of both of them.

NEO's updates are sparse and sketchy but the last time I heard the delivery was supposed to be around April. At their site (www.reelight.com) the general public version products are scheduled to be available starting September. Did I miss something?

They sent us (Kickstarter supporters) by e-mail a questionnaire to let us choose the type(s) we wanted. Some suppoters live in places where bikes ride on the left side of the road and others otherwise. I chose the one I wanted. There was also opportunity for us to write something. I wrote that I was expecting to move to another location around June or so and I asked them to let us update our info (delivery info and others) before the start of the delivery for someone like me. So far there has been no solid announcement for delivery date.

I chose a rear light. I've never been interested in the NEO front light. I don't think the front light is not bright enough to torch the dark path so I don't need it. My Exposure Revo and the dynamo hub wheel will do the job better.


Speaking of Kickstarter bike lights, I also help Magnic Light materialize when the company first launched its campaign. I like them but mounting them on a road bike easily and aesthetically is a puzzle.

I immediately liked NEO because of its integrated mounting mechanism. The prototype (as seen on the campaign photo) is mounted on a fixie (or something of a classical thin steel pipe construction) and its thin round seat stay tube looked similar to that of my bike. I doubted that, at the same, my bike's "aero" fork would like the same mounting mechanism.

Limits power meters

Limits Technology send us the updates more often but as to the delivery date they are vague. I understand that they are experiencing unexpected difficulties in the process of the production. So I don't complain and I just sit back and wait.

I just hope that it arrives before July (the Tour de France).

TomTom iOS app Western Europe is also pushing an update. So soon!

In Japanese: 続けをどうぞ
[Limits power meter and Reelight NEO]の続きを読む

1. 2016/04/07(木) 21:11:04|
2. Bikes and related things

2017.10 update

Wow, that was quick! Today (at least here in Europe April 6th, 2016) I noticed this update notification. It seems only a month or two ago when I received the previous notification of 2016.30.

I don't have time to update it before Paris-Roubaix 2016.

By the way, by "quick" I don't mean that 2017.10 came too early since it IS still 2016 but that the update span seemed to be rather short. I guess that Garmin has just updated their new lines (of GPS devices) for the year 2017. They have to come with 2017 version of the map to make them look newer and improved than year 2016 models.


Paris-Roubaix 2016

I checked the parcours (course of this year's edition) and realized that only one pavé (cobbled sector) section had been changed. It is sector 22.

In 2015, sector 22 was "Verchain-Maugré à Quérénaing" but in 2016 sector 22 is "Capelle à Ruesnes." Usually the cobbled roads don't have names as it is just unnamed roads running in the field.

I find it rather ironic that those cobbled stretches are marked in Garmin's map "unpaved roads" meaning that 'not paved with asphalt or not having the tarmac surface' but they are most frequently "pavé"-ed in fact.

My plan for this year will be the same as the last year. I will try to get to cobbled sector 23 and 13. They are moderately easy to get to and adequately separated (in the peloton's passing time).

So I will leave Luxembourg sometime past midnight (already Sunday, April 10th) for Compiègne. I will be in Compiègne very early in the morning. I will try to take a brief nap in the car until morning.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Paris-Roubaix 2016 and Garmin Map Update 2017.10 available now]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車レース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2016/04/06(水) 22:25:54|
2. GPS Navigation
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0

Gent-Wevelgem takes place between Deinze and Wevelgem, both of them Belgium cities. The course includes some territory of France. It is a Belgium race that takes places in Belgium and France.

I woke up 06:30 (O-six hundred-thirty) and quickly prepared to leave for Belgium. I was driving my Ka around 07:00. I quickly drove into a gas station along the highway in Luxembourg near Belgium. I tanked and then checked the air pressure on the tires. I just changed the tires (from winter tires to summer ones on Saturday morning). They were OK.

It was a rainy morning. It kept raining until near Spy (a town in Beligum, I believe) and then after that the rain dwindled. I saw blue sky with scattered clouds by the time I arrived at Deinze.

I followed the convoy of Lutto-Jumbo (the team bus followed by 5 or 6 team cars) into Deinze up to the start area for the last 20 km or so.

I arrived at Deinze around 10:00 but most of the teams were already there. I saw Lotto-Jumbo, Direct Energy, Cannondale, Trek-Segafredo arriving with or after me. They were the last teams to get there.

This year, I had a small plan for the race watch. 1) Deinze 2) Poperinge 3) Catsberg 4) Wevelgem in this order.

1) Deinze


2) Poperinge


3) Catsberg


4) Wevelgem

to continue ... [Gent-Wevelgem 2016 Part I]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車レース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2016/04/02(土) 18:34:40|
2. Bike Races in Belgium
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0