I also wanted to check out them Kepleresque Biopace chainrings.
Let me tell you, riding around without grips ain't fun. After about a half mile or so, well, riding around without grips ain't fun:
I had to stop there to adjust the seat.
I'll tell you, I must have stopped like five or six time to adjust the seat height. No matter how much I raised it, it still felt a bit low.
More on that later.
Anyways, I hit the LBS and bought me some Ritchey grips.
Should've bought the foam ones.
The Ritchey's have good grip, but are a bit small for my hands.
I'll change them out and put on my Specialized BG grips until I can get the foamy ones.
I pickup a meatball sub from Subway and hit the beach!
It was packed today for they were running a regatta:
Perfect timing!
I scoped out a nice spot, parked Gary Fisher and watched the races:
Here's one crew that swamped at the turn.
You can see them still bailing water:
Another crew, working hard toward the finish:
The race to make the turn:
Talking about races, those Biopace rings are trippy.
Every time I revved up my cadence, I started to bounce on the seat like Peter Cottontail.
Up went the seat again.
Okay, maybe bad form on my part; I was pushing platforms not SPDs and the crank arms are 170s, not my usual 175s.
I don't know if that has something to do with the pulse some have commented on that you get from the Biopace rings at high cadence.
Sort of felt like it does when your rear tire is going flat and you get that bounce when you pedal.
I don't know, it must be me.
At low speeds or low cadence, I couldn't tell the difference.
It's sort of bizarre though, to look down at your chain ring and see it going all lopsided and all.
I adjusted the seat skywards one more time and just could not get rid of the bounce.
Anyways, I haven't decided whether or not to sand down the rust on Gary and paint it or just leave it.
I dig the fact that I'm riding on a twenty year old group set; just that fact alone makes me want to keep this bike.
I got more tweaks to make that I'll get to later.
Wouldn't you know it?
I'm looking out the window right now and, well, a nice way to end a good day:
5 comments:
Apparently HKII stands for "Hoo Koo E Koo". Could not find what that means though. Got to know! I think Biopace failed because it was just too strange, didn't really live up to its purpose, and felt too different to people used to circular rings. I keep using them only because they last forever and I haven't had a need to replace them yet.
I'd like to hear your impressions of the rings.
I've been reading up on them and it seems I'm not the only one with high cadence bounce(HCB)!
Only did a short ride yesterday so not sure what I think yet.
I forgot to ask you about them in the post for I remembered that BIP was Biopace equipped also.
I was uh, distracted.
I like the biopace rings OK for going medium-medium (medium cadence, medium power, medium speed) and have gotten used to them so that I don't notice the not-roundedness any more. To me any difference is a nuance that I don't detect, but that's just me, probably. (It's not Bip with them BTW it's Yasuko the commuter, Bip is round down there). I'm interested if you didn't bounce at a similar RPM and gear ratio with round rings.
I max out(bounce) at around 130, and there was no way I was getting there on the Biopace.
My best guess is that I was just where everyone else says the bounce starts: 90rpm.
I read that its better to use a higher gear, so I'll try that too.
Tell you the truth, at lower speeds, I didn't notice anything different either(other than visual).
Full report when I go for a longer ride.
BTW, are you on Biopace I or II?
Biopace II is supposed to be less ovoid.
1 I think. They look just like your photo, except 48 on the big.
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