The nopinz test part 2

Yesterday was a test of the nopinz skinsuit that had already impressed me with the general look and quality the day before . But now it was time for the most important bit how was it to use ?

I had a few things that I needed to check out , fit including sat up and in the tt position , comfort and would the speed pocket steam up in a hard session .

The session I chose was a sweet spot turbo session for three reasons , one I could hold the tt position ,two I could really have a look at the suit whilst wearing it and see if I could find any faults or parts I liked , and three I sweat like a beast in the garage on the turbo so it was going to give the suit a good test .

I started my warm up dropping between tt and sat up position , the suit moved well with me and didn't seem to bunch up when moving between positions , the chamois felt good at the back but a little thin at the front at the start , but as the ride went on it felt a lot better , it wasn't a case at the start of discomfort more I felt I wanted a bit more , I think using a new adamo tt saddle might of added to this is my other saddle is well worn in so softened up a bit , 

As the steam started coming down from the garage ceiling it was time to start hitting the session , the suit felt good , I couldn't feel the speed pocket , and shuffling forward on the bars didn't seem to make the suit pull around the speed pocket , 

Looking over the suit during the session all I could really pick up and these might just be personal to me and something I like in a suit ,but I would have the sleeves slightly shorter , I have wrists like a small child so need something really tight at the wrist of that finishes just above the wrist , the sleeve grippers are really good and managed to hold the sleeve when I pulled it just above the wrist onto my hand which I figured is about the size of a standard mans wrist .

The leg grippers as well where rock solid and stayed where I put them which is nice as a lot of suits ride up or fall down on the leg gripper during a race , I personal like no gripper at all but that's something that is very hard to get right on a suit that is off the shelf with people having very different leg sizes ( example , my impsport and bio racer skinsuits without leg gripper ended up rolling up at the end aka aero suicide ,or ended up by my crotch in a race meaning there was a load of material bunch up ) 

Again these are things I like that a lot of people don't , and going down the road of a specially fitted suit from a off the peg .

The speed pocket didn't steam at all ,there was a a bit of a line where the slit was to put the number in that was a bit wet ,but no steam and no lose of number visabilty.

All in from the test and the quality would I buy this suit ? Hell yeah , I would put it somewhere between everything else from the big names in skinsuits and the smart aero suit , I think the quality and fit is as good as anything else and with the speed pocket already fitted all for £150 you really can't go wrong , noticed they do a less branded version that you can get with the arm bands for under £200 .

Talking of the arm bands I wore them on the test as well , you put the number in the same way as the speed pocket , then work the band up your arm and into position , the band fitted perfectly between my elbow and shoulder and you can adjust it so the number is in the perfect position , it has the clear coating on the front that again didn't steam up but I did notice it was very sweaty behind which you would expect and less so than wrapping your arm in cling film which I've seen people do , added with the fact this was Lin the garage on the turbo so no wind aiding cooling .

The skinsuit test was done and I had smashed out a good session so all was good and I peeled the suit of dripping wet very impressed , will be racing in the suit a lot over next year and looking forward to it .

Second test of the weekend involved the single use speed wallet , this is where it all started and what has lead to the retro fitted stuff .

These are aimed towards people doing single events or using multiple kit they need to attach numbers to randomly for events , they come in various sizes and a arm version , 

For a week in week out tt rider I would go for the retro fitted pocket and working it out would probably cost the more in single use wallets over the season than a retro fitted pocket , but for a single event a very useful item for the kit bag , 

Being impressed by the other nopinz kit I thought I would put abit of extra faith in the single use stuff and fitted the wallet to my training top and stashed it with my food supplies for the ride , 

This could of ended very bad as I like my food on a ride but I had faith , the plan was to put the food in and seal it , I would need something about 45 mins in so if it was still there by then I would be happy it holds well and rip it open to get my goodies or be desperately re tracing my route looking for my food supply .

I'm very happy to say I didn't lose my stash , the eagle eyed of you will notice different food in each pic ,the reason for this is I thought if the worse did happen ( don't forget I'm putting two bars of food in a wallet only designed to take a paperweight number so was pushing my luck ) then at least I would still have a few bars in my pocket , the first pic is of my jersey when I took it off at home , the top had peeled away a bit but I think that was from doing short sprit efforts and being in and out of the saddle a lot with the two bars rattling around in the wallet , but it held for a 90 min ride so really impressed as I hadn't got it fitted as flat as it should be with a number either .

The arm wallet stayed put as well and didn't flap around in the wind either , 

For someone looking at a season long solution racing week in week out I would go for the retro fitted speed pocket especially as the seams etc are so good once it's in its in at a one off cost , the wallets I would suggest for one off events or for a introduction into a life without pins .

Think the whole nopinz system has really taken the next step both in searching for aero and with the new skinsuits getting thinner and tighter fitting looking for every watt of saving really think the nopinz system is the future .

Would love the chance to aero test the kit to see how the aero claims stack up , but as far as I can see I'm sold and happy to have my race suit fitted with the speed pocket for next year .

The NoPinz test part 1

I'm going to do this in two parts as its a bit much to fit into one blog and people will soon get board with my rambling , part 1 will be about the nopinz kit look and quality part 2 test results .

Like many tt racers I've struggled around car parks in the middle of no where sat in the car carefully pinning on my race number , getting it perfectly flat , even being a bit naughty and using double sided tape to stick it too the skinsuit before pinning it ( and spending ages picking off double sided tape hoping no one sees ) only to start the funky chicken dance to get into the skinsuit only for a pin to come flying off or to realise the number is in the wrong place and in a right state .

Arm numbers are a whole new world of pain in the ass and some of the diy solutions are comical , cling film , sellotape etc to save the odd watt from a flapping number .

Surely there was a better way in 2014 .

Luckily a guy called Blake pond came along ,self confessed aero nut and a very handy racer in his own right , and the nopinz collection .

I first come across these At one of the national tts , I had heard of them and even tried to get hold of some early ,but they where already being well tested in sunny Devon .

I had heard the stories of the claimed savings and the flip side of people saying they wouldn't work , would come unstuck or leave your skinsuit covered in sticky residue . I stuck with what I knew for the national event and that was that , I thought the ways I had was good so what was the point in changing .

The day come and I had managed to get hold of a smart aero skinsuit and my first thought went to my old assos skinsuit that had a huge hole around the bum area from a load of number pinning and was often remarked on at a local Dursley club ten on the mighty u7b , if by luck or the grace of god I saw the nopinz advert again for the new speed pocket , this was basically a version of the single use wallets that I had avioded at the nationals sticking to My old ways , but this was sewn into your skinsuit as a perminant feature . 

This seemed like a perfect idea to my solution , a perminant number holder , no more stealing pins of other numbers in the hq because mine are knackered and will ping off after warm up and more importantly no wrecking my skinsuit .

So I went onto the nopinz site and set about checking it out , long story short the suit was in the post that evening , I was having a speed wallet fitted and a set of the aero armbands , 

To my surprise Blake at nopinz had seen the blog and said he would stick in a set of the single use wallets for me to have a look at whilst waiting for my skinsuit to come back .

Four days later my suit is back with the pocket fitted , I went with the reflective strip underneath as well as a bit of added visabilty , it was easy to see this wasn't just a pocket fitted to the suit with little thought , I could see the panel was very neatly sewn into the suit and the outer suit had the smooth seam outside with and sign that it had been stitched in on the inside out the way .

The panel was exactly where it should be low down on the back where I would normally try and stick my number for a race .

On the inside the stitching is neat and there is a small slit that allows you to stick your number in the speed pocket , I heard a few say it wouldn't be possible to get a number in with the suit on so I tested it , I'm like a rubber band so might not work for all but with one arm out of the sleeve I managed to get my arm around the back and get the number in with the use of the mirror in the lounge , if I rode to a event I would probably just strip the suit down to waist level and put the number in , but most times I would just get to the hq and stick the number in before getting the suit on .

The other concern was how stretchy was the panel , would it give enough when doing the funky chicken to get the suit on as the skinsuits are made of a very stretchy fabric , my smart suit is a medium and super tight , I honestly didn't feel any pull in the panel or suit pulling against the panel , even curled up into a ball on the floor so I was stretching it as much as I could when wearing it ( luckily at this time I was home alone , who knows what the wife would of thought If she came home to find me curled up in a ball in a skinsuit in lounge ) , I couldn't feel the area that had been sewn on the inside as it's nicely finished and a soft fabric on the inside of the panel area .

The questions I will test later will be the worry it will steam up inside the pocket and obscure the number being seen by testing the suit on a hard turbo session later , if that doesn't steam it up nothing will , and the sun reflecting of the clear covering of the panel , which will involve me going up and down my road in the mid afternoon sun and getting someone to check the visabilty of the number from multiple angles .

So far I'm really struggling to find fault with it and for me it has to be a no brainer , the tt world seems to be one of that is full of the latest bikes and technology but people are very fearful to move away from the standard of pinning on a number for a event , pinning before a event is part of the whole experience and something that I've always taken a great effort in , but nothing is worse that hearing the rip of a expensive skin suit or when your smashing down a course giving it everything and you can feel the number flapping around on your back because a pin has fallen out somewhere along the way .

Then there are the aero claims , something I really think is there and a will bite someone's hand off for one watt saved ,but I can't test those claims at the moment so I won't go into that side of the speed pocket .

Also in the bag that was returned completed in under 4 days was one of the nopinz skinsuits Blake asked if I would like to try out , 

Taking it out the bag the material felt odd almost Teflon like , it looked good in black with the bright pink nopinz stamp on the arms and legs and back , these can be worn in open events as nopinz are the manufacturer the same as assos / Castelli etc , this obviously has the speed pocket already fitted , with the same quality finish and in the same position as the one fitted to my smart suit , 

It's a very snug fit which is what I'm after in a skinsuit and doesn't bunch up anywhere ( I've had skinsuits before that have bunched a bit between the chest and shoulder when in the aero position ) 

I wore it back to back with the smart suit and noticed a lot of similar qualities from a suit that has solely been made for aero benefits , 

Will do a ride on the turbo today in the nopinz suit and see if anything else comes out , but for a £150 skinsuit with the speed pocket already fitted you really can't go wrong in my eyes , I've picked out a few tiny details that I think could make it great , but after a quick message to Blake these are already in the pan for the new suit so I won't go into that , but we are talking very small details so watch this space .there is also a more refi ended version of the skinsuit called the championship suit which is fully rttc complient wand can be brought including the armbands for under £200 . 

The single use wallets I have stuck to my kit for tomorrow's ride on the road , I've stuck one arm number on now and will stick one on in the morning to see if it makes any difference to the level of adhesion you get , the rear single use pocket will get the ultimate test as I'm going to put my gels and food in for tomorrow's ride so really putting a lot of hope and faith in it sticking .

Lastly the arm bands , these come in 3 sizes and are again a snug fit with the same quality finish as the speed pocket , they are not retro fitted to the suit and can be positioned at any angle on the upper arm ,I will wear them when testing the suit later . 

The question I got asked was how can I offer a independent view when I was given the skinsuit to test , easy , I'm not sponsored by nopinz , I don't know the guys at nopinz apart from a few email conversations and I don't owe them anything so I can have a honest opinion ,and like the rest of what we are looking at this year we will be looking at making sure we are using what we know is the best for that situation , the proof as they say is in the pudding and I can say I will be using the armband and speed pocket to race in next year and the skinsuit for club events and who knows when we get to aero test it later maybe for opens as well .

Part 2 tomorrow or Sunday will be test results :) 

Dreams of the TTE

Bit of a quick one as had a lot of questions about the super allusive boardman TTE , in short it's been impossible to pin down for a test but more on that in future blogs , it will be coming and I will be testing it in plenty of time for next season .

I was in bike science again on Friday , torrents of rain and a very overweight woman who wanted the whole road to herself couldn't stop me , 

It was time to get the winter bike a trusted cube peloton fitted up , and the zipp vuka bars set up as close to the tt bike as possible .

Andy described this as one of the ugliest winter bikes he had seen , the added picture was of the bike that was set up as a turbo tt rig which proved kinda pointless as I don't use the turbo much .

So add to this bike a load of reflective stickers, miles of wires for lights with battery pack back up , a ton of cable ties , a very old octalink set of cranks and the fact it had been raining flat out which didn't help and you got one ugly bike ( the cube in factory settings new out the showroom is a very nice looking bike ) 

Anyhow , we used the retul fitting kit and got to work , Andy wizzing around the bike with what is  best described as a wizards wand on a lead ( the retul measuring tool that gives mm perfect measurements ) getting all the main measuring points on the bike , then the retul system Compairs those measurements to the tt bike and we can see where the differences lie .

It was at this point we noticed I need a new Adamo saddle as my old road version is knackered and Andy went about making the measurements match up .

The end result was we got it as close as the frame and components would allow and it's pretty close so really happy ,

Whilst there the TTE conversation came up , this bike is like a unicorn , people have heard of it , some have even claimed they have spotted one out in the wild that is the road, but very few have managed to catch one , I am still on the later stage , though I have spent along time looking at it in the flesh which makes it even worse not getting to ride it yet .

Anyway , hanging on the wall at bike science was the very nice looking boardman air tt 9.4 , so we decided to have a test fit on it and see if we could get the position we wanted out of it if we needed it as a back up bike always thinking in the back of my head about the  TTE like a love sick girl looking at the pictures of boy band members on the wall .

Now the 9.4 would be a super bike if the TTE hadn't come along with it's zero cable showing and fully intergrated set up but this doesn't seem to faze the 9.4 it's pretty obvious alot has gone into it and it looks the part with Di2 , intergrated brakes and all the little details that show it means business .

We set it up and to be honest it felt great , the pads needed bringing together and different extensions fitted but as a bike package I had gone from only having eyes for the TTE to a mindset of we could really do something special with the 9.4 .

So as things stand we are looking good , doing a extra blog this week soley on the nopinz stuff , I've been very impressed with what I've seen so looking forward to testing the range , 

But as far as bikes go everything is going in the right direction , if anyone happens to know Chris boardman give him a nudge to get the TTE sorted for a test ;) 

Looking for the smallest saving and target planning

This is going to be a long one this month so grab a coffee and get comfy , Been super busy since the last blog , its just about to hit 1000 views which im pretty proud of but i don’t think il need to start carrying around a special pen just for autographs any time soon :) ,had some good support from the likes of velouk as well and plenty of positive feedback .

Was really hoping to have the results from the Boardman TTE bike fit but its had to be put back a week , so will include it in the next blog , was really looking forward to it , spent a good bit of time looking over it , it’s so slick you can play the game of try to spot the cable that’s sticking out in the wind causing drag ,its hard as its pretty much just the one for the front brake #superslick .

the last few weeks the winter has started to kick in , for anyone who knows me i hate the turbo so its been out in it weathers smashing away at the constant headwind up and down the a38 ,its a tough and very open road but i always remember my legend dad getting me out in my younger days for runs when i was boxing training ,no matter what the weather he would be bumbling along behind me on the bikemotivating me along ( and getting dropped on the steep hills ) .

I’ve been putting my new Phew early winter gloves to the test , I’ve got baby hands and really feel the cold so these are great and a good fit , not like a lot of winter gloves that seem to increase the size of your hands tenfold and are really clumsyon the bike , with the added bonus of a second lobster glove that fits over the top for when it’s really cold ( or mild in my case ), they are really grippy even in the wet and I can still use the touch screen on the Garmin with them on , the long cuff is ideal as well as it stops the draft around your wrist , so all in a very recommended glove ,and I’ve tried a ton of them trying to find the right ones .

 

 

Also this month I got my hands on the very bling ( and razor sharp ) Rotor q rings ,a moment that was best described at Charlie finding the golden ticket when I opened the box .

Andy advised that I set them at position 4 this is the position that allows you to get the most torque and a good starting point for us to test , I’ve got as far as fitting them but haven’t ridden on them yet but will before the next blog , I love my Sram red ring so will take some solid convincing to change 

 

 

 

 

A few weeks back my ( the wife’s but I pretty much claimed it as my own ) Mac decided it no longer wanted to upload from my Garmin 500 , I was first mad then gutted , the Garmin was a lovely red and carbon combo that looked class especially with the pancake design custom cover ( which reminds me I need to email Phil ) , luckily its gone to a very good home and I’ve now got aGarmin 510 , the main reason is it has Bluetooth , this is great as before it was a case of , get back , find the laptop , then find the Garmin lead , then open Garminconnect , upload file , export file ,open training peaks find the session and upload file which was always about a 15-20min process most of which was finding theGarmin lead .

Not now , I come home my phone finds the Garmin and loads it straight on no messing it’s the best thing ever and still have a smile on my face 3 weeks on when it does it all instantly J.

 

I have been training bloody hard as well mind it hasn’t been all about testing stuff making master plans but il go onto that in a bit ,

Had a very interesting email conversation with Blakepond ( most will know he’s a super-fast fellow Devonboy who is aero crazy and one of the people behind nopinz )

Nopinz is basically what everyone has been crying out for , ( apart from the people that make pins of course J )  a way of attaching numbers without pins , and nopinz have got it pinned J , this all came around as my very kind sponsor at Bike Science got me a Smart drag2zero  skinsuit , the great thing about the sponsorship with bike science is that they want me to be in the best kit not just advertising what sells and to me this skinsuit is the best so I don’t want it to get destroyed with pins , ( anyone who has rode with me at a dursley club event on the mighty U7b would agree my old assos skinsuit with the giant hole around the bum area was not a pretty sight )

Ive seen the nopinz advertised but wasn’t sure if I was convinced , until I saw the retro fit speed wallet and arm bands , my fingers where fumbling all over the keyboard trying to find out how I could get hold of that set up for my nice new skinsuit ,

Long story short , my skinsuit is now making its way toBlake to get retro fitted up so next blog I should have it back and can give a honest view on it , we really are looking at every angle here so if it saves a watt il take it , plus if it saves me from the pain of getting my number on only for the pins to fly off when I move it will be totally worth it  and the arm numbers are even harder so will look a lot better than some of the crazy DIY versions I’veseen before a race .

 

So training , since starting with Matt Bottrill Performance Coaching it’s been unreal ,

Matt looked at what I was doing before and told me he thought I had massive scope for improvement , basically if I do as im told and put the work in I could be where I wanted to be , this was great for me and just what I needed , I had great support behind me from bike science and the use of the retul bike fitting has been worth its weight in gold , I had matt who I could put total faith in and a mind set that if something wasn’t right we could make it right and that left me exactly where I wanted to be , in a position where it all comes down to how much I want it and how much im willing to push .

We had a good chat about targets , at the start I thought I was doing pretty well , I was getting good results and getting close to the really fast guys in events ,then matt said he thought I had at least another 40 odd watts in me from training which to be honest at the start I wasn’t so sure about as it’s a big chunk but hell I was going to go for it , all has started great , two ftp test and two power pbs the last by a massive 17watts so now im thinking matt might of under estimated with the 40w ;)

So we have some big targets , the nationals are something I would like a good showing in this year , I rode terrible in the 50 ,paced it wrong and left pretty angry with it , missed the 25 , and the national 10 was a disaster , nearly missed my start time , missed my warm up and made a change that ment I rode with 7watts less power than I did for a 25 miler so a lot to prove .

Time wise I’ve set a 18 min for a 10tt , I think this is something that will motivate me and make me really have to step up , a 48 min 25 again I know I can do butI’ve gotta want it bad , and a 1:40:00 min 50 , I might do a 100 but will see how things look it will be late in the season probably.

 

So I’ve got a lot coming up , Boardman TTE fit next week and the setup of the road bike to try and replicate the tt position as much as possible , I have the saddle height / position the same as the tt bike but need to sort the front end and get the zipp vuka clip ons set up , will be trying to do a lot of rides in the tt position over winter as there is no point improving your power if you cant get it down on the tt bike and hold your position you’ve worked all winter on.

Test the rotor rings , work on the nutrition more , just discovered muscle foods and has really helped in making good eating more affordable so well worth a check out , plus it’s pretty cool getting 5kg of chicken breast turn up at the door ( can really recommend the chicken and chilli sausages ) I’ve got a target to get below 75kgs , im currently 79-81kg so I think 75 or below is a good target and then its finding the weight lose vs power lose limit .

Winter training is in full swing now and we are smashing it all the way though to next season .

Andy and I have found a good spot for aero testing so that will be up and running soon as well , busy busy but bloody exciting at the same time