Road Fixie

I get ragged on because of my use of ‘home pharmacy / lab experiments’ – including the use of homemade ‘embro’. Well, it’s cheap and it works. If you want to spend 3000y plus for literally 3 rides worth of brand – (http://www.rapha.cc/rapha-embrocation-1) that’s your biz – but you can mix your own for a fraction of the cost AND tune it to your likes:

Base: All embro has some kind of base ingredient. Either oil or wax or combo. I like the combo, best. I use beeswax and almond oil or olive oil primarily. But, hell, you can use anything. Corn oil, motor oil, Bacon Grease, whatever rocks your boat. Bees wax you can get online from candlemaking supplies or splurge at Tokyu Hands. How much beeswax you use is up to you – but I generally use about 1 part beeswax to about 5 parts oil. The wax-oil will really ‘stick’ in your pores and seal them up good. More wax, the harder it is to massage in, less wax and it will erode quicker in weather. Experiment.

Embrocation is a ‘living pot’ , once you get a tub of this going, you can just add to it with whatever you like. If I want a more ‘massagy’ potion – then I’ll add more oil – if I want a more ‘protective’ potion then I’ll up the wax content a bit.

Other base stuff you can throw in there to feel like you’ve done your research:

1) Shea Butter – a really good skin moisturizer and conditioner. Especially if you are shaving or epilating – shea seems to help quite a bit to avoid the ‘roughies’.

2) Glycerin – another moisturizer and surfacent. Glycerin is pretty good at binding stuff together, so when you have mixed oil, wax and other stuff that has high moisture (water) content, adding some glycerin will keep it together and act more as an emollient than pure oils / wax.

Goodies: Essential Oils of this and that, hair of bat, tinctures and other stuff for good luck (and riddence) of bad juju, fungii, etc.

- Tea Tree Oil: I guess you can’t go wrong with a few drops of this stuff. it ‘supposedly’ cures everything from the mange to rabies. It has some antiseptic properties and hey, you never know when you might need THAT! In case of road contact-to-skin, barbed wire, etc.

- Grapefruit Seed Extract: Falls in a similar category as the Tea tree Oil. Though a little stronger on the anti-fungual properties. We’ll toss some of this in there, too, just to keep Mr. Toe Jam at bay.

- Bergamont, Lavender and other essential oils. More for the smell than anything, but it can’t hurt, right?

ACTIVATION: You need to add some energy to the mix. So this is where you create the HOT or COLD or both side of things.

- Capsicum Oleoresin: The mack daddy of fire. You can make your own or just buy it off the ‘net. A few drops of this and ‘heat to taste’. be very careful when you handle this stuff – and whatever you do, do NOT handle your <other parts> after messing with this!

** Neutralizing a Toxic Capsicum Event – Use a dilute mix of Chlorine Bleach and water. Wash thoroughly with this , THEN rinse with another dilute solution of Distilled vinegar and water. Keep this around when you are home brewing! BTW – you cannot drink Chlorine, but you CAN drink vinegar. So, in case someone in your household accidentally licks the chopstick you were using to mix up the batch – you have some first aid ready. (Don’t Ask)

- Oil of Peppermint : This gives your batch a bit of ‘ICY’ feeling. it has menthols in it. For additional COOLING kick, you can add real Menthol Crystals.

- Anything Menthol: What gives your embro the COOLING feeling. For winter, you may not want much of this. But it IS refreshing and I actually put a small amount. The whole Ying Yang thang , I guess.

Pharma: You can also add stuff that will / may have more of pharmaceutical effect as well. Though , I’m not a pharmacist – so you’d better not take this info seriously (disclaimer) and whatever you do , is your own responsibility here. (another disclaimer), So, if you end up in the ‘mergency room suffering from some alien hand condition, palsy, skin eating chemical burn or whatever – DON’T BLAME ME! Go buy some 3000 Y RAPHA and trust yourself to That!

- Methyl Salicylate: Could be put in the ‘goodies’ category, but this is pretty strong stuff. It acts as an antiseptic AND astringent. And has a pretty good COOLING kick as well.

- Salicylic Acid: The pharma version of basically liquid aspirin. Topically its known as a rubefacient and has liniment properties. Use with caution.

- Lidocaines: Found in many numbing creames. This is a topical anesthetic and should only be used under a Doctor’s recommendation (more disclaimers) . But for a special Embro, a bit of topical anesthetic is pretty darn helpful when you’ve got ‘kit rash’ or ‘road rash’ issues. Bear in mind – you don’t normally embrocate with the HEAT type of formula on road rash or kit rash regions of your skin!

- Voltaren: This comes in gel, cream, dermapatch and even internal. As a topical gel or derma-patch, it’s a very strong NSAID-type pharma. Again – get a Doctor’s order for this stuff. But, I have used it successfully with my Embro especially around the knee area.

Other Special Mentions:

1) You can conbini-embro easy! Just grab some of the ubiquitous chili oil (like for gyoza) and tub of margarine. I used this at Yahiko a couple years ago. The other riders looked at me like I was insane – but hey, I was totally COMFY on the climb with water beading off my legs like the back of a duck!

2) Bacon grease or Lard. Hey, back in the day my Nonna (now more than 98yo) used to lard us up when we crashed on the road, ran through blackberries getting chased by Bears, or generally had ANY strained, bruised or other problem short of requiring an amputation. Her top secret formula is still, well top secret cause even she can’t remember it anymore. But it STANK and it WORKED. My rough guess is that it had a bunch of mint oils, pepper oils, lard and maybe some Skunk Stank in it.

Stealth Pro Factor: Nothing more than embro spells, er smells, PRO. You put this on and hit the peloton and everyone knows you are PACKED FOR BEAR. The psychological effect is astounding. The other phreds are suffering in the cold, shivering, soaking up water faster than an Fremen in Seattle and you are all smiling and hey , ‘what’s the hassle here?’. Plus when you blow by them on the attack, you are giving them the wift and the waft off! Like they somehow forgot something – that you didn’t!

My current selection of  ’OTC’ liniments and balms. I subject my limbs to the hazards of  ’live testing’ so that small animals, children and sane people don’t have to!

I love the Greenline roads. Full of ups and downs, in the forests and valleys. Pete led out another Greenline ride this weekend and despite the searing heat (40+), and a couple of unfortunate crashes, it was a great ride! We had 3 fixed gear riders to join this jaunt, myself included, which is about as many fixed gear riders as you will see together on any real road ride. Props to Patrick and Mikio for carrying on the tradition of real RoadFixed riding!

Here’s what a typical Greenline Ride looks like from a fixedgear perspective. I was riding my standard gear of 46×15, maybe a bit stiff for this length and grade, but a good challenge and keeps me up on the straights and downs.

The Bike: GS Astuto Custom Titanium
The Cockpit: GS Astuto Bars, Thomson Seatpost, Selle Saddle, 3T stem, Modolo Kronos cheaters
The Wheels: GS Astuto 21mm full carbon roadfixie alpine wheels built up with DT Comps and Novatec / Bitex hubs. At less than 900gr there is not a lighter, stronger roadfixed wheel out there.
The Tires: Challenge Triathlon Tubulars. Real riders don’t let friends ride clinchers!
Drivechain: Truvativ Omnium, SuperIzumi NJS Chain, Dura Ace NJS Cogs.

When I heard about the Diablo my interest peaked. My riding style is preferential to the hills and I also like a bike that is ‘close hauled’ and performs well in tight, twisty terrain. So, I was pretty excited when Neil Pryde offered me a chance to take one out on a full day test ride. We had a perfect ride in mind which was a pre-scheduled TCC club ride on a fairly technical course featuring decent transit sections plus a couple of Category 1 climbs through beautiful gorge areas.

Mike(s) and crew hand delivered the bike to my house after spending all day doing dealer rounds. Wow, these guys are committed! The bike I chose was a spanking new Diablo with top end Dura-Ace group and Mavic Krysirium wheelset. As an FYI this is one of their standard builds – so everything was well in place and perfectly in tune. I settled for the ‘S’ size as I knew some other riders in the group would like to try this bike and it would be more  easy to accommodate with a smaller frame. I swapped the stem for a longer one to fit my reach.

Setting off in the morning the first thing I noticed was just how quick this bike was. My regular ride is a Titanium custom fixed gear and while a great riding bike overall, not particularly known for ‘quickness’  under roadlike conditions. I might mention, that the Diablo was also the first derailler equipped bike I had seriously ridden in more than 20yrs. So, it stands as a pretty significant event to gt yours truly off a fixed gear and onto a roadbike. I did not want to give this experience to just any bike that came along.

We met up with everyone and proceeded to transit out to the hills. I was feeling pretty good and noticed my average pace kept inching up higher and higher. The Diablo was so smooth on the road I just couldn’t help riding it hard. I rally wanted to go 100% on this bike all the time!

Reaching the first set of hills I prepared myself for the real test. I wanted to see how the bike handled in a combination of climbing and riding techniques that included in saddle, bar-top standing and hard drop bar standing. Most  road bikes don’t satisfy me in the handling as they skip around too much under hard standing climbs. It takes a very well tuned geometry to get a bike that will stick perfectly to the road and at the same time provide a stiff climbing platform. My own custom bikes tend to have a tucked in rear geometry with a little more relaxed front end. And I try to get get chainstays as nearly parallel to the drive as possible. Imagine a track bike that is not so twitchy and you know what I mean. I also like to be positioned more over the pedals, so the steeper seat tube angle helps with that as well the longer stem. In essence, the Diablo is very much how I would design a frameset for the type of riding I like best – technical hills and dales.

The Diablo responded very well to any kind of action I threw at it. Slow grinding mashing up the hill, spinning, hard standing, etc. It stuck like glue on the road and every pedal stroke counted! The only negative thing I noticed was that it did have a significant amount of toe overlap which under normal conditions would be perfectly acceptable for a race bred frame, however in the technical hill portions that required traversing or hard flat steering, it was a bit disconcerting, but easily accommodated once I got used to it.

This particular road is known as one of the stomping grounds for serious climber training and on any weekend you can throw your dice in with some of Japan’s top riders for King of the Hills. One of these riders whipped past our small group and several of us took pace. I raised my effort to max and was soon catching a few riders, then nearing the top of the hill I pulled out all the stops, clicked down 3 gears and took on a serious standing uphill sprint for the last 200m. The Diablo jumped to the fray and I was pleasantly surprised by catching the group! WOW! This was getting fun! I even started to feel a little bad for the other riders in our group who were on less sprightly steeds. Though, at 53yo, I deserve a little handicap now and then – and for sure the Diablo was giving it to me.

After another short transit around the reservoir, we regrouped and refueld in preparation for the ‘mac daddy’ climb up Arima Toge. A very technical climb with variety of road surfaces and no slack points until about 3kn from the end. The Neil Pryde guys met up with us at this point, and we were joined by their Japanese rep and team rider, Michael Rice, as well as their VP of Sales, also named Michael Rice. They had a professional service van with a real pro mechanic, Jerry, and with this, we set out on the next leg.

The bunch quickly spread out and I took on after Fumiki san who is, in my opinion, one of the best natural riders I’ve seen. He is a tough nut to crack under any condition and today would be no different. Since Fumiki had taken most of the pre-season ‘off’, he was just coming back into form and I knew that this would probably be the last time I’d have the slightest chance of hanging with him. Today would prove that to be true! As we battled up the hill I kept him solidly in sights and was hoping that by just applying mental pressure I could get him to over work and wear down a bit. Fumiki san is also smart as well as strong – and he played the game in reverse as well. I could see him glance back, then quickly change up to standing to break my spirit. HA! But I had a new secret devil on my shoulder who kept pushing me.

On the one section of the road where I knew changed to some small ups and downs I decided to mount a final attack. This is where I demanded full effort and maximum performance. Any weakness in the bike would clearly be shown here. The road was a mix of nasty hairpins – fast and steep, up and down, strewn with rocks, sticks and even sections of gravel. Not for the timid.  It was exactly this type of road that I felt I could succeed my attack. I gained ground steadily on Fumiki san and pushed pace even harder. Most of the hairpins were taken ‘en drift’ and I was really enjoying the spirit of this chase. I passed Fumiki san and kept as hard as I could. But somehow the fighting spirit overtook him as well and he counter attacked on the next set of steep switchbacks.

We rounded the final set of curves and mini-sprinted to the end. Fumiko san took the line and I followed just a few seconds after. As I was finishing, Michael Rice, the NPB Pro rider had made his challenge and the three of us finished climb at a very fast pace. (Thanks , Michael, for letting an old man have his day!).

The top three bikes on the hill were a Trek (Fumiki san) and two NPB Diablos. Without this bike I could have never kept such a solid pace on this climb. Aside from the small twitchiness and toe overlap, the solid performance on the hill and amazing responsiveness off the pedal made this one of the best days of climbing I’ve had in a long time. And it was great to lose my ‘fixie virginity’ on this bike.

I guess you could say, ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’!

Wow – what a great day! At  least 8 riders showed up for this hammerfest ride to top of Shiraishi plus alpha. Max had to bail early due to pressing engagement and missed the actual 7km climb, but rest of us had a mini-race to the top. Kimm san and JF led off with a nasty hard pace. Then followed by Steve and myself. The competition was stiff and we all found ourselves at the summit completely spent! Takakki san suffered 2 chaindrops making it an especially agonizing ride up the more than 20% in some places grade.  I tried hard to catch Steve but everytime I started an attack he somehow sensed or saw me and pulled out the afterburners to crush me.  At the top it was a tie with Kimm san and JF, then Steve and myself, followed by Fumiki san, Sat, Takakki san and Pete. (I’ll have to get official order later – was really too wiped to concentrate fully) We completed the ride by heading up the Greenline and hitting another couple of short climbs finally ending up a favorite soba /udon shop at the top. While we there one of the customers gave an impromptu performance of a Spanish song played on a traditional Japanese flute. Magic always happens on these rides!

If you’re in the hood and want to take on some hills, we’ve got a great ride planned. Shiraishi Toge. You can checkout the route here – We’ll ride up the Arakawa as usual and then follow this map: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/330487

I’ll be heading out from Shinjuku as usual and then we have a meetup point close to the Arakawa River.  The weather is looking to be gorgeous so lets enjoy it! This will probably be the last chance before Kusatsu to get in a major tear-down day so expect some aggressive climbing by committed individuals. As always, though, no one is left behind unless they choose to bail.

If you’re riding fixed then I recommend a 44/15 44/21 flip flop. The climbing portion exceeds 18% in many places. This is how we roll!