Posted by Phil on Mar 25, 2009 in
Training I have purchased a new set of wheels for my bike. They are “Mavic Aksium Race” wheelset. I bought them as brand new but unfortuantly they aren’t. However fortuantly for me my bikeshop owner was able to re-tru the weels after they previous owner had obviously ridden on them enough to feel that he needed to have a go at truing the wheels, and all he acheived in doing so was to buckle and egg the wheels. So after all that they obviously aren’t brand new as they were so to me as being (live and learn, moral of the story buyer beware on TradeMe).
All said and done they are an entry level race wheelset and they are a lot faster than my previous wheelset (sorry don’t know the brand). The Mavic’s have straight pull flat aero spokes and great free wheeling hubs (read fast here). I am a heavier set person (96kg) and they feel strong and fast so a definite edge over the last wheels that I had. I would have liked to get the Ksyrium wheelset but $$$ prevent at the moment but there is hope for the future. (The ksyrium is another level up on the aksium).
It would appear that for no extra effort I am getting 3-5km/h out of them on the flat so it is a real boost for me, it should equal around a 5-7min saving for a 20k bike leg in a sprint tri. I guess I will find out in my next tri.
Posted by Phil on Mar 25, 2009 in
Races / Events Race Day
The day dawned fine and calm, (right now I’ve waxed lyrical) a nice day to do a Tri today with fine weather and next to no wind it looked to be a cracker.
I did the Lifecare Bayfair Tri in 1hr 22mins 01secs and I am very pleased with my time, it was a very fast course and my time reflects it. I started feeling confident that I could better 1hr 30mins and hoping to hit the 1hr 20min mark, this time is an improvement over the Kinloch Tri of 16mins 46secs.
Swim + T1: 18mins 16secs (placing 145=)
Bike: 34mins 29secs (placing 119)
T2 + Run: 29mins 15secs (placing 177)
Overall Placing: 150 (I assume that this has changed due to teams being taken out of the rankings)
Age Group Placing: 47
I achieved an average speed on the bike of 33.6km/h which I consider to be a great ride for me. This was a non-drafting race so it was all my effort. The new wheels definilty helped in uping my average.
All in all I had a great race and I am very happy with my result and the improvement in my time.
Posted by Phil on Mar 25, 2009 in
Training After a week of not much in the way of training, (had wanted to do a taper week but ended up doing next to nothing) I hit the road for a quick test ride with my new wheels. As the Bayfair tri is tomorrow I just wanted a shake down ride so I rode 9km at a comfortable pace, the new wheels roll faster and are a lot more comfortable to ride on (i.e less vibration transmitted through the bike to the body). I was able to ride 3-5km/h faster on the flat for no extra work so I am very pleased with them.
9.14km, 19mins 53secs, Avg 27.6km/h, Max 57km/h