Padded vs Unpadded Gloves

When I first started mountain biking quite a few years ago, I remember going to a shop and asking for the thickest padded gloves they had. The mechanic asked me why I wanted pads, and instead suggested it was better to have no padding at all so you have more control of the bike. Made sense. So I got gloves with no padding, and besides a pair of Specialized BG gloves which had a pad on the palm, I never used padded gloves throughout my years of mountain biking. And the majority of the time I was riding a single speed with a rigid fork. I never had any issues with comfort even during 24 hour continuous rides.

Road riding is so much different than mountain biking in so many ways and I wonder if it's better to use padded gloves on the road? Almost all gloves available on the market today offer some sort of padding from minimal in one spot to gel or silicone all over the place from the fingers to the palm. So I decided to test it myself to see which worked better for me. Currently, I have three pairs of gloves. Pearl Izumi pittard leather gloves, which have foam padding all over the palm. The other two pairs are made by Castelli. One pair is the Rosso Corsa and the other is their logo glove. The rosso corsa is the top of the line, 50 dollars!, glove with silicone padding strategically placed (all over) with mesh between the pads and mostly mesh on top. The logo glove is a synthetic microfiber palm with no padding on the palm and a lycra top. Both are slip-on and have loops to aid in removing the glove. Something all gloves should have, but don't.

The last three long rides I've done I've used each pair on one ride and noted a few times, mentally, throughout the ride what I liked and disliked about them. It should be noted I'm using Specialized S-wrap tape - a cork tape with an elastomer integrated throughout to supposedly dampen vibrations. It's slightly thicker than Cinelli or Deda tape and feels great.

Pearl Izumi: Crunchy when cold. As the glove ages - it lasts a long time, longer than most - the leather gets stiff. It loosens up after I start riding each time, but if it's really cold it takes a lot longer to do so. The padding feels cumbersome and is overdone, in my opinion. It feels bulky. I never have discomfort issues with them on. I do not like the velcro closure. I'd rather have a slip-on model. The velcro closure creates the cyclist dot syndrome - white hands with a dark spot near the thumb. When it's warm the leather gets damp and never dries until you take them off. By the end of the day they appear notably darker and even soggy. I do not like this. The microfiber wipe does not work as well as a terry cloth wipe. Both Castelli's are far better gloves, in my opinion.

Castelli Rosso Corsa - The padding feels great and it seems like it aids with protection of the hands. For short riding or racing this glove is probably not ideal because you lose some handling due to the thick silicone pads which move around a bit if you are really cranking hard or sprinting. The grip, however, is very inspiring and tacky. Just not precise. The mesh breathes very well on the palm. No wet palms like the PI pittards. The mesh tops also are very comfortable. The terry cloth wipe absorbs well and is excellent for it's purpose. I think these are great gloves and the best I've used to date.

Castelli logo glove - The lack of padding seems to not cause any issues, but I think with a non-padded tape on the bar it might be an issue, for me at least. These gloves are very adequate for long distance rides on the s-works tape. They are not as comfortable feeling as the Rosso Corsa, but I'm not talking about the lack of padding here. The microfiber palm is warmer feeling, and the lycra top does not breathe as well as the mesh top on the Rosso Corsa. The logo glove also has the terry wipe so all is good in this area. The grip feels more in control than the Rosso Corsa. If these were 'cooler' feeling I would probably make them the go to glove for long rides, but, alas, they are not so the Rosso Corsa is first place for me. I will use them for commuting.

I'm surprised the non-padded glove was just as comfortable, but I attribute this to the S-works tape. Perhaps it is redundant to use padded gloves with such highly cushioned tape. I shall keep my eyes open for other non-padded gloves that offer a more breathable top, and hopefully, eventually, switch to the combo of a nicely padded bar with a non-padded glove. Overall handling is improved with no loss in comfort, and, even better, they are generally cheaper!

The Weekly Long Ride

This week's long ride goal was 215 miles. I ended up riding 213 miles total, which is close enough, in my opinion! The original plan was to get things ready after work on Friday then try to get a few hours sleep before heading out around 2:30am. I was pretty anxious to hit the road so after lying in bed for about an hour I convinced myself it didn't matter if I left at 9:30pm or 2:30am. I would just arrive at my parents house earlier which would make them super happy.

So out of bed I get, don the cycling clothes, and head out the door and in to the noisy Friday night of Manhattan. I quickly left Manhattan and entered the Bronx. New territory almost immediately. I knew I had a quick turn to make on to Riverdale Ave for my ticket out of the city, but I didn't really know exactly where it was. I just took the first random street and luckily it turned in to Riverdale Ave. Northward!

This was the first night I would really get to test my Dinotte 200L with the 4 cell battery. Specs say 200 lumens and 8 hours with the 4 cell battery on high. I put it on the helmet this time due to the Shimano cables sticking out and blocking the light when mounted on the bar. I could hardly feel the weight atop my head. I've used a few different lights over the years and I have to say the Dinotte comes with the best accessories and smartest mounting features I've seen. They are very simple and just work. No slippage, very light, and durable. Light years ahead of the Niterider MiNewt in all regards which the Dinotte replaced, and while not as bright as the Light and Motion HID, significantly lighter and sufficient output with slightly better mounting and much longer battery life. And most importantly, I think the Dinotte is bright enough for most night riding conditions on the road. It fills an entire street lane and throws out the beam quite far. The battery lasted as long as I needed it to, which was around 6 hours.

The first few hours of the ride were uneventful. I pedaled my way out of the metro area, and entered much more pleasant forested, country roads. I saw racoons all over the place, a few deer, and some other furry monsters, possibly beavers or woodchucks. I love the random noises emanating through the woods at night when the winds are calm and that wet, humid sticky spring air blankets everything. The sky was lit up by a nearly full moon. Night riding. Go do it if you haven't yet. It rivals the sun-filled days.

4.30am. Thump! PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Doh. I hit a pretty large hole in the road and pinch flatted the rear tube. A car passed me shortly after and slowed down to a crawl eyeing me suspiciously. I had stopped right outside a driveway in a rather wealthy area and I guess I was suspect. The man rolled by and turned in to the next driveway just past where I was working on the tire. A few minutes later he walks out in the street and looks a bit drunk and asks in a very heavy accent whether I can patch my tire or not. I said yes and he stumbles back in to the darkness. Okay, then. Next. In goes the Forte Lunar Light (52 grams) tube. I pump it up with a quickness with my C02, bracing for the inevitable BANG, but, again, to my surprise, nothing so terrible. I guess these ultra light tubes are A OK. Off I go.

Shortly after the flat tire event, the sky started to brighten. That means the temperature starts to drop. Let the shivering begin. I froze for the next hour or two. The bike was wobbling all over the place on the faster descents. I'm not a big fan of dawn in the Spring:) C'mon 8am!

I was still able to enjoy the scenery. I was fortunate enough to be crossing a dam on a pedestrian only bridge just before the sun crept over the hills. Beautiful! I took a pic with my very below standard 1.3mp camera on the Blackberry Pearl.

The rest of the ride was rather uneventful. It got warmer. That made me happy.

I finished around 10am at my parents, and staggered in, to their surprise, and was craving some milk so the b-line was made straight to the Frig.

A summary of the ride would be extremely hilly. I'd love to share it with you but it would take forever to input the roads in to map my ride. It's definitely one of the hilliest rides I've done to date. It included 60 miles of major climbing about 50 miles in to the ride that was nearly continuous. I knew about this piece as it's the main route I take to get to my parents. I don't have an altimeter but gauging from past races I estimate a total elevation gain of 20 to 25,000 feet overall over the 213 miles. Brutal!

The lack of sleep coupled with riding all night made my stomach not so happy. Nothing terrible, I just had no appetite - maybe it was the intake of too much fiber from the bars (i ate two that I normally don't eat when riding and they have lots of fiber and quite a bit of fat from nuts.) I ate a big bowl of granola - definitely not ideal but all I could think to eat - then went and passed out for a few hours. I woke up around noon feeling pretty groggy, but forced myself up to go eat some more food. I still didn't feel so hungry. I lounged around all day feeling tired and basically did nothing. I did start drinking very strong beers in the late afternoon though:) Dinner came, and I ate a bunch of food, finally getting a slight appetite, but still not what I usually have after such a long ride. O well, I give up. To bed I go!

The next day I woke up and after 4 trips to the bathroom I finally had a raging appetite - more than most of you wanted to know I'm sure. So, perhaps the fiber suspicion was correct! Two hours later I was hungry again. and so on for the rest of the day...

I went for a 24 mile recovery ride, if that is possible in the CT hills, on Sunday. The weather was just too nice to not go out on the bike. Not a cloud to be seen and temperatures in the high 70s. Calm. I felt great and enjoyed the views and for the most part did not ride very hard. The legs felt solid still with no soreness.

Then I heard a metallic clinking sound in the right pedal/cleat area. I discovered a lot of play on my pedal but could not tell exactly where it was. Great, just as I thought everything was perfect on the bike. Love the new Pro 3 race tires, by the way! A touch nicer than the GP4000 I had before. I inspected the pedal when I got home and it wobbled quite a bit on the crank arm. I thought at first it was not tightened all the way. So I grabbed the wrench and, nope, it's tight. Look closer and see that the actual interface the pedal screws in to is wobbling wildly within the carbon crank arm. FSA K-Force is the crankset I have. High end, really expensive, neat looking, all around uber fancy cranks. They are only a few months old. I ran to the internet and a quick search turns up this happening to A LOT of people. And, worse, the crank is trashed. So, tomorrow I have to deal with that. I decide even if they replace the crankset I do not want these anymore due to this poor manufacturing, or design (whichever) so I ordered a Dura-Ace Crankset from Pro Bike Kit in the UK. A whopping two hundred dollars less than most US online sites. Crazy. The FSA cranks are very disappointing.

So that's all for todays ramblings...

Bashbish 300km Brevet

Yesterday, May 17th, I completed the second in a series of brevets in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. It was 300km(190mi) long and there was a 20 hour time limit. The ride was described as "hilly" on the website and it started at a lovely 3am Saturday morning. Each rider is given a cue sheet and a card before the start. There are a few checkpoints along the way that note your time on a card which you turn in upon completion of the brevet.

The forecast for Saturday morning called for light rain at the start with temps hovering a bit over 40F and then sunny early on and throughout the day with temps in the high 60s.

3am. cold. very dark. moderate, steady rain. Flooded streets. 3am. cold. wet.

I had to dig really deep to work up the motivation to start this brevet. My friend, Zack, was feeling exactly how I felt. We definitely did not want to leave the warm confines of the car or bike shop only to be stuck in the pouring, cold rain in the dark for roughly three hours. I was tempted to wait a few hours since I knew I would finish way before the 20 hour time limit was up. But, everyone else started so I went too. Zack and I started about 35 minutes late, and we were the last two persons to roll out of the parking lot by the bike shop. Roughly 20 people participated in this brevet. Most I recognized from the 200km a few weeks prior. 7 or 8 no shows which I can only assume was because of the awful weather at the start.

So off we go, lights leading the way, in to the flooded streets of Westfield, MA. I was quickly soaked in all places not covered by waterproof material, which means everywhere besides my torso and hands. The feet remained dry for a few minutes thanks to some waterproof winter booties, but the massive amounts of water being sprayed on to my legs quickly rendered them useless. The booties actually worked rather well, only not exactly how they were designed. I discovered they also kept water in so the water inside eventually warmed to body temperature and my feet were reasonably happy although very wet. On my hands I had regular cycling gloves covered by surgical or nitrile gloves which are very waterproof but let you feel everything. In other words, my hands were really cold and would remain so for about three hours.

After about an hour and a half the rain decided to go away for good, and left me in the dark but otherwise decent weather. The first climb began, 8 miles long, and I was thankful for it so I could attempt to warm up. The road seemed isolated and there was absolutely no traffic. It sounded like it was pretty on either side. Perhaps some creek or river. It was too dark to tell. I decided to start riding hard, sort of a mock race, and would do so for the remainder of the approximately 170 miles.

Eventually the sun came up.

About an hour after the sun kissed the roads, I made it to the first checkpoint and met two participants just leaving as I rolled in. The stomach was rumbling so I decided to chat with Don (the brevet organizer - and a great guy!) and munch on a peanut butter and jelly bagel sandwich that was provided at the stop. I told him I had not passed anyone, and he thought that was odd since Zack and I had left last and there were four others that had not checked in yet. HMM. Well, it turns out they got a bit lost but eventually found their way. Off I go.

Thirty minutes later I passed the first of the two guys I saw leaving the checkpoint earlier. The roads were really isolated with rolling, small hills surrounded by farms. Simply beautiful. Ideal for road riding! Perhaps 15 minutes later I passed the second guy. I waved and said hi and kept on pedaling. Next came route 7 which headed straight south to Kent, CT. I was quite familiar with this road as my parents live in the vicinity, and knew I could hammer it hard the entire way to Kent. It was still early, probably around 7am, so there was very little traffic on this usually busy weekend road. Stunning scenery in every direction. Heavily forested, and for the majority of the ride to Kent the road follows the Housantonic river. Road riding at it's finest! I caught up to and passed everyone else on the brevet besides the guy in front - I never did see him - before reaching Kent. At Kent, I had a quick snack and took off on the road. I knew the next portion of the route quite well, and the roads were some of my favorite. The route took me back north in to New York through very rural farm country. A llama farm! Those critters really make me laugh. They are so silly looking grinding away at the grass all day with their shaggy coats hanging in disarray.

For the remainder of the ride I did not see anyone else participating. I zoned out and pedalled my way to the finish.

The roads were beautiful for about 150 of the 180 miles. Ten of the miles were on relatively busy roads and the last twenty were on a pretty road, it was just very poorly maintained forcing me to hit numerous spine-rattling bumps after 170 miles of hard riding. Not such a nice thing!

The great news is, I felt solid throughout the entire ride. I maintained a very steady heart rate near my anaerobic threshold, and not once did I feel any hint of a cramp or tired legs. I concede the science stuff seems to truly work.

The even greater news is the Brooks Team Professional saddle is a KEEPER! Not once did I feel any discomfort on the sitbones nor anywhere else. A happy butt sure makes a major difference on a ride like this. When the body is working happily together, pain free, it functions far more efficiently and goes longer and harder much easier.

Things to note: I think the Dinotte 200l headlight is not sufficient for high speed riding in total darkness by itself. A y-cable allows two of the lights to be used in unison, but I will give it one more ride in the dark to confirm the insufficiency. It was raining most the time I had to use it so perhaps it was affected by the drops. Also, the crappy shimano cable design for the brifters blocked some of the light. Next time I shall put it on the helmet.

Western Connecticut country ride & more saddle battles

On Sunday, I went for a beautiful ~85 mile ride through the hills of Western Connecticut, primarily in Litchfield county, with a bit of dabbling in New York state as well. I had originally planned on a completely different ride, but once again the battle with the saddle curbed my plans. Instead of heading north in to MA, I opted for just taking random roads in CT assuming I would probably not get lost as long as I kept my bearings straight! It was sunny all day and around 65F with hardly any wind. Spring is just rolling in to the area so it was nicely green with numerous flowering trees about. Nearly the entire 85 miles were through tiny two lane country roads surrounded by farms and fields and forests. This area is surely some of the nicest for road riding in this country! You have to like HILLS though. This 85 mile route had plenty of those guys. I felt like I had ridden about 150 miles by the finish.



The battle with the saddles continues on. The Selle San Marco Rolls failed the test after two days of riding. Saturday I took it easy and rode 44 miles, well, distance wise I took it easy. I hammered the majority of the time and climbed quite a few hills. The hills are a trend in CT that are unavoidable but rewarding. Great training grounds. On Sunday, I bought a Specialized Alias 143mm bg saddle. This saddle felt far more comfortable on the short test ride I took with it Sunday evening. My butt was feeling mighty sore after the 85 mile ride and the Specialized induced absolutely no pain. It weighs slightly less than the Rolls, by about 25 grams, but feels significantly less intrusive on the butt. I had to feel around to make sure I was actually sitting on the thing. Hopefully it disappears like this all the time. The bg philosophy seems to focus on removing most pressures while focusing the majority of your weight on the sit bones placed on some memory foam. The saddle is cut out all over the place and is nice and smooth virtually eliminating any possibility of friction. This is omething the Rolls certain could not claim. With it, I had friction from the nose and felt various pressure points all over the saddle. No matter how I adjusted it I would find a new spot of discomfort!

Berkshire 200km brevet

Yesterday I completed my second 200km brevet, this time in a different series located in Westfield, MA. I had listed a saddle on Craig's List earlier in the week and had a frantic offer from a guy saying his saddle had disappeared in storage along with his pedals. We chatted some, and got on the topic of long distance riding and he mentioned he was going to this brevet and invited me. Sure, why not?

The alarm went off at a tantalizing and terrific time of 2am Saturday morning. I felt surprisingly well rested after four and a half hours of sleep. The aforementioned saddle picker-upper, Zack, swooped by a little while later in the mighty Ford Explorer after sitting in a lovely FDR traffic jam at 3am. We had plans to zip all over the place to get things ready for the ride which started at 7am. We had approximately three and a half hours to drive to Milford, CT to get his bike, pick up a friend off another exit on I95 (friend bailed!) and then straight north to Westfield, MA. I must admit I was pretty shocked when we rolled in before the 7am start. Just how fast were you driving Zack?!?

This brevet had a lot more participants than the previous one in Saratoga at around 60 people. I attribute this mostly to the fine weather predicted which was 65F for the high and sunny. Ages ranged from me at the bottom (31) to upwards of 70. Mostly men but roughly ten women participated as well. Bikes ranged from uber light fancy roadie material to old, lugged, heavy steel touring frames complete with leather saddle bags, brooks leather tape on the bars along with a brooks saddle. I love those bikes and some day I hope I have one!

We ended up starting the ride about 35 minutes late since Zack had to install pedals and cleats and basically put his bike together which had been in storage. One other straggler named Joel accompanied us for the start. We rode together for 45 miles to the first check point through progressively more rural communities north towards Vermont. At the check point I had a itchy trigger foot and wanted to go fast so I took off on my own with a goal of catching the lead group about an hour up on us. I hammered for a little over a hour passing quite a few people and made it to the checkpoint at mile 83.5 feeling really strong. Those back to back centuries last week really upgraded my legs! I met a few there getting ready to head out and invited myself in to their group and rode with them for the remainder of the ride. One guy was on a fixed gear so I chatted and reminisced with him for much of the ride. He was a very strong rider and to my surprise even kept up with us on the downhills spinning at crazy 190rpm cadences and remaining totally stable. Impressive!

The terrain was beautiful and followed the Connecticut River. Blooming trees were scattered throughout the ride. Pines offered lovely fragrances on occasion. We dabbled in Vermont some but mostly cruised the hills of Massachusetts. There wasn't a whole lot of climbing, at least compared to what I'm used to, but enough to keep me happy!:)

300km, here i come!

Cave In & rides

I finally bit the bullet and decided a professional bike fit is a necessity for my long distance riding. On Monday, after work, I plan on seeing Mike Sherry with Performance Labs (hc) on the Upper West Side. I decided to go with him over Paul Levine at Signature or xxx at Cadence Cycle for a few reasons. Mr Levine is nearly $400 and Mr Sherry is $250. Why cheap out on your body?? I read an interview with Mr Sherry's partner, Craig Upton, and came away very impressed with their philosophy, and think they will be excellent for setting me up exactly how I need to be. I also spoke with him on the phone, and he was very knowledgeable and even sounded excited about helping me out. Cadence was not impressive over the phone and are about the same price as Signature Cycles. Their coaches are highly recommended though so perhaps I just got a slouch on the phone.

This weekend I'm doing another 200km brevet on Saturday. This time in Westfield, MA. There's a 300km brevet in Saratoga Springs this weekend on Sunday, but I can't get a ride and don't really want to bug my parents again especially since the brevet starts at 4am. The Westfield series is quite a bit closer to NYC so I hope to continue on there instead to act like I'm qualifying for the Paris-Brest brevet.

I consider the brevets good butt training for the RAAM, but not so great in the aerobic department since the pace is quite a bit slower than I normally ride by myself. Of course I'm speaking from my one and only experience in Saratoga last month. Perhaps this one will be different! I'm guessing many more people will be present at the very least.

NYC to Bear Mtn training ride

This ride will be the staple ride for my training out of NYC. I've talked to many longtime cyclists/NYC residents who claim the route over the GWB through the Palisades Park and on up route 9w is the only reason they are able to remain in this dirty, car-driven concrete jungle/wasteland called NYC.

It's roughly 85 miles round trip and pretty hilly the entire route. Probably in the neighborhood of 8,000ft of climbing. Maybe more. One site offers a century version of this ride and claims to have 10k of climbing, but I've not gone that route yet. I'm sure I'll have the opportunity this year!

For the most part, the ride is pretty isolated from heavy traffic which is incredible considering the close proximity to such a high density population. Ironically, my only run in with a car yesterday was a police officer in Stony Point, NY who was driving like the typical PO - unpredictable, angry, aggressive, or easier: like a jerk. He tried to run a red light and was clearly very disappointed when this measly cyclist came through the intersection and he had to slam on his brakes. I was pretty sure he was just going to blow through so I locked up my brakes. Well, he managed to stop and then offered a lackluster, fake smile and a small wave. Carry on.

On top of Bear Mtn., the pinnacle of my ride, I had the pleasure of conversing with another two wheeled rider. A tattoo covered rice rocket racer claiming bored out something or other giving an extra 100cc's of power for a whopping grand total of 737cc or 165mph top speed. yes, he's obtained that speed quite often citing it's 'really quick to that speed.' I thought it was pretty cool the muffler was made of carbon fiber, or at least on the outside. He noted my skinny wheels, I noted his fat wheels. We both noted they were nice and tacky for high speed descents. His suspension system was far superior. My overall ride was far lighter. He said he should stop smoking and start peddling. Hopefully another convert!

Saratoga Springs 200km brevet

This past Sunday I did my first brevet.  200km or ~126mi.  How did I, a long distance cyclist for a few years now, miss the entire chapter about randonneurs?

Saratoga Springs, NY is a few hours straight north of NYC (read: a few hours COLDER this time of the year)  On the drive up, I reminisced about the 50F and lack of snow in NYC as the temp dropped a degree every few miles and snow kept building and building along the sides of the thruway.  

On Sunday, me and about 15 other cyclists rolled out of the ride director's house around 7am, and were greeted with a shy sun trying to decide if it's rays were allowed to touch upon this decidedly frigid region.  A balmy 15F with light wind and clear skies!  Rarely do I ride in this temperature, and certainly not for an anticipated 6 to 8 hours.  

I and many others on the ride learned that water bottles freeze REALLY fast in these uncomfortably low temperatures.  Thanks, Tom, for telling me about the inverted bottle trick.  Too bad it was after the race was over...  So, for a few hours I was sucking on that nipple like none other trying to squeeze out a drop of water.  Some resorted to the microwave at convenient stores.  

Four hours after the start the temperature was pushing the freezing mark.  In some areas a foot of snow was on the ground and all the lakes were very frozen which probably helped knock the temperature down a few more degrees!

Thankfully, the area around Saratoga Springs is beautiful for road riding.  I kept thinking, I bet this would be beautiful in the summer!  Or, about 40F warmer.  I shall return!

Overall, the ride was a great experience and I met some nice people I will hopefully stay in touch with in the future.