Use case: I want to draw a bike route on a map, for own joy or for sharing with my cycling friends. Google maps are cool, and free. As they are, they are not perfect for this task… but you can make them perfect with a tweak. § Read the rest of this entry…
This time I was “leading” the club ride. I did not expect too many people to join, as the weather forecast was not the best one, ride was announced less than 1 week in advance, and there was another club ride the same day. 4 persons rode in the announced 22-25 km/h tempo to Veikkola and then back via another road. Nothing too much, but not bad for the first time in the spring – in case you did not have chance to “open the road season” earlier!
Cycling from work yesterday, I noticed something… well, uneven, on my rear wheel. At the cellar door, the exploration has revealed three places where the sidewall cord of the tyre was torn, two of them longer than 3 cm! Inner tube was buldging out. What a luck that it still got me home and did not explode, say, on half way to work – clear failure of the Murphy’s law!
Road cycling season has started in Helsinki! I did my first roadbike ride after snow-ice-mountain biking winter, and discovered clicking sounds in the bottom bracket area.
The crankset is Truvativ Elita Cross with GXP axle. Manuals at ParkTool say that only 8mm Allen key is required to remove the left side crankarm. The fixing bolt unscrews counter-clockwise:
After the bolt is removed, the crank is still press-fit, so it is not possible to just pull it off:
I was kind of stuck at that point, not knowing what to do next. The solution which did the work was to insert the bottom bracket cup removal tool under the crank. Fortunately I had a half-circle wrench, the “full circle” would not have fit over the crank! The unscrewing cup worked as a crank puller, effectively removing the left arm from the splined axle.
When the left arm is removed, the work is done.
I’d say that the claim about “no special tools required for GXP crank removal” is overstated, because the cups still need a wrench with a long lever. But it is still better then other designs such as Shimano Hollowtech and later Sram/Truvativ models, which, in addition to the cup tool, need a specific left arm extractor or tightener.
We managed to get out for an almost real snowbiking on a weekend. Suomusjärvi – Karjaa, about 60 km on gravel roads.
One forest road was not cleaned of the snow, and we had to drag bikes for several kilometers. What a joy! That was the first – and I’m afraid the only – day in this winter when I enjoyed the snow.
All other roads were either clean asphalt, or covered with smooth ice. Good for the one who had both studded tires! 
I’m so much missing the real winter; well now I’ll have at least one memory of it.
Today I got a very nice short off-road ride with Helsinki MTB club MTBCF. The starting place was almost near my home, so I had no excuse of long commute from/to home for not participating. I already rode with MTBCF two times, two or three years back. Once it was their weekly cruise “for beginners”, where I was dropping out all the time and finally broke my rear derailer with a branch; that was too hardcore MTB for me. Another time it was a “flat ride” of 300km, to Bromarv (link on Google maps) and back. That time I did not drop, although was at a limit of my stamina by the end of the distance.
This time we were just three persons, Timo and Sami (on the picture) plus me, but for a forest trail ride this makes a perfect size company.
I rode last, the two other riders had to wait me sometimes. I hardly can come up with a better way of spending two hours in a nice weather! The only thing which I was concerned with is the damage to trails; still, cycling with knobby tires over small brooks or large puddles does not make them better. It is certainly bigger impact than from walking. On the other hand, it is certainly smaller impact than from driving a car, so I’m not arguing against off-road cycling; and I’m not doing it frequently.
On MTBCF forum, there is already a post by Timo about the ride. I’m not a hardcore MTB rider, and that’s the reason why I’m still not a member, but it seems that this is the only really active cycling club in the Helsinki area (not counting CCH and IK-32, which are too professional, with everydays trainings and regular competitions). I’m pondering joining!