Review: HED Jet and Stinger Wheels

Tested... HED Stinger 6 wheels.  These wheels are really a terrible choice if you want a lightweight, aero wheelset.  The advertised wheelset is 1481g.  The actual weight is 1660g.  They ride like tanks and are much slower than the Zipp's and Reynolds wheels out there.  Seriously these have a terrible ride.



The quality is also very suspect on these Chinese made wheels.  They use a Chinese factory that has had many problems with quality control. The carbon has multiple blems and the seams are not smooth. I've heard that there may be a recall in the works.

In talking to the guys at the wind tunnel they say these are the slowest wheels they have tested and to avoid them despite the company's own hype.



So if you are looking to spend some bucks on a decent wheelset don't even consider the HED's.  They are really sub par.  I would recommend buying some quality Boyd's or the Reynolds instead.

iPhone/iPad RSS-instapaper workflow

A friend asked how I use RSS and instapaper with my assorted Mac's. Here's what to do...

The goal is to be able to read updates to websites/blogs efficiently with no wasted time looking at un-updated sites. Also for everything to be sync'd across all the iDevice's I own.

1. You need to have a Reader account with Google.

http://www.google.com/reader

2. Go to a site you read often and find the RSS feed (Safari: click on RSS in address bar or look for this: ). This will open the RSS feed and you can add it to Google.com/reader. Do this for all the websites and blogs you read. You can also do this manually within the google reader website but make sure you're using the RSS feed url.

3. Buy Reeder app for the iPhone/iPad. It's great but any RSS reader will work if it uses Google. Enter your Google Reader info.

http://reederapp.com/

When you open the iPhone/iPad Reeder all new articles from your websites will be displayed. This is synced with the google website (it's also sync'd between the iPhone and iPad). When you are done click "mark all as read" and the next time you open Reeder only the updated sites will be included.

Advanced super cool addition: Go get an Instapaper account and install the app on your iPhone and iPad (and enter the login info into Reeder). Also install the "add to instapaper" java applet into your bookmarks bar in Safari on all your iThings. This is under "extra's" at the instapaper website.

http://www.instapaper.com

the app: http://www.instapaper.com/iphone

Now say you're skimming the RSS feeds in Reeder and you see an article you'd like to read but don't have time right then...click on the Instapaper button (can also be done in Google's reader webpage). This saves the article to Instapaper and when you have time you open the Instapaper app (or webpage) and all your saved articles are there formatted in an easy to read way. On the iPhone/iPad these are saved so you don't need a net connection to read them. Trust me, it's awesome.

TNWC

Fun crit last night...Army dude chased all breaks then led it out for the last 4 laps. JC got the jump from a long way out and won.

Thursday ride is on. 6:15 at the Crit Course.

the sufferfest

I wasn't sure if the ave speed was higher on thursday but I sure hoped so cuz I was hanging on for dear life. We were flying. Strong ass riding by all involved. We ended with 12-15 guys so that was cool. 1st 30' we averaged 24.8, 2nd 30' we did 27.8 mph. That's fast. A shout out to P. Discoe who hung in there till the bitter end despite being out of shape with a bunch of racers hammering each other...that's experience or stupidity. ;-)

TNWC #9

A smallish group tonight and a solid foursome got away and worked it to keep the chase away. Karl, wingo, MW and mystery strong dude with the latter taking the sprint.

1. MSD

2. MW

Thursday we're down for another sufferfest...6:15 at the crit course, 35 miles quickly.

TNSF

Tonight's sufferfest was a good one. We had 20+ riders and did the first 30' at 25.1 mph, the next 30' at 26.2 mph. The 35 miles was done in 90min. Fast! I told someone that I would have attacked more but that's a little hard to do when we're hammering at 28mph. The sprints were hard with the one at Cabin Creek rd especially brutal with lots of attacks starting at a few miles to go then JC killing it at the end.

Thanks for everyone who came out and let's do it again next week.

Thursday Sufferfest

This week we're doing a new Thursday ride. Meet at the crit course and be ready to roll at 6:15 pm.

Come ready to ride hard but there will be some regroup/cut through spots if you (or me!) get dropped. If you're going to whine, cry or bitch...stay home.

35 miles. See map below.


Sprint #1: Top of Horrell Hill Rd.

If you are dropped use one of the cut throughs to Congaree Rd

(See Map)

Sprint #2: End of Cabin Creek

3 min STOP to regroup after

this sprint

Sprint #3: End of Dbl Homey

Click on Map below to enlarge:

TNWC #7,8

Last week was a train wreck...30mph winds which shredded the group on lap 1. Jay, Nick and USC Erik got away after 20' then everyone else went home!

TNWC #7

1. USC Erik
2. Nick

Tonight's race was really nice...fast with lots of attacking. I was away with Jay and MW for a while but it was too early. Karl and Nick were in a dangerous late move with 2 laps to go and I did a suicidal pull to close it down then pulled out to watch Marc W take the win.

TNWC #8

1. Marc W
2. Jay ?

TNWC #6

Rain kept most people at home (including me). GW, Crusty, Gabe duked it out with 3 others.

1. GW

TNWC #5

Fun Crit. I was in a couple of good moves, one late one with karl and nick. Jay countered this with 3 to go. I saw it develop and tried to get on his wheel but I was tired and...he blew past me and was gone, drat. JC finished solo 3 seconds in front of a stampeding field. With 1 to go I found "the wheel" and rode it as far as I could but was pretty blocked. I think Marc W and maybe Clayton was up there at the end. Did anyone see it?

1. Jay
2. ?
3. ?

Rock Hill RR

Carolina Masters put on a clinic today plain and simple. The way they're riding right now there's no doubt that they could do some damage in the regular P,1,2 field. All 6 or 7 or 8 of them lined up on the start line and from the gun they were launching bombs. The first 25' we were close to 28 mph and my IF was pegged at 1.0. Let's just say it was pretty dynamic but our OSB team was always in the mix. I was actually feeling good and had pretty good legs today...for a while.

Ryan Jenkins and another guy ended up in a break (Karl came sooo close to bridging...Arrrgh) then CM sat on the front and aggressively covered any and all attacks. At this point as a rider you can choose to just sit in the field and follow CM around riding easy tempo on the front or you can do what you came to do and actually race your bike. 98% of racers will amazingly choose the first option.

Very quickly the break got to about 2' and I knew that without some form of chase that they'd be long gone. And this was only in the first 20 miles of a 90+ mile race. So after Karl did a monster pull (he then disappeared to recover) I found Robert and we went to the front and basically did a 2 man TT and began to *very* slowly bring the break back. I tried to go pretty hard on the climbs to limit the attacking which was fucking up the chase. Also kudo's to CM for letting us do our thing without interference. I didn't think we'd actually make the catch but just wanted to keep it close so LL had a chance to get across later in the race.

Now I know that a lot of guys just do these races for fun/exercise and to just sit in...but in a field of 50+ guys it's ridiculous that not ONE other rider from another team came forward to help with the chase when Robert and I were killing ourselves on the front for 45 minutes. If you're reading this and were in the race: LAME!

After 20+ minutes of chasing I was getting pretty fried so I told Robert that I was done and drifted back into the field to rest. Unbelievably Robert stayed on the front drilling it solo for the next 20 minutes. That was impressive to watch.

At about mile 40-something I knew that I wouldn't survive the next 47 mile lap as I was already cramping...I gave LL and Karl each a bottle then picked up one at the feed zone and did one last chase back to the field and gave it to Robert.

My day was done. Eventually LL got 9th and Robert 15th...CM went 1,2,3,4. Ugh...

TNWC #4

Field Sprint, nothing much more to add cuz I can't sprint.

1. Marc W
2. LL
3. Jamie

TNWC #3

Mrs K and I rolled out early to get a workout in before the crit but there was a train stopped on Beltline Rd so I did my SST interval down Rosewood and past the stadium. Not ideal so I tacked on a bit of time to make up for the stoplights etc. I ended up with 35' at 90-93% and felt OK, not great.

A large turnout tonight which was great and we started off fast. After a few of hard laps everyone sort of sat up and I rolled up to Toby and said "let's go" so off we went and luckily GW and Karl came across to us. We basically just put our heads down and killed it for 20+ minutes. Hard, hard riding. Great job guys!

GW and I gapped Karl and Toby at one point so we slowed down to let them get back on and I told them to just sit on for a few laps to recover. I knew we had a much greater chance of staying away with them pulling through every once in a while than just GW and myself.

With under one lap to go I pulled out the team card and told Karl to take a flyer...that forced GW to chase him down the backstretch into the wind. As soon as he caught him I countered hard but GW still had the juice to close the gap so then I settled on Toby's wheel with GW on mine.

The sun was in a good position so I could watch GW's shadow so when he jumped I was right on him. I came off his wheel pretty fast and he was starting to die--I thought I had it but the fucker looked over and found another gear in the last 50m and held me off by inches. ;-) I guess that's what happens when you have a sub 1k watt sprint. A very fun race. GW is absolutely flying right now.

1. GW
2. Me
3. Toby

TNWC #2

Good race tonight. I did a 30' interval at 93% right before and had really good legs. Away with Gordon, Marc and Gabriel Hipps.

Couple of things... Once the break got formed we tried to do a rotating paceline but in the crosswinds it was pretty inconsistent so without any talk we went back to the 20sec pulls and that worked a lot better. Everyone was riding hard and smooth, a perfect break.

Coming up on 40' I thought it would be close so I slowed the break down to make sure we hit the line at exactly 40' to save us a lap. If you've got a good gap this is worth the seconds lost...and since you rest a bit you can drill the next lap to bring the time back up easily.

Coming into the finish I figured that I was F'd...I was going against the best sprinter in town and one of the strongest TT'ers (& both on the same team!). So into turn 3 I swung way to the side to make those guys do something...MW said he wasn't gonna contest it so I just attacked figuring with the cross tailwind I may be able to hold off GW. That didn't happen. Oh Well.

1. Gordon

2. Me

3. Gabriel Hibbs

Out Like a Lion RR

Bike racing sometimes ain't pretty, it's a battle and you do what you need to do to win.

4 of the OSB team (minus Jay) lined up today along with at least 10+ Carolina Masters (CM) riders and all of their heavy hitters. We were outnumbered and outgunned so at the start line we talked strategy...the plan was to have at least one guy in the early break and to just sit on, work as little as possible and try to get as many of our guys up the road. Not the most diplomatic of plans but we didn't have many options.

This race always has a large field and it's short at 40 miles so it's always GO from the gun. The roads are narrow so you want to be up off the front as soon as possible.

Just after the short neutral section ended a CM guy attacks and gets a gap...I thought it was John P. so I knew I had to be up there so I went across as Robert and Karl worked to shut down the field. It turned out to be Kerry from CM who's known to be a strong sprinter and a good rider but not super dominant like some of their other guys. A strong Mob racing guy also came across so there were 3 of us.

I knew, knew, KNEW that Kerry was just the carrot and was just getting up the road till some of the other CM guys could come across. There was NO WAY that CM was going to let this be the break of the day...so I just sat on. I did no work at all. I didn't pull through once. Our Plan A. To say that the other two guys were pissed was an understatement, HaHa...I got pretty much dog cussed™ for about 3 laps! The Moto comes up...you've got 1:30 to the field. Then...3 chasers at 30" consisting of Charlie Brown, John Patterson and Ladd. Here we go...

Mob guy looks at me and I say "what did you expect was going to happen?" He then stopped yelling at me and now was trying to form some sort of alliance.

I also knew (x3) that once we were caught that the shit would hit the fan in a big way. I was actually pre-attacked before they even made contact and sort of caught Patterson off guard a bit when as he came flying by. We rolled around for 60 sec then Kerry attacks hard and I went to the front and closed it for LL. A flurry of hard ass attacks and Kerry and I were dropped from the break. Adios LL and good luck!

At this point I said to him that we should both work to stay ahead of the field and we did a couple laps trading pulls. Another CM guy ended up bridging up to us and I worked with these 2 to keep our lead over the main field. At one point we only had 30" with 2 laps to go. We rode hard and with great teamwork by Robert and Karl to control things in the field we maintained our lead.

With a couple miles to go the group was nowhere to be seen so I sat on and stopped working but was starting to cramp a bit. Coming into the finish one guy attacked hard and I tried to follow but that effort pretty much finished me off and I came in right after both of them for 7th. In retrospect I should have just picked the guy who I thought I could beat and just sat on him and let the other guy go.

LL went through his own little hell and finished 4th. After all was done we were content with the results as there wasn't much else we could have done today.