Lemonbike

texaspandj

Nice Ironman Narhay. I've got two Ironman with down tube shifters, you get used to it.
Btw those bars were made to break away from the pack although I guess they could be used to reel in a breakaway. They don't make you any lower than being in the drops however they bring your elbows slightly closer together creating a wedge allowing you to slice thru the wind somewhat better, similar to aero bars but not as effective.

fleslider 

It turned out gorgeous Narhay!
Now to geek out here for a sec. there was some discussion awhile back about the 1989's having the Avenir logo on the top tube. and that it is guessed the earlier 1989 models did not have them. So i am going to take a stab to say that yours is probably a late 88 or early 89 build? if you could post the SN to satisfy the crazy thought.

Narhay

Thank you all. Serial number from when I picked it up. N9A6151

T-Mar

Sunrace freewheels are manufactured to SIS standards,with equal spacing between the cogs. Accushift 7 speed freewheels have 4 cogs spaced the same as SIS while the spacing for the remainder are 0.2mm narrower. Accushift derailleurs don't handle spacing deviation as well as SIS derailleurs and their pivots wear much more quickly, leading to poor indexing. Switching to a proper Accushift freewheel should improve the situation but may not raise the level to SIS crispness.


Also, you said you aligned the dropout hanger but did you use a derailleur hanger alignment tool? Hanger alignment is, in my experience, the 2nd most frequent culprit in most indexing woes, after cable tension adjustment. Again, SunTour Accushift isn't as tolerant in this regard, as Shimano SIS.

Narhay

Hi T-Mar. Thanks for weighing in. I used the Park DAG-2.2 hanger aligner. It was within a mm on four axis points. I was quite pleased with how well it had aligned. Also used FFG-2 dropout aligner as well.

fleslider 

Thanks Narhay, looks to be a first couple weeks of January 1989. that would keep with the theory.

texaspandj

Monday I went out on my Miami Vice Ironman. A new hillier course I will be using for the remainder of this month as well as next month. It was 114° and windy. It felt like a hot hair dryer was blowing in my face. My initial ride on the new course was with my '89 which is a 13-21×53,42 , the second time was with my riding buddy and my '88 with same gearing. So when I rode my Miami Vice I thought it would be easier, considering I just changed the 13-26 dura ace freewheel to a 14-28 China freewheel. But instead it was very difficult and I had to use the 28 on two inclines. I could blame it on the heat but I totally believe it was the wind as a cool front was on its way. Today I'm will do the same route but thanks to the the front only 103°.
So when I shift into the lowest gear (a 28) it makes a little bit of noise. I've set the "B" screw in but it still clatters a Lil bit.

So what's the biggest freewheel cog you've been able to put on a stock Ironman?
​​​​​​​BTW, My MV is completely stock except for the 7 speed gripshift shifters and said Freewheel.

RobbieTunes

28

You may remember what I told you about "keeping track...."

Stop.

Ride how you feel, plus a little urgency, on the edge of being late.
Push where you want, but stop keeping track of things.

Check back in 3-4 weeks, and you may be surprised.
I'm thinking a pleasant one.

Classtime 

Narhay

My GPX shifters index fine on the suntour UL spaced freewheel. Woohoo

markwesti

Good thing it's not my size .

seypat

Best advice I have read (for life) in a long time. Just get out and do it. Don't take for granted that you can still get out there.

seypat

114 in the blistering sun is dangerous. You need to be floating on one of those Central TX rivers instead. I 'd say that is why the performance was poor. You can't do the ride in the evening when it is a little cooler? I changed the freehub body on my MV to accept 7 cogs. The RD-1050 will run a 28T and a triple with a 52 big ring. The pulleys hit a 30T cog. If you are looking for more gearing but want to use as much of your original stuff, you have 2 options.
1. Replace the stock RD with a Deerhead/Deore or RD-6207GS from that era. You can find them pretty cheap. No indexing on the RD-6207GS.
2. Get a triple up front. The only thing you would have to change out would be the crank, spindle and maybe the FD. The FD-1050 will not shift a triple, but the FD-6207 from that era will. You could then go back to using all of your other clusters in back. You have lots of 110/74 options including the FD-6206 or the 105SC FC-1057 which is ramped/pinned. Some of the companies made 130/86 triple cranks which will accept down to 28T ring. Takagi(which became Shimano crank mfgr) made one. You could get one of those and use the existing rings from your current setup. The best part of the triple is that you get to keep your standard 52/53-40/42. No changes in shifting, just a bailout ring there if you need it.

Or

texaspandj

I will be taking it under advisement. At least til August then all bets are off.
Interestingly this morning a guy was swimming intervals next to me and instead of keeping up with him I decided to just "kid swim" (under water, breast stroke, egg beaters.... ) to see if I could put the fun back in.
It happens, burn out , tired, or plateau I'm just trying to get that fun feeling again. My sister suggested vitamins, we'll see.

seypat

Do you actually have an event coming up that you are training for? Or you just in "training mode" to get back to some previous form? Where you live there are plenty of fun things to do that could have a bicycle ride included. Is there a good BBQ joint 10-15 miles away? Hop on the bike and go get some ribs/BBQ. Get there when you get there and the same coming back. Not every ride/run has to be a training one. A 20 mile ride doesn't need cycling shorts, especially for an old school tri guy. Do it instead in some swim shorts. Stop and cool off in a river/lake like you did when you were a kid. Make it fun again.

One of the runners on our marathon training team last year decided to leave our lowly Novice(goof off, have fun, talk with the ladies, but still get the miles in) team and jump to one of the more serious intermediate teams. The main difference between the Novice and Intermediate teams are the attitude and more miles for the intermediates. You have fast and slow teams/runners in both categories. He is around 60 and was a good runner in the past. He ended up with a lot poorer time than his previous years on the Novice teams. I passed him around mile 22 walking. That shouldn't of happened. First year it has. When I was talking to him at an event earlier this year, he thought the reason for the bad time was the added miles. The longer weekend miles were not the problem, but the added miles/extra day tacked on to weekday runs. Not enough recovery time. Thought he was burned out for the marathon. Pride got the best of him though, because he stayed on the intermediate team this year. We will see how it goes for him. You have to make sure you are getting the rest and not over training.

texaspandj

I hear you seypat. Back in 2011 I decided to get back in run shape. And the one thing I did was not record my time. I knew the miles I would run that day but I wouldn't time myself. A complete opposite of what I did bitd when I was actually good and I recorded every mile and time. It took the pressure off me and I got in shape in a relaxed manner.
I'll try the same approach to my bike rides and see how it goes.

canklecat

@texaspandj, after trying methodical intervals and HIIT last year and ending up burned out, I switched to a fartlek approach this year. Mostly because I like saying and writing "fartlek". It's hard to take training too seriously when your mind keeps saying "You're fartlekking... heh-heh-heh..."

I do maybe one short, methodical HIIT session once a week or once every two weeks on the indoor trainer -- mostly to concentrate either on spinning as fast as possible in a low gear for aerobic conditioning, or standing to pedal in a big gear to strengthen my skinny legs. I keep those sessions to around 20 minutes, with 10 minutes warm up and cool down. Seems to help.

But my usual nearby rural route rides are better suited to the fartlek approach, with irregularly spaced roller coasters. So I loaf cycle to warm up, stand to climb the first series of three short, steep hills, at which point I'm exhausted so I loaf cycle again until I catch my breath. The next challenge is a fast downhill where I'm in the Strava top ten, mostly due to a healthy tail wind. So I use that for fast spinning to work the lungs instead of legs. And so on, for 20-30 miles. I just ride how I feel on any given day.

The Ironman with downtube shifters probably influences my approach too. If I had brifters I'd probably ride climbs differently -- either more aggressively, or spinning more than mashing. I dunno. I've ridden only one road bike with brifters, but it was a lightweight Specialized Tarmac, so different from a classic steel bike it's hard to compare the experiences.

BTW, I take a fistful of vitamins almost every day but it's hard to say how much difference it makes. My diet is already good. My blood lab work shows I'm borderline anemic despite the vitamins and iron, but I'm also dealing with a thyroid condition so it's hard to say whether the vitamins make any difference. On good days when I'm fast and strong, I give credit to the vitamins. On bad days when I can barely move my legs I blame the thyroid. Anything but admit I'm getting older. Dammit.

markwesti

Sorry to bother you guys , this is a test post because I had to get a new Iphone and I thought my pictures would be better . All my previous pictures were from a camera , this is my first from a phone so far on Filcker I still suck . OK here goes .

IMG_0025 by mark westi, on Flickr

texaspandj

It works @markwesti . Great pic of one if my all time favorites.

RobbieTunes

Just classic. Enough said.

seypat

I have one of those also. Yours is in a lot better shape. Mine has some sweet white Superbe chainrings.

seypat

I just noticed that corncob sitting on the back. Strong!

canklecat

Niiiiice... my size too.

seypat

If anyone hasn't seen the Continental GrandPrix Classic on an Ironman, here you go. I will put them on the MV, take a photo and post it as well.