Another nice ride with Greg and Alexis.

Greg decided to push things some. It was a lot of fun but now my legs are pretty sore.

The last 10 miles are mostly slightly downhill with just two medium climbs. I never could drop him. Every time I looked in my rear view mirror he was still there.

Ride by the numbers Strava:

http://www.strava.com/activities/179210075

Garmin:

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/563707492

Nice ride today with Alexis and Greg Gross who are here for a couple of days from Fort Worth.

Greg is faster than all get out, rides an M5, and has been encouraging me to try and retake the KOM I lost recently. Alexis is on a new Bacchetta CA 2 and is no slouch herself.

The Strava KOM Retake

So this morning (Sunday) we get up before sunrise and get the bikes ready to roll just as the sun comes up. The KOM segment is about 10 miles away which gives us a little over 30 minutes to warm up.

Temperatures started in the high 70s and before the ride was over we’d reach 113 on the black pavement.

At a decent pace we accomplish the 10 mile warm up and upon arriving at the start of the KOM segment Greg and I pull over to get everything ready to start the segment.

I get the Contour camera out and mount it to the side of my Giro Air Attach helmet. After the ride I find out the Contour camera’s storage card was full and I was not actually recording any video from the ride (bummer). I also put the Kayak style cockpit cover on for the first time while I’m in the Quest.

The Kayak style cockpit cover completely covers the hole in top of the Quest leaving just enough space for your head to stick out. The top of the cover overlapped the bottom of the shield on the Giro Air Attack helmet by about 1/2 inch. There is also about 1/2 inch of space all around the sides my helmet. Immediately after I start peddling the temps inside the Quest increase tremendously causing the shield to fog up. I'm constantly tilting my head back and peeking out the bottom of shield so that I can at least see something ahead.

We start the segment and Greg is right on my butt. I’m peddling for all I’m worth trying not to get embarrassed by Greg and his M5. The Kayak cover obscures the view of my garmin and I have no idea what speed I am going, what my cadence is, or even how much my heart rate is zooming through the roof. Through the fogged up helmet shield I can see Greg hanging right on my butt and I’m wondering why I’m having such a hard time breathing.

Although I don’t know it at the time, I find out later looking at Strava that the first 1.7 miles of the segment I average 30.4 miles per hour and I am behind the KOM leader (Ryan Coover) by 6 seconds.

The next part of the segment is the best downhill section with a couple of small hills. I’m able to get the speed of the Quest up over 40 mph and rollerize the small hills never dropping below 20 mph. My max speed on the segment is 43.2 mph. I absolutely crush this 2.2 mile segment averaging 31.6 mph - about 17 seconds faster than Coover. I also achieve my fastest ever one mile split on this segment with a one mile 36.4 mph average covering the mile in 1 minute and 39 seconds.

Now comes the last 4 percent grade hill and my lungs are bursting and the legs are feeling like lead. I reach up and pull the lip of the kayak cover down to just below my chin. I no longer care about the aerodynamics, I need to breath some fresh (80 degree) air while climbing the hill. I’m getting slower and slower and thinking the game is over, at this speed I don’t stand a chance of getting the KOM back.

I’m a little disappointed with my performance climbing that last hill. At the end of the Strava segment I immediately pull over, rip the kayak cover off and start trying to take some deep breaths. Is my heart ever going to stop pounding? I won’t know how I did on the Strave segment until much later in the afternoon with I upload the data to the Strava website.

BOOM! I take the KOM from Ryan by one second!

This is list of things I need to do to the Quest to improve the aerodynamics.

This list has been gathered from several others on FB and BROL.

I’ll up date this list from time to time as I gather more information.

From Charles Snyder (Portland Oregon)

Too bad you don’t have a hood yet… : ) Cruising 40+ would be easy in the first half of the stretch. You should have your black rain cap, use it, it will be a bit warm, but results are comparable to a a hood. Seriously though…

I pedal out at about 45 mph, doing 120 rpms, so you have plenty of power available.

Your first challenge will be to accelerate to 30+ before hitting 2238 Street, or Williams drive. You have a climb, then a very short lead of a hill before you HAVE to be doing 30+. Maintain 35+ going downhill, this will allow you a little leeway when climbing back up the first hill. Second hill is a 4% grade or so, bang on that speed as much as you can and hold it as long as you can while climbing that second hill. If you can hit 45-50 mph, you’re golden. If at any time you do pedal out, tuck your head in as much as you can and coast. Get your feet and pedals inside the velo. This should help you get the speed you need to climb the last hill.

Be sure to wash and wax the velo. Wash in the insides of the wheel wells too. Even a little dirt will slow down a velo. If you can, lighten your load as much as possible. A follow van that can carry your extra water and tools would help. Don’t know your fueling plan, I generally use gel packets etc, and be sure to consume 2 while your climbing up the hill to the start point.

This may be a bit ghetto, but you can attain another mph or two by taping a piece of cardboard the length of rear well, closing in as much as you can without touching the wheel.

Willie Hunt I use a 100 watt hour LiIon pack 3s4p 12.6 volt fully charged.

Willie Hunt I’m using old SureFire Beast batteries that were taken out of service. However, you can buy ready made packs of all AmpHour ratings. I’d recommend www.hobbyking.com or www.batteryspace.com

Just ordered battery pack from https://www.batteryspace.com Order Number: 368065

Willie Hunt I used a “Unibit” to drill the holes: http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=unibit

Had a good ride today. After a day of rest the legs were definitely humming.

Got the new garmin cadence sensor install on the Quest. No magnets! Completely eliminated all cadence spikes.

However my cadence is about 5 rpm lower - probably because it takes so long for me to accelerate and I spend significant time at lower rpms. I’ll have to try shifting only when the rpms go over 95 and see how that works.

I did a test of the climbing section of the Strave KOM I lost to the Cat 3 racer when he had a 21 mph tailwind gusting to 30 mph.

With no wind, up the climb, I came within 3 seconds of his time.

If I can keep up with him on the climbing section then I should be able to beat him on the downhills.

Greg Gross with his wicked fast M5 is coming over and early Sunday morning before it gets hot we are going to try and get the KOM back.

This is a 0.9 mile segment mostly uphill - but you get to accelerate up to max speed just before it starts. By the time I’m hitting the end I’m “crawling” along at 21 mph.

http://www.strava.com/segments/3453944?filter=overall

http://www.strava.com/activities/177281561

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/559992112

Less than a week and already pulled over by the motorcycle sheriffs department - after I had to pull out into the traffic lanes to avoid hitting them and all the cars they had pulled over for speeding.

Officer: You do not need to get your license out. Do you know why we pulled you over? Me: No

Officer: The law in Texas requires bicyclists to ride on the shoulder of the road. Me: You were in the way and I did not want to hit you.

Officer: Stay in the shoulder when possible. Have a nice day.

Then we chatted a bunch about the Quest.

Ask him if I could take his picture with his motorcycle - no problem.

Beautiful day for a ride! Although, it is starting to get a little hot with temps in the mid-to-high nineties. The quest has a headlight, I’m going to have to try riding early in the morning before the sun comes up.

Here is a picture of the half way point just as I turned around to head back down the hill.

Bike Changes

Finally the chain is adjusted correctly. Good shifting all gears.

Hung the camelbak over the rear seat hanger. Works great.

http://www.strava.com/activities/176337554

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/558613952

Took four links out of the chain. Ooops, too many, cannot do large front ring and large rear ring anymore. Discovered that you cannot determine chain length by looking at the rear derailleur without rider weight in the seat of the Quest.

Putting 220 pounds of rider weight in the seat causes the rear swing arm to pivot more horizontal such that it acts as lengthening the frame and hence making the chain too short.

I now know that when looking at the rear derailleur I have have to add what looks like a little too much chain.

Now I need to add back in a couple of more links. Glad my LBS made me buy a whole chain - maybe I’ll have some left before I’m all done with this chain adjusting business.

UPDATE: - Added the links back in - will test in the morning.

Put a dab of liquid nails on the cable that goes to the front headlight height adjustment. The cable had come loose and I was kicking it around when entering and existing the Quest.

Examined all the tires. One of the front Kojak tires has been slashed and is slightly bulging out on the inside wall. Well, no more riding until I replace that tire.

Ordered two more Kojaks with presta tubes and will do the Stan’s sealant treatment when they arrive later this week.

UPDATE: - I had a new Kojak 406-35 folding bead in the garage. Put it on the front right replacing the bulging tire. Left the existing schrader value tube in the tire. When my order comes in from Amazon I’ll do the Stan’s sealant treatment.

Ordered the new Garmin magnet-less Speed and Cadence sensors.

Charles Snyder suggested that I hang the camelbak from the hanger behind the seat. Sound like a great idea. I’m going to make another sleeve from Reflectix to keep it colder longer.

Also, since weight doesn’t seem to matter anymore I’m moving to the 100 oz camelbak so that I don’t need to stop as often.

Still trying to figure out what the ratcheting noise is in the rear end. Asked BROL members for help.

UPDATE: - Dropped the rear end and examined everything. Everything looks good. The new ratcheting sound is the wheel hub. Must be like a Chris King hub and the paws finally loosened up enough where you can hear them now.

Went for a ride with Brian Buckmaster today to Salado. Legs are so hammered from the last two days of riding we turned around in Jarrell cutting the ride short to just 51.4 miles.

That is Brian’s ICE Vortex trike on the left.

Shot of the front of the Quest Brian took (need to keep my feet inside for pictures).

Brian and I arranged to meet at HEB at the corner of Williams and DB Wood. Brian got there before me and was inside getting provisions for the ride. Here is a picture of his ICE Vortex.

I took a couple of more links out of the chain before this mornings ride. Shifting is better, but I still need to take a couple of more out.

There is a strange ratcheting sound coming from the rear. Tomorrow I’ll take the rear apart and see what the noise is.

Today I got a better handle on storage inside the Quest. I took the rear luggage bag I use on the F-40 and put it on the left side of the Quest. I had previously cut a round hole in the top of the bag to hold the 64 oz insulated stainless steel growler I use on the F-40 during really hot days. The hole allows me to easily reach inside and fish around for stuff - food, gels, iPod, etc.

On the right side I have a water bottle filled with my own sports drink mix, a frame bag for my iPhone and my camelbak inside of a plastic bag. Yesterday when I had finished my ride condensation on the camelbak had formed a pool of water. So today I tried the plastic bag - worked ok - but I need to find my camelbak sleeve I made last year, it will keep the camelbak more insulated and at the same time contain the condensation.

There sure is a lot of room in the Quest.

Towards the end of the ride I tried Willie Hunt’s suggestion on climbing in the heat - put both arms outside the shell by leaning forward and resting on my armpits - this provides more airflow over the upper body for more cooling.

Well this also had another great effect - leaning forward caused my butt to slide backwards just enough that the peddling position was lengthened causing the strain on my hamstrings to disappear! Within minutes my left leg hamstring loosened up and I was really able to hammer it the rest of the way home. In the last fifteen miles of riding I increased my average speed from 16.0 mph to 17.2 mph on the garmin.

http://www.strava.com/activities/175333239

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/557071829

Second day on the Quest. Just an easy ride trying to build up my legs.

Lengthened the chain quite a bit. Too long now. When in small ring in front and smaller rings in the back the chain jumps and skips when under moderate pressure. When in the largest ring in the front I can shift through all the gears in the back ok. Now it is high speed is good - climbing really sucks because of the chain slipping.

I mounted the Garmin VIRB camera on the front of the shell exactly between the two front mirrors. The video view angle is great - but now my view is terrible because I keep having to lean my head to look around the camera. Taking the camera off now and I will try to find another place to easily mount it.

In the video you can see how the Quest on a downhill easily accelerates up to 40+ mph.

http://www.strava.com/activities/174821439

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/557506205

A nice easy training ride with one Strava KOM (42 mph) chasing down a very fit triathlete on a high end time trial bike.

Setup and Adjustments

Last night and this morning I spent a few hours adjusting the Quest for my x-seam and body height.

I must have had to push the peddles out at least 6 inches. The prior owner must have been very short.

I’m 6’ 1" and the fit is currently very tight. I sure if I were to lose some weight off my butt my x-seam will decrease by at least 3 inches. As it is my shoulders fit just below the rim of the Quest by about 1/2 inch - so I cannot raise the seat anymore to try and get my feet further away from the front. I cannot wear my Keen SPD sandals because at my current x-seam length the Keens are too wide and when peddling the outsides of the Keens scrap against where the top and bottom shells join. Fortunately, I had another pair of skinny SPD shoes that worked ok after adjusting the clips on the bottom. I had to adjust the clips on the bottom of the shoes as far to the outside as possible so that the outside of my foot would be as close to the bottom bracket as possible. This made the outside of my shoes be as narrow as possible allow the shoes to clear the joint where the top and bottom shells meet.

When riding every now and then the heel of a shoe will contact the front of the foot opening. Also, every now and then a knee will graze the top of the shell. Each is kind of a surprise each time it happens but not really all that disrupted to my peddling.

I did not have any additional chain so I was very careful to only shift out of the small front chain ring when I was in the little gear in the back. Needless to say this affected my average speed greatly. Today I’ll have to go get a couple of feet of chain and add it to the existing length.

When peddling at slow speeds there is a creak, creak sound every time I peddle. I’m guessing the struts need some oil - after all the Quest has been sitting in garage for the last 4 years.

Also, there is a ting, ting sound from the rear. I’ll have to check the rear spokes. One is either broken or loose.

Gearing

The high end of the gearing is not high enough. I spin out around 30 miles per hour. I don’t yet have the cadence sensor on the Quest but I’m guessing my cadence was ~90 rpm for just over 30 mph. The F-40 has a 60 tooth big chain ring and I don’t spin out until around 40 mph.

Ride Impressions

At speed (30+ mph) the wind noise is extreme - just like the F-40 before I put the windshield on it.

Getting up to 18 mph is hard. 18 mph to 30 mph is very easy compared to the F-40.

The Quest is very fast. Riding the F-40 for a year really helped me be very comfortable with the Quest handling at speed.

I’m going to need a lot more experience cornering.

The Quest easily accelerates through 30 mph on any slight downhill.

You cannot turn it around on a two lane country road without doing a 3 point turn. (3 being very optimistic at my current experience level)

Ride Strategy

Ride strategy is like the F-40 only more extreme. On any downhill accelerate as much as possible to try and turn the next uphill into a roller. The Quest is able to ‘rollerize’ more hills than the F-40.

This Morning’s Ride

It took me 40 minutes to get out of the driveway. My shoes kept hitting the front inside of the Quest.

Fortunately you can reach the ground over the side of the quest. Take my helmet and sunglasses off and set them on the ground. Take the Garmin Edge 800 off the tiller and put it in the helmet also. I need to take the Garmin off so that the tiller will fit under the lip of the opening to get the tiller out of the way so that I can push myself up and out of the Quest. I really need to work on my upper body strength with exercises like doing dips at the gym. I can see myself finishing a really hard ride and then not having enough energy left to lift my overweight body out of the stupid thing.

Eventually, I got the shoe situation sorted out and I was on my way.

The deer in the neighborhood go crazy at the sight of the Quest. The F-40 did not bother them - the Quest put them into a frenzy.

It is slow getting out of the neighborhood but after about a mile I’m on a pretty good road with wide smooth shoulders. The downhill to the bottom of the dam is an eye opener. Accelerating (and I use the term accelerate loosely) to 16 mph with the Quest takes some effort. But 16 mph to 30 mph is very impressive - way faster than the F-40.

I try to carry as much speed as possible up the next climb but I’m not used to the gears and I’m being cautious because I know my chain length is very short.

Heading out of town it seems like it is a good strategy to get the Quest up to 18+ mph and then rest while holding it there. Once at speed it doesn’t take much effort to keep it there.

At about the 10 mile mark I’m considering turning around but I’ve just turned onto a road where there are lots of roadies and the Quest is eating up the pavement.

I end up going another 6 miles passing many roadies doing at least 30+ mph in the Quest.

Right after I turn around to head back I see Brian and Suzie Buckmaster heading the other way on there upright bikes. So i turn around again and head back out to ride with them for a little bit. I’m coasting and ridding the brakes at 18 mph and they are peddling some while we are talking. After a little ways I decided I really should head back. I want to make sure I have enough energy to be able to lift myself out of this thing.

After I turn south on Williams Drive (about 9 miles left to go to my house) I notice a rider about 1/2 mile ahead. It takes me a good 5 miles to catch him and I’m easily averaging 29 to 30 mph. Neither one of us can talk or say hi as I pass - it is all we can do to try and keep up with the other. We trade places a couple of times. At stop lights and corners he zooms ahead, eventually on the long straights I catch and pass him. I get my one Strava KOM on a segment because we had just rounded a corner and he accelerate way ahead of me - I got the Quest up to 45.3 mph on the downhill and completed the segment with a 42.0 mph average.

After that I was only a couple of miles from home and my legs were toast. Time to just spin easy and try to make it home.

Time to soak the legs, have a beer with lunch and then do some maintenance on the bike.

By the Number

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/555201362

http://app.strava.com/activities/174330580

After driving 20 hours in two days my Quest is now home!

Unexpectedly, earlier this week a slightly used Quest came up for sale in western Texas. I have been wanting a Quest or quite a while and this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

So Thursday I purchased QB028 from Bill Janss in El Paso. Even though it is 4 years old the Quest probably has less than 200 miles on it. All parts look practically brand new.

Hopefully in the morning I’ll get the fit better dialed in and be able to go for a short ride to see what this baby can do.

Some quick observations:

I cannot leave it parked anywhere without the parking brake on - it will immediately start rolling down the slightest incline to bang into the closest object.

Compared to the F-40 it is very noisy inside due to the shell vibrating.

It turns like a pig.

I love not having to unclip and put my feet down when I stop.