Beer Drinker Appreciation Society - Open For Business (Page 122)

I hate the whole concept of a "tune-up."  For me, it's right up there with elbow grease and blinker fluid.  It's such a generic term to be meaningless.  

Post pics of your tires and I can probably tell you to replace it or not.  One test I do is to inflate the tube all the way to maximum sidewall pressure, then go ride around the neighborhood, do a few bunny hops, ride off a few curbs, and see if it blows.  If not, then you're good.  If yes, get a new tire.  You can use a tyvek envelope (the plasticy ones) to cut a patch for a gash in the tire; Park Tool also makes patches that serve the same purpose.  However, if you can see any significant amount of the patch on the fully-inflated tire, get a new tire.  

On tire sizes:  run 25mm width.  23mm tires are obsolete now, from all perspectives (aero, rolling resistance, comfort), and for the few circumstances where that isn't true, if you know enough to debate about it, then you know enough to choose appropriately  If you prefer comfort over marginal speed gains, a set of fat 28mm tires are really cushy and take much more of a beating than the smaller ones, but will be noticeably slower.  

On tire choice:  25mm Contintental 4000s are the gold standard, but pricey.  I personally run 25mm gatorskins on my deep section carbon wheels, but I would swap to 4000s for a time trial or really fast race.  My spring/winter box section wheels  (i.e., slow, durable) run 28mm Performance Bike Strada kevlar tires.  

On tune-ups:  First, learn how to clean your chain and deraiiluers.  That's 80% of it.  And learn to listen to your bike - if it sounds wrong, or there are issues shifting (jumping multiple gears, not shifting quickly or properly), then it's time to fiddle with things.  If you aren't having problems, and it isn't noisy, and everything is clean, you don't need to fix anything.  If you are having problems shifting, then start by fiddling with the barrel adjusters (one turn or half a turn at a time), because it's probably cable stretch that is throwing things off, so a little adjust should fix it.

Chains, cassettes, and chainrings are wear items.  If you keep an eye on things and measure carefully, you can probably get three chains to a chainring and cassette.  At least.  If you don't pay any attention to it, you'll get uneven wear and have to replace the cassettes and chains as a set.  Since cassettes and chains cost about the same nowadays, that's not really a big deal.  

The only decent way to tell if a cassette is worn is either (a) the teeth look noticeably and significantly warn, or (b) the chain will skip a tooth on hard efforts.  Chain skip (jumping teeth) without any chain chatter (lateral movement caused by the derailleurs) is the only real true indicator.

The drop gauges used by bike shops are inaccurate and unreliable at best - most brand new chains will fail them.

Not to rag on the LBS, but there's a lot of really bad ones out there, and it's a tough, competitive, low-margin market, so there is a tendency to use any reasonable (or not-so-reasonable . . .) excuse to change parts (and make money).  

And well over half of a tune-up is cleaning and lubricating the bike.  Why would anyone pay $60 an hour on labor for something so simple?  Many shops offer a basic and usually free class on cleaning, lubrication, and tire changing - and most REI stores do as well.  If you don't know how, go to one of those classes, or better yet, ask a friendly bike guy for help.  The only skill-necessary parts of a tune-up are derailleur adjustments and brake checks.  

Here's how to check your brakes:  if the bike stops, and there is still some vertical groove left in the rubber pads, you're fine.  If not, have it fixed.  If you ride full-carbon wheels, well, that's another story.  

Bikes are tough, reliable machines, and if you aren't having problems, keep riding it.

It's hard to say what wave you should be in because there's no indication of how fast each wave will go. There will always be people who think they should be in the 1st wave when they really should be in the 3rd wave. Do they give you estimated finishing times for each wave? I've been to races where participants self select their wave based on predicted finish time.

Personally I find it easier to pass slower swimmers than be passed. Passing swimmers tend to kick and push whereas overtaking a swimmer means you can see them up ahead and move around them at your leisure. If your overall time is a concern, then definitely start out front. Overtaking slower swimmers will slow you down.

As far as drafting goes, you should be able to find someone swimming the pace you are swimming at. If you can't, try drafting the faster swimmers as they pass by you for a few seconds then easing back to your comfortable effort until someone else passes you. You might gain a little time without pushing too hard (as long as you don't try to accelerate to draft someone moving a lot faster than you).

My strategy in triathlons is to not focus on my time so much for the two weaker events (swimming and running for me). I go at a steady but comfortable pace in the water, use the bike to make up any time and gain some back, and then put in a nice steady run (until the last 500m, then it's balls to the wall). 

Also, if you were feeling that confident last year, you should do this year whatever you would have done last year. You know you're capable of it since you were willing to give a go last year. You can't overcome discomfort unless you go beyond your comfort level, IMO. 

That's a great cadence range. A good way to increase cadence and pedalling technique is to do spin drills. Spin as fast as you can (without excessive bouncing) in an easy gear for 20 seconds. Rest 1 min and do it again. That'll help with overall leg speed.