Cape Town Wedding Photographer - Nick Coyne . » Mountain Biking

Getting there

Nick — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:30:26 +0000

Training continues. After an interruption due to sickness, the workload has been ramped up again.

The result was a slight fall-off in CTL, and now its rising gradually again, up to 88 as of today.

The next two weeks are planned to be slightly heaver, so CTL should gain another 10 or so in the next 10 days. My power at various durations still has some way to go. At 1min I’m about 30w off my best, which isn’t too bad. At 5mins I’m 25w off my best, but at 10mins there’s a massive 45w deficit to catch up. 20mins is only 15w short though.

4 weeks to go until the first race of the season, so I’ll be looking to improve on the 5 and 10min numbers by then. My goal is to match these numbers by 4 weeks, and to beat them before the start of the Cape Epic. Goals are
* 5sec: 20w/kg
* 1min: 9w/kg (currently 7.5)
* 5min: 6w/kg (currently 5.3)
* 60min: 4.5w/kg (currently 4.0. This will come in a race, I don’t generally do 1hr TTs)

Read the original blog post here Getting there Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Upgraded build

Nick — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:27:11 +0000

Finished my new bike build up (for now). New parts are
* Thomson Masterpiece seatpost to replace the USE Carbon. A little lighter, but more importantly a lot stronger.
* XTR cranks to replace the well worn XT cranks. A bit of a weight-saving, as well as making he bike look a lot nicer. Those XT cranks clashed a bit. They’ll move on to my Kona commuter bike project which I’ll hopefully build up this weekend.
* Eggbeater pedals are back on. I’ve installed the short-length Ti spindles. The main problem I’ve had with Eggbeaters is that the spindles are too long. These new spindles solve that problem, as well as losing some weight with the Ti versions

Total bike weight as you see it in the pic, is now 10.6kg. Future upgrade possibilities are:
* Hope blue seatpost collar
* Hope blue quick-releases
* KCNC blue pulley wheels
* KCNC SC Bone handlebars
* maybe a new saddle

More pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/nic.coyne/GiantAnthemX

Read the original blog post here Upgraded build Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

New bike! :)

Nick — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:54:40 +0000

My new Giant Anthem X1 arrived last week, so we got all the bits transferred from the Zen across to the new bike. With my American Classic wheels on she weighs in at 10.7kg, which is almost 400g lighter than the Zen.

All the Giant’s bits got moved to the Zen, which is now Nicole’s bike.

Read the original blog post here New bike! :) Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Lourensford

Nick — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 12:00:38 +0000

As a beginning to the training I need to do for next year’s Sani2C, I rode the 35km route at Lourensford yesterday. The rain was threatening but luckily it stayed dry the whole ride. I’m a bit stiff since its the first time on the MTB since May. I only managed 4th after 3 youngsters went a bit too hard for me up the initial climbs, before I was warmed up. Still waiting for the results to see how far behind them I finished. I received a gap of about 4mins just past half way.

Legs were pretty stiff this morning and I grovelled on my training ride today, which did not escape the rain. It was wet, cold and altogether miserable.

Read the original blog post here Lourensford Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

AMA Rider

Nick — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:44:25 +0000

One of the flyers in our race packs at yesterday’s Argus MTB race, was from Dirtopia, advertising AMA – the African MTB Association. Meurant from Dirtopia has been heading in this direction for many years, and finally we have our own IMBA-style advocacy organisation.

I’ve just signed up, and I hope that many of my MTB buddies will do the same. Meurant and Arina have done more for mountain biking in this country than anyone else, and their vision and plan for taking things to the next level really deserves our support.

Read the original blog post here AMA Rider Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Legs are coming back

Nick — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:18:34 +0000

Just looked at the results from yesterday’s MTB race. My estimate of approx 15mins loss looks about right. I overtook Guy Pike (comprehensively) about 45mins into the race, and he came in 24th in 2:29. So 2:24 is definitely about where I could/should have been.

My CTL has just edged over 80. Looking back at spring season I started feeling really good in races as soon as CTL>80, so hopefully I experience the same thing with this weekend’s Argus Subvets race!

Read the original blog post here Legs are coming back Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Argus MTB Race

Nick — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 17:48:40 +0000

Rode my first MTB race in a while today – the Argus MTB race at Boschendal. I arrived at the startline a little late and ended up starting at the back of the bunch, which didn’t bode well for my chances of staying with the front guys. As expected within 2ks the front guys were out of site while I was still blocked in. I eventually found a rhythm and was passing people continuously but steadily for the first hour. Until I had a puncture which I didn’t really have the heart to try and repair quickly. But I got it done and set off again, having to pass many of those that I’d passed already. I ended up stuck between small bunches for large parts of the flat jeep track, which isn’t ideal for my light frame. I grabbed a few more places up the final climb, then got stuck behind some hardtails on the descent which was very frustrating. Eventually I got past and opened a big gap quickly. Race was over by then though, and I finished in 2:39. I reckon the puncture and other hold-ups cost me about 15mins, which puts my pace at about 2:24, which would have been top 20 or so. So I definitely have some mountain biking legs and I’m looking forward to the next MTB race. Hopefully a little fitter, and hopefully I get a proper start.

Read the original blog post here Argus MTB Race Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Not the Cape Epic

Nick — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:21:38 +0000

Just completed the Vigne a Vigne, the 1 day race that takes you over the course of stage 8 of the Cape Epic. Unfortunately it does so just 10 minutes after the Epic competitors have gotten underway, with the result of a big traffic jam and conditions that don’t really make it possible to race.

So I went hard at the start, until I realised what a fruitless exercising trying to race would be. The remainder of the race was nice though, chatting with mates who were completing the Epic. The course was good too, with lots of neat singletrack that I’d never been on before. Mostly it was pretty slow though, as one got stuck behind skill-less Epic competitors.

I don’t think I’d do the event again. R120 to enter, you can’t actually race it, you don’t get anything special, and you feel like you’re crashing someone else’s party since most of the riders around you have been riding hard for seven days already.

Read the original blog post here Not the Cape Epic Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

It would be nice if you told me before…

Nick — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 05:13:53 +0000

So I took the MTB to Bowmans on Tuesday to get the front brakes sorted. “No problem” they say. And they notice that the pop-loc control on my forks is stuck. “Let’s sort that out for you” they say. “Sure, I never use the thing, but go ahead” I reply, thinking that its just going to need some oil to loosen it up.

So Friday I collect the bike and I’m presented with a bill for R700. The mechanic tells me that he had to strip the forks to sort out the pop-loc. And it took 2 hours of his time and therefore cost R300. Well, thanks for phoning me before you decided to open the forks up, buddy. So instead of a R300 bill for a brake bleed, which I was expecting, I get whacked with double that. Not impressed!

On the +ive side though, they really gave the bike a good clean. Even the tyres. I would have paid 50 bucks just for the cleaning job.

Hitting the trail today so hopefully brakes are working perfectly…

Read the original blog post here It would be nice if you told me before… Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Look Ma, No Brakes!

Nick — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:49:22 +0000

Rode the Cape Argus MTB Race at Boschendal last Sunday. I was really looking forward to racing the mtb again.

So I’m standing in the startpen waiting for the off and I squeeze my front brake lever… all the way to the bars! Woah! Not supposed to do that! Problem… and we’re off… Ok, so I figure I’ll stop at the top of the first proper climb and adjust things to get them working again.

So I stop and fiddle with brakes and calipers for about 5 minutes. The only result being that I make it even worse and now I have no front brakes at all. I descend very gently contemplating my next move, and hit a rock and get a rear pinch-flat. mmmph. Not a great day, is it? Mentally I’ve given up on the race now, so I fix the puncture at a leisurely pace and carry on the ride with some hard riding mixed with the occasional stop to help others with their punctures. Then I get another puncture about 1.5km’s from the finish and cross the line on a completely flat rear.

Nice ride, but crap race.

Never have had much luck with my Marta SL brakes. I’m going to try bleeding that front brake one more time, and if that doesn’t fix things for good I think they’ll be looking for a new home somewhere else.

Read the original blog post here Look Ma, No Brakes! Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.