UrbanGrinduro - 2023

 UrbanGrinduro - 2023 - July 30th

Congratulations to everyone that turned up to do the second Urbangrinduro!

We had mint conditions and a great vibe among underbikers and overbikers alike.

Here is the course if anyone wants to do it again, maybe even set an FKT !
https://www.strava.com/activities/9546752050 also, the segment here:
https://www.strava.com/segments/35038454

Thanks heaps to all the people that took photos and especially the guys at Shed 22 who fenced off an area for us so we didn't stink up the joint too much!

The Urbangrinduro course from 2021 can be found here:
https://www.strava.com/segments/29989611

Cheers, Jeff

LAST UPDATE 2pm 29/07/2023

I just did a reccie of the second part of the course, most of which I had not done. It was very cool. A couple of things to note.

The course is so squirrely you will have to follow your GPS very closely if you want to follow the course exactly, not that it really matters! Set the resolution to 50m if you can. 300m was not doing it for me on one of my two GPSes.

It's also wet out there. The CX riders will enjoy a few bits of wet off-camber after Mt Albert !

Also, the course is only 37 kms, but the climbs, though short are sometimes steep. Bring stuff to eat and drink !

There are also a couple of tight twisty downhill segments on wet asphalt. They also have green lichen and wet leaves on them. Be very careful on these bits. I am probably going to walk some of them. Steep ashphalt can be very unforgiving.

Please remember the trails are used by others, in particular, dog walkers near Tawatawa reserve, and walkers on Highbury Fling, so please be courteous.

Ikigai/Serendipidty is probably your best place if you want to go fast. Mt Vic looked good today but as usual will have lots of walkers. 

If it gets a bit much at any time you know you can always straight to Shed 22, (Macs brew bar).

Hit me up with any questions. 

Cheers, Jeff

LAST UPDATE:  6:25pm Monday - 24/07/2023 

Summary-

• Starts 9am at Transient Track, Polhill/Waimapihi Te Aro
• Finishes at Shed 22 Queens Wharf pub (Macs Brew bar).

Hi folks. Here is the latest update for the Revolution Bicycles Urban Grinduro! In exchange for naming rights Jonty has promised to make you all an expresso if you visit him at 69 Ottawa Road in Ngaio. Jonty is one of Wellington's original MTBing pioneers and knows a few cool trails.

9am Sunday 30th of July- we start at Waimapihi (Polhill) at the bottom of Transient, ride up Clinical, Highbury Fling, Sawmill Track, down Ikigai Serendipidy and then back up Transient.  From there we head down and across Brooklyn and head into a completely new to me trail that pops us out on the Golf Course in Island Bay. We take in some cool new uphill singletrack over that way before hooking in to Mt Albert, eventually taking in some more new stuff (that I haven't ridden), and ultimately exiting via Mt Vic to visit a pub in town - Shed 22 on the Wharf, opposite Circa/Te Papa

Download GPS files below
If you have an old school Garmin like an Etrex, you can drag n drop the GPX into your GPX folder no probs. If you have a modern Edge styled Garmin you will have to upload using Garmin-connect or RidewithGPS or however you do it. We will endeavour to have a regroup at the tops of some of the climbs so we don't get too strung out. Although maybe strung-out might be good. We don't want to make nuisances of ourselves.

What the course looks like
https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/display/20230723165504-15130-map.html

What it looks like in RidewithGPS 
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/129066027

• Download the GPX file from Dropbox here  
• Download the TCX file from Dropbox here

If you can't load the GPS file onto your GPS or phone you could just try to wing it and ride with someone who has the GPS course loaded! 

The course is around 37 kms with around 1100 metres climbing. 

Cheers, Jeff

Revolution Bicycles >>

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Somebody has been eating SRAMs lunch

 For the last few years somebody has been eating SRAM's lunch, and SRAM have finally caught onto it. When they launched their 12 speed road groupset in 2019 it was wireless only. The heavier and way more expensive wireless kit was financially out of the reach of a lot of people. SRAM had officially turned its back on cable gears for 12 speed road/gravel and left a big hole in the market for people who didn't think that you should have to pay a premium just to charge their derailleurs.

Enter Ratio-Technology. Armed with the knowledge that SRAM road levers are actually an easily tunable item for the home mechanic, they started making solutions to fill the gaping hole that SRAM had left them. Starting with a redesigned cable fin to change the leverage of the derailleur and a new ratchet that now had the ability to shift 12 gears, it was game on. 

 Not only did this upgrade work on the modern hyraulic SRAM road system, it also worked on the older groupset, SRAM Red - 10 and 11 speed, probably the lightest modern road gruppo there ever was, before the advances of hydraulic braking and electric gears became popular, forcing the weights up.

Timing was good and with gravel becoming mainstream people were doing all sorts of really cool things empowered by Ratio-technology's hot-rodding of SRAM's "cabled" ecosystem. Mullet derailleur set-ups were now doable in cable, not just wireless.

An MTB rear deraillieur with road shifters was a pretty cool thing, especially with a big increase in Bikepackers going to drop-bars. But Ratio-tech didnt stop there. They next built a replacement cage for the SRAM derailleurs so you could increase the range. A "gravel" derailleur that originally shifted to a 36 or a 42 could now shift to a 52 with their new cage. That is some serious climbing ability right there. 

So thanks to Ratio-technology, you have a massive range, and the ability to shift to 11, 12 and wait for it, 13 gears. Yes, they also build a ratchet that lets you use the Campagnolo 13 speed cassette and chain in an otherwise completely SRAM set-up. They also build their own special chain-rings and a lighter  replacement cage for damaged SRAM AXS derailleurs.

And that's not all, they do kits that let you swap out the way the cable enters your derailleur. Why is this important? A lot of gravel bikes have the derailleur cable exiting at the very end of the chain stay, which is not compatible with the cable entry point of a SRAM MTB derailleur.

SRAM have finally read the memo and a few weeks ago announced that they are now launching a new 12 speed drop-bar cable solution at the Apex level. It seems to fill some of the gaps but if you already have an existing system, what not just upgrade the internals?

Ratio-technology is a solutions based outfit so it will be interesting to see what they do next. All the kits they they build are presented with comprehensive instructions on their site here.

I recently gave up on 2x on my gravel bike, concerned that my chain drops were going to eventually wear a hole through my BB, mostly due to not having a clutched rear derailleur.

I ordered the Ratio-tech extender cage which I mated with an existing Rival derailleur body and have had a trouble free run with it so far using a Garbaruk 11-50 11 speed cassette. I didn't want to shell out for 12 speed compatible wheels at this point given my current stock of barely worn 11 speed cassettes. The option is there with the purchase of Ratio-technology's 12 speed ratchet when I need it. Folks want options!

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