Not new to the market, these stubby aerohats were popularised by Team Sky over the last few seasons. Very expensive, particularly when they were first released, Team Grumpy refer to these as “smurf hats” because of the slightly downturned aero tail!I can’t really comment on the helmet’s aero characteristics, other than to say that I would imagine the Bambino might be superior if you do a lot of looking down or around - this pushes the tail of a ‘normal’ aero helmet into the wind. In terms of fit, the helmet is reassuring in how stable the fit is on the head. The visor didn’t steam up, as per complaints of the early versions of the helmet. In use, I was aware of sweat in the helmet, but it didn’t dribble down onto the visor, which remained clear throughout the ’25’. I don’t know if there will be problems when racing in warmer conditions.Team Grumpy bought matte black Bambini - with the mirrored visor as shown above, they really remind me of the Power Rangers (I will leave you to Google that...). So maybe that’s the new team descriptor for them...

The Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up '25' has been a regular fixture on the Team Grumpy calendar for a number of years. As usual, the two evenings prior to the event were characterised by conspicuous consumption of Leffe and curry. This was an acceptable preparation, since both members of Team Grumpy had seen their pre-season training somewhat derailed by illness. We also avoided any serious bike tinkering on the day before the race. Indeed, the only issues needing dealt with were (a) Gerry's disc wheel needed to be replaced with his trispoke owing to braking issues, and (b) my left shoe wouldn't clip onto my pedal. This turned out to be due to tiny fleck of mud in the shoeplate springs! Pretty quickly all was in order.This year's event was held on the R25/25, which runs down the A465 dual carriageway from Resolven to its first turn at the Tonna roundabout, back up the A465 past the start to turn left down the B4242, turning at Ynysygerwen to finish some way past the Resolven junction. Usually the dual carriageway section is quickest, with the B4242 being quite slow, owing to its hilly nature.The morning of the event was pretty cold and bitter, despite being far from frosty. But with long sleeved thermal vests under the skinsuits and decent gloves, we were pretty much set. New kit this year included new aero hats and the addition of Nopinz number pockets on the back of our skinsuits. The Nopinz pockets seem pretty good, though getting the number in place is a bit fiddly. No pin damage to expensive skinsuits, though!After a brief warmup, we lined up and were off. Though not before an unfortunate wobble made me think we'd collide. The outbound leg to the first turn was very quick, with a stiff tailwind. We'd planned for me to take some long pulls at the front to avoid Gerry's breathing issues in the cold air - as it turned out, I think I took longer turns at the front throughout the race, Gerry still suffering the aftereffects of his recent cold.All too soon, we reached the first turn, which we rode in good style, and set off back up the dual carriageway into the headwind. For most of this leg, this just slowed us down, but for the last two miles or so, I found my Hed Stinger a bit of a handful. No real difficulty or danger, though. Round the second turn and we joined the hilly road southbound. This part of the course features some shocking road surfaces (on at least three occasions, I heard Gerry grumping about some hole or other that he'd cycled through!), and some pretty stiff climbs. We made good progress to the third and final turn before heading back to finish in 1:03:16.We weren't too disappointed with the time - it's a tough course, and anyway, our 2-up technique was pretty well oiled throughout, with both riders making appropriate accommodation to the strengths of the other. In any event, we were 15th team out of a full field of 60 teams (only three teams didn't start), and won third composite team.[caption id="attachment_3385" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Team Grumpy's first ride of 2015                                       Photograph  copyright Pete Hamer[/caption]Results (first 15 teams)

The first club event for 2015 came around all of a sudden (for some reason, the New Year’s Day ’10’ formally belongs to the previous year’s calendar). It was to be held over at the Stony course, which in the version used by our club is at about 11.4 miles. It’s a tough course, and not one I enjoy, with a lot of climbing in the first half, and as usual, the winter, though mild, has seen further potholes open up, particularly between Beachampton and Nash.Unfortunately, I chose to ride with my deepest section front wheel - a Hed Stinger 90. I say unfortunately because by the time we got out to Stony Stratford, the wind had picked up considerably. The wind also made it feel quite chilly, though actually it was well above freezing. By the time I’d lined up at the start, my thigh muscles were shivering vigorously! Also by the time we were starting, several TeamMK club run groups were coming by, of which more later.Immediately I started, I realised I was going to have problems controlling the bike, at least on the outbound leg. The strong wind was throwing my bike all over the road. As it turned out, I had to keep off the tribars pretty much all the way to the turn. I came up behind the TeamMK club run a bit before Beachampton. Despite a Landrover being held up behind them, they didn’t delay me more than a few seconds. Unfortunately that doesn’t represent much of an excuse! Once out of Beachampton, it was a case of dodging many potholes, whiel gradually reeling in my minute man.I reached the turn after what seemed like an eternity of wrestling with the bike and fighting the headwind. But once round the turn, things were a fair bit different, and I found the going pretty good. There were one or two hairy moments when the wind gusted through gaps in the hedge, but really it was pretty much OK. Well, apart from the moment it felt as though the bike and I got lifted bodily off the tarmac for an instant.Shortly after passing through Beachampton, Jason G. came storming past like an express train, catching me for three minutes. He looks pretty fit, and has already ridden a few event. Gossip has it he’ll be focussing on time trials this year, so we should see some good times from him.Apart from a hairy moment with traffic, that was pretty much it. I finished in a lacklustre 29:42, though frankly I was pleased to just get under 30 minutes! Before the start, I said I was keen to find out if I’d recovered from the hideous cold that derailed my training in February. I have to say that I’m none the wiser given the conditions this morning. Still, at least it blew the cobwebs out of my system before next week’s Port Talbot Wh 2-up ’25’ in South Wales.Equipment note: I rode with a pair of these sunglasses,  complete with reading lens bifocals. These were recommended by Tony P. after the NYD ’10’. I think both Tony and I suffer from age-related problems reading bike computers, and these sort that out quite nicely.Results

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
Result of the Medium Gear Event
1	1	John Buchanan	Corley Cycles	32.17	V44	30.02	.- 2.15	1
Result of the Un-restricted Gear Event
1	5	Jason Gurney	Arbis/ Colbert Cycles	26.32	V45	30.07	.+ 3.35	1
2	11	Richard Wood	Arbis/ Colbert Cycles	27.31	S
3	8	Mark Ellis	TeamMK	28.16	V50	30.33	.+ 2.17	2
4	15	Rob Fletcher	Arbis/ Colbert Cycles	28.30	V44	30.02	.+ 1.32	3
5	14	Steve Torley	TeamMK	28.31	S
6	12	James Fox	CC Luton	28.56	S
7	10	Matt Wootton	TeamMK	29.16	S
8	2	Robert Saunders	NBRC	29.42	V55	31.00	.+ 1.18	4
9	7	Jason Lee	TeamMK	30.17	V45	30.07	.- 0.10	5
10	6	Andy Wickham	NBRC	30.20	V44	30.02	.- 0.18	6
11	4	Chris Mason	A5 Rangers	30.57	V41	29.45	.- 1.12	7
12	3	Ant Smith	TeamMK	31.51	S
13	9	Wayne Thomas	NBRC	34.18	V63	31.57	.- 2.21	8
14	13	Neill Boddington	NBRC	34.56	V40	29.39	.- 5.17	9
15	16	Mike Fitsell	TeamMK	38.01	V52	30.33	.- 7.28	10
Time Keepers:- Steph Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC
Pusher Off:- Bryan Scarborough NBRC

 

So far, I have owned and used iPads (first generation iPad, third generation iPad and a first generation iPad mini for work). I posted previously about my search for a usable stylus for iPad (Smartphones, tablets and styli). This was pretty much unsuccessful: iPad styli were always inadequately precise, either because they had a rubber blob of a tip that mimicked a fingertip, or because the bluetooth system used wasn't precise enough.A couple of years ago, I made my belated entry to the smartphone market, with a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (I recently updated to a Galaxy Note 4). This device comes with the S Pen, an interesting device that gives a really good screen response when writing. Coupled with excellent handwriting conversion, this meant that text entry by scribbling on the screen was a realistic proposition. Here's a good description of how the S Pen works. Essentially, from that site:

An electromagnetic field is generated from a circuit behind the screen. The S Pen picks this up and uses it to power itself and figure out its position relative to the screen. It sends this, along with information from the S Pen button and the nib at the end, back to the Note.

At that point, it was abundantly clear that my next tablet purchase was likely to be a Samsung Note device. And on a recent visit to a department store I had a little play with a Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 tablet - and my partner bought one. After a weekend of seeing this device in action, I bought one too - reduced in price to £324. Anyway, for me (and the work I do) this is an iPad killer - for example:

• Bigger screen, at a very decent resolution
• Android 4.4.2 (this is like climbing over the wall of the Apple prison)
• The S pen, which offers realistic sketch pad and handwriting recognition
• Easier file transfer to and from the device than iTunes allows
• Ability to add to the 32Gb onboard memory - I added a 64Gb card
• Most of the apps I use on the iPad are also available on the Galaxy, and those that aren't have perfectly good alternatives
• You can run up to 4 apps simultaneously onscreen.

This is basically a power user's tablet, and I really can't fault it. But it's the S Pen that really sells it to me. Here's a very detailed review dating from March last year, when the beast retailed at about £649. I think it's a pretty accurate review. I doubt I'd have been keen to cough up £649, but at £324 this seemed a great deal - I presume the discounted price means it's either discontinued or a new model is due shortly.

After Apple replaced my 2 gigabyte first generation iPod Nano with a nifty little 8Gb sixth generation model (due to a product recall), I found myself using that in preference to my Cowon X7, even though the latter has 160Gb storage. The consequence of this is that I allowed the X7 to completely discharge.

No problem, I thought, just charge it up again. But no! Things are not that simple. It transpires that the Cowon firmware doesn’t take kindly to a fully discharged battery, and won’t let it charge. I did a spot of Googling, and discovered a suggested solution - to connect it to the charger for a long period - 100h was mentioned.

Fortunately, the icy conditions we'd seen since Christmas had warmed a bit, so there wasn't any danger of slipping on ice. But on the other hand, the roads were distinctly damp and there was a very strong and blustery wind from the south. As Steve Abraham was calling in on the time trial (and riding it) as part of the first day of his attempt to beat Tommy Godwin's mileage record (follow his progress here), we had the presence of CNN and BBC Local News together with a large number of cyclists, many of whom decided to take part in the race. The new course devised by Tony Farmborough and Bryan Scarborough was being used for the first time, and this turned out to be something of a blessing, as there was much more space for people to meet and park near the start than at the assembly point for the earlier version. We'd scheduled Steve to start as #1, with NBRC riders starting behind him, though the #2 spot was left vacant. Out on the road, the starting section was really quick, with a stiff tailwind. Of course once we turned left at the first RAB, things got a bit twitchy in the wind, particularly for those riding with aero wheels (such as my H3).It got a little bit more twitchy after the second roundabout where riders turn left to join the main Stoke Hammond bypass, indeed at that point I not only had to dodge a sizeable diesel spill, but found my front wheel being wrenched violently from side to side. This soon passed, but really one needed to pay close attention and try to predict when the gusts might be worst. The new course's turn is one RAB further along that the earlier version of the course, and while this additional section is quite short, it's uphill and (today at least) into the teeth of the wind. After the event, riders were complaining about how slowly they completed that section!Round the turn, and we had a nice tail wind along the bypass before turning right to retrace to the finish. The final RAB sees riders doing a right turn. This did concern some people on safety grounds, but in practice it seemed fine - riders just need to keep an eye out for traffic and move into the right hand lane in good time. The final stretch was tough, into the wind to the finish.All in all a tough morning for a time trial. I think most of the riders felt for Steve, who by the time he started the time trial had already covered 116 or so miles.I finished in 24:55, a measly 1 second behind the winner, Richard Wood. As one wag observed, that probably corresponds to one wobble too many out there in the head wind! Still, I was fastest NBRC rider on the day.

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -
1	26	Richard Wood	Arbis/Colbert	24.54	Sen
2	5	Robert Saunders	NBRC	24.55	V55	27.09	.+ 2.14
3	25	James Fox	CCLuton	25.42	Sen
4	7	Lindz Barral	Unattached	25.51	Sen
5	15	Geoff Bunyan	Bossard Wheelers	25.52	V54	27.04	.+ 1.12
6	18	Jason Lee	TeamMK	26.46	V45	26.23	.- 0.23
7	14	Ant Newland	Bossard Wheelers	26.55	V49	26.41	.- 0.14
8	4	Andy Wickham	NBRC	27.14	V44	26.18	.- 0.56
9	20	Andy Smith	TeamMK	27.34	V57	27.20	.- 0.14
10	8	Julian Thrasher	LBRCC	27.46	V40	25.59	.- 1.47
11	21	Matt Exley	Corley Cycles Drops RT	27.52	Sen
12	22	Chris Hopkinson	API - Metrow	28.04	V47	26.32	.- 1.32
13	28	Richard Golding	Unattached	28.21	V43	26.13	.- 2.08
14	11	James Barlow	LBRCC	28.37	Sen
15	9	Miles Walker	LBRCC	28.59	V52	26.54	.- 2.05
16	27	Rimas Grigenas	Unattached	29.10	Sen
17	16	Tom Krause	Unattached	29.32	Sen
18	12	Andy Martin	LBRCC	29.37	V43	26.13	.- 3.24
19	13	Trevor Watson	Bossard Wheelers	29.43	V55	27.09	.- 2.34
20	10	Tom Deprez	LBRCC	29.58	Sen
21	24	Katja Reitdorf	TeamMK	30.05	LV44	28.24	.- 1.41
22	23	David Goodhew	NBRC	30.07	V41	26.04	.- 4.03
23	3	David Price	NBRC	30.12	V47	26.32	.- 3.40
24	6	Neill Boddington	NBRC	31.30	V40	25.59	.- 5.31
25	19	Darren Winfield	LBRCC	32.40	V49	26.41	.- 5.59
26	17	Clive Faine	TeamMK	32.46	V68	28.42	.- 4.04
27	1	Steve Abraham	NBRC	33.27	V40	25.59	.- 7.28

Timekeepers: Bryan Scarborough & Tony 'Desperado' Farmborough (NBRC)Pusher off: Dick Selley (NBRC)Route Signs: David Price (NBRC) 

I’m always interested in tinkering with alternative audio usage of my Raspberry Pi devices. As standard, I’m using them as Squeezebox substitutes, running the minimalist OS piCorePlayer, though I’ve also tried Squeezeplug and Raspbian for this. Rune Audio, which I think is derived from RaspyFi as a fork at the time RaspyFi became Volumio (though I may have that the wrong way round), recently released a version 0.3 beta for the Raspberry Pi, so (being naturally curious) I decided to try it out.

[caption id="attachment_3345" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Runeaudio's UI is elegant, clear and simple[/caption]

Rune Audio is managed via a web browser. The picture above shows what the main interface looks like. The bar at the bottom allows you to switch from Library to Playback or Queue (pretty self-evident what those are). Image art is centre stage, with the progress wheel on it's left (big number is elapsed time, smaller is track length), while on the right is the software volume control. The play controls are a little counter-intuitive - this is a screengrab while a track is playing, and I would have expected the play symbol to have been replaced with a pause symbol. Finally, the Menu link at top right is where you access most of the setup functions.

This was my second trip over to Normandy in 2014. Along with my Team Grumpy team-mate Gerry, I had a long weekend away to make another assault on the Corporatif category of the Duo Normand.

As something of a prologue to this year’s event, I’d decided to modify my P3’s set up. For the last few years, I’d had flat handlebar extensions fitted to the USE Tula bars, but since getting a Cervelo P5, I’d decided that returning to extensions with upturned ends would be beneficial. I ordered the required replacement parts and set about fitting them. It was soon apparent that I had a problem on my hands - I just couldn’t persuade the left hand extension to go through the base bar. After several days effort, I gave up and reverted to Plan B: to buy a new base bar and use some old Deda GCB extensions I had previously used on a fixed wheel TT bike.

The organiser of this event had a bit of a torrid time. The original course was an interesting one, seemingly two and a half laps of the Astwood circuit (as features frequently in this blog). Sadly, roadworks on that course necessitated a course switch to a course based on the Brogborough course*. There was also a second event, a 10 mile one. I had entered because the Astwood course would be good preparation for the upcoming Duo Normand, so I was disappointed in this turn of events. It also meant that the startsheet was the longest and most complicated I can recall, seeing as it was prepared with both courses in mind, and had to describe the route to and from each course from the HQ (Cranfield Village Hall). It ran to an alarming 15 pages!

The revised 25 mile course started at the usual 10 start at the top of Brogborough hill. It proceeded across the Marston Moretaine roundabout to the Wootton RAB (the 10 mile turn), then we were routed over the flyover to a loop running through Wootton to the Marston Moretaine RAB, back to the far turn, another loop through Wootton, back to the far turn, then returning via the Marston Moretaine RAB to finish down the quaintly named Sheeptick lane.

This was the last time trial in the North Bucks TT series (the remaining event is the Hill Clib championship). Three North Bucks riders turned up, to be joined by three others, who must have detected our crestfallen faces! Still, there was a race to be ridden.The Stagsden course is quite interesting, with significant undulations that can be quite disruptive to the riders' rhythm variably depending on the wind direction. This morning, there was pretty much no wind, and the only issues were the drags up to Astwood and Chicheley, which affected both legs equally.I just tried to buckle down and go as hard as I could. I finished in 23:17 to take second place behind Richard Wood. Mind you, the three non-NBRC riders were on road bikes!

Pos

No