I’ve been continuing my no-solvent, lube-only maintenance schedule on all of my chains.  In the last chain wear post the Dura-Ace 7901 chain on the old Trek was showing 1/10 wear. It’s now just about three months and 1000km later and the chain is still showing 1/10 wear. I was expecting some measurable wear after a few very wet rides, but that hasn’t been the case. So, this Dura-Ace chain is just shy of 15 months and 3500km and still shows almost no wear. Not bad.

On the other hand, the cyclocross bike and it’s Ultegra HG-93 9-speed chain arean’t doing so well. At the last check, the chain was at 6/10 wear. Now, after three months and only 300km it’s at 10/10. Likewise, the HG-93 chain on the 1×9 hardtail was at maximum wear and replaced four weeks ago after 1390km and 17 months of use. The chain was replaced with a Dura-Ace 7701 that’s been used for about 100km.  The cyclocross bike will get the same 7701 chain.

• Road/Dura-Ace 7901 (10-speed): 15 months, 3500km, almost no wear
• CX/Ultegra HG-93 (9-speed): 19 months, 1735km, to be replaced
• MTB/Ultegra HG-93 (9-speed): 17 months, 1390km, replaced
• MTB/SRAM PC-1 (SS): 6 months, 235km, didn’t bother checking

The PACC ‘CXtwiLITE’ Race 3 was a few weeks ago.  With all of the Tour Down Under activities, I didn’t get around to posting the results.  So, here are the results: Lap Animation and Times, and here is a more informative Race Summary.  The only thing I’d have to add is that the sprint for third, fourth and fifth was an entertaining finish, and it looks like I need to work on my sprint finishes.

Moving on, the old Trek also benefited from the cyclocross race.  How?  Well, I found  an Ultegra 6600 53/39 172.5mm crankset for $20 and matching Ultegra 6600 brakes and derailleurs for $40 at the swap meet.  So while I didn’t win anything at the race, I did come home with some shiny Ultegra parts.  I also bought a Cleansweep X 140mm brake rotor that matches the 185/160mm rotors on the Eriksen.  However, I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do with it.

Anyway, I swapped the old 105 components out for the new-to-me Ultegra parts the day before the Tour Down Under community stage ride.  My motivation for swapping the parts was primarily the crank.  The old 105 crank had 175mm arms and 50/39 rings and the new Ultegra crank has 172.5mm arms (like the Gunnar) and 53/39 rings.  I also swapped the original Tange-Seiki Levin headset for an identical headset.  The original was noticeably indexed, and was bad enough that I stopped riding the Trek for a couple weeks while I waited for the new headset.   Anyway, the 164km ride went well with no mechanical issues.

Finally, I fished up the ‘Strava Ride Base Mile Blast‘ with 658 km (409 miles) ridden between 6 January and 31 January.  There are still a few hours left in January, but I think I’m finished, for now.  According to Strava, my January totals are 31 hours and 745km (463 miles).  If I’m correct, I think the last time I posted a monthly mileage update was December 2006.  As much as I’d like to think I rode a lot this month, all of this needs to be put into perspective.

PACC is holding four CX races in the Focus CXtwiLITE series this summer on Tuesday evenings, and the first race was yesterday. I raced the Gunnar and finished 5 out of 26, one second behind fourth and two seconds in front of sixth.  Overall, it was a great race.

In addition to a course map (courtesy of my phone), you also get some spectator video of Open and CX A as well as on-bike video of my first lap in CX B.

Course Map:

View PACC Summer 2011/2012 CX Race 1 in a larger map

Video:

Results: PACC CXtwiLITE Race 1 (Race Animation)