Wednesday, October 25, 2017

How To: Dip Your Whip!

Well, it's our first post in the new format, I hope I can deliver!

In the last couple of years one of the things I get the most comments about is my Speed Concept, or particularly how I painted it flat black and then wrote a bunch of crap on it in gold. Well, it isn't paint, it's Plasti Dip. I've painted a carbon bike before, and while it's not the end of the world, it's a bit more job than I want to replicate in my garage again.

Being that it's been about two years since I started riding my Trek, I thought it was time for a refresh. As the theme of the last little bit has been new formats, I thought I might branch out and paint it a new color as well! So, after perusing the local hardware store I chose red. (Fastest color, right?) Since I was going to do it anyways, why not make it a how to!




Plasti Dipping your bike

Prep Work

The first thing I needed to do was strip the old dip off of the bike. You can of course skip this if you're starting fresh, or refer to it if you want to take the dip back off later! One of the big bonuses of using Plasti Dip as opposed to paint is that once you get good and tired of it, it's relatively easy to remove. After removing all the components (it'll be necessary for the next coat anyways, and it makes removing all the old dip / cleaning the frame much quicker and easier) you'll have your choice of where to start as there will be plenty of places that the dip ends. Failing that you should also be able to get your fingernail under some of it and start that way. I began at the seat post insert.



As you can see in the picture above, large chunks really do come off pretty much as advertised. The caveat to that is that when you spray something it has enough of a layer to stick together. If you lightly coat a part (easy to do if you weren't paying attention while spraying something of similar colors) then it will not peel quite as easily, although it still shouldn't cause too much problem. For those problem area's and any residual nooks and cranny's my suggestion is to spray with good old WD-40. Leave that on for about a minute and wipe with a rag... the plasti dip should melt enough to come off pretty easily.

Now you need to give the bike/parts/whatever you're coating a good bath. Make sure that everything is nice and clean so you'll have a good surface to spray onto. Don't skip this step! Just take the water hose and a rag and give your bike a bath you filthy animal.

The next part of the preparation is to mask off the parts of the frame you aren't interested in coating. The better job you do here the less headache you will have later. Trust me. If a degree in design taught me anything at all, it's that a little extra prep work will save you from having a disaster towards the end. You are going for a nice even spray all over. If you have to start cutting/ripping bits of plasti dip off to fit your water bottle cage bolts, it's going to start ripping up your coating prematurely.

Add caption

I always start off with big squares of painters tape to block off most of what I don't want sprayed. Holes in the bike (cable inserts, bottom bracket,  head tube, seat post) are annoying because you want to try to get as close to the edge as possible, but you still need something for the tape to stick onto. I go back and forth between taping over and cutting a slightly larger diameter around the opening, and stuffing the opening with bunched up tape. Both seem to work pretty well, it really depends on how well I can get the tape to stick. Then it's time to pull out your trusty xacto knife and CAREFULLY trim the masking tape into the shapes you need. I can't stress enough, carefully. You don't want to be cutting down into the paint, and if you're using a very sharp knife it is easier than you think. Just don't get in a hurry and you should be fine.



Here's how it looked when I got done trimming. You don't need to be perfect, but again, the better you do now the less cleanup you'll have to look forward to later. Once you're satisfied with your masking, it's time to get to the fun part.

Spraying the bike

There are a LOT of options when it comes to plasti dip. I'm going to be using the cheap rattle cans I bought at the hardware store, but you can certainly go hog wild. Dipyourcar.com has some really cool stuff, although I've never used it personally. (I'm a cheapskate)

It's here I'll throw some words of advice/caution out before you get started. If you're using pretty much any color except black, you are going to have a tough time totally covering the designs on your bike (unless there are none of course.) Using red to cover blue/white for example (in this post) it will be very tough to totally conceal the Trek logo's / where the bike sharply changes color. I tested it out on the fork first and decided I actually thought it looked pretty cool with the design very slightly visible underneath, but if you're looking to get a solid coloring out of it my suggestions are to either

a.) build a lot of layers. Personally I go 3-5 sprays and that seems to build up a nice coating. If I wanted to totally conceal what was underneath, maybe 8ish(?) would be necessary, maybe more.

b.) Start with a coat or two of black plasti dip, then use the color of your choice over top of it. Black pretty much covers everything, and then covering black will hide any of the logo's/paint underneath. This probably ends up being cheaper and easier than option a.

So, once that's out of the way it's time to start spraying.



When it comes to spraying, especially out of a rattle can, it can't be understated to do it in a warm area with a warm can. The colder it is, the longer it'll take to dry and the more likely you're going to get runs in the dip. Runs are going to cause you all manner of headache down the road. On the first layer or two you're going to be really, really tempted to load it down with dip... it might look like you're not even getting much of a layer on the first time over... you will regret overspraying the first layer or so, trust me. This is where you're most likely to get runs, and again, runs now are headache you can avoid later.

If it's nice and warm out the layers should go on and be relatively dry quickly. It was around 70° here and the dip was pretty much as done drying within 5 minutes. Give yourself a little time, use a ventilated area (with mask of course) and slowly apply layers.

Now, having said that, I wanted to bodge mine pretty badly so I could show you how to "fix" a bad job and repair plasti-dip.  If you're only a layer or two in and you've got horrid runs/texture/etc, probably the easier course is just to peel it off and start again. But I'm going to show you a little bit more "advanced" stuff. It'll come in handy when you inevitably get a tear in your dip (bike carriers will shred plasti dip, as will sweat eventually.)

Another thing for me to stress to you is that no matter what, you're not going to get professional looking results out of a $5 rattle can. Not in paint, plasti dip or anything else. If you can't live with some imperfections, this isn't going to be for you. You can end up with a very nice job that will look sweet to somebody passing by, but if they put their face right up to it it's probably going to show some flaws. My advice is to fix the major flaws that are in obvious areas, but don't worry about some runs on the bottom of the left chainstay or somewhere else nobody will ever see.

So, back on track... give the entire frame/part a good 2-3 layers, where the plasti dip is noticeably built up.



As you can see, from a few feet away, not bad. Unfortunately, once you get up close the ugly details become more apparent.




The top right of the first picture you can see there are runs that culminated on the downtube. These run all the way down the right side of the bike. When you run your hand down the downtube they are noticeable humps to the touch (that's important, make a note)

In the second picture I've got some rips (I actually ripped it on purpose, but it's easy to do if you didn't let it totally dry and accidentally brush it, touch it, etc... this is also how most of your damage later on will look, albeit possibly bigger)  so I'll go over how to "fix" both types, or at least the way I do it.

Fixing imperfections

Understand first that plasti dip only builds layers on what is already there. So just spraying another layer on top of an imperfection will not do anything but add another layer of imperfection. That mean's that there are two steps to fixing either a tear or a run.
1.) Get the dip even.
2.) Add more layers

In the case of runs, you have too much plasti dip in a few area's (where it has pooled) compared to the rest of the layer. I've found the best way to bring it back to even is by wet sanding with very fine sandpaper (I use 1500, although that takes a lot longer than something like 800 you have more control over it. You really would prefer not to make a dip into a tear)

Sanding dip, like sanding anything, is time consuming. Using a lower grit makes it a lot quicker, but you have a bit more chance of going too deep too soon. I use a spary bottle of slightly soapy water and use a microfiber rag to dry it after I think I've sanded enough. It's important to remember, you aren't trying to make it look pretty at this point, you're just trying to make it even. So sand, rinse, wipe, run your finger over it, if you feel a bump, repeat.



Now, when you have a tear, you need to try to even out the layers a different way. The real PITA of a tear in plasti dip is that the edges inevitably flay back, meaning when you spray it again it will look like crap. We'll fix this kind of stuff by "melting" the surrounding dip back down and smoothing it. There are a number of chemicals that will "melt" plasti dip, but I prefer to use good old mineral spirits because it's a little less "nasty" than some some of the others (many people use paint thinner, but I prefer not to on my carbon bikes)



I take some spirits and pour it in a cup... put on my nitrile glove and dab my finger in it. Then I start rubbing the area I want to loosen up.


It may seem like at first you aren't doing anything, that's because mineral spirits isn't quite as powerful as something like paint thinner. Just keep rubbing and you'll see that the dip starts to slowly melt. Now start working over the area that has the tear slowly. You may need to get another dab of spirits on your finger, and sometimes for bigger discrepancies  it helps to use your fingernail to "help" move it where you want. Again, I can't stress it enough... you aren't trying to make it look good, you just want it to be even. When you feel like it's fairly smooth, give it some time to air dry. (Don't use your towel!) Now go back and rub around the area and see if you got it close.



In the picture above you can see I've done an "ok" job, but still need to go back over it a couple of times and smooth it out further.


Later on, much smoother now.

Once you've got things moderately well smoothed out, go back and add another layer or two of plasti dip to it. When you start adding more layers it should all start to come together nicer. Take your time with these final coats, because if you get more runs now, you've got to go back and start the smoothing steps over again.



Here's the last layer before putting it all back together. There are still a couple of imperfections, but you need to be standing right on top of the bike to see the majority of them.  I certainly could have gotten it better, but for a bike I'm going to beat up, I'm not going to stress too much over it.

Finishing up

Now that you're done with the spraying, it's time to remove the masking tape. You have to pay attention during this step or you're going to end up with tears. If you've put a good few layers on then your plasti dip has sealed over the tape, so just yanking it off will pull some of the dip you want to keep on the bike with it. I go over the edges of the tape with my xacto knife and try to make sure there is a clean break before I yank it off. A good trick for bottle cage bosses is to get the xacto underneath one side and use the sharp edge to both lift and cut at the same time.

If you need to do touch up (either now or later on) the best solution I've found is to spray some plasti dip into a cup (enough for it to pool up) and use a cheap paint brush (a small one, like for painting a picture) to fill in whatever is missing. You'll have to add a layer (it'll probably be watery) let it dry and repeat a couple of times, but that's best for small issues. For larger rips, you really need to mask off a large area and smooth the edges/re spray it. Keep in mind any time you touch up big areas it will not match, with plasti dip you pretty much have to spray the entire bike to get it to look even again. Just something to keep in mind.

So, here's what I ended up with





The total cost, if you include all the "extra's" (most of which I had laying around the house) was about $40, and I still had about 190 extra gloves, some extra trash bags, 50 or so extra plastic cups, most of a gallon of mineral spirits, 2 microfiber towels and part of a can of dip left over.

Hopefully that got you through the crash course on dipping your bike. If you've got any questions, feel free to shoot me a message!

Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out!

- Christopher Morelock

Monday, October 9, 2017

Page Update - Format Change

Hello all,

I didn't want to leave everyone in the dark when a post didn't show up on Wednesday, but this will be just a short update on what's happening.

I started this blog in late 2012, and since then, minus a couple of weeks where I was on vacation / etc I've steadily posted weekly. For the most part, it began as a fun side project for me to get some of my thoughts down. Seemingly on it's own and through feedback from you guys (both in comment and from analytics) the blog became more focused on reviews and how to's, along with a couple of race reports and the intervening weeks being mostly "filler." As I've started racing less and less (moving from Triathlon, to cycling and now almost totally to "only" time trialing) there has been more and more "filler" and a couple of people have let me know that the blog's quality has dropped. (Not that it was a bar of excellence at any point in it's life) Looking back over the last few months with as impartial an eye as I can have, I tend to agree. 

So, like many things in life, it's necessary to adapt and change or become completely irrelevant and disappear entirely. I still enjoy writing and most of the things to do with this blog, so I'm not quite ready to hang up my quill just yet. Nonetheless, it's time for a change.

The new format of the blog will focus on what it seems the viewer wants to see. More reviews, how to's, a couple of race reports and only the most infrequent "what's going on in life." Fair enough. 

What that means
- Less frequent posts overall. The blog will no longer be weekly, maybe not even bi-weekly. From this point forward I'll do my best to post links on Twitter (hey, follow me and I'll follow you back!) when a new one is up.

- Large focus on Reviews and How To's. Keep in mind that my reviews are almost always from things I've purchased with my own hard earned money. (Or ill gotten gains...whatever) So, unless you see a big disclaimer at the very top of the review, you'll know I wasn't paid/given the item to review, and I try to be "practical" about my reviews and just say "I don't know" if I don't know. The how to's will stay primarily bike related, but something else might pop up from time to time.

- Hopefully more quality despite less quantity. It's my hope that with more time to spend on fewer posts the quality of what gets put out will be much higher. This is where feedback helps me out!

So, that's the plan. Thanks everybody who has stuck with the blog over the last xxxx amount of time. I really appreciate it! 

Until next time

- Christopher Morelock

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Nostalgia Race Report: IM Augusta 2011

So as Facebook often does, it reminded me that it was six years ago that I did my first half Ironman race in sunny Augusta. I had filed a race report on Beginnertriathlete at the time, and I got a little bit nostalgic. Not nostalgic enough to want to do another triathlon, but nonetheless, looking back at what I felt and wrote at the time was good for me, and I thought I'd share! I'll add my commentary in italics where I feel I need to reflect.

Pre Race
First let me put in my shout outs. All kinds of people deserve thanks, Bryan, Trigal, TriAya, Rudedog, Trix, Lockout, Shane, all the people who have been in my mentor groups, anyone who has answered any of my stupid questions... It would take a whole page to thank all you guys on BT and ST. Beyond that my LBS Cycology bicycles and my fitter Eddie Sloan, who's worked with me for countless hours on my position. 
Also my best friend Wes who has to listen to me talk about triathlon 24/7. 

David, who's not just the only man I've ever met paler than I am, but also a fantastic coach and friend who has to listen to me whine. 

Finally, my family, especially my mom, who doubles duty as moral support, mechanic, Medic, cook, driver, etc. Anyways, that's enough of the gushy stuff, on to the meat and potatoes. 

Getting to Augusta has been a bit challenging. My first two "A" races this year have been pretty disastrous as DNF's (Flatting out at Rev3 Knx and going off course at Amica 19.7) so I was a bit hungry to show I could perform. A week or so ago, I got a little overzealous on my run and ended up doing "something" to my back/butt/left leg. It basically put me to a super easy taper and quite a bit of doubt as to how I was going to hold up on race day. My goals were set up like this 
worst case scenario - finish (I really wanted to avoid a DNF
meh day - 5:05 or better 
happy day - sub 5:00 
good day - 4:52 
great day - anything below that 

I arrived in town midday Friday to our hotel in Aiken. After we dropped off the essentials it was a quick drive over to Augusta Marriot to get signed in, then to scope out swim start and transition. I ended up walking (in sandals no less) quite a bit farther than I expected to / should have. Most of the day Saturday I spent laying around besides setting up transition and driving the bike course. My grandparents and dad arrived later in the afternoon, and while my family went out for the night I walked across the street to Applebees, had dinner and went to bed early. (About 7pm)


woah, already some people I have fallen out of touch with that I miss. Actually the mid-2000's BT forum folks in general were all pretty great. You can see I sucked at taper's from the beginning.

I look so small in this picture!


Warmup
I got up Sunday at 3:15a.m. took a shower, had breakfast and coffee, took care of the essentials and got the rest of the car packed up. I was feeling pretty good overall, my ankles were a bit sore from walking around in sandals Friday, but no big deal. I set up the rest of Transition, jumped the bus to swim start, and waited around there until they started calling for my wave (wave5, second half of men 25-29) Jumped in the water, and had to make an effort to stay behind the start buoys. It began raining while we were waiting to start, but just sprinkled and had stopped before I got out of the water.

Perfect stuff, spend all day the day before the race on your feet... 

Swim
The announcer said the current was not nearly as fast as it was last year, but I dunno, it seemed like it was certainly moving to me. I started at the front of this wave, and got melee'd back to my "ideal" spot. I've found this a better solution than starting back too far and having to battle people kicking. I quickly found some feet and had a very uneventful swim... every minute or so I'd stick my head up to make sure we were on course, but honestly it would have been very tough to get off course. It did seem like we were pretty close to the shore (too close for the fastest part of the current) but I decided it was better just to sit and draft than it was to break out on my own. About 1k to the swim exit we ran into some very thick "seaweed" (whatever you call it in a river) which was a bit gross, but no big deal (or so I thought

I was looking at 35min going in, so when I saw 27' on my watch I knew it was going to be a good day.

You could throw a potato chip bag in the swim start at Augusta and expect it to do close to a 35' swim, so my 27' was certainly not impressive in the least. I didn't drown though.

T1
The run up the ramp and into transition was extremely long. (the entire length of the transition area) and I had to dodge the wetsuit stripper pile up. I had cut about 1.5" off the legs of my wetsuit prior to the race and it made a huge difference getting it off fast, I highly suggest it! As I'm pulling my left leg out my calf cramps!! OUCH. I shake it off fast and keep moving. Helmet on sunglasses on Out the door. Had to dodge a few people all over the course, but finally got into my shoes and down to business, calf being a PITA all the way.

I actually still acutely remember the pain in my calf. I've never experienced the same kind of pain before or after, and I hope I never do again.

Out of transition! No flying squirrel though

Bike
This was the first time my bike ride has ever been a "controlled" thing. Generally I just ride...hard. The goal at Augusta was to stay in the neighborhood of 200watts, and around 270-300 for the climbs. The first 10 miles or so this was very easy as I was fighting with my calf cramp along with the miles of people lined up. I spent this time making sure I was getting my calories in and massaging my leg. Eventually the crowds started thinning and my calf gave me some relief. Any time my watts climbed over 230w I would sit up on the bullhorns, just to stretch / grab a drink. The rest of the time I spent in Aero. 
At about mile 15 I was having a new issue. Severe pain in my crotch. I tried to push through it, but it was not subsiding and I was becoming quite worried. Finally I sat up on a downhill and reached down to see what the issue was. I pull my hand out with a fist full of that stupid seaweed! WTF! I try to wash my junk with my water bottle and clean up the situation. I got enough of it to make life tolerable the rest of the ride. 

I was hoping for a 2:33 and ended up with a 2:27, and never felt like I left my comfort zone doing it, so I would call it a good day. 
Avg. Watts: 191 
Max. Watts: 532 
NP: 206

Ahh yes, seaweed crotch. One of my finer moments. Not a particularly impressive bike ride, from the max watts you can see I followed the plan of "around 270-300 on the climbs" almost perfectly... It would take me another 6-7 years to figure out how you pay for stuff like that. Still, it wasn't a terrible bike for the fitness I had at the time.

Man, the Planet X... I miss that bike


T2
Coming into T2 crossed some covered train tracks and otherwise rough pavement. I was about to swing my leg over the saddle when I remembered my cramps earlier in the day... I came to a full stop and stepped over, losing a second or two but saving my dignity. (What there is of it to save that is

Otherwise T2 was pretty uneventful. Again, I did have to run the entire length of transition to get out. (same as the swim but reversed)

Well, common sense seemingly did play a part in my early triathlon career. 

Run
And here we were. 13 miles to the finish, two hours to beat my goal of sub 5. I come out of the gates just a bit hot (pun intended) but quickly slow down to a more tolerable 7:3x pace. The first three miles go pretty well and I am feeling fairly comfortable. Then, like a scene from a movie, the sky parts (it had been fairly overcast all day) and the sun beams down in all its glorious suffering. The heat pretty much skyrockets into the 90's and I immediately feel it. The aid stations on the run were also not exactly a mile apart, so after I miss getting a drink at mile 3 (I was throwing water on myself as opposed to down my throat) I can feel myself burning out. At 4.5 or so I can feel my left leg throbbing a bit in the back area, so I decide to stop and stretch it out. TERRIBLE idea, as soon as I stop and lift my left leg my calf balls up on itself and very nearly puts me on the ground. I get that worked out and decide that stopping is a bad idea in general. New plan - Walk every aid station and make sure to get 1 coke and 1 water (plus as much Ice as I can pack onto myself / under my hat) At one point I have 5 sponges shoved in my tri suit. At mile 8 I start feeling considerably better, but continue to walk through the aid stations. I see that I can very nearly walk the last 3 miles and still beat 4:52, but press on. I do take some extra time at the last aid station to "clean myself up" (Zip up my jersey, remove the sponges, clean coke off my face) and try to make myself look presentable at the finish line. I come into the finish with a last surge and stop my watch (after pictures of course) at 4:46ish... I'm pretty ecstatic as you can imagine! 

Planned Run was 1:40 and I came in at 1:44. With some of the small issues I had leading up to and during the race I can't say I'm unhappy with it, but I can't help but think if I had had a good run today I would almost certainly have been going to Vegas. 

Run splits per mile 
1.) 7:23 
2.) 7:43 
3.) 7:07 
4.) 8:14 (started walking aid stations
5.) 8:21 
6 & 7.) 16:28 
8.) 8:01 
9.) 8:03 
10.) 8:21 
11.) 7:47 
12.) 8:47 
13.) 8:18

Considering my open 1/2 marathon PB was 1:29:55 this is slightly less embarrassing than it first looks. Not an excellent 1/2IM Run, but better than any I managed after it. (Sadly)
Also, even though at the time 1/2IMWC was not well loved (Clearwater was hated and nobody was quite sure about Vegas) I wasn't anywhere near qualifying.

The heat was on. In those awesome Adidas Adios

Post Race
I quickly got checked out in medical (they shipped me over there despite me telling them I just "LOOKED" like crap. The medics seemed to agree and quickly got rid of me) Next it was over to the recovery area, where I graciously accepted a Bud Light, well deserved IMO. Next I found the family and we watched some more of the race, then walked across the street to BEEMIES (sp?) bar/restaurant and had lunch (Great food btw

Post race binge - 
- 1 order onion rings 
- 2 order french fries 
- 1 crab cake 
- 1 appetizer fried calamari 
- Appetizer platter dinner (Shrimp, Chicken fingers, Fried Fish, Oysters
- 1 Bowl Ice cream 
- 2 Pitcher Water 

I also waited around at the rolldown, but being only 2 slots in my AG and me being 13th I knew there wasn't much hope. Nonetheless it rolled down about 6 people... enough that it would have been mine with a 1:36 or so run... well within my fitness on a flat course :/ Oh well.

Disgusting... Bud Light? I really was young and stupid. That Beemies bar was pretty awesome though, if it's still there I highly recommend. 
Mehh... knocking 8 minutes off my run at that time (or any time since) was a little delusional. Looking back, I don't know that I could have knocked 4 minutes off with a perfect day. Still, that's part of youth!

Am I ok?


Augusta was a race I still fondly look back on. I went back the next year and came away 13 minutes slower, falling prey to some foolish mistakes and being impatient in both lead up and execution. Somewhat sadly looking back I never did another 70.3, and I think it was a distance I could have been pretty good at with enough time and work. Priorities shift and now that I'm pretty much a dedicated TTer it's not something I can jump back into easily. Maybe in a few years when things settle down a bit once more I can dedicate myself back to training to be mediocre at three sports instead of one. Anyways, thanks for giving me something to write about this week Facebook!

Until next time, thanks for reading!

- Christopher Morelock