First ride
October 19, 2008
I got in my first ride on the new Reynolds Assaults; a 40-miler up the coast, heading inland on Ballona Creek then back up the lower hills of Palos Verdes. It was a great ride.
The wheels definitely catch more side winds than shallower rims. It took me about 30 minutes to adjust to that. I was definitely faster on them but I attribute some of that to the hard intervals I’ve been doing on the trainer these last few weeks. I usually do this ride by spinning 50×21 on the way out. On the way back when I’m coming into some pretty strong winds, especially on Ballona Creek. The return trip is usually 2-3 mph slower as I drop back to 34×15 and I’m tired of fighting wind. I hate headwinds. HAYYYYYYYYY-TE.
I’m also often between 155-165 bpm once I’m done with my warmup. Today I had a hard time getting over 155 unless I tried pretty hard. 160 bpm is about the top end of my “all day” pace. I like to avoid that area on this ride but I usually can’t. Today it was easy. Down Ballona I wound it up 5-6 mph faster and was still only hitting 165-167. Even the climbs of Palos Verdes were pretty easy. Last year I had to stop at least twice to rest. This time not at all. I’m going to make one of my 2009 goals to finish this ride entirely under 145 bpm. I can’t wait to try these wheels on SART. There are some really vicious head winds heading toward the ocean.
One thing I noticed is these rims are wider than the Ksyriums when a tire is mounted. I was getting some brake rub so I opened them up some. I thought the wheel needed truing. Once I got back I removed the tire to true it and the wheel spun perfectly. Once I put the tire back on it started rubbing again. It seems that the tire bead is pushing the carbon lip of the rim outward when it’s inflated. I wonder if that will be an issue when the rims heat up on long descents…not that I ever do any. I set the barrel adjustment to be fully open for the Assaults and closed for the Ksyrium Elites. Another plus is there was no brake squeal or pulsing. I spent a lot of time setting up the toe-in so I would hope that would be the case.