The Dahon Dash, my gateway drug to folders and to minivelos...





And folded, it fits in a standard 20" folding bike bag without removing the wheels.

As the UK CX season is pretty much finished, it is time to get ready for the TT season.

New aero wheelset with Pro-One 28mm tyre and a new slx 11-40 cassette before it is for a road bike race after all, 11-42 would be too gravel 🤭

Bike is pretty much set for a TT race. I will swap the chainring for a 69T rather than 60T and will make it 10s adjusting the stop screw as I won t need the 40T cog on a flat race track. The idea is to optimize the chainline for 11 to 28T cogs and I don t want to lengthen the chain 🫣

note the bike is much heavier; the rim are 1mm wider (inc a new wear marker), deeper (42mm instead of 38), the hubs are bigger with bigger std bike bearing rather than machinery bearings. The schwalbe pro one tyre are marginly heavier but rolls better.
The S-Work carbon seat post is heavier than previous selcon and the redshift stem is much heavier than the light weight selcon
the head light (which will come off it very heavy)


i did not fit the clip on tri bar because I will race in the road bike category.

10 miles TT completed in 33:36… a daughter did rather well too

CONGRATS!!!

Well done! Visually hilarious, big on small wheels, small on big wheels.

Yes, and you should have seen them next to each other on the car...

Thing I found noticeable is that it is harder than CX as you are constantly on power for the duration on the race, in CX, you can recover in the twisties.
And, small wheels are much slower due to lack on inertia, they don't keep the momentum consequently, you have to constantly produce power for not much yield. it would be interesting to race a 700c bike similarly specced

Yes, but on the car, people would assume the minivelo was hers.

Now see, I thought the opposite; If power is not applied perfectly smoothly, there will be small pulses, and I thought the smaller wheels having less angular momentum would take less energy to accelerate at each pulse. Then again, larger wheels may have a flywheel effect, smoothing out the power pulses.

I also thought smaller wheels would have lower aero drag for the same width. But greater rolling resistance/drag.

her handlebar is 32cm and mine is 40 hence the weirdness

They accelerate faster but decelerate faster too hence to constant need to power through and yes, although the 406 wheels and the same weight as my carbon 622, as the weight is further from the axil, it behave as a better flywheel.
the smaller bike should have less drag as lower and narrower.

I will fit a 46T chainring and a pair of 32-622 GP5000 on my CX bike for next race... that said it will not be like for like as it was 2deg C yesterday and next race should be warmer in April.

The smile on your daughter's face is priceless! Good job for both of you!

I don't know if you can fit them on those minivelos, but in my experience there is a noticeable difference between ETRTO 406 and ETRTO 451 in terms of feel and speed.

I did a couple of TT on the gravel bike with TT tyres but, the gravel racing and XC season is on .
no sure 180mm brake rotors and 4pots brake caliper is justified for TT unless I want to flap spot the soft race tyres so I raced the mini velo tonight.
posted 3 PBs which is good but is made me wonder what could I modify to go faster?
i have TT barres but if I fit them, I will be up classed to TT aero bike rather than road bike.

I could fit the light kinetix front wheel (14 spoke MuSL).

any idea?

Put Greenspeed Scorcher 40x406 tires (if they fit and if you can still find some) the fastest ETRTO406 tire available.

How long is the TT? Can you slam the stem, lower the bars, and tilt the brifters inward for a more aero tuck?

I can't, the rim are too narrow. I run schwalbe pro One tubeless. I could go for the TT version which seems to save 3W

I have been thinking about tubolito tubes because I recall they felt faster but I cannot find backing evidence.

10miles, I was thinking about fitting my 100mm stem rather than the 90mm redshift.

Then, I thought I could also go for the 110mm stem and fit a 360mm handlebar rather than the current 400mm and a TT saddle but the bike would become very specific and not great to ride elsewhere

I spoke with an acquaintance who used to race in the top 10 of the UK TT championship. From our discussion, I realised I need to improve my aerodynamic efficiency to better glide through the air. First, I need a better helmet. Currently, I ride with a Kask Protone, which is approved for cyclocross (CX) and cross-country (XC). A full aero helmet would be beneficial, but I'm limited by the "road bike" category. However, the Decathlon/VanRysel Road Aero helmet should serve me well. Additionally, I need to stretch more to increase my flexibility. On a good day, I can reach just below my knees while bent over, but I aim to reach my ankles. I also need to adopt a lower position on the bike. I should increase the length of my CX reach by 20mm and try to reduce the frontal width. I went through the parts bin and found a 38mm road handlebar (removed from a children's bike) and a 110mm stem. While the bike is now much narrower, the overall length hasn’t increased significantly due to the limited bar reach. To remedy this, I plan to install a 130mm stem I found on eBay. On the wheel side, weight actually works in my favour as I need a "good flywheel" to maintain momentum. The 20" wheels are not ideal for this, resulting in the need for more power without a better overall outcome. To save some watts, I will be fitting some "Ride Now" TPU tubes, as they are the only ones available in my tire size (the Tubolito tubes are too big and the valve is too short). Lastly, I might re-install the 69T chainring as well.

I do not understand why you would save watts by using TPU inner tube wrt. to the current tubeless setup?

The Pro-one tires are tubeless ready and for this have an additional air tightness layer. With an inner tube you will add the rolling resistance of the tube to the one of the tubeless layer.

What is the inner width of your rims? Its often possible to use wider tires than written in the ETRTO recommendation.

sadely no, my rims are not tubeless ready and are 17mm internal. The 406 tyre with lowest RR is the pro one but I have to run in with tube so, I will go for TPU rather than butyl.

I run tubeless on 700c and 650b wheels.

Any chance you can run ETRTO 451 instead of 406?. I've noticed a difference.

unfortunately, it won't fit because of the brake setup. I cannot offset the caliper or v brake by 22.5 mm

The Greenspeed Scorcher and Michelin Blue Flange have a lower rolling resistance than the Pro-one even when its tubeless mounted. I have the Greenspeed Scorcher 120 and they are excellent with a decent puncture protection.



If your brakes allow it, 40-44mm wide should be no problem with your 17mm wide rims:

how does the Michelin compare? I cannot see it in the table.

I'm aware of the greenspeed but I'm not able to find them in the UK that said, the Michelin are not available either.

I read that its very fast also. But its a speed record tire, not made to be used on roads while the Greenspeed Scorcher is usable for road biking.

Jouta in The Netherlands is a Greenspeed reseller selling the Aero speed trike for which the Scorcher were developed. they were also selling the Scorcher.
I bought some from them some years ago, you can contact them by Email (the Scorcher were never advertized on their website.