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Member Profile: Steve OConnor

Member Since: 2009

South Australia, Australia

Latest Times

Hill Climbs

21 Jan 2012: Old Willunga Hill - 13mins 11secs

18 Jan 2012: The old freeway - 31mins 12secs

19 Dec 2009: Norton Summit - 25mins 18secs

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Comments

Steve commented on his own time: "pre TDU run - it helps having the crowd !!! Good time for me, happy with that."

Steve commented on his own time: "First timed run - on the way to Stirling to enjoy the TDU. Just concentrating on staying on top of the gear .. not a hard run, but a huge improvement over last year."

Steve commented on his own time: "First attempt, 34-19 gearing. Holding cadence OK for a while, but struggled in the middle sections to find some recovery. Need to lose another 5kg. Will keep trying."

Forum Posts

07 Jan 2011 2:58 PM posted in 2011 TDU challenge ride

Last year, I enjoyed the ride, but wasnt super impressed by the organisation and backup. I didnt get fed on the ride at all, and barely found any water. I took my own supplies, and happily stopped off at various houses along the route from Milang where friendly locals where offering fresh cold water. It wasnt a big deal. The last leg into goolwa was downright dangerous, as we had to share a thin strip of the side of the road with busses and cars in a giant traffic jam. Could have done a lot better. The final insult was at the finish line where the organisation was completely non-existant,. Happy to sign up again and do the ride, (because I love doing rides) but Ill be self supporting anyway. Its better 'training' to plan on being self supporting IMHO. All good, until this morning when I find out that the SA tourism commission has botched up my entry (which I have paid for), and now they want me to travel into town today and give them another $145 in cash to get my entry back into order. Well - lol, fvck that, straw meet camel. Ive decided instead to cancel my entry, take the whole week off work, an just follow every stage of the TDU in the saddle. Of course on stage 4, Ill be doing the MCCT route as an unofficial rider on public roads, and buying my own supplies along the way to support local businesses. Ill be bringing my own support van following along as well in case of a broken wheel or other disaster. Will have a full spare bike in the support van. Im fully insured through BikeSA AND Cycling Australia for 3rd party damage, so cant see that Ill be 'cheating' anyone by doing it this way. Hopefully stop in Handorf for some good german beers and watch the main race go through. Then taking off to Willunga to enjoy what is arguably the best stage of the race. Illegally camping overnight on Willunga Hill, and then enjoying the brilliant after party that Willunga always puts on. Much better plan than just doing the MCCT I reckon. Ive also happily paid my entry for Amys Ride and RLC too, and will also do the same for C2C .... but the MCCT can go fvck itself as far as Im concerned.

27 Nov 2010 11:38 PM posted in Looking to buy a new bike in 2011

... cont Stiff and strong - no probs there. Nothing wrong with the old bike - the Giro has been a tough bike for me at least, but this GT thing just [i] feels[/i] really strong. After we chopped down the integrated seat post, I grabbed the leftover part of the tube and had some fun trying to destroy it, crack it, smash it. No luck !! Ridiculously strong stuff. So the top of seatpost is real stiff :) If you tap around the frame with your fingernail, you can pretty accurately hear/feel how thick the frame is in parts. On the GT, the chainstays are thick-as, and the BB feels almost like a solid lump of Krupp steel from the breech of a naval cannon. Shouldnt expect any flex in the powertrain. Same same with the headtube. The toptube on the other hand tapers down to paper thin. This is all subjective anyway, as the grade and weave of carbon material is equally important. Fingernail test wont sniff out the difference in this area. You should find that 99% of modern name-brand frames out there use a blend of the 'best' carbon anyway. Aero : This one is very hard to judge objectively. My old Avanti is actually pretty aero after all the mods attached to it (incl AC 420 deep dish wheels). The GT picks up speed easily and holds it well. The avanti suffers badly in crosswinds, on the GT they are barely a problem. Could be the wheelset making that difference ? I havent had time yet to do any proper aero testing on the GT to get objective numbers, but subjectively it feels pretty much the same. You would expect those large cross section tubes to make a difference though ... maybe not ? The GT uses a triangular section downtube, with one edge facing into the wind, and the flat edge facing upwards. Without getting all rocket scientist about it - that arrangement [i]should[/i] work better than a plain old box section. Dont know - Ill play around with some numbers eventually and work out a comparitive CdA and Crr compared to the Giro. Many factors at play here. Climbing performance is interesting. Ive only used a compact up to now, and moving to a standard with the same cassette ratios is a little bit of a culture shock. Im having to learn climbing all over again .. but so far, there are climbs I can do on the GT at speeds which I find impossible on the old Giro. Climbing out of the saddle in particular seems infinitely easier and smoother. Not sure why - there are only a few millimeters here, half a degree of angle there, and a few 100g less here and there as the difference between the 2 machines. But the reality is that they climb completely differently. Go figure ! Which brings me back to the original motivation for upgrading. I had this vision of upgrading to a modern race bike, and then finding that when I hit the hills ... I could just glide along and float up the hill like a butterfly, happily carrying on the sunday morning conversation whilst my friend's faces collapsed into purple agony. No such Luck !!!! Climbing is probably harder on the GT than my old bike, because it just wont let you take it slow without hurting you. There is a sweet spot with the climbing pace on this bike that is significantly higher than the same sweet spot on my old bike. Its not just cadence either, its something else and I really cant explain it better than that. So the hills hurt even more - you just go up them a lot faster. Hope that helps. Looking forward to hearing how your upgrade adventure turns out. At the end of the day - its a lot of money, and its probably more socially acceptable to invest that $5000, or spend it generously on others over Christmas presents ..... but its a fantastic adventure none the less, and I highly recommend it.

27 Nov 2010 11:38 PM posted in Looking to buy a new bike in 2011

... cont I guess that all new bikes at this price point and above are simply excellent no matter what you choose. Some may be slightly better climbers than others, some may be more aero, or handle better, accelerate slightly quicker, etc. But its all a matter of degrees and diminishing returns. They are all awesome bikes with little between them. My previous bike was an Avanti Giro - alloy frame, relaxed geometry (slackish angles, lots of fork offset, long chainstays) with carbon seat stays, 105 compact running gear .. and a couple of years worth of trick upgrades, weighing in at 8.7Kg. Still a good bike that I enjoy riding, and we have had some great rides together. In comparison - My first ride on the GT scared the living crap out of me !!. Everything happens so much quicker, especially the brakes !! Luckily you do relearn all of that and re-calibrate your brain very quickly to suit the new responses of the bike. Super comfortable, and I can now descend with much more confidence. Thats probably more to do with the racier geometry and excellent DA brakes more than anything else to do with the bike. Likewise with handling - much much much better than the old bike. Component quality. I was more than happy looking at Ultegra for this upgrade bike. Unfortunately, I have tasted DA now, and I will never, ever, ever go back to anything less. There may be 'no real difference' between Ultegra and DA .... but it really doesn't matter to me anymore. Im completely gone over DuraAce now, and no amount of logic shall convince me otherwise. Im sure many of you will understand this.

27 Nov 2010 11:37 PM posted in Looking to buy a new bike in 2011

$5000 buys a lot of bike. I had a look at GT's that are available in Adelaide in limited number at the moment, and was pretty happy with the top of the line model. You get $1 change from your $5k. The RRP is normally around $8999 or so, which puts it in line with the other big brand name bikes of similar spec.. GTR Team Carbon Pros : (ticks all the boxes for a modern top end bike) - Carbon frame with the usual massively wide tubes - Integrated Seat Post - Tapered headtube - Press in BB (BB86) - Ritchey carbon cockpit (absolutely gorgeous unidirectional carbon bling) - DuraAce 7900 std crankset with 11-25 cassette - Fizik Arione with carbon rails - Ksyrium SL wheelset - Mine came in at 6.6Kg without pedals. Happy ! I really wanted something UCI illegal as an excuse for not racing. - Something completely different, has a unique character (for what thats worth - its a bike, not a person !!!) Cons: - Something completely different (styling is a bit out there and in-your-face) - Finish on some detailed parts of the paintwork is a little strange on close inspection. General finish is superb, but there are some tiny parts of the paint that look like they were painted by a 2-year old. Odd ! It could be why this batch has come up on the market now on the cheap, in which case, its the bargain of the year.

11 Feb 2010 12:53 PM posted in GrandSlam #1 map now available

http://yooyahcloud.com/BIKESA/KbslI/Map_GrandSlam_40__80km_Mt_Torrens_28_Feb.doc http://www.mapmyride.com/route/au/mt%20torrens/636126580782866762 All pretty flat - nice.

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