the välimäki experience

Sunday morning climb in beautiful weather on the top Mount Ventoux. Drove to Bédoin and rented a BMC SLR 01. This one won’t stop on the bike. Change of clothes and off we go at 9am or so. And wow, how many people there are with the same plan just on a regular September Sunday!

Hit D974 and thought the weather could be too hot with no clouds and no wind to speak of. Once the road turned up and 9-10% grading it turns out most of the route is well covered by trees and in shade so temps were no issue. The road was overall in very good shape. Bike worked well and kept my pace.

Coming off from Mortirolo felt like Ventoux is not that tough. Didn’t use the biggest cog but in the steepest parts. Okay, Ventoux is a long one going over 20km in length, 1600m vertical and doesn’t give you much time to rest. In this sense resembled a bit Stelvio, though both are unique in their own right. Ventoux is definitely under better climate most of the year.

After Chalet Reynard we hit the rocky “moon” landscape and the gradient turns easier. Views top up. The wind can get tough here but today it was very pleasant. Finish up in under 2 hours. According to Strava the climb segment went in 1.55 something. Heart rate averaged under 140 which I consider pretty good.

This year’s first and possibly last Gran Fondo was Gavia & Mortirolo. Around 120km and 3.500 meters climb total.

Smaller event than any of the others I’ve been riding so far. Overall a great trip. For once had dry and clear weather. Was thinking might be even too hot but it wasn’t a concern in the end. Altitude compensated for that. Was also thinking it might be too hard for my novice buddy Jari driving with me but he survived great. Sure we pedaled among the last and took pictures on top of the passes instead of looking at the time too much.

Gavia was a great way to start. It’s tougher than Stelvio, and this morning a bit windy towards the top. The summit came however quick as it was the first ascent of the day and we didn’t push too hard. Jari started to flex at this point and we decided to shoot for Mortirolo the classic route via Mezzo di Valtellina.

Now that was a completely different ballgame. Mortirolo is the hardest climb I’ve ever fought. Jari started fast and even left me some seconds in the first km or so but little did he know what was about to come. I was watching my heart rate and finding the rhythm. After Jari dropped behind it didn’t make much sense to look back. Just had to keep on pedaling and focus on my own riding. There’s nothing you can think about but the next few meters. Where the front wheel is heading into, where’s the next shade. At some point it felt like going into survival model. Mortirolo climb profile at Climbfinder or other sites are not correct. The climb felt like constant 11-12% punishment. Just like at the beginning of Gavia the heart rate went up over 160. After funding the rhythm and getting into sort of flow I was able to keep the rate at both sides of 150. The old diesel kept on pulling up and on the top it felt like I could have continued for some time. Total climb took 1.33. I waited for Jari like 15 minutes.

The rest of the race was nothing spectacular. Actually the bike paths down the valley were not in very good shape at times.

Day’s DIY job was to fix a broken Garmin Fenix 7s button. A month ago or so the start/stop button of my Fenix 7s started to go bad. It didn’t click anymore, felt soft, and finally just stopped working altogether.

After some research online found out it was obviously a fairly common design flaw tons of people report about: a broken microswitch. Based on reports this happens quite often already during warranty and Garmin may be of help but in my case I was having a second hand watch and out of luck.

Enter fixing! I found three options worth to consider. One quite reasonable idea would be to order a new frame with five new buttons from Aliexpress. Price about 100 euros shipped. I felt it was bit too pricey and there is quality risk. Another option would be to open the watch, take the broken switch out and replace with a new one you can order from the UK. Price the same 100 euros! Ok that doesn’t make sense.

The option I chose was to get to the bottom of this problem and order a 10 pack of compatible EVPAF7B70 microswitches from Aliexpress for less than 5 euros shipped, solder the broken microswitch out and solder a new one in. It wasn’t that difficult in the end.

Here’s the watch opened and switch removed (it was inside the red circle). You need a small torx screwdriver, think it was T5, to open the frame. I didn’t disconnect any cables. I used a pick tool to scratch out silicon on top of the switch and pull it out.

Here’s the broken microswitch with its plate on top. Yes, it is totally worn out. A pack of new compatible ones in plastic sealing below.

The broken microswitch soldered out. Used solder removal wire to clean the plate a bit.

A new microswitch soldered in from every corner which has contact points. This was probably the hardest part of the whole job. The items are so small. Luckily it worked out with the first shot. I have a feeling not every contact is relevant.