HC Bike/Cycling Thread

[n_maher]

2 hours ago, grawk said:

Somehow 6 miles on Zwift is harder than 20 miles on the road

Completely agree.  I work quite a bit harder riding on Zwift than I do on the road, unless I'm going nearly all-out on the road.

[jose]

Today I finally received all the spare parts.

Di2 R8050 Deviator
Di2 cable
Derailleur hanger
Dura Ace bottom bracket
Dura Ace Chain

I'm going to finish riding it all this weekend at Stevens and next week I'll pick up my Biachi.

Lately I'm just strength training with the Tacx. It's funny because to go flat road (at 0%) at about 20 km/h I need to develop about 220W... this is not very normal. In real life with that power I'm riding over 40kms / h

[grawk]

8 minutes ago, jose said:

 

Lately I'm just strength training with the Tacx. It's funny because to go flat road (at 0%) at about 20 km/h I need to develop about 220W... this is not very normal. In real life with that power I'm riding over 40kms / h

Does it have your weight right?

[jose]

Yes, 75kgs... but I have some dudes with FTP. 202 W is selected by default. ¿? 

[grawk]

maybe I'm confused about how it works, but ftp shouldn't impact how hard it makes flat ground, should it?

[jose]

13 minutes ago, grawk said:

maybe I'm confused about how it works, but ftp shouldn't impact how hard it makes flat ground, should it?

I don't know. I'm going to try to modify it.

I have tried to vary the "Sloper Modifier" and yes, the hardness varies a bit but it is not the setting I am looking for.

Yesterday I was climbing a slope at 9% with 300W I was climbing at 9 km / h. I accelerated and with 350w it kept climbing at 9kms / h ... all very strange. I think the app is set to focus on power work.

My teammates do not have such a modern tacx so they are not very clear about how this works either.

[n_maher]

I'd do a spin down calibration via the Tacx software, something isn't right there.

[jose]

Yes, there is something wrong. I have used the calibration tool of the application itself (accelerate up to 30kms / h and then stop), but it remains the same. 

It is ridiculous to cycle 5 kms

[grawk]

I did a "recovery ride" with 2 category 4 climbs.  So 1.8 miles of what I need to do for 33 miles straight to do maui.  I have a long road ahead of me.

[jose]

Yesterday I started with Bkool again. The feeling (in Watt) is much more realistic than the Tack app, although unfortunately it does not offer real videos of your route.

[n_maher]

Got out for an early morning ride this morning to meet a friend that's doing a double-metric today. I offered to pull him for the first 25miles or so so I rode 20 miles up to the starting point, played locomotive for an hour or so, and then turned home.  Other than the 98% humidity it was near perfect conditions.

 

[grawk]

That's pretty impressive.  I just did a pokey little ride to finish my September climbing challenge:

 

[n_maher]

This thread has gone far too quiet. I converted the Genius to 27.5 mode for the winter so I could run as fat a tire as possible. I'm currently testing a pair of 45NRTH Wraithchild studded 27.5x3.0 tires.  Today's ride, before the impending Christmas monsoon, was a success.  Now to decide if dropping 4 bills on tires is worth it. 

[guzziguy]

I had a nice 2.5 hour ride today.  I like the 27.5 x 2.8 tires on my bike.  Fortunately, no studs were required.

[MexicanDragon]

37 minutes ago, guzziguy said:

I had a nice 2.5 hour ride today.  I like the 27.5 x 2.8 tires on my bike.  Fortunately, no studs were required.

 

42 minutes ago, n_maher said:

This thread has gone far too quiet. I converted the Genius to 27.5 mode for the winter so I could run as fat a tire as possible. I'm currently testing a pair of 45NRTH Wraithchild studded 27.5x3.0 tires.  Today's ride, before the impending Christmas monsoon, was a success. Now to decide if dropping 4 bills on tires is worth it.

 

42 minutes ago, n_maher said:

1) You guys are really making me want to get my bike out; been too long. 27.5x3 for me and x2.8 on Xavier's.

2) Nate, if you didn't know, this is d-_-b. The only thing to decide is black wall or tan wall.

[swt61]

Four dollars seems reasonable to me.

Seriously though, you're the only one that can answer that, but it seems to me that biking gives you a lot of pleasure, and probably a lot of time to get other things off of your mind. What's that worth?

[MexicanDragon]

15 minutes ago, swt61 said:

Four dollars seems reasonable to me.

Seriously though, you're the only one that can answer that, but it seems to me that biking gives you a lot of pleasure, and probably a lot of time to get other things off of your mind. What's that worth?

I'd say about 4 and a half, maybe 5 bills, easy.

[jose]

4 hours ago, n_maher said:

This thread has gone far too quiet. I converted the Genius to 27.5 mode for the winter so I could run as fat a tire as possible. I'm currently testing a pair of 45NRTH Wraithchild studded 27.5x3.0 tires.  Today's ride, before the impending Christmas monsoon, was a success.  Now to decide if dropping 4 bills on tires is worth it. 

Wow!!!!!

 

 

[n_maher]

8 hours ago, swt61 said:

Four dollars seems reasonable to me.

Seriously though, you're the only one that can answer that, but it seems to me that biking gives you a lot of pleasure, and probably a lot of time to get other things off of your mind. What's that worth?

Steve, you're 100% right on what cycling means to me.  The "worth it" aspect is that snow and winter riding has been so limited for the last few years that having $400 tires sitting around is a tough sell to the other half.  I'll probably do it anyway, but the struggle currently is trying to get her to accept the proper solution is actually another bike to run the aforementioned seriously expensive tires which makes the solution pretty effing d-_-b.  Just haven't found the right steel or carbon hardtail yet.

[Torpedo]

The midfield would be a set of tires on a set of wheels, so you just need to swap them. You know you need those rims a little wider  The gears could be kind of a hassle, but what's that for a headcaser?!

[n_maher]

4 minutes ago, Torpedo said:

The midfield would be a set of tires on a set of wheels, so you just need to swap them. You know you need those rims a little wider  The gears could be kind of a hassle, but what's that for a headcaser?!

😂 - oh yee of little faith, I'm already at the midfield solution.  The bike normally runs 29ers (max width 2.6) and is fully capable of running 27.5s (max width 2.8) so this fall I bought a set of nice 27.5 rims for this express purpose. Once I did that I moved to phase two, why not just buy another bike to save the hassle of swapping wheels? And I solved the cassette problem by having a spare one around. I am, if nothing else, pretty adept at solving problems through acquisition.

[Torpedo]

You never disappoint, Nate  

[n_maher]

Found a lightly used set of Nobby Nic 27.5x3.0 tires a few towns over so I snatched them up for 40% of the cost of one tire and got them mounted for a ride today.  I'll still probably end up picking up a set of studded snow tires but for now, it's fun playing monster truck in the woods.

[aerius]

On 12/24/2020 at 11:34 PM, n_maher said:

This thread has gone far too quiet. I converted the Genius to 27.5 mode for the winter so I could run as fat a tire as possible. I'm currently testing a pair of 45NRTH Wraithchild studded 27.5x3.0 tires.  Today's ride, before the impending Christmas monsoon, was a success.  Now to decide if dropping 4 bills on tires is worth it. 

 

 

Personally I find studded tires aren't worth it unless the trails in your area ice up badly from repeated freeze/thaw cycles.  Regular tires have plenty of grip on fresh snow or even hard packed snow, it's not until the trails turn into a sheet of ice that studs come in handy.  On the other hand, all it takes is a patch of ice in the wrong spot to put you in a world of pain.

[n_maher]

On 1/10/2021 at 4:21 PM, aerius said:

Personally I find studded tires aren't worth it unless the trails in your area ice up badly from repeated freeze/thaw cycles.  

The locals pack them in quite nicely and yes, recent trends are that they ice up in several sections. I ended up finding a very lightly used set for $150 (vs. $200 per tire) so I grabbed those and I'll mount them up if it ever snows again.

Currently I'm enjoying the heck out of the bike in mid-fat mode in weather that feels more like October than January. I have also further complicated the solution of the second bike by picking up another set of 27.5 wheels (again nearly new at less than half price) and appear to have found a frame to start building. Details once I actually have it on hand and can get it into rolling chassis status.