tyrion

Youtube channel Fast Fitness Tips does some decent analysis of performance ramifications of different equipment choices.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXl...sy7-pcMVWjRCfg

rower2cyclist

How do you know you train more than them? Also, you don't know how many miles are there in other people's legs in group ride. I ride with people who could rip my legs just by commuting to work during the week. Some people are genetically superior

Your biggest problem is you can't descend. That's where the biggest improvement is, and I'd work to improve that. You are always trying to catch the group always off the back always wasting precious energy, always riding other people's pace. Every time you lose a wheel you get stressed you burn a match depending on the gap. Caloso wrote it well:

Basically this.

Trek 1.2 is a good bike. I had one and it's pretty crazy I still have a bunch of climbing PBs that I did on that bike. It has a sh**ty groupset and that can be upgraded. But you don't need to buy and expensive carbon/aero frame. You just need more experience. It will progress over time.

Do a little bit of everything here you'll be going 20-22mph solo on the flats in no time. (Athens80's table is a pretty good guide. Cross anything that costs more than 500 bucks.) Going from 22 to >=24 is a whole different matter. But what's the point of going that fast solo is a whole another question. I like riding my bike fast solo because it's meditating. The physical requirements of riding well (or not get dropped) in group rides are different. Pace goes up and down a lot. Maybe you are not doing the right workouts? I have a very big diesel engine but it's meaningless in a group ride where I live. There are three back to back very hard 3-4min Vo2max efforts with little rest in between. I never made it with the A group to this day. Descending is also one of my top weaknesses like you. So, this off-season I'm working on two things; descending and get good at those hard short efforts. I can't do a lot of base training due to work and family. So I spend most the time working on the high-end and try to recover in between. Good luck.

burnthesheep

For the pack riding and being efficient and wise..........not just the experienced gray haired folks. Go out to a group over your head a couple times. Just rotate off the front when you get there but don't contend any sprints or stuff. Just hanging on by your fingernails in a touch of crosswind or head wind with a group that's much stronger than you can force you to get really efficient in a group real quick. It's survival. If you don't, you're dropped.

Slotting in safely and smoothly in an even smaller group of 2 or 3 where everyone is pulling way over tempo and even a good bit over threshold is a good one too. You're hurting bad but have to focus to grab that wheel and "recover". Your duo or trio is pulling at 350w and recovering at 250w+ for a couple miles, missing that wheel will cost you dropping or missing your recovery. You just can't grab that wheel back moving at 28 to 30mph after being knackered and missing it with a lapse of skill or concentration.

indyfabz

I know a guy named Jesse who will see you as much speed as you want--assuming you have the $$. Yo.

DeathCurse7

So I got this jersey today from ebay:

Louis Garneau Mondo race fit men's cycling jersey UPF 50 racing next to skin

Its made me alot faster than my old jersey in a strava segment my previous PR was 25 min and today I went 23!! 2 whole minutes! I felt flying for the rest of the ride glad I made this upgrade!! Thanks guys!

Sy Reene

Will it work just as well using Zwift?

Drew Eckhardt 

As other riders noted, position makes a difference.

Forearms level on the hoods are faster than reaching down to the drops, about 16W at 20 MPH extrapolating from wind tunnel testing at 28 MPH.

It's less relaxing, but the hot ticket when you want to go fast.

From https://road.cc/content/news/133598-...ker-down-hoods. Like this, but a little flatter.

Seattle Forrest

I apply a generous coat of Swix Universal Glide Wax to my brakes before every ride.

superdex

buy a house at the top of a hill?

zacster

Having lived at the top of a hill in Seattle, the last thing I wanted to do at the end of every ride was climb it! I knew every easier route up of course, and like in SF, the street grid mostly just goes straight up and down and is mostly unrideable anyway. But every hill has its easier way up.

And are we serious about the jersey? Maybe I need to ride naked then.

asgelle

Skin is slow.

RChung

Depends on what jersey he was wearing before but, yeah, it can. One of the first aero tests I did was on clothing. Basically, the most important thing is the position of your body -- but what you put on your body is pretty high on the list.

Naked is better than a bad jersey. A good jersey is better than naked. Skin is slow.

Your upper arms and lower legs are pretty much cylinders, and cylinders are notoriously non-aero. It turns out that the right sleeves on your arms and the right socks on your legs can make a big difference. The right fabric is way more aero than bare arms or legs. The right socks alone can make a difference of .01 m^2 in drag area, because the legs aren't just cylinders, they're churning cylinders. That's why the Tour was measuring sock height and enforcing sock height rules this year during the TT stages.

Seattle Forrest

It's amazing how will hills get you to know your city. I have a training route up Queen Anne, and an I'm tired route too.

Seattle Forrest

I saw something yesterday you would like if you lived in a colder place, Chung style measurements for coefficient of friction for various ski/wax/temperature combinations combined with power curves and aero data to predict race times. There's a 16 minute penalty for missing the weather forecast.

RChung

I actually tried a few years ago to get a guy who XC skis to gather some data for me. I've also done some measurement for aero and rolling resistance of racing wheelchairs.

Where did you see the ski data?

Seattle Forrest

@RChung what kind of data were you trying to gather? I might be able to help. I skied 550 miles last season.

This is what I was looking at Home

RChung

Very cool. I'll have to get a copy of their paper.

My skier friend was also a cyclist so he knew how I was measuring CdA and Crr on bikes. We'd discussed what kinds of data he would've needed so I could do similar calculations for skis. GPS speed isn't precise enough for this type of application so we were talking about how to create a sensor that would collect speed data. The winter ended before we got our act fully together but one of the things we talked about was a series of optical sensors scrounged from a door; each time a customer walks through the door, a bell would go "ding dong" so we were talking about placing the sensors a few meters apart and recording the ding with a old scrounged up digital voice recorder. Then we would've passed the sound file through Audacity or some other freebie software to get the exact time difference. By placing the sensors a few meters apart we could have him slide through at different speeds, which improves the estimates. In the video, they used a sled and that would've been an improvement, but he wasn't going to build a sled.

Seattle Forrest

That's really cool. I love cycling and skiing for many reasons, mostly fun and an excuse to spend time outdoors, but I also enjoy the way math and physics are involved. I really wish there was a reliable way to measure power XC skiing. We cyclists have it good.

burnthesheep

Maybe and maybe not, but combo of a running foot pod and running in-sole power meter in the ski boot?

Just totally spitballing.

blazin

Or just a running power meter like Stryd.

asgelle

What about the arms?

RChung

This is a pretty fun and interesting series that shows how important aero and rolling resistance can be: with a conventional "Merckx" bike and position, he'd need ~440 watts. With aero and RR optimization, ~305 watts. In contrast, he's hoping to raise his hour power by about 25 watts.

burnthesheep

I've bought all the wife can tolerate at this point. So, it's gonna be what it's gonna be equipment wise. I'm still working on fit trying things out.

I really hope it doesn't rain Tuesday before I can get on the bike. High is 67, high humidity. A good day to freaking fly on the TT bike.

Last time I did hot laps on that bike around the arena though the roadie group like to latch on when I'd go by. Freeloaders.

RChung

You still using your homegrown Excel spreadsheet for VE calcs?

burnthesheep

I do. I’ve honed it in a little better also. Last piece is to bite it and buy the $30 iPhone wind sensor. Local weather station data is very unreliable.

I try to paste in stuff in a way I avoid confirmation bias but have done a few things to test it by doing obvious changes. Sitting up vs in skis, it gets it right.

Next zone 1 day I’ll do some VE on some socks I have and a Body Paint 3.3 versus my old cheapo suit. Probably too small a change for my setup, but worth a try.

Socks were on sale for BF from Gaimon’s fondo shop. They have cookies on them. Whatever.

I also cruise Ebay looking for that elusive used TT helmet being discarded by a sunny day triathlete that doesn’t know what’s fast. Hint, it’s a piss ugly shape. Almost phallic.