Seattle Forrest

300 watt motor.

RChung

Have you used the Aeropod? We only had it for a day and were trying to compare it with two other on-bike airspeed sensors but it seemed kinda finicky.

Psychocycles

I can speak to this as I rode exclusively on the road on my CX bike for 2.5 years before I bought an aero road bike. It's almost as fast, and in a group definitely not noticeably different, as the draft is a much larger factor. When I'm riding on my own, I can feel that the road bike is faster, but that's mostly because I have a slammed -20 degree stem vs a slammed -7 degree stem on the CX.

If you have the capital, and the space, go for it. Otherwise the CX bike is definitely good enough and I've won crit races on it vs people on fancy aero road bikes.

Abe_Froman

Oh I should update. Did Psimets crit lastweek. Finished 16/22. Hills are hard lol. First time I think I've seen an actual hill on a road while on a bike.

I cant possibly see how my cross bike held me back, other than dragging an extra couple pounds up the hill each lap. I'm just slow haha.

But the course was a blast. 188 lbs going up the 15% grade was...interesting. Going back down was great. There was about 3 people towards the back thatpassed me every time up the hill, then I'm pass them going back down.

Fun race. Felt much more like a cross race than a crit.

carlos danger

I guess all have been said and done by now really. i have not read the whole thread. i only read your post.

i will try to quantify what i feel tough.

I feel that going from a CX bike with all its components and maybe 30-40mm tires and using the same series tires. or similar construction tires in like 25-30mm will gain you maybe 1-2 minutes in 1h. at most.

I also fel that going aero frame/aero rims high mm. will gain you maybe at most 1-2 minutes in 1h over a stock run of the mill CX bike with good tires.

There was a guy on mtbr that put on smooth like 50mm tires on his old 80ies mtb, then used his new road bike with 25-28s or so. and he saved 1 minute over his ca 1h commute. and those are very big differences in bike/tire types. basically as big as you will be able to find. worst case scenario.

so what can we learn from this? well if you put slick on your mtb and new gearing it will be about within 1/60 as fast as your tricked out road bike. yeah we dont wanna hear it. but its true unfortunately.

I have no problems with it. I knew how it worked even before someone actually tested it. its the motor not the car! a regular bike is on average 95% efficient. and the biggest losses are aero. aero aero aero. yes.

going from an aero wheel, aero frame new road bike and to a standard cx bike i'd say you lose at most 1-1,5km/h top speed. if any.

but you can lose a lot more than that though if your bike is not really ergonomic for you. ergonomics is top prio for me at least. if you don't have that nailed down then nothing else will work, nothing. i would start there. and there is about a 0,0001% chance that the stuff on your store bought bike is good for your ergo out of the box i'd say.

carlos danger

I can give you one personal data pojnt here though. going on my lynskey pro cross and my colnago master (both new production) are equally fast. i think the pro cross was actually faster by 1min in a usually 25min race to work. i do this race each and every day. and i always race with myself. colnage 8,5kg, pro cross 9,5kg. mostly in the wheels.
11,02km to work. best time for pro cross is 18-19 minutes. and best time for master is 20-21 minutes. and i have only made one single speed run with the lynskey and at least 10 with the colnago. lynskey has dt xc440/tk540 rims and shimano slx disc hubs. comp spokes. the nago has dt 240 hubs f/r, dt comp spokes, and archetype rims. they are probably 400g lighter. and the whole bike is at least 1kg lighter. and not only that i simply moved all stuff over from the procross to the colnago. except for the non swappables.

and the pro cross is less aero than than the colnago!!!

but still at max output from me its 2 minutes faster. over 11km.
I can't really explain it. its heavier, has heavier wheels, that are less aero. yet its faster. I timed it with an omega speedmaster professional so i know its true.

The only explanation i have is that the pro cross frame is more efficient somehow. but its highly unlikely scientifically speaking. its cant be more than 1% or so better at best.
but somehow i can do my commute speed run 2 minutes faster. with a heavier bike. go figure.

On the pro cross i used a nitto north road bar upside down. keeping it real.

i actually gave that whole bike to my dad, and he told me 3 weeks ago that he hit a stone, the front tire exploded (new conti gp4ks) and he crashed into a ditch. i guess it is whatever you make out of it.

dont buy areo-buy ergo!

Seattle Forrest

I saw a lady riding with a propeller on her helmet.

Have you tried that? In a race I mean?