Do you have particular bike related fetishes?
#26
Senior Member
The smell of chain lube, in the morning.
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nine mile skid on a ten mile ride
nine mile skid on a ten mile ride
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#27
Banned
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Mississauga/Toronto, Ontario canada
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Bikes: I have 3 singlespeed/fixed gear bikes
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I have an obsession with fixed gear bikes.
#28
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Join Date: Feb 2018
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Bikes: 2017 Specialized Allez Sprint Comp
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I think it's the engineering nerd in me that likes that. Some roadies who do TT are monsterously strong, but unfathombly ignorant about being fast in a TT.
There's a guy local to me super strong. Even in tune to the best gear to own. Not all TT roadies are that smart even, to know what to buy or use. Even still, he's 100% convinced you should push more power downwind and downhill than headwind and uphill. He's convinced that since you're going so crazy fast downhill it must work out better. Math, how does it work?
While we’re sharing - my “thing” is efficiency. I don’t care where it comes from. Comfort, aero or mechanical. Contactless sealed bearings, a one piece BB to ensure alignment, narrow bars, suspension/vibration damping, wide rims and narrow tires, multiple compound tires, full ceramic jockey wheels, shorter cranks to stay lower, etc. i could go on with upgrades I’ve made or plan to make.
But my favorite types of “efficiency” upgrades are the ones that are custom made. Custom bikes, custom shoes etc. I’m of the belief that if you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to get fast as quickly or for as long as someone who’s completely comfortable on their bike. Riding a bike when you’re comfortable is easy - just keep pedaling. When you’re uncomfortable, it’s a whole different game.
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#31
Old fart
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Appleton WI
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Bikes: Several, mostly not name brands.
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#33
Senior member
High flange hubs.
#36
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Join Date: May 2019
Location: Somerville, MA
Posts: 106
Bikes: Norther Klickitat Pass, Masi Giramondo 27.5, Soma Grand Randonneur
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Does extreme color coordination count? I like 2-3 colors on a bike with every possible thing keyed in. So I've got a lot of brown and brass on my green Norther, a lot of navy on my creme and green Soma, lots of black and green on my dark grey Surly, etc.
#37
Senior Member
I think that road bikes should be ferrari red if physically possible. Sure none of my bikes are actually ferrari red.
one is saronni metallic red (my colnago steel), and thats pretty much as far as i have gotten to ferrari red. but in theory. they should be ferrari red, and nothing else.
Ialways by my frames at closeout/discount and apparantly beggars can't be choosers. so it is what it is. but if i was made outta money all my bikes would be ferrari red. why have lesser paint?
one is saronni metallic red (my colnago steel), and thats pretty much as far as i have gotten to ferrari red. but in theory. they should be ferrari red, and nothing else.
Ialways by my frames at closeout/discount and apparantly beggars can't be choosers. so it is what it is. but if i was made outta money all my bikes would be ferrari red. why have lesser paint?
#38
Senior Member
Since we are at color, I’ll confess. First off, Ferrari Red is very nice. But it isn’t the only fast Italian crayon in the box. Which brings me to my personal fetish, Passione Celeste....on anything. Shoes, rugs, sunglasses, lamps, underwear, toothbrush, seriously anything where a color choice is available in a version of it, that’s the one that goes home.
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#39
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Orange County, California
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Road bicycles frames with top tubes parallel to the ground. The current trend toward slanted top tubes on everything looks ugly as heck to me (I'd give an exception for MTBs). They can be steel, aluminium, carbon models, nice artistic lugs or even well-taken-care-of 1960s era Schwinn electroforged frames, and even have larger-sized tires (over typical 700x23-35 tires) and drop or flat handlebars.
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#40
Senior Member
Tools...old and new.
#41
Senior Member
#42
Newbie racer
Alright, glad it isn’t just me. I’m not a TT guy but I have followed this strategy to get my average speed up on solo rides. People don’t believe me when I say it’s faster to save yourself for the hills.
While we’re sharing - my “thing” is efficiency. I don’t care where it comes from. Comfort, aero or mechanical. Contactless sealed bearings, a one piece BB to ensure alignment, narrow bars, suspension/vibration damping, wide rims and narrow tires, multiple compound tires, full ceramic jockey wheels, shorter cranks to stay lower, etc. i could go on with upgrades I’ve made or plan to make.
But my favorite types of “efficiency” upgrades are the ones that are custom made. Custom bikes, custom shoes etc. I’m of the belief that if you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to get fast as quickly or for as long as someone who’s completely comfortable on their bike. Riding a bike when you’re comfortable is easy - just keep pedaling. When you’re uncomfortable, it’s a whole different game.
While we’re sharing - my “thing” is efficiency. I don’t care where it comes from. Comfort, aero or mechanical. Contactless sealed bearings, a one piece BB to ensure alignment, narrow bars, suspension/vibration damping, wide rims and narrow tires, multiple compound tires, full ceramic jockey wheels, shorter cranks to stay lower, etc. i could go on with upgrades I’ve made or plan to make.
But my favorite types of “efficiency” upgrades are the ones that are custom made. Custom bikes, custom shoes etc. I’m of the belief that if you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to get fast as quickly or for as long as someone who’s completely comfortable on their bike. Riding a bike when you’re comfortable is easy - just keep pedaling. When you’re uncomfortable, it’s a whole different game.
The formulas for the forces keeping you from going faster are linear for weight and rolling resistance, but non-linear for aero drag. So, it's kind of 1:1 for effort going uphill. More like 2:1 or 3:1 as you push harder and harder against the air as you go faster.
Riding downwhill is GROUND speed. It's real speed that's going into the formula that's 2:1 or 3:1 against you for aero/wind. Meaning, once you reach some speed downhill with a power.....it's going to take a lot more power to go just a touch faster. 100w might get you to 25mph downhill, but will take 250w to go 30mph, and 400w to go 35mph. Something like that.
But uphill is closer to 1:1, not quite, but closer. A person climbing a decent hill at 200w will likely be at least 50% slower than someone at 400w. On the group rides, I can usually put 30 seconds on the group up a 3 minute hill. A group in which on flat land I can't make enough power to escape from off the front.
Riding downwind isn't quite the same, it's AIR speed. So in reality you could probably give a downwind sector a little more effort than downhill. But not equal to or more than going into a headwind.
The simple way to explain it is you spend more time covering the same distance going slow versus fast. It's easier to optimize the "larger" time value than the "smaller" time value.
I dunno, just seems logical to me. Imagine a TT or race with just one hill. Up, then down. A big hill. 10mph up, 35 to 40mph down. What's the strategy there? More power up, or down? Duhhh. Uphill.
#43
Old fart
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Appleton WI
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#44
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: St Peters, Missouri
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Bikes: Catrike 559 I own some others but they don't get ridden very much.
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Fetishes. I have to have my tire labels line up with the valve stems and, if the tire has a rotation arrow, I have to have it right. I also want the front and rear tire brands to match too.
On the other hand, I's not at all fussy about tire pressure anymore. Don't think I've topped up my tires for six weeks or so. I used to top them up before every single ride.
On the other hand, I's not at all fussy about tire pressure anymore. Don't think I've topped up my tires for six weeks or so. I used to top them up before every single ride.
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My greatest fear is all of my kids standing around my coffin and talking about "how sensible" dad was.
My greatest fear is all of my kids standing around my coffin and talking about "how sensible" dad was.