Addiction 2021.3
#3851
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A big reason I feel so frustrated is that we end up on a lot of roads that have enough car traffic where behaving badly in a group just makes drivers upset.
Also just a general lack of common sense - like running bright flashing lights that dazzle the rider behind you.
A pre-ride brief would help, but I'm not the ride leader (and don't ever want to be).
Also just a general lack of common sense - like running bright flashing lights that dazzle the rider behind you.
A pre-ride brief would help, but I'm not the ride leader (and don't ever want to be).
The other club I ride with sometimes has none of that. They also don't have hammerheads who blow up the rides. I like riding with them but their Saturday rides are short and I really don't know any of them very well. I should just go there more often.
Actually, the ride I did today was just what I was looking for, except for the guy falling. My friends in the A group did a century, so nope.
#3852
Should Be More Popular
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I am confident I could break 5 hours with a group and a reasonably flat course. Doing so solo would require a tailwind or a fancy TT bike.
#3853
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I may still try though, driving out with a car full of bottles to not need to spend any time in traffic and much faster refill.
#3854
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One interesting snafu happened on yesterday’s ride. One of my friends, who is a good triathlete, started to suffer about 3 hours into the ride. He asked to stop to adjust his saddle height.
Long story short, his saddle was way too high and causing all kinds of knee problems. He said his bike had been in the LBS for servicing and he said the guy who works on his bike is taller than him and must have done a test ride and jacked up the seat.
I did not want to badmouth his shop, but if someone ****s with something like that, they should at least have the courtesy to mark the owner’s positions and return it with the owner’s fit.
Long story short, his saddle was way too high and causing all kinds of knee problems. He said his bike had been in the LBS for servicing and he said the guy who works on his bike is taller than him and must have done a test ride and jacked up the seat.
I did not want to badmouth his shop, but if someone ****s with something like that, they should at least have the courtesy to mark the owner’s positions and return it with the owner’s fit.
#3855
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One interesting snafu happened on yesterday’s ride. One of my friends, who is a good triathlete, started to suffer about 3 hours into the ride. He asked to stop to adjust his saddle height.
Long story short, his saddle was way too high and causing all kinds of knee problems. He said his bike had been in the LBS for servicing and he said the guy who works on his bike is taller than him and must have done a test ride and jacked up the seat.
I did not want to badmouth his shop, but if someone ****s with something like that, they should at least have the courtesy to mark the owner’s positions and return it with the owner’s fit.
Long story short, his saddle was way too high and causing all kinds of knee problems. He said his bike had been in the LBS for servicing and he said the guy who works on his bike is taller than him and must have done a test ride and jacked up the seat.
I did not want to badmouth his shop, but if someone ****s with something like that, they should at least have the courtesy to mark the owner’s positions and return it with the owner’s fit.
#3856
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Yeah, I have never actually taken my bike in for ANY servicing. The only thing I can’t do is wheel truing/broken spoke type repairs, and for those rare situations I only drop off the wheel.
#3857
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#3858
Super Modest
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When I started, we didn't have computers that auto-paused and century times were total time including stops. At that time, my wife and I were racing and 5 hour centuries were semi-common in groups or when we rode a tandem. In not so modern history, 2006, I did a 100 mile TT in a hair over 5 hours (100.4@5h9m) which I was very happy with since I was 55 at the time and 50# overweight. Not in the mood to ever work that hard again.
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Last edited by Trsnrtr; 08-08-21 at 06:29 AM.
#3859
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Auto-pause is a honey-tongued devil whispering sweet lies in your ear. It is immediately disabled on all my devices.
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#3860
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Same. On a mythical windless, no-traffic, 70° overcast day with someone handing up bottles and smooth tarmac I could probably do it. With lights, traffic, hills, heat, and chipseal there’s just too much to overcome, especially the times at zero and to go home and grab new bottles. I’ve wished there were a day at COTA we would have time to try, but that hill would probably sap the legs before finishing 29 laps even so. I’ve though about trying it at the Veloway, but that’s twisty enough that again, the accelerations (and one hill) would likely catch up before the end of 34 laps.
I may still try though, driving out with a car full of bottles to not need to spend any time in traffic and much faster refill.
I may still try though, driving out with a car full of bottles to not need to spend any time in traffic and much faster refill.
On a cool day with light wind, though, I think that I could drive out to a suitable start point and only need to stop once to refill bottles. It certainly wouldn't be easy, but I think that it's within the realm of possibility. Maybe I should start with a mixed measures metric first, though - 100km at 20mph
#3861
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FWIW, the auto pause on my old Wahoo was much more aggressive than on my Garmin, which is so lax that it might as well be off. Regardless, the timer that I keep on screen is elapsed, so that's what I am for (though I will pause for convenience store stops, etc).
Last edited by WhyFi; 08-08-21 at 06:56 AM.
#3862
Mostly Harmless
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One interesting snafu happened on yesterday’s ride. One of my friends, who is a good triathlete, started to suffer about 3 hours into the ride. He asked to stop to adjust his saddle height.
Long story short, his saddle was way too high and causing all kinds of knee problems. He said his bike had been in the LBS for servicing and he said the guy who works on his bike is taller than him and must have done a test ride and jacked up the seat.
I did not want to badmouth his shop, but if someone ****s with something like that, they should at least have the courtesy to mark the owner’s positions and return it with the owner’s fit.
Long story short, his saddle was way too high and causing all kinds of knee problems. He said his bike had been in the LBS for servicing and he said the guy who works on his bike is taller than him and must have done a test ride and jacked up the seat.
I did not want to badmouth his shop, but if someone ****s with something like that, they should at least have the courtesy to mark the owner’s positions and return it with the owner’s fit.
#3863
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Same. On a mythical windless, no-traffic, 70° overcast day with someone handing up bottles and smooth tarmac I could probably do it. With lights, traffic, hills, heat, and chipseal there’s just too much to overcome, especially the times at zero and to go home and grab new bottles. I’ve wished there were a day at COTA we would have time to try, but that hill would probably sap the legs before finishing 29 laps even so. I’ve though about trying it at the Veloway, but that’s twisty enough that again, the accelerations (and one hill) would likely catch up before the end of 34 laps.
I may still try though, driving out with a car full of bottles to not need to spend any time in traffic and much faster refill.
I may still try though, driving out with a car full of bottles to not need to spend any time in traffic and much faster refill.
#3864
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I don't usually change saddle height, if I'm test riding a repair bike. We have enough height variation among our staff to cover most possibilities. We do sometimes need to raise the seat to get enough post to clamp in the workstand. I always mark a post, before moving it. Occasionally, a mechanic forgets to reset a post.
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#3865
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#3866
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If you get down here and want to try, drop me a PM and if I’m free I’d be happy to do a few laps with you to show you the lay of the land.
#3867
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It’s three miles of pretty twisty road, with one narsty right-hand dog-leg into a short, steep climb. Smooth and relatively fast, but it takes practice (or did for me) to get the corner sequences to where I could hold a good pace for lap after lap.
If you get down here and want to try, drop me a PM and if I’m free I’d be happy to do a few laps with you to show you the lay of the land.
If you get down here and want to try, drop me a PM and if I’m free I’d be happy to do a few laps with you to show you the lay of the land.
#3868
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A local ride called The Solvang Century was my second century, organized or not. It has between 4 and 5k feet of climbing, depending on route variations. The fastest I ever did it was just over 6 hours, including stopping at all the sag stops. I've never been a fast climber so I was happy with that. I don't think I ever tried for a fast time on a century, usually just try to stay with my friends or struggle to the finish alone.
My friend, pizza guy, who I ride with on Tuesdays, used to do a lot of the local double centuries. There is a small group of guys who "race" the doubles. Friend "won" some of them until they started working against him. They figured out he had the best kick at the end so they would work with him until late then they would try and get rid of him for the finish. One time they took off from the last rest while he was in the restroom. He was able to chase most of them down.
He finished a moderately hilly double in 8 hours 53 minutes!.
#3869
So it is
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I've got some land that's flat enough and open enough, but the problem is the stops and starts in getting there and back - it becomes a choice of repeated drag race accelerations to maintain the pace, which would certainly catch up with me later, or trying to make up that lost time when I'm finally clear, which is no small task, either.
On a cool day with light wind, though, I think that I could drive out to a suitable start point and only need to stop once to refill bottles. It certainly wouldn't be easy, but I think that it's within the realm of possibility. Maybe I should start with a mixed measures metric first, though - 100km at 20mph
On a cool day with light wind, though, I think that I could drive out to a suitable start point and only need to stop once to refill bottles. It certainly wouldn't be easy, but I think that it's within the realm of possibility. Maybe I should start with a mixed measures metric first, though - 100km at 20mph
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#3870
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A legend and a class act. Even though he was late for a meeting and didn't know me from Adam, he took a moment to say hello and pose for a photo.
RIP Coach Bowden.
RIP Coach Bowden.
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#3871
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Being comfortable with that distance and more, is key. The physical plays into it, but the mental is there too. So many folks say they don't like to ride that far due to boredom, hitting a wall at 70 miles, stuff like that. Heck, I'll look at a ride 30 miles in and realize I have how much more to go?
#3872
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Being comfortable with that distance and more, is key. The physical plays into it, but the mental is there too. So many folks say they don't like to ride that far due to boredom, hitting a wall at 70 miles, stuff like that. Heck, I'll look at a ride 30 miles in and realize I have how much more to go?
#3873
VFL For Life
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#3874
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I remember when people started subtracting their breaks from the total ride time. WTF? Someone who I knew was slower would claim a time much faster than I had. It took a minute before I found out what they were doing. I always thought if you started @ 8:00 and finished @ 3:00 the ride took 7 hours. You don't get to say you did the ride in 6 hours just because you took 1 hour in breaks.
My friend, pizza guy, who I ride with on Tuesdays, used to do a lot of the local double centuries. There is a small group of guys who "race" the doubles. Friend "won" some of them until they started working against him. They figured out he had the best kick at the end so they would work with him until late then they would try and get rid of him for the finish. One time they took off from the last rest while he was in the restroom. He was able to chase most of them down.
He finished a moderately hilly double in 8 hours 53 minutes!.
He finished a moderately hilly double in 8 hours 53 minutes!.
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#3875
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