njkayaker

Sure, one could have requirements that make it necessary.

mschwett 

exactly, the 54 miles was with no big climbs - just camino alto and wolf grade and in and out of the city, sausalito, and my neighborhood itself. the big climb rides, up to mt tam, diablo, etc, are more like 6,000 feet over 50-60 miles. the biggest climb i've done totally unassisted (just lugging the extra 15lb of bike ) is hawk hill. it was fine, but it has that false flat in the middle!! it was also NOT doable with the stock gearing on the bike.

here's an interesting (to me) comparison - on the right, a relatively fast (for me) ride around the marin headlands, up hawk hill and back through the valley. this ride used 25 watt hours of battery - about 8% of the battery capacity. with the stock gearing on the bike, i was able to get that down to about 12 watt hours per ride. on the left, my first time doing the same ride without using the battery at all, with the 1:1 bottom gear. (42t front 10-42t rear). 7 minutes slower, almost identical caloric expenditure, but the motor ride was faster and on a windier day. (the strava wind numbers are meaningless, those who ride this route know that there are a few sections where it's an in your face gust of waaaaay more than the 11.2mph quoted for the right one.

mschwett 

my heart rate pretty much won't go above 130, there's a severe shortness of breath that starts coming in at that point, and i know that it would be really bad for my health to push it beyond that. there was once that i got stressed going up a much-steeper-than-expected gravel/rock climb that i had NO business being on, and inadvertently pushed it trying to maintain enough forward momentum to not fall, and i hit 140 for 30 seconds. theoretically i think my heart "would" beat that fast in a controlled situation but no way am i going to try and find out!

for those who are interested in obscure medical trivia, ARVC is one of the very, very few illnesses which is actually caused by exercise in the "right" individuals. a gross oversimplification, of course.

https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardio...fe-to-exercise

SoSmellyAir

Yep, there is a saying about flying along just off the ground, which especially applies to going downhill in SF.

downhillmaster

It improves the ride ‘immeasurably’ in terms of performance?
Good stuff

Maelochs

I was going to make some joke about ARVC but it doesn't look all that funny. Good for overcoming it.

Hard to believe you beat the disease despite not wearing a pair of $400 Rapha bibs and a $300 Rapha jersey.

I hear they improve performance immeasurably, and I believe it ... you cannot measure what is not there.

mschwett 

more like a stalemate than victory, but i can only imagine how much faster i’d go if my outfit cost as much as a whole bike!

Riveting

I see your power curve on " HAWLK HILL, NO MOTOR" shows 300watts for 1 minute (under your own power), yet your HR never went above 130bpm, that's impressive, especially for someone with a heart condition. I know absolutely nothing about the condition you're afflicted with, nor how a high HR could be dangerous for you (though it sounds like you've been told 130bpm), but I'm guessing that you're an outlier in that diseases dataset, and most of the Dr's you meet probably won't have much experience working with someone as fit as you. I say this because I used to have a 1 minute power curve of 588w, now down to 285w since I came down with Stage 4 Lung Cancer 2 years ago, and some of the Dr's I meet (for both lung as well as for knee issues I've had) seem to be used to working with more sedentary non-fit patients, and are accustomed to treating me as such. Is that the case for you?

genejockey 

Hey, my outfit costs as at least half of my bikes (each, not all together) depending on which shoes I wear. Mind you, the shoes were expensive and the bikes were cheap. I figure shoes are your most direct connection with the bike, do getting them right is important.

popeye

A few suggestions non health related. Move the one bottle cage to the down tube (more aero), lose the gatorskins (it is a crime to put them on a bike as nice as this), spandex and shave. It takes a leap to don the clown clothes but once you do you will never look back. Winter is coming and comfort is paramount.

shelbyfv

Obviously that's some sort of error and why ebikers shouldn't rely on whatever estimations their bikes give them. Disconnect the battery, ride it and see how it compares.

mschwett 

it's not an error - the motor was turned off for that ride. lights off, no whine, no power consumption, no extra forward motion. there is some speculation that the power meter built into the specialized system isn't absolutely totally accurate, but the margin of error is pretty small from my experience. (i've also had the bike on a rear wheel trainer with a power meter.)

beyond the underlying physical issues, i take medications that keep my heart rate unusually low.

mschwett 

thanks!! makes sense that the downtube would be more aero, especially since the downtube is so fat haha. i need to get some appropriate bolts, the one that came with the cage are too long for the downtube. good reminder.

mschwett 

it's an unusual disease, most doctors know little about it, but the ones that do are actually very used to working with endurance athletes... because that's typically who gets it. if you have the right (wrong!) genetics, and engage in very frequent, intense, long duration cardio, bad things start to happen. so the good docs in this field are very used to a high baseline level of fitness - much higher than mine, surely - but the recommendation for all afflicted is "no strenuous exercise." unfortunately there isn't a great way to measure that, but heart rate is one metric. i have some less serious abnormal rhythms that tend to occur around 135, so i keep it under that, which coincides with a reasonable threshold based on the meds i take etc. doctors advice is to average no more than 90-110 for a ride.

shelbyfv

^^^Good for you then, that's strong riding!

mschwett 

not relative to my size LOL!!