AdelaaR

291W average over 15 miles ... not bad OP

patentcad

I averaged that for a TT a couple of years back, but it was only about 8 miles. And my position on the bike was terrible. I would be faster now on the P3. Didn't get to TT too much this year, I've had 3 races cancelled in the last month due to flooding and other reasons. Two more TT's left, weather permitting.

Campag4life

If this is your first TT bike OP that you built up yourself, how did you figure out the bike size and how high to position the handlebar?
I am considering buying or building a TT bike and am not young and so am concerned that an overly low handlebar maybe an issue for neck comfort in particular.
Any advice?
Thanks

rpeterson

Good job on the first race, I wish I could hold 291 for 40 minutes, I'm lucky to be pushing 200 lol.

LowCel 

I owned another tt bike a few years ago but can't remember any of my measurements. I pretty much trusted www.wrenchscience.com on the sizing. As far as the bars and clip ons I am experimenting on the positioning. I left plenty of steerer above the stem so I can move it around if necessary.

LowCel 

Thank you. According to garmin my wattage was 291, according to WKO+ it was 296. I'm going by WKO+.

Regardless, I'm still fat so my power to weight ratio sucks.

guadzilla

Is your position tweaked? That seems like a pretty low speed for that wattage.

LowCel 

Not even close, I built the bike on Wednesday night, test rode it on Thursday, raced it Saturday. Also, no matter how good my position is (which it is far from good) I am still 5'10" and weigh 210 - 215 pounds. No matter what I am going to be fighting a lot of wind.

guadzilla

Ah ok. Not to rub salt in your aero tuck, but glad to know there are people less aero than me

AdelaaR

I did already notice those numbers meant your drag is pretty high.
Still ... what matters is that you have a nice new bike and that you have fun riding it

LowCel 

Honestly, I don't have fun riding it. It hurts like hell!!!! That's part of racing though.

dgasmd

And they say it is not about the bike? Bull****!!

StanSeven

Plus most people generate max power at 75-85 rpms. You can't do that forever though. But for shorter tt's, you are faster with slower cadences and more effort

LowCel 

Updated pictures with the new wheels. Please ignore the grime and the crank position. That is the temporary crankset, I'll be putting the Quarq on it for TT's.

rjones28 

island rider

Certainly for a TT bike. Just a question though. Do you race the Tour of the Catskills? Do you race a standard up devil's kitchen? Not saying it can't be done, not saying it shouldn't be done, I know many who do. But I also know some people who re-gear for races like that with compacts so they don't leave it all on the hill.

More curious than anything else.

Websters52

Do you know the size of the seat post front to back side to side in mm? I have the same frame and have been searching for a seat post of over 6 months. BMC doesn't make them anymore

LowCel 

I wish I could help but I haven't owned this bike in several years.

beng1

How old are you? When I was 35 years old I could run in the 23mph range with a standard lugged-steel frame road-bike, and the guys who used to win back then, 25 years ago, were running almost 30mph on fancy bikes like this with disc wheels. I don't think I would have any use for a bike that cost many thousands of dollars unless I could go close to 25 or 26mph on a standard road bike for the distance of a time trial, because it would not be the hardware that was keeping me from coming close to winning.

LowCel 

Are you really insulting me in a thread from 2011? Surely you can find something better to do.

beng1

It is not about you at all, and the thread is on the front page of the forum so it is fair game. 25 years ago when I could run a standard lugged-steel bike up into the 23mph bracket, I asked a local bicycle dealer who raced and sold fancy time-trial equipment how much time all that fancy aero bicycle and helmet and other equipment was worth in a time-trial of a dozen miles or so, and they said "two or three minutes". So even if I dropped the thousands of dollars on high-end equipment it would cost for those two or three minutes, I would still be four or more minutes shy of ever winning a bicycle time-trial race, or any other bicycle race for that matter. So it did not seem to make any sense to spend thousands of dollars to go from being a slow or average bicycle racer, to being a little bit faster slow or average bicycle racer.

If I were close enough for it to make a difference in winning, if on equipment like Eddie Merckx used to set his hour record a half-century ago I could go around 27mph in a TT, then I might win some local races after dropping the thousands on equipment, but as it is someone who can only muster 23 or 24mph on a bike with round steel tubing, would never be able to buy the six or seven mph needed to win anything. I don't mind finishing in the middle of the results of a time-trial today any more than I minded not winning by finishing in the top ten-percent 25 years ago, so it still a few decades later does not seem to make any sense to let participants in an athletic sport buy speed, to let their speed in the event depend on how much money they have instead of how much athletic ability they have, and it certainly does not make sense to feel good about buying speed, especially when it is not competitive anyway. If you are a competitive bicycle racer, you do not have to buy it, a sponsor or team you belong to will.

LowCel 

beng1

Here, educate yourself a bit; https://study.com/academy/lesson/ad-...-examples.html

LowCel 

I’m good thanks. Feel free to continue your rants and talking about how awesome you were.

I’ll continue to enjoy riding amazing bikes.

I probably don’t “need” this one either. Luckily I’m not worried about what you think I should be riding.