tetonrider

lower manhattan in the months following 9/11 was really, really bad.

lots of stuff in those buildings (and in our homes these days) that is terrible when burned -- and some of it awful when not burned.

some friends do monitoring of particulates in and around the bay area. levels of taxi chemicals in many homes can be astonishing. one tip: if you ever cook with a non-stick pan, make sure you have the fan running!

tetonrider

dude. tubular. serious. sounds like you have some talent for cross and there is an ENORMOUS difference.

another option is to just lower your FTP in your software.

Ttoc6

I had tubulars when I was on rim brakes. I left that bike at home with my parents and brother. I miss those wheels everytime I race. This beautifully built set of Ultegra hubs to some older (very shallow) aluminum rims.

I also raced on some carbon reynolds (also tubular) last year as well that were almost as good, but not quite. Even if they weighed like 400g less.

Next year I'll be on tubulars. But for now I bought a new set of (actually tubeless this time) tires. They're 35c which I'm not a huge fan of running "illegal" tires, but I'm in a series that doesn't care and it will be close no matter what is printed on the side wall.

Regarding tss, I just wanted to get some more riding in after a frustrating race and I do not regret it at all! What a gorgeous morning it was!

tetonrider

maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but who cares? you can improve your tech skills relative to yourself, and have more fun.

holding yourself to the standard of a pro in any sport is a tough comparison.

someone who sucks at sprinting can still work on their sprint; maybe they don't win a field sprint, but they win the sprint out of the break.

that said, bikes these days are super good and roll over so much that it definitely takes less skill compared to years past. sometimes going faster can help a person sail over obstacles; ironically it can be less difficult to go fast in some situations.

the hard part about riding with people that good is that you can't stay behind them and see their lines for very long. it's nice if you can find someone a little bit better.

i don't really know what miyata is rambling about, but your suspension has different parameters that can be adjusted by the rider. XC suspension is usually lighter and has less user adjustment (sometimes just air pressure and one other thing); DH stuff is heavier and can have 5 or 6 adjustments.

i have no idea what bike you are riding or fork and shock, but those parameters control how plush or firm your shock feels, how much it might dive in a hard turn or under braking load, how the bike pedals, whether you can even USE all the travel offered, and whether your suspension gets progressively more stiff the more travel you use or if it is linear.

it can make a significant difference in speed and ride quality. it's usually not hard to get in the ballpark, if you know what you are doing, but getting it perfect takes time.

the other problem is that the terminology is weird. it's why i drew the example of people being totally baffled by RDs: they're just cables pulling a spring, yet many people have NO idea which direction to turn the adjuster.

there's a knob on your fork labeled "rebound". rebound is how fast your fork pops back up after an impact. do you turn it CW or CCW? unfortunately, increasing rebound actually increases rebound DAMPING and makes the shock slower to respond. clear as mud.

some people think going to wide tires (esp the plus craze) reduces the need for suspension, but in reality using tires for suspension is a pretty poor solution. wide tires are great for traction; low pressure in big volume tires is undamped suspension. many of us who have ridden for a while have experienced that in terrible forks and shocks.

tetonrider

i've got a set of 303 FC tubulars....disc. ;-)

actually, i've got 3.5 sets, which is why i'm getting rid of one. they are super good for cross. the aero isn't such a big deal, but the deeper rims cut through mud.

i'm NOT a reynolds fan, for a variety of reasons. most have to do with knowing too many people who have melted their brake tracks and been handled poorly by the warranty department.

tetonrider

+1 to spending a little time to figure it out. i'd say that it would be better to have someone quickly show him the basics, because he is the only one who can tell how he is feeling on the trail, and even a rider of the same weight will not have the same ride style. it's kind of like kick waxing for classic skiing... i know the wax that works for me, but you might need more or less of it in order to get grip.

some people love the brain, others hate it. i'm equivocal about it.

rode the other day with a buddy, and he's on the latest iteration of it (mine is a 17 but he just got his 18). he felt the responsiveness has improved since his 13/14 version.

i don't like the brain in the fork, so i use a different (fox) fork; i'll sell that RS fork w/ brain immediately when my 18 arrives--won't even bother to test. for my style of riding/racing i like to control the lockout. general consensus is that most riders turn the brain down as low as it can go. IMO, that's time to ditch it.

my buddy feels like the brain in the fork is fine when he's on his FS bike, but for a HT/SS he prefers controlling the lockout.

for the shock, i'm OK with the brain. seems to respond pretty well and gives a solid sprinting/burst platform but is responsive when it needs to be.

i'd NEVER confuse my Epic for my Enduro, descending, though.

Ttoc6

I think this is the 3rd time you've mentioned them. . I'd jump on them in a heart beat if I had the funds. Just more pressing things. I actually thought about messaging you yesterday about them, but I realized it's a bit ridiculous to buy a whole new set of wheels to fix a tire problem lol.

Next year when you're back up to 3.5 sets I'll be in touch

mike868y

fwiw, the 33c rule is ONLY for UCI races. so it's not that your series doesn't care it's just not a USAC rule.

tetonrider

the reason i did is that with your talent for cross in a brief period of time it's clear you'd benefit from better equipment. there are no guarantees, but in this last one it sounds like it could have kept you in the race if not resulted in a win for you.

no biggie.

one thing is you CAN get a set of wheels that is good and transfer it to a new bike down the road (well, depends on what standards one choose with disc).

i won't be back up to 3.5 sets. the reason i have 3.5 in the first place is a funny story, but it's always been too many. i'll probably sell 3 wheels. 2 race sets + 1 training/general riding (tubeless) is more than enough.

tetonrider

actually, his series probably isn't even USAC. that's not a big thing in UT (or in many other regions).

it gets argued every year by his local region, though, and a few people complain that they show up to nationals with no status. the series in sacramento switched to USAC in order to appease some riders, with nationals in reno.

the other day a friend and are were looking at cross rankings from races as he is going to nationals. he won a race in sacramento and got ~300; he could have finished 15th in a race in the chicago area and gotten a rank of 150. pretty crazy--like racing crits in some regions--lots of riders with great rankings, which helps every rider's ranking.

Ttoc6

Oh I wish I had the talent to win. I do my best, but I'm no jPow. One of these days the right conditions will come through and my bike will behave properly and I'll pull something off in a cross race again.

Understand the keeping wheels around. That was the plan with last set of carbon tubulars I bought. Raced em 10sp for cross in the fall until I had problems. Rebuilt up to 11 as a set of wheels to keep around and change the tires on and off of for road vs cross. But once I figured out I was moving (and looked around at how many wheels I had + had a bad experience with a tubular in a crit) I sold them. Probably a good thing as I went to disc for cross and I'd like to go to disk for road at some point soon too.

But with the purchase of a TT bike, that move to disc for road will probably get held off. Still need to move some aluminum clinchers. I think once my TT bike gets here I'll be up to 3 sets of aluminum clincher "training" wheels, and 1 set of aluminum training wheels that are absolutely toast. + a set of disc tubeless for my cross bike.

I'll get a set of deep carbon wheels for the tt bike + a disk cover (not doing uci stuff, so it will do) that will double as race wheels for my road bike this year in the mean time. Been really happy with the flo wheels I have, so I'll probably stick in their direction.

When I get around to moving to disc I'll keep the carbon wheels for the tt and get something nice for the new road bike + cross bike in the off season. Especially since risk of damage to rim on disc brake bike is much lower.

topflightpro

My folks had an apartment in Battery Park at the time. For quite awhile, they could only get there via escort, and when they were there, they had to wear basic face masks and were only allowed to spend about 20 min. at a time.

globecanvas

My good friend's dad was a 9/11 first responder. He died this year from cancer caused by asbestos exposure, and was added to the FDNY memorial wall. More 9/11 first responders have now died from respiratory illness directly attributable to the event, than died on 9/11.

TMonk

Backpack trip over, 5 days off the bike, lots of hiking though. Up next: all your base are belong to us!

also it gets pretty damn cold at night >10,000', even in Cali!

globecanvas

A buddy who is a coach is giving me a sort of free trial of coaching. I am new to the whole training peaks thing. He assigned workouts for the week, but told me I could rearrange them to suit my schedule. So today I did the workout that was on the calendar for tomorrow. I see that I can drag workouts around in the calendar view, but the ride I did today got automatically filled in for the originally scheduled workout. So I guess I needed to rearrange the scheduled workouts before uploading my actual ride? I assume there's no way to rearrange after the fact without literally copying all of the assigned intervals and notes from one workout to the other, and vice versa.

globecanvas

Also, wow, the training peaks NP and TSS are way different from what I calculate for this ride, by over 25%. FTP is set the same.

I know there are two different commonly used windowing methods that are used for NP, one of which is used by Strava, the other by TP and CA. I know they are most different for rides with a lot of variability, like this one. I guess this is why some people always have ATL numbers that seem crazy high to me.

gsteinb

This doesn't apply directly to this, but is perhaps illustrative of some of the issues. I know if I drag my srm files directly into WKO, vs using device agent I get different numbers.

TheKillerPenguin

Yep, the difference is quite high when doing things with a lot of over threshold work. I find that they tend to be within 10w or so when doing FTP or below. I'm not sure which one is more accurate. The higher numbers are more fun to brag with though!

topflightpro

What I find fascinating is if I run a Garmin 500 and PC8 simulataneously, I can get very different TSS, especially doing sprint work at the track. Garmin will give me nearly 300 for a 3 hour workout whereas the PC8 gives me 70.

This was HR-based TSS.

gsteinb

**** it. I'm going back the perceived effort.

revchuck 

What if you have no perceptible effort?

caloso

Gut feels a bit better today so I went for a bit of a ride at lunch time. Meh.

mattm

Must be the off-season.

Radish_legs

Quit my old team. Joined a new team. Cat 4 group has started off-season team training for next season. Here's a highlight video of the ride.

TexMac

Monday: Lunch core workout then 2 hrs ride after work plus 2x12 thresholds. Glad a CAt2 friend once showed me how to pee while on bike and no need to stop.