Did You Ride Today?
- Thread starter Mr. Beanz
- Start date
Went out after work for a 34 mile stop and go ride with the TT bike. I decide to stop in the new bike shop to pick up some extra food for tomorrows ride. So as I'm walking in with my bike I hear the guy behind the counter say I know that bike. I look over at him and it's someone that I've never met, and he says I subscribed to your You Tube channel. He starts telling the other employees that he enjoys watching my wall videos because he used to live in the Burg and rode a lot of the same roads I film. So we chat for a bit and then I find out they are having a used bike sale at the end of the month. I bought the mountain bike I have last year so I could try out the trails behind my house. I'll drop down for the sale and see if I can find one for my wife, because she said she would like to try riding the trails.
28 Miles with either 1200' of climbing or 2350' of climbing depending on whether you believe Garmin or STRAVA. Ima thinking 1200; sounds about right! STRAVA is whacktarded today for some reason even after elevation correction.
88 to 90 degrees and sunny...beginning to sound like a broken record. It spritzed a few drops of rain at 1 PM while I was out seeing a client and it spritzed even more lightly on me for two or three miles as I rode along in blinding sunshine and no dark clouds in the area...go figure. The few small drops felt good on my baked skin, but they stopped after just a minute or two of riding...back to just sun, humidity and a steady 12 to 13 MPH breeze that actually felt pretty good riding head on into it!
I saw a lot of heat stressed corn, some decent looking corn and the soybeans varied from pitiful to not so bad. A few folks were out mowing...buckhorns, probably. Certainly not grass.
I switched back over to Finish Line Wet Chain Oil. The Dry stuff was baking even more dry in the sun, the hot air and whatever the car and truck get up to before the air pulls it back down to survivable. It lost 95% of any lubricating qualities and the chain was absolutely howling and creaking in protest as it seated itself on my new chainrings and cassette gears. Quiet as can be with the Wet on it.
88 to 90 degrees and sunny...beginning to sound like a broken record. It spritzed a few drops of rain at 1 PM while I was out seeing a client and it spritzed even more lightly on me for two or three miles as I rode along in blinding sunshine and no dark clouds in the area...go figure. The few small drops felt good on my baked skin, but they stopped after just a minute or two of riding...back to just sun, humidity and a steady 12 to 13 MPH breeze that actually felt pretty good riding head on into it!
I saw a lot of heat stressed corn, some decent looking corn and the soybeans varied from pitiful to not so bad. A few folks were out mowing...buckhorns, probably. Certainly not grass.
I switched back over to Finish Line Wet Chain Oil. The Dry stuff was baking even more dry in the sun, the hot air and whatever the car and truck get up to before the air pulls it back down to survivable. It lost 95% of any lubricating qualities and the chain was absolutely howling and creaking in protest as it seated itself on my new chainrings and cassette gears. Quiet as can be with the Wet on it.
I rode twice today, worked the hills on both of them. I have Thurs am off and was out early for a fav 23 mi 1700 foot ride. Was kinda bummed that I missed my PR mph by .3 (from last yr) when I've been crushing the other routes. I'm 350 miles ahead of where I was last year at this time. I have a chance of hitting 2K but we'll see what happens because mornings will be getting cool in a few weeks and that is the best time for my long rides. Wife was out after work, so I took advantage and did my 14 mi 1140ft local course, which is my go-to short hill workout. Beat that PR by .6mph which felt good. It's all about the numbers! Feels good to be getting faster at my age.
Got a facebook message that a pal of mine did 100 and now i'm in monkey see monkey do mode, although i've been thinking about it for a while. Don't want to take time for org ride, i've laid out a flatish 100mi 5,000ft course linking many of my routes, might go for it on Saturday, just to get the patch and have it on my resume.
re: elev differences. that's a pain, it would be nice if there was a standard. I've recently switched to plot-a-route because it can edit routes, which I can't get MMR to do and there is elev differences. Apparently the diff elevations depend on how many points are sampled. Even if they are totally correct the services that give high elevations are counting every little rise, even if it doesn't feel like much elev change on the bike. Although I put much more faith in actually mapping rather than on bike ones that use barometric pressure. I just use a cheap speedometer that give me mph because I lay out all my routes before hand. Although navi would come in handy when i miss a turn.
Got a facebook message that a pal of mine did 100 and now i'm in monkey see monkey do mode, although i've been thinking about it for a while. Don't want to take time for org ride, i've laid out a flatish 100mi 5,000ft course linking many of my routes, might go for it on Saturday, just to get the patch and have it on my resume.
re: elev differences. that's a pain, it would be nice if there was a standard. I've recently switched to plot-a-route because it can edit routes, which I can't get MMR to do and there is elev differences. Apparently the diff elevations depend on how many points are sampled. Even if they are totally correct the services that give high elevations are counting every little rise, even if it doesn't feel like much elev change on the bike. Although I put much more faith in actually mapping rather than on bike ones that use barometric pressure. I just use a cheap speedometer that give me mph because I lay out all my routes before hand. Although navi would come in handy when i miss a turn.
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Glenn, the barometric sensor in my Garmin 520 can read over 1000' 'low' when compared to the other two Garmin's (another 520 and a 510) when we all did the same 75-mile, 7000' ride together. That's a VERY significant spread the data and among my other group rides with similar results has destroyed any faith I once put in GPS elevation numbers. It does not always record numbers out in left field, but it does it often enough.
Noted ultra-marathon rider, Mississippi State Road Champion, RAAM competitor and professor, Dr. Brian Toone often rides with 3 or 4 GPS computers on his bike. He claims that mounting position and which mount is used to hold the device really affects the elevation reading recorded. I take his pronouncements seriously, as I do those of noted device user, tester and reviewer, DC Rainmaker.
For instance, on 'out front' bar mount with the device tilted slightly upwards yield higher elevation numbers than mounting the device on top of the stem and parallel to the stem.
Also, Garmin's temperature sensor (barometers need temperature correction in order to achieve anything approaching 'accuracy') are notoriously inaccurate. All you have you do is flip to the screen that shows your temperature reading and watch it go up and down as you hit a shaded stretch of road, drop into a valley or climb up a few hundred feet
Going by USGS / USGPS surveys is, as you stated, going to result in a lower than real world reading because of all the small rises...and I would say based on carefully watching my three GPS computers (Cateye Stealth 50, Garmin 510 and Garmin 520) that the barometric sensor lacks the resolution to track many small or extremely gradual changes in elevation. My Stealth 50 lacks a barometric sensor and it seems to report elevation using only GPS (and no GLONASS satellites) that correlate better to known ride altitude changes than the Garmin's I've used.
The Garmin's, however, are light years more feature laden and easier to use than the Cateye unit.
Noted ultra-marathon rider, Mississippi State Road Champion, RAAM competitor and professor, Dr. Brian Toone often rides with 3 or 4 GPS computers on his bike. He claims that mounting position and which mount is used to hold the device really affects the elevation reading recorded. I take his pronouncements seriously, as I do those of noted device user, tester and reviewer, DC Rainmaker.
For instance, on 'out front' bar mount with the device tilted slightly upwards yield higher elevation numbers than mounting the device on top of the stem and parallel to the stem.
Also, Garmin's temperature sensor (barometers need temperature correction in order to achieve anything approaching 'accuracy') are notoriously inaccurate. All you have you do is flip to the screen that shows your temperature reading and watch it go up and down as you hit a shaded stretch of road, drop into a valley or climb up a few hundred feet
Going by USGS / USGPS surveys is, as you stated, going to result in a lower than real world reading because of all the small rises...and I would say based on carefully watching my three GPS computers (Cateye Stealth 50, Garmin 510 and Garmin 520) that the barometric sensor lacks the resolution to track many small or extremely gradual changes in elevation. My Stealth 50 lacks a barometric sensor and it seems to report elevation using only GPS (and no GLONASS satellites) that correlate better to known ride altitude changes than the Garmin's I've used.
The Garmin's, however, are light years more feature laden and easier to use than the Cateye unit.
Just a little 7.7 mile ride yesterday....Not even worth posting,lol..I did discover a nice little hill that will help me add 200 ft of elevation gain to my morning route. I'm not sure how the weather will be this weekend, but I may try to do my first century.
Took the day off from work so I could do my annual cut the state in half x 2 ride. Seeing that I live not far off of rte.12 I ride to the New Hampshire state line then follow rte. 12 all the way to the Connecticut state line then take same way back to the New Hampshire state line again, then home.. Temp was 82 at start and 88 on the return run. I played with a headwind of 8-10 on the way out, and enjoyed any added help on the way back. Just your typical New England roller, with the added bonus of 7.5 miles of climbing coming with 24 miles left. Totaled out at 141 miles, and I think I hit 85% of all the red lights that are on the route, which made for a lot of fun getting back up to speed over, and over agian. Managed to roll it out in 9 hours and 32 minutes, and am have been refueling all evening.
I hear that, U!
I only rode 12 miles yesterday afternoon with 450' of climbing. It was 90 degrees and sunny with the wind a steady 10 MPH. I had a family dinner to attend with relatives up from Florida and helped get the round bales off the trailer at the in-law's farm before that.
Much the same today. I'm headed out for a short ride this morning and the I have to go out and work in my fields.
Still, it's only 75 degrees this morning, we got about 10 minutes of rain last night and the day holds the promise of fun and fitness!
I just checked my log book. It looks like that makes 45 consecutive days of cycling. Twice before in my 45-year run I've managed to ride 44 consecutive days and once I recorded 76 consecutive days during a drought summer. Rain is what always breaks my streaks and takes me off the bike. This Sumer has been a moderate drought Summer and what rain we have received has been timed perfectly to allow me to keep riding.
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Sometimes 30 minutes is all you have and a short ride is better than no ride Campybob.
Went back to the bike club for the first time this summer, a 2 month break from club rides. I rode with the B+ group and used the ride to experiment with a new group riding style. Basically, I used much smaller gears than I usually do and kept the cadence up. I didn't hold the wheel great, but I did better than I usually do in that regard. The group tends to explode at the last 5 miles or so and a gap grew between me and 3 or so other riders. My intervals really paid off and my legs were fresh from using lower gearing earlier. I was able to catch them before the ride was over. It felt fine, but I may have gotten to use to solo rides. To the point where I'm starting to enjoy them more(accept riding with my brother).
Ended the ride with 43.7 miles/18.5 mph/1727 ft/83 cadence. Forgot to put the HR monitor on.
Went back to the bike club for the first time this summer, a 2 month break from club rides. I rode with the B+ group and used the ride to experiment with a new group riding style. Basically, I used much smaller gears than I usually do and kept the cadence up. I didn't hold the wheel great, but I did better than I usually do in that regard. The group tends to explode at the last 5 miles or so and a gap grew between me and 3 or so other riders. My intervals really paid off and my legs were fresh from using lower gearing earlier. I was able to catch them before the ride was over. It felt fine, but I may have gotten to use to solo rides. To the point where I'm starting to enjoy them more(accept riding with my brother).
Ended the ride with 43.7 miles/18.5 mph/1727 ft/83 cadence. Forgot to put the HR monitor on.
Decided it was time to get the patch. Last eve showed a lot of green on the weather map but woke up to only a few blobs coming my way. Was out in earliest possible light to start my 102 mi loop. I've been plotting for quite a while to find a 100 loop from the house that didn't involve any hard climbing. Had hardly any traffic whatsoever until about 35 miles in. Since this was my first, i didn't know what to expect, so I tried to pace myself. Kept to 18-20mph on the flats w/o pushing it and kept the legs loose and the breath shallow on the small rises. Made one convenient store stop, but otherwise kept on the bike the whole time except for necessary dashes. Plot-A-Route gives 6800 ft ascent, but I'd call it 5,000 w/ almost all ascents gradual and tame. Felt great until about mile 90 when I was ready for it to be over.
16.3mph. Three hours later and I'm still pretty well cooked!
16.3mph. Three hours later and I'm still pretty well cooked!
I did 13 miles with two climbs hard setting personal records.
Lame excuse but it was starting to rain.
I replaced the nasty smelling Sidi 6.6 Mega shoes that I wore on TRANSAM and the thought of the new ones getting nasty was enough to cut it short. Cutting myself and diminishing wallet a break. Trying to decide my next big ride. Maybe SilverState 508 in the desert or a 24 hour race or maybe the Route 66 bike race (Chicago to Santa Monica starting October 1)
Lame excuse but it was starting to rain.
I replaced the nasty smelling Sidi 6.6 Mega shoes that I wore on TRANSAM and the thought of the new ones getting nasty was enough to cut it short. Cutting myself and diminishing wallet a break. Trying to decide my next big ride. Maybe SilverState 508 in the desert or a 24 hour race or maybe the Route 66 bike race (Chicago to Santa Monica starting October 1)
I did a nice 30 mile ride up and over my favorite hills. Perfect weather. Dry. 75F. Riding my same ole same ole roads ain't cutting it. But it was nice. POS Felt AR1 frame has developed a maddening creaking noise that I can't find but hope it isn't cracked again because I ain't paying to fix it. I've sold a couple guns that I did not like and associated ammo....maybe time for a new frame but eyeing an O/U for skeet.
With all the big mile rides being posted I figured I had better get out and re-join the Century Riders Club again!
103 miles with 3900' of climbing. The first 10-12 miles had the worst of it. Getting above the glacial moraine takes me up some steep stuff and the 39 x 25 is working me hard, even while trying to keep the tempo down to a level I know I can survive for 100 miles. Average speed was just 16.05 MPH...keeping it sane helped with the heat building all day.
The day started cool and sunny with the easy wind only blowing around 5 to 6 MPH. It started to get hot around 11:30 and by 12:30 it was officially another hot day in Ohio. It reached 91 degrees or maybe a degree or two hotter than that before the early afternoon clouds rolled in and made it a lot more pleasant. There really wasn't wasn't much of a headwind to work against anywhere on the course...just a gust every now and again to remind me which direction it was coming from.
The sun kept coming out to keep the day bright and going behind the clouds for short periods that offered some relief on the exposed sections of roads.
Speaking of roads...I was on some of the smoothest and some of the roughest I've been on in weeks. New, black asphalt and **** poor patch jobs and deep, jarring pot holes in chip & seal.
All said, it was a perfect day to go long as the wind for the final 40 miles was at my back and it picked up to around 14 MPH.
I rolled easy right through the end of the ride and probably should have covered a few more local miles just to get my conditioning up a little more. I kept it steady and averaged a little over 16 MPH. The legs turned over well despite all the stupid work I did yesterday...on my feet a lot and walked a lot with that big Stihl weed whacker strapped to me. Add to that all the bouncing around on a garden tractor and a farm tractor and it's a wonder I even set off this morning. Yeah, I'm that dumb!
103 miles with 3900' of climbing. The first 10-12 miles had the worst of it. Getting above the glacial moraine takes me up some steep stuff and the 39 x 25 is working me hard, even while trying to keep the tempo down to a level I know I can survive for 100 miles. Average speed was just 16.05 MPH...keeping it sane helped with the heat building all day.
The day started cool and sunny with the easy wind only blowing around 5 to 6 MPH. It started to get hot around 11:30 and by 12:30 it was officially another hot day in Ohio. It reached 91 degrees or maybe a degree or two hotter than that before the early afternoon clouds rolled in and made it a lot more pleasant. There really wasn't wasn't much of a headwind to work against anywhere on the course...just a gust every now and again to remind me which direction it was coming from.
The sun kept coming out to keep the day bright and going behind the clouds for short periods that offered some relief on the exposed sections of roads.
Speaking of roads...I was on some of the smoothest and some of the roughest I've been on in weeks. New, black asphalt and **** poor patch jobs and deep, jarring pot holes in chip & seal.
All said, it was a perfect day to go long as the wind for the final 40 miles was at my back and it picked up to around 14 MPH.
I rolled easy right through the end of the ride and probably should have covered a few more local miles just to get my conditioning up a little more. I kept it steady and averaged a little over 16 MPH. The legs turned over well despite all the stupid work I did yesterday...on my feet a lot and walked a lot with that big Stihl weed whacker strapped to me. Add to that all the bouncing around on a garden tractor and a farm tractor and it's a wonder I even set off this morning. Yeah, I'm that dumb!
I just went through it with the Wilier. The creaking was in time with the right crank coming over TDC while standing and putting out the Watts. Mainly climbing, powering into a wind, attacking, etc. The creaking soon spread to both pedals coming over TDC. But, only when standing. And it came and went...one night the noise was insane and right after changing something it would (or might) go away for a day or two. I suspected the frame was cracking, also.
1. Tore apart and greased the entire front end. Headset, bars, stem, tightened shifters. Still creaking.
2. Both chainring teeth were close to being shot and the left side bearing starting to loosen up...so new Campy 4-Arm carbon wonder installed. It had been creaking on both rings. Still creaking.
3. Tightened loose derailleur hanger screws. Still creaking.
4. Installed new cassette (old was on chain number 4) and threw on a new chain. The old cassette was well used, but the teeth looked good and the creaking occurred in every gear from the 11 to the 25. STILL creaking.
5. Oiled the **** out of the spoke nipple seats and the spoke heads on the Aksiums...finally remembering I had had another pair that did the exact same thing. The result: 103.22 silent miles today! I kept standing up and expected to hear the creaking, but so far so good. We'll see if it stays quiet or goes back into the 'Possessed By Demons' mode again.
I hate creaks and ticks and knocks...all of them. I've had pedals creak, shoes creak, bars creak, bottom brackets creak, gear teeth creak...all of that and more! Oh well, at least it looks killer with the new style Campy crankset and drive line.
It hit 46 MPH off a descent somewhere on the course today (yeah, it's a bit steep here if not the longest climbs and descents in the country) and I kept thinking about how spectacular the crash would be if the frame came unglued...and I wondered if the newspapers would spell my name correctly...
Rolled an easy 2 hours out in the woods spinning. After Fridays long ride I didn't get a chance to ride Saturday. Had my two Bestest Buddies (grand children) birthday parties. Had all the kids their even had my youngest son come in from Italy (finished photo shoot) in Milan. Always great spending time with the kids, which is rarer as time rolls on.
Great to see everyone getting out and riding.
Life is great my internet friends !
Great to see everyone getting out and riding.
Life is great my internet friends !
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