Bicycle thread

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by Mercury264

You take shit way too seriously...

This is serious business, Mercury.

[Uncle Pollo]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

This is serious business, Mercury.

Gps is nice ... but time/distance is better. Second is a well calibrated cyclo puter.

[fullmonte]

Originally Posted by Uncle Pollo

Gps is nice ... but time/distance is better. Second is a well calibrated cyclo puter.

Yep the electronic one upmanship in this thread is bordering on ridiculous. Most of the fast guys I know couldn't give two shits about posting their "record breaking times" on some website. Hey look at me, I'm the fastest guy on the greenway! Hooray!

[Mercury264]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

This is serious business, Mercury.

Not really....honestly, I could understand it if you were a pro perhaps but all this seems to be is oneupmanship. I dunno, but my brain just doesn't think that way - life is way too short for that.

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by Mercury264

Not really....honestly, I could understand it if you were a pro perhaps but all this seems to be is oneupmanship. I dunno, but my brain just doesn't think that way - life is way too short for that.

You're misinterpreting things. I'm not at the top of any leader board and likely never will be. This isn't something I have any personal stake in.

[Mercury264]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

You're misinterpreting things. I'm not at the top of any leader board and likely never will be. This isn't something I have any personal stake in.

Well, I'm not the one who said it was serious business...

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by Mercury264

Well, I'm not the one who said it was serious business...

So you've lost your sense of humor too?

[Mercury264]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

So you've lost your sense of humor too?

I have. I have a sense of humour though...

[Gummee!]

I'll say it again: the only 'serious business' in cycling is coming across the line first. The rest is fluff.

I've got a few friends into all that strava stuff. Great. Good for you. The ONLY time I can see it being a useful training tool is hill repeats or TT efforts. ...but that's me.

Speaking of hills... who's gonna go ride my buddy Tony's Devil's Backbone ride Sat?

M

[k7]

KOM? King of the Morans?

[ImaPoser]

Originally Posted by Gummee!

I'll say it again: the only 'serious business' in cycling is coming across the line first. The rest is fluff.

I've got a few friends into all that strava stuff. Great. Good for you. The ONLY time I can see it being a useful training tool is hill repeats or TT efforts. ...but that's me.

Speaking of hills... who's gonna go ride my buddy Tony's Devil's Backbone ride Sat?

M

I like it for nothing more than seeing my progress on the few hills I routinely ride that are on there. The chances of me ever cracking the top five are nil, but the fact that on a timed segment than my first time was seven minutes plus, and my most recent time was six flat, I feel pretty good seeing it. Even tonight where I went out with no intention of going over the hills as my normal road back is now chip sealed, I couldn't stop the urge to hit it and see how I would do. Ended up going further out and making it an even longer loop to avoid the chip, and had a great ride. Unfortunately, as seems to be all too common lately, my phones GPS crapped out for better than half the ride and I didn't even get to see my times on those two climbs.

[Garthe]

Originally Posted by pierce

if they are as big as that picture of the dude (golfer?!?) with the EMTs above, I'd want an 'afro rake' for that

That's what the smart dirt bikers carry. Works great.

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by Gummee!

I'll say it again: the only 'serious business' in cycling is coming across the line first.

But isn't that how KOM's are earned -- by who can complete some pre-arranged course the fastest?

I've got a few friends into all that strava stuff. Great. Good for you. The ONLY time I can see it being a useful training tool is hill repeats or TT efforts. ...but that's me.

Strava records all sorts of information that could be useful in training. For instance, there are two local riders, John and Mike, who are constantly exchanging KOM's. Their respective times on the same course may differ by only a second, but if you look at their power graphs, you'll see that John does exceptionally well in the open 'fast' portions of the trail, whereas Mike excels in the tight, technical areas. That graph shows each one which areas in their training they can make the most improvement on.

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

But isn't that how KOM's are earned -- by who can complete some pre-arranged course the fastest?

At which point, sign up and RACE. Don't half-ass it.

Strava records all sorts of information that could be useful in training. For instance, there are two local riders, John and Mike, who are constantly exchanging KOM's. Their respective times on the same course may differ by only a second, but if you look at their power graphs, you'll see that John does exceptionally well in the open 'fast' portions of the trail, whereas Mike excels in the tight, technical areas. That graph shows each one which areas in their training they can make the most improvement on.

Strava is just a spot to put stuff so your buddies can ooh and aaah over your KOM. TrainingPeaks or other software is what you need to look at if you want/need to compare power numbers over different rides.

Now to last nite. Met up at the shop and lo and behold! I WAS told right. Last nite was the first cross ride of the season. There were 3 of us. Shop owner/Cat 1 (SO), S the Cat 3 that won one of the 3/4 races last year, and me. On the way over, my legs were starting to load with lactic acid. Well THIS ain't good considering what's coming!

So we hopped into the woods for the first bit of the cross stuff. Hmmm this ain't too bad. A little rooty and rocky for cross tires... When 'I gotta stop!' First flat of the nite. S hit a root or a rock just wrong and pinch flatted his tire.

Up and down. Up and down. Then a killer downhill! SO hops down the hill, S goes down the hill dragging his rear wheel. I start down the hill. Miss that rock. Whew! Miss that root! Thank doG Then the evil one got me. I wasn't quite far enough back behind my saddle and sure nuff! Over the bars I went.

Didya know the ground's still hard all these years later?!

I knew I hit hard when I sat up and made sure my helmet wasn't cracked. Tweaked my derailleur hanger a little. Otherwise? Not too much wrong. Took me a little bit to get back to where they were waiting for me and THEN the 'real' ride started.

Grass course for most of it. Wind behind the baseball fields, up and around these trees, etc etc etc Started out with a 1-lap race for 'seeding' purposes. I lost so I got a 30sec head start for the 2-lap race that was coming.

It took SO 1.5 laps to ride me down. Racing thru grass is LOTS harder than it sounds. When he got me, I basically said 'eff it.' and stopped for a bit to recover. S rode by and shouted 'stay on it man!' as he blasted by. I guess I better finish the last 1/3 of the lap, huh?

Second 2-lap race SO got me at the second time over the barriers but no one else got past me. I hung within 100' of SO till the end. Damn near ran off the 2-track trail thru the woods as I was trying to keep SO in sight.

All in all, despite crashing and having crappy legs, I had a good time. Oh, that reminds me... So there's these folks practicing softball next to the barriers. As SO passed me in the first race I caught the look from one of the softball players. 'That doesn't look like fun...' My answer was 'it IS in a masochistic kind of way.'

...and that's cross for ya. Hardest thing I've done on two wheels but the most fun at the same time.

[Chisenhallw]

Easy, Gummee. Have a beer.