Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.rdtompki
11-15-09, 07:13 PM
Absent actual power measurement I'm finding climbing speed to be a reasonable means of assessing our improvement. The Garmin 705 may not measure grade accurately, but I find it to be very repeatable so two grades that read out as 6% (+-0.5%) are probably pretty close. A 6% grade used to find us in our small chainring (24t), but we can manage pretty comfortably in our 36t chainring with 30t cog. 7% finds us wishing we were in the 24t. Our cadence is usually in a small range, 85-90 or perhaps a bit higher. The real test will be the grade we can hold with our lowest gear, 24-30. 8% sustained is required for a fair number of the climbs around here.
Next week we're going to try Freemont Peak in San Juan Batista, stoker willing, which looks to have 6 miles at about 6% avg. and an additional 3 miles or so at about 8% avg. I know a good meal at the top would put the stoker in afterburner, but such is not the case. Wish us luck.
Next week we're going to try Freemont Peak in San Juan Batista, stoker willing, which looks to have 6 miles at about 6% avg. and an additional 3 miles or so at about 8% avg. I know a good meal at the top would put the stoker in afterburner, but such is not the case. Wish us luck.