Flyboy718

I am actually riding the Nuovo basically in the hoods for the duration of my rides and the Viva I don't ride in the hoods that often because it's just not comfortable for me. The Nuovo is more comfy for me to ride in the hoods...it's something tod do with the way the brake levers are positioned on the Nuovo (non-aero) with the suicide levers...I just can't get a good feel riding with my hands there like I do on the Viva (aero)

bradtx

This could be a start. 1.) Not as comfortable and 2.) Not as aero if using the tops rather than the hoods or drops.

Brad

Flyboy718

This might sound weird and I am not sure but I feel like I have more momentum with the Nuovo, does that make sense? It's not as quick or nimble as the Viva but on flat ground in my neighborhood once I get the in a groove with the Nuovo it just turns into a train steaming down the tracks.

Velognome 

Momentum, the herald cry of the Fixie Rider.

due ruote 

Especially if you're dealing with different saddle models.

jeirvine 

Great advice. These are key to good balance and fit.

And I wish Strava had a way to show average speeds by bike. It'd be great to be able to compare segment times by bike.

crank_addict

For discussion of riding the flats and not climbing-
I 'feel' just as fast on an old heavier gaspipe vs. quality tubed frames.

However, I think the major contributors is type of tire (weight and rolling resistance), rim weight and having ones body much lower and tucked-in / more aero position.

davester

Kind of a no brainer. All things being equal, the moving object with the highest mass has the most inertia.

USAZorro

Can you open an account for each bike? Since I usually name my bikes anyway...

79pmooney

My first thought. Fit can be huge. It can make a 5-10% difference in sustainable power. That dwarfs almost everything else. When I first got my racing bike with radically different fit than the bike I spent my first 1 1/2 years racing, my times on my morning run fell by minutes. On the same wheels. I went on to post performances that summer I never thought possible for this body.

Take NoGlider's measurements, compare and keep them. The faster bike's numbers probably are not your ultimate, but they are clearly a step in the right direction. Think of fit as being like the timing of a car engine. You can have the biggest bore, deepest stroke, best fuel injector, etc. but throw that timing a little off and you aren't beating anybody. Get the timing on and that little Volkswagen bug will run happily all day!

Ben

bradtx

I used my touring bike during our drought. It's six pounds heavier than my distance roadie and about half of that difference is in the wheels and tires. Once up to speed it might have been easier to maintain speed due to the flywheel effect of the rotating mass, no way to know for sure without a power meter.

Brad

Flyboy718

I can compare routes with different bikes in Strava because I have several bikes I ride. But they don't have any sort of graphic display showing your different bikes times on same segments...that would be really cool though. Shoot them an email.

Ed.

One can have more than one bike listed in one's profile, but I've not found a handy way to switch from one to the other. Simply keeping track by day would be one possibility, but I've found considerable variation, day to day, in my times over given routes.

Speaking of being faster on one bike than another, 'Geraldine' (my Raleigh Team Pro) is such a little hussy it's hard to hold her back - she just wants to run me ragged. 'Sophia' (my Torpado) on the other hand, likes to stroll along, asking nothing of me but enjoyment. She wasn't always this way of course - back in the day she was a bit of a hussy herself.

RobbieTunes

Mine would be "no account"

dddd

I second these suggestions.

I'm thinking that possibly one or more of those factors is likely causing some loss of effective rider output at one or more stretches of your timed rides, and I could think of quite a few possible scenarios along these lines.
Just one example might be that the faster bike positions the saddle a bit closer to the handlebar, allowing a little more arch in the rider's back and thus with the rider's pelvis contacting the saddle in a more comfortable way that might allow longer sustained "power pulls" into the wind. I myself usually get some speed advantage just by moving the saddle forward a cm or so, for greater comfort at higher output levels, and with better aerodynamics, while also minimizing the effort in transitioning from seated to standing as the road's incline changes.
I also find that greater steering stability favors a more consistently high rider effort on solo timed runs.

79pmooney

I am just the opposite. My breakthrough came when I realized I needed more reach than almost all stock bikes provided. That additional reach stretched out my back and opened up my chest, making for both better, deeper breathing and better circulation through my torso. (No I cannot "prove" any of that. But going from a 130 stem on my commuter to a 180 was a radical improvement in both performance and comfort. Now that I have modified all my bikes and aged 20 years, I am seeing a couple of bikes that are "too long" and am scaling back. But not much. My biggest stem pre "revelation" was 130. I now have 120 (on a bike designed around a 120 with my new reach), 135 (likewise), 140, 155 and 175.

Not saying what is right for me is right for you. But your two bikes are pointing the way for you.

Ben

dddd

Interesting, I'd like to see what your bike with a 180 stem looked like!

Myself, I don't think that I have ever reached the threshold of my respiratory capacity while seated, only while out of the saddle on sustained, steeper grades.

As for circulation thru my torso, I concur that this can be sharply limiting to one's sustained output. Having my saddle somewhat forward tilts my lower body forward about the bottom bracket, thus allowing a deeper aero tuck with less severe bending at the waist. I often then increase the stem length up to my preferred saddle-to-handlebar distance.

Before I figured out just what that preferred saddle-to-handlebar distance was, my comfort/speed on one bike or another could be seemingly more-random, but with this distance now controlled as a primary fit parameter, I happily see greater predictability in the fit/performance of my more-recent builds.

A digital angle-finder is a great thing to have when comparing and building up frames(!), though one can alternately use a plumb-bob as noglider earlier suggested.

jimmuller 

I would argue it depends on the route. On a hilly route the elapsed time will be dominated by time spent climbing. If the hills are shorter the course requires more short-duration high-power muscle output rather than long-term aerobic capacity. So gearing could matter for those situation. A flatter course or one with longer low-gradient hills will be different.

I have noticed that on some bikes I seem to be faster. For example I tend to climb the same commute hills in different gears. But that could just be a matter of how tired I am when I come to them, which depends on how hard I was riding on the approach. All my bikes but one have the same saddle. They are set up as nearly the same as I can make them but frame differences and f/r weight distribution affect how the bike handles so I can't really make them the same. They are all comfortable. It may come down to which bike I select because of the day's predicted weather - give me a tailwind and I'm always faster.

Though I'd love to know the physical or mechanical reasons, mostly I don't worry about it. I just ride.

The blue bikes are fastest. The red one has a faster style. The white ones and the black one are also pretty fast, one faster than the other. Other colors probably have no effect, good or bad.

Flyboy718

I didn't have a lot of time last night so I measured the faster bike (Nuovo) and made the seat height, the forward / aft seat position and the handle bar height the same on the slower bike (Viva). There was a good bit of difference in the measurements. Going to ride today at lunch and we shall see. I also overhauled the bottom bracket on the Viva last night, I don't think it had ever been done before since new. SMOOTH! I think I got the adjustable cup set right...no movement in the pedal arms and no grinding feeling coming from the bracket while riding.

jeirvine 

I think good wheels can make a difference: just things like nicely serviced and set up wheel bearings, spoke tension, tire pressure.

And my Strava account (paid, not free), does allow you to choose which bike was used for each ride. It's just kind of frustrating to not be able to compare bikes, other than manually looking at rides.