ovoleg

I lost 5lbs and I noticed a difference. Of course, I wasn't flying up the mountains but I definately see at least a 1mph difference on some of the steeper sections around me.

Also, riding by yourself seems to work much better than with a group. Many times if you get stuck behind someone, it takes alot of energy going slower whereas you can just sutain your speed and probably do better alone.

Lower gearing or higher gearing? I tried both and they seem about the same. Sometimes I will downshift pretty far, get up and climb at 40rpms with pretty much the same speed as with lower gears sitting down.

I need to get a right cleat so I can start standing up more often and pull up while standing. Yes, this works as well. My right cleat is worn to **** so whenever I pull up too hard, it clips out and I lose alot of energy.

Overall the help worked,

Thanks Euro, terry and everyone else

Baldy88

Losing weight is the cheapest upgrade on the market with the biggest return.

Phatman

I just drank 13 beers, thats about 1300 calories...which equals almost a half of a pound...if I put out 300 watts susutained, what is the difference in speed for an 85 kg person?

jschen

5 pounds, 1+ MPH? That can't be just due to weight. Not unless you're climbing insanely fast. But I'm glad to hear your climbing is improving.

13 beers, let's assume 12 oz beers. Never mind the calories... 12 oz is about 330 grams, so if you haven't gone to the bathroom, you just put on about 4300 g. If your bike is 8 kg, that means your total weight (bike and rider) just went from 93 kg to 97 kg. About a 5% difference.

Now we must ask how 13 beers affects your power output. The reduced coordination surely will reduce your sustained output somewhat. I dunno... 10%? So you'll be about 15% slower, perhaps. But this is just a wild guess.

Conclusion: You'll have to try a before and after sometime and let us know.

Phatman

dude, I have peed so many times its not even funny. you know whats also not funny? the number of times I have pressed the fing backspace button to correct typos. I'm like a backspace pro.

anyway. so lets say that I've peed like 10 times, with an average of .33 liters each time. Then what?

does your head hurt yet? cuase mine is gonna hurt like hell tomorrow. hahahahaha. sigingin off,

phatman.

have a good eveing folks.

Duke of Kent

However, he can sustain a high wattage for a longer period of time due to the fact that he CAN'T FEEL his legs burning.

TNoodles

Better stick to the trainer, riding a bike on the road after 13 beers is as illegal in most states as driving a car under a similar influence, and carries with it all of the lovely legal consequences like jail, fines, and loss of license.

ovoleg

I sustained 400w at roughly 19mph while I was going up Fargo at 18%+ grade.

I dub myself LA #2

derath

Just a shame you can't fedex it

msheron

I lost 25 lbs. and it made a difference as well. Best reduction there is.

Socalcycling

Was that when you were on the bike or falling on your a$$.

feltdude

19MPH up an 18% grade on your Suzuki doesn't count.

DocRay

Well, there certainly is some #2 involved.

ovoleg

That's when I dropped you at 400 Joules per second.

patentcad

I gained 10lbs over the winter, but much of it may well be from my weight lifting program. I'm climbing BETTER. Hoping the weight loss from higher mileage/warmer weather combines with the apparent power boost to punch my riding this season. We'll find out soon enough.

Remember it's a POWER to weight ratio. So it's not just weight weenies. It's whatever HP you can muster from your weenie body too. That is the hard part. If you haven't figured that out yet.

All that being said the most direct way to improve climbing is to shed pounds. No doubt. Never a bad thing for cycling.

umd

I too have noticed a marked increase in performance over the course of losing ~10lbs. I've improved my climbing times signficantly for "normal" effort levels, but have not yet improved my personal best, achieved when I was somewhere between 6-7lbs. heavier. To be fair I have not attempted it at max effort since then...


I guess it depends on the group--the fastest climbs I've done have always been with other people much faster than me, motivating me to push harder than I would have otherwise. On the flip side I also regularly climb with a guy that is slightly slower than me and the difference in effort for a [3 mile, 1200 foot] 24 minute climb vs. 22 minutes is immense.


I can go faster for short periods of time in a harder (lower? I can never remeber...) gear, but I can't sustain the speed for long at that gearing, I always tire myself out. I guess its going to depend on the actual difference between your "low" and "high" gear ratios, and what exactly you mean by "about the same". I've done the aforementioned climb with a 42x21 (2:1) in about 25 min but for my fastest time (< 22) I had to granny it all the way with 32x25 (1.28:1). That's a pretty big difference in gearing and a modest time improvement (about 12%). What low and high gear ratios are you switching between and how close are the resulting speeds actually? You have to compare over fairly long sustained climbs to really notice the difference.

umd

230 watts over 145lbs = 3.5 w/kg
230 watts over 135lbs = 3.75 w/kg

I'd have to hit 127 to get 4. I don't think that will happen, I'll probably bottom out at or around 130. Still lifting weights at the gym and still climbing faster so I don't think I'm losing any power--the numerator in the equation should be fairly static.


I believe it was a post of yours (to me) that inspired me to get off my butt and shed my last few pounds of fat. Thanks, especially since my recent camera-weenieism purcases have pre-empted bike-weight-weenieism (1DIIN for any other camera weenies out there).

Socalcycling

Why is the shift up/down thing so hard to understand?

PistachioAddict

that weren't too clear, *edit* if you crash weight loss you can lose power, I definately noticed but then I did little high intensity work, I am trying to lose weight again but I will incrprate high intensity work to maintain or increase power else some of the weight loss is muscle wastage from lower body.

ovoleg

What shift up/down thing?

patentcad

>>my recent camera-weenieism purcases have pre-empted bike-weight-weenieism <<

Two of the most fiscally devastating forms of weenism known to man.

God help you my friend (and if you're married your spouse).

Phatman

what about golf weenieism and stereo weenieism? Luckily, I've never been afflicted by either of these diseases, but they seem pretty devastating also.

BTW, in case you guys didnt realize, I was pretty drunk in the above two posts I made. This is the last weekend before racing season starts...I needed to get it out of my system...or into my system, if you will.

feltdude

Where are you racing next week Phatman, Wake Forest?

Phatman

I think I'm gonna skip wake, and do just the william and mary road race instead. I just dont want my first race of the season to be a crit, since my handling isn't totally back yet. I figure I'll ease into it.

that said, I think theres a few guys from our team doing the wake forest crit. theres also a uscf race too, so a few guys are gona do multiple races for upgrade points.

feltdude

Yeah, I'm pondering entering the USCF race but I don't know.