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Old 12-14-14, 11:46 AM
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whitemax
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Originally Posted by carpediemracing
As I mentioned in my comment above I think that my power numbers are very rough. I think that borrowing a PowerTap wheel or having a friend try a powermeter equipped bike would be the best way to "measure" your trainer. Just to give you an idea I was absolutely anaerobic hitting those numbers and I struggled to hold the camera steady because I felt like I was being asphyxiated doing the efforts. The lens also got foggy from my hands.

Nokons - I got them because I had to turn my bars a lot to get the bike in my car. I blew out Campy shifter housings within a few months, maybe 50-70 total trips. After I blew out a second set of Campy housing I decided to get a segmented housing made from solid cylinders of metal. THe Nokons fit the bill. The early versions, from the mid 2000s, had finish durability problems, but the ones now I've been using for a couple/few years and they're good.

Quick advantages:
- cable housing can't blow apart and in fact the segments basically don't wear unless they're rubbing something like your frame.
- housing doesn't compress at all, although you have to "seat" the housing initially (meaning against themselves).
- you can lengthen housing if moving cables to a different bike or if you're installing a different bar or stem.
- lighter (although it's not much)
- you can seal most of the housing (I run the liner for most of the cable so the cables aren't really exposed to moisture)
- very flexible so you can do some crazy tight turns with the housing.
- reusable (the blue I got in 2010, black in 2011, silver ones under the tape I got in 2007?).
- easy to get even lengths, just count segments. I do this for the shifter housing from the lever to the downtube.
- reparable since you can replace one segment if necessary. I have all my extra segments in a small take out container with a lid.

Disadvantages:
- cost more - typically sold for brakes only or derailleur only, so be careful if you see a good price for "a set".
- requires 1.1 mm derailleur cables (skinny)
- doesn't hold shape as well as regular housing due to the incredible flexibility of the set up.
- if you are tall or have full length housing (like internal top tube brake cable or disc brakes) then you may need to buy additional segments. I've bought 3 sets over the years and I use most of them on two shorter height bikes. Black one has full length internal brake cable housing. Both bikes are longer, 56.5 cm top tubes, so about the same as a 56-57 cm frame. If you have a 60 cm or size XL then you're realistically going to be very short on the segments.

Some thoughts on Nokons.

A picture from my set up before I dropped the clamp point by 3 cm. Note the front brake cable housing curve, which is much worse now that the tops of the bars are 3 cm lower. You can see the transition to black near the tape, and under the tape I run my very beat up silver housing. I also run the silver inside the top tube.
Thanks for the info on the cables.

OK, if anybody is interested....as I am 54 y/o, 185 lbs. with probable max heart rate of low 190's (last checked several years ago at 195) I was riding 53x19 for 30 min. at 88 rps. It typically took about 26 min. or so to cross into 160 bpm range. Today, after warming up the Fluid 2 to get max fluid resistance, I set out to ride 53x17 at 88 rpm. At only 3 min. 20 sec., I crossed over 160 bpms. At 5 min. I was at 168 bpm. It was getting to be quite painful and that's were I pussed out and backed off. As a recognized rationalization, the Frito scoops and dip started calling my name. I reckon I could have made it to 7 or 8 min. tops had I chosen to suffer on but again, it was getting hard.

CarpeDiem, if I might trouble you once more, could you try 53x12 at 57 rpms and see what kinds of numbers you get i.e. speed and power? I'd like to mash some and see what kind of approximate power I get and how long it takes my heartrate to go over 160 bpm. Thanks again for all your help!
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