caloso

Finally tried Zwift. All it took was buying an Eero so wifi would reach the garage, buying a 4iiii HRM so my Quarq would talk to my iPad. Oh yeah, and getting a new iPad.

It was actually pretty cool.

tetonrider

ok, so you're adding speed into it, which is fine.

gear ratio depends only on # of teeth on the chainring & # of teeth on the cogs (although distance covered/speed will vary based on wheel/tire size, pressure).

but what we're talking about here is keeping the same force and cadence.

typically, when people make a crank arm length change, they adjust cadence up or down and force on the pedals decreases or increases to match (i.e. power is the same).

in the hypothetical above, if the muscles are firing at the same speed and with the same force, longer cranks will make for an effectively larger gear (analogy); the bike will go faster/further.

you wrote that @Ygduf's cadence hadn't changed (i didn't look); i was just citing that if what you said is true, it would definitely explain an increase in power, all else equal.

if you want to hold power constant, then cadence/force will change, and speed/distance will stay the same.

gears and gear ratio have a very specific mechanical meaning, which is why i said "effectively" earlier.

Ygduf

these are trainer rides on a KK, so wheel revolutions/minute are basically a function of power, hence the very-early-morning computation of gear ratios * cadence.

Anyway, pm slope should not have changed when changing the crank arms. calibrated offset didn't change, but I definitely didn't hang weights and take it that seriously.

Biggest change is my knee-to-spindle position now with the additional 1cm - (tiny bit forward from dropping saddle 1cm) and the pads effectively coming up 1cm as well.

If this rain ever ****ing stops I'll go outside and then I'll have a better idea if it's all placebo or pm drift or whatever.

TexMac

1x7 then a flat, hop on bike and another flat.

revchuck 

Sounds like a reverse Midas touch - everything you touch turns to ****. Same wheels from the wreck last weekend?

hubcyclist

came home a bit early to fit in a ride since I haven;t done anything since tuesday. did a zwift workout, sweet spot consisting of 2 30min blocks with alternating 5mins @ 95% and 5min at 85%. The tougher part was because of my gearing either spinning too slowly or too quickly for my personal pref.

revchuck 

My solution for this is an 11 speed 12-25 cassette (ten speed 12-23 works the same way). With a compact crankset, 50-19 gives about 18.5 mph and there's a one-tooth difference out to the 12t cog. That translates to about a five rpm change for most of it. Makes it easier to stay with your preferred cadence.

hubcyclist

I have 8 speed so that's the bigger problem lol

revchuck 

In that case, you're well and truly screwed!

TheKillerPenguin

4 yesterday with 1x15 of a flat ground ftp test that I punked out on because I was like "this is going way too good, oh god am I going to hard? I must be going too hard this hurts. It's supposed to hurt though. I don't want to hurt." and I mentally cracked. Then I did 3x20 tempo to complete a workout. Until I got skittish the number was yuge and on par with my last uphill climbing test which was nice.

Today was 5hrs z2 doing some aero skill building (practicing IAB, riding in the drops for a couple of hours, etc). Tomorrow is the same. Sunday is prolly 5-6 with the first 4 or so hangin with bikebros.

20+hr base weeks into perpetuity! I should get some hobbies.

carpediemracing 

What you want to calculate is pedal speed, meaning how far the pedals are going. With similar rpm but with longer cranks your pedals will be going further. It looks like it's a leverage thing as you're making less power for a given amount of pedal movement.



However, having said that, I can sustain better power on longer cranks than on shorter ones. I tried really hard twice for full seasons and once for 6 months to move to shorter cranks because "aero" but when I got out in the races I was struggling just to hang in. I'm weaker so I think I'm much closer to the cusp of getting shelled, probably exacerbates the delta, but still, longer cranks are so much easier. Acclimatization period for my last 170->175 change was one day, and I spent 6 months on the 170s prior to that. I spent basically a year on the 170s twice before, and immediately felt much better when I went to 175s.

Ygduf

Mmm. Pedal speed indicator. If only there were a device that measured torque and cadence and calculated work from that information.

A few years ago I'd get annoyed that you all literally have no idea what you're talking about and are telling me what's up about something that I already know about.

(Except TR, and his "check the slope" argument, which is tautology and never not wrong, but therefore slightly irritating in a different vein)

Instead I'll ride outside and see if it fits. As long as it's steady, idgaf, really. TT bike is so far under road threshold that if it adds 10tss to workouts once or twice a week, over the course of 40 days my CTL will be inflated by 3 points which still doesn't matter because no race result has ever had my CTL listed on the USAC page.

Y'all worry too much.

Wylde06

I rode my bike today outside. It was pretty awesome.

aaronmcd

Rain held off. Climbed Mt Tam twice, 2x50+ @90%.
Cuz I think it's gonna be pouring tomorrow.
5:17 325 TSS

TheKillerPenguin

Mt Tam is pretty (i've only ridden it once). I'm jealous!

wktmeow

Rode a group ride with Tmonk until I flatted. He was nice enough to wait up for me. Felt pretty good and even put in a couple of mini attacks, then towed a couple of juniors around in the wind. Legs felt great after the Swami's bit, was able to sit at threshold into a cross headwind for a good while.

Also got stung by a bee

4 hours 265ish tss

hack

pretty much that

rubiksoval

Went out and rode 3 hours at 300w yesterday. That's up from 2:17 last week. Last 30 minutes were death. Works out to about 90% ftp. Don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon.

90 mile group ride today and cracked 1500w for the first time. Ended up with 850 tss for this week. Happy with all of these nice numbers.

tetonrider

"should not have changed."

true in theory, not so in practice. that manufacturer's PM is sensitive to ring changes.

in my direct experience, slope is susceptible to change when anything on those units is changed -- ring, arms, bolt type (SS or alu), or even torque changes on bolts with the same rings.

you certainly don't have to care about it, but this is a discussion forum. i don't care whether your power is correct or not, but declaring it 'all good' without verifying is simply not possible. those kinds of statements get read and passed on.

this is NOT true for all spiders, but it has been true for all generations of Quarqs that I have seen.

(and, yes, they needed software to specifically correct for ring and temperature changes because it's not handled directly by hardware; arm changes are incredibly rare, so it's not that the unit is unaffected -- it's just that it doesn't come up often enough.)

still, as i said before, if cadence was the same with longer arms, that would explain higher power. hell, maybe you are even stronger than the #s indicate, but it was masked by a slope change that corresponds to lower power.

Wylde06

I did that today.

For 6 minutes.

Ygduf

didn't touch the rings tho

tetonrider

point = missed.

TheKillerPenguin

4hrs with globecanvas and 3 others at a mostly civil pace. Tried out some aero stuff on some pulls, and attacked a climb 1hr in and 3.75hrs in to see how legs would respond after the previous 3 day's volume (4, 5, 5). The watts are there and I feel sluggish but OK, which is good because it means I'm not in race shape and there will be gains to be had once build starts. I bugged out on the last 1.5hrs of the ride (I was going to ride home from the finish) but I didn't feel like being lost in my thoughts and called it a day.

~21hrs. 950 TSS. Feel like a slacker (seriously. i have issues.) Last week was 21.5hrs @ 950TSS or so. Next week I'd like to aim for 24ish hours, which is what I wanted this week, but life gets in the way sometimes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The last time I checked my CTL was 3 weeks ago and it was 104. So I'm going to guess my CTL is higher than 104 at this point.

hubcyclist

2.5hrs on zwift @ 80%, trying not to be bitter that I didn't get to ride outside in 50 degree weather yesterday

Enthalpic

"I ride one day per week."