Originally Posted by
Mr. Fly
Hate to break this to you, but if you can climb any sort of appreciable grade in a 52/14, and still feel "surging", you should turn pro. Otherwise, it's all in your head.
Ouch...maybe I am in the wrong career :-) ... I concur that it could have been, at least partly, in my head...I was not always surging, but, I was feeling pretty darn good.
Originally Posted by
Mr. Fly
Two large water bottles weigh about 5 lbs. Get a friend to help you and ride your old bike with and without the water bottles. Do you feel any significant difference?
Good question. Here's something funny. Since coming back to riding, I have not used a water bottles (and no food) while at home (I started with rides of 5 miles and then kept increasing just fine without it...when I did my first 35+ mile ride, I did bring water, but only consumed one bottle and felt fine)...but, in Hawaii, when using the rental (and in 80+ degree weather), I did bring and use 2 water bottles. So, maybe in the end, the bike and "paraphernalia" weights of my bike and the rental were the same after all. (For the record, I will be using water bottles when the heat turns up a bit in Austin and I am doing longer rides.)
Originally Posted by
Mr. Fly
A relatively accurate test is to ride timed loops with different bikes. From the reports of people commuting to work (i.e., same distance) on their different bikes, it appears that elapsed time doesn't appreciably differ between bikes with minor differences (i.e., not 15 lbs road bike vs. 45 lbs downhill bike).
Great idea!! We have a veloway here and I could indeed do such a test there. Brilliant.
Originally Posted by
Mr. Fly
If you would like a new bike, buy a new bike. There's no need for reasons or excuses, especially if you're not racing and the tiny bit of time saved during climbing is therefore a moot point.
If in the end, I want a new bike no matter what, I have to say, I agree...although, hmm, if I turn pro, I would have this taken care of for me :-)