Mars

I going to Boston this afternoon for a follow up appointment with my doctor regarding the surgery I got around Christmas. So, no riding tomorrow. We got another dumping of snow over the weekend, though the weather today is quite lovely.

I was thinking of our Aussie friend: Cyloholic the speed demon. He mentioned that he uses aero bars on his bike. I have some on my roadie and used them when I wnated to giddyup or was bucking a strong headwind. I found they were hard to stay in for extended periods, though. It occurs to me that as verylong commuters or extreme commuters, getting aero should be one of our priorities. What can you do to get more aero, both now and when we go back to the VLC mode again when the weathr turns warm (for those of us in the north)?

For me, the single biggest thing I can do is take off all this winter gear I am currently wearing. My pants and jacket are relatively form fitting and don't flap in the wind, but I definitely have a bigger aero profile wearing all these layers. The large, treaded tires are slow, but only partially because of aero effects. For today, I can take off the permantly mounted lights (I don't really need them now that it is getting lighter out) and get my brake and shifter cables bundled up more neatly. I've been focusing on keeping my elbows tucked in and have my seat tilted all the way back. I could start working on the tailbox I have been thinking about...but that is a huge project and I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

Happy riding everybody, and I'll see you on Tuesday.

Marylandnewbie

Switch from an upright hybrid to almost anything else! Oh and I suppose dropping another 40 lbs would make me more aero. Until then, any concern about aero for me is like putting a spoiler on a '76 Gremlin.

Mars you've got to do the tailbox -- show all of us who've done homebrew light setups what bicycle DIY is really all about! How hard can a styrofoam mold for fiberglass be to make or really show us how its done with wood veneers. Don't make us come up there and slap you across the face with an old inner tube to make this a formal challenge.

Here's hoping to get a full week of bike commuting in next week.

jur

Over the past year my position on the bikes has been getting lower and lower. In the beginning my hands took too much weight so I set my now-sold comfort bike to as high as possible. Then I learned about fit and how to remove weight from the hands while leaning more forward, paradoxical as this sounds, but it works - just set the seat backwards. Now when I slightly bend my arms, my trunk is roughly at the same angle as riding on a road bike's hoods. I can't put aero bars, my handle bars seem to be too far forwards.

Cyclaholic

I inspired a thread topic, cooooool

Sounds like you adjusted your position correctly, I went the other way and moved the seat further forward and dropped the bars lower. The penalty is that I have more weight on my hands when not in the aerobars, and I can't take my hands off the bars. But when I get down my torso is horizontal and my thighs don't come up high enough to restrict my breathing. The extra weight forward when in the aerobars doesn't matter because it's not on my wrists, and it helps in climbing.

I've done a fair bit of mucking around with gear and found that my seating position was the #1 factor closely followed by panniers - they're like two little parachutes so I don't used them day-to-day any more. The most aero storage system I've tried so far is my topeak trunk bag. The next thing is wheels & tyres, I commute on 36 spokers and 37mm schwalbe marathons with mr tuffy's. My other wheelset is the Shimano R550 with 23mm Conti ultragators.... half the weight, huge difference in acceleration, more aero, but seem a bit too fragile to commute on.

Mars, the tailbox would make a huge difference - most definitely worth the effort!!. Fiberglass or eve carbonfibre over a styrofoam plug is really not all that difficult, and you would be instantly cannonised as the DIY god

-=(8)=-

Best wishes for a good report, MARS.

I do notice a little pick-up down in the drops and
my fixie can only be ridden aero but I also have been
cursed with bad feet. My feet give me many problems.
When my feet are 'good'.......my commute is fast and easy,
When they hurt, anything to ty to speed up is an exercise in futility.
I have my new temp assignment and it is in Rutland. The commute
is about 6.5 miles with about 1.5 of them really bad in-town stuff.
I rode my mountain beater in Thurs & Fri. because it has to be kept outside.
After the MotoBacon and especially the lithe and agile fixie, the MTB was
borderline unrideable I have respect '0 plenty for you guys who go
MTB it every day !!

Be safe !!

Cyclaholic

Well, I'm not exactly sure what happened but I dropped by the bike shop today to get some brake pads and walked out with a deposit slip for one Giant OCR zero with Ultegra groupset which I'm picking up at the end of the week. The ride home was easy with so much weight taken out of my wallet

Next decision, which aerobars.......

-=(8)=-

^^^^^ WOW !! Great stuff Cyclaholic !
Pictures soon ??

Do us a favor though.....no more stat posting with this bike...
I feel weak enuff after the last batch......

CigTech

Well I got 175 miles of commute comming this week at 35 miles a day.

I noticed last night that my peddles where moving with the chain. Is this caused by dirt in the drive train or is this normal? This only happens when I take my feet off the peddles. I don't fell it at all with my feet on the peddles. I have 145 miles no the Techtra lite over the last 4 days. How often do you need to clean and erlube the drive train and axles?

Jarery

Wind appears to have picked up.
40 kph wind with gusts 60 kph

And its from the south, my 25k ride home is west to east.

Dangit, I NEVER get tailwinds

Gusboh

I tell you what, even with a kiddy on the way, the man still has his priorities straight!

rykoala

Hey Cig, that usually means that the freewheel mechanism is sticky. Nothing to worry about really. Its probably just really old and the lube in it is sticky. You CAN relube freewheels, but you might be better off with a new one (and a new chain) anyway. If its not causing any problems, I wouldn't worry about it.

The only thing that was extreme about me today was being extremely wimpy. Yep, I wimped out today. Had a really bad episode last night (skipped my medication for 1 day... BAD idea...) and was wiped out this morning. Slept in late and got a ride in to work with my wife. Tonight I am hoping for a good nights sleep and clear skies tomorrow am. It was supposed to rain today but it didn't really, and tomorrow its supposed to snow. Ha. Last time they said that, the snow was gone by 3pm.

Take care all

Cyclaholic

The missus and I were talking about it just recently and to my surprise she was all for the idea of me geting a nice road bike, she knows I've wanted one for a while. I reckon the pregnancy hormones had something to do with it so I figured I better get in quick before they wore off

So, are you doing the loop-the-lake ride this Sunday? (www.loopthelake.org.au)
I'm heading up on the train and meeting a friend at the start, he's a Cat.C racer and trains around that area so I'll probably blow a gasket trying to stay on his wheel . It's only 80km so we'll be back at his place in Swansea for a BBQ lunch and a few brews. You should come up if you're not busy.

CigTech

Well today I had no Head wind so I made good time getting to work. My ARTS (Average Ride Time Speed) was 16.56 for the 16.84 mile ride. I made it in 1h 1m and 11 sec. On the ride home I had a 6mph Head wind. I have a new high speed down hill speed for the Techtra Lite. It's 30.2 MPH. I was flying this morning. My top flat speed has 22.1 MPH. I wear blue jeans on the ride, maybe if I got some biking shorts I could make better time?

Rykoala, Thanks for you thoughts on the fly wheel. I will pull it on the 9 and give it a good cleaning and relube. I have a new chain already and think I might just change it as well.

Mars

The bike shorts will be way more comfortable than your jeans, in many different ways. Better padding, less abrasion, better sweat absorption. They won't restrict your motion either. In your jeans, you are likel y expending energy with each rotation of the pedals stretching the cloth out and back. Also, the biking shorts will make you more aero because they are so form fitting. The babes will like them too.

Gusboh

Mars, i'm not a psych, but i'm doing human factors work. i don't know if the 'real' psych community considers that psych stuff or not.

Cyclo - if you are gonna struggle to stay on his wheel, i think i'll struggle to stay in the same postcode!
I've asked the Mrs. what's doing, she'll get back to me soon i hope.

Anyway, commute was good this morning. Can't really think of anything wrong with it. Yesterday was the day of the doofus though. At least 10 major moron moments™ witnessed.

jur

Would you believe it?! The rear fender is now also wrecked due to a stick flipping up and getting caught. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! No word from the local council yet except an auto-reply that my request for work has been lodged.

I'm going to have to abandon these ultra-nice SKS fenders in favour of el cheapo plastic clip-ons which do not have stays and which are inadequate.

Cyclaholic

As soon as I hit the freeway this morning I spotted a couple of roadies about 1/2 mile ahead and ofcourse went into pursuit mode.... guessing that I should have them in about 2 - 3 miles..... 10 miles later and I'm seeing double from the effort as I finally close on them, these guys were riding real nice carbon with aerobars, looked like tri bikes, and they were pacelining regularly rotating. I held on for another 7 or 8 miles but couldn't stay with them up the last big climb, they faded into the distance.... I just faded

What I noticed was that their bikes showed signs of being ridden regularly and hard, they were wearing sun-faded lycra and didn't give me any attitude but once they realised I was there they pointed out road hazards and used hand signals, basically they seemed OK with me being there. They were lean and thickly muscled in the legs so I'm guessing they were very competitive racers, and they were moving! we were consistently up around 42 - 45km/h. I never really recovered from the initial chase even though I never took a pull up front and drafted them the whole time.

I love commuting

Gusboh

And with that effort, Gus would be dead.

Jur - have you tried the stick deflector idea that someone gave you?

jur

Cyclo: I bet these guys' names were Lance and George. Were they wearing Discovery Channel jerseys?
Gus: I have given it thought but not a try. I am not convinced it would be any good. Right now after fixing my black set of guards I have one set looking OK to good, and one set half broken off and with big cracks. I am loathe to press my luck with the set that I managed to make look good again. Maybe I should lay off some speed through the bad section.

Marylandnewbie

Jur -- that's some seriously bad luck with fenders. I've caught sticks and a few other things, but I've never broken the fenders. Usually the stuff just goes flying. I guess I've been lucky.

Cyclo -- I can't even imagine going that fast without being dropped out of a plane or riding off a cliff. Congratulations on the ride.

I had a very uneventful, pleasant ride today. Weather was great and the bike was rolling smoothly. I picked up an ad hoc riding partner on the ride home and for about 4-5 miles we rode along talking. We had hopscotched past each other a couple of times before he pulled up even. If he had come across me this time last year I couldn't have held up any conversation beyond gasps and grunts. As it was I was comfortable at 11-12mph uphill and probably could have sped up but that seemed rude. I'm not very up on the etiquette of such things since riding is usually solitary for me unless I'm with my family. Anyway it was a pleasant change of pace. Its also nice to be riding home in less than total darkness. These days if I push reasonably hard on the ride home I can make it home before you really need lights.

CigTech

This morning a guy on a Cannondale went around me. I was going 16.5 MPH into a head wind of 9mph. This guy had the bike shoes, outfit and air bars. I had Blue jeans and pull over shirt. So I step it up to 19.7mph and stayed right behind. Then He looks back and see me there. He steps up the speed and I match it. then he looks back again to see me still right on his back tire. So he steps it up again to 22mph. So I step it up as well. After 3 miles he is getting winded. Me I have him drifting for me LOL. So we get to the bay bridge after 5 miles and he stops so I do to. He tells me he is wanting to know "Why did I pay $1500.00 for this set up when you can stay right behind me on a huffy?" I then told him what I paid for the bike and he got mad at himself...... I have $30.00 in the tires which is $5.00 more than what I paid for the Techtra Lite. LOL I then point out that is was a racing bike not just a huffy, and that I commute 35 miles a day. That made him feel a little better. But it did not help his ego when I told him that I had already rode 8 miles before he pasted me.

Needless to say I made good time getting to work this morning. My ARTS = 15.16 MPH with a head wind of 9MPH. After I got out of sight I slowed to 14 MPH. So just because you see a old Huffy rider don't think you can just run off and leave them in your dust...LOL

Cyclaholic

Oh no, no no, I was sucking wheel and breathing thru my ears while they were comfortable. I got my rear end handed to me this morning, I wasn't even in their league!

Cyclaholic

LOL. Nah, don't worry mate, he's on notice that I'm in it for a social ride because I stil have a whole lot of commuting to do. if I go for an 80km hammerfest on Sunday I won't make it to work on Monday

jur

I had a really embarrassing moment this morning.

I was tooling along nicely, going quite fast because I want to build endurance. So after a while I see this rider in front of me on the path on a hybrid. Looked like the same guy I sometimes see in the home direction who sometimes sucks my wheel when I blow by him. Since I am hammering a bit, I pass him, say good morning and steam on. I hear the guy say "Hello. Oh, HELLO!" Hello, he's glad to see me, thinks I. After a few moments I look in the mirror, sure enough he's sucking my wheel again. So I pile on some extra speed. He keeps up. More speed and I'm beginning to blow like a whale. Gradually the chap falls back. At the bridge over the creek he catches up a bit as I slow down, and on the very steep hill he overtakes me (remember, I'm single speed so have to labour slowly up the hills). He says with a big smile, "I couldn't keep up!"

And blow me down, it's my own mate from work!!!! He was late, usually he starts 30 minutes earlier than me so we never rode together yet. Made me feel very small, I had to apologise and assure him I wasn't trying to drop him, which I was, but I didn't know it was him.

Mars

Whoa, some seriously fast riders here on this forum! Maryland, Jur, and Cigtech's stories show the pleasure that come from getting faster and more fit from our commuting. AS we put those hard miles behind us, there are not too many riders that can drop us, even in our commuting gear. On the other hand, Cyclaholic's story reminds us to remain humble, because the truly elite cyclists are still in a class on their own. Some of you might remember Doug the Cat 2 thug that I sometimes ride with. Every time I get cocky, it seems he shows up on my commute and leaves me gasping in his wake.

On the other hand, my pre-surgery speeds are really coming back. Today had light winds for a change, and I was able to keep above and sustain 20 mph on the flat sections of my ride. I can't wait for summer and getting the slicks back on my bike....