simplybao

My ride home always consists of a climb up Mt. Sequoyah where I live. On those days where we ride 30 miles, I really appreciate the granny gear

Bravin Neff

Sure its part engine and part bike, no doubt about it. But the engine part is way more of a factor the faster you go. In physics class we learned power required goes up with the cube of velocity (as air resistance goes up with the square of velocity). Think about that. This means the dominant factor becomes the engine after all the weight and drivetrain friction arguments had their say. Air resistance becomes the limiting factor to going faster, say about 15mph -- and it only goes up from there. This applies to everything - bikes, cars, airplanes, whatever. Overcoming air resistance is achieved by power.

The bike plays its role in this argument mostly in that its geometry largely dictates your body positioning, and this in turn dictates your cross sectional area - which has an impact on your air resistance. Therefore the main reason a guy is faster on the drop bar road bike over his straight bar hybrid has more to do with the lower wind drag of his shape than anything attributable to, for example, the former has a 105 road group set vs the Acera thing on the latter.

Now think about the frictional losses of (say) the Alfine 11 vs. the (e.g.,) some current 105 derailleur setup one might suspect "solves" the "problem." Say the Alfine is 90% efficient and the derailleur is 95% efficient. The efficiency difference is the same whether you are 5 mph or 10 mph or 25 mph. In other words, you will gain from the increase in efficiency linearly as a function of speed by trading from the one hardware to the other, but that's all the gain you ever get - just 5%.

So I'm strictly in the camp of its mostly the engine and just some of the bike.

But bikes are definitely cool, and your Spot is a really friggin awesome one.

gregeas

Thanks for all of the comments. This is exactly what I was looking for.

A couple of notes:

* I'm using SPD pedals and shoes, which seem to help
* The tires are 28mm, but I'm not sure if they are "stiff" commuter tires that could be improved
* I'm riding the same loop each time (it's beautiful and almost deserted) and tracking my speeds via Strava and a Wahoo SC device connected to my iPhone via Blueooth. Should be completely accurate.
* The route has several sustained climbs that require Me to push hard. Most of these come at the beginning, when I'm not warmed up.

Last weekend I pumped up my tires to 70 psi (close to the stated max), and my speed increased to 14.5 MPH. This was a surprising jump, and I'm guessing there may have been other factors in play. Maybe this thread motivated me.

One thing Im learning is that generally being "in shape" doesn't translate directly into better riding. It does seem like I need to increase my mileage, but this will have to wait until the spring. Short days combined with icy winters here won't do me any favors.

This is thread has also convinced me that I can't blame the bike too much. I'm sure there are much faster ones, but ultimately this is all about my fitness and fun. I'm only competing with myself.

Cognitive

Strava may not be telling you the whole story. Find the entire ride of some of the people around your ranking and see. It's either a consistent speed over 20-30 miles (which is impressive) or the KOM guy is pretty much training for the Tour De France (a former coworker / KOM manages to do 25mph's where I struggle to do 12) or some people simply do it one segment at a time, flat out, then the next, etc etc.

warpdrive

I have two bikes:

Focus Urban with Alfine 8 speed and Gates belt drive. Very similar to your bike in drivetrain and weight. Weight of that bike is about 25 lbs on 32C tires.
My other bike is my Trek Domane carbon bike with full Ultegra drivetrain, brand name carbon wheels and high performance tires. Weight is about 17 ish pounds.

If I ride my commuting route with is mostly flat, with one hilly section, I can probably average about 1.5 mph faster over the same course (15-16mph) on my road bike.
Sure my road bike is faster, but not significantly so. It certainly feels faster and lively, but in the end, my average speed is still dictated by the engine, me. On the same commute, I’d had people on hybrids pass me. No big deal since I know I’m not a fast rider.

So yes, the bike does matter, but it’s still mostly about the engine.

tattman23

I'd say it's fair to describe my personal cadence and avg speeds, as "pokey" or maybe just "kinda pokey" - but reading the word "velocity" here, sure makes me FEEL faster (I got VELOCITY when I'm on my bike!). Not sure why, but usually I think of velocity as a property of very fast things like rockets or mag-lev trains etc.

Cool Thread.

Bravin Neff

LOL Dude, you got some serious velocity there.

tattman23

Not a thread-jack (but I'm weak and I cannot resist);
Bike-Puter Hack - One way I found to significantly increase both avg and MAXimum speeds on my rides, is very simple. Just take a 2nd "spoke magnet" (like the one I have left over from when some maroon absconded with my first twist-lock Sigma unit) and mount it on the front wheel spoke opposite the spoke that already has a magnet on it. The other day, according to the computer, I hit max speed near 60 mph!

DeadGrandpa

When I was your age, I didn't think it was worth getting on my bike if I wasn't going to go at least 20 miles. It would take me 30 minutes to warm up. Nowadays, at 62, it takes closer to an hour to warm up, and a 24 mile ride is a 'short' ride. A 'good' ride is 35-45 miles. 100 mile weeks are lazy weeks for me. I'm not criticizing you, just trying to add perspective. As I age, I find it takes more effort to get and stay fit. My current bike is a heavy hybrid, about 32#, and I average 12.5 to 13.5 mph on unloaded training rides. On a recent tour I averaged 10.3 to 12.3 mph with 25# or more of gear, food and water. I just returned to cycling on Labor Day, so I am still on the front of the conditioning curve.

My advice to you is to ride your loop backwards, so you hit the hills at the end. The second day, do the same then turn around and ride the loop forwards, the way you currently ride. Yes, I said it. Ride it twice. Rest the next day, then ride it twice again. Repeat. Don't quit. If you don't vastly improve your speed in six weeks time, I would be amazed.

Flatbroke

can't help but I just joined strava and ranked 260 out of 260 in spots. So you are doing good.