Definitely. If you're going to hang on, you gotta at least say hi. And if you're gonna be back there for any amount of time, you gotta take a pull too! :) That being said, it seems awfully stupid to draft behind someone on a busy city street where there any many things that could cause an emergency braking situation. Some clown was *apparently* behind me going through campus once and when I stopped at a stop sign for some pedestrians nearly ran right into me and then had the balls to yell at ME. I of course caught up to him and yelled back which resulted in only a sheepish look. What a dink.

Martino and I also got honked at twice by some guy on Harbord late last week. We were riding side-by-side at about 5:00pm in the curb lane, headed Eastbound by Harbord Fish & Chips. You know, about 50' away from where that lane ends and the bike lane starts. As the guy goes by he yells "that isn't a bike lane". wtf. Because we were REALLY holding him up. His wife must have been pissed when he got home 8.5 seconds late! ;)

Kergin: Thanks, it's a Giro Atmos.

Why do bike helmets have the most ridiculous/stupid names??? I think the secret to naming a helmet is coming up with a word that sounds like a real word, thereby subliminally causing any potential consumer to realize how awesome said helmet is.

How's this for a helmet name: Badassmos

Fixed

wheel to wheel was around 2-4" close enough that i could only see shoulders when i was looking over my own shoulder.

That kind of closeness freaks me out and I usually just pull over and let them go ahead a bit. The last thing I need is some knucklehead who thinks he is in the TdF slamming into my back wheel when I brake to avoid hitting something in front of me. Bummer.

That's waaay too close for a non-approved draft. I'll only let ppl I know ride THAT close. Even then in traffic that's just foolish. Shake and break time, or a rearward Heisman :lol:.

Eastern Ontario Roller Racing Championships: http://www.pedalmag.com/index.php?mo...&item_id=12424

Also, as a response to the powertap data that operator posted:

First of all, this likely is not a very good comparison because of 2 things. First of all, I'm making the assumption that average power (watts) is a good indicator of the difficulty of a ride. I have no idea if that really makes sense or not. Secondly, I'm using a web app (http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm) to mathematically determine my average power during a ride. I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Anyway, I downloaded the data that operator posted and calculated the average power for that riding during the donut. It was ~163W. Then I used the web app to determine my own estimated average power during my ride on Saturday morning and it came out to ~197W. That was an easy Zone2 ride for me, so I don't see myself having much trouble maintaining it pretty much indefinitely (assuming I 'fuel' properly! :P).

Yeah, umm.. not really sure where I'm going with this except that it makes me feel better about doing the donut sometime soon. :P

i'm sure we're all in shape enough at some point to keep up with the pace of the doughnut ride, it's the hellish take-no-prisoners pack riding that scares me. i can't believe we're talking about the doughnut ride. we're such roadie scum! i'm shaving my legs later; who's in?

Shave your legs, save the hair in a zip lock bag, then, during the ride, do a pull and unleash the bag behind you. Instant breakaway.

Sorry Jeremy. I'm not up to shaving your legs. I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing the donut. I like to be in shape and fast because it's fun and I think that's enough. I don't really have any desire to become an elite level racer and get in with that crowd. Just not my thing. At least I don't think so... I guess I should check it out at least once though... We should all go wearing cutoffs and hoodies. And our bikes should be really dirty. :D

On a related note, and come to think of it, relating to the thread topic as well, I rode my road bike yesterday and it was boring! It felt too easy or something. Weird.

Oh and thanks Rob for protecting my intellectual property. :D

P.S. I'm at work on lunch right now. To my left is about 35 R3 SL frames and to my right is a built Soloist Carbon and a 3/4 built P3C. :)

So you can't go for a fast road ride without having delusions of grandeur and shaved legs? Interesting. For the record, I don't have either. :)

I will walk in and wink four times with my left eye and that will be the sign that you know it is me. When you see the winks, pretend to go into an epileptic seizure, your co-workers will rush to your aid, I will rush over to the R3s and depart with two of them. Remember, 4 winks of the left eye. Maybe I should touch my head 2 times as well, just so there is no confusion.

4 winks and 2 head touches then convulsions, got it?

the soloist carbon is set up for you to test ride...you know just to make sure everything is ok...;) take it for a good 20 or 30 km ride...

Dan, what's it like working at Cervelo?

I'm far from being roadie scum on my clapped out old Centurion, but I'm definitely in for the donut ride - my only concern is holding the hammer down enough to keep up. I think I'm fairly quick compared to the average person on a bike - but that's not who rides the donut and I'm probably not that fast for long stretches - I rode in a peleton on the ride for heart for a while and had trouble keeping pace after a while, though I was on platforms and not in super shape at the time I still dropped off the pack. I rode back from Niagara Falls (100 miles almost to the dot on my route) the first time in 8.5 hours including lots of breaks, which isn't too bad, but it's no 23+mph constant (I ride more like around 19-21mph mostly as I keep in the same gear all the time). I'll be pushing more on the Hairshirt, which I've not done before.

I'm down for the challenge though :p

Oh and I've only had my legs shaved due to compromised sobriety and girls who thought it'd be funny... yeah, it wasn't and it's not.

As for drafting, I prefer to pull - I hate being behind people too close in the open country, let alone the city - I'm not used to riding in close quarters, so I'm fine with doing some work out front. Drafting unannounced hasn't really happened to me yet, but I've pulled a few buddies through town (places like across the Bloor/Danforth viaduct) which is cool by me. I ride inconsistent hours, and most of the riders I encounter are either way slower or don't seem to ride the same route for long enough, as I stick to the major arteries for my near-daily cross-town riding (Bloor/Danforth being the main drag). Drafting doesn't seem to make much sense to me in town unless it's hella windy, that's about the only thing that'll make me tuck in to the drops, I mostly ride on my hoods/tops.

Edit, the donut is more like 100km? Hmm, well I rode to Cambridge which is about 100kms, I got there in about 4 hours on platforms with a backpack and a few breaks along the way - what's the usual donut ride time? (Desperately trying to see if I'm able to save face and do this thing ;))

Decided to log my ride miles again, this time on my own rather than rely on stuff like routeslip.com (which went down last year for a while and I lost the habit of upkeep). Doing this for both distance analysis and maintenance tracking, as I realised I've no record of when I did work/changed stuff on the bike.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...A0-LT3hXT99DMA

wes - i thought delusions of grandeur were part of the fun! like when i hear a honking car from behind me i imagine that it's a team car following me on the pave. every kid at heart must have his imagination. oh, and the gps i got for xmas has told me lots of neat facts: 12.97kms to kensington and back with 397 calories burned. now i'm having a beer to compensate.

I got me a gps-toy too!

nice - what kind?

Garmin Edge 305. Saturday morning spin w/ Shamil: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4764671 :)

nice - i had one like that but traded it for a forerunner 201. essentially a bike computer with an altimeter and compass.

yar.. I think the forerunner / edge series are pretty similar, except the forerunner is more watch-style. There's an edge 205 as well, but I wanted the heartrate monitor feature, which it doesn't support.

There are a few cool sites that you can use to log/map rides, but they mostly seem to be a little buggy (or don't support my Mac), so I started using Garmin's own MotionBased service. They have software that runs on my laptop too, which I use to pull the data off the device, and which I can also use to set up routines for my indoor trainer. I used that feature for the first time this morning and it was pretty helpful. You just set up a series of 'steps' each with it's own "limiter" (time/distance/heartrate goal/etc) and "rule" (eg. keep heart rate / speed / cadence within a certain range). Obviously I have a separate speed/cadence sensor installed on my bike too as the gps doesn't work so well when you're inside and not technically moving. :)

i like the watch style. think i'm going to play around with the software too. my mom bought my day the etrek for fishing and figured i'd like the same one, even though it's more of a hiking / hunting device. i do appreciate that MEC sells a bike mount for both though. i was surprised that it works pretty well in the city too.

hehehehe

"The Black Jersey Returns
The Giro d'Italia will bring back the infamous Black Jersey in 2008 - the jersey signifying the rider in last place on GC.

The Maglia Nera will be black with white numbers. It was last handed out 57 years ago to none other than Giovanni Pinarello."