asmallsol

There is this group ride that I've been going to on and off for 3 years now. The first year that I did it, there were some pretty fast guys, for me at least at that time, and it was pretty much a hammer fest, and I felt like I applied 110% each ride.

Well fast forward 2 years, I'm now 2 cats lowers, and the group ride is beggining to be a bit slow for me. I will hammer for a bit, then look back and notice I dropped the whole group. So to not feel like a d1ck, I just take it easy.

I like the people at this ride, but I still want to get a good workout in. I have been thinking about brining my cross bike to the ride tonight.

Now the question is, would you consider it to be too cocky/dickish move to bring a bike that basicly says "you guys are too slow for me"?

Ih8lucky13

No not at all.

A few of our group rides especially into the city of Detroit, always have a mix of road and cross bikes.

RazorWind

I see no reason you couldn't do that.

If anyone asks, just say "it's more of a workout this way," or "I want some experience on this bike." No need to be rude or condescending or anything.

knobster

Or just let out 20 psi out of your tires. That should slow you down a little.

Scorer75

Do you really find your cross bike that much slower? I never found mine that much slower than my road bike.

asmallsol

Not that much slower, but slower non the less. And being that its a cross bike, you can run lower pressures which can make you significantly slower depending on how much you let out, and not have to worry about flatting. In addition, the bike is a tank compared to my race bike (S-works tarmac w/ Dura ace and semi light wheels, vs an aluminum low end cross bike, with fenders, crappy wheels, broken left shifter (big ring all the time ) and the heavy cross tires)

umd

That's what I did. Of course, it was true. I was racing on it the following day and had only ridden it a few times.

With road tires, no not any slower other than what could be accounted for by weight. I rode my with the cross tires though, and with the power meter observed that it took significantly more power to go the same speed. I don't remember offhand but I want to say maybe about 10-15% more effort. I've posted about it somewhere...

MIN 

I've taken a hybrid bike with 35c city tires and 5-rail front CETMA rack on a 65 mile group ride before. I choose it because I was riding with slow dudes. I've shown up on group rides with my cross bike plenty of times as well.

I concur with RazorWind's take on the situation.

Creakyknees

you could get basically the same effect by putting your heavy cross wheels on your road bike.

but yeah, whatever works to make the workout harder.

umd

It's not the weight of the wheels it's the tread of the tires.

MONGO!

And a Tarmac won't take tires that wide.

procrit

Get an extra hour of SST in before and after the ride. If it's still easy, do both hours before the ride starts. I've been doing an extra hour before and after our 60+ mile hammer ride, and the suffering is pretty spectacular.

MONGO!

Got a single speed?

botto 

who cares?

Tapeworm21

Do they even make helmets to fit a head your size?

njkayaker

1) It might be surprising that they would notice or really care.
2) Ride an extra 30 miles before the ride!

caloso

People do that all the time around here. Usually in August and September though. I'd just think you were trying to get a jump on CX season.

asmallsol

yep, no problem at all. However its a bi+ch finding shorts that fit over my massive quads.

Noles Fan

I saw what you did there. I saw it and I liked it.

spry

I over excelled in my local group ride so to slow it down I ride a unicycle while balancing a mug of beer on my head.

sac02

Get a fixed gear and gear it such that you have to learn to spin 140+ rpm indefinitely if you want to keep up.

Mac

pinwheel

with some coworkers, I do one legged drills; they got to way slower to get away with that though.

asmallsol

Well I rode the cross bike. Tires were probably at like 50ish PSI (however much air leaked out since the last time I rode it and pumped the tires to 70ish, a week ago)

Great ride. Actually had a few spots with the HR in zone 5+, average HR during the ride was pretty high, and by the end of the ride, I felt like I had really worked hard. If your looking for an anti-advantage, a cross bike with fenders is an option.

JacoKierkegaard

Or you could just gear down and use it as an opportunity to work on maintaining a higher cadence than usual for a long period of time.

socalrider

WE use to have a Cat 1 rider that would show up for rides on his MTB to make it a tougher workout for him.. Granted this was not a slow ride and he would keep up just fine and it sucked when we had some sprints because the knobbies made so much noise you would hear him coming from behind you to contest the sprints..