The Illusion of Improvement
 

Had an interesting experiment the other day. I recently completed a serious/expensive groupset and wheels/tires upgrade. And my first ride was a 90 minute ride a couple days ago. An important note is that part of this was the installation of a new (Ant+) bike computer (not yet a GPS guy).

It was clearly a moderately different bike (3 pounds lighter, wider gearing range and somewhat better shifting with 2014 Chorus components, Bontrager Race-X Lite wheels, etc). I didn't even bother to read the computer manual assuming that things would be simple.

I got started, things were running, but I wasn't sure what the buttons did what. I really didn't care so I found a distance and speed screen and left it there - if I want to know realtime avg speed I'd just do the math.

The first thing that I noticed was that on a couple of short descents was a solid 1-2 mph max speed improvement (almost certainly mostly better aerodynamics on the wheels). That was nice.

I was riding familiar territory and I went by a familiar first checkpoint at 22:30. 24:30 would be more typical, although I have to admit that I was riding harder than anything that I have measured. Still - very encouraging, but I was paying no attention to the distance reading.

Then at 30 minutes I glanced at the distance and it was 11.0 miles which is 22.0 mph! I am 65 years old and there was certainly no way that this effort (hard, but something less than a max effort 30 min TT) would have ever come close to that average speed over this rolling terrain (local ride where I was close to a loop at that point) on that bike prior to the upgrade.

I finally decided that maybe the LBS had set the computer up with the wrong wheel size. Then I realized that I was not looking at the 'ride mileage' but was looking at the odometer (total mileage). I had certainly done some pedaling on a trainer for a fitting tweak at the LBS that did the work. And it seems reasonable that the computer had encountered more pedaling than that.

And yes, that turned out to be the case. But it was fun for a minute or so to think that I had picked up 2+ mph!

dave

You're still the man- good for you!

Only one way to really get better - improve the motor!

I recently built up a fixed gear bike. I found that my average speeds and Strava segment times are only a tick slower than the same roads on my 2x10 road bike which also has more aero rims and better tires. That was an eye opener. All the fancy gear doesn't make more power...

Best improvement I ever made was by switching my display to KPH. I can hit 50!

Add an extra 31 spoke magnets and watch your speed go up more ;)

Digital Epo FTW!

I'be logged some personal bests on particular segments while on my single speed, which is quite a bit heavier than my multi speed roadie. Go figure..