| Thursday September 2nd at 4:17 PM by Jack |
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Well, we found someone who can beat Steve up a hill.
I didn't realize that the Greylock TT goes from the North! That descent was pretty tough in the cold rain, and I was thinking the whole way down how that side would have been much more "fun" to go up. Yeah, that makes a big difference, forget everything I wrote, that side is a bastard. |
| Thursday September 2nd at 12:45 PM by Steve T. |
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I went out on my posted Thursday ride with Nigel, a friend of Jeff's son. He is a very nice guy, but a member of a group I don't usually ride with, namely 23 year old, 145 pound, bike racers. Fortunately for me, he had a hard 75 mile ride yesterday, so today was a recovery ride for him. As a result, we "only" did 34 miles at 20.4 mph. The trip included several climbs, which left me clearing Niegel's dust out of my eyes. The heat wasn't that bad, but it was warm enough that I ran out of water, which made the last leg of the journey a bit more interesting, at least for me. However, overall it was a very good ride, and hopefully Niegel will join us again. |
| Thursday September 2nd at 11:01 AM by Harvey |
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Dave - I get about one month of service on my Polar after the low battery indicator turns on. The biggest power consumer is the optical download. Keep away from that and you'll have weeks of operation left. |
| Thursday September 2nd at 11:00 AM by Harvey |
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It took me ~1 hour, but I was riding at century pace with my cross bike. You'll do it in 45 minutes. |
| Thursday September 2nd at 10:52 AM by Dave Foley |
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Doug, I calculate the other Doug (Jansen) or whoever rode 37 minutes would need to average 4.8w/kg. Guessing you can do 4w/kg for this duration, putting you in the 44-45 minute range, not accounting for wind, sudden fall weight gain, going out way too hard and blowing up, locusts, etc. |
| Thursday September 2nd at 10:41 AM by Dave Foley |
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Jack didn't you go up from the Rt 7 side? I think this race comes up from the north side. It flattens out quite a bit in the last mile or two but the bottom is brutal. I never did the race but rode it last year with the Cyclonauts. Don't recall times. |
| Thursday September 2nd at 10:06 AM by Jack |
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Doug, I don't know where they start the TT from, but the climb I did with Christine on July 10 took 1:02 from the last point of extended coasting, which was well outside the park border, and included at least 3 periods of waiting at low speed / low power and even turning around. Hardly a TT effort. But I think you will be able to do easily within 10 minutes of the record. If you take out the junk from my ride, and start nearer the "gate", then I think I could have done 50 minutes without breathing hard. |
| Thursday September 2nd at 9:16 AM by Doug |
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Im doing the greylock TT, has anyone timed their ride up that mountain? Im just looking for an estimate so I can approximate pacing, the record appears to be about 37 minutes (http://www.northeastcycling.com/Hillclimb_Races.html#Greylock) but I will be nowhere near that my best WAG is about 50 minutes. |
| Wednesday September 1st at 11:30 PM by Dave Foley |
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Harvey, thanks. I ordered 3 today and they'll be here next week. Not sure if mine will make it but I think I'll be OK. I'll use my PM on Saturday but Monday I'm thinking about running the Walpole 10k so I'll need the Polar. Mine might last another hour. I think the last time I started getting the low battery alert it went quite a while before failure. But if there's a ride Sunday and you're going to be there I'll try to make it. Thanks! |
| Wednesday September 1st at 10:33 PM by Harvey |
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Dave - I'm almost sure I ordered a spare 2354 for my Polar 710. You are welcome to it if you order me a replacement (I can wait for it to arrive). |
| Wednesday September 1st at 10:31 PM by Harvey |
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They are out of their mind. In 55° weather they suggest a base layer, jersey, arm warmers, and vest on top to go with the shorts, leg warmers, wool socks and full finger gloves!!! Mind you, this is for the rider who likes to feel cool while riding. If you like to feel warm I suppose you should add a down parka |
| Wednesday September 1st at 9:58 PM by jeff |
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Check this out. It is really an interesting site.
What should I wear?
http://www.bicycling.com/whattowear/1,,s1-1-663-0-0,00.html
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| Wednesday September 1st at 5:55 PM by Josh |
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I just unpacked and am charging two Dinotte lights (Harvey and Alan may want to know they are the 400L). I will try them out tomorrow night in the woods. I could have used one this morning as I went for an short early ride (25 mi) and had to wait for the sun to begin my ride. With the new LED lights it seems possible to turn night to day if you have a few hundred dollars to spare. |
| Wednesday September 1st at 12:28 PM by Dave Foley |
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FYI Wrentham starts tonight: http://www.minutemanroadclub.com/news/2010/08/10/the-2010-mrc-cyclocross-training-series/
Jack, I've had mixed results with battery life with my wireless PT. The hub battery I've done once in 16 months, maybe 200 hours use. The head battery I've replaced about 5 times. Sometimes they seem to fail prematurely. They are just CR2032 so they are cheap. Does anyone have a local source for 2354's (Polar). Mine is dieing and I don't want to wait for mail order. |
| Wednesday September 1st at 11:21 AM by doug |
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Jack:
nice progress on the 5 min power.
not sure how the wireless versions of the PT behave, but when the batteries are low on the wired ones, it just stops registering power and the head unit times out and shuts off. |
| Wednesday September 1st at 11:03 AM by Harvey |
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Jack - are you sure the power numbers were really low? Maybe you just had all the juice sucked out of you from the climb ;-)
Energy scavenging is not easy. They would have to build a hub generator into the device which would add a lot of weight. They would still need a rechargable battery (that the hub generator charges) to measure at low speed when the generator is not very useful. Alternativly they could add solar cells to the outside of the hub and trickle charge a battery, but this won't work for those who ride mainly at night. In the end no energy scavenging system would work right out of the box. You'd need to charge a battery for the first operation. So once you need a rechargable battery, why not just use a battery? |
| Wednesday September 1st at 10:56 AM by Jack |
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Well nobody was there for the 9am today, and while it was a tad warm, it wasn't a killer. I went over at 6am and did Blue Hill and set a new personal record of 5:30, and 5.17 w/kg for the first 5min, which moves me up the comparison chart almost into "Category 2" land. Except the real Cat 2's around here can go under 5 minutes.
On the negative side, my power meter started reading really low a couple hours later, so I suspect the battery is dying. I have about 150 hours on it since I got it in June, but I don't know how long the batteries last in this version. I wonder how hard it would be to siphon off a tiny fraction of the power it is measuring to keep the battery charged? |
| Monday August 30th at 1:38 PM by Jack |
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Well, that was tight. My race results are up, and it turns out the local guys all finished together. Torrance, I didn't realize that was you I got at the line, sorry (not). Though my kids say I should have eased off to get the coveted 13. I told them I wasn't counting at the time.
11 1:11:25.6 131 Keith HARTSTEIN Landry's Bicycles
12 1:11:25.7 126 Jack GREGORY CCB/Wheelworks
13 1:11:25.7 141 Torrance KOPFER Landry's Bicycles
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| Sunday August 29th at 11:23 PM by Harvey |
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Speedy ride today. I averaged 196 Watts over 3 hours and ended up with >62 miles total (Alan and I added a few miles at the end in preparation for Fall Century season coming soon) at 19.1 mph average. Given the high average speed I was very impressed at how well we all stayed together! |
| Sunday August 29th at 9:24 PM by Steve T. |
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Jack, I added the ride to the calendar. For now, I am going to list it for just one week. |
| Sunday August 29th at 7:15 PM by Jack |
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Steve (and everyone): Anyone can add a ride to the calendar (see right-->). All we ask is that you only add a ride that you are certain you can do, and don't cancel at the last minute. The regular rides are beyond this rule (they happen no matter who shows up), but ad hoc rides are not. |
| Sunday August 29th at 4:10 PM by Steve T. |
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I have been enjoying the 9 am Friday rides, but unfortunately my current work schedule prevents me from riding on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. However, Tuesdays and Thursdays are possibilities, and I plan to be at the tennis court this Thursday at 9 am. Please join me if you are interested in a Thursday version of the regular weekday ride. |
| Sunday August 29th at 12:33 PM by Jack |
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We had about a dozen today for the Sunday ride, and we did a "mini" Big Apple into RI. I got messed up once, but who doesn't love squeezing through sidewalk on a rickety old bridge? Anyway, the guns were blazing. Doug and Harvey doing a lot of power, and Steve doing his hill thing. I had 47.3 at 18.1mph, but many other will tell you that is 1mph low, which it might be because I did a lot of 3mph twiddling while Doug fixed his flat. But despite the speed everyone stayed together very well. Intensity was 0.80 for me.
A great weekend for riding, which is a good thing because I can't commute again this week. At least it isn't weather this time. |
| Saturday August 28th at 8:55 PM by Torrance |
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Hey Jack, it's Torrance Kopfer, the other guy in the Landry's kit. Thanks for posting the stats--my computer sensor was acting up, so I appreciate the info! Nice racing with you today--it was definitely a beautiful circuit, and a great way to start a beautiful weekend after the weather last week! |
| Saturday August 28th at 2:21 PM by Jack |
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I placed 12th today in the Category 4 race at Topsfield this morning. I managed to miss the inevitable last-corner crash, and had "good sensations" on the finish climb, but I was a little too far back at the start of it and never really wound it out. It was halfway up the climb (about 300 meters) before I had clear road ahead of me; before that I was working around guys who were running out of gas, or just didn't know how to sprint uphill.
It was a beautiful 4.4 mile course you do 6.5 times, then make a turn and go up a hill to the finish. So I have 28.8 miles on the Garmin, with a 24.1 mph average. This was the first race I did with clinchers (Mich Pro Race 3's), and the first race I have done with the power meter. It was 0.96 intensity, so pretty hard on that scale. Normalized power was 230w. But didn't set any records or anything, and thus I know I could have put more power into that last climb. I can do 500w in one minute, and this race I averaged 400 in the last minute.
I had 6 teammates in the race, I was the top finisher on my team. Two guys in Landry's kits raced also, Landry's "A" ride regulars Keith Hartstein (who just beat me in 11th) and another guy who's name I can't remember right now (please pipe up if you read this) in his first Cat 4 race. I still don't like Cat 4 races too much; the crash in the last corner (which happened right behind me) was so predictable I could have sold tickets. But I definitely feel like I can contend in them, whereas I get shelled in Master's races. |
| Friday August 27th at 4:02 PM by Harvey |
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I thought they were going to say something like "I had someting unnecesary removed to improve my power to weight ratio"... |
| Friday August 27th at 1:06 PM by jeff |
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Promise not to get mad....
http://www.theonion.com/articles/lance-armstrong-wants-to-tell-nation-something-but,17973/ |
| Thursday August 26th at 3:57 PM by Dave Foley |
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Josh and Harvey, yes and yes. Cross bikes are probably the most popular. Some people prefer to use an MTB, give up some speed on the climbs, and enjoy the downhills. Like I said, you see everything, road bikes, cx bikes, rando bikes, mountain bikes. About half the entrants opt for the 100k option, which still is mostly dirt and hits the covered bridges and other scenery, but has WAY less climbing (4-5000 I think). |
| Thursday August 26th at 2:44 PM by Josh |
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Harvey, that does sound like the right bike for the ride. Why no interest? Not enough cars? Too beautiful? Don't like well-stocked rest stops?
Right now the only bike I have that would work is my MTB with slicks. Do people ride the D2R2 with hardtails? I have bar extensions and I could even put on some clip-on aerobars just to have some positioning options.
Dave I know what you mean about the low gear. I had a 28 cog for the B2B, and it really helped over the course of the ride. Even the steepest hills would be fine with a 23 or 25, but I can't keep that up all day. |
| Wednesday August 25th at 10:17 PM by Harvey |
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Josh - I would think my Soma Double Cross would be ideal for the D2R2. Triple crank. 33mm wide slicks. Longish wheelbase. If only I had any interest in that ride (the Greylock century is enough for me)... |
| Wednesday August 25th at 1:33 PM by Donna |
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http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/25/2173836/just-you-versus-the-clock-amateur.html |
| Wednesday August 25th at 11:23 AM by doug |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o
And I thought being able to do a track stand at lights was something......no way............ if I could do only one of these moves......
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| Wednesday August 25th at 6:49 AM by Dave Foley |
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Josh- I rode a Soma Stanyan that I bought and built up with D2R2 specifically in mind. This year I did not use a triple, but I have in the past. The Soma has a 34x50 up front and a custom IRD 12-30 10s cassette in the back. You don't "need" such a low gear for any one hill on this course, but it helps to save the legs, especially in the early going. The Stanyan is a road frame with longish chainstays and 57mm reach caliper brakes. I ran Michelin Jet CX tires. The clearance is pretty tight, but they were OK and this is a good tire choice IMHO. A ton of vsalon listmembers participated and there is an ongoing debate over there about the best equipment choice. Bottom line is that nearly anything will work, and you see all kinds of bikes and tires on this ride. You see a lot of flats too. I would consider a 28 tire some years but not this one as it's been dry and the "roads" were bad is spots. Most of them are OK but there are a few miles here and there that you wouldn't take a 2wheel drive car on. Which is part of the appeal of this ride. You do 9 hours and get passed by about 9 cars. But there it is remote with no stores on the route so other than this ride, which has outstanding food support, it's difficult to do a long ride in that area. Hope you can make it next year. |
| Wednesday August 25th at 12:06 AM by Josh |
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I have met one of the organizers of the D2R2, but never looked into it until now. That looks great. Dave, what bike do you ride? Do you use a triple chainring? I think I might have to make a bike just for that ride. I don't have the right bike now, but the ride sounds beautiful. The timing is good for me too, before I have to get ready for school, but after our usual family vacation. |
| Tuesday August 24th at 9:04 PM by Steve T. |
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Doug - thanks for the link. 82-year old Carl Grove is truly inspirational. The guy did 20K (about 12.4 miles) at 22.06 mph. Long live OMIL (old men in lycra) |