Cycling Thread 2

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by KTrain

36.9kph

As someone who will ride an extra km or 2 to get a round number, that .1 kph annoys me.

Niiiice.

[Flames0910]

Wow Ktrain, fifth overall is really great -- way to go!

I was a little bit behind you but hit both my goals (just over 5hrs moving time and as it turns out, in the top 50; missed the first ferry by seconds). Was really happy with that for my first fondo. What a great day.

Wife and I are thinking we might sign up for the Whistler fondo next.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by KTrain

36.9kph

As someone who will ride an extra km or 2 to get a round number, that .1 kph annoys me.

Actually now that you’ve pointed it out, I’m choosing to withdraw my previously expressed ‘thanks’ on your initial post. Try better next time.

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by Flames0910

Wow Ktrain, fifth overall is really great -- way to go!

I was a little bit behind you but hit both my goals (just over 5hrs moving time and as it turns out, in the top 50; missed the first ferry by seconds). Was really happy with that for my first fondo. What a great day.

Wife and I are thinking we might sign up for the Whistler fondo next.

Great work! That's a great time.

Badlands is a good course for your first fondo. The elevation isn't crazy and the roads are good. It's just the damn wind you have to contend with and we actually lucked out with that. If you can stick with a few people on the climbs it makes everything easier.

I want to do Whistler as well. Unfortunately the big route is already sold out and I probably wouldn't travel just to do the shorter ones.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I had a nice little crash over today at Nose Hill where I went over the handlebars on a pretty steep downhill because of a root that I didn't see early enough.

Yikes, that sucks. Speaking from experience, make sure you get any injuries looked at. Don't try to tough it out.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by Regular_John

I hopped on an bird ebike this afternoon, rolled over to the office and gave my commute a test spin… 12 minutes door to door and the pedal assist alleviated 100% of my concern for the hills north of downtown.

I’m about ready to pull the trigger on an ebike, thanks for the info earlier in the thread… my wallet is a bit less thankful.

Giving this bump, I pulled the trigger on a Ride1UP 500 SERIES step through, may even be before the weekend

What’s the latest & greatest on bike locks? U-lock + cable? What you folks doing in terms of security for smaller errands for groceries and such?

[surferguy]

I purchased a medium sized monkey and taught it how to stab with a fork. He rides in my front basket and then I leash him to the bike while I’m at Safeway. The downside is that he only eats pre-peeled mandarins. It’s tedious and a bit expensive to feed it but my bike hasn’t been stolen so I guess I’ve reached my objective.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by surferguy

I purchased a medium sized monkey and taught it how to stab with a fork. He rides in my front basket and then I leash him to the bike while I’m at Safeway. The downside is that he only eats pre-peeled mandarins. It’s tedious and a bit expensive to feed it but my bike hasn’t been stolen so I guess I’ve reached my objective.

This a great info! Although I have to ask, did you consider using a smaller monkey that might eat less? Or perhaps if you equipped the monkey with both a fork AND a knife it could peel the mandarins on it’s own? Safe to assume your bringing in the monkey inside on cold nights a long with the battery?

[surferguy]

Well I got a medium one because I wanted it to wear a shirt I had that said Stanley.

[Deegee]

Originally Posted by KTrain

The weather was perfect for the Badlands Gran Fondo this weekend. The usual headwind for the last 50km but pretty manageable if you were in a group.

I'd only ever done the event once before in 2016. It took me 7 hours and 5 minutes to complete the 160km route. Finishing 164th out of 268. It was my longest ride ever at that point and I was really hurting by the end of it.

After 8 years and a lot of kms between, I managed to do the ride this weekend in 4 hours 36 minutes (with a couple 5 minute stops for water and food) and finished 5th overall.

Edit: I should add that hungryhun makes for a great draft partner. Just a powerhouse out there.

What specifically happened over the 6 years that your time improved so much? Or was it just consistent training over the years led to you being stronger and were you specific in how you trained?

My time was awful this weekend, but was a pretty good feeling hearing people cheer when we rode in as one the last few

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Regular_John

Giving this bump, I pulled the trigger on a Ride1UP 500 SERIES step through, may even be before the weekend

What’s the latest & greatest on bike locks? U-lock + cable? What you folks doing in terms of security for smaller errands for groceries and such?

I bring in the battery everywhere regardless of duration. It’s half the value of the bike.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by Flames0910

Wow Ktrain, fifth overall is really great -- way to go!

I was a little bit behind you but hit both my goals (just over 5hrs moving time and as it turns out, in the top 50; missed the first ferry by seconds). Was really happy with that for my first fondo. What a great day.

Wife and I are thinking we might sign up for the Whistler fondo next.

What's the trick with the ferry? does everyone just arrive and rugby-scrum pile on up to a specific number and then SOL? Cos I can see this getting a little unruly.

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by Deegee

What specifically happened over the 6 years that your time improved so much? Or was it just consistent training over the years led to you being stronger and were you specific in how you trained?

My time was awful this weekend, but was a pretty good feeling hearing people cheer when we rode in as one the last few

Consistency during the first 3-4 years was the biggest thing. In 2016 I got a new bike. A big upgrade for me (Trek Domane) and that's when the cycling bug really bit. I signed up for Badlands almost immediately. Did the ride and while it was painful, I didn't hate it.

I just rode a lot. 8-10k a year pretty consistently (a couple 17k years). It's not for everyone but I don't do other sports so my extra time is for that. I also got Zwift in the winter of 2016 which was a game changer for me. You don't lose fitness over the winter and have to start from scratch each spring.

I did intentionally drop a bunch of weight (25-30lbs) at the beginning of 2020. My diet isn't great so even though I was riding lots, the weight stayed steady. 3 months of Zwift and actually watching what I ate and the lbs melted off.

I didn't hate hills anymore after that. Once you don't hate hills, you can tackle any route and if you can switch up your routes you won't get bored.

I've never done any structured training but the last couple years I have forced myself to not just get on the bike and do easy spins. That's especially easy to do on the trainer. So I signed up for the organized races on Zwift, joined a racing league (there's lots different skill levels) and did the FTP tests on there to see how much/if I was progressing.

I'm 44 and just joining an outdoor racing league for the first time. It's a blast but something I never thought I would do even a couple years ago.

It's tough, but the biggest thing was not comparing myself to others. There are lots of factors on any given ride why someone is faster than you. Wind. Nutrition. Poor sleep. Drafting in a group. If I did Badlands solo, I would have been significantly slower.

Track your own progress and improve from there. I linked my Strava account to Stats Hunters to track my progress year-over-year. It's cool to see your progression.

https://www.statshunters.com/

Here are my stats from when I started tracking activities (sporadically) in 2013.

[Flames0910]

Originally Posted by RichieRich

What's the trick with the ferry? does everyone just arrive and rugby-scrum pile on up to a specific number and then SOL? Cos I can see this getting a little unruly.

Last year I’m told they filled the ferry. Meant there was a big front-of-the-pack group and minimal waiting to get across. Personally was hoping make the first ferry but didn’t know the rules would be different so was aiming to keep up with the main group but not push the pace.

This year for safety reasons (I think?) they limited the numbers. Who knows, might even depend on who the operator is on race day. The first ferry was barely full (but only has 40 life jackets) when it set off and subsequent ferries were similar. Some of my friends even had to line up and wait for two-three crossings.

[KTrain]

It must have been for safety reasons. I was one of the ones to roll up as it departed in 2016 and it was a lot more full than this year.


It's another reason why overall time at the Badlands isn't a great metric. That ferry is luck of the draw and can add 10-15 minutes to your time.

I had the KOM for the full Badlands route for about 5 minutes but one of the guys we finished with, started later than us, but got on the same ferry as us.

[Tron_fdc]

Had a chance to ride Revy last weekend. Wow. Talk about crazy terrain.

My kid is racing in the Norco Enduro series and a lot of the runs they were doing were off the Boulder/Frisby Ridge forestry roads. While he was racing Frisby Saturday I was lapping runs off boulder, and when he was racing Boulder on Sunday the officials let me run the course behind him.

I wouldn't recommend anyone actually climbs Frisby Ridge to ride Ultimate Frisby unless you were psychotic, racing, or both. That DH is GNARLY steep, loose, long and technical. Rated double black but it's probably beyond that. The climb is horrific for a 10 minute DH.

Boulder has a bit of everything for everyone. Probably the most fun I've ever had as an adult hitting everything from blues to double blacks, flow trails, tech trails, jump trails, you name it.

If you are passing through Revy and have time for a shuttle FOR SURE hit Boulder. One of the stages was Boondocker top to bottom, and it's one of the best trails I found out there and one of the best I've ridden in recent memory anywhere. For reference the pros ran it in under 4 minutes if anyone has a death wish and wants to test their mettle on Strava. I was just over 6 mins and just about died 6 times, and could barely hold on to my bars the last few hundred meters. It's unreal what these guys can do on a mountain bike.

[Northendzone]

Over the past two days I have been able to hit the trails in the bow bottom flats area on my mtn bike.

The rain and winds made a number of changes to the trails as sections of them have dropped into the creek. Also I have come across several trees that are blocking trails.

I am sure liking the coil shock that was recently installed on my rm altitude

[Tron_fdc]

The Altitude is a great bike. That’s what my kid races on. Not much it can’t handle.

[Flabbibulin]

Pretty big development in the cycling world- 105 Di2 12 speed has been released, disc only. Looks to be about $1900US.

[Ryan Coke]

Good to see. With that and SRAM rival, it is really making electronic shifting available to a much wider market.

I have to say I reealllyy enjoy my ultegra di2 I have on my new bike. The shifting is easy, crisp, quick, and accurate. When I upgrade my mountain bike I’d like to get electronic shifting on that as well.