Monday, January 31, 2022

Another great ride

Amber and I were planning on riding old Hwy 39 today, but then I noticed the highest point was 6600' which meant temps in the low 40s. Not ideal for a 20+ mph descent so we decided to save that for a warmer day. In addition, I expect the road is covered with snow right now.

We decided on Back Bay - an old standby with 52 miles and 1600' of climbing. Not flat, but not difficult either. Ten minutes into the ride we passed Martins, Greg, and Stacey coming the other way. I didn't even have time to shout hello as they flew past us.


Amber pulled all the way to the beach so we arrived with an average speed just shy of Mach 1. Then we headed south and headed to the Ha Long cafe. My taste buds were off because the BBQ chicken tasted like curry for some reason. No big deal because I'm trying not to eat meat.

The climb over Pioneer was no easier than before but I held a couple of mph faster. I think the Zwifting is paying off. I pulled after lunch and we had a pretty strong headwind once we hit the bike path. Nevertheless we had a 15.7 mph average at the end which is definitely good for a route with any climbing.

Saturday, January 29, 2022

KICKR Snap and Zwift

For many years I've been using a website I wrote to simulate riding through Google street level land while on my Schwinn trainer. As the trainer I'm using is dying prematurely, I decided to invest in a Wahoo Kickr Snap smart trainer which I bought from REI. Being a club member I get $50 back which is pretty sweet.

Wahoo Kickr Snap

Personally, I wouldn't call anything that has to support my weight a "Snap", but it is what it is. I borrowed Sherry's Trek Domane 4.0 and replaced the stem with something longer and I'm good to go. It took a couple of attempts to get the trainer calibrated correctly but it feels about right now.

I subscribed to Zwift which is very cool. I get to ride virtual courses all over the world and can select flat or hilly, long or short, country or town. I particularly enjoy night riding around cities. It's very realistic (in terms of ride difficulty) and the hills really bite you in the butt. I run the app on my laptop with the companion app running on a tablet near the bike. This lets me make course changes on the fly. I watch Netflix or YouTube on the television so I don't get at all bored.


Judging from the state of my legs and the towel by the end of the workout, I'm getting a much better workout than I was before. Seeing my power numbers really helps me be honest with my level of effort.


I'm trying to average 150 Watts, but that takes a lot of concentration

There is no way to link a rwgps account to Zwift (major oversight) so I have to manually download fit files and upload them to rwgps. It only takes a few minutes, but it could be easier.

Just did a 10 minute max effort and got an average power of 194 Watts. This gives me an estimated FTP of 175 Watts. YAY!




Saturday, January 22, 2022

Satori suspension seat post

I recently bought a Satori suspension seat post from Amazon and took it for a 50 mile test ride. I have a titanium frame and the seat post is aluminum so it was important to use Park Tools ASC-1 anti-seize grease for the installation.



At first it seemed as though my rear tire was low because I wasn't feeling the bumps that I knew were there. I quickly realized my ride was a lot more comfortable. After I uploaded the ride to rwgps.com I noticed it calculated an average power of 225 Watts but past recent efforts on this route average about 200 Watts. Is it possible the smoother ride was also faster?

My average moving speed was 16mph which isn't bad for a route that has a 10mph speed limit for half its length (which I assiduously obey, officer). Here's a frame grab of me obeying the speed limit. 😈


I do a lot of miles on my trainer and I've tried hard to calibrate it to match my normal riding. I've done it by "feel" so the trainer feels as hard as the bike. When I compare power estimates of my rides on rwgps I see I can't tell the difference between real rides and the trainer, so that's some good feedback.


Sunday, January 9, 2022

Riding with RWBTC

When I started cycling and I lived in Redlands I joined the Redlands Water Bottle Transit Company (my local bike club) but when I got into long distance cycling, and they weren't, I stopped riding with them. As Amber and Edgar are skiing this weekend, I thought I would hook up with RWBTC for a ride. I was a bit apprehensive because last time I tried to ride with them, they were not interested in 'new faces' and the ride was a disaster for me.

I was pleased to see some old friends. Jerry Cowden was there and Eric Reiser, as well as Bob, Don, and others. A couple of them were on e-bikes and Jerry told me all about the new e-bike he had ordered. I definitely think I'll be buying one in ten years. I'm told Russ bought one for Linda, but typical of Russ, he got it from some guy in Morocco and it needs to be repaired before it will work.

I was on the Brompton and had only expected to ride the 30 mile option, but that ride didn't happen so I hooked up with a Palm Springs century training ride instead which was 50 miles long. At mile 16 we stopped at a Starbucks where I bought a "ham and cheese croissant". I put that in quotes because when she handed it over I could see it was only two bites. For $4.25 I was expecting something more substantial, but this is a Starbucks where their motto is "half the food for twice the price". I should write a book called the "Starbucks Diet". You can eat all the food you can afford, but you have to buy it at Starbucks.

After the Starbucks was the steepest set of hills I've ridden on the Brompton heading up Country Club and Shaker Drive. One and a half miles averaging 5% with a maximum of 12%. I seriously need to replace my 54 tooth chainring with a 44 tooth before I take it to Ireland. The following downhill had me up to about 30 mph so this is the first ride that has had me in every gear the Brompton has, all in the same ride.

After eating my micro croissant at the turn around at Citrus Park we headed over to the Upper SART which is infested with homeless encampments. I felt a lot safer riding it with a big group, but I no longer want to ride it alone. We really need Riverside to clean this up.

Some of the group at the end of the SART

I had already exhausted the meagre calories I had consumed at the park and by the time we got to the end of the SART I was hungry again and feeling the bonk. We only had eight miles to go and I knew the way, so I dropped off and finished solo. I certainly learned a lot of new roads which felt odd because I lived in the area for 10 years.

The end of the ride was at a Stater Bros so I bought some sushi and monsters for the drive home. I don't know why I was craving sushi, possibly the rice has the kind of carbs my body needed.

I'm so glad I decided to ride with the club - the warm reception I got undid the indifference I felt on the prior attempt. I will try to ride with them more often and may even join again.

I've been trying to find a way to increase the saddle set back on the Brompton so I tried a device I found on Amazon. It was terrible and I removed it after a 1/2 mile test ride. Here's the review. I'm thinking I could cut it at the left end of the bottom leg and just use the straight bit. I'll let you know how that goes.



Monday, January 3, 2022

It doesn't get any better than this

We skipped riding Christmas weekend from fear of crazy traffic getting to and from the ride. But yesterday we decided to ride Back Bay, one of my favorite rides. It was in the low 60's when we started and I thought about tights and a jacket, but in the end I went with a vest.

There was a slight tailwind as we headed to the coast, which is unusual but as we turned south we still had a tailwind which is normal. The trail was very busy, probably with New Year's resolutions. A lot of people were on e-bikes, probably because they thought they count, somehow.

When we got to the beach, the under pass was flooded and people were trying to walk around over the rocks while carrying their bikes. Or they tried, and failed, to ride through. We took a slight detour, but only after Amber realized how deep it was and got her feet wet backing out.

As we headed inland the trail was even more busy, but there were fewer e-bikes. Perhaps the residents of Orange County are smarter than the average Californian. We had a slight headwind, but no big deal. We both wanted Chicken with butter rice when we got to Ha-Long. I couldn't make the guy understand what I was ordering - between my English accent, his Vietnamese accent, and two masks. Fortunately Amber was able to communicate.

This meal is amazing and ideal for long bike rides. Butter rice (here's a version), grilled chicken, and a light salad. I added Vietnamese coffee and Amber had Vietnamese milk tea. The coffee is so heavily caffeinated I knew I would have to stop at the rest rooms at the top of Pioneer :-) It was getting into the low 70's now and the vest came off. Fortunately my Acorn saddle bag can carry a lot.

Sure enough, 20 minutes later at the top of Pioneer, I was jonesing for the rest room. Ahh - sweet relief. The second half of the ride has most of the climbing which is made harder by a full stomach. It also had most of the headwind, but a light headwind while climbing is not a problem.

The last four miles on the bike path had a tailwind again, so I held 20mph all the way. I had such a good ride.