On 17/12/2018 9:45 a.m., jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, December 17, 2018 at 5:16:03 AM UTC-8, duane wrote:
On 16/12/2018 8:50 p.m., jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, December 16, 2018 at 3:20:48 PM UTC-8, news18 wrote:
On Sun, 16 Dec 2018 12:28:42 -0800, jbeattie wrote:


I do those three times a week. And them I'm not too good to ride with
the old and slow group. I did a ride before the big fires here where I
generated 340 watts for almost 10 miles. That may not be much around
here but it sure as hell is a great deal more than you loud mouthed
experts.

Me too, when I won the Cat 2 districts this year. Do you actually own a
power meter? Also, you need to tell us how long you were holding 340
watts. Distance doesn't tell us much.


Oh Jay, it was downhill, obviously.

BTW, I gave that number to my son
and told him it was a 74 year old recreational rider, and he said
"nope," not at 180-190lbs. He looks at power data day in and day out as
a job. https://stagescycling.com/us/support/

I think Tom shared with us that he is 180lbs, to which I say, kudos. I'm about the same height and 15lbs more. But assuming 180lbs, that's about 82kg for about 4.15 watts/kg for 20 minute power, which places him solidly in Cat 2 -- at age 74. Scary. If I were him, I'd skip the whole return-to-high-tech thing and round up some sponsors for Masters Worlds. My brother was in Master Worlds DH in his 60s and couldn't knock out those kinds of watts, although his thing was going down hill.

I don't care about power since I'm not training for anything. Today, my power meter was "faster than one guy, slower than another." Everything hurt after a hard ski yesterday and too much Christmas cheer last night, but I managed to hang in for a nice rain ride on my made-in-USA HED Ardenne disc wheels which roll really well. Great mid-weight road and gravel wheels.


I have the Ardennes SLs and 23s and they've been great. At around
40,000km I have not had to have them trued and this is on Quebec roads.

I came home and sprayed off the bike with a hose, which is SOP -- notwithstanding the hose-fear expressed on this NG.


Riding a dirty bike is like driving a dirty car I guess. Though I'm
more apt to wash my bike than my car...

I use fenders, and they get packed with leaves/needles and mud, so it's nice to blow them out. The bike I rode yesterday has hydraulic discs and Di2, so cable stick is not an issue. I could let that bike get pretty muddy, and only the chain would suffer.


I was being sarcastic. I wash my bike when it gets dirty. If it's just
splash from road crap I have been know to hose it off. Otherwise I
actually wash it. Gives me time for a recovery beer after the ride anyway.

Speaking of discs, they're great in the rain. One of the guys I was riding with yesterday was on a Kona CX bike with cantis/STI and aluminum rims. The brakes howled and didn't stop him. On one downhill, he had to bail out into a parking lot because he couldn't get the bike to stop at the bottom. Getting cantis and STI just right takes a lot of fussing, and they never stop that well IMO.


I've had an occasion where the rain was so hard that the brakes couldn't
displace enough water to get a grip. Discs would have been handy. But
at the moment, I don't have disk ready wheels or frame.

Maybe next bike though I don't ride in the rain that much so I'm not
sure the maintenance required would warrant it. I change brake pads
every couple years now so the maintenance is pretty low.