On Sunday, June 16, 2019 at 8:15:00 AM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, June 16, 2019 at 5:34:04 AM UTC-7, db wrote:
On Mon, 10 Jun 2019 22:31:34 -0700, wrote:
On Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 4:06:14 AM UTC-5, db wrote:
Some days, on my way to work, it all feels great, I zoom along,
the bike responds beautifully, I feel strong today, wow. Then I
realise, I've got a tail wind.
--
Dieter Britz
Hmmmm???? I can honestly say I have never ever not known I have a
tailwind and think I'm going fast because I am strong. I always know
exactly what the wind is doing and know whether it is a positive,
negative, or neutral effect.
Straight man
--
Dieter Britz
Yesterday's ride. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAaHz6ns1aI Go to 1:06. The problem with light bikes in high winds. Minus wind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAjNIkTOLVs Yesterday the wind was maybe 5mph -- brutal, and tourist traffic was surprisingly low for a sunny day. The somewhat great thing about the ride is that the cross-county part is now mostly on rail-trails, so I get to skip the glass-strewn roads though the mullet region of east Portland. The trails do accumulate homeless in places, but I get to stay off major roads until just outside bustling Troutdale, doormat of the Columbia River Gorge. https://www.restreets.org/sites/defa...utdaleICON.jpg
-- Jay Beattie.
When I initially mounted the GP5000TL tires on my Colnago they were pretty sensitive. I know that the cheapo Chinese wheelset has too low a tension on the spokeset but this wasn't about that. The tires have such super traction that minor variations in the road would cause variations in my course and I could not get the bike to ride in a perfectly straight line.
With wear on the tires or perhaps aging, the tires have mostly ceased this unfortunate practice. Also I am getting used to the overly sensitive wheel direction because of the reduced tension of the spokes. Because of that wandering I have to get out more in the lane of traffic as my speed increases on downhills because it the bike takes off due to a side gust, I have to have road space to correct.
Luckily most of my time on a bike is spent climbing, so speed isn't a consideration. And because the super-bikes are so damn fast downhills you don't have to concentrate for very long before you're back on flat ground and I'm pretty much limited to 27 kph or so. On a really good day when I'm feeling good I can ride at 20 mph for quite a way but in the last two years my climbing speed has dropped so low that it is embarrassing. But I made a t-shirt that says, "I may be old, but at least I'm slow". Most people do not understand that means that being slow is a hell of a lot better than being stopped.