Weather and lockdown

It looks like now that Gavin Loathsome has screwed up everything in California that he is on the very edge of a recall, (200,000 more signatures) and the people have seen that the horse has no name.

This has prevented me from putting in many miles though that might not have been possible what with the rain and really cold weather. When I get back from a ride like my 32 miles yesterday I have to stand under a hot shower for 15 minutes to thaw out enough to be civil even to Jay. The way I see it is that Andrew and Jay are the bicyclists and technical people here. What the hell are the rest of you doing here unless you actually have something to say about bicycles?

I bought a Felt F55X which is an aluminum gravel bike. The production standards on that bike seem to be quite high. I have a disk gravel group that I've been trying to sell for a year with no interest so I will build it into a new bike which will be easier to sell since the price won't be so high compared to the Treks or the Colnago and maybe the Look, that will remain until last so that I can determine if I am willing to trust the Look when my last several Looks lasted just about forever without the slightest signs of a failure. The prices on my bikes are a lot cheaper than the Pro's Closet are asking for similar bikes and groups. So it isn't as if I'm trying to cheat anyone.

Over the years I've gotten used to the really crappy braking of the carbon deep rim wheels. This is why all of the pros have been changing over to disks so that they can match the braking power they used to have with rim brake aluminum wheels. On the bike I've installed aluminum wheels back on I have to be careful I don't throw myself over the bars. So rather than using complicated hydraulic brake systems why not just use old fashion rim brakes on aluminum rims?

My Look is a rule breaker weighing in at 16 lbs for a size EL My other lightest bike is 3 lbs heavier and the steel Lemond 5 lbs heavier. I simply cannot tell the different in climbing except on very hard climbs that are very long. Going up Mt. Diablo, the local big climb, is no problem since the grade seldom exceeds 7% except for the 24% at the extreme top from the parking lot to the weather station. I can do that 25 yards on any of the bikes. A local 1 mile climb of 10% or higher is something I have been making on heavier bikes so again, what is the lighter bike worth? Heavier is slower but not stopped. Lighter does slow up more rapidly between pedal strokes. So speed of climbing turns out not to be worthwhile unless you're a pro that is riding at some 500+ watts continuous power. With my 250 or so, I simply don't ride fast enough for aero or weight to make enough difference to speak about.

So if you're not the owner of a Latest and Greatest I wouldn't be too concerned about it since it almost entirely status. Am I passed by other people on lighter bikes? Sure, I'm passed by a lot of younger riders on both lighter and heavier bikes. What does that prove? I also find that they ride faster for shorter distances. Again that proves nothing since if you don't train for distance you have a difficult time doing distance. In the last several centuries I've been in I finished earlier than most other riders. That wasn't because I was a faster rider except at that distance. I'm getting back tired but not exhausted and these other guys are dragging in because they never trained for distance and find it exhausting. So if you're planning a century or a metric (which most people seem to do these days) you have to get in at least four metric distance rides before your metric and a week of rest. Not only will you have less problems with the ride but it will be a LOT more fun. My last overnighter on an 80 miler turned out that the second day I had completely recovered and it was even though day 2 was hilly it was easy. The last 100 miler overnighter I got separated from the group, couldn't remember the route and put in an added 15 miles and then did an additional 15 miles ride from the parking lot where everyone else parked to home. I did this return with 3 other riders and 2 of them became almost delirious with fatigue and they were MUCH stronger riders than me. The other guy was like me and had trained to and over the expected distance and he was tired but otherwise OK.

So training is probably more important than bike weight unless you're racing. I don't believe I'll be racing anytime soon.