Skyline Drive Shut Down To Motorized Vehicles – 4/23

[huskerdont]

@Judd 158986 wrote:

The HP laps turned the impossible into just being difficult. It also helped that I flawlessly executed my plan of tucking in behind huskerdont. Old guys with bad knees make the best domestiques.

It may be obvious to those who know him, but Judd is being a bit modest here. I was unaware of him ever tucking in behind me or drafting on me. Other than the first climb when I didn’t realize he and Komorebi had stopped, mostly we just toodled along next to each other.

[Subby]

I am really happy so many folks had a chance to ride out there for the first time.

Skyline really is one of the best places in the world to ride a bike and #BikeDC is so lucky to be just an hour away from Front Royal. Hard not love it there.

[creadinger]

@Judd 158986 wrote:

I’m also slightly over 200 pounds so I have some extra mass to pull up the hills.

Yeah, I have more than 50 pounds on you, so I feel your pain. That’s why I like the triple chainring with 32t large cog on my rando/touring bike. And unlike the pros, we both have arms that are thicker than #9 spaghetti.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Judd 158986 wrote:

I’m also slightly over 200 pounds so I have some extra mass to pull up the hills.

This ride provided some interesting data on this. I was using Strava Flybys to check out some other riders’ stats for the ride, and one guy (among a trio I saw multiple times and followed down the final descent) who definitely appeared lighter than me did the ride at about 1.6mph average faster and with an average power about 14W higher than mine, but his total work was 100kJ fewer than mine (me at 2900kJ vs him at 2800kJ). And on the Back of Hogback climb, I did it in 26:38 with an average power of 230W, but he did it in 25:09 with an average power of 209W. So he was able to put out more power and go faster, but do less overall work because he had less mass holding him back. This seems very obvious to just about anyone, but it’s interesting to see it in actual data.

[huskerdont]

@TwoWheelsDC 159024 wrote:

This ride provided some interesting data on this. I was using Strava Flybys to check out some other riders’ stats for the ride, and one guy (among a trio I saw multiple times and followed down the final descent) who definitely appeared lighter than me did the ride at about 1.6mph average faster and with an average power about 14W higher than mine, but his total work was 100kJ fewer than mine (me at 2900kJ vs him at 2800kJ). And on the Back of Hogback climb, I did it in 26:38 with an average power of 230W, but he did it in 25:09 with an average power of 209W. So he was able to put out more power and go faster, but do less overall work because he had less mass holding him back. This seems very obvious to just about anyone, but it’s interesting to see it in actual data.

That’s interesting. I compared the Hogback climb to … someone who rode near me but who weighs maybe 35 pounds more. This person had to do 196 watts to get up in about the same time (within 20 seconds) as me, but I only had to put out 169 watts.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@huskerdont 159028 wrote:

That’s interesting. I compared the Hogback climb to … someone who rode near me but who weighs maybe 35 pounds more. This person had to do 196 watts to get up in about the same time (within 20 seconds) as me, but I only had to put out 169 watts.

Yeah, but that’s *estimated* power (assuming I’m looking at the correct Strava profiles), which is based on the weight you have in your Strava profile, speed, grade, etc…and not on actual power measured by a power meter. So I’d wager that Ju…er, the person who rode near you, almost certainly would’ve had a much higher average power and total work for the climb and overall ride.

[huskerdont]

@TwoWheelsDC 159029 wrote:

Yeah, but that’s *estimated* power (assuming I’m looking at the correct Strava profiles), which is based on the weight you have in your Strava profile, speed, grade, etc…and not on actual power measured by a power meter. So I’d wager that Ju…er, the person who rode near you, almost certainly would’ve had a much higher average power and total work for the climb and overall ride.

Truly has to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s roughly a watt per pound, so there’s some real difference there. Other confounding factors would be the two different bikes (the accuracy of their weights in Strava, which at least in my case was a guess) and the fact I had a full Camelbak on top of my profile weight.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@huskerdont 159030 wrote:

Truly has to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s roughly a watt per pound, so there’s some real difference there. Other confounding factors would be the two different bikes (the accuracy of their weights in Strava, which at least in my case was a guess) and the fact I had a full Camelbak on top of my profile weight.

Another confounding issue is that if you were to ask each rider to assign a “relative perceived effort” to the climb, they’d likely be similar, i.e., bigger folks can usually more easily put out bigger watts.

[ginacico]

@scoot 158948 wrote:

And the most important point: if we want to “Ride The Drive” again without motorized traffic, we need to provide a lot of positive feedback to NPS.

I also heard that the mayor of Front Royal was not especially enthusiastic about supporting the event, and he could use some gratitude regarding provision of their facilities for parking as well as encouragement from any cyclists who spent money in town.

Done, and done.

@huskerdont 158960 wrote:

I was ready to ride, and it really was fine.

Then why does Judd keep calling you “the guy with bad knees” :confused:

Cars and crunchy joints or not, I’ll be back to ride SNP!!

[huskerdont]

@ginacico 159032 wrote:

Then why does Judd keep calling you “the guy with bad knees” :confused:

That’s a separate issue or two–one of which is a partially torn ACL that we decided not to repair at the time, so the knee slops around some and causes some other issues. The only pain from the surgery was the regular healing and scar tissue stuff; it really did take care of the meniscus problem.

[komorebi]

@ginacico 159032 wrote:

@scoot 158948 wrote:

And the most important point: if we want to “Ride The Drive” again without motorized traffic, we need to provide a lot of positive feedback to NPS.

I also heard that the mayor of Front Royal was not especially enthusiastic about supporting the event, and he could use some gratitude regarding provision of their facilities for parking as well as encouragement from any cyclists who spent money in town.

Done, and done.

Same here. I even received a nice response from the mayor. I encourage everyone else who enjoyed Ride the Drive and who would like to see similar events in the future to write in as well.

[Judd]

@TwoWheelsDC 159029 wrote:

Yeah, but that’s *estimated* power (assuming I’m looking at the correct Strava profiles), which is based on the weight you have in your Strava profile, speed, grade, etc…and not on actual power measured by a power meter. So I’d wager that Ju…er, the person who rode near you, almost certainly would’ve had a much higher average power and total work for the climb and overall ride.

Theoretically, the person that rode with husker is a total wattage stud even though he was slower. As far as perceived effort, I was perceiving that it was taking me more effort. But then again, I also saw a lady on a beach cruiser type of bike well into the ride, so I’m not going to complain.

[Author]

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