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@GuyContinental 47929 wrote:

I’d be game for Herndon, probably Hozn too… he tends to “accidentally” miss Reston and ride out to Sterling with me.

Also would do Northside Social if I were working from home.

Yeah, I would do Herndon early am. I might try to make it to TCC in Arlington too, though I tend to need to be at work (Reston) by 8/8:30.

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@vvill 47742 wrote:

The obvious solution is n+1. Gates Carbon drive, Alfine 11, something like that.

I dunno. I have only ridden behind one gates drive MTB (SS) , but that was the creakiest drivetrain i have ever heard. It would have driven me to drastic action if that had been my bike. Of course, that is just one anecdote, maybe they generally work great.

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@cephas 47626 wrote:

I must disagree. I have the Superlight, and while it took my bank account down, it helped me hold my head up high, without all the sore neck muscles. If you ride far or long, I’d definitely say it’s worth the lighter weight.

Well, I don’t know how much that weighs, but you can get LG helmets for $60-70 that weigh 250-270 grams.

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@vvill 47595 wrote:

Is the 105 cassette very different? I noticed last year when I replaced my stock 105 cassette with an Ultegra one there was some biting into the freehub body, but just assumed all cassettes did that to some extent.

5k?! I can’t imagine even regular maintenance would prevent my chain stretching as it does for 5k, because I assume the wear from road grit, etc doesn’t affect chain stretch – or does it?

Yeah, the 105 cassettes I have used have engagement points that only interface every few splines on the free hub, this makes them chew freehubs horribly. I have had much better luck with SRAM 1050 or 1070 cassettes. I haven’t used Ultegra recently.

So, AFAIK chain stretch is actually the material in the link connections wearing out. So road grit does have a big effect on this. I definitely notice that I need to replace my chain closer to 1500 miles on my commuter (esp when weather has been bad) compared to the 2000+ miles on my fairweather road bike.

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@PotomacCyclist 47687 wrote:

It may also help that I weigh a lot less than most people. That could make a difference in whether debris causes a puncture or not. But brushing off debris probably helps a lot too. Paying attention to the road and avoiding obvious patches of broken glass and potentially sharp stones helps as well.

I think weight is a big factor here; at least anecdotally heavier riders (175+) I have known (including me) have had many more flats than lighter. And where and how much you ride, of course. I have had 1 flat on my road bike in last 2 years, but when I would ride on roads up in College Park, I would flat almost every ride. On the mountain bike I flat a little more, especially racing, but there is an strong correlation there with riding skill and flatting less (I have room for improvement).

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@vvill 47417 wrote:

Hm… I haven’t had any of my bikes’ bottom brackets, headsets, hubs or pedals serviced, ever. I guess I should consider it?

Well, a lot of modern stuff uses cartridge bearings, which really aren’t serviceable; they’re just “replaceable” I used to try to service outboard bb bearings, but once you pry off those seals they never last much longer (at least in my experience). So trying to service sealed bearings is probably not a good idea. I also used to soak chains in degreaser periodically; that also did not extend the life of the chain. Now I just use rock n roll lube and replace the chain when it’s .5mm “stretched” (which seems to be every 2k miles) and then replace the cogs and rings with every other or third chain.

I do have a Chris King bottom bracket on my commuter that has a grease gun fitting that allows me to purge the grease every 6 months or so. So far it has outlasted my gxp bearings (which seem to last me around the life of a drivetrain), but it has only been about 6k miles, so it needs to last at least another 12k before it will start to make economic sense.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

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@Nicholas23 47287 wrote:

The benefits of tubeless tires are clear for mountain bike applications. You must use a liquid latex sealant with these tires, which do a wonderful job of quickly sealing most types of punctures.

I agree – can’t imagine riding a mountain bike with tubes after a few years of tubeless. Figured that road tubeless would make just as much sense, but I think I was wrong there. I still ride road tubeless, but I have found the liquid latex won’t seal punctures at over 40-60psi. Also pinch flatting, while greatly reduced, is still a concern in the situation where the tire is cut by the rim (usually against some foreign object). That has been especially relevant when running low pressure tubeless CX tires on MTB trails

[hozn]

In addition to being lighter and better venting, nicer helmets tend to have great retention/size-adjustment systems that make for a comfortable fit and are easy to adjust. I particularly like the Bell or Louis Garneau dial tightening system since it is easy to adjust with one hand (while riding). During the winter and shoulder seasons I find I am constantly adjusting helmets as my headwear fluctuates with temps. Some helmets also make it easier to tighten chin straps. These are the sort of features that you will appreciate regularly. And by “nicer” here, I just mean in the $60-$70 pricepoint; above that you’re looking at pretty diminishing returns.

If/when you do get a new helmet, consider whether you plan to mount a light on it. Some helmets lend themselves much better to this than others (shape/profile of helmet top, vent spacing, etc.).

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

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@Greenbelt 47043 wrote:

I’d be up for ronwalf and hozn keeping their pages up and re-activating the updates so we can continue to track our miles throughout the year. It’s just a really cool easy way to see who’s riding where and find new routes, ride ideas etc. -Jeff

I’m happy to do that, though I’m gonna leave it in a “frozen” state for a few more days in case anyone wants to do any further analysis on just the data from the competition timeframe.

I have lots of improvements I’d like to make to the system — in addition to just cleaning it up and making it more general-purpose for other groups/clubs who may wish to run their own similarly-structured competitions. I enjoyed the opportunity to do some software development and learn a bit about both Strava’s APIs and the various weather APIs (and weather tracking in general). There’s a lot of interesting stuff that could be done on the geo and the weather front … e.g. leaderboards on who has ridden the most into the wind, find people who ride similar routes (but not necessarily at the same time), comment on Strava KOMs with windspeed/direction , etc. As well as improved forecasting for cyclists — knowing someone’s average speed and factoring in windchill, etc. could make for a great “what should I wear today” application (especially for those crazies like GuyContinental who refuse to wear a pack / carry extra clothing).

Thanks to everyone involved in organizing this — rcannon for putting it together, ronwalf for the software development, ArlingtonRider the happy hour, all the prize givers, all the participants, etc. This has been loads of fun. I certainly rode more intensely than I would have without the competition (so much for the plan of having a regular & mild winter commuting season). Mostly, though, I’ve enjoyed meeting new area cyclists — either in person or on the forums.

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@KelOnWheels 46887 wrote:

My stupid knee is trying to throw the competition! 😡

Guess it’s time to shell out for a bike fit and see what the heck I’m suddenly doing to murder my knee every. single. time. i. ride.

Try raising your saddle (assuming it’s the front of your knee). You can do it 1mm at a time until you start feeling like you’re over-extending; best to warm up 5 minutes first so you don’t mistake not being limbered up with it being too high. Saddle height is something that I’m always fine tuning and it has always fixed my knee issues. As I ride more I become much more sensitive to very small fit issues. It’s worth a try, anyway.

[hozn]

Oh, ok. My misunderstanding. I will remove Pete from the leaderboards.

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@Steve 46777 wrote:

Gotcha. Thanks! I didn’t realize the overall leaderboard had anyone not on a team not named Pete. I guess I should have checked closer.

Yeah, I wasn’t sure if those people are participating in the challenge … I think Pete is though, right??

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It’s possible that I am missing riders that are not on a team? Also, I need to confirm that I am correctly handling the case where ride distances are edited, in case that applies to any of the rides out there.

I will take a look at the other individual leaderboard and look to correct for missing riders.

If you do see some other explicit discrepancies, I am happy to fix

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@PeteD 46728 wrote:

Ok, so I’ve got the queries (Thanks a bunch Hozn!) for the Coldest Ride, Weekender, and Weekday Warrior. I think Hozn did the Nooner query. I’ll figure out the Freezing Saddle query later (Most miles ridden while the avg temperature for the ride < 32 F). I’ve done the queries for Most Rides that Ended After Sunset, which could also be turned around to Most Rides that Started Before Sunrise (Again, all built on the back of the hard work of those that have come before me).

I think if you just want most miles where average is below 32f that should be the report on the freezing.hozn.net indiv leaderboard. (Hint: I think it’s Dirt by quite a margin.)

Of course would be happy to have someone double check my queries!

[hozn]

I think the rule in VA is that ebikes on multi-use trails must be speed-limited to 20mph.

I agree that Herndon to downtown DC would be quite a commute to do daily without the assist!

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