On Apr 26, 9:10 am, "Darin G." <dbg...@mac.com> wrote: > I'm about 1.5 to 3 mph slower over the same course > than I was on "road bike."
This bit is very puzzling because unless you're cycling around in a pair of parachute pants, most equipment changes won't drop your average speed by that much. OK, maybe if you went from a specially prepared race bike to an unmaintained Sturmey-Archer 3-speed clunker. :) My experience with a superlight Ti-Carbon "race bike" (I don't race anymore though) and my steel/racked/fendered/lights/JB commuter is that yes, the average speed will drop, and the bikes do feel *very* different, but my computer tells me that the drop in speed isn't nearly all that much over any significant distance, or even close in comparison to the significant difference in feel. I also have significant reservations about the "heavy wheels" comments. Anyone with a trainer can try this out: Rack each bike up on the trainer, disengage the drag mechanism, and pedal. Put on some load and then pedal again. See? The difference in wheel weight gets overwhelmed into noise when an actual, realistic load is factored in. This observation totally bears out when one runs the numbers on www.analyticcycling.com. For example, given a 8% grade (read: steep) that goes for 5km, even given wheels that are twice as heavy and with twice the moment of inertia, the test rider is only about a minute down at the end. We're talking about a really offensively heavy 8.5 lb wheelset* here and it's less than a minute over a 3-mile, 8%-grade climb! I'm not disputing the difference in feel of different wheels. In fact, I can totally feel the differences between my light and utilitarian wheels. It's just that the significant differences in feel do not, unfortunately, translate to significant differences in performance, at least in non-competitive circumstances. So I'm with CycloFiend. I'll look into how your body is reacting to the change in equipment. Perhaps all you need is a slight position change. Or maybe your body needs to be "reset". Good luck! -B * As reference, my "heavy" commuter wheels weigh <4 lb + ~2 lb for JB tires + tubes. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
