Well done. After a few years of surgeries, I'm hoping to get back in the saddle soon myself. I'll keep an eye on this thread as motivation.

Keeping up motivation is the hardest! During the summer I try to ride to/from work. It's a breeze getting to work as it's all downhill.

Just means after I'm all beat up from work I have an uphill battle the whole way home.

Nightcrawler wrote:

I downloaded Strava on my phone and that is a great app to track rides. So easy and functional.

Just don't get sucked in too much:  The Strava Files: Everyone agrees that when Kim Flint crashed, he was chasing a record on Strava. What almost no one seems to fully comprehend is exactly who—or what—caused Flint’s death.

I've ridden with a few people trying for KOM on Strava segments.  Never again.  They do way too many stupid things trying to set those KOM records.  Stravacides is the appropriate term.

I am starting to get into the hobby as well. I picked up a CAAD9 on craigslist with 105 components (last of the Made in US Cannondales) and it's a pretty nice bike. Just ride, ride, and ride.

Jason Hymes

Scargo wrote:

tonka92x wrote:

Welcome back!  The first ride of the season is always the hardest, the first after 8 years is a little too hard to imagine what that feels like. 

Wider rims, (my new HED Belgium+ rims are 25mm wide vs. my Campagnolo Scirrocco wheels are 19mm,) wider tires (if you are still running 23mm tires you might want to consider 25mm when replacing them) and lower tire pressures (10-15% lower gives a better ride and less rolling resistance) are making inroads.  And action cams are becoming pretty common as well, primarily so the next-of-kin know what happened to you.

What's the theory behind this. I get the better ride quality, the lower rolling resistance not so much.  And wider rims increases mass out at the highest radius, so that should hurt performance also, at least in old school think.

FWIW, I haven't put a lot of miles on my 23s, so they'll stick around for a couple of seasons more.

The lower rolling resistance comes from lower internal resistance and hysteresis in the tire material due to a wider vs. a long contact patch and less effect of hitting a small bump causing the bike to lift and lower. The wider rims cause the tires to act "wider" than they actually are.  The tire sidewalls end up more vertical instead of spreading out, giving the tire more air volume.  A 23mm tire on a 23mm rim acts like a 25mm tire.  Lennard Zinn has had several columns on this, and the tire companies have been trying to get people to move to lower tire pressure/wider tires as well.

I agree, it does seem counter intuitive, but after playing around with tire pressures the last part of last year I'm convinced.  There is one climb by me that isn't tough but the crest always seemed to kill your speed because the pavement was so rough.  Tried it once with the tires at 75/70 (my front is a 25mm, rear a 28mm) and I was shocked that I just blasted over the top.  Tried it a few other time with the same results.  Went to try it this year on the new bike with 25mm wide rims only to find they repaved the road this spring.

It does take some getting used to, I still stop thinking I have a low tire, and it takes some rides before you gain confidence the tires aren't going to roll-over in turns.  I find it is a big improvement in ride and I do feel that I am faster on some of the rough roads/trails that I ride.

Still on 23's @ 120psi. The feel of the tires can vary upon the tire. I run Rubino Pro's in the winter since they are more durable. Currently running a S-works clincher on the front, feels pretty good.

  less, so long as the bead holds. When training (okay, back when sew-ups were common for racing/training) we tended to run lower pressures for more of a workout, longer tread life AND less tendency for punctures. Theory was tube would deform rather than pierce.  Being light helped, I had less flats with sew-ups than clinchers and I used to run my training tires right down to the cords.

Nice do any of you guys ride fixies/ and or tandems? I can post some pics of my collection when I get home from work!

tonka92x wrote:

iamchris wrote:

Are you more prone to a blowout at those lower pressures?

The biggest issue is pinch flats if you run the pressure too low.  This is typically how most people find their minimum pressure - get a pinch flat then bump the pressure 5 psi above what was in there.  Since I've been running lower pressures I've had zero flats due to punctures, and 1 due to a pinch flat (see above.)  And like Scargo said, at lower pressures the tread life increases as well.

I got a flat on yesterday's ride about 5 miles from home.  Pulled the tube out and found not 1, not 2, but 3 punctures.    2 were actually snakebites, probably incurred after the tire went down, but the 3rd was an honest puncture.  Spent about 10 minutes inspecting the tire and couldn't find the culprit, so I put it all back together with a spare tube and finished the ride.  At home I noticed that the single puncture was on the inside of the tube, not the tread side.  Looked at the rim and found my Vittoria special rim tape had folded-over right in the spot I found the puncture.   Nothing like having your rim tape cause a puncture.   I guess being a little oxygen deprived makes you miss some basic things.

I now have some Stan's No-tube rim tape on order to replace that Vittoria crap.  Plus I'll be ready for tubeless when these tires wear out.

As an aside, I got to try out my PDW Shiny Object CO2 inflator.  Big   This is the easiest to use CO2 inflator I've ever tried, and I have at least a 1/2 dozen laying around.  Very easy to regulate the CO2 flow into the tire, and seals up the opened cartridge well enough that I was able to use the remaining CO2 once I got home. Plus that cold cartridge felt pretty good on my back.

tOMORROW. i'VE BEEN BUSY AND THE WEATHER HAS BEEN SHITTY WHEN i'M NOT BUSY.

tHANKS FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT!!!!