Triban 520: Update :)

[dude7691]

Thank you for all the responses above

One thing I'm not understanding perfectly. On the flatter bits through town on smooth, newly paved concrete, I'm now hitting 18mph on the road bike and I can hold it there with a fair bit of effort but no more than I'm exerting later on in the ride on the rougher asphalt bits, where I'm struggling to hold 13mph and it's requiring the most effort I can muster to stop myself going past my lactic threshold. Is surface really that significant when riding with 25mm tires?

 

[ColinJ]

Perhaps you just got tired?

 

[dude7691]

Perhaps you just got tired?

Perhaps I mean I'm talking 18mph 4 miles into the ride when I'm nowhere near properly warmed up, I feel like I'm generating less power on those parts vs the effort it takes to hold a speed 5mph less only 2 miles further down the road where the road surface changes. I'm gonna take myself out on a trail with smooth roads at some point soon just to see what my average speed would be if I lived in a country with half decent roads I can't have been that tired because i managed that aforementioned hill even faster today, 7.5mph up the 13% gradient vs the 7.0mph of yesterday.

 

[mattobrien]

You’d be surprised how much of a shift in power is required from a slight downhill to a slight uphill. False flats can be deadly.

Before having a power meter I recall a particular stretch of road where it felt like I was blowing out of my backside and going no where fast. Now I have power I can see that I would be doing well above threshold, hence trying hard and going no where quickly.

Most rides now I don’t look at speed at all, instead riding to specific power targets.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

I'm not into Watts. (Unless you mean Mary Stuart Masterson*)

But even without power metering and all that tech, I know that my entry level CX helps me to ride much faster/more efficiently than my old hybrid. Which in turn is more efficient than an MTB. And I know that in turn encourages me to push a bit more

I also know how hard it is to ride off-road on a road bike from an old "Stand By Me"-esque childhood episode in an old railway tunnel that they started filling in whilst we were inside. A steel-rimmed Raleigh 10-speed fair flew across the rough hardcore of the rail bed but it was fuelled purely from the adrenaline of seeing a JCB filling in the entrance to a tunnel that is fenced off at the other end with steel railings, So yes, it can be harder work on road tyres on a surface they aren't intended for

Anyway, rambling and reminiscing aside I wouldn't spend too much on tech on an entry level bike otherwise you'll end up spending what could have been a bike upgrade for real gains instead of just charting gains.



*cultural reference, if it makes no sense, it's not for you, move on, nothing to see

 

[ColinJ]

You’d be surprised how much of a shift in power is required from a slight downhill to a slight uphill. False flats can be deadly.

Before having a power meter I recall a particular stretch of road where it felt like I was blowing out of my backside and going no where fast. Now I have power I can see that I would be doing well above threshold, hence trying hard and going no where quickly.

There is one of those on the A646 heading from Burnley towards Todmorden. I occasionally used to commute that way by bike and always wondered why such an easy road felt so hard. When I looked at its profile on my mapping software, it became fairly obvious...

It averages about 2% for 3 km. Barely noticeable to look at but obvious when pedalling hard. I was doing 20 mph on flat roads and Bike Calculator reckons that equated to about 220 W. That same 220 W would only get me to 14 mph up that false flat!