The No Post Post

[berryman]

I was sorting out old bottles today and came across this one. Anyone remember the label? He was a member on the old mr beer forum and here too.





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[bpgreen]

Holy cow. It's been almost 4 months without a post.

Last fall, I had every intention to ride my bike every day through the winter. But when it got cold, my resolve faltered.

It's been warmer this week, so I rode a couple of times.

Today, I decided to ride to the rec center (about 10 miles), swim for an hour and ride home. I did that every Saturday last year, so I figured it would be easy to get back to it.

It was a struggle to get there, so I took it easy swimming. The ride back was really rough.

It's going to be cold the next few days, but I'll be biking when it warms up.

The pool is closed next Saturday. I hope I'll be in better biking shape by the following Saturday.

[mashani]

But when it got cold, my resolve faltered.

This is why I ride a more then a thousand miles on Zwift every winter.

[bpgreen]

But when it got cold, my resolve faltered.

This is why I ride a more then a thousand miles on Zwift every winter.

I need to invest in a good trainer before next winter. I've got an exercise bike, but it's not the same. It gets boring too fast and it's just ad different ride than a real bike.

[mashani]

But when it got cold, my resolve faltered.

This is why I ride a more then a thousand miles on Zwift every winter.

I need to invest in a good trainer before next winter. I've got an exercise bike, but it's not the same. It gets boring too fast and it's just ad different ride than a real bike.

Zwift is the only reason I can stand indoor cycling. But with it, I can ride around doing various challenges, training programs, races, group rides and such, interact with others, etc. so it makes it so an hour or 90 minutes at a time isn't just a drag. And yeah I'm riding on my real bike, on resistance rollers, so it's similarish to riding outside vs. an old school stationary bike.

[bpgreen]

Zwift is the only reason I can stand indoor cycling. But with it, I can ride around doing various challenges, training programs, races, group rides and such, interact with others, etc. so it makes it so an hour or 90 minutes at a time isn't just a drag. And yeah I'm riding on my real bike, on resistance rollers, so it's similarish to riding outside vs. an old school stationary bike.

@mashani, you may have told ne this in a PM, but what trainer do you have?

The rec center where I swim has cycling classes. It's probably not as good as something like Zwift, but for me, it might be even better, because there's somebody there forcing me to push myself. I did one today and will try one tomorrow. Fortunately, the cycle schedule works well with my swim schedule.

I'l probably do these periodically after it warms up, also. I think it'll help me push myself a bit if I'm in a class with an instructor egging me on.

[mashani]

I ride on Feedback Sports Omnium resistance rollers, which are portable (they fold up and fit in a bag) and I take with me places to warm up before rides / races. I bought them for that, but found that they worked fine for indoor Zwift cycling.

They aren't really full blown rollers, the fork of the bike mounts to them, so there are only two rollers that the rear tire sits in and you can't fall over like on real rollers. The rollers at the back are not very wide like regular rollers, because the rear wheel can only move side to side a few inches in either direction due to the fork being attached. That slight movement still is enough that it feels like you are riding on the road much more then it would on a stationary bike.

You could ride those with just a cadence and speed sensor (like Wahoo brand sensors) and ride and train on Zwift, with estimated power output calculated by Zwift. You just couldn't ride in very specific races with that setup, because some races will require an actual power meter and HR strap also to make sure your not cheating.

On your gearing setup, they are going to max out at about 600 watts if you go full blast in your top gear (unless you can spin at 150+ rpms, then you might be able to hit 700 watts) but that just makes it so an all out max sprint maybe your not able to hit the highest number you could reach on the road. Also you can't coast, your rear wheel will stop pretty quickly so the speed sensor will say you are going 0 mph, so your "estimated power" will drop to 0 watts, and you will just stop unless your going downhill. But hey that keeps you from being lazy right?

You could get that whole setup for about $400 on Black Friday or similar sales.

I have a power meter so I ride with actual Zwift power but that's adding double the cost you don't need to add unless you want a power meter for the road.

Another option would be a Wahoo Fitness Kicker Snap, that gets you everything you need, would report true power to Zwift so you could race on it, and you could probably get one of those for about $400 on a Black Friday or similar sale too, or maybe even less for a refurbished one. You don't need the speed/cadence sensors for that, but then you also don't have them for the road. If you have them on your bike on the road there are all sorts of phone apps you can use with them to track your outdoor cycling.

Also the Kicker Snap has just a single very narrow roller that the tire touches, so it will wear out your tire, you really would want to buy a "trainer tire" for that. That problem doesn't exist with the feedback sports rollers, the rollers are very large diameter and the fact that there are 2 and your wheel sits between them prevents much wear.

There are many better options then either of these that you actually mount the rear to without the wheel (your chain attaches to a cassette built into them) if you were going to be really serious about it, but they also all cost more then you paid for your bike.

[bpgreen]

A couple of days ago, I was talking with a neighbor and made an offhand comment that the next upgrade I wanted to do with my bike was to get new pedals and shoes to clip in. He told me that he had some pedals from a bike that he sold, and if he could find them, he'd just give them to me.

Today, he told me that he found them and gave them to me. As luck would have it, I was just getting ready to go for a run and then a bike ride, so I took the pedals to the bike shop and got shoes and cleats.

Another neighbor had told me to practice clipping in and releasing on grass before using them on pavement. I practiced a few times, went for a run, then went for a ride.

It was windy, so I can't compare apples to apples to know whether they helped my speed, but I could definitely tell a difference in how my leg muscles were feeling, so I'm pretty sure I was getting at least some additional power on the upstroke.

I practiced releasing the pedals a few times while riding, and also did it for real once when I turned around. When I got home, I released the right shoe, then the left. Then I set my left foot on the ground and swung my right foot out. Or tried to. Apparently, I had accidentally clipped my right shoe back in while releasing the left. Of course, that meant that instead of swinging my right foot over the bar, the momentum from trying to swing my right foot caused me to fall rather gracelessly.

On the bright side, falling released my right shoe, so I was able to untangle myself without any real problems.

Also, on the bright side, none of my neghbors were out, so nobody saw me fall and humiliate myself. Actually, I saw another neighbor out walking his dog. He's an avid biker, and his dog apparently decided they needed to turn around at that time (or he saw me and decided to turn around so I wouldn't know he saw me face plant).

On a somewhat related note, I'm signed up for a sprint triathlon on May 9. So I've got 9 weeks to get my biking and running in shape. Last fall (the first time I tried this), my goal was just to finish and preferably not last. I met both goals, and was even in the top half of men over 60. My goal for this one is to have a better time than the last one.

I'm also signed up for the Labor Day sprint triathlon that I was in lst year, and I'll want to do better in that than I did last fall and will do in May.

A week after the Labor Day sprint triathlon, I'm signed up for an olympic distance triathlon. Since swimming is bigger proportianally, I think that will work to my benefit (assuming I can improve my run enough to have a decent 10k).

[mashani]

LOL, everybody falls over with clipless pedals the first few times. The upstroke power is more useful to give your other muscles a brief rest then to add actual power... you still get most of your power from pushing down on the pedals. They do keep your feet from slipping/moving especially when pedaling at high cadence (or on bumpy rough roads, dirt, gravel), so you end up getting more of whatever power you are making to the pedals for sure, instead of "mostly".

[berryman]

Ever notice if make a post on Tapatalk on the phone, can't edit on a laptop on the web view?

[berryman]

Bringing the no post back up. 3 Ss flow control inter tap other/last one I don’t know what it is use for wine and works good .



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[BlackDuck]

Very nice!!! I totally forgot about this thread.

I made beef tips in the Instant Pot for dinner tonight. They were fantastic.


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[berryman]

I knew it was bound to happen sometime and it did happen today. Smacked a wyeast smack pack and blew open the seam. Didn't loose much and doing a 2L starter anyways but didn't get a chance to see it swell......

[Beer-lord]

I knew it was bound to happen sometime and it did happen today. Smacked a wyeast smack pack and blew open the seam. Didn't loose much and doing a 2L starter anyways but didn't get a chance to see it swell......

I think about that every time I get their yeast. Bet it felt good though.

[Yankeedag]

Haven't been here in a while...Mostly because I haven't anything new to add. Still brewing...and used Buddha Hand to make a great beer. I know I'll soon have to come up with a system to make, ferment, and keg my beers, as dragging the stuff around is getting to be a wee much for me. Have fun y'all, and keep up the brewing.