Comments on: The Wind, Godzilla and Picking Up Chicks On Bikes

By: Used Pro Bikes For The Super Poseur (or you can just call me Magnus) | Biking To Live

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:17:44 +0000

[...] So, what can you get? For a mere $3,500 you can pickup Julian Dean’s 2007 Felt B2 or you can splurge a little and get yourself Christian Vande Velde’s 2008 Felt SL 1 for $5,000. That’s some serious green for a bike that’s been rode hard and put away wet. $5000 would get you a very nice NEW bike so I’m not sure how many of these Garmin-Slipstream will sell. Will they sell some? Absolutely (there must be a lot because after releasing this announcement the Garmin website slowed to a crawl, and even wouldn’t connect once, due to the folks flocking to get their hands on one of these machines). There’s at least one or two folks out there who have an obscenely excess amount of cash laying around (certainly not myself) and would not bat an eyelash about the price to be able to brag about the bike on their next group ride. The signature namesake of the bikes might even pull a little weight while picking up chicks on bikes. [...]

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:05:59 +0000

Thanks for that lesson. As you said, I should feel proud of what I'm accomplishing and stop the whining. I know you guys/gals don't want to hear me whine.

I'll be the first to admit that I try to push it too hard every ride and I am kind of obsessed with the big ring and avg mph. I can let go of the big ring obsession pretty easily but not the avg mph. I want to be able to average at least 15 mph for my century attempt in Waco. That might be too lofty a goal though.

I really think I need to find someone to ride with on weekdays. I joined the group I ride with for that reason but I'm not getting the group rides I thought I would (Cliff, please don't take offense). I really enjoy our Monday night training rides where we work on individual/group handling because I need that in a big way. That alone is worth the $25/year fee. The rest of the week though there isn't anything going on. There have been two Saturday group rides since I joined the club and both required driving >100 miles to and from. Sorry, but I'm not doing that.

There are groups of 2-20 that ride down at White Rock Lake but they aren't groups for me. I need to find somebody like me who rides down at White Rock Lake so I can have somebody to ride with.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:55:04 +0000

Holy Cow! That's ridiculous.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:54:11 +0000

Ramon, thanks for stopping by and commenting. Glad to know I'm not the only one that's seen the wind problem.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:53:16 +0000

Cliff, long time since I've seen/heard from you. Hope all is well. We should ride again sometime.

I wondered if somebody was going to throw that OK/TX joke out there. And yes, you did warn me about the wind (as did others; some of who have commented here).

By: Weiland

Weiland — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:04:47 +0000

You think this is windy try Wyoming it was not uncommon for 50 - 60 mph winds. That was a bear to ride into. http://www.bowkera.com/wyoming_windsock.htm

By: Ramon H.

Ramon H. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:02:06 +0000

I live in the Rio Grande Valley here in Texas, and I have noticed the wind picking up more than usual over the last couple of days. I ride a foldable bicycle to/from work (I have a regular road bike for longer rides) and I thought that maybe I was just out of shape since I had been out of town for several days.

By: Al

Al — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:26:25 +0000

Wind blows.

By: Gerhard

Gerhard — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:23:06 +0000

Bryan, the wind is your friend in absence of hills. I am not a training authority, so please take what I have to say with a grain of salt. In reading this post and several others I spotted a trend. The trend is the 'big ring' and 'average mph'.

It doesn't surprise me that you would feel defeated by the wind staying in your largest gear for that long with a 20 mph headwind. That is some serious strength training which should be part of intervals, but probably not for your whole ride. Strong winds (and steep hills) are perfect for some aerobic training, smaller rings, higher cadence, more spinning – makes for a terrific workout. As far as your average mph; no serious concern there, the more you ride, the stronger and faster you will become – really as simple as that. A headwind of 5 mph reduces speed by nearly 3 mph. This is the equivalent of a 0.73% grade – so when you do the math for a 20 mph headwind your average speed will drop nearly 12 mph, considering the same power output.

Put all this into consideration and be very proud how well you did.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:37:36 +0000

I told you in the beginning, we don't have hills in Dallas we have wind. You were warned.

Of course some would say that the reason this part of Texas is so windy is that Oklahoma is a vacuum, but since you are an Okie that would not be polite, but it does explain why there is no wind in OK