Carol is still in L.A. so I'm a bachelor for a few more days. Since I rode my intervals yesterday, today was an easy day. Actually, I stayed off the bike but was out and about digging and hauling in the garden for the better part of a day so I did give the legs a rest as well as some exercise. AYK, we live on a hill with a great view but everytime I go to the garden from our house/garage it's a drop/climb of 15-20'. All good exercise. Btw...from now until race day, June 7th, I'm in the maintain mode. Keep the legs loosened up, nothing too long, too intense, avoid sick people, top off my glycogen stores, and relax and work on strategy, planning, etc.
Quick review of yesterday's ride.
With my tires changed out to Ultremos at both ends, and with my new tear-dropped shaped Bell Javelin TT helmet, I set out to ride Decker Road which is a 43 mile round trip ride from the house depending on which exact route I take. " Riding Decker" has a littllle bit of everything thrown in. Some valley floor riding, some rolling hills, some -1% fast highway riding, and a blazingly fast .3 mile 6-7% downhill that I've used for equipment testing the past 25 years. It also has about a mile long climb that varies from 4-7% just long enough to get into a good cadence and hold it for awhile.
I didn't aggressively tackle the climb anywhere on the course but climbed at more or less race pace.I didn't notice much of a bump in speed for much of the ride 'out' due to the wind more or less in my face. What I did ride aggressively, though, was charging the downhill, as usual, trying to eke out every last bit of available speed.
History: On Tuesday's descent on this hill, I couldn't get it pass 50mph. Nada. For the record, my best ever w/socked GR AND Aerojacket rear disc cover was an accurate 52mph. I'd have to say my average max descent speed on that hill is right at 51mph. Rarely do I ever hit 52.
Today was different, though. With my speedo accurately recalibrated to account for the Ultremo's slightly smaller tire diameter...yes, I did a roll out with paint in the garage...I hit an amazing 56mph!!
It blew me away. The only changes made between this run and the many others preceding it were the tires and the helmet.That's it. That's a huge improvement that I wasn't expecting. Thank you, Lord :)
Also, coming back down the highway hammering, I set PR's for various stretches of the highway I'm so familiar with. It was a rocketship! Keep in mind that the speed increase was WITHOUT my Aerojacket disc cover and WITH my saddlebags empty though they were. I'm very pleased with the improvement to say the least.
Analyzing my helmet, which I believe was the main contributor to the increase, it almost looks to be a perfect teardrop all the way from the front lens to over and around my head in a very aero flow. AYK, my fat head sticking up in the airstream, with it's multi-vented helmet design, acts like a parachute when compared with the design of the Bell Javelin TT helmet.
OK...what about the tires? The rear tire swap out from the Kojac to the Ultremo saved 6 ounces of rotating weight...tube/tire combination... when compared with the Kojac. I could feel the difference. The bike, though only 1/2lb lighter, felt very snappy in it's acceleration. It was fun!
Future upgrades expected this week?
1.Carbon fiber "Double Bubble" fairing...reportedl to be noticeably faster than what I'm running now.
2. New Patriotic body sock
3. Will install Aerojacket wheel cover as, having done several hours of qualitative analysis, came to the conclusion it's going to give me some free watts during the race. My fear of it being dangerous during strong cross winds/truck traffic will be solved by pulling over, coming to q complete stop, and quicky removing the body sock tucking it up under the front fairing. What's cool is I don't even have to get off the bike to do it.
Here's a link to a tire/speed calculator I found very interesting. It took me a few minutes to get familiar with it but once I did, I found it extremely informative. Enjoy...
http://www.cyclingpowerlab.com/componentaerodynamics.aspx
Well done Rocketman
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