I've been thinking about getting Castelli base layer for a while now and finally got one. Bike tires direct had them on sale for black friday, so I got one.
castelli-mens-flanders-long-sleeve-baselayer
I've been gradually replacing my Pearl Izumi bike gear with Castellie stuff as things go on sale at BTD. I honestly didn't think the fit of Castellie base layer would be drastically different, but the honest truth is, it's much better fit. The first different is the collar of Castellie is higher than PI transfer baselayer. It's not a turtleneck. It's kind of like a mock/short turtleneck collar. The end result is it keeps makes me feel warmer.
The thing I like most over PI is the fit. Castelli has more compression, which fakes my body into feeling warmer. The second thing I like is the small has shorter sleeves than PI small, so I don't have a bunch of fabric bunched up above my wrist. I'm a short stumpy guy with short arms, so little things like this are quite nice.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
Specialized Evade
A month back I bought myself a new helmet for a couple of reasons. The first one is my old helmet was starting to really stink. Even though I replace the pads once a year and try to rinse it out every week, I sweat like a giant hog in a swamp. There's only so much sweat the helmet can take. I'm a very salty sweater, so that makes it even worse. At the end of Covac and Kings Tour of the Quabbin double metric, my jersey and pants are caked in salt. Here is a picture of both helmets. The evade is the first one and the Giro is the second one.
To be totally blunt, I didn't buy the evade for the aero features. I bought it for the looks. Of all the helmets at bike alley, the evade looked the best. Since I was shopping during Tax Free Holiday, I figure might as well get a good helmet this time.
I bought the Giro Eclipse helmet in 2011 from Nashbar for $40.00, so it was a great bargain. For comparison, the Evade cost over $200.00. Now that I've used it for over a month, I'm very happy with the purchase. The thing that surprised me the most isn't the aero features or the look. It's the vents and how much cooler I feel on a hot day.
At 15mph, I can feel the air rush over my head. At faster speeds my head feels cool, instead of like an oven or steamer. I know it's suppose to be designed for aero and save time/watts over 40K, but not overheating is by far the greatest benefit. Feel cooler lets me relax more during rides and lets me focus on riding. I'm not wishing for cooler weather or trying keep the sweat out of my eyes so I can see.
This isn't scientific, but I believe a couple of things contribute to the better cooling and less "sweat in my eyes". The first is the vent design results in much faster flow, which helps evaporate the profuse sweat pouring from my head. The second is the type of padding used isn't as spongy. The Giro pads quickly get soaked with sweat, which ends up pouring down my face and into my eyes. Third is the retention system seems to keep the helmet off my head, which gives air more room to flow. The end result is even when I'm going FTP and sweating up a river, sweat isn't pouring down my face. It's more like a couple of drops every 5-10 minutes versus a constant stream of sweat. I know it sounds gross and nasty, but there's no nice way to say it. I sweat ALOT and have very salty sweat. Back in high school I ran cross country. At the end of a 15mile run, my arms and legs had a layer of salt.
Back to the helmet. The evade is an excellent helmet for those who sweat profusely. It's clear the designers at Specialized took their time to make sure venting worked well. Even if you don't sweat like a hog, it looks great and will save you some watts.
I bought the Giro Eclipse helmet in 2011 from Nashbar for $40.00, so it was a great bargain. For comparison, the Evade cost over $200.00. Now that I've used it for over a month, I'm very happy with the purchase. The thing that surprised me the most isn't the aero features or the look. It's the vents and how much cooler I feel on a hot day.
At 15mph, I can feel the air rush over my head. At faster speeds my head feels cool, instead of like an oven or steamer. I know it's suppose to be designed for aero and save time/watts over 40K, but not overheating is by far the greatest benefit. Feel cooler lets me relax more during rides and lets me focus on riding. I'm not wishing for cooler weather or trying keep the sweat out of my eyes so I can see.
This isn't scientific, but I believe a couple of things contribute to the better cooling and less "sweat in my eyes". The first is the vent design results in much faster flow, which helps evaporate the profuse sweat pouring from my head. The second is the type of padding used isn't as spongy. The Giro pads quickly get soaked with sweat, which ends up pouring down my face and into my eyes. Third is the retention system seems to keep the helmet off my head, which gives air more room to flow. The end result is even when I'm going FTP and sweating up a river, sweat isn't pouring down my face. It's more like a couple of drops every 5-10 minutes versus a constant stream of sweat. I know it sounds gross and nasty, but there's no nice way to say it. I sweat ALOT and have very salty sweat. Back in high school I ran cross country. At the end of a 15mile run, my arms and legs had a layer of salt.
Back to the helmet. The evade is an excellent helmet for those who sweat profusely. It's clear the designers at Specialized took their time to make sure venting worked well. Even if you don't sweat like a hog, it looks great and will save you some watts.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Polar H7 HRM
I know Polar is one of the most popular brands of heart rate monitor out there, but my experience so far is the reliability sucks. I say this out of frustration. Over the last 3 years, I've bought 2 H7 and 2 replacement soft straps.
The thing is, they work fine for the first 10 months, and then go dead. The first one I had started not emitting a BTLE signal, so I sent it to Polar support. I had to pay for the shipping. The first time they spent 3 weeks on it due to the holiday and then mailed it back. That worked for roughly 3 weeks before it started to act up. In good faith I bought a second unit and sent the first unit back for service. Polar replaced the old unit with a new one, which was nice.
The second unit I bought started having issues after 5 months. At first I thought it was the sensor unit, but turns out it was the soft strap. I figured this out by testing the sensor with different straps. Rather than wait another 3 weeks, I went ahead and bought a replacement strap. Two more months went by and the new sensor unit started having issues. The behavior was the same as the first H7 I bought, the sensor stopped sending a signal. I sent the second unit in for service and again it took 2-3 weeks.
Polar didn't replace it, but they did get it working again. 4 months later the replacement unit Polar sent me died and stopped sending a signal. I tested it with new and old soft straps, no luck. This week, the second H7 died.
At this point, I've lost faith in Polar H7 and Polar products in general. I can understand some defect rate with hardware, but all three units died. Based on my experience, that's a 100% failure rate. I use my HRM almost every day and I do sweat alot. The thing is, these issues are fixable with proper design and QA. Earlier this year I got wahoo tickr to replace the first polar H7 that died.
Now that the second H7 died, I'm going to get another tickr instead. The other thing that sucks with Polar is their customer service. First thing is I paid 75.00 for each H7 HRM. Why do I have to pay to ship it to them for service? The right thing is to pay for the shipping. The second thing is the turn around time. It's never taken less than 3 weeks for polar to "service" the sensor.
In contrast, when my Wahoo speed/cadence unit died, they still sent me a replacement when it was beyond the warranty. They didn't have to, but they did. I got the replacement in 2 days and I was back in business. Another example of good service. When my stages power meter battery cover broke, stages sent me replacement covers. Both Wahoo and Stages provide excellent customer service.
Polar is a much bigger company, so they probably forgot what it means to provide good service.
The thing is, they work fine for the first 10 months, and then go dead. The first one I had started not emitting a BTLE signal, so I sent it to Polar support. I had to pay for the shipping. The first time they spent 3 weeks on it due to the holiday and then mailed it back. That worked for roughly 3 weeks before it started to act up. In good faith I bought a second unit and sent the first unit back for service. Polar replaced the old unit with a new one, which was nice.
The second unit I bought started having issues after 5 months. At first I thought it was the sensor unit, but turns out it was the soft strap. I figured this out by testing the sensor with different straps. Rather than wait another 3 weeks, I went ahead and bought a replacement strap. Two more months went by and the new sensor unit started having issues. The behavior was the same as the first H7 I bought, the sensor stopped sending a signal. I sent the second unit in for service and again it took 2-3 weeks.
Polar didn't replace it, but they did get it working again. 4 months later the replacement unit Polar sent me died and stopped sending a signal. I tested it with new and old soft straps, no luck. This week, the second H7 died.
At this point, I've lost faith in Polar H7 and Polar products in general. I can understand some defect rate with hardware, but all three units died. Based on my experience, that's a 100% failure rate. I use my HRM almost every day and I do sweat alot. The thing is, these issues are fixable with proper design and QA. Earlier this year I got wahoo tickr to replace the first polar H7 that died.
Now that the second H7 died, I'm going to get another tickr instead. The other thing that sucks with Polar is their customer service. First thing is I paid 75.00 for each H7 HRM. Why do I have to pay to ship it to them for service? The right thing is to pay for the shipping. The second thing is the turn around time. It's never taken less than 3 weeks for polar to "service" the sensor.
In contrast, when my Wahoo speed/cadence unit died, they still sent me a replacement when it was beyond the warranty. They didn't have to, but they did. I got the replacement in 2 days and I was back in business. Another example of good service. When my stages power meter battery cover broke, stages sent me replacement covers. Both Wahoo and Stages provide excellent customer service.
Polar is a much bigger company, so they probably forgot what it means to provide good service.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Power numbers on Reservoir street climb
Last nite I went and did the Monday Night Ride. Once we got on reservoir, george and I took off. I was for 7:50 on the segment, but I didn't go all out. I pulled for most of it and felt good. I ended up just shy by 3 seconds, which I could have done if I sprinted the last 200 meters. Looking at my times for this year, the power output seems to be in the same range.
The fastest time is from earlier this year on MNR with a couple of guys taking turns pulling. We also had a nice tail wind, which made a big difference. From what the data shows, times faster than 8:30 is consistently over 200 watts for the segment. According to Strava, my best 8:00 min avg power is 266. Last nite's effort was 261 avg for 7:53.
I know the goal is attainable, so it's just a matter of training and a proper warmup.
The fastest time is from earlier this year on MNR with a couple of guys taking turns pulling. We also had a nice tail wind, which made a big difference. From what the data shows, times faster than 8:30 is consistently over 200 watts for the segment. According to Strava, my best 8:00 min avg power is 266. Last nite's effort was 261 avg for 7:53.
I know the goal is attainable, so it's just a matter of training and a proper warmup.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Looking at Watts and Weighted Avg Power
Now that I've ridden my regular lunch route a couple of times, I decided to look at my data. Here is a chart with the average watts, weighted avg power (WAP) watts, elapsed time in seconds and elapsed time in hr:min:ss.
So far my fastest time is 1:00:50 for an average of 189 watts or a WAP of 216. According to cyclemeter the wind that day was 10mph WSW. The day with the highest avg watts was 194, WAP of 214 and wind of 22mph SW.
If I compare the time for tuesday and wednesday of this week, there's roughly a 2min difference. The wind on tuesday was 22 mph NW, and wed was 5 mph E. The thing that interests me is the relationship between watts and time. Alot of bike manufacturers throw around numbers claiming their new aero bike saves blah watts and gives you a blah second advantage.
In reality, riding in the real world things are constantly changing, so "watt saving" doesn't translate to actual seconds faster. The only sure fire gaurantee for going faster is getting fit, loosing weight and proper training. The data I have so far doesn't prove anything, but it is interesting to see how power varies. As I get more data for my lunch route, I can do more analysis to see the correlation between time and power.
| avg watts | WAP watts | time secs | hr:min:ss | |
| 5/21/2014 | 180 | 198 | 3722 | 1:02:22 |
| 5/20/2014 | 174 | 192 | 3877 | 1:04:37 |
| 5/12/2014 | 189 | 216 | 3650 | 1:00:50 |
| 5/5/2014 | 183 | 214 | 3793 | 1:03:13 |
| 4/11/2014 | 188 | 214 | 3687 | 1:01:27 |
| 4/10/2014 | 194 | 214 | 3703 | 1:01:43 |
| 4/8/2014 | 182 | 204 | 3795 | 1:03:15 |
| 4/6/2014 | 174 | 200 | 3946 | 1:05:46 |
So far my fastest time is 1:00:50 for an average of 189 watts or a WAP of 216. According to cyclemeter the wind that day was 10mph WSW. The day with the highest avg watts was 194, WAP of 214 and wind of 22mph SW.
If I compare the time for tuesday and wednesday of this week, there's roughly a 2min difference. The wind on tuesday was 22 mph NW, and wed was 5 mph E. The thing that interests me is the relationship between watts and time. Alot of bike manufacturers throw around numbers claiming their new aero bike saves blah watts and gives you a blah second advantage.
In reality, riding in the real world things are constantly changing, so "watt saving" doesn't translate to actual seconds faster. The only sure fire gaurantee for going faster is getting fit, loosing weight and proper training. The data I have so far doesn't prove anything, but it is interesting to see how power varies. As I get more data for my lunch route, I can do more analysis to see the correlation between time and power.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Wheels and Wheels
Between the 2 road bikes I own, I have 4 sets of wheels. The first sets are for my Specialized Dolce. It came with stock bontrager wheels, which were heavy and didn't roll very well. When I changed my cassette to 11-28, I got shimano R500 wheels for it. Between those two wheels, the R500 are definitely lighter and roll better. I don't remember the exact price I paid, but it was around 300-320.
When I bought my giant avail, it came with stock giant wheels. With in the 6 months, I broke 1 spoke and it had to be trued twice. Last year, my in-laws gave me Mavic Aksium wheels for my birthday. The wheels cost 329.00 with shipping it was 350.00. Before I got the mavic, I didn't feel comfortable going faster than 50mph. Above 45mph the stock bontrager and giant wheels didn't feel solid on turns. As a result, I often got dropped on long descents on group rides.
There's a couple of things I like about the Mavic wheels. The first is they're bomb proof! I haven't had to true them at all. I've hit plenty of bad potholes and they handled them quite well. With the other three wheels, it would go out of true. The second thing is the lower rolling resistance. The third is the bladed spokes for extra aerodynamics. The forth is they're much lighter than the other three wheels.
If I had to compare the giant wheels to Mavic, I would say the giant wheel set is like a beat up old Pinto. It works and it's cheap, but it requires more maintenance and it's slow. The mavic aksium is like a Honda Civic. It's reliable, affordable, well built and well designed. It's not an exotic like Ferrari or McClaren with lots of carbon fiber. I can't justify spending over 800 on a set of wheels, so high end carbon aero wheels just aren't in my immediate future.
The bottom line for me is Mavic wheels are bomb proof and a great value.
When I bought my giant avail, it came with stock giant wheels. With in the 6 months, I broke 1 spoke and it had to be trued twice. Last year, my in-laws gave me Mavic Aksium wheels for my birthday. The wheels cost 329.00 with shipping it was 350.00. Before I got the mavic, I didn't feel comfortable going faster than 50mph. Above 45mph the stock bontrager and giant wheels didn't feel solid on turns. As a result, I often got dropped on long descents on group rides.
There's a couple of things I like about the Mavic wheels. The first is they're bomb proof! I haven't had to true them at all. I've hit plenty of bad potholes and they handled them quite well. With the other three wheels, it would go out of true. The second thing is the lower rolling resistance. The third is the bladed spokes for extra aerodynamics. The forth is they're much lighter than the other three wheels.
If I had to compare the giant wheels to Mavic, I would say the giant wheel set is like a beat up old Pinto. It works and it's cheap, but it requires more maintenance and it's slow. The mavic aksium is like a Honda Civic. It's reliable, affordable, well built and well designed. It's not an exotic like Ferrari or McClaren with lots of carbon fiber. I can't justify spending over 800 on a set of wheels, so high end carbon aero wheels just aren't in my immediate future.
The bottom line for me is Mavic wheels are bomb proof and a great value.
Comparing Polar H7 vs Wahoo Tickr
Recently I bought a Wahoo Tickr heart rate monitor to replace the Polar H7 that died on me. I actually own 2 Polar H7 HRM, but I haven't had much luck in terms reliability. The first one I bought worked for about 10 months, then it started to malfunction. The symptoms were no bluetooth signal. I sent it in to get it serviced, which took about 2.5 weeks. I decided to order a new Polar H7 before I sent in the old one for service. That first unit ended up malfunctioning again after 2 weeks, so I sent it back again. The second time, Polar gave me a replacement, which seemed to work. A month after that, the soft strap started not working. I figured this out when I tested each sensor with both old and new straps. Once I realized the strap was bad, I ordered a new one and threw the bad one away.
Another 2 months after that, the second H7 started to go bad, so I sent that in for service. Even after getting it back, it still didn't work. I gave up and decided Polar's HRM isn't reliable over time. It works fine for the first 6-10 months, but soon after that it fails. Since I had great service from Wahoo for my speed/cadence sensor, I thought I'd give Wahoo Tickr a try. There's a couple of things I like about Tickr. The first is the 2 lights on the front that tell you the batter is good and sending bluetooth signal. The second is the strap is different than Polar soft strap. With the polar soft strap, the electrodes are bonded to the elastic strap, which over time gets stressed and worn out. In 16 months I've killed 2 polar soft straps. The wahoo strap has a different design, which I "feel" could improve reliability. The electrodes on the Wahoo strap are bonded to a material that doesn't stretch, which means the likelihood of it getting damaged is less likely. In terms of comfort, it feels about the same as the Polar soft strap. The second thing I like about Wahoo strap is it's easier to buckle compared to the Polar soft strap. A third benefit is the Tickr supports both ANT+ and bluetooth. When new firmware is available, you download it to the sensor. Polar H7 doesn't do that.
So far the Tickr hasn't had any issues. Only time will tell if Tickr will last longer than Polar H7. One thing is clear though, Wahoo's customer service is better right now.
Another 2 months after that, the second H7 started to go bad, so I sent that in for service. Even after getting it back, it still didn't work. I gave up and decided Polar's HRM isn't reliable over time. It works fine for the first 6-10 months, but soon after that it fails. Since I had great service from Wahoo for my speed/cadence sensor, I thought I'd give Wahoo Tickr a try. There's a couple of things I like about Tickr. The first is the 2 lights on the front that tell you the batter is good and sending bluetooth signal. The second is the strap is different than Polar soft strap. With the polar soft strap, the electrodes are bonded to the elastic strap, which over time gets stressed and worn out. In 16 months I've killed 2 polar soft straps. The wahoo strap has a different design, which I "feel" could improve reliability. The electrodes on the Wahoo strap are bonded to a material that doesn't stretch, which means the likelihood of it getting damaged is less likely. In terms of comfort, it feels about the same as the Polar soft strap. The second thing I like about Wahoo strap is it's easier to buckle compared to the Polar soft strap. A third benefit is the Tickr supports both ANT+ and bluetooth. When new firmware is available, you download it to the sensor. Polar H7 doesn't do that.
So far the Tickr hasn't had any issues. Only time will tell if Tickr will last longer than Polar H7. One thing is clear though, Wahoo's customer service is better right now.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Power meter
Over the holiday I decided to get myself a power meter. I spent many months researching power meters and read about Stages back in Feb 2013. Early in the season I upgraded the FSA crank to Shimano 105. The change is noticeable. The FSA crank isn't nearly as stiff as hollowtech crank and also it's heavier. Part of my reason for changing cranks is that Stages didn't support FSA cranks at the time. Fast forward to December. I pulled the trigger and ordered it. In late Jan I got the crank and installed it.
Now that I've been using it for a few weeks I'm quite happy with it. The installation was a breeze. I spent more time cleaning and oiling my bottom bracket than installing the left crank arm. I've noticed a few things about my power output the last few weeks.
The first one is correlation between cadence and power. My natural cadence is around 100 rpm. When I tried to follow sufferfest ISLAGIATT cadence, the power output was lower and more erratic. I've known that I prefer spinning to mashing, but it was great to see real data. At 100-105 cadence, my power varies .4watts, which is decent.
Overall, I've quite happy with the stages power meter.
Now that I've been using it for a few weeks I'm quite happy with it. The installation was a breeze. I spent more time cleaning and oiling my bottom bracket than installing the left crank arm. I've noticed a few things about my power output the last few weeks.
The first one is correlation between cadence and power. My natural cadence is around 100 rpm. When I tried to follow sufferfest ISLAGIATT cadence, the power output was lower and more erratic. I've known that I prefer spinning to mashing, but it was great to see real data. At 100-105 cadence, my power varies .4watts, which is decent.
Overall, I've quite happy with the stages power meter.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Sufferfest
The last last few weeks, the weather has been cold and I've been on the trainer. The thing is, I used to hate the trainer. By that I mean this. I counted every minute and wished I was done. I tried watching daily show, colbert report, bones, top gear and a bunch of other stuff, but the most I could do was 25 minutes. Every minute felt like torture.
Since I have Strava premiun, I decided to give sufferfest a try. Two friends suggested. The first one I tried was rubber gloves. I had no clue what kind of suffering it would dish out and to my surprise, I managed to finish the whole thing. When I got done, I shocked myself by hitting a max heart rate of 194. Prior to this, my max heart rate with HRM was around 185. At the YMCA, I've gone over 190, but I thought it had a large margin of error. Life cycles and spin cycle HRM aren't that accurate.
After rubber gloves I tried fight club and revolver. Both of them are geared towards sprinters, so I don't really like them. Last week I decided to get rubber gloves due to poor streaming quality from Strava. The next day I also purchased the long scream and ISLAGIATT.
Watching sufferfest videos, I'm getting a better workout and have done several hour long sessions the last 2 weeks. I don't love the trainer yet, but I no longer hate it. That in itself says a lot about sufferfest videos.
Since I have Strava premiun, I decided to give sufferfest a try. Two friends suggested. The first one I tried was rubber gloves. I had no clue what kind of suffering it would dish out and to my surprise, I managed to finish the whole thing. When I got done, I shocked myself by hitting a max heart rate of 194. Prior to this, my max heart rate with HRM was around 185. At the YMCA, I've gone over 190, but I thought it had a large margin of error. Life cycles and spin cycle HRM aren't that accurate.
After rubber gloves I tried fight club and revolver. Both of them are geared towards sprinters, so I don't really like them. Last week I decided to get rubber gloves due to poor streaming quality from Strava. The next day I also purchased the long scream and ISLAGIATT.
Watching sufferfest videos, I'm getting a better workout and have done several hour long sessions the last 2 weeks. I don't love the trainer yet, but I no longer hate it. That in itself says a lot about sufferfest videos.
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