Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

Made myself an armrest, the other one bent when I hit a pothole. Go me. I've not made anything from metal since I made a trowel at school, aged 12.

Same gear for a 50 as a 25?

Tad lower personally. 105 for me on Sunday I think.

What do you use for 25?

Depends on the course. Probably 108/111"

Sure, just wanted to gauge what your idea of a "tad lower" was.

That's with 170mm cranks?

Yup. But don't base your gearing off me, base it off the course, your fitness and your preferred cadence range. And a little bit of gut instinct.

But don't base your gearing off me...

No shit: the forum BAR and twenty-something years doesn't lie. :)

I got a workable chainline with 160mm cranks er... yesterday and that's at the expense of 20mm of Q-factor, so I might as well ask a random number generator what to run on Sunday. :0

This year I rode J2/9 (25) and J4/16 (50) x 2, all laps of the same circuit

J2/9: 56:23 104"
J4/16: 1:55:30 104"
J4/16: 1:52:27 106" (I pedalled harder as it was Nationals)

Depends so much on the course and your fitness

Depends so much on the course and your fitness

Quite.

Just trying to get an idea of what the consensus is.

I think I'll err on the side of caution and write it off to "testing"...

#haveyoutriedtheveal

Reduced by 20mm?

Same gear for a 50 as a 25?

Maybe. If you're going to do the old-school 50 time of twice your 25 plus 5min, then the slight cadence drop ends up being about right given the longer duration.

But don't base your gearing off me

Sound advice, @Sainsburys_Ed is faster than you so he should be the go-to guy for testing advice :-)

No: +20mm!

I've only got one pair of wheels, which are spaced/dished for UT.

113mm BB, ring on the inside.

I'd take q-factor over short cranks.

113mm BB, ring on the inside.

Couldn't you go 103mm and ring outside? That's what I did with my cheap and nasty 160mm cranks. PX have the 103mm Token for £14.99 (£5 more than what I paid a few months ago, but that's what you call timing), that would get you back half the Q-factor.

Looks like he's found those missing watts

I've tried out the shorter cranks on a couple of hills where I start to get a bit ragged on 170mm and I was much more in control.

OTOH the extra Q was also noticeable: usually I can keep the bike solidly upright, whereas it was noticeably rocking when I was pushing and consequently more twitchy.

So I think if I gear conservatively, I'll gain from being able to keep he bike straight at a higher cadence.

Couldn't you go 103mm and ring outside?

I've just ordered one, ta.

Felt like a much better ride last night, I'm back to feeling settled on the bike and found my missing 40'watts and a bit more, got stuck behind a lorry crawling on the new gravel section on the last km. l ended up with 21:48 so another 40 seconds off my PB.

Quite liking time trialling, and looking forward to next week already, 48 seconds now feels like quite a big jump to get into the realms of 20:xx but there was a little more in the tank and there were sections where I wasn't very mindful of my position last night, I could always shave my legs and throw on some leg trips... Maybe in a few weeks time when I feel I've got all the power I can out of my legs.

Find it really hard to sleep after a good ride though!

Anyone know of anyone selling a large Canyon Speedmax AL?

Quite liking time trialling

It's the best.

I think I'm retiring after this year.

Yeah? I need an advisor, give me a shout if you do. Share all your secrets.

If not, see you out there!

You can buy the book.. Fasterer, out next March. ;)

I'll see how PBP goes and then I might tick off some races in the USA but the quest for PBs is getting a bit old now. I could be curing cancer or something instead of riding up and down A roads 12 hours at a time.