2007 Cannondale SystemSix Team Si

You know what's lighter?

Not having a computer.

Best performance enhancing bike part I ever bought was my cadense sensor. Probably hard to believe. But it actually improved my times better than my internal alu spoke nipples.

Why was it the best performance enhancing part? Don't find cadence that beneficial.

Can highlight a tendency to mash (which as SF is a brawny sort I'm going to wildly assume he was doing), and having the figure displayed on the bars reminds you/allows you to deal with it then and there.

i.e. look down, see "55", change down a couple of gears until you are spinning at 88, then see your heart rate drop 10 bpm.

Obviously having this sort of information is not for everyone- clearly Ed has not interest in the metrics of a ride, for example, but I like to see them.

Ah.
My initial thought was anyone that rides a reasonable amount, should be able to tell you within a 10 range what their current cadence is.
I guess it's just personal as you highlighted, I'll average 80-90 for a road ride as normal. So never bother to think about cadence.

On that note though. I did some 50rpm and 100 rpm work at the same wattage the other week for interest, and there was no difference in hr over the duration, 5min.

I find that for the same power level a higher cadence means that my heart rate is lower, but I suspect that this is a highly personal thing.

Can highlight a tendency to mash (which as SF is a brawny sort I'm going to wildly assume he was doing), and having the figure displayed on the bars reminds you/allows you to deal with it then and there.

This^

(Possibly more portly, than brawny, after the marzipan season though)

Is cadence a personal thing, or is there a rough optimum?

People often quote "spin to win" - if I go much above 100 I start bouncing up and down. But either side of 90 seems fine.

Or is it one of those things where you want to be precise?

Personal. There is no universal optimum, but there is a personal optimum.*
Just ride where you feel most comfortable really. Unless you want to do a lot of testing.
Bouncing up and down is because you're not used to it.

*My understanding of other peoples understandings.

It's a personal think AIUI, depending on the mixture of slow and fast-twitch muscle fibres you have. Somewhere between 70-90rpm seems to be generally recommended as a good range to aim for though. My legs seem happiest at 85rpm normally.

My initial thought was anyone that rides a reasonable amount, should be able to tell you within a 10 range what their current cadence is.

But how would you know if you never measured it?

It's a personal think AIUI, depending on the mixture of slow and fast-twitch muscle fibres you have. Somewhere between 70-90rpm seems to be generally recommended as a good range to aim for though. My legs seem happiest at 85rpm normally.

This^

I seem to have an excess of slow twitch muscles. Great for weight lifting, not so good for explosive efforts. I wallow around 70rpm, but perform better at 80rpm. The bike computer helps keep me at 80. Being far more used to SSing, and fixed riding, also means I forget to change down.

OK that's pretty much what I thought. I find it helps, just from a concentration pov if nothing else.

Dammit, what brake outers do you use and are they different front and back?

http://www.powercordz.com/brake-cables/road-brake-cordz-system

I was using the Alligator iLink system with conventional cables, which was great, although required a certain amount of customisation.

I then swapped the cable to PowerCordz which didn't get along with the 7970 levers- so I had a sort of Frankestein hybrid of Nokon and iLink for a while, but now it's 100% PowerCordz cable and housing.

Although that said right now I have cheaper than cheap steel cables in there, to run some experiments with rim width.

Cheers.

What was the reason for switching from the Nokon / iLink to powercordz?

PowerCordz a) don't stretch b) are lighter c) have nerd points.

I initially tried to set them up with the iLink housing, but whilst there had been no issues with that and Force levers, there were with Dura Ace.

So, I used the bendy-steel sections from some Nokon I had lying around, with a continuous liner that ran through the iLinks.

However, that was a) an unsatisfying lashup and b) the liner tended to "creep" out of the housing and into the lever body- until it started fouling.

This wasn't as bad as I make it sound, but it did make the rear brake (never happened with the front, oddly) "sticky", so I re-did it all with the PowerCordz outer, which is very nice- uses Kevlar reinforcement instead of the traditional steel spiral.

Bugger to cut with anything other than razor sharp cutters.

A dremel or an angle grinder works nicely when you don't have sharp cable cutters to hand

Nice sharp scissors work for the kevlar, I didn't need to get the grinder out.

I used a uber sharp woodmans knife. Placed behind the cord, and moved quickly towards my body in a stabbing moition.

What could go wrong.............

I've been steadily servicing the SystemSix, down to cleaning the brake calipers now- which with EE brakes is actually harder than it sounds.

Very tempted to grab the cranks off the other bike and build it up back up completely and take it for a spin tomorrow.

For the sake of accurate record keeping:

http://www.probikekit.com/uk/3t-rotundo-ltd-carbon-handlebars.html

30% off LTD Rotundo bars – don't know if that's actually cheaper than other places but thought it might be of interest

Thanks Branwen, I really need to find out if I get on with Rotundo and if I do, sell my Ergonova before I buy those.

I'll take 'em.

They're compact, right?