How was your ride today?

I’m glad I got to bump into both of @mad_masala and ride with @okonomiyaki this weekend. Always nice to see you guys out riding.

As described by @okonomiyaki , we had a nice ride up FGZ on Saturday followed by coffee over at Wuzhishan. It was a bit foggy in the morning, but very helpful since the temp was pretty high at around 9-10AM when we descended.

I followed up the coffee ride with my first “race” ride after my injury. I rode along with the Kuolai Challenge contestants and I won’t lie…I really do miss the environment. Despite the race route being around 70km with 1800m elevation, the hardest part was riding home from Shenkeng to Song Shan. My Garmin was telling me it was 44C, but I later got home and Garmi Connect said the highest my Garmin detected was 55C.

Sure was hot.

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Yesterday’s ride was equivalent of riding Puli to Wuling. Non-stop spinning from beginning until end. I only got a quick 4-5 minute rest when refilling water and got some rest when descending FGZ. Other than that, legs were spinning hard. I can’t believe this used to be a race route. I’m almost glad it isn’t.

It’s one of those rides where I wonder, why do I put my through such torture.

I got home before noon and then went ahead and took a half hour nap, followed by a 3 hour nap. I was still tired going to sleep at around 11PM. Not my idea of using up a day of the weekend.

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Had a pleasant 10-mile ride with my friends.

I met up with @okonomiyaki this weekend for the grasshopper’s first two peak ride. Our destination was over at Maokong (貓空閒) to have coffee with a view.

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He finished both peaks like a champ, but got a puncture in the last couple hundred meters in the last hump on our way back home. It was the first time BOTH of us used CO2 to pump up tires, so, it was a funny scene to watch. Luckily, he punctured right next to a park with shade, so we weren’t burning it up in the sun.

All in all, a rough ride for both of us, but an enjoyable one.

Who else got out this weekend?

A full 7 days off the bike and I picked a pretty rough route(s) to ride for two days.

Saturday was a shorter distance with not too much altitude gain. Nonetheless, the two other local friends that came along were all similar pace, so we could stick together and kept each other motivated.

On one of our descents down, I saw this and just had to stop for a pic

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Sunday was a rough day in the saddle mainly due to soreness from the previous day’s ride. Nonetheless, I still needed to get in the mileage and elevation, so I toughed it out and finished the intended course. The peak was definitely the roughest part of the ride since I had never ridden deep section rims with such high gradient.

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you need to ride more!

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Yes, all my climbs until a few months ago where with the type of rim you say. What’s the difference in performance? like 0.1% ?

You got 48mm deep section aero wheels? I thought you didn’t believe in those???

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No, smaller than that, but, can you tell what exactly is the difference? and the impact on the performance?

Because if you are going to talk about weight, probably mine were about the same or even heavier. If you are going to talk about aerodynamics, that does not affect at all your climb unless you have robotic legs. And I can’t think of any other factor that is not totally bullshit.

However, if you are going to talk about side wind, then yeah, you do feel it on those rims.

Not sure what you’re trying to get at here. I already know your opinion on aero wheels, so I’m not going to waste my time arguing that they do make a difference.

If you really want to know, they’re heavier and they’re much much stiffer than my climbing wheels. For me, when a component is amazingly stiff and I’m climbing at a high gradient, it tends to burn my muscles a little more than something with a little more flex.

Well, my opinion on aero rims is not very exotic. Not sure what you mean with wasting your time, but you already told me what difference you say you notice when riding them. I’m skeptical about that but hey, may be.

Not sure if your rims were heavier than my Giant semi aero rims…

Yes, but you tend to have your mind set on some things in the cycling world. Everyone has their opinions. I just didn’t want to argue…just to argue and not have an outcome.

I believe they roughly 1800 including the 105 cassette in the back. I’m not entirely sure if the tubeless tires comes into play in terms of weight. Overall, it should still be lighter than your entire set up. So I don’t have that excuse to argue, but to me, it’s a heavier set up than I’m normally used to.

Fair enough. Still think the same though :smiley: (but I was genuinely curious about what your complaints would be about)

They’re heavier + stiffer = I suffered more on steeper sections of the ride.

I’m curious how a more flexible wheel would make a climb easier?

Also, what is the weight difference between the 2 sets of wheels, and what is that as a percentage of the total weight of bike and rider?

Just curious, like.

For me, cadence is higher with flexy wheels. I don’t dish out that much power, so I rely on cadence to get me up climbs. First pic was Sunday’s rice and second pic is my PR ride…

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I haven’t weighed to the two but from feel, I feel at least a 200g difference? This makes me curious too. I will weigh them when I swap them.

As in what’s the percentage of my weight vs the weight of the bike? 7kg to 67 kg is…10.45%?

I’m curious, what does this mean?

I’m going to go ahead and speak for him :smiley:

Most likely he meant what percentage of the total bicycle weight or you and the bicycle those 200 grams represent. And most likely that was a way for him to question the idea of those 200 grs making any real difference at all. While some people argue that the weight located in the wheels is more noticeable than anywhere else in the bicycle-rider “system”, I tend to be a bit skeptical about this. Some difference? yes. But not a really important one for normal riders.

Flexy wheels make you work harder on climbs, stiff wheels are more efficient and should make you work less all else being equal (problem is, all else is never equal). That’s just physics. I’m not even going to comment on the 200 gram (maybe) weight difference. What you ate for breakfast or how good your sleep was, etc., etc., etc. had more to do with any difference in your performance from one day to another.

Looks like you had a great ride, and that’s what this tread is about, right?

Yes, we can go on and on, but I feel like there’s just way too many factors at hand. I won’t really argue that science tells me there’s no difference between deep section wheels and climbing wheels on a climb, but I personally felt a difference between the two. Whether it’s the wheels, legs, body weight, wind direction, temperature and so on and so forth.

I did have a good ride. Thanks for asking :smiley: I know I’m not the only one riding though, you guys can share too!