14 Apr 2015, 06:48

Quest - Good ride

Little windy today. That, the larger front chainring, and the hood made for some new KOMs.

I think I’ll ride with the hood exclusively now to see if I can acclimate to middle of summer riding eventually.


Over the last couple of weeks I replace the front middle and biggest front chainrings. The front is now a 30-46-58. This has resulted in a big speed increase - much more than I expected. The main reason for the speed increase is that I now spend almost all my time (maybe 85%) in the middle chainring. I only drop to the lower chainring when climbing a really steep hill under 8 mph and I only jump to the large chainring when moving faster than 25 mph. Here as, with the prior setup I was maybe in the middle chainring less than 30 percent of the time.


I tried to put a SuperMoto tire on the rear. At my current weight there was some rubbing of the tire against the wheel well. I think if I lose 25 lbs then the SuperMoto might work ok.

There is a delicate balance between

  • rider weight / height
  • rear shock setting
  • rear derailluer hitting bottom of shell
  • too much chain and chain jumping when peddling hard
  • too little chain and cross chaining

Everything seems to be working smoothly now on the Quest.


Strava:

bordered http://www.strava.com/activities/285292571


Garmin:

bordered http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/746394220