Getting the Quest ready to ride at daybreak (~6:50am) today.
Check the tires, fill with air. Provision with waters, endurolytes, etc., etc..
Just a nice easy ride on a beautiful sunny day.
A little cool at the start of the ride (mid 50s) and not many riders for the first hour or so.
After the sun had risen high enough in the sky to warm temps into the high 60s, low 70s, lots of other riders started to appear.
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/222396667
Garmin:
Very windy and cold today. Only saw one other rider the whole 28.5 miles.
Winds from the north 16 mph gusting to 23 mph. Average temperature 57.7 degrees.
Winds were from a great direction today, enough to get 4 strava KOMs.
Probably need to get the weather stripping for the sides of the quest. Side gusts where blowing me all over the place.
Also, my feet froze. Really need to get the foot covers.
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/218502937
Garmin:
What a windy day!
Winds 24 mph gusting to 28 mph.
Beautiful sunny day. Very fast ride to Salado with Brian Buckmaster. Very slow clawing our way back against the monster headwind.
Road the Carbent and actually beat the Quest KOM on the IH35 north access road because of the monster tailwind. I wasn’t even pushing it, mainly just coasting with the wind.
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/217829517
Garmin:
Finally, the winds have changed direction for the fall season. Just a little bit of tailwind today netted me another 4 strava KOMs. One where I happened to hit all the lights green at 34 mph and just crushed it.
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/217366720
Garmin:
This was my second ride with the race cap on the quest.
Yesterday I clean some of the garage and prepared the quest for today’s ride.
My legs were still sore this morning from Fridays 100k on the Carbent, but I thought I should at least get in some miles to loosen the legs and maybe try to attack some of the strava KOMs.
The winds would be against me (8 mph headwind) but I was wanting to see if the race cap would make up for it.
Started out pretty slow. Took a while for the legs to loosen up. The speed difference between Friday’s ride on the Carbent and today’s ride on the quest is astounding.
With the race cap the quest is truly a ‘you are riding alone’ machine.
A half mile from the start of the KOM segment I was attaching today I threw the chain off the front chainring. This is the second time this has happened. I quickly put the chain back on the front and tested to make sure I did not also throw it off the rear chainring. I need to remember to let up on the leg power while shifting.
Once I got to the corner of Ronald Reagan and Williams I pulled into starting position to catch my breath and get everything prepared for the KOM attempt.
I put the video camera on the front hood. Battened down the race cap and made sure all the velcro straps were securely fastened. Don’t want the race cap to come off at 40 mph.
Waited at the stop sign for traffic to clear - and then floor it! - as if a quest can floor it :)
Attacking the KOM
There are five KOMs on this section of road. I already owned the longest overall one, I wanted a couple of the shorter ones that are included in the longer one.
I owned the longest KOM by 1 second - 29.2 mph. Although the winds were against me I managed to beat my old KOM by 11 seconds. I also pick up two of the other four KOMs.
I managed to get the gauges on the video to show speed, heart rate, cadence, distance, elevation and track.
Interesting things in the video:
The video is heavily annotated with what I was thinking the whole time and my ride strategy.
Strava:
Maiden voyage on the Carbent this morning to Salado and back with Brian. 65.4 miles at 16.0 mph and 2,219 calories. What a smooth riding bike and a beautiful day for a ride.
It says something about a bike when on the very first ride you can just hop on it and ride 100K.
Nice tailwind coming back from Salado.
The Bike
The bike was configured and setup by a professional.
It is Jim Verheul’s old bike (2012). I bought it a few weeks ago just before trike riding Key Largo to Key West. Jim waited to ship it until I got back. Just received it Tuesday. I’m learning a lot just from examining how this Carbent is configured.
It has a PowerTap power meter. First time I’ve every ridden with a power meter. I like it, it helps to keep my power at a constant sustainable level. However, my legs are now extremely sore after the first ride.
My legs must be longer than Jim’s - I’ve had to extend the boom out and raise the handlebars some.
The seat recline is so extreme I immediately ordered a headrest from Bent-Up Cycles after the first ride.
Ride Impressions
The ride is smooth. High end Michelin Pro 25-622 tires front and back, and definitely a latex tube on the rear tire, makes for a very smooth ride.
Fast, precise, shifting.
Fast acceleration.
Hard to balance at speeds below 6 mph. I need to lean forward (upwards) when starting out to have easier balance at slower speeds.
Great gearing combination.
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/213934562
Garmin:
Tried out the race cap this morning. Talk about fast!
Even though there was a significant headwind I still managed to up my placing on many strava segments.
The race cap is too small to allow also wearing a helmet. So the only thing I have to wear inside is sun glasses.
Being totally in the shade I also now do not need to wear any sunscreen.
You can’t hang your arms out over the side when going slowly uphill. So gearing down and spinning easy is the way to go.
When you put the visor up there is great air flow over your head (even at very slow speeds).
As your speed increases you keep gradually lowering the visor to keep a constant speed air flow over your face. Eventually the visor will be completely shut and then the inside of the Quest is amazingly quiet. You can spin up to a pretty good clip. I really need to order a bigger large front chainring.
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/211966620
Garmin:
Good ride yesterday. Beautiful sunny day. Brian really put the hurt on me, legs are still really sore. Feels good to be back in the saddle after riding trikes in Florida.
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/211115482
Garmin:
Just hunting roadies with the Quest. Lots of high speed runs. Max speed was 47.6 mph.
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/203143866
Garmin:
Beautiful day for a ride today with Brian to Jarrell and back. The new garmin connect screen is awesome!
Strava:
http://www.strava.com/activities/201907281
Garmin:
