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2023 Road'n'Gravel Biking

cantunamunch

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Wheel reflectors are a hard no despite the fact they do a good job of illumination. Too much imbalance. And there are better ways like real lights. I always thought the pedal reflectors were really effective, impossible with SPD pedals. But reflective tape on shoes would be great.

Put me down in the camp of 'reflective doesn't work half as well IRL as it does on paper'.

Automotive headlights were not designed to work with reflectors with people behind them. The angles and the brightness are wrong.

By the time your retro-reflector has enough light to trigger the driver's optical nerve, you have an extremely good chance of being blinded or completely losing your night vision. Remember that the reflected light has to cover the same distance back to the driver as the headlight traveled to get to you, and will be similarly attenuated.

As I've said elsewhere - active lights that shine on you do a far better job at both capturing your motion like @wooglin states and on placing you in spatial context, i.e. how you relate to your surroundings. Get as far away from point sources as you can, and electronically blinky point sources in particular.

In inline skate context that pretty much means two things: a red downlight shining from the back-bottom of the helmet onto your shoulders and a second downlight from waist or fanny pack level. This is much easier to accomplish on a bike - a helmet downlight and a saddle downlight should do it.

Takeaway principles:
- Don't rely on reflection
- Don't rely on point sources, especially blinky point sources
- Shine the light on you where you can't see it.

EDIT:
I have a seatstay up light here and two bar lights, one of which illuminates the front wheel. OFC, the bike has black/white retroreflector tape on the HT, TT and DT but that is mostly a cosmetic thing :D I don't have a fork-mount light because the mount had broken, it has since been replaced.

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scott43

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Bicycle abuse?!
Beat the crap out of it. Front wheel bearings were packed with mud. Cleaned and regreased. We'll see how long those last. The mud combined with the mud caked bag conspired to wear a spot in my head tube down to bare alu. It was a mess..
 

Tom K.

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Beat the crap out of it. Front wheel bearings were packed with mud. Cleaned and regreased. We'll see how long those last. The mud combined with the mud caked bag conspired to wear a spot in my head tube down to bare alu. It was a mess..

I could send you one of these, though not exactly your neck of the woods. Or you could by one roll of helicopter tape, which would last the rest of your life in this and ski boot liner applications.

IMG_1903.jpg
 

Tom K.

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That mud ride reminds me of a muddy 100 I did ages ago. Got to Aid 1 thoroughly demoralized, and the mech asked if I wanted the bike rinsed. I said no, I guess it's still sort of a race, and I should just roll. He replied that my bike weighed close to 40 pounds. Changed my mind!
 

cantunamunch

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I have a memory from Oct. of '03 - we're all diving into the tent but there's this tall guy in his mid-late 60s just standing there, shivering too hard to move. Totally unresponsive to questions. I wrapped his hands around a coffee and someone brought him food of sorts, but ooof. If there was ever someone that needed one of those firefighter blankets Hollywood love to use to cue 'decompression/resolution scene'
 
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scott43

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That mud ride reminds me of a muddy 100 I did ages ago. Got to Aid 1 thoroughly demoralized, and the mech asked if I wanted the bike rinsed. I said no, I guess it's still sort of a race, and I should just roll. He replied that my bike weighed close to 40 pounds. Changed my mind!
I tried to shoulder my bike at one point and I couldn't physically get it up to my shoulder.. must have been 60lbs...
 

ilovepugs

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What do I do to improve fitness for cycling, aside from actually getting out and riding? I still lift 2x/week (full body lifting, no particular emphasis), but I don’t do any cardio aside from riding right now. Thinking I should make a point to do some time on the dreadmill when too busy to go riding.

Question is brought to you by my ass getting completely kicked multiple times (to the point of turning around) trying to get uphill on a few dirt roads yesterday. I’m sure this is obvious to everyone else, but it seems that riding uphill on gravel (not hard packed, smooth dirt) is noticeably harder for me than on pavement.
 
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scott43

scott43

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What do I do to improve fitness for cycling, aside from actually getting out and riding? I still lift 2x/week (full body lifting, no particular emphasis), but I don’t do any cardio aside from riding right now. Thinking I should make a point to do some time on the dreadmill when too busy to go riding.

Question is brought to you by my ass getting completely kicked multiple times (to the point of turning around) trying to get uphill on a few dirt roads yesterday. I’m sure this is obvious to everyone else, but it seems that riding uphill on gravel (not hard packed, smooth dirt) is noticeably harder for me than on pavement.
So I've never really been coached or know generally much about training. However, I've been told I do too many garbage miles. Basically going at 75% all the time. My easy rides should be easier and my hard rides should be harder. More easy rides than hard. Hard rides should be more like intervals pushing your max hr repeatedly. So my guess is do whatever you're doing maybe a little easier, and put in very hard days every third or fourth workout. For me that's pick a hill and do it five or ten times in a row as fast as I can with a two or three minute break in between. Good luck!
 

ilovepugs

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So I've never really been coached or know generally much about training. However, I've been told I do too many garbage miles. Basically going at 75% all the time. My easy rides should be easier and my hard rides should be harder. More easy rides than hard. Hard rides should be more like intervals pushing your max hr repeatedly. So my guess is do whatever you're doing maybe a little easier, and put in very hard days every third or fourth workout. For me that's pick a hill and do it five or ten times in a row as fast as I can with a two or three minute break in between. Good luck!
I’ve read something about doing 80% zone 2 riding and 20% going hard, so that makes to me. Hard to find easy rides around here though, everything is hills. I think I’d have to drive half an hour into Burlington and use the bike path along the lake. Downside of living in close proximity to skiing :)
 

Tom K.

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What do I do to improve fitness for cycling, aside from actually getting out and riding?....... it seems that riding uphill on gravel (not hard packed, smooth dirt) is noticeably harder for me than on pavement.

Same bike for gravel and pavement? If not, could the fit be part of the equation?

My easy rides should be easier and my hard rides should be harder.

Meh. This is the latest trend in race training. If you're a casual rider -- even a pretty avid one -- I wouldn't spend another second worrying about this.
 

cantunamunch

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What do I do to improve fitness for cycling, aside from actually getting out and riding? I still lift 2x/week (full body lifting, no particular emphasis), but I don’t do any cardio aside from riding right now.

It's not *just* cardio. More riding. Can you get to 3x-5x riding /week average? If you can get to that zone, you'll be surprised how quickly you impove. Every 5 weeks will be noticeable. Every 10 weeks will be night/day.

Thinking I should make a point to do some time on the dreadmill when too busy to go riding.

About the only way that will help is if you throw a heavy backpack on and put the thing on maximum tilt. Then alternate forwards and backwards walking. Flat treadmills with body-weight loading do absolutely nothing for cycling ability.

I’m sure this is obvious to everyone else, but it seems that riding uphill on gravel (not hard packed, smooth dirt) is noticeably harder for me than on pavement.

If the grade is equal on gravel and pavement, but you're having massive problems on gravel, you need to learn to sit your bum on the saddle and spin.

You may also be overgeared. Or, as @Tom K. points out, your bike fit might be putting you behind the crankset.

But with your history of skiing and treadmill use, I suspect you are trying to 'walk' the bike uphill by pushing gears you can't spin, and the gravel is torque-limited, i.e. simply not letting you do that.

(I also suspect, this being Vermont, that the dirt roads are actually steeper than the pavement).

I’ve read something about doing 80% zone 2 riding and 20% going hard, so that makes to me. Hard to find easy rides around here though, everything is hills. I think I’d have to drive half an hour into Burlington and use the bike path along the lake. Downside of living in close proximity to skiing :)

That is much harder than it sounds. If that's actually true and that is what you want to do, put your bike on a trainer. And get a heart rate monitor. Or you'll give up in like less than 2 weeks of sessions. 80/20 is a complete mindf*ck and sucks motivation faster than HIIT or Tabata or ...and then you get cr*p like knee injuries and muscle pulls in your bum/ankle to where you can barely walk.
 
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Dean

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Hills suck. Always, no matter how you're getting up them. Don't be afraid to gear down even when that pace feels glacial.

I agree with the 3x (or more) a week. I find that with my many hobbies/ activities 3x a week is where it becomes less of a constant struggle & where I feel like I can make a little progress. (Maybe 2x if there's good overlap between activities)
 

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