Yo Yohandsome – that’s impressive, are you about 6’5″? ….and marginally curious…Singlechainring and normal rear block, you must be pumping out the Watts – get any KOM’s? and you do that on flat pedals?…34T rear? Normal for a 2x gravel bike.

52×11-32T, 6’4″, XT hybrid SPDs as it’s mah only bike like em a lot.

Get any KOM’s? Did Beyonce get any grammys?!

For all his inane questioning that is a good looking bike…Is bar tape above the hoods even aero?

Inane?!

Don’t worry, it’s just a lill tape to cover the cables going into the bars might even be aero.

What I listened to before, during and after the KOM

BMC Teammachine ALR01 2019 £1200
Farsports DT350 wheels £570 delivered + CR Aerobars £120 + misc = £2000

Please find another 400m segment close to your home and attack it and share your results with us. Or perhaps we should find one for you? 🤔😁

Haha, be my guest – I found a hillsprint just over 1 minute..Hills are hard to come by here and seems like level sprints aren’t ideal re safety and speed limits. Maybe if you go a bit further into the boonies where it’s 100 km/h.

Eh???? Why on earth do You need a power meter to get a kom on strava? Dude you are taking this far far too seriously. As convert says, no one gives a shit about strava times, it’s not real racing, because it’s not a level playing field. It’s a great tool for measuring how you compare against yourself, plus your mates, but what’s the point of waiting for the right wind, getting your skin suit on, then going out for a 5 mile ride purely to break a Kom.. means nothing.

I’ll give the example of a local hill to me, 1000 odd folks have done it, 2 national champs at top of leader board. I was out for a 10 mile Pootle the day before an event making sure bike worked. Hadn’t broken a sweat and found myself at bottom of said climb, with strong wind behind. Smashed it for 2 min, got kom. Am I faster than the guys I’m ahead of, am I xxxx. They had all put in 60 mile hard rides. Any other normal ride I do I’m far slower up that hill.

You need a power meter to prove your KOM is real apparently! Plus it’s fun and can in some cases show if you got a KOM from tailwind (“behind wind”) alone.

Real racing a level playing field? lol. Strava is as level if you’re talking KOMs, they’re nearly always in ideal conditions i.e. strong tailwind where it’s wimdy, but I guess if you really wanted to che..win you’d get lead out at hit it at 65 km/h. (Had a good laugh about the group that used lead outs to just beat that Strava troll’s time..).

I don’t have a skin suit, I just have a normal jersey. Don’t even have an aero helmet, shoe covers, shaved legs or gobble baking soda before I head out – lots of KOMs left on the table :S

Good job on the hill, post your strava too – It’s surprisingly entertaining!

You could also complain about how the tubby mountain bikers of STW didn’t take you seriously despite you owning a used Sky jersey and murdering the Watts out of a stationary gym bike for over half a minute…
There’s a whole wide interweb of strangers to vaguely perturb, so crack on buddy.

I’ll link to the thread in the follow up from Strava. Whine?! I wasn’t whining I was “humblebragging” – it’s the opposite!

One reason why it may be flagged is because it looks like you’re breaking the law travelling faster than the 50km/h speed limit

Ah could be, most people seem to drive around 55 km/h. From wiki about germany: “There are two default speed limits: 50 km/h (31 mph) inside built-up areas and 100 km/h (62 mph) outside built-up areas”

A cheeky KOM doesn’t really hide the fact that you barely seem that interested in riding a bike, just interweb props.

This thread gives me a lot a joy! I’ve never been called out for cheating before or been blamed for having fun in the wrong way.

Let me explain, I just started using Strava, and only on occasion (i might take it a bit less serious than some people here have come to believe). Just built up a roadbike and previously rode a MTB exclusively. Not that I go for 60 mile rides.

What do people have against team sky?? Just got the sky one because a) it looks good b) it’s rapha so presumably good quality c) it cost £15 used on ebay. I did not look for a sky jersey, but well happy with it! Go SKY ;p

Thanks for the support Gary, 13thfloormonk, reggie. I’ll post some power data when I get the 4iii, seems you need it to get KOMs. All I have for now is some echo bike numbers, can prob get to >1500w on it with a few more tries.

I’ve looked at your Strava logs

Warms my heart.

I just started using Strava (and recently got a roadbike etc, you can trace my journey through my ST profile next 😘).

But come on, the third place result is not at all impressive (either) regardless of being part of a longer 198w average.. ride: 573w for 29 seconds?

60 miles?? who got time for dat? Someone doing cycling correctly presumably.

You do make me feel validated 💕

you went a 4km ride just smash a lame 400m kom? Its not a hugely impressive.
You really wear team sky tops? Poor lad. You’re all whats wrong with cycling.

So you admit it’s a little impressive?!? 🤣

What’s wrong with team sky?!

You beat the KOM by nearly 20% – fine if it’s some back alley that 20 people have ridden. If it’s a normal sort of road with 1000 names on the leaderboard then we have ourselves a measurement problem.

1457, but I disagree, the wattage of the top 3 isn’t very high, not that hard to beat by 20% in good conditions with aero-ish gear if you’re sprinter-esque. I’ll do it again with the Garmin + heart rate + power ;) Can probably get it lower if you hit the start of the segment at 65 km/h.

I’ve had the same before – I simply pointed them to my many other KoMs and sent over a pic of me in lycra. They backed off pretty quick then !

Powermove. Will start sending them nudes next.

It’s not even 400 metres either.

But I rode faster than I said 👼

Ok ok i just had to change my username from my real name..

short https://www.strava.com/segments/23383924
long https://www.strava.com/segments/17299911 (actual KOM 25s not showing up)

Ride where i got 25s https://www.strava.com/activities/3322366402

Everyone in the top 10 are tailwind cheating though, so it’s kinda fair ;)

Recorded on my Pixel 3 XL phone like the prev runs (Garmin 520 plus arrived today, 4 iii powermeter arriving later this week).

Provide a link to the segment so that we can scrutinise said claims.

What do you want to see? anonymity on the internet something something..woops only 3% grade – mixed it up with the shorter version of the segment that’s 4% 310 m where i averaged 53 kmh.

They heard your free hub irregularity , penchant for skinsuits and decided you weren’t welcome

Lul. 3 pawl freehub is one the way..did get a used TEAM SKY jersey on ebay.de, faster than the t-shirt of my first attempt at least. If anyone wants a 54t ratchet + freehub lmk.

400 m ain’t that short and it was faster at least! (+ more tailwind uhrrr).

Ok figured it out

1. Download the free osmand android app and download the maps for your region in the app
2. Make a route and save it as a .gpx, saves in: android/data/data/net.osmand.plus/files/osmand/osmand/tracks
3. Using a file explorer (make a shortcut to the folder!) open the gpx file and send to garmin connect.
4. Select the course on your garmin unit and off you go.

Aight got a lezyne mini drive for £17 delivered.

This is for long day trips, nice to have a gauge?

But perhaps more important with the flex hose?

Yeah I think it’s fine, only thing is that I had to tighten down the bolt on the lever all the way, possibly because there’s not the extra millimeter of hose sticking out?

Ask to order them delivered duty paid, much cheaper and faster than paying the customs.

Ordered the DT 370 3 pawl hub as it sounds a lot nicer and more even and spins with less drag from what I’ve seen – lower engagement not a big deal for road use (24 POE I’ve read).

I can borrow the tools required, otherwise it’s £38 for the freehub £15 for the drive ring and £5 for the spacer you need, not cheap but guess I can sell the old freehub an ratchet.

The ratchets sound terrible, if you don’t need the faster engagement go for the 3 pawl one, I’m upgrading to it now.

Ordered the Garmin 520 plus for £143 shipped, see it comes with a mount too not bad!

BTW springs needs to be approx max 25.5 mm OD and minimum 18.2 mm ID, they have 4.15 mm free space to along the axis of the axle (so each springs needs to be more than 2.1 mm tall) and need to exert about 2.6 N of force each on the pawls when locked together. The disc springs I’ve found are either too short or exert 10 times more force than that – i.e. they’re too stiff and tall.

So where can I order wave springs??

Yeah I’m not going to do the phone thing, could be ok for occasional use but a PITA if using it a lot I reckon.

So Garmin 520 plus then?

Could get the quadlock kit, but as expensive as getting a 520 plus nearly, and don’t want to chunk up my phone..

Garmin 520 plus is £147 here, not too shabby! Still there are phone apps that can do all of the above right? At the expense of some aero gains (lol) and poor battery life.

wipperman connex, tool-free opening can be reused. never had any issues, remember it is directional. Also get their chains, they really are the bees knees.

Interesting form of camo, making yourself more visible but hiding what your body/what you’re wearing? lol.

Aero jersey sounds more like what I’m looking for and would actually keep using. OOOR

TBH I’ve a few of the castelli skin suits which er don’t look like a skinsuit and as they have no bibs are extremely comfortable and tbh look no different than bibs and a jersey and I think I paid around 70squid in the sales/ebay.

What are the con’s then if any? PITA to get on/off? No pockets?

There are some “aero” jerseys on ali, maybe something like this?

Good warning about skinsuits, not looking to smear my whole body in baby powder before I can go ride.

Quick google suggests that a skinsuit saves 20-something seconds over a 25mile TT. You need to weigh that up against how much you care about people possibly pointing and laughing at you wearing a skinsuit if you’re not riding a TT or a ‘cross race.

Is your training fully optimised? My guess from reading your posts is that you’d find more bang for your buck there to be honest.

Faster you go, higher the air resistance and the more time you save gain pr meter lowering drag, but yeah, it’s mostly for laughs and I need some sort of summer bib/jersey combo anyways.

My aerobic training boils down to 10-30 min of 1-10 min interval HIIT almost daily, but calisthenics and strength training is as important so not going to commit more time to cardio nor do I think it can be optimized that much given the time constraint?

If you enjoy going fast and beating people, why on earth are you going to all this trouble but not doing some proper racing?

Sign me up for the max 3 min ones :>

I think it really depends, some stuff seem to be decent quality and have real sometimes long term reviews w photos. Average quality might be poor.

Galibier is a great suggestion, have winter gloves from them that have been ace and their customer support is outstanding, bit above my budget at £77 but definitely seems good value in the long run.

Good tip, but I’m 194 cm 90 kg :S

Thanks DT,

I have a stationary Echo fan bike for doing HIIT etc. Still, why ride a slow or heavy bike or add aero resistance when you could get to the same watts going faster on a more aero bike? Don’t have kids that need towing ;)

Only interested / competitive in say max 1 min sprints, most KOMs around here wasn’t done with full aero gear I think at least not the short ones. Guesstimate a skinsuit could shave 1-2 seconds, but also don’t have a summer bib or jersey to begin with so why not get a skinsuit with pockets instead for teh lols? I guess if it’s so tight it takes a long time to put on, if it’s uncomfortable or rips easily?

The only ones normal people can get these days are proper urban ones which its too busy/dangerous to smash through on a TT

Yep!

Coming for your KOM!

After the skinsuit ;)

Vanity, thy name is Strava.

What’s wrong with competing with other people? Extra motivation to work harder.

Going faster than you did yesterday is fun, going faster than cars is really fun.

If you’re not racing, what’s the point of going aero?

1. Get quicker from A to B
2. KOMs
3. Fast is fun

Have a look at Velotec. Fit is the key though. And I’m guessing this is for KOM hunting not racing? You probably know but worth saying most skin suits don’t come with pockets (or usable pockets).
Where do you plan on putting your spare tube / mini pump etc?
Have you got velotoze overshoes? What helmet are you using? (serious questions as I’m also a bit of an aero junkie)

Thanks! Yeah KOMs and general training use. Back pockets would be preferable and most the ali ones I’ve seen have them, worst case could get a saddle bag.

No overshoes – maybe a bit too marginal?

No aero helmet either although I guess that’s the next step on the aero gain hierarchy, not sure I’m serious enough for it and I doubt a lot of the KOMs around here were set using then ;)

In that case wouldn’t you be better off being totally in-aero to maximise your training without having to go fast?

Isn’t that exactly what they’re used for + racing?

OK, this bit sounded like commuting – which I thought you were doing mostly on Berlin’s cycle paths. If you are are mostly riding in traffic I would venture to suggest the marginal gain of a skin suit would be irrelevant. Besides, if you wear something baggy you’ll get more of a workout, if that’s what you’re after.

50/50 off an on paths here, the skinsuit would however primarily be for KOMs / training rides.