Cycling vs. motorcycling

Using Zwift, if you already have the crank and wheel speed sensors is $10/month. It gives you accurate wattage for training and has a lot of customized wattage based training programs and you can even create your own if you're so inclined.

I've done spin classes. This is better.

 

It's useful to understand what do you like. Personally I like the aspect of having to pay intense attention and mastering complex technique, balance, coordination -- things like that. That means XC or road bike racing is out, I ain't using my body as a damn generator.

There's a mountain bike race format that is gaining popularity, Enduro. You get timed on downhill sections, and uphill sections you can for the most part take your time and just make sure you show up before your minute. You still have to be fit for sure, but it's a different kind of fitness that is somewhat easier and less time consuming to train for.

And then there's dirt bike racing. You end up spending substantial amount of time washing, maintaining and fixing busted up stuff and you have to be quite fit. If played right it can be almost as cheap as mountain bikes. At least off-road motorcycles don't get obsolete nearly as fast as the damn enduro mountain bikes.

For me it's about time/enjoyment/money balance. I have awesome mountain bike parks and trails nearby, and awesome dirt bike riding a bit further out.

 

Huh. Seems strange to me that they can extrapolate power from cadence and wheel speed. Is the trainers resistance fixed or adjustable?

Sometimes I see some other riders in Zwift putting up ridiculous power numbers. Like 14 watts/kg?? I figure their trainers are giving some erroneous data.

 

If anyone is looking for a basic smart trainer I bought my Tacx from Evans Cycles

https://www.evanscycles.com/en-ca/tacx-satori-smart-trainer-EV220390

 

It has a list of "supported" trainers and it gives you a fixed setting to use it on. It may not be 100% accurate, but my power zones all feel similar to what my outputs are when compared to real world rides. There are also points where it wants you to hit a specific output in a cadence range, so you have to use your gearing to get there.

 

I'm sort of into the tandem thing right now

 

I picked up a cheap tandem to play with. It needs cables. Then to talk my wife or daughter into going for a ride.

 

Funny, seeing this and I completely agree. I'm not a bicycle rider, but just had this conversation with a motorcycle racer kid. He wanted to sell his current bike and move to another style bike that he liked better. The problem is this other type of roadrace bike, doesn't really have any competition. I asked him how that would help him? He was convinced he would just race the clock and chase laptimes.

I asked him if he was as fast on trackdays or practice as he was in the race? He admitted he wasn't. Racing always is better for you.

I remember when Tyler first stepped up to a 600, one of his other friends also stepped up at the same time. He and Tyler had always been similar speed and exchanged many wins on smaller bikes. The dad and son team, set a goal of xx time before they would enter a race on the 600. We were out at Chuckwalla and he was quite a bit slower than Tyler. I convinced dad and son to sign up and race, and son dropped 5 or 6 seconds that weekend.

 

I rotate between the wife, the son and the grandson and when all that fails I pull out one of the old vintage cycles and take a spin. a steel 90 trek 420 is my favorite right now though the SR cannondales weigh less. I guess I like that steel ride?

 

If I had a good place to store a tandem without annoying myself daily, I'd be in the same boat as you.

...except with kids in the bike trailer behind the whole rig.

That would probably end in divorce though.

 

I can see bicycles being cheaper, and I'll grudgingly ride a bicycle for the low impact cardio workout I need at my age, but it does not replace the adrenaline of knee on the deck, holding it pinned through the kink at beaver.

 

Most of the time it is someone cheating by putting in an inaccurate weight. Some races will DQ you unless you can prove you have had a similar performance on the ground.

In general the smart trainers will be off by 10% or so as compared to your power meter. Doesn't bother me - I don't care if I'm at 250 watts or 275 - as long as I am making my targeted improvement.

 

I thought it might have been cheating with weight... lame.

People take short cuts just to be Strava KOM.. same thing in Zwift I guess.

 

If you had a real power meter, you'd see that the Zwift wattage readings are pretty inaccurate. (close to 10% in some cases). But it's still better than nothing.

 

Like Rich said above, I guess I'm using it as a comparison of their numbers to their numbers to chart improvements. It's like a dyno. The same bike may put down 110hp on one dyno and 120hp on another, but the only number that really matters is what that bike does on the same dyno after whatever work is done.

It's close enough to my real world numbers and the sweat on the towel is real and the HR monitor says I'm doing the thing. If all those data points are fixed and my performance improves within those parameters, I'm OK with that.

What's important to me is that riding the trainer went from something I used to have to distract myself with a book or a movie or a TV show to do during the winter to something I enjoy doing. The element of competition only makes it better. I'm a data nerd and I love that it dumps into Strava so I can go over everything and compare my performances.

My buddy uses a crank power meter on his bike with rollers and I'm guessing that is a lot more accurate, but our Zwift numbers and our real world numbers are pretty close as is my other buddy who I pedal with often who is using basically the same setup I am. I considered getting a smart trainer, but I already had the Garmin 820 with all the sensors and the trainer and a Strava premium membership, so the only thing Zwift cost me is $10/month.

 

This. I use Zwift on my iPad on a stand next to my bike and watch football (or something else that doesn't require my undivided attention) to make time go by faster.

 

I'm currently shopping for a laptop stand to put in front of the bike. What do you use?

My other alternative is to drag an old 55" rear projection TV out of a spare room into the basement in front of the bike and use the HDMI input from the laptop or Airplay on the Apple TV and then replace the big old dinosaur TV with a flat screen. I can't bring myself to throw the thing out because it still works great and was stupid expensive when it was new (like 15 years ago) but it's not worth anything nowadays.

 

I bought it on Amazon and use my iPad. I used to HDMI my PC to the tv, but this allows me to do both Zwift and TV.

Plus my laptop is too old for Zwift. It does have some pretty high requirements.

 

I'll get back to that when my girls are old enough to drive me home if I knock myself out at the track!

The plan was (is) to get them on minis ASAP, but my oldest is too cautious. She gets that from me. If I can get her past that, she's still a couple of years away from racing, and I don't want to turn into that guy who used to race and is now (only) mechanic/pit bitch for his kids.

Exciting and fun as cycling is, my knees are not liking it. Scheduling an appointment with an orthopedist soon, and worried he's going to tell me my MCLs in both knees are in need of repair.

Best case scenario would be "ice nightly and come back in 5 years."