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Do You Road Bike?

That's just how the trails are around here if you like climbing. If it's not a purpose built mtb trail (also fun on a gravel bike) then it's a fire road and the turns are graded for drainage away from the trail, i.e. off camber.
I really only ride my full sus if I'm in the mood to drive somewhere, otherwise i hop on the gravel bike and go have fun.
 
Yesterday around noon I put on some of my kit, went to the garage, and found a dirty chain. So I cleaned the chain. Of course I saw that the frame was way too dirty to ride, so I cleaned that. Then the headset bearings were a little crunchy so I took the front end apart and cleaned/repacked the bearings. Then since I already had gloves on and the grease out, I figured I'd do the bottom bracket bearings too. Then I had no more time to ride :laughing

Mike95060 said:
I took the plunge. Signed up for Rock Cobbler 10. Gulp...
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Woot!
 
stangmx13 said:
Yesterday around noon I put on some of my kit, went to the garage, and found a dirty chain. So I cleaned the chain. Of course I saw that the frame was way too dirty to ride, so I cleaned that. Then the headset bearings were a little crunchy so I took the front end apart and cleaned/repacked the bearings. Then since I already had gloves on and the grease out, I figured I'd do the bottom bracket bearings too. Then I had no more time to ride :laughing
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I hope you learned your lesson about the myth of chain maintenance.
 
Map8 said:
I hope you learned your lesson about the myth of chain maintenance.
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I hot wax my chain and it wasn't time to redo it, so that was the quick and easy part :laughing

Mike95060 said:
Thanks man. What tires size are you running for this course?
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The gravel seems smooth and rock free (compared to what I'm used to). So I'll probably run 35 or 40C Conti Terra Speeds. Gravel tires with small knobs don't get much faster atm. I'll probably test a 40C Terra Trail on the front just to see if the trade-off in rolling resistance and weight is worth the extra grip on descents.

Also, I'm very light so I can get away with narrower tires.

https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/cx-gravel-reviews

Here's last years GPS if you want it. 60% unpaved :party
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38579438?lang=en
 
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I did some intervals yesterday. It's been a while since the last time, so they did not go well and I'm sore today. I guess you could say that they worked :D. I plan to do something like this at least 2-3x per month. Hopefully they get smoother and the power numbers get better.

lgAm8Oe.png


Tabata Intervals:
20sec almost full gas, 10sec rest. Repeat 8x
Rest 10min
Repeat the whole thing 3-4x

As you can probably tell from the graph, I did too much power early. This caused me to fail at holding it for the whole 20s and the 8 reps. The power should be ~170% of FTP, which is ~375W for me. Next time I'll try to stick to exactly that number.

I was showing a friend how to do them. So we only did 2 sets and rested for too long in between. But we'll get better.
 
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^ Nice.

I took a close look at the Cobbler Route you posted. 2K climb in 7.5 miles looks.... a little intimidating :laughing. As does the 7K of total climbing. I think I better get some lower gearing.
 
Amateurs like us should probably have near a 1:1 gear ratio at a minimum. 50/34 & 11-34 is common for 2x or 40 & 11-42 for 1x. Shorter gearing probably wouldn't be a bad thing. My 11-34 due to be replaced and I'm debating trying out an 11-40 cassette to see how it feels. Or I could get a GRX 48/31 crank.

The final two pitches of that big 2000ft climb will be a challenge for many - 7.5% for 1.3mi and 9.8% for 1.2mi. I'll have to remember to go easy at the start to save energy for the final push. Thankfully it's at halfway of the whole route and there's a long descent after.
 
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stangmx13 said:
Amateurs like us should probably have near a 1:1 gear ratio at a minimum. 50/34 & 11-34 is common for 2x or 40 & 11-42 for 1x. Shorter gearing probably wouldn't be a bad thing. My 11-34 due to be replaced and I'm debating trying out an 11-40 cassette to see how it feels. Or I could get a GRX 48/31 crank.

The final two pitches of that big 2000ft climb will be a challenge for many - 7.5% for 1.3mi and 9.8% for 1.2mi. I'll have to remember to go easy at the start to save energy for the final push. Thankfully it's at halfway of the whole route and there's a long descent after.
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Yeah I was trying to figure out what that climb might feel like. This: (hope it works)
https://www.strava.com/activities/7507964766


Is my quick, after work, "steep" ride. Im imaging the big Cobbler Ride will feel like this, only longer :laughing
 

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I did the Rock Cobbler 8.0 and took me a little short of eight hours lol

Last year I quit after 55 miles and I think 4k of climbing.

I haven't decided if I was going to try the cobbler this time around because being the 10th anniversary, Sam is going to go all out. LOL
 
If anything I'll sign up and if I'm not feeling it, turn off where the pebblers go lol.

Where's the video of the cobblers who got tagged by the bull last year? LOL
 
Mike95060 said:
Yeah I was trying to figure out what that climb might feel like. This: (hope it works)
https://www.strava.com/activities/7507964766

Is my quick, after work, "steep" ride. Im imaging the big Cobbler Ride will feel like this, only longer :laughing
Click to expand...

That looks like a good analog for that Cobbler climb. The gradual increasing gradient is definitely comparable. Just do it 4x in a row for good training :D
 
I think I have made my final gearing choices. I ordered an 11/40 SLX cassette and a wolftooth 36 tooth front chainring. I ordered the wolf tooth road link to help make that work with my ultegra derailleur. I'm a weirdo running an ultegra crank as a 1x... don't judge me :laughing I would like to run a second chain ring but, I have frame clearance issues when I mount the stock chain rings. That may be solvable by spacing the drive side away from the frame .100" or so but I don't know how doable that is.

I'm currently running an 11/32 cassette and a 38 tooth oval wolf tooth front chainring. Yes I do run out of gears on long descents with road tires. I don't think it's really a factor in my overall performance. I'm not strong enough to consistently out gear that set up on flats and I really use most descents to get tucked in and recover anyway. The cobbler is 90 miles and 7K worth of climbing, I think being a little under 1:1 is my best bet. I can always pop the 38 tooth oval ring in if the 36 is way to low.
 
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stangmx13 said:
38->32, ouch. Ya that new gearing should feel really nice off-road especially when the legs are done.
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Yeah. The "steep" ride I posted is a real grind towards the end on that set up. I can do it, but probably not 4 times. :laughing
 
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