Biscotti Madness

Today's useless ride:
I'm bringing 1 gear to this one.

when i had my SS - LM was my favorite park to use it. so smooth its practically paved and a SS is perfect for the hills there. what gearing will you run at LM?
 
Yeah, but there WILL be a discussion about which 1 gear...

when i had my SS - LM was my favorite park to use it. so smooth its practically paved and a SS is perfect for the hills there. what gearing will you run at LM?

No discussion, 33/20. It's on there now and isn't coming off in the next 2 weeks unless I ride there and it's too much.
 
20? really? huh. i expected you to run 19 for the race.

i'm not trying to mind-fcuk you, just thought that's what you were running.
 
20? really? huh. i expected you to run 19 for the race.

i'm not trying to mind-fcuk you, just thought that's what you were running.

I'd second this, with the legs you've been bringing.

I want to get to LM soon myself. Last day of school tomorrow.😀

Yes, actually, you guys are right. I stand strong in my determination but admit that I was quoting the ratio before I swapped out for the SSaP. It's 33/19 now and will remain that way until someone else points out I made a mistake 😀
 
Tomorrow

If it stays dry, going to take the SS to LM. Race in less than 2 weeks. This time it's not a discussion. I'm bringing 1 gear to this one.

What time are you going? I planned on some laps there tomorrow as well, but I dont get there until 5:30pm-ish
 
What time are you going? I planned on some laps there tomorrow as well, but I dont get there until 5:30pm-ish

It's more likely you'll see me there at 5:30 am than 5:30 pm 😉

Probably 7:00 am or so?
 
GPS

Incidentally, my Garmin 705 shipped yesterday which coincides perfectly with the fact the 205 is now really showing signs of giving up the ghost. To be fair it has weathered these spring rains like a champion but Sunday's mudfest was too much. It is all I can to to get the start/stop button to work. The lap button is toast. Not sure of I should try and fix it or what. Given the history of these devices it's not a bad idea to keep the 205 for redundancy.

Numbers

Forgot today's numbers:

2:02 saddle time
17.4 average
35.36 miles
2910 vertical
139 HR
 
Incidentally, my Garmin 705 shipped yesterday...

Or not. FedEx says basically, "We have no package."

The seller replies:

"You're right. Maybe our warehouse didn't have the item in stock so they couldn't ship it. It should ship today though."

Man this has been tough. I've only ever had 1 bad experience with ebay/half and it was for a $2 book which wasn't worth the effort. I've literally bought 50-100 things online. So all in all, it's been good. But man, this is a load of crap.
 
Yes, actually, you guys are right. I stand strong in my determination but admit that I was quoting the ratio before I swapped out for the SSaP. It's 33/19 now and will remain that way until someone else points out I made a mistake 😀

I think you can easily push 33/18 at LM. I switched from 32/20 to 32/18 for SS-palooza, and I haven't had any desire to go back since. Most hills (Chimney Rock, Ringwood, RV) actually seem easier because I can mash the pedals harder with less likelihood of the back tire slipping and I get to the top faster. If I race LM, I may go to 32:17 since those hills are so tame. You've certainly got way more leg strength & lungs than me, and you're practically down to my weight at this point...😉

At least give it a shot in a training ride.
 
The 2 biggest issues with an 18 is that a) I don't have an 18 and b) the EBB is maxed out as it is, so I'd need to get a half-link or pull out a link to make the 18 work. I don't yet know how much of a boatload of cash I'm going to need to spend to get my geared bike back to speed, so I'm hesitant to drop more money on something that may not be broken.

The switchback climb at LM is a bit of a pisser in spots. Well, 1 spot.

I will say that when I went from 20 to 19 a few weeks ago my lap time got significantly faster. An experiment with a sample size of 1 is hardly scientific though.
 
GPS

Incidentally, my Garmin 705 shipped yesterday which coincides perfectly with the fact the 205 is now really showing signs of giving up the ghost. To be fair it has weathered these spring rains like a champion but Sunday's mudfest was too much. It is all I can to to get the start/stop button to work. The lap button is toast. Not sure of I should try and fix it or what. Given the history of these devices it's not a bad idea to keep the 205 for redundancy.

Norm, It's fairly common with the Garmins to get a little dirt or sand under the rubber switch covers that causes the switches not to work. It doesn't take much either. I had a grain or two of sand cause that problem for me once on the reset button. Try removing the rubber cover using an exacto knife or screwdriver with a tiny blade. The rubber cover just goes over the switch. No need to remove the switch. Clean out whatever worked its way in there and reassemble.
 
Which seller did you get the 705 off Ebay from, the link that Kush posted? I purchased my 705 the day after he posted that link and have had it at least a week now. Bummer. Either way, it is an awesome unit and survived its first mudbath this weekend. One issue - it has already jettisoned the little rubber flap that protects the USB connection. It is somewhere in the mud at Stewart.
 
Norm, It's fairly common with the Garmins to get a little dirt or sand under the rubber switch covers that causes the switches not to work. It doesn't take much either. I had a grain or two of sand cause that problem for me once on the reset button. Try removing the rubber cover using an exacto knife or screwdriver with a tiny blade. The rubber cover just goes over the switch. No need to remove the switch. Clean out whatever worked its way in there and reassemble.

I was hoping you would chime in 🙂

Thanks, worked like a charm. The bottom pile was the lap button. The top pile was the start/stop button. Works like new again:

3654757562_5a89612e27_o.jpg
 
The 2 biggest issues with an 18 is that a) I don't have an 18 and b) the EBB is maxed out as it is, so I'd need to get a half-link or pull out a link to make the 18 work. I don't yet know how much of a boatload of cash I'm going to need to spend to get my geared bike back to speed, so I'm hesitant to drop more money on something that may not be broken.

The switchback climb at LM is a bit of a pisser in spots. Well, 1 spot.

I will say that when I went from 20 to 19 a few weeks ago my lap time got significantly faster. An experiment with a sample size of 1 is hardly scientific though.

just buy the damn 18T. fer fawks sake, you spend bling-a-ding on all kinds of crap but the $40 cog and $7 1/2 link don't make the cut?
 
The 2 biggest issues with an 18 is that a) I don't have an 18 and b) the EBB is maxed out as it is, so I'd need to get a half-link or pull out a link to make the 18 work. I don't yet know how much of a boatload of cash I'm going to need to spend to get my geared bike back to speed, so I'm hesitant to drop more money on something that may not be broken.

The switchback climb at LM is a bit of a pisser in spots. Well, 1 spot.

I will say that when I went from 20 to 19 a few weeks ago my lap time got significantly faster. An experiment with a sample size of 1 is hardly scientific though.

Norm, do you find that you are faster at LM on the SS than on the geared bike?

My ss bike is a pile of junk and about 4-5lbs heavier than my paragon. I have done a couple comparsions of lap times with my ss vs my paragon and even stumpjumper. Both time I lost about 3 minutes a lap. This was with a 32-18 on a 26" bike. Not scientific by any means, but I felt that I was spun out in too many places on my SS.
 
Norm, do you find that you are faster at LM on the SS than on the geared bike?

My ss bike is a pile of junk and about 4-5lbs heavier than my paragon. I have done a couple comparsions of lap times with my ss vs my paragon and even stumpjumper. Both time I lost about 3 minutes a lap. This was with a 32-18 on a 26" bike. Not scientific by any means, but I felt that I was spun out in too many places on my SS.

Yeah, 32-18 on a 26" is very low for LM. Try 32-16.
(We've been talking 29" here.)
 
I'm faster with the SS here, but my SS is much lighter than the geared bike. The race course is nothing but ups and downs. Where would you spin out? There's really no flat sections that come to mind other than the fire road start and a few patches of 100 yards here and there.
 
Which seller did you get the 705 off Ebay from, the link that Kush posted? I purchased my 705 the day after he posted that link and have had it at least a week now. Bummer. Either way, it is an awesome unit and survived its first mudbath this weekend. One issue - it has already jettisoned the little rubber flap that protects the USB connection. It is somewhere in the mud at Stewart.

I believe it was the same guy but I can't be sure because I don't know where that original link went. It sounds like he oversold and didn't have the stock so he's playing a shell game with the people who paid, and is trying to make people happy by fluffing them with emails. I've swapped a bunch of emails with him today and I'm hoping that I have become a squeaky wheel and it gets sent. Otherwise I probably need to look into canning the transaction and all the BS associated with it.
 
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