Turbo's Tales
- Thread starter Dave Taylor
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You and @terrabike01 missed brownies at first rest stop....dont worry, Tony had them for you 
Kinda the same as hung with road bikes. First 1.5 hours of a 7.75 hours ride. ?
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
No, that wasn’t my goal. I wanted to do 2 hours hard. I can’t keep up with those 130lb riders on climbs on my heated road bike either. 200lbs just doesn’t go uphill like 130lb. At least not for any sustained period of time. Oh, and 3rd overall at bears scat was Ss this Saturday. I don’t know the second place guy but pretty sure the winner goes to nationals every year and worlds this year. I
I’m gonna be testing Ss soon. I plan to go on my local road group rides with my Ss. We’ll see how it fairs.
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
I just did that for a warmup. I like going out hard and then backing off. I didn’t have intent to hang after that as I honestly wasn’t sure I would make all the climbs. The interesting part is I PRd on Mt Lebanon, the last climb. I was able to mash the last half of it so SS allowed me to come into the end of the ride fresher. I guess if you look at my moving time I was 1/2 hour faster on Ss MTB.
Isn't the obvious for SS against geared road bikes is that you will get dropped on pedaling downhills (the 30-40mph range where if you don't pedal you are stuck at 30mph) and flats where a strong group is pushing it. If you are spun out on the SS, not much you can do.
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
You would think but not all true. I had a bunch of PRs on the descents Sunday as well as a top 10. Descending isn’t about pedaling. It’s the super tuck. I hit 55mph on my MTB sunday. Also, you can ride in pacelines on SS by doing the pulse. It also lowers your HR. I chose a gear more suitable for the big and steep climbs and so I would survive 100 miles. I ran 34/17 where locally I run 34/14. Much more top end.
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
The best
part about riding SS is listening to all the people say “you can’t”.
Ya buttttt the winner in both the open 50 and open 25....both riding a geared scalpels
I do enjoy this argument having raced both.
Fastest ave speed I have ever had in a MTB race.....SS 34-17......but allow me to leave out that it was at stewart with 45min fireroad start where I averaged ~16+mph.
Hence why I mention the DH's where pedaling is still effective. Yes, at 55, pedaling on anything doesnt matter much.
So, at 34/14 even, 140 is probably the DH cadence where it start to be more efficient to tuck. It is probably lower than that, but you reach that at 27 mph.
Compare to 50/11, even at a completely normal 110, already at 35 and at that 140, pushing 50.
I know this is part of it, we know you can, but don't make arguments saying it is faster or more efficient on a 7 hour road ride.
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
Kinda but that ratio is off and it’s more like 600w for 3 sec 0w for 3.
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
Want what fastest avg was for Stewart 45?Ya buttttt the winner in both the open 50 and open 25....both riding a geared scalpels
I do enjoy this argument having raced both.
Fastest ave speed I have ever had in a MTB race.....SS 34-17......but allow me to leave out that it was at stewart with 45min fireroad start where I averaged ~16+mph.
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Same principle applies, an average power would be way easier to recover from than the microbursts of power on and off. it would also be easier to sustain with the same amount of power output over the time.
Kind of reminds me of a video I saw, it was a full blown funny car race a regular old minivan down the quarter mile. The funny car hit the throttle for 1 second and coasted, while the minivan floored it the whole time. The funny car beat the minivan, but at what price? That funny car makes all this horsepower, crazy fuel, aerodynmaics blah blah blah. How much gas did that one throttle blip cost? The minivan was steadier throughout the whole race, albeit slower and could probably still keep going after the 1320. It could probably go for another 100,000 miles at that pace.
As someone who started out riding and racing SS exclusively, everywhere, it is fun and a blast, i love the challenge. hell, i just built up a single speed and my first ride on it had me grinning ear to ear. i feel that no matter how much science and math is brought to the table, you would disagree with it somehow. So lets talk about what they are good for
things singlespeeds are great at:
1) Low cost to fun ratio, gets anyone on a high quality bike and out riding. Great way to introduce anyone into riding, a SS can be had for ~$500.
2) Less stuff to break, means you can ride more, less maintenance with simplicity, less downtime, etc.
3) Built in excuse to why you didn't place well in a race, example: "i had the wrong gear, too stiff/too spinny"
4) Look at me! Great centerpiece to brag about on a group ride, example: "i rode that uphill tech feature without dabbing on my SINGLESPEED, take that Johnny!"
5) Built in excuse on why you are getting dropped on a group ride: "bummer, Johnny bobbled in front of me in the rock garden and i had to walk the rest of the way out because my gear is too stiff"
6) Me Too Syndrome; you instantly are connected at the hip of anyone else that rides a singlespeed, it's like you both understand the struggles. It's a cult.
7) Super fun. After riding gears for so long, switching up to your SS changes the whole landscape of a ride, as well as how you approach things, pace things. Completely makes a boring trail new again.
If I think of more I will add them.
Slower for sure, but the S45 race is 2 times at long time wise as the SSAP (1hr49min for ssap vs 3hr34min for s45), and on a day that is much hotter (~60 degrees vs mid 90s), and on a course with no road compared to 45min of 15-20mph fire road to start...so its hard to compare the two efforts..
thats for me...fastest guy at S45 was one of the timmerman brothers as i recall....he was on a geared HT, but I think he would have still won on a unicycle.
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
So, this is a little more than we are making it to be. I don’t recall saying SS is faster. I said it can keep up. But, as @Pearl pointed out, SS is course/terrain specific. Hence why 90% of segments at allaire and Hartshorne are on SS. SS will never do 35mph under normal pedaling and make it up a hill. The interesting thing is I can hang on by pulsing/drafting, lower my HR, maintain a higher speed than solo and be fresh when I get to the climb. Gears are faster for the top people that know how to ride them, but they make people lazy. SS doesn’t allow laziness really. You either force the climb or walk. On gears you 52 it at 1mph. Kit Tarim you is another great SS layout. Sandy hook is all gears, any course that is all up/down works well for Ss. I can tell you I stay fresher longer on SS guaranteed.
@Pearl . Your top fuel comparison is kinda crappy. That’s 10,000 hp to 200 HP. With pulse vs spin we are talking max difference like 600w vs 200.
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
I think it has more to do with the rider than what bike they are on, don't you think?
This reminds me of the start of SSAP, how can 100+ SSers with 2:1 at a minimum do 20+mph on a gravel road that rolls uphill and back downhill? This is around 9 minutes or so, but a full on gravel bike or even a mountain bike with gears, will be faster.
You are confusing being lazy with being efficient. Just because I can spin a lighter gear while you stand on a harder gear doesn't make me lazy. I'm sure you can research that standing and mashing a big gear will cause your HR to jump. If a geared rider can spin a lighter gear, maintain my HR and power output, and keep pace with the SS rider, who makes out in the long run?
You can argue that certain sections of trail are just not rideable with gears and if everyones walking, its who's the fastest walker, or runner at that point. I can assure you if you can ride the hill in an easy gear like 32x42 (hell, don't they goto 50t in the back now?) you will be faster than anyone walking up a hill. Plus, you'll be on your bike and ready to ride a descent, whether it's a techy downhill or road/gravel descent.
Never rode Tatum (I think that is what you mean?) but in reply to the "stay fresher longer", I see some merit to this. It FORCES you to not drill it 100% of the time. This is also just a case of managing your efforts. If you have a 100 mile race and know how deep you can go, if you see the check engine lights flashing half way through, you need to adjust.
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