Kurt Kinetic Road Machine

So I got a bike trainer from REI over the long holiday weekend and I think I'm going to set it up tonight.  Any advice?  I hope it's not that loud, it's the Kinetic Road Machine from REI and it had some pretty good reviews.  I figure if it doesn't I can just take it back but I hope it will be something that I can use during the evenings when it's dark outside.  It was on sale so I picked it up but I'm still wondering if I should spring for the Rock & Roll trainer which lets you tilt the bike.

Time will tell if I made a good decision...

ENVE stem...

If I buy an ENVE stem (and I might) am I just paying for vanity?  I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the ENVE seat post (just trying to decide if I was the zero setback or not) because it happily works with oval or circular rails on bike seats.  I'd like the stem to match the seat post as both are visible but I'm not sure that $265 is going to anything more than a matching paint job.  I can get a FSA OSI 99 for under $100.  The $165+ seems like a steep price to pay for no weight savings but a matchy-matchy paint scheme.  Although if I do get both ENVE  product my Reynolds Strike/Assaults wheels might be saddened...

What about fog...

The most frustrating thing I've experienced recently with cycling hasn't been anything to do with the bike, anything to do with a crazy driver, anything to do with Strava segments, it's been fog.  I don't know what it is but cycling through coastal fog seems like the most unsafe thing to do on the planet.  I can't imagine my little blinking red light in the back is going to show up very well.  I also can't imagine that a blinking white headlight is going to show much much at all.  What's a cyclist to do in fog?  I guess you could opt to "slow down" but that just reduces the length of time that driver coming from behind you is going to see you.

Waiting for fog to burn off is like watching grass grow...

Less people on the road?

During the holiday weekend it looked like there were a lot less people roaming around cycling to burn off those 4,000 calorie meals that I would have expected.  Maybe they were out of town or maybe it's just that the average temperature has dipped below 72 but either way there are fewer people around.  I wish there were more, I always feel safer when there masses or cyclists cruising around 101 in San Diego so drivers get used to seeing them.

Facial hair...

Another informal survey of mine has produced the following results.  The more likely you are to be a road cyclist the less likely you are to have facial hair.  Maybe that has something to do with the helmet?  However, there is an extremely high probability that your road cycling MECHANIC does have facial hair.  There's a smaller but significant probability that he will have a robust mustache.

Take away thought:  there should be more attractive, female road cycling mechanics...

Fail: BMC Challenge

I was supposed to go for one long ride of 79 miles and I just couldn't do it.  I only did around 51 miles for the weekend. I'm such a quitter.

Good thing I ride a Cannondale or the shame would be magnified...

Temperature vs. Body Fat Percentage

My new prevailing theory is that for every degree that the temperature drops outside the average body fat percentage of the cyclists who are outside will also drop by one.  This intensive research has been done over the last 4 weeks as the San Diego temperature has gone from summer and warm to slightly overcast and brisk.  There are still plenty of people out cycling but they all seem to be in much better shape.

I also think the temperate might correlate well to the amount of money spend on a bike and or wheelset.  The people that were cycling through Encinitas on Sunday seemed to all have $1,500+ wheelsets.

Zipp would be proud as they were very well represented...

Headwind vs. Great Bike

After this weekend and getting some nice cold brisk headwinds I think I've come to the conclusion that:

Lousy Bike + Tailwind > Great Bike + Headwind

That pesky headwind just makes every revolution a little bit harder.  Especially when you're cycling along the coast and it's a mix of headwinds and sidewinds.  I'm too big (read: fat) for the sidewinds to really push me around the road but they just seem to thicken the air that I'm riding through.

One thing I haven't figured out is how going into a headwind with a great bike and lousy posture would be juxtaposed against a lousy bike with great posture.  Of course this is because I have perpetually lousy posture.

So inflexible...

Windy days...

Those deep rim carbon wheels sitting on my bike are great.  Great for flats, great for rollers, great for non-windy days and even pretty darn good for climbing.  Here's where they're not good, when you're going down a descent on a windy day and cars/trucks are still zooming past you.  It's the first time I've really felt that instability and I think if I was a speed crazy cyclist looking to blast past 50 mph I'd be a little nervous.  Me, on the other hand, well I just focused on staying low and maybe feathering my breaks like a scaredy-cat every once in a while...

The glory of Compact Cranksets...

Now I feel like I actually use all of the chainring combinations that are out there.  Before unless it was a downhill gradient or I was sprinting I'd be somewhere in the big ring.  Now with a 50/34 I'm able to go up and down rollers with ease, all while staying in the big ring and even am able to punch up some small hills still in the big ring.  Overall makes the riding and shifting experience way smoother.

I guess the downside is that it doesn't take much of a downhill gradient to "get past" the 50/12 combination and I end up freewheeling a lot more.  Then again on longer downhill stretches I'd end up freewheeling pretty regularly even with a 53/11.  One of these days my legs will catch up and I'll be able to climb easily with a 39/25 but for right now I like the nice granny gear of a 34/25.

Sore throat...

I'm not sure if going cycling while trying to get over a cold is the smartest thing in the world.  I will say this, it makes the lungs burn really fast.  I haven't felt that out of shape in a long time.  Going up even a small little hill was painful for the lungs.  On the plus side, I never felt any stress in the legs.  Maybe I should take the advice of others and go in for a nice winter hibernation...