My New £20 of Ebay Bike

[Wankelschrauben]

Apollo seems to have a fear of club riding and the speed associated with it.

What he can not quite comprehend is that when you ride in group, it is easier to average a higher speed than if you were riding solo.

 

[apollo179]

Apollo seems to have a fear of club riding and the speed associated with it.

What he can not quite comprehend is that when you ride in group, it is easier to average a higher speed than if you were riding solo.

Im not sure i entirly agree with the fear thing.
I would say that i have an interest in hearing what other better riders are capable of , acknowledge their superiority and respect them for it , and aspire to acheiving that level of performance myself.
Like johhny blade 100miles in 5 hours - thats a goal.
But first fabfoodies 20miles in one hour.

 

[lulubel]

The group thing does make a huge difference. I'm not a member of a club, and don't deliberately go out as part of a group, but on the times when I've joined up with other cyclists who happen to be going the same way as me, the difference in speed and the effort it takes to achieve it is quite amazing.

I could probably keep up at 20mph in a group (on my drop bar road bike), but there's no way I could do it on my own for any reasonable length of time.

 

[BirdOnnaBike]

Nice find.

I just got a 1970 Raleigh Twenty off Ebay for a tenner, thinking maybe if nothing else I'd have the front and rear racks and odds and ends to fix up an imaginary future Raleigh Twenty I might get... but turns out to be in much better condition than I thought from the price and photo and eminently saveable!

Now have my winter project sorted.

 

[cyberknight]

Group riding is a lot easier as other have said.

Most clubs will have different sorts of rides to cater for the abilities of the riders as they get better they can move up or down groups depending on how they feel.

My club operate 3 levels currently.
The "slow" group" averaging 14-16 mph 30-50 miles
The "not so fast" average 18 mph 30 -50 miles
The "fast" average 19-21 mph 50-70 miles

All groups meet at the same time and the same place on a Sunday so you can decide what level you want , the 2 slower groups operate a no drop policy and the fats boys stay together till the cake stop then you have to keep up but this is stated at the start.

I went out with the fast group for the 1st time and my computer showed a total of 50 miles in 2 hours 34 minutes , taking turns at the front then drafting in turn made it fun rather than a slog.

 

[Hacienda71]

20 mph is evens on a ten mile tt i.e. it is the time to aim for as a starting point. You will find riding as a group will up your time so 20 mph on a club ride is possible on a faster ride but on a hybrid riding on your own for an hour at 20 mph would be damn good going.

 

[apollo179]

Nice one! I love my Ebay special steel MTB. It looks awful, but I put a pair of Conti slicks on it so it's quick. Some Pepsi Max type on a fancy MTB gave it a dirty look the other night at the lights. So I waited for the next hill and cruised past while he was huffing and puffing out of the saddle. Immature, yes, but fun.

Immature but irresistible.
The tragic thing with the tyres is that putting decent schwalbe tyres on it (£20 each) will treble the cost of the bike.
I remember you saying your averaging 18mph on your new road bike so presumably you could time trial 20 miles in a hour pretty easily.

 

[apollo179]

Bargain!

Although you will need some big thighs to average 20mph on it.

Boney thighs and a big arse but still hoping for 20 miles in 1 hour

 

[apollo179]

Cracking find. Mudguards too so you'll stay dry over winter

20mph average though - That's pretty damn fast even for a semi-pro on some sub 9kg carbon thingy. I think if you manage to keep an average over 17mph on a flat bar bike you'll be doing pretty well.

Interesting advice . Thanks.

 

[apollo179]

Group riding is a lot easier as other have said.

Most clubs will have different sorts of rides to cater for the abilities of the riders as they get better they can move up or down groups depending on how they feel.

My club operate 3 levels currently.
The "slow" group" averaging 14-16 mph 30-50 miles
The "not so fast" average 18 mph 30 -50 miles
The "fast" average 19-21 mph 50-70 miles

All groups meet at the same time and the same place on a Sunday so you can decide what level you want , the 2 slower groups operate a no drop policy and the fats boys stay together till the cake stop then you have to keep up but this is stated at the start.

I went out with the fast group for the 1st time and my computer showed a total of 50 miles in 2 hours 34 minutes , taking turns at the front then drafting in turn made it fun rather than a slog.

Interesting info.
The fats boys sound like they would go hell for leather to get to the cake shop and then take it easy after that.
50 miles in 2 1/2 hours is pretty good. What would it take you riding solo ?

 

[apollo179]

20 mph is evens on a ten mile tt i.e. it is the time to aim for as a starting point. You will find riding as a group will up your time so 20 mph on a club ride is possible on a faster ride but on a hybrid riding on your own for an hour at 20 mph would be damn good going.

Ive tried it but put my failure down to being on a 26 inch wheel mountain bike. Also when it comes to hills i dont tend to claw back time lost going up by going as fast as possible down which presumably you need to as obviously significant time is lost on going up hills. I spose ideally youd do it on a flat track.

 

[cyberknight]

Interesting info.
The fats boys sound like they would go hell for leather to get to the cake shop and then take it easy after that.
50 miles in 2 1/2 hours is pretty good. What would it take you riding solo ?

solo it would be around 2.75 .

did a 76 miler in 4 hours 12 minutes on the clock + cake stop made it 4 hours 33 mins and my bottom bracket decided to become loose so i had ghost shifting and could not get some gears towards the end .

 

[apollo179]

solo it would be around 2.75 .

did a 76 miler in 4 hours 12 minutes on the clock + cake stop made it 4 hours 33 mins and my bottom bracket decided to become loose so i had ghost shifting and could not get some gears towards the end .

Still pretty good - + 18mph.
That equates to about 10% quicker cycling in a group.
Timed myself over 12miles this morning and that took me 45 mins on my 26inch bike so hopefully the 700c wheeled thing will make some kind of improvement. That was going afap including getting stitch.

 

[cyberknight]

And i was less tired from group riding , you save around 40 % ( i think) energy when drafting as over 15 mph most of your energy comes from wind resistance.
In a group i could probably go faster so the + 10 % is a bit of a fudge as i was only quoting one example , you could probably hnag on to a group going a couple of mph faster than your solo .
I have only been group riding a few months though so i am hardly an expert on the subject .

Switching from my subway 1 to my virtuoso on a 10 mile commute saved me maybe 5 minutes.

 

[apollo179]

And i was less tired from group riding , you save around 40 % ( i think) energy when drafting as over 15 mph most of your energy comes from wind resistance.
In a group i could probably go faster so the + 10 % is a bit of a fudge as i was only quoting one example , you could probably hnag on to a group going a couple of mph faster than your solo .
I have only been group riding a few months though so i am hardly an expert on the subject .

Switching from my subway 1 to my virtuoso on a 10 mile commute saved me maybe 5 minutes.

40% easier is going to enable you to go a fair bit quicker.
presuming (guessing) your 10 mile comute used to take you 40 minutes and now takes you 35 minutes thats about a 12.5% gain shifting bikes (26" to 700c)