2022 Cycling Challenge

WOO. Kind of dropped off the face of the world. And forgot completely about updating this lolz

So here's catching up to my last ride! Maybe tonight I'll do another one, but I've been terribly busy of late. Ugh.

Ride 1 - 18.01
Ride 2 - 3.70
Ride 3 - 100.00
Ride 4 - 3.86
Previous - 1640.82

Year Total - 1766.39/2022

Strava:
https://www.strava.com/activities/7030565195
https://www.strava.com/activities/7043216648
https://www.strava.com/activities/7089523091
https://www.strava.com/activities/7115384682

I hear you guys - for me, it depends on my bike, aka: the weight of the material and the groupset.

My Bianchi is a carbon fiber dream (2018 Sempre Pro with a Shimano 105 groupset, so 50/34 on the front and 11/32 11-speed cassette on the back) that spins up hills without an issue. I slap that puppy into its 34/32 and breeze up climbs.

My Panasonic is a cromaloy piece of vintage loveliness (1986 DX3000 sporting its original Shimano Biopace chainrings (52/40) and a Shimano 7 speed cassette (11/28) on the back - this bike's been modified from its original 6 speed freewheel 13/24 it originally sported, now featuring brake-lever shifters instead of downtube shifters as well). It grinds like a beast, but descends like a freight train dropped from a cargo plane (aka: it's FAST AS HELL going down a hill, to the point where I have straight melted my brake pads descending mountains while outrunning aero bikes).

My Marin Nicasio? The gravel bike from hell? Spin spin spin! Especially if I have my "I'm climbing through muck like a moron" cassette loaded - that gives me 50/34 in the front and 14/40 on the back. Yup, 34/40 for the climbs. It crawls, but I never need to put my feet down unless the back tire free-spins on leaf litter or sinks into sand or mud. But the bike's a heavy steel beast, so it still takes a bit of oomph to get it up.

My only advice is that if you can't afford a lighter bike, get a cassette that stretches your tooth ratio as far as your rear derailleur can handle (that's why I'm riding 40/28 on the Panasonic - the L532 light-action derailleur that is stock on the DX3000 can't handle more than 68 teeth, and 68 teeth is actually stretching what it's capable of. Same with the Marin - I can't go up to a 42 dish in the back, because the derailleur on it can only handle a 74 tooth spread). And of course, the easiest way to drop weight and make climbs easier is to drop it off the human body.

(Plus steady riding - training on Zwift for the last year and doing the Alpe du Zwift with irritating regularity made my last hilly sportive a happy breeze)

Now on to what I originally was going to post lol - finished a Zwift ride, brought to an early end by a cranky parrot.

Ride - 30.03
Previous - 1786.40

Year Total - 1816.43/2022

Strava:
https://www.strava.com/activities/7166267203