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Blog January 13, 2022

Virginia Senator Tommy Norment Is an Asshole

I suspect that this bill that Virginia Senator Tommy Norment is pure pandering, but that doesn’t make it any less crazy that Mr. Norment would suggest a change to VA law which would double the fine for a cyclist compared to a car, and include the impounding of the bicycle for six months as the coup de grâce. Obviously, this is anti-cyclist, but the actual impacts, and I can’t imagine that this…

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Blog Featured January 6, 2022

Hitting the wall isn’t bad…

Until relatively recently, I’d never failed to complete, or even had to pause, a structured workout to make it all the way through. Back then, I took a small amount of comfort from this artifact. Now, I think that’s backwards, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. My current thinking is that I wasn’t pushing hard enough in my structured training. So I wasn’t identifying areas of improvement. Finding a limit is…

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Blog Featured January 4, 2022

Wonky Wahoo TICKR HRM? Might be the strap…

After roughly three years of hard use, my original Wahoo TICKR gave up the ghost at the end of the summer. Given how well it had worked for me, I picked up a new, updated version without hesitation. This was August. The photo above shows the new strap on the left, and the older (replacement) strap from my original TICKR on the right which I purchased to troubleshoot my original TICKR. Notice…

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Blog Featured December 26, 2021

Shimano E-tube 5.0.3 Incompatible with SM-BCR2

I can get that Shimano is SUPER excited about their new 12 speed Di-2, but in that excitement they seem to have forgotten that the overwhelming majority of their Di-2 user base is running the previous generation. Most of these folks, are probably using the SM-BCR2 to charge and connect with the bike to do things like firmware updates, setup shifting, and configure the gears. Because if you don’t have a D-Fly,…

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Blog December 22, 2021

TIL: Zwift Tron Bike Is The Fastest TT Bike

Given the outcome of some previous testing, I was beginning to suspect that the Zwift Concept (Tron) bike is the fastest TT bike, but I didn’t have the proof until today. This came as quite a surprise because the best available information seems to indicate the opposite. The biggest caveat is that I don’t have the fastest time trial wheels that Zwift has; haven’t made it to Level 42 yet. So I…

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Blog Featured November 30, 2021

Xert Take The Wheel

If you follow me on Strava, you probably saw this one coming. After thinking about it, and talking to a few people who use a coach, I decided to submit to Xert’s training guidance; at least for the most part. Just to clear some things up, I do think there is tangible value in having an IRL coach. A real person providing adaptive workouts, finding areas for fitness improvement, tips, nutritional direction,…

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Blog Featured November 24, 2021

Will Dynaplug Damage Your Carbon Rims?

When I found out about Dynaplug, I had some concerns around whether it could damage carbon rims if the brass tip made contact with the wheel. I would love to take manufactures at their word that a thing is safe, thoroughly tested, and works the way it should, but all too often it just doesn’t play out. So I figured it was worth buying one and testing what would happen if I…

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Blog November 21, 2021

PSA: Used Vector 3 + Rally XC Conversion Kit is a great cheap SPD Power Meter

DCR made a video about this when the Garmin Rally power meter pedals launched, so I knew it was possible. But, I hadn’t actually ever done the math around whether it would be worth it if you didn’t already have a set of Vector 3s laying around. Yesterday a friend of mine mentioned that he did exactly that over the summer; back when the Rally XC 200 were in short supply and…

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Blog Featured November 17, 2021

Submitting to a Higher Power

I don’t like being told what to do. I also like to understand “the why” around pretty much everything I’m interested in. Combining those with my stubborn desire to want to manage things myself, I’ve been rolling my own training plan for the last few years. For the most part, it’s been going well; registering solid gains both in power, and ability to hurt my friends on a group ride. So what’s…

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