Initial Hammerhead One review

Warning! This review is long. You've been warned.

I finally received my Hammerhead One a week or two ago. This thing's been a long time in the making, starting as a kickstarter (or one of those crowdfunding sites, I'm too lazy to go back and look it up) that I was really excited about. If you're not familiar with a Hammerhead One, it's a bicycle navigation device - here's the manufacturer's own video:

Hammerhead One demo video

It's a really, really cool concept, so I was more than happy to back them.

The process took a while. I knew this from the start, but it certainly seemed to go on quite some time. They were good with updates to the process, but I quickly learned that "we think we'll be shipping it by {insert some point in the near future}" statements were not terribly likely. Eventually, I decided "okay, it'll happen at some point, and it'll be a pleasant surprise when it does". Finally, about a month ago I received an update message that said they'd be shipping out soon. It showed up on my porch one day, and I was pretty stoked!

Initial thoughts

• It's a clean design
  The final shipped design is awfully close to the initial designs, and is really clean. Non-cycling friends can (and have) made jokes about the new sex toy, but aside from that it's a pretty cool looking gadget.
  
  
• No documentation at all in the box?
  The box looks pretty good, but one thing I noticed right away is there's no documentation either in the box or on it. If you're going to ship a device with no form of instructions included, you'd better make damn sure it's super intuitive to use and has no gotchas. Turns out, this isn't the case.
  
  There was, however, a nice thank-you card which lists the names of all the initial supporters. Yep, I'm on there, along with two friends that I know supported it. Cool.
  
  The only instructions that I received with the unit came in the shipping email:
  
  "Once you have unboxed your Hammerhead we suggest you connect it to the app and update the Firmware immediately: This video will show you how to update the firmware, and here is an initial turn instruction guide."
  
  As this was the shipping email, I initially missed it, and as we'll see, that turns out to be not quite enough.
  
  
• Reusing the Garmin mount is a clever approach
  The mount on the Hammerhead uses a standard Garmin bike computer half-turn mount. It's simple, it works, and opens up the ability to use a bunch of other mounts.
  
  
• Sparse documentation online
  After some initial setup issues, I hit the "Help" link in the app which leads to their online FAQ. They've bolstered it quite a bit since I got mine, but at the time, it was really sparse. The only other thing I managed to find were the videos which we've already discussed.
  
  
• Setup video says iOS, no separate video for Android
  Although the app looks almost exactly the same between the two platforms, the setup video that they linked to in the shipping email clearly says "iOS" in the title. So I look for the Android version, and I don't find it. Good thing I know Android and iOS well enough to be able to translate what they're trying to do in the video. It's not hugely different (beyond it actually working in iOS - but more on that in the next section) but it's still different.
  
  
• No GPX import?
  Playing around with the app, it looks like a fairly basic navigation app. I find I get the best results planning rides using a computer and web-based tools instead of an app on the phone - and then being able to import that route into an app on the phone when it comes time to follow it. This doesn't appear to be an option, and it doesn't even look like I can use another tool and then import that path. I understand that this could lead to issues - if I give it a route that's not on its map, how will it know where to turn, and if I go off-route, how will it figure out how to re-route me? It's probably not a trivial solution, but I sure hope that they figure it out.
  
  

Android problems

I have two phones - my own Android (first gen Moto X) and an iPhone 6 from work. This turns out to be a good thing, because about two weeks into having my Hammerhead, I've still yet to get it working with the Android phone. I've discovered a bunch of fun things, and have been seriously frustrated up to this point, but so far their customer support has been pretty good. Here's a rundown of the problems I've discovered and not yet surmounted:

• You don't pair it with your phone like a normal Bluetooth device.
  If there were instructions, I might have known that before I started using it. Having missed the one paragraph of instructions in the shipping email, I figured "Okay, it's bluetooth. Let's get it paired up and see what this thing can do." So, I went to the phone's Bluetooth setup menu, just like I've done for all the other Bluetooth things that I have, and tried to set it up. This failed with an "invalid PIN" error. I checked the instructions I received for what to do in that situation and oh wait - I didn't get any. Hah.
  
  Turns out you have to do the pairing in the app. Why? Fucked if I know. I've got theories.
  
  
• If you manage to lock it up, the only way to reset it is leave it alone and let the battery run out.
  In the process of trying to figure out how to get it to talk to the phone (remembering that I missed the one paragraph of instructions with links to videos for a mobile OS that I was not using) I managed to lock it up. The device has one button which is ringed by light when it's on, and at some point this went solid greenish-blue and the device stopped responding at all. The phone wasn't able to see it anymore - it was locked up. With no troubleshooting instructions and nothing of use I could find on the FAQ (which was much less populated than it is now and had almost nothing about connectivity issues) I was left to my own troubleshooting steps. I'm a computer guy, I've got decent troubleshooting skills. The first thing I tried was to press and hold the button, as many electronic devices honor that as a "turn off regardless" indicator. Holding the button down for well over a minute made me think that wasn't the case. Tapping the button did nothing. There are screws on the back of the unit and I considered opening it up - they're just T-6 Torx, which I have - but at this point the thing is brand new and I decided I didn't really want to do that.
  
  Ultimately, I left it alone and let the battery die off. Once that happened, I could start trying to use it again, until I locked it up again and had to let it die all over again. Speaking with support, I was told that I could reset the unit by "Plug in the USB cable and hold the main button for 6 seconds. Then remove the USB cable and hold the main button for 3 seconds." This procedure kinda sucks since I need to have a USB cable on hand and leaves a bunch of questions unanswered:
• Do I keep holding the button when I unplug the USB or do I let it go?
• Does the USB cable have to be plugged into the wall, or would a cable by itself do the trick?
• Most importantly, why didn't it work with any variation of the procedure that I could think of?
  
  
• Removing the charging port cover isn't intuitive or documented
  The charging port cover is easy to find, at the bottom of the unit on the back. Getting it off is another matter. It looks like it should just slide off away from the bottom of the unit, but trying to do that by hand without forcing it wasn't resulting in anything. There's a tab on the back of the device that looked like maybe it needed to be depressed in order to let the cover slide off, and I tried that. Turns out that's exactly what you don't want to do as it keeps the cover in place and pressing on it increases the lock, not decreases it. I see the FAQ entry has been updated to state this now - but that wasn't there the other day when I tried it. Also, the FAQ entry had one single photo with an arrow on it pointing to the charging port. The problem here is that the photo looks like a quick shot with a cell phone camera in crappy lighting so the arrow points to an area on the phone you could have found on your own (I did) and the relevant point on the unit is a featureless blob of black, so you really don't get any information from the photo which isn't already obvious. See what I mean?

  

  Crappy white balance and exposure make this photo useless.

  
  
  With a T-shirt providing a dark background so it doesn't throw off the auto exposure and sunlight from the window by my desk, I managed to get this photo:

  

  Less than a minute of work and a much more useful photo.

  I didn't include the cover because I took that off and just left it off.
  
  I eventually managed to get the cover off by sticking the point of a screwdriver in the space around the tab that holds it in place and pushing it away in the direction I guessed was right.
  
  
• The charging light is hard to see
  When I first let it die off because it was locked up, and then plugged it in, no lights came on. Considering the thing is covered with LEDs, I was kinda surprised about that. No form of indication if it's charging or done? Fail.
  
  Well, turns out I was wrong. There's a small green LED on the side of the unit which shows when it's plugged in. I had initially missed it. Let's see why:

  

  The charging light is on. Can you see it?

  

  See it now? The viewing angle is quite shallow.

  I also don't think the light changes based on the charge level. It's just an indication that it's plugged in. So, is it fully charged? Well, the app can tell you that, but a simple flashing during charge, solid when fully charged would remove the need for the app.
  
  
• The firmware process isn't well documented or intuitive
  The only instructions for upgrading the firmware are on the iOS video. It just shows the procedure happening once and leaves out pretty important details. I managed to assemble the proper procedure from the video, the light sequence demo video, and other information I managed to find online.
  
  
• Lack of information on firmware versions
  Since the only place you can update the firmware is through the phone app, you never have to manually download it, and that's nice. However, there's no way to see what the current released version of firmware might be - or changelogs, or anything like that. As a computer guy, I'm used to things like this. For the general user, not a huge problem, but since they recently uploaded a video mentioning firmware 1.5, and I'm at 1.3.x, I have to assume that it hasn't been released because "Update firmware" is greyed out in the app. Or maybe something's broken. I can't tell.
  
  
• The Android app won't actually talk to my phone
  After finally managing to update the firmware on my device, I tried to use it with my Android phone. I can create route instructions, but when I try to ride it, I get the following error:

  

  "wait for some time." ?? Dafug?

  Despite "waiting for some time" - it never sees my Hammerhead.
  
  
• The Android app crashes repeatedly
  Related to the above point, when I click "Skip" on the "Connecting to Hammerhead" prompt above, the app closes and I get this:

  

  Yay, crashed!

  
  
  
• All of this works on my iPhone
  I guess we know where they spent all their development effort and QA testing.

Test drive on my commute to work

So yes, I know that my first test with this thing should be on a bike, not driving in a car, but time constraints combined with curiosity/impatience led my first test to be my driving commute to work. It's actually not awful because I know the roads between home and work pretty well so should be able to follow pretty close to the route the app suggests, and it'd be interesting to see how it handles things. The key, however, with anything that gives you directions is you should get familiar with it on roads and paths that you _know_ so you learn its quirks - you don't want to find these out blindly following it where you have no idea where you _should_ be going.

For this test,  I had the hammerhead propped up in front of my speedometer so I could see the lights out of my peripheral vision, and the iPhone was in my phone holder so I could see the route it had planned out for me.

• It really prefers bike paths to streets
  This isn't too surprising, since it's designed first and foremost for giving directions to road bikers. Still, the roads around my house are quite nice and cyclist friendly. Here's the way it suggested I start my ride:

  

  It's pretty, but a circuitous 2.8 miles.

  
  

  

  Perfectly valid route that's a full mile shorter.

  While the route it suggested is pretty and almost completely avoids any roads, the way I usually go is perfectly fine for cyclists and takes 1 mile off the ride before I've even gotten to Route 202.
  
  
• It prefers a shared-use path to a marked bike lane.
  Similar to above, Route 202 has a shared-use path that runs along side the road, separated by a fence. It's a nice way to go - but 202 also has marked bike paths on the road. If you chose to do that (admittedly, few cyclists do, but I have) it will confuse the app, frequently telling you to turn around and head back when the shared use path goes away from the road too far.

  

  Route 202 has bike lanes and a separate shared-use path. gmaps

  
  If you don't already know where you're going, the indication for a U-turn while you're heading the right way on a marked bike lane could be confusing as hell.
  
  If you do already know where you're going, then you don't really need a blinky thing on your handlebars telling you where to go, do you?
  
  
• The routing was pretty good for a cyclist in the area
  Ignoring wanting to use bike paths over roads and insisting on a U-turn when you don't follow it exactly, the routing was pretty good. There are some tricky areas for bikes on my commute, and it managed to avoid those pretty effectively.
  
  
• It tried to direct me over a bridge that has been closed for a month or two
  I use the Waze app for driving. It's a community-supported app that allows you to report problems on the road, including road closures. One of the routes I take to work has a bridge which is currently closed for repairs. I was able to tag the bridge as unavailable in the Waze app so that other folks knew to not go that way.
  
  Unfortunately, Hammerhead's map doesn't know this, and tried to direct me over the same bridge. When I took my usual detour around the closed bridge, the Hammerhead was diligently instructing me to make a U-turn for well over a half mile before it finally figured out the way I was actually going.
  
  
• The amount of pre-turn warning that you get seems to be based on distance from the turn
  Okay, this is kinda a bullshit observation since I was in a car, going far faster than the app was designed for, but the turn notifications I was getting happened *very* close to the turn. At bike speed, that'd be just fine, but adjusting the amount of warning based on the speed doesn't seem like it'd be terribly difficult. More of an observation than a real issue.
  
  
• Several indicated turns that weren't actual turns.
  Driving down a section of road where I had well over a mile to the next turn, it kept indicating left turns. Sometimes those turns seemed to be nothing more than a bend in the road. Sometimes it indicated a left turn on a straight stretch of road where there was nothing beyond a driveway on the left. If I didn't know where I was going and didn't have the map up, that would have been confusing as HELL. Problem is, not knowing where I'm going and not having a map up is exactly the targeted use case for this device.
  
  I should note that these were indicated left turns - not the slight turns shown in the video. I did see one slight right on my route, which was accurate.
  
  

Conclusion - so far

I still think the Hammerhead is a great idea and a slick design. It shows real promise. However, I can't help but wonder what the hell they did with 20 months of development time. I can't imagine they offered these to too many folks for beta testing... or is that us, the initial backers? I can't imagine how they managed to go 20 months of development without writing any type of useful doc, or taking more than a single crappy cell phone camera when a simple lightbox setup with a good SLR would have been so much more effective. It's just been a really frustrating first experience with the device.

Given some time, I think that it still shows huge promise, and I'm not giving up on it yet, but I certainly don't think it's ready for the big time, and I sure won't be using it alone to figure out how to get somewhere. It needs a bunch of work before I'll be ready to trust it that far.

Lance's Fisting Technique

Even with ice in his beard, his fingers are warm.

It's getting into the cold season, but that doesn't mean you should stop riding.   With the right equipment, you can continue riding all the way through the winter, and don't have to subject yourself to the horrors of indoor stationary riding.

That said, even with the proper equipment, many folks have trouble with cold hands and feet, myself included, even with thick, heavy gloves.  Thick gloves can make controlling the bike more difficult, and if even thick gloves aren't keeping your fingers warm, then the call of the indoor trainer may be getting stronger.  However, one of my riding buddies (Lance) has shared a trick with me that allows me to ride through the winter with nothing more than ordinary full-finger gloves!

 

Here's how it works:

1. Start your cold ride.  You may be warm from the house (or car) but you were resting, so you're not "warmed up".  Ride for a little while until you start to warm up, you should be breathing hard.  This usually coincides with your fingers starting to get cold.  
2. At this point, stop riding, and pull your fingers back into your glove, making a fist inside the glove.  The heat from your palm will warm your fingers.  (On the road or a non-challenging MTB trail, you may also be able to do this while still riding, but if you try it and hurt yourself, I will point and laugh.)  
3. This shouldn't take long, just long enough to get your fingers to stop being really cold.  Don't stop long enough that you cool down, either.  It's just a quick stop, if you're stopped for more than a minute you're probably doing it wrong. 
4. Once your fingers are warm-ish, you can put them back in the glove like normal, and resume riding.  
5.  Your fingers should stay warm for the rest of the ride!

Since your core temp is up and you're properly warmed up, the blood is flowing, and it's carrying heat from the exercise.  Since your fingers aren't brutal cold anymore, the blood is able to get to them, and keep them warm.  I've been doing this for a couple years now, and have been able to ride through sub-freezing temps using the same full-finger gloves that I rode in the summer.  Last year I was halfway through the winter when I realized that the 661 gloves I was using had an open mesh on the side of the fingers.  Even with the open mesh (I could see the skin of my fingers!) my fingers never got cold past that initial warm-up period.

Give it a try!

Now for toes, this trick doesn't work as well -- you can't make a fist with your feet!  I'm still working on this one, but for me, the trick seems to be having shoes that are big enough to have thicker socks and still leave room for your feet.  That seems to be the key - if your feet are too snug in the shoes, you won't get circulation, and you'll have the same problem as your fingers above. If your shoes are not quite big enough, you can cheat it out a little bit by loosening the straps, especially the ones towards the front of the foot.  I've found that helps a bit.  Wind can still be an issue, and I've heard that clipless pedals can actually act as a heat sink - a larger aluminum clipless pedal can draw heat out of your foot.  I dunno how legit that claim is since there is a plastic sole, and usually, a plastic cleat between your foot and the pedal, but I do run thicker insoles in the winter.  The big thing is don't restrict your feet, and I often try to wiggle my toes to make sure they're still getting circulation.

Fun with GPS tracks

So I'm whining to Jason P. about the lack of good climbing in our area.  I went out this morning for the Six Sisters hill repeats, where the biggest climb is a whopping 220 feet of elevation gain.  Even doing hill repeats, I averaged just under 80 feet climbed per mile ridden.  For me, it's not a real climbing ride until at least 100 feet per mile.  The best ride in recent memory was the Stoopid 50, which came in at 127 '/mi.  Jason lives in VA, where there's a number of pretty decent sized hills right in the area, so it's really easy for him to find good climbs.

JP: "here, i'll make a little loop for you, hang on"
JP:  http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1441153
JP: route starts 2 blocks from both bryce's house and my house
JP: 176 ft/mi
me: Yeah
me: wow
me: super
me: okay, I'm gonna draw a little route for you
me: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1441152
me: go take a hike. ;)

What?  I can be bitter.

Bay to Bay ride

Yesterday I did the Bay-to-Bay century ride down in Maryland.  We started off at Betterton, MD, a beautiful little town on the Chesapeake bay where one of my friends has a really, really nice condo on the water.  Another perk of his condo is the location, only about 1/2 mile from the start of the ride.  It used to be even closer, but folks complained about the little bitty hill (a nose-bleedingly, ear-poppingly massive 0.3 mile climb that averages 2% grade and gains 38') heading away from the start, so they moved the start to the top of the hill.

I thought that with the area being predominantly flat, and us bringing six strong guys, the century would be easy, but that turned out to not be the case, but not for the reasons I expected.  My fit on the bike isn't quite perfect, and I quickly discovered that being in a paceline means holding more or less the same position for quite some time, and that gets uncomfortable quick.  Plus, there are only two interesting places in a paceline -- at the front and pulling, or at the back where you can relax, stand, whatever, and you don't have to worry about the guy behind you -- because there isn't any.  (second wheel isn't bad if the guy pulling is solid) In the middle, you have to be diligent and focused and although you're using less muscular energy, you're using more mental energy.  I guess that gets better with a bunch of paceline experience, which I don't have.  Worse yet, because this is a big organized ride, a paceline passes many single riders and smaller groups, many of whom gladly attach themselves to the paceline, despite a lack of experience themselves.  We had one guy early on who was really quite squirrely, and kept doing dumb things like overlapping wheels, and getting into an aero tuck on downhills.  I was really glad when him and his buddy opted to keep going through the first rest stop.  Many of the other guys who rode with us were pretty good, but ultimately, a bigger paceline just means more time in the middle, where it's frankly quite boring.

So, by the second rest stop at mile 38, I was mentally exhausted, wishing passionately for a real climb, and frankly quite done with the ride, but Rule #5 (and being 38 miles from the start) prevented me from giving up.  (the interesting discovery that horseflies know how to draft and as such can't be ridden away from didn't help, either)  I spent the next 15 miles slowly rotating through the paceline and watching the miles tick off.  One of our guys started having trouble with the pace, so he and another guy dropped off, so I dropped off as well to ride with them for a while.  Riding in the smaller group was far better, and I started to enjoy the ride.  We regrouped at the next rest stop, and I wound up with the big group again, and got into the rotation again.  I began wondering how you could do an organized ride with a good group of guys, but also manage to keep the "unknowns" out of the line.  Personally, the "unknowns" just wound up annoying me and made the line bigger, and more boring, even if they took their pulls and were good in the line.  I guess it's a mindset thing.

After the last rest stop, I pulled out first and took the lead for 2.9 miles -- 9 minutes.  (it was a looong, easy start, and I wasn't fully up to speed until the first mile was done) Rolling off at the end of my pull, I saw the group going by.  Four of our guys, two "unknowns" who we'd been riding with for a while, who were solid riders, but at this point, I was just tired of riding in a paceline, and made no effort to catch the last wheel.  I started to recover from my pull, and brought my pace up, and stayed within a couple hundred yards of the group for quite some time.  This was at mile 87, and I knew this wouldn't last, but was curious how long I could keep them in sight riding solo.  Soon, however, I saw a guy walking on the side of the road with his bike, so as they rode by, I stopped next to him to find out if he needed help.  Turns out his issues weren't mechanical, but severe cramps, and unfortunately there's not much you can do at that point, so I verified that he was okay, and rode on now completely alone.

Here's where it started to get interesting.  No longer was my effort dictated by the group, so I could ride as hard or easy as I wanted, and I was soon up to some pretty high efforts. I rode hard but controlled, and caught one or two other riders, then came across one of our own guys who had been shed from the paceline.  I swung around him, sat up and cruised for a little while, but he made no effort to grab my wheel, so I rolled back onto the power and kept on up the road.  I soon found myself at the bottom of a long climb, and recognized it as a climb which we had done the previous morning.  Since there was no previous Strava segment there, we created one, and I had been tied for the KOM at 2:56 until Dave uploaded his ride and got 2:55.  I had joked with him that I was going to take the KOM back by riding a 2:54, and coming to the bottom of this climb at mile 94, having been riding by myself for 7 miles, that is exactly what I did.  (What really sucks for Dave is that his phone locked up and stopped recording early in the ride, so even though he probably went faster up the hill with the group than I did solo - he doesn't get any credit, or the KOM.)  Halfway up the climb, I saw another rider up the road, so used that rider as my rabbit, and managed to chase down Brian, another one of our guys, right at the top of the climb.

Brian misread the arrows on the road, as did I, and we made a right turn where we should have gone straight.  This wouldn't have been a big problem, but I recognized the road as one that we rode the previous day, and had created another segment on... so I turned on the gas yet again trying to better my time from the previous day.  Despite a near maximum effort, being at mile 95 and on my own (Brian hung onto my wheel for a couple minutes but decided to let me go) doesn't stand a chance against three pretty fresh guys sharing the load from the previous day, and my time came in at 9:34, a damn shade slower than the previous morning's 8:26.  Worse yet, this was when I realized that there were no blue arrows on the road at the next intersection -- we had taken a wrong turn!  I broke out my phone and checked the map, and we had gone exactly the wrong direction to get to the finish.  I later discovered we nearly reconnected with the course at mile 73!  So, we had no recourse but to turn around and ride the 3.5 mile segment back to where we'd made the wrong turn.

At this point, I was more interested in finding the short way back instead of finding the course, so I used my phone to map out the shortest return.  I soon realized that I knew the roads we were taking, and these roads went over the few "hills" in the area.  The biggest of these isn't even 100 feet of elevation, but we're now at 105 miles and oddly enough, getting a little tired.  Had I followed the course instead of the "short way" back, I think there would have been a whole bunch less climbing.  We finally made it back to Betterton, and the rest of the guys had finished, but while they only had 103 miles of riding, Brian and I had 111 miles (Strava says 110.8 -- I didn't start the Garmin until after the 0.6 mile ride to the start, so I legitimately claim 111) and had finished with climbs, which we agreed made us the big winners and hard men of the group.

So, the ride was enjoyable, despite my issues with the big pacelines.  I would love to do the ride again, but this time with no more than four folks in a core paceline and some way to keep the "unknowns" from spoiling the party.  Doing it solo would be interesting, but probably also very, very difficult.

One of the reasons I stayed with the pacelines as much as I did was because I was convinced if I went solo, it would take me longer to get finished, but that's not necessarily the case.  Here's the segment between the second to last and last rest stops where I rode with a paceline of about 7 guys:

http://app.strava.com/activities/11635620#z17009|18874

10.2 miles at an average speed of 19.6mph, sitting behind an unknown who would pedalpedalpedal-cooooaaaast-repeat for the entire time.  (granted, his buddy with the tri bars did have a wonderfully long and consistent 20mph pull) Very mentally draining as I was trying to leave enough gap that I didn't have to coast when he slowed, but could soft pedal and not screw up the guys behind me.

In contrast, here's the segment where I went solo after the last rest stop:

http://app.strava.com/activities/11635620#z20951|22843

10.5 miles, including the biggest "climb" on the course (and 3.5 miles in the wrong direction) at an average speed of 20.0mph, while enjoying myself immensely more.  This is even after my 2.9 mile pull out of the rest stop.  Could I have kept that up for the entire ride, hell no.  But still, it's interesting.  I caught two folks who had been shelled from the paceline, and had I not made the wrong turn, I think I may have caught the others who got dropped -- Dave Heller finished with only one other guy.  Maybe... maybe not, but ultimately, it doesn't matter, because that last 26 miles was the best of the ride, because I was riding either solo or with one other person.

Gentlemen's Rides

Back on September 27th and 28th, I did the MS150 City-to-Shore fundraising bike event. I haven't written about it here because I wanted to do it when I had time to really do it justice... to tell all the stories that there were, the fun had with friends, the new friends met, the great riding that we did... but really you don't care about those stories nearly as much as I do.

I just came across this article about "Gentlemen's Rides" which so perfectly sums up not only the MS150, but all of my most favorite rides. Gentlemen's Rides are like racing, except it's far more social. There's still the urge to put your closest friends into the most hurtin' possible, but then you regroup, laugh, and do it again.

I always knew I wasn't a racer... but now I realize I'm a "Gentleman rider".

Beaten with my own stick...

I got out for a ride yesterday with Dmitri, a buddy of mine who is a dedicated singlespeeding mountain biker. He's decided to ride the MS-150 with us at the end of the month, but he doesn't have a road bike, so I put my old Airborne Zeppelin together for him to use. Yesterday was his first ride on the bike in several years. Back in 2004 or 2005, both of us entered a local time trial, and he rode the Zep back then... but hasn't touched a road bike since.

Well, I have to say, it's pretty interesting to see my old bike fading away on up the road. Apparently the preparation for a 100 mile MTB endurance race translates well to the road, even if he wasn't familiar with this whole concept of shifting, and having to pedal all the time. On one stretch of road, I was holding about 20mph, and he comes around and starts pulling at a steady 24mph. Yikes! Thankfully I kept the climbing to a minimum, as otherwise the ass-whuppin' would have probably been worse.

The good part was that since we're about the same size, we were able to swap bikes so I could ride the old Zeppelin. Still a nice bike, but definitely different ride. Softer, yet more chattery than my carbon fiber Giant TCR. One thing I really liked, though, was the 46cm c-to-c bars. I've had the bars for a while, but hadn't gotten around to testing them. They're only 2cm wider than the Eastons on the Giant, but that little bit wider is noticable, especially when cranking out of the saddle. The extra leverage is really nice, and the flat tops of the bar is even wider. Of course, having the 31.8mm stem clamp area and being made of aluminum, they are also far stiffer than the carbon Eastons with the smaller 26.0mm clamp. Most bars only come to 44cm c-to-c, but if you're a big person, you might seriously consider looking for the wider 46cm bars. I'm considering getting rid of the two pairs of 44cm bars I have now and finding a carbon 46cm for the Giant.

Don't reinvent the wheel

I finally got around to installing the tubeless kit on my new road wheels. I watched the instructional video a couple times, then just followed his procedure exactly. The front tire wouldn't seat with the floor pump as it did in the video, so I just moved on to the rear, which seated quickly. Went back to the front, still wouldn't seat with the floor pump, so had to break out the air compressor.

All of my previous experience with tubeless conversions was with tires that weren't designed for tubeless use, so it was really nice when the tubeless Hutchinsons sealed up tight and didn't leak from the beads or sidewalls. I haven't had a chance to ride the new tires yet, but they held air perfectly overnight.

While I was doing the install, I realized something. Stan's recommendation for 2 oz of sealant in the road tires sure seemed like a bunch for such skinny tires, but he sure knows what he's doing, so I went with it. In the past couple of months, I've been experimenting with different things on the mountain tires, trying to come up with simpler or lighter solutions to the Stan's kits that we've been running for a while. Although I've had several instances of limited success, I keep going back to the basic Stan's kit when I want something that Just Plain Works.

What it boils down to is he's done all the work up front, and has come up with a great system which works without any major problems. Despite my best efforts to improve upon it, I keep coming back to use his stuff as designed. Although it can be frustrating to be unable to improve upon it, I've got to say, it's nice to see such well designed and implemented stuff available!

That said, some comments on the installation of the road kit for anyone who might be doing it:

• Installing the yellow tape - watch very carefully as you do it to make sure that it's even, side to side. I had to redo the front wheel when I got around to the second layer and discovered parts of the first layer which weren't well centered. Take your time and make sure it's installed right.
• He doesn't mention using a tubed tire to help seat the yellow tape in this video, but has in some of the MTB installation videos. I found it helped, but might not be absolutely necessary. It did help get the end of the yellow tape to stick fully, though.
• He suggests using a round file to open the valve hole. I've tried making the hole with other methods, and a round file is by far the best. Just don't file into the rim... use it just enough to separate the excess yellow tape.
• Mounting the tire - I managed to get the first bead installed by hand, but it's a REALLY strong bead, and I wasn't able to get anywhere near installing the second bead by hand. The video states "Okay to use tire levers" -- I can install almost any conventional tire by hand, but these tires were having nothing to do with it.
• The space between the valve stem and rim is pretty tight, so make sure the bead is actually down in that space before you try to inflate.

Aside from the difficulty mounting the tire, and needing the air compressor to seat the beads on the front tire, the kit was wonderfully easy. Of course, we'll see if the ride is worth it, but if our experience running tubeless on the mountain bike is any indication, it will be. I don't run any tubes in the mountain bikes anymore!

Knock, knock, knocking on bonkin's door...

Went out for the same ride as yesterday this morning. Felt pretty good, was happy with how I rode, but forgot one key item. I didn't have any solid food before I left. Wasn't a problem until about mile 34 or so, when it started becoming a major problem. At first I just started feeling very hungry, but by the time I was riding into Doylestown, I was starting to feel weak and by the time I got home, about all I could do was collapse in the driveway while Buddy ran around my head.

I didn't get to a full-fledged bonk, and after downing a pack of Clif Shot Bloks, then a big breakfast, I now feel almost human again. My time on the bike was marginally faster than yesterday's time... which is good considering I was in survival mode for the last three miles!

I've also discovered that on the prolonged flats, my cardio isn't the limiting factor. My legs, which have almost always been strong enough to deliver more power than my heart could keep up with, have been getting a slow burn, and that's turned out to be the limiting factor.

First ride, new road wheels

I spent a couple days this past week building up a new set of road wheels for myself. This morning, I finally got out to give them a test ride. I haven't installed the tubeless Hutchinson Fusion 2 tires yet. To give the wheels a test with tires I know, I just installed the Michelin Pro 2 Race tires I've been riding.

Well, considering this was the first road ride I've really done in like... three weeks... (ouch) I wasn't feeling tremendous. Still, I headed out on roads I knew, eager to see if I noticed a difference with the wheels. On one section of Point Pleasant Pike, where I've been able to hit 26mph on a good day, I managed to get the speed up to just a smidge under 29 miles per hour! Now, remember, I haven't been on the bike for three weeks, and wasn't feeling all that strong... and wasn't pushing extra hard. Are those three extra miles per hour due to the new wheels alone? I really doubt it, but I have to say, it was really sweet to be able to crank out that type of speed when I wasn't feeling strong.

The wheels are also stiffer than I expected, due in no small part to the much taller 30mm rim profile. The old Mavic Open Pros were maybe 20mm tall, so despite running fewer spokes and lighter spokes, the rim keeps the wheel nice and strong and rigid.

I was hoping to install the tubeless tires tonight, but just plain ran out of time. Maybe tomorrow night, and I can give them a test ride on Monday morning. If the things I've heard about the tubeless road tires are true, it should be pretty special!

Not quite as good

Spent last night working on the new rear wheel. Was the same setup as the previous day, but this wheel decided it was really going to fight me and avoid getting both true and tension balanced. Finally got it to where I was content with the results, but it was definitely one of the tougher wheel build/tensionings I've dealt with! I had hoped to finish that one quick so I could also finish some other wheels I've been wanting to work on, but was unable.

Still, I got it to work, and the wheelset is gorgeous. All said and done, the wheelset comes in at 1478g, (642g front, 835g rear) which is really light, even moreso when you consider it's a deep section aluminum rim!

Tonight I'm hoping to put the Stan's tubeless rim strip on it, and I'll mount my Michelin Pro 2 Race's with a tube to seat the tape. Hopefully I'll get a chance to ride it, then, tomorrow, I should be ready to do the proper tubeless conversion!

This is the good stuff...

After thinking about it, nay -- dreaming about it -- for a year and a half, at least, I've finally gone and ordered the parts for a really, really slick set of wheels for my road bike. I have an older set of American Classic hubs (no, they weren't subject to the recall) with Sapim CX-Ray spokes and Speedcific Niobium 30 aero rims. If that means nothing to you, trust me when I say that this makes for an utterly swanktastique wheelset. CX-Ray spokes are over $2 - EACH. (and that was a really good price) They're an ultra-lightweight spoke that's formed into an aerodynamic blade, and this process actually makes them tremendously strong... so strong that they've been used in downhill mountain bike wheels. That's the last place you'd expect to find ultra-lightweight spokes!

The Speedcific Niobium 30 rims are a deeper aero section rim made with an aluminum alloy that uses Niobium to make it far stronger than normal aluminum, so it can be used to make surprisingly light rims. For most aero section rims, we'd be talking about over 500g each, but these were 457g and 443g!

Blah, blah, blah, words, words, numbers, words! Forgive me, I like this stuff... so I like to talk about it. The ultimate result is a light wheelset which will still be quite aerodynamic and strong.

The best part about it is that since I had the hubs, and bought the rest of the parts from Mike Garcia of Odds and Endos and now Speedcific fame... that means I have to build the wheels myself. Considering that's one of my favorite things, it makes the whole project even better!

Tonight, I got home at about 5:30pm, got to work on the wheels, and now it's after 9pm, the front wheel is done, and the rear is coming together. I really took my time building up this set, and hope it shows when they finally hit the road. Of course there are other things that I really should be doing with that time, but I enjoy this far too much to go and waste my time being responsible. :)

Bikes looking up again...

Well, biking's been a little rough there for a while, but it's all starting to look up again.

To summarize... in the past month or so:

• The rear shock on my Santa Cruz was leaking so bad it wouldn't hold pressure, even after having sent it to Push Industries a couple months ago for a rebuild. Result: no MTB for me.
• I've been having problems with my saddle on the road bike which I haven't been able to solve. Subsequently, I've been riding very sporadically in the past three weeks.
  
• When I cleaned up the frame on Grace's Santa Cruz, I discovered that the rear triangle had a pretty significant crack.

But now, everything's coming together nicely. I shipped the leaking shock out to Push, who fixed it up at no charge and shipped it back. I reassembled my mountain bike last night, and I'm borrowing a really nice wheelset from Lance, so we're ready to rumble again.

The saddle issue on the road bike is still there, but I'm getting new wheels... and a really swanktastique set, too. I have an old pair of American Classic hubs, and Mike Garcia of Odds and Endos/Speedcific fame just shipped me a pair of his Niobium 30 rims and a full complement of Sapim CX-Ray spokes, possibly the most swanktastique steel spoke available. I've been looking forward to building this very wheelset for at least a year!

Finally, I disassembled Grace's Juliana and shipped the rear triangle out to Santa Cruz, who will be replacing it with a new one, so hopefully soon she'll have her Juliana back together to go with her Scale.

Fun is on the horizon!

Rode with Lance

I finally got to ride with Lance on the road, for the first time since last year's MS-150.

Not Lance Armstrong, but in my world, close enough. Seems somehow Lance (Honer) and I have developed a rivalry that hinges around our Tour de France, the City-to-Shore MS-150. No, it's not a race, and there really isn't any point to the rivalry, but what's that matter amongst friends? Last year Lance trained hard... and I ... not so much. So, not surprisingly, he rode stronger than me and was the first one into Ocean City, and the first one over both of the tall bridges leading into town. So he got the polka dots and the maillot jaune! Granted, I was close behind, and having some tough muscle cramps, but he still got there first. This made me realize the gravity of the MS-150 (which, understand, there really is none) and decide to actually train for it this year. Everyone wants to be the alpha dog. :)

So, with that background, and hearing stories of Lance riding massive hills in Central VA and riding the 62 mile, >6000' climbing Livestrong route in sub-4 hours, I was curious to see how yesterday's ride together on my training roads would go. As I told Grace before the ride, I could see three things coming from the ride:

1. Lance totally embarrasses me on the ride, and we both step up our training.
   (him to open the gap, and me to close it)
2. I totally embarrass Lance, and we both step up our training.
3. We're painfully evenly matched... and we both step up our training.
   

So, knowing the outcome would be the same no matter what, I was still interested to see how we compared. Starting out from my house, Lance started *fast*... I mean, quite a bit faster than I normally ride, fast enough to make me start thinking... "uh oh." We hit the first hill, Old Easton Rd, and just as soon as it turns up, BANG, he's gone. Once again... "uh oh." He gapped me right off the bat, and I couldn't help but notice my legs weren't feeling good. Well, okay, he's strong, but doesn't know where we're going so just keep the pace and hope the legs warm up.

We get to the top, and ride towards the river, and my legs aren't bad, but they're not great. My plan was to bring Lance up Tohickon Hill, one of the better prolonged climbs in the area, and was not looking forward to the ass beating I was sure to receive on those slopes. In preparation, I told Lance the road to look for once he got to the top.

However, he didn't drop me on the climb. Matter of fact, he was right there with me as I led the way up the hill. He came around on a false flat, then as it turned up again, I came around him and rode to the top. Mind you, he didn't know we were at the top. I had home field advantage.

The rest of the ride was very similar, with us riding pretty even, although me abusing my home field advantage to know when to push for the top. Lance did open one massive gap on me when we rode up the short but brutally steep Old Ferry Road, which is only a quarter mile but AVERAGES 14%. I knew pain on that climb, knew it very well. Lance didn't exactly storm away but did gap me to the tune of at least 100'. 100' in 1,320... that's a gap! I guess it was his MTB singlespeeding experience that got him up that beast.

So, it was a good ride... no -- I would say it was a great ride. Because of work obligations, I had to keep it short and be back home by 9am, but we got in a fun ride just short of 2 hours, then had a nice big breakfast while I did my work.

A hard ride tormenting friends (and being tormented) for no apparent reason... that's what is fun about riding. :)

Another awesome ride!

Rode again with Dave last night. Wasn't really into the ride going into it, in fact I was a little worried because I felt pretty tired (have all week since the last ride!) and figured there was no way I could have a good ride. Still, I need to ride, and riding with Dave pushes me far harder than I could on my own. So, I went for it.

The start of the ride, I didn't feel too bad, except for a nagging saddle issue about which I won't go into detail. However, I eventually warmed up and started feeling better, and next thing you know, we're actually riding. One thing I had changed was the addition of Hammer's Perpetuem to my water, consuming a bottle before the ride, and a bottle during. I think it made a significant difference to my riding, as the only cramping I had was some light threats from my calves toward the end of the ride.

On Monday, we rode Route 29 in NJ, and I wound up sitting on Dave's wheel most of the time. Yesterday, I pulled for a couple miles out of Stockton, rolling around 24.5mph for most of the time. Nice to feel my flatland legs coming back. Plus, in the hills, I was still a long, long way from fast, but Dave noticed the improvement from Monday. I attacked Stover's Mill Road, the same hill that gave me that paralyzing cramp on Monday, and powered over the top on my 39/21. My heart nearly exploded, but my legs were fine. Got right back on that horse that threw me. :)

All in all, we added 5 miles to Monday's ride for a total of 43.7 miles -- 70 km even! And for all that extra riding, we only added 10 minutes to the total ride time, meaning we averaged just over 1mph faster, and that's with a couple miles of slower cool-down riding weaving through Doylestown at the end! For comparison, my longest ride so far this year was .1 mile longer and took over 20 minutes longer.

Like I said, I ride harder with Dave. I do have a pretty ripping headache this morning, but other than that I feel pretty good.

On the return home, I got another reminder why I no longer ride with CBBC. As we were heading back on Stover's Mill Road, we caught up to six riders. Two were in the back, riding in the center of the road, but we had room to get by. The remaining four, however, were spread completely across the road and oblivious to the world around them -- especially behind. As I approached, I called out "rider back!" once, then twice, and got no response. Finally they figured out someone was back there, and so began this disjointed and haphazzard response. I got past three, and was heading to the right of the lead rider who was on the left side of the road, but then, without bothering to look behind her, veered to the right directly across my path.

Sure, they were very nice once they realized we were there, but honestly, that's just why I stopped riding with CBBC. It's not uncommon, for a CBBC ride to spread out completely across the lane, even over, and make no accomodation for cars trying to pass, then getting annoyed when a car had to make a pass on a blind corner at a high speed because they got tired of waiting. I've never seen any ride leaders make any effort to change it, either. I got sick of being a part of that.

Oh, the pain...

Today I did a ride with Dave. Dave lives two houses away, and I always see him out on the bike. We've talked about riding a bunch of times, so I decided it was time to finally stop talking and start riding. He was open for a ride tonight, so we met up when he got home, and went for a ride.

Dave's a strong rider... really strong, so I was forced to work pretty hard. Not to keep up, he's very considerate and doesn't drop me, but it really did force me to work a BUNCH harder than I would have otherwise, and that's NOT a bad thing. We did 38 miles in the time it would have normally taken me to do 30-32, and included some fairly significant hills. Dave's 45 lbs lighter than me, and about the same height, so when we hit those hills, without even trying, he just kinda faded away into the distance up the hill as I struggled along in my lowest gear. Doesn't help that I'm coming back off a two week layoff, but it's gonna be a long time before I challenge Dave up a hill.

However, I got a measure of revenge going down Tohickon Hill road, the same hill I use for my top speed runs. I was sloppy through the S turns, and didn't get on the gas until I was fully out of the last corner, but still managed 52mph with cramping calves. (and a squirrel in the road) Dave, on the other hand, cut across the opposite lane and started pedaling earlier and still only did 48mph. HA! Gravity is my friend, if only while going downhill...

Heading back home, we were heading up Carversville Road, which is a shallow climb all the way, but no, I suggested take a side trip up Stover's Mill Road, which hits you with a short climb of approximately 15% grade. So, we're going up the hill, past a guy playing catch with his son, and a cute little girl standing by the side of the road, and right at the top, where it gets just a little steeper before it levels off, I stood to push through the end, and both of my quads cramped up - SOLID. I sorta fell down onto my saddle, and yelled out (it kinda hurt) but thankfully caught my tongue when I remembered the little girl -- didn't want her to hear what I was about to say!

I tried to ride through it, but it just wasn't working... I had to pull off to the side. Dave stood there holding my bike while sat in a ditch on the side of the road, pinched my upper lip (accupressure thing I've heard of to relieve muscle cramps) and tried to move my legs. Eventually, after a minute or two, I was able to remount the bike and start riding again.

Despite suffering like a dog, it was an AWESOME ride. I'm looking forward to riding with Dave again, as there's no way to get better than with riding with faster folks. He told me about a hill interval ride he does that he calls the "Six Sisters", and said nobody's done it with him twice. I need work on my hills, so maybe I'll be the first to do it twice? It's about an hour long, right in our backyard, and it sounds PAINFUL.

Oh, an amusing side note. While comparing the output from our bike computers at the end of the ride, our climbing was almost identical - 1716 feet to 1760 feet, but we did notice a significant discrepancy between our caloric outputs. While I, at 210lbs, burned 3200 calories, Dave burned only 1700! Damn skinny guys. :)

More speed...

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I've taken to making top speed runs down Tohickon Hill road, a local road which is ideally suited for the task. It has a couple of S turns at the top, but then straightens out and holds a steady 8% grade. Last time I tried, I spun up to 150rpm, and hit about 52mph. Since then, I've replaced my top two cogs, a 12 and 13, with an 11 and 12 taken from a mountain bike cassette. That raises my top gear from 116" to 126" (gear inches; the virtual diameter of a wheel that turns once for every pedal revolution) which means I go 33" farther with each turn of the cranks.

Having been off the bike for about two weeks, my Saturday and Sunday morning rides were not great, but on Sunday morning, I did take a run down Tohickon. Coming through the S turns, on the second to last corner, I saw a big dump truck coming up the hill, rounding the last corner. Since the truck was big, his tire was over the centerline, so I had to get on the brakes pretty hard and move to the right. This obviously lost me a bunch of speed, but I hadn't planned on making a full top speed run anyway.

I came out of the last corner going maybe 30mph, brought the speed up, got a good spin, but nothing crazy... saw about 47 or 48mph when I glanced down, figured that was good enough, and backed off.

However... when I got home, I was downloading the ride from the GPS, and noticed that it marked my top speed as 51.8mph -- the same reading the GPS had given for my last top speed run! So, without even trying, I've managed to tie my previous best mark.

Man, I can't wait to try that hill again while I'm fresh. 55mph? 56? more? We'll just have to see. I also noticed that since I wasn't pedalling as fast, the bike was far more stable, so I should be able to go far faster and still feel safe.

I wonder if I'll be able to beat 60mph at some point...

The Humbler Ride

Rode into work yesterday. Looking at the time when I arrived, I thought I had come within a couple minutes of setting a personal best time... and I was suitably tired. Uploaded the ride only to discover it was almost the same exact time as my last commute, nearly 9 minutes off my personal best. Worse yet, I was fatigued all throughout the day, and when I decided to skip the ride home and take an off-peak train, the train was PACKED solid and I didn't get to sit down with a place to put my bike until more than halfway through the trip.

Oh well, they can't all be good rides...

Speed!!

Today I had the day off, so I went out for a ride. I started out later than normal, and by the time I was on the road, the temperature and humidity had already come up, and thanks to a workout yesterday, my legs were feeling heavy. So, I figured it was going to be a simple out and back ride, but it turned into my longest single ride of the year, at 43 miles. (commuting is good for two 33 mile rides, so I've had longer days)

I got out and hit the old faithful roads of upper bucks to the northeast of home, and made a point to hit several good, serious climbs. I made it all the way up to the area we call the "Lost World" (where we used to go driving with the Miata to get lost) and found a new tough hill -- Cafferty Rd just past the Frankenfield covered bridge. According to my GPS, several hundred feet of this climb were at or beyond 20% grade. That is a serious climb, and it doesn't flatten out after that, it settles in to around 7-10% grade all the way until the top. Cafferty splits off of Hollow Horn Road, which stays flat, and as you climb Cafferty, you can see Hollow Horn off to your right, dropping far, far below. It's pretty cool.

On the flipside of the big elevation changes, I set a new personal speed mark descending Tohikon Hill Road. Friday I had tried, and due to damp roads and a heathly amount of fear, I could only manage 49.7mph. Today, however, the roads were dry and clear, and I went at it with gusto, spinning all the way up to 150rpm and hitting a speed of 52mph. I've spun faster, but at those speeds, the front end of the bike starts to get a little shaky, which doesn't inspire confidence.

Couldn't help but think... with the 12-25 cassette... if I swap out the 12t cog for an 11t cog... the same 150rpm would be good for just shy of 57mph. ;-)

MTB miles vs. road miles

One thing I've heard, and heck -- I've done it -- is comparing miles ridden on a mountain bike to miles ridden on the road. Just this morning, talking with a friend, he mentioned someone who did 14 miles in Wissahickon, and said "the guys say that's like 40 miles on the road". So, this got me wondering. Obviously, there are far too many variables, such as terrain and exertion to come up with a hard and fast number, but we could come up with an estimate, right?

Thankfully, I didn't have to wonder too much. With the Garmin bike computer, I've got detailed information on most of my rides this year. So, I decided to compare a road ride to a mountain bike ride in Wissahickon. I had to keep something consistent, so I looked for two rides which were approximately the same time duration. I wound up with a 11 mile ride in Wissahickon, and a 21 mile road ride from home. For the mountain ride, I covered 11.94 miles in 1:12:23, and burned 1660 calories. For the road ride, I covered 21.32 miles in 1:13:48, and burned 1751 calories. That works out to 139 cal/mile on the MTB, and 82 cal/mile road... but this is exactly what we expect. Riding the MTB is tougher, so you burn more calories per mile than on the road. However, the really interesting math is the calories per minute. The mountain bike burns up 22.93 calories/min, but the road bike burns 22.73 calories per minute. Almost the same!

So, based on these two rides, the conversion from MTB miles to road miles is 1.78x... so a 14 mile MTB ride in Wissahickon is about 25 miles on the road.

However, while I was writing this up, I noticed a couple problems. My Wissahickon ride isn't a round trip -- I forgot to start the computer, so if you look at the map, you can see I started it well into the ride. This way, I was "starting" the Wissahickon ride already warmed up. And, although I had 1000 feet of climbing in the road ride, it's probably the flattest ride in our area. So, I took a look for other comparable length rides and found the PMBA Rally in the Valley and my commute from work to home last week.

	MTB	Road
Time	2:05:40	2:04:25
Distance	15.65	33.44
Calories	2764	3082
Cal/mi	176	92
Cal/min	22.0	24.78

So again we have a calorie per minute number averaging around 23! This would give us a conversion factor of 2.1.

So, based on two far from scientific comparisons, you can ballpark MTB miles as 2x road miles. Funny, too, since I have used 2x in the past.

Ouch...

When I rode into work, I wasn't sure if I would ride home, just because the ride home is always really fatiguing... surprisingly so. Well, I was feeling pretty good in the afternoon, so I figured I'd give it a go. It took me 2:06 to get home, which isn't really all that bad of a time. I think the average speed was something like 15.6mph. Despite the decent average speed (which is slower on the return because there's more climbing) I was utterly wiped out when I got home. I got home, put the bike away, took off my shirt, shoes and socks (leaving them where they dropped in the kitchen), had three glasses of Gatorade (ran out of my bottle about halfway through the ride) and some leftovers, then went upstairs and just plain crashed. I even started this entry but didn't have the energy to finish it. Worse yet, I totally forgot to call my mother and wish her a Happy Birthday. OOPS!

I really don't know why the ride home always kills me so totally... it's certainly one of the biggest reasons I don't ride in more often. Is it because it's in the afternoon, when I'm tired? No, some of my best rides happen when I get home after work and want to fit in a quick ride. I did 21 miles at a 19mph average speed on Monday and felt great afterwards. Is it that the ride is predominantly uphill? I don't think so, because the climbing isn't THAT bad... there aren't any really brutal climbs, and I've done longer rides with far more climbing and felt fine.

I think the real problem might be dealing with the traffic. There are far more cars on the road on my ride home. It's still pretty quiet when I'm heading in, but on my way home, it's pretty busy. There's a light at the intersection of Route 152 and Route 463 which backs up quite a ways, and I'm able to ride right by most of it. It's an uphill, but yesterday I counted 50 cars that I passed before I got to the intersection. (that's always fun!) But dealing with the traffic might just add to the fatigue.

I just don't know why the ride home can wipe me out so completely... Maybe I just need to do it more, like it'll be easier if I'm in better shape.

It would be easier if I could take my bike home on the train... but SEPTA doesn't allow bikes on peak hour trains. If I got in early (which would mean getting up even earlier) I could take the 3:25, which is the last non-peak train in the early afternoon, or I could wait until the 6:55, the first non-peak train in the evening. Neither appeals to me much. If I could just bring my bike home on the normal train, I could ride in, then take the train home every day.