'Bike Club' last night with my mate, both quite rested but with a beasty headwind on the way out it felt slow. Did the second 4 mile stint on the front, including the Tin Hill climbs very easy in preparation for Bredwardine. We stopped to doff warmers/jackets and I slow/steady stood climbed it @50-60 rpm.
Actually managed to ride over the 30% part which has defeated me every time before, pulled over to stop and wait for my mate (who had to walk it) and realised my GARMIN HAD CRASHED. FFS! Restarted it from the pullover and steady rode all the way up with Richie.
We descended Dorstone carefully (could smell his brakes!) and headed along our route, closely followed by a rear wheel puncture for him. By the time we'd sorted that things were getting dark (7.15pm) so txt ahead as wasn't going to make my 7.30 dinnertime (whoops!
). Rather than getting myself further in trouble we cut the route shorter than planned, I pushed hard on the front all the way back having to slow down a couple of times for Richie. Really think the hill killed him as he was doing well before it - dread to think of the names he wanted to call me after dragging him up it lol! 
Garmin crash means I'll have to ride it again, although now I've climbed it once I know it'll not be that difficult again. I'll do it solo to put a proper effort in without any stops. Finally then I can cross it off my list!
In theory I've now climbed the 'steepest hill in Herefordshire', certainly the steepest regarded by any of the local clubs. Possibly the steepest in the West Midlands?
I'm thinking high-power/high-resistance causes: deformation of the tyre, loss of traction, tyre wear/grip levels, tyre pressure and even spoke tension could all have negative effects on the accuracy of a trainer. Even altitude and differing air-pressure! Calibration is good, if you have the functionality, but you'd need to do it multiple times (start-middle-end) with some post-normalisation ride of the data to really get it consistent. I imagine you still wouldn't be able to get much more accurate than 5% with a trainer introducing 10% or more resistance. There's just too many variables!
(unless of course you took your power data readings from somewhere else)
The spin-down tests & roller tightness are the obvious ones (and 'easy' enough for end users to perform tests for), but things like different spoke deflections at 450W sprint intervals are almost impossible to test for.
I'm thinking outside the box and maybe at extremes, but when people are choosing trainers over a quoted 5% or 7% accuracy level then it would be better they had an overall breakdown/idea of everything involved.
Of course I could be totally confused over the science of it and my understanding of the variables could be vastly exaggerated...!
Lost my old commuting KOM this morning. Boo. Will have to reclaim it at some point but a large part of it is traffic & light dependant will mean it's hard unless riding regularly. According to Strava I've ridden it 160 times (out of 188 total attempts) lol
Actually managed to ride over the 30% part which has defeated me every time before, pulled over to stop and wait for my mate (who had to walk it) and realised my GARMIN HAD CRASHED. FFS! Restarted it from the pullover and steady rode all the way up with Richie.
We descended Dorstone carefully (could smell his brakes!) and headed along our route, closely followed by a rear wheel puncture for him. By the time we'd sorted that things were getting dark (7.15pm) so txt ahead as wasn't going to make my 7.30 dinnertime (whoops!
). Rather than getting myself further in trouble we cut the route shorter than planned, I pushed hard on the front all the way back having to slow down a couple of times for Richie. Really think the hill killed him as he was doing well before it - dread to think of the names he wanted to call me after dragging him up it lol! Garmin crash means I'll have to ride it again, although now I've climbed it once I know it'll not be that difficult again. I'll do it solo to put a proper effort in without any stops. Finally then I can cross it off my list!
In theory I've now climbed the 'steepest hill in Herefordshire', certainly the steepest regarded by any of the local clubs. Possibly the steepest in the West Midlands?
I was talking quite generally about looking for trainers with high resistance - if they're an 'on tyre' trainer then there's only so much which can be introduced before it'll skew the results. Especially with people being very hung up on power figures...
I'm thinking high-power/high-resistance causes: deformation of the tyre, loss of traction, tyre wear/grip levels, tyre pressure and even spoke tension could all have negative effects on the accuracy of a trainer. Even altitude and differing air-pressure! Calibration is good, if you have the functionality, but you'd need to do it multiple times (start-middle-end) with some post-normalisation ride of the data to really get it consistent. I imagine you still wouldn't be able to get much more accurate than 5% with a trainer introducing 10% or more resistance. There's just too many variables!
(unless of course you took your power data readings from somewhere else)The spin-down tests & roller tightness are the obvious ones (and 'easy' enough for end users to perform tests for), but things like different spoke deflections at 450W sprint intervals are almost impossible to test for.
I'm thinking outside the box and maybe at extremes, but when people are choosing trainers over a quoted 5% or 7% accuracy level then it would be better they had an overall breakdown/idea of everything involved.
Of course I could be totally confused over the science of it and my understanding of the variables could be vastly exaggerated...!
Haha yeah, I was mostly venting that I've not made any serious attempt to ride it yet! Mostly annoyed with myself!The Tumble isn't that bad
Lost my old commuting KOM this morning. Boo. Will have to reclaim it at some point but a large part of it is traffic & light dependant will mean it's hard unless riding regularly. According to Strava I've ridden it 160 times (out of 188 total attempts) lol
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