[Jeroen]

The weather has been terrrible here in the Netherlands for the last couple of months. Rain and lots of wind. Hardly a decent day. So my weekly bicycle touring has suffered.

The other day was pretty decent, so I took my bicycle on the train to Bergen op Zoom and biked home, across the country. Very nice tour about 85 km or so.

As some of you might recall I love taking ferries, or pontjes as we call them, across rivers. We have hundreds and hundreds of foot/bicycle ferries.

This time I decided to take the ferry from Sleeuwij to Gorinchem. Which takes me close to home. Going across the bridge at Gorinchem will add about 5-6 km to my journey.

I was in for a treat. The ferry company operating this route has just switched to a new ferry. It's an all-electric, aluminium, catamaran. It can carry 100 passengers, does about 25 km/h and is operated by just one person. Ticketing is all done online and self-check-in on deck.

When it docks in Gorinchem a huge connector is automatically inserted into the ferry and it gets a 10-minute charge.

Here you see it arriving at the ferry pier in Sleuwijk,.





Here it is docked, my bicycle in the foreground, ready to roll onboard.



It was very smooth sailing. However, they made another change. The schedule was different. This ferry took me back down the river, instead of up the river! I had not checked because I was so used on this particular route being only between Sleeuwijk and Gorinchem. Long story short, I got off at the first stop and I had to ride almost 14 kilometres extra to get back to Gorinchem and then another 6 km home.

It appears they have added another route with a different destination from Sleeuwijk. Ah well, now I know.

Jeroen

[amitoj]

Finally the weather is warming up a little, so I decided to go on my usual 25 mile loop. And of course I overestimated the weather and was too warm half way through. But still, happy to get out there and ride

[ebonho]

Tyrannosaurus Rex finally gets a cadence sensor.

Cheers, Doc

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Tyrannosaurus Rex finally gets a cadence sensor.

Cheers, Doc

Awesome! What next? Heart rate monitor? Power meter?

Not poking fun at you Doc but more towards the never-ending pull of more gadgets that cycling has!

[ebonho]

I completely agree. I started using an HRM in 2019. After it died (some time during the pandemic) I never got around to replacing it. So no HR.

I have a tiny Garmin Edge 25 that you see in the photo. Gives me HR and Cadence both. No power.

I dont have a power meter. As I ride Claris, I'm guessing I will need to go in for pedal based ones as crank based will not be compatible.

Aside from these I have an unsmart wheel on trainer. And a couple of lights. The lights and the Garmin I charge every evening for the ride the next morning. A necessary part of a cyclist's housekeeping. Like cleaning his bike and inflating his tyres after and before a ride respectively.

Cheers, Doc

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by ebonho

I dont have a power meter. As I ride Claris, I'm guessing I will need to go in for pedal based ones as crank based will not be compatible.

My bike does not have a power meter either but the trainer does. Strava calculates an estimate power based on a your ride but I am not sure how accurate that is.
While on the trainer, I have learnt to use the power output to better pace myself during climbs, so I wonder how it will affect my outdoor rides if I get a power meter.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by amitoj

My bike does not have a power meter either but the trainer does. Strava calculates an estimate power based on a your ride but I am not sure how accurate that is.
While on the trainer, I have learnt to use the power output to better pace myself during climbs, so I wonder how it will affect my outdoor rides if I get a power meter.

It will help in a similar way. My friends who have power meters and train almost predominantly on the trainer, use the reads on the road to pace their efforts quite often. While we use our perceived effort and titrate the effort to feel and expected time, knowing by training how close we are to the red line.

The trouble with power reads is that its a cold number which does not take into account the state of your body, rest, fatigue, or even weight. 200 watts is not always going to take the same effort out of you. But for the crank or pedal, it is just 200 watts.

Cheers, Doc

[amitoj]

Back to back riding. Went for a slightly longer ride today, of nearly 30 miles. However, my lower back is not too happy so I have scheduled an appointment with my bike fitter later this week. I just could not put the power down fully because of the lower back pain. Hopefully this can be resolved as my original plan to buy another bike for long distance riding is now on hold due to other circumstances. So, now I have to make do with what I got.

[ebonho]

I see you already have your stem and hoods up and all the spacers underneath. So maybe a slightly shorter stem, and drop your saddle by a few millimetres. What we think is low back pain is oftentimes a stiff less flexible posterior chain that starts in your hamstrings and goes up through your glutes and hips.

Cheers, Doc

[ebonho]

My first real world data of Cadence. Realized my normal comfortable spinning cadence is 93-95.

Till today I only knew my cadence on the Kurt Kinetic trainer. On road on a normal training ride I had no idea. So for me at least it was most illuminating!

Cheers, Doc

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by ebonho

I see you already have your stem and hoods up and all the spacers underneath. So maybe a slightly shorter stem, and drop your saddle by a few millimetres. What we think is low back pain is oftentimes a stiff less flexible posterior chain that starts in your hamstrings and goes up through your glutes and hips.

Cheers, Doc

Thanks for the suggestions. Will definitely give it a try.

Originally Posted by ebonho

My first real world data of Cadence. Realized my normal comfortable spinning cadence is 93-95.

Till today I only knew my cadence on the Kurt Kinetic trainer. On road on a normal training ride I had no idea. So for me at least it was most illuminating!

Cheers, Doc

93-95 is pretty good! But then they also says that a "good" cadence is the one that you are most comfortable at, as long as it is not as low as 60.

My normal cadence on the flats is also around 90. But on climbs it goes down to around 80-85, and this is a conscious change I am trying out now. Earlier I used to keep my cadence on the climbs high as well.

[that_sedate_guy]

Here are some of mine!

This was at Melumalai near Krishnagiri, TN, around 40Kms from my home. This was the mid point where we turned around and pedalled back. The route back was painfully uphill though.




These two pics were from a shorter 40Km overall ride to Shoolagiri and back to Hosur.






After shifting to Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, I often did 50Km rides on Sunday mornings. Here's a pic from one of those rides. Uttarakhand plains are very flat allowing for nice long trips.




These two are from my trip to The Netherlands back in May 2023. Rented a bike there and roamed around everywhere I could. This is around Papendrecht.






Also, here's a link to a video of one of those 40Km Shoolagiri rides from my Youtube channel

https://youtu.be/b0JwzlohtBw?si=liBf77dX_IwR-WjY

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by amitoj

93-95 is pretty good! But then they also says that a "good" cadence is the one that you are most comfortable at, as long as it is not as low as 60.

My normal cadence on the flats is also around 90. But on climbs it goes down to around 80-85, and this is a conscious change I am trying out now. Earlier I used to keep my cadence on the climbs high as well.

Thanks! I was quite happy too, when I switched the Garmin screen to the Cadence view and started seeing the cadence I was doing at different segments of the ride.

This is a fast grade separator road, with small kickers in the form of underpasses/flyovers. So not proper climbing per se because even when the gradient hits you are carrying a lot of speed, so you can spin up and over, versus a steady gradient 5-6 km ghat climb, which is very different.



So in fact the kickers I was well above 100-110, while on the flats I was 90-100, while on the longer gradient pulls (sub 2-3% false flats) I would dip to below 90, 80 to 90. Will see what my climbing cadence is on the hill climbs later. But I'm pretty sure its not as high as yours (even your revised 80-85). Will be interesting to see.

I'm not a bad grinder, but definitely not an effortless uphill spinner, at 90+ kilos.

Cheers, Doc

[amol4184]

Beautiful sunny day yesterday but it was a deception. All the way until turn around point I was hit in the face by chilly winds. Nose running, toes frozen and lips chafed I was happy to turn around hoping that the wind will be on my back and then it started raining an hour away from home.

Some days are like that. On the positive side, the bike is a blast to ride.

Its been a few days since I went on this particular route and noticed that city has finished building these small war memorials along the trail, 3 in total. Need to visit all and read the inscriptions next time.

[ebonho]

Sunday Ravet Dehu Old Highway spinner. With my buddy on his tasty new alloy Emonda.



Cheers, Doc