With boulderseal taking over so many of our Texas roads, I decided to try some wider tires for my randonneuring. Wider tires can improve handling and the ride on rough roads a lot. But, I spend so much randonneuring time trying to ride with riders who are faster than me that I didn’t want to give up much speed with new tires.

I’m always surprised at how many people dispense tire width advice without even thinking about what kind of bike the target of the advice is riding. When it comes to tire width, all bikes are not created equal. Bikes that put the rider’s profile completely above the tires are much more aerodynamically affected by wider tires than bikes that use small front tires and/or put the rider behind the front tire. A wider front tire may not slow down a low racer much, but it can certainly slow down a high racer. And even on my Stratus XP, which has a fairing and has me partially behind the front tire, I could see a noticeable difference in speed when I ran wider tires, although it isn’t nearly as pronounced as it is on the Corsa. Of course, how much difference tire width makes is the subject of unending debate, and a very individual thing that depends on the rider and the roads ridden. You can do coast down comparisons, but rides are much more than just coasting down hills, so that doesn’t really tell you much.

One of the things that finally jogged me into trying wider tires was the thinking held by some that aero wheels, especially wide aero wheels, can help with the aerodynamics of a wider tire, keeping you from losing much speed with them. I already had a set of aero wheels, which I rebuilt for this experiment. I documented rebuilding them in this post. Most riders don’t use their expensive, delicate, low spoke aero wheels for randonneuring, but mine don’t fit that description. They’re old mtb wheels which have 32 spokes, so should be pretty strong, and even after rebuilding them, I don’t have cubic dollars invested in them.

There are people who will tell you that aero wheels actually do better in the wind than regular wheels, but don’t believe that for a minute. They might be faster, but in a 50 mph crosswind, you’ll like regular wheels much better than aero ones. With a 30 or 40 mph wind, aero wheels still aren’t much fun. But with 20 mph or less winds, mine handle well. Since I don’t face winds harder than 20 mph on rides really often, I figured that problem isn’t a deal breaker for me, so I decided to give these wheels a long run as my randonneuring wheels.

I had always run 559×25 Conti GP’s on these wheels. These are fast tires. On my HED wheels, I didn’t notice much difference in speed from my old 650c wheels and 23 tires, other than slightly better speed on fast descents. And even a tire that’s only 2 mm wider than the 23’s makes a difference in ride on rough roads. The GP 25’s never handled any better than my 23’s, though. I expect that’s because a Conti GP just doesn’t handle quite as well as a Michelin Pro Race, which is what I ran when I ran 23’s.

But the experiment wouldn’t be complete until I tried 28 mm tires on the HED wheels. I installed new Conti GP 28’s last week, and Saturday’s Peachy Keene was my first ride with them. I own this route and ride it often, so I figured it would be a good route for comparisons. The 559×28 GP’s do look a bit silly on aero wheels, but I don’t worry too much about making a fashion statement these days, anyway.

How much tire pressure to run is a debate, by itself. The GP 28’s have a max of 116. I wanted to make sure to run enough pressure that I couldn’t blame being slower on tire pressure, so Saturday, I inflated the rear to 108 and the front to 100 pounds. Peachy Keene has some rough county roads, but almost no boulderseal. Tire pressure experimentation will be necessary, and I’ll likely end up running lower pressures than that on routes which are mostly boulderseal.

Before I get into the comparisons, let me remind once more that everyone is different. How valid my comparisons would be for anyone else is questionable. Also, I’m only an average speed rider. Since aerodynamics becomes a much bigger factor with speed, my findings especially wouldn’t apply to a really fast rider. And Peachy Keene isn’t the fastest of 200k routes. It is lots of very small county roads, with blind curves and stop signs, and lots of turns. My personal best time on this route is a 9:30, which I did two months ago. For comparison, My personal best time on any 200k is an 8:06 on Rio Vista Rumble. My best time on a 200k since losing half a lung to a surgeon is an 8:40, also on Rio Vista Rumble. It’s plainly a faster route than Peachy Keene. Anyway, the bottom line is that if you’re capable of a 7 hour 200k, my ramblings here certainly don’t apply to you.

I rode with Steve and Peggy Saturday. One of the first things to do was compare coast downs with them. They are both light, strong riders who can drop me like a bad habit whenever they want. But, with my aerodynamic bike setup (I have a lot of seat recline, and with my long arms, have the handlebar low, out in front of my upper shins, much lower than where my knees are at their highest point), and gravity assist (I weigh 186 right now), on downhills, I out-coast almost everyone I ride with. With the 28’s on Saturday, I still out-coasted Steve and Peggy. In the 20 to 25 mph range, my coasting advantage seemed pretty much the same as usual. At above 25 mph, I still out-coasted them, but not as much as usual. Not too much of a penalty, I figured, since I don’t spend too many miles above 25 mph on these long rides.

A comparison between Saturday’s ride and my ride on Peachy Keene two months ago seems like a natural. Conditions were very similar. On both rides, things started with a tailwind, but quickly changed. Two months ago, it was a hard southeast wind that showed up after a couple of hours. Saturday, it was a straight east wind. Temperatures were almost the same for both rides. I would normally expect to be a bit stronger for a May ride than a March one, but I hadn’t ridden 200k or more in a month, because of the shingles I’ve had for the last three weeks. My strength for the two rides is probably very similar. My effort for both rides was, too. On both rides, I rode a brisk (for me) pace.

I did the March ride mostly by myself. As often happens when I do that, my stops were very short. Saturday, chatting non-stop with Steve and Peggy, my stops were a bit longer. Here are the stats:

On March 14th, I spent less than an hour off the bike, pretty good for me for a 200k. The bottom line is that I put out a slightly harder effort Saturday, and had a slightly better time. I’m thinking that, just as it felt, the speed of these 28’s is really close to that of the 25’s, and to that of the 650C x 23’s before them. And the ride of the 28’s is pretty unbelieveable, comparison-wise. I quickly got very confident on the roughest parts of the road, and handling was easily the best I’ve ever seen on the Corsa.

I bought these 559×28 Conti GP’s knowing that if I didn’t like them for randonneuring on the Corsa, they’d work well as commuting tires on the Stratus XP. As well as they performed on Saturday, there’s going to be a lot more randonneuring miles on them before I try anything else.

Update: I eventually ended up going back to my 650C wheels with 23mm wide tires on my Corsa. As much as I liked this wider tire setup, I’ve decided that deep aero wheels like the HED’s are just too tough to handle in big windy day crosswinds, like we have all too often in Texas, to make good every day wheels. Continue reading →

Steve, Peggy, and I rolled out of southwest Arlington at 7:00 am this morning to ride the Peachy Keene 200k permanent. It was in chilly, in the upper 50’s when we started out, with a stiff northeast wind just kept blowing harder, and became a straight east wind before long, and blew all day.

We made pretty decent time to Cleburne, but when we turned east at mile 52, the wind was pretty tough all the way to Itasca, then to Maypearl. It was then mostly a tailwind to Alvarado, and more a crosswind than anything else for most of the remaining miles.

I love the small Johnson County county roads on this route. There are lots of trees overhanging these roads, and today, the smell of honeysuckles was everywhere. It was a great ride with great company, I really enjoyed it. For the first time, I ran 28mm wide tires on my Corsa today. I really like them; I’ll do a separate review on them.

I ended up with 124.6 miles, and finished the ride in 9:52. Thanks for inviting me along, Steve and Peggy!

Peachy Keene route

Rose and I headed out to Benbrook for a short ride this morning. Greg joined us on the VK2. It was a beautiful, cool morning, but the northwest wind was howling. Other than a few blocks around the neighborhood, this was Rose’s first ride in a long time, so it was good to see her back on the bike.

I ended up with 26 miles. That, combined with my three commute rides gave me 101 miles for the week. I’m thinking that’s not bad, considering it was my first week with shingles.

It was 50 degrees as I rode to work this morning, and 75 degrees as I headed home this afternoon. Today was my first ride since I was diagnosed with shingles on Sunday. A recumbent bicycle seat is usually the most comfortable bicycle seat of all, but with the worst of my shingles rash on the middle of my back, that seat back was no fun today. I’m thinking I’ll try to ride to work anytime I feel up to it, though, since I’ll likely not try any long distance rides until I’m well.

I rode the bike to work today. It was 59 degrees this morning, then 78 degrees as I headed home. I ran into a shower just as I left work, but it didn’t last long, and the roads were dry before I made it halfway home.

I took a detour at Risinger Road, turning right and checking out where it dead ends. I really don’t like riding on Sycamore School Road coming home, and I have found an alternate route that will keep me off of it. Tomorrow, I’ll try it out. Risinger Road and Carolina Drive dead end, less than a city block apart. It turns out you can navigate the barricades with a bike, with just a bit of walking. That will let me ride neighborhood streets rather than Sycamore School Road. Thank you, google maps.

Special thanks to Peggy and Mark M for organizing this ride. I had a blast. Some hardcore randonneurs might argue that the weather was too great or the route too easy, but it was still a grand adventure for this old f*rt.

We rode 7.5 miles from Lynn Creek Marina to the start of the ride in Duncanville, then at 8:00 am, Saturday, we were off. The route went out to Italy for the second control, then on to Dawson for the next. Winds stayed as light as I think I’ve ever seen on a long ride, so the southbound part of our ride never turned into the beating that a big headwind can cause.

After another control at Wortham, we arrived at Teague at mile 106, and stopped at a Dairy Queen to eat. Very hungry by that time, I had an extra long chili cheese dog and a blizzard. While I have been known to eat this very unhealthy meal on rare occasions, this was the first time I had ever downed anything this obscene on a randonneuring ride, and it wasn’t long before I was reminded why.

I felt like I had a concrete block on my stomach, and was just hanging on for the next 35 miles, through the Donie Post Office control, and on to Mexia. We made a longer stop at Mexia, rigging for darkness before pedaling on, and by the time we left, my stomach had settled. The easier pace because of darkness also helped, I think, and I felt good the rest of the ride.

There are serious time constraints for a fleche. You can’t finish too early, nor spend too long at one control. We were somewhat ahead of schedule by the time we arrived at the Hubbard Post Office at mile 164, so it was nap time there, before we moved on.

At Milford at mile 188, Linda M met us with hot food and coffee. I think you have to be a randonneur to really appreciate how great that was at 2:00 am. Thanks, Linda! It was a quicker stop at Maypearl at mile 204, but we spent a good while at the next to last control in Venus, at mile 215.

After a couple of stops for light battery replacements, we arrived at Lynn Creek Marina well within the proper time, and I had completed my first fleche. I had a great time, spending 24 hours riding and cutting up with this group. Mark did a great job with the route. His experience and expertise were obvious, having us on the best roads at the best time to be on them, and telling us what to expect and watch for on the entire route.

With the ride to the start, I ended up with just short of 243 miles, and another great rando adventure was in the books. Thanks for having me along, everyone!

360K Fleche route

Steve, Peggy, Nelson, and I left Prosper at 8:00 am this morning to ride Nelson’s Live Long and Prosper 200k permanent. This route is an out and back that goes from Prosper to Sanger, then on west to Forestburg, then back. Like many of these long rides do, this one turned into another epic adventure.

The 20+ mph SSW winds at the beginning were already tough. And the further west we got, the more the wind swung to the west, and the harder it blew. By the time we got to I-35, the wind was almost from straight west, and before we reached Forestburg, we were hitting gusts that I think had to be near 50 mph. It was the toughest winds I’ve ever ridden in.

It’s steady elevation gain from Sanger to Forestburg. When the road headed straight west, climbing against the wind was very tough. But the stretches where the road turned more north were even tougher. The big gusting crosswinds made it tough just staying on the road in many places. Besides being the toughest wind I think I’ve ever faced, a couple of other factors made it even tougher. Once you get very far west of Sanger, it’s rolling hills and grasslands, without many trees to stop the wind. My HED wheels didn’t help, either. Don’t get me wrong. I love my HED’s. But aero wheels are probably not the best choice on days where you run into 50 mph wind gusts.

We made a stop at the Valero in Bolivar, then rode on toward Forestburg. I fell back on this stretch. I knew I still had a long ways to get back, so was trying not to blow myself up too much. I was trying to ride my own pace, keep my heart rate below 150 on the flats and lesser hills, and keep it under 160 on any of the hills. But spinning slowly up the hills made the crosswinds even tougher. It’s hard to keep from getting blown over by these kinds of winds when you’re climbing at 5 mph. Topping one hill, I hit such a wind gust that I had to stop and put a foot down to keep from being blown over. Six miles before Forestburg, my average speed for the entire ride up to that point fell to under 12 mph, and I knew things were getting tough.

Leaving Forestburg for the return trip, it was a lot different ride. The big tail wind and mostly downhill riding made for a much faster return. But there are stretches where you are riding more south than east, and the crosswinds were truly tough on those stretches. I felt bad for Peggy. We were all getting blown around, but she was really getting the worst of it. She’s light enough that she has trouble getting blown around by the wind anyway, and she was running aero wheels today also, and when I would get blown near the center of the road, she’d be blown all the way into the oncoming lane.

We were all glad to make the final turn east at around mile 120, knowing it would mostly be just a tailwind for the remaining miles. I ended up with 126.1 miles. We finished in 10:27, not exactly a blistering time, but it was all I had on this day under these conditions. Thanks for having me along, y’all! It was another adventure we’re unlikely to soon forget.

Live Long and Prosper 200K route

7 riders left out of southwest Arlington at 7:00 am to ride the Peachy Keene 200k permanent. The three recumbent riders were Nelson, Greg, and me. Considering my present state of riding fitness, I expected this ride to be a struggle, and it was.

This route’s 4,500 feet of climbing doesn’t compare to the truly hilly 200k permanents, but it’s enough to let you know you’ve been climbing, and felt a lot hillier to me today.

Winds were light as we headed south to start the route, but before we reached the end of the southbound part of the route at mile 66, the south winds were howling, making the ride very tough for the last 20 miles or so of that southbound leg.

After fighting all that wind, we were treated to a climb up Orphan Hill, then the route gets considerably easier the rest of the way. Of course, I was pretty much toast by the time I crested Orphan Hill. I really had no issues other than fatigue, and that was to be expected, considering I rode 225 miles this week, after riding less than that the rest of February.

The lead riders dropped me quickly, but Greg and Nelson hung back with me the entire ride, and I really enjoyed myself, even while I was suffering. Greg had done a hillier 200k on Saturday and Nelson claimed to need an easy pace from being a bit out of shape like me, but whatever reason they rode my pace, I appreciate it and really enjoyed their company.

Like usual, traffic was very light on this route, but there seemed to be a disproportionate number of crazy drivers about, I’m guessing because of today’s full moon.

It was my first 200k on the 559 HED wheels I rebuilt. I was really pleased with how they performed, and they still run true after the ride. Running 559×25 Conti Grand Prix tires, they handled rough road well and were plenty fast on the downhills so, with 25mm wide tires at least, the aerodynamics is very good. I do feel a strong crosswind a bit more with these wheels, but they handle pretty well, even with the wind. I need to find some 28mm wide tires that I like, to try on them, as well.

Thanks for riding with me, Nelson and Greg! I had a great time.

Peachy Keene route

Riding to work always seems to be interesting. I’ve only missed riding to work once this week, and I should have ridden then. It didn’t end up snowing much Tuesday, but with all the dire forecasts, I decided to drive.

Today was a nice ride to work, but I was fighting 30 mph wind gusts coming home. Then a train stopped in front of me and I ended up turning around and taking another route.

In the dark, riding against the strong north wind yesterday morning, as I turned onto Oak Street in Crowley, all the street lights went out. Down the block at the corner of Pecan Street, where I turn, I could see power lines arcing. As I got closer, some large sparks fell all the way to the ground in a yard. I stopped for a moment to make sure they weren’t going to start a fire. There was no further arcing, it was dark and cold, so I pedaled on.

Riding home in the afternoon, I noticed those power lines were redirected a bit by several limbs of a pine tree. I called TXU after I got home, and reported the arcing. This morning, I noticed the street lights were still out, and this afternoon, it looked like the limbs hadn’t been trimmed yet.

If it isn’t raining in the morning, I think I’ll ride to work tomorrow, too. The Pogues are riding my Peachy Keene permanent again Sunday. I’m thinking maybe I should join them. My mileage has been awful lately and I haven’t ridden a 200k in a couple of months. It might take me 12 hours to ride it.