>> This is no time for biking. Pshaw. There's at least three of us biked to work today, and we're an hour NE of you :)
>> Can a Riv reasonably do it? The Riv will not be the problem. Seriously: I have no direct experience of this ride, or any organized mountain ride of that length. A couple cycling buddies of mine have done Ride the Rockies, but they were STRONG then. I do know that climbing is different that rolling, and it's hard to train for climbing in mid-Michigan. When I lived in Germany I would ride into hill country, where I had a standard route that had two long-and-hard climbs with descents in between, and I was amazed at how my body got trained to put out power quickly and then recover. It got a lot easier with time. Interval training might prepare you for it. Everyone hates intervals. There's a reason. Some thought should go into a training regimen so you can actually enjoy the ride. Not much point doing it for any other reason. What follows is my opinion on bike selection: #1 is fit. Are you comfortable, can you pedal for many hours and be happy? #2 is tires. Figure out what tires you want to ride and pick a bike that can run them. I have more than one set of Marathons and I use them a lot. NO WAY would I do a 200 km road ride on them; for the Bypass I'd go 32 mm Conti GPs. It does make a difference. Marathons will ride through glass and not puncture, which is why I have them on my commuters. They do take a little extra effort, and on that day, it won't be welcome. I'd ride them on a loaded tour, certainly, but I'd pick the size carefully. I would not use them on a rando-type ride. Yikes. Somewhere down the list is weight... but it is ON the list. You really don't want an extra 12 lbs to lug up those ascents. Whether the bike weighs 19 lbs or 24 lbs is pretty meaningless. I will confess that I've dumped water out of my bottle before a 20% climb. Might have been just symbolic. cheers -m On Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 3:40:16 PM UTC-5 aeroperf wrote: > I personally think you’re slightly crazy for going for this one, but, ahh, > youth. It appears to be a well-run event. > > Since you’ve mentioned before about taking the bike on AMTRAK to get > to/from events, the California Zephyr goes from Chicago to Denver. > > I haven't done this one, but I've done a few up-and-down tours. You might > want to try the route on Zwift or Peloton a few times before July 12th. > And put Schwalbe Marathon tires on your Riv now, to get used to their > ride. Oh, and get new brake pads - two sets. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/ef05245c-1cc3-455c-8633-e95ad5365337n%40googlegroups.com.
