Hey Leah, I have ridden the triple Bypass and I did ride it on a bike far closer to one of my Rivendells than one of my road bikes. Specifically a Ti Lynskey Cooper CX with steel Vicious Canti fork and 32c tires. I do not try to build light bikes as I lean into performance and comfort over weight. Ti is an upgrade for me, carbon generally less so.
I would not say suffering from start to finish but as an unacclimated flatlander, time spent above 8500ft does impact after awhile. I was fine up and down pass 1 and started to feel the elevation by the climb to Loveland during pass 2. From that point it was tough the rest of the way on flats or climbs, even if bombing the mountains on fat ties after each pass was a blast and those fat tires and my heavier bike left many road bikes in the dust each descent. In the end, I climbed all 3 passes but had to bail at the top of Vail as we had a shuttle lined up and my tough day had me running late. All downhill form there, but no time. I bring this up as logistics is key for a ride like this and ideally you have a 2 cars to get one at the start and one at the end as the shuttle on the back side was tough after a long day (although a gret way for some added beausage, if desired). My recommend, if you want to ease into a ride like this would be to check out the Buffalo Classic in Boulder. I think the Epic is down from 120 miles to 100 now and I assume it still goes up Boulder canyon. Not quite the Triple, but a good ride with some great views and a lot less time in what I consider the low oxygen zone above 8500ft. Feel free to reach out of any additional questions. -Justus Mpls, MN On Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 3:40:23 PM UTC-6 [email protected] wrote: > >> 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/ba67ab34-645e-4efd-9576-1347e3c4ad21n%40googlegroups.com.
