“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” Lou Holtz

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." Confucius

Monday 17 June 2013

Analysing gear selection

During the May version of my Kew Boulevard TT I managed to drop my chain causing me some anguish as I was trying for a PB on that course.

Somewhat later I discovered   plug ins  for the SportTracks program which allow me to spend hours of  fun analysing all/any of my rides to the minutest detail.  Eye rollingly boring to some, but fascinating to me for time trials and next year I suspect, track training and racing...although clearly  for the latter not the gear selection plug in I'm about to talk about!

A quick proviso is that any gear selection program can never be 100% accurate as there are too many variables, but at least it gives an idea of what one is doing.

So, comparing gear selection of my May KBTT race against my June KBTT race, where there is a total time difference of ~25secs, it appears I cross chained 34/12 for 2:06 mins in May and 2:45 mins in June.  Add to that I also crossed chained the other way 50/27 for :31 secs in May and :25 secs in June...tsk tsk. Of equally eye rolling/mind blowing boredom to most is the discovery of the gear combos I failed to use:

May chart (click to enlarge)



June chart (click to enlarge)


Is it any wonder then that in May I dropped my chain after hooning downhill to the roundabout, turning and then grinding back uphill without too much thought about my gears.  The cure came from 2 directions...
1) mindset...think, you idiot...and since that's not always possible
2) practical..buy a 

Item picture
Deda Elementi Dog Fang Chain Catcher
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There are prettier looking chain catchers but they require a braze on front derailleur which I don't have.  Actually now I've got the dog catcher in situ I can forget about 1  ;-))))

While I'm not sure this is of interest to anyone other than people who have raced it, check this  out:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-ZN87-vjtc   personally I'm just jealous that he doesn't have to change down to small chain ring .......but then I'm not a 35year old male.

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