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| The Stormchaser is a 38 X 17T set up. |
I've noted that my exercise goal gets met a while after I get to Andy's Bike Shop to work with geared bike. I've noted that I nearly meet it, but usually exceed that goal if I ride the Stormchaser. One day I left a little early, so I decided to really loaf my way to work on the Stormchaser. Going slow, like really slow on a single speed geared like the Stormchaser is, doesn't work well. There is a certain speed you have to maintain, or your muscles will get so worked you will be in trouble before long. So, despite my 'slightly relaxed pace', a pace at which I felt perfectly calm, by the way, I ended up doing half again as much 'exercise', according to the Apple Watch, as I did when I was actually pushing the pace.
Weird. At least to me, it is. The one consistent thing I've noted is that I always do more 'work'- again, using the watch as a reference- on a single speed going to work than on any geared bike no matter how fast I try to go. Using my 'spinny' geared Surly 1X1 does it, and so does my single speed Black Mountain Cycles bike, and it just doesn't seem to matter.
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| the Orange Crush #49 is geared 44 X 18 |
I rode the Surly on a casual, urban alley/pavement cruise the other day. I had a heckuva time getting my 'exercise' goal fulfilled. Did the exact same route the next day on the Black Mountain Cycles rig and I did almost twice as much 'work', according to the watch. Now I will say that the BMC is geared harder than the Surly, for sure. This actually made more sense to me than the results I got going to Andy's and back. Or maybe my heart rate should have been higher on the 'spinny' 1X1? Hmm...
Now, I do not have a heart rate monitor, no power meters, none of that stuff around here. So, I have no answers to help those questions that might be answered by using such devices. Maybe I should get something...... But then again, I'd probably just ride and think that stuff is too much bother. Like I do when I think about using the GPS computer I have. I cannot be arsed to wait for it to contact satellites and get itself going. Heck I could be five blocks down from the house before it decides it has detected movement, "do you want to record this ride?". Gah! Just let me ride fer cryin' out loud!
Anyway........
Not that any of this matters at all to any of you readers. I just am curious and am watching these things as the data gets compiled on the watch and seeing that single speeds are kicking my heart rate up more than a geared bike. I think that is my takeaway here. Your mileage may vary.
8 comments:
From my saddle, riding single speed is riding a bike. Riding geared is taking a break. Or a recovery day. Whether documented or not.
@CrossTrail - LOL!!
Is the watch measuring calories burned?
As a designated singlespeeder, I really wish I had some bailout gears as of late. This April wind has been MADNESS!
@youcancallmeAl - Kind of. It's called "Move Goal" and the units they use are "calories" but I'm not sure how the algorithm works. It's the hardest goal of the three to get though.
well without an accurate measure of calories burned you cant get an accurate idea of work done
What would it take to raise those handle bars to saddle level? That drop looks aggressively low and forward for endurance rough roads, absent a seriously limber back.
@CrossTrail: Well......that's a great question. Salsa doesn't send out bikes with uncut steer tubes anymore, so you are VERY limited on that end. A riser stem? - which would look......odd. But the stack height on a 57.5cm Stormchaser is a tic over 600mm. The Noble Bikes GX5, which I thought had a pretty aggressively low front end, in my size (58cm) is 612mm. The stack height on my BMC MCD in my size is 629mm.
I think you can see the problem here. The Salsa is designed to have a slammed front end. Even a Carbon Warbird in 57.5cm has a stack height of 604mm, which ain't much, but it's something. So, yeah, plan on getting a goofy looking riser stem, or look elsewhere.
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