Re: RE: Re: Today's Ride

On 6/22/2025 6:51 PM, cyclintom wrote:

On Sat Jun 21 20:12:02 2025 Frank Krygowski  wrote:

On 6/21/2025 4:59 PM, cyclintom wrote:

We had a 25 mph headwind all the way out with 35 mph gusts.I wouold be riding along working pretty hard at 12.5 mph and as the gusts hit I would be instantly at 11 mph. Normally this would be somewhat compensated for by a tailwind on the way back but I guess it was more a cross wind as we turned back.

>
Congratulations! 12.5 mph into a 25 mph headwind takes quite a bit of
power, something close to 400 Watts. I'm very amazed a guy your age can
do that!
>

23 miles and average speed of only 8.18 miles per hour average ...

>
Ah. 8.18 mph sounds much more believable. That might be around 200 Watts.

    I think that my Garmin was not recording moving only speed because I droped the group in both directiond and had to stop and let them catch up. Drag cannot be easily determined by knowing the speed of the bike and the speed of the wind...

I think drag can be fairly accurately estimated based on those factors, especially on level ground. Climbing is a different matter, of course - but if you were to give us accurate data on conditions, the online power calculators would do a pretty good job - at least, well enough to tell the difference between 400 Watts and 200 Watts!

1. I would suggest that 400 watts is probably too high.

For someone your age with your self-described physical problems? Yes.

2. The low average speed is very close to what I was recording when I didn't have moving speed averages. So I think that the 1030 wasn't recording average moving speed but the speed of the entire ride including the time at the coffee shop.

If I were a Garmin user and were concerned about gross inaccuracy, I'd use a stopwatch and mileage info to figure average speed and compare it against the Garmin. This is high school stuff.
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- Frank Krygowski