Conference noted::bicycle

     Nope, you won't. However, in a laboratory environment under highly
     controlled conditions you might be able to pick something up in the
     way of road shock absorbtion, friction, etc...
    
     I would never feel a thing because I use the "minimum of 25lbs. over
     the recommended tire pressure" rule.
    
     Chip 

    
    
    	Got to agree with Chip. The only diffrence (outside your wallet)
    that you'll notice is that you'll need to blow up the tyres (sorry
    America, that's tire :*) ) more often.
    
    Graham.
    
    P.S. Ti valves? Now there's a thought...  :*)

    
    Another vote for *cheap*.  
    
    A sidenote about Latex tubes - they are porous enough you can pretend
    you have high-quality tubulars, by pumping them up before each ride. :-)
    
    -john
    
    PPS: Of course another discriminate for aero-rim wheels is that the
    tube's valve stem must be long enough!

    Oh, guys!  There's something to be said for latex tubes.  You
    will get lots of practice fixing flats.
    
    Which will further point you toward the poor house.
    
    ed

Disappointing. I was hoping to buy myself a performance increase. Now it seems
that, as usual, any increase can only be got by getting out there and turning
the pedals...

Well done, Rod, spoken like a true Technofreak.....

Repeat after me -

	... there is no substitute for miles...

		....there is no substitute for miles....

			......there is no substitute for miles......	

Only 12 weeks to RAID blast-off........

There is a substitute for miles...

smart miles.

Kevin

    >There is a substitute for miles...
    >smart miles.
    
    well yes and no.  I have just started trying to augment (not
    replace) miles and miles with a few short sharp miles (intervals and
    sprints).  Gearing this season around the Raid I have been
    concentrating on just being able to do miles and feel moderately OK at
    the end (the raid is ~110 miles/7000ft a day for 4 days).  It is not
    obvious to me how much smarter I could have been, in particluar speed
    will not be essential, but stamina will be.
    
    Perhaps John or all you other Ultra-distance people would want to
    comment here - For us, is there a smarter way to get the condition ?
    
    Rod - You have already got the order in for the Carbo-Ti Saddle ?
    anything looking that good is going to be faster....

    
    
    	Yes and no, Rod. Smart miles can be used, but you need miles and
    miles to get the basic base that you need before you can be doing smart
    miles (by smart miles I presume we're talking intervals, team, etc).
    For 100 mile RR you only need do 1 75 mile a week, more to prove you
    can do it than anything else. The rest of the stamina can be done by
    long intervals. Smart miles only fine tune, you need the basic engine
    to have assembled properly first.
    
    	For RAAMs I don't know. They weren't designed for humans, they were
    designed for John Ellis. :*)
    
    	This seems helluva similar to a note recently put in CYCLE_RACING...
    
    Graham.

    Graham,
    
    They are called RAAMsters (rhymes with Hamsters).
    
    ed

    
    Graham brought up a point too easily overlooked: Base Miles.  You can
    do yourself and your joints real damage by driving too hard on intervals
    without base miles to build up muscles to protect tendons, ligaments, etc.
    I've seen that happen to riders.
    
    As for endurance riding, I'll trot out what must by now be truisms:
    
      - A big part of riding is Mental.  Endurance likewise.  It's no good
        to have the speed and aerobic conditioning (from intervals) to do,
        say, a 5-hour hundred miler, or an 11-hour double, if after 4 hours
        your brain says: "Stop, I'm tired of this!  I don't want to be on a
        bike any more!"  Implication: mental pace and focus for endurance
        has to be trained.  I don't know how to get that mental focus by
        doing intervals, or short intense rides.
    
      - Endurance riders *can* benefit greatly by Kevin's "smart" quality
        work-outs.  That's where you build speed, heighten Anaerobic 
        Threshold, and push out the *mental* limits of what you think of
        as "cruising speed."  (Goal is to be as effortless at 18, 19, 20mph
        as you had been at 15 or 16mph, for example.)  That's a lesson I've
        had to learn.
    
      - "Long term" (long ride) bodily effects: You can't extrapolate your
        nutritional needs, physical decay (e.g., muscle or joint soreness),
        etc. from a "short" ride.  For example, nutrition is virtually a 
        non-issue on rides of 40 miles or less. Ask anyone who only does 40-mile
        training rides, then decides to go out for a 62.2 miler!  The glycogen
        barrier hits.  Poor riding style (bumpiness on the saddle, tense neck 
        or shoulders, etc.) likewise are easy to ignore on shorter rides - 
        if you don't do the long mileage, you won't come to terms with these
        problems, and therefore won't learn how to correct for them.
    
      - Endurance physical conditioning: endurance riders' bodies become
        more efficient in their metabolism by doing long miles over time.
        Then there are the small points (so to speak) such as conditioning
        the derri�re so that it can "stand up" to a day in the saddle, and
        the next, and the next, without your needing to ride standing up. :-)
    
    Just some thoughts...
    -john

I agree with what everyone's said so far.  But there's also more to "smart"
miles than intervals, per se.  Riding the same courses at the same speed all
the time become "dumb" miles, after you've built up your base.  (I'm quite
guilty of riding a lot of dumb miles :^(

Variety is important.  If you ride with a heart rate monitor, you'll usually 
find that you ride at the same level of effort most of the time, despite what
you perceive.  Your hard rides aren't quite hard enough, and your easy rides 
are usually way too hard.  Thus you get in a rut.  Paying attention to your
heart rate really can help you ride smarter, without having to resort to a
very structured schedule, with lots of intervals.

There's also the idea of developing "easy speed".  If when you do speed work
it's always quite stressful, real grit-your-teeth stuff, then you're not learning
to ride fast comfortably.  That may be fine for a road racer who's only training
for that finishing sprint, but not for long distance riders.  You want to learn
to ride fast, but relaxed.  Try doing your speed work on a very slight downhill
so you can work on leg speed without gritting your teeth.  Be relaxed.  You need
enough resistance so you're not just flailing away at high cadence, so the slope
must be quite gentle.  (This idea comes from Rob Sleamaker's "SERIOUS" training
philosophy)  When you're tense during speed work, you've actually got muscles
working against each other, thus you can't develop easy speed.

Kevin

    Tube question..............
    
    This morning while pumping up my tires I broke the little thing that 
    twists down to close the tire/tube.  I don't think I lost any air
    because of it........is this thing really important?  Should I replace
    it?  
    
    Linda

    
    	You mean just the plastic cap, and it split?
    
    	If so, no, it's not REALLY important from a "losing air"
    	standpoint.  It's basically a dustcap.
    
    	But I would replace it.
    

    hi Shawn!
    
    No, no, no... I've got the other kind......  the skinny kind with the
    twisty metal part attached to it.  
    
    I'm not even sure I'll be able to add air at this point....I haven't
    tired it...they are pumped up to 100 pds.

What you broke off is the lock-down screw on a presta valve.  It won't lose air 
as long as it is inflated because the air presure is holding everything in 
place.  I don't know if you would be able to put more air in successfully, or 
re-inflate it if it should go flat.  You might have trouble deflating it if the 
post is broke off below the stem; use a small hex key to reach into the valve 
and press the remaining portion of the shaft.  (Note that on deep section aero 
rims valve extenders sometimes have to be used to inflate the tires.  In these 
cases the mechanism is never screwed closed.  The only way to deflate them when 
something looks bad, but you haven't had the flat yet, is to reach down there 
with something narrow.)

Rich

...and if you continue to ride with that tube be sure to have a 
spare with you.

    ...but you can leave that extra tire you carry at home ;-)
    

    Linda,
    
    The bit that you broke is part of a screw-in assembly so you could
    replace it if you need to. I agree with the others that this may not be
    necessary. I think you would need to "liberate" the thing from an old
    tube as I've never seen them for sale separately.
    
    Chris

Don't be a cheapskate - use some of your ill-gotten gains (see note 418009.5) 
or go without a doughnut for a day and buy yourself a new tube.

whoops, nearly forgot again    ;>)

    RE: .20
    Are you talking to me?  Yikes......!
    
    Linda

Not specially, but I find it painful to read, for example, someone complaining 
about the price of new handlebar tape when they have spent $xxx on a pair of, 
for example, stupid tri-bars .....

You get my drift ??

(Apologies for being European and direct, as Mr Palmer said in the DVN, "you 
guys don't hold anything back, you say what you think").

You'll find out how stupid tri-bars are when you try and compete in a
TT without them. See ya...

You'll have to excuse him, Linda. He did have a smiley face at the end his
note, though. That's a big leap :-).

Chip

what is this compete? I'm too old for that anymore ...

Don't apologise for me, it's controversy that makes the world go round (or 
was that money?).  I used to be bigotted, but I'm perfect now.

Apologize for you, Robin? Come on now, you know I don't have that 
kind of time on my hands...

:-)

Apologize for you, Robin? Come on now. You know I don't have that kind of
time on my hands.

:-)

    
    	Well, if you have time to type in everything twice I'd think
    	you'd have time for a simple apology.
    

Yeah, and insulting me once is enough, y'know ...

Hey, what's going on here? You guys gotta gang up on me? Go pick
on someone your own size before you both get hurt...

Put 'em up... Put 'em up...

    >>>>>>> go pick on someone your own size
    
    ...or better yet, pick on a girl........that seemed to work last time!
    
    
                              ....oops!  better not forget my :)'s

    
    	Oh, sure ... you females will cry "ERA!!" when it suits you,
    	but when it works against you then you just kind of forget
    	it even exists.
    
    	8^)
    

-1 Whew, Shawn. You're slowin' up pardner. I've never known you let 24hrs.
   lapse between responses before... :-)

    Hey!  How would you like it someone called you FAT and CHEAP?????!!  
     
    				:) :) :) :) :)  :( :(

    
    	Linda, we've met, so you should know that NO ONE could call
    	me fat.  8^)
    

>>    Hey!  How would you like it someone called you FAT and CHEAP?????!!  
>>   
>>                              :) :) :) :) :)  :( :(

Well, I've got used to it by now - it's better than no-one speaking to you at 
all!!  Excuse me now, I just have to get another Pan Bagnat and put patch 
number 20 on my inner tube ......

    RE:  patch number 20...
    
    Oh you must be talking to Kratz now.   King of Patches!
    
    
    
    Ps.  I'm NOT fat....nor cheap!!!!    (just for the record)
    
    
    Linda

Vital stats 54 yrs\5'10 1/2"\160 lb - Linda, you can send me yours under a 
plain brown envelope ...

old? yes
cheap? yes
fat? in comparison with 20 yrs ago - yes