Captain Slow
Well-Known Member
Was quite a windy day. Rode in a group of 7 riders, a couple of not that fast riders but 4 of them quite fast. I was the only one on an electric. Some very nice bikes were along for the trip. A Colnago with SRAM Red AXS was there, along with a Giant Propel with Di2. So even though I was on the Creo I was not on the most expensive bike.
Pace was generally leisurely and the ride was pretty social. Average speed was around 25 km/hr. and I wasn't using a lot of battery. But we did hit some wicked head winds. As we rolled along near Spanish banks we hit quite a head wind and I came to the front feeling like I should because I had the motor. So at this point we're rolling along somewhere between 25 and 30 km/hr. and just enjoying the ride and then we hit the first hill heading towards UBC. I'm in Eco and I'm leading everyone up the climb and feeling good. I thought we were up the climb when the road turned and I saw the climb went quite a bit further and I groaned a bit. Well then 3 of the fast guys took that as their cue and they took off fast. I didn't have the legs to respond so I put the bike in Sport and while that helped me go faster I wasn't catching up because the 3 in front were hammering hard. They later said they wanted to see if the Creo could overtake them. I decided not to chase as I wasn't sure how long we were riding and didn't want to use too much of the battery.
So even though I was on the Creo I got dropped because I didn't want to use turbo but also the 3 in front were fast. The 3 in front were guys who can ride a 160 km Fondo in 4 hours and they were on lightweight machines.
I kept the bike in Sport and the climb up wasn't too painful and my HR didn't go up too much. I estimate that I reached the top of the climb about a minute to two minutes behind the front group. Another rider came in about a minute after me and the two slowest riders probably came in about 4-5 minutes after me.
We stopped for coffee and when we restarted the ride again it was a pretty leisurely pace as we rolled along Marine Drive. Here with no lights the pace picked up slightly and once again I was on the front and we were probably rolling along at about 35 km/hr. Once again after I had been pulling on the front for a while some in the group decided they wanted to hammer and they blew by me. Once again I didn't want to use turbo so they got ahead of me a bit and once again I was mid-pack. We re-grouped and went back to our leisurely pace.
When I finally got home it was a 65 km ride and I used 110 watt hours so my fear of running out of battery was unfounded, but I truly didn't know it the ride would turn out to be 100 km+ so I wanted to be conservative. I also wanted to get a feel for the bike but not push it too much. As I go on more group rides I'll have a better sense of how much battery to use.
But half of the riding companions were so much faster than me that even on the Creo I got dropped twice on the ride. We'll see how things go as we progress through spring and summer.
Although I got dropped twice, the Creo made it such that I could ride with this group. Without the Creo I would have been back with the slowest riders. On this ride there were two other slow riders, but sometimes they don't go with the group and I don't like being the one guy they're always waiting for so I do see value in the Creo allowing me to ride with this group and I'll be riding with them more often. In recent years I've declined rides with these guys because I didn't want to always hold up the group.
Related to the thread about culture, no one gave me a hard time about being on an electric. There were 2 guys I met for the first time ever and I thought they treated me no differently than if I were riding one of my other bikes.
Pace was generally leisurely and the ride was pretty social. Average speed was around 25 km/hr. and I wasn't using a lot of battery. But we did hit some wicked head winds. As we rolled along near Spanish banks we hit quite a head wind and I came to the front feeling like I should because I had the motor. So at this point we're rolling along somewhere between 25 and 30 km/hr. and just enjoying the ride and then we hit the first hill heading towards UBC. I'm in Eco and I'm leading everyone up the climb and feeling good. I thought we were up the climb when the road turned and I saw the climb went quite a bit further and I groaned a bit. Well then 3 of the fast guys took that as their cue and they took off fast. I didn't have the legs to respond so I put the bike in Sport and while that helped me go faster I wasn't catching up because the 3 in front were hammering hard. They later said they wanted to see if the Creo could overtake them. I decided not to chase as I wasn't sure how long we were riding and didn't want to use too much of the battery.
So even though I was on the Creo I got dropped because I didn't want to use turbo but also the 3 in front were fast. The 3 in front were guys who can ride a 160 km Fondo in 4 hours and they were on lightweight machines.
I kept the bike in Sport and the climb up wasn't too painful and my HR didn't go up too much. I estimate that I reached the top of the climb about a minute to two minutes behind the front group. Another rider came in about a minute after me and the two slowest riders probably came in about 4-5 minutes after me.
We stopped for coffee and when we restarted the ride again it was a pretty leisurely pace as we rolled along Marine Drive. Here with no lights the pace picked up slightly and once again I was on the front and we were probably rolling along at about 35 km/hr. Once again after I had been pulling on the front for a while some in the group decided they wanted to hammer and they blew by me. Once again I didn't want to use turbo so they got ahead of me a bit and once again I was mid-pack. We re-grouped and went back to our leisurely pace.
When I finally got home it was a 65 km ride and I used 110 watt hours so my fear of running out of battery was unfounded, but I truly didn't know it the ride would turn out to be 100 km+ so I wanted to be conservative. I also wanted to get a feel for the bike but not push it too much. As I go on more group rides I'll have a better sense of how much battery to use.
But half of the riding companions were so much faster than me that even on the Creo I got dropped twice on the ride. We'll see how things go as we progress through spring and summer.
Although I got dropped twice, the Creo made it such that I could ride with this group. Without the Creo I would have been back with the slowest riders. On this ride there were two other slow riders, but sometimes they don't go with the group and I don't like being the one guy they're always waiting for so I do see value in the Creo allowing me to ride with this group and I'll be riding with them more often. In recent years I've declined rides with these guys because I didn't want to always hold up the group.
Related to the thread about culture, no one gave me a hard time about being on an electric. There were 2 guys I met for the first time ever and I thought they treated me no differently than if I were riding one of my other bikes.
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