Dylan Johnson: Offroad Endurance and Marginal Gains

Just saw a power benefit discussion on aero-socks. The effect is similar to towing a heavy object on a long cable from a boat. Often the majority of the drag is due the cable. One trick is to attach trailer streams along and behind the cable. I’ve heard that some groups use a zillion zip-ties. The pain with long streaming on long cables is the recovery and winding it up on a large drum.

it might help socks and could have a southwestern look.

Thanks for the explanation,
Charlie

I have lived in Flanders and the Netherlands and speak the language fluently. You are driving me nuts. The “O” in stroopwafel is LONG. Strooooopwafel. And BTW, they are VASTLY better fresh in the market than prepackaged bike fuel.

@Ben A single wax application then topping up when needed with synergetic oil based lube. Single push is the key, an emulsified wax (at least ours) needs a minimum of 4 hours to be effective. The additives that emulsify the wax when applied to a bike and ridden immediately, could actually make things worse as it would remove the remaining wax on the chain. Allowing that emulsified wax to dry is key.

Any “topping up” that might be necessary for such a long event should be done with a really high quality oil based lube like our Synergetic.

Thanks for the podcast, such good gems in here.

Question: For quite long single push events (12–48h) on largely unpaved surfaces what would be the best drivetrain protocol? Something like Unbound XL is a good example. I’d assume wet lube will just attract too much dust. But that seems like a very long duration for a single wax coating. Is taking a very small bottle of drip on wax and applying at water stops worth the effort?

Hey everyone, love your show! I am Johan, a cyclist from Oslo, Norway. I am an eager winter-cyclist, and over here, winter means riding in freezing temperatures on snow and ice. I am wondering what marginal gains, if any, can be had for winter riding. Assume I am riding a modern carbon gravel bike on snow-mowed fire-roads.

1. We generally use studded tires (~40mm), which increase rolling resistance by a lot. The general tire pressure recommendations from the Silca calculator seems to be too high for studded tires to give a confident grip. Is the advice just as high as possible to get grip, or are there other considerations?

2. Any lubricant advice for freezing temperatures? To get grip, torque might be higher than during summer gravel riding. If temperatures are around freezing the drivetrain can get very dirty, with lumps of ice forming around the derailleurs.

3. I use fenders and drop-bar pogies. Naively i think both of these acts as fairings that provide an aero effect. Is this true, and can the effect be quantized?