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BBS vs. Current Speed
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I am training for IM Tulsa on May 31st and went to see what Best Bike Split said I should be able to ride this course at. After entering all my information and uploading the course it came back with a speed that was quite a bit higher than I was currently able to hit on my long ride (which at this point are still less than 3 hours). I figured this might have something to do with my wheels so I switch some old Hed Alps that were given to me for my Zipp 404 NSW's and went for a ride. This ride was better but still not up to where I'm predicted to be riding by around 2mph. I'm trying to figure out what else I should check that could be robbing me of this much speed. My bearings seems to be running smoothly. These wheels are only a few years old. I can't say how many miles I've put on them but when I've done some research I've found that bearings should last about 25K miles and I know I'm no where near that. My other thought was the bottom bracket. It's not making any grinding or knocking noises and was replaced about 5 years ago. I haven't spent a huge amount of time on my TT bike since then so I don't think that it's that either. Any other suggestions on what to take a look at would be greatly appreciated.

I've sent a video of my riding position to my coach for him to check and he agrees that someone putting out the watts that I am should be riding at the speed that BBS is predicting.
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Re: BBS vs. Current Speed [23scadoo66] [ In reply to ]
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The two big factors that are going to make BBS either work or not work, are cda and rolling resistance. If your cda is set lower in BBS than your position actually is, it'll be telling you you'll be going much faster than you are. If you play with the analysis/slider feature and alter your cda for your power until you get your actual time, what is that cda number? I think most people way overestimate their aero when using BBS which causes problems.

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Re: BBS vs. Current Speed [23scadoo66] [ In reply to ]
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Unless you're riding the exact course, with your exact race setup, you can't compare BBS speed to your speed on normal rides.

Typically I'll be 4-5 mph slower on training rides with the same TSS. A lot of it has to do with the fact you have to brake a lot on normal rides, your training clothes aren't that aero, elevation, wind, weather differences etc.

Strava
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Re: BBS vs. Current Speed [23scadoo66] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for the replies.

Realbdeal:
I went back and made some adjusted riding position to "midpack triathlete", updated the wheel width from narrow for the Alps to wide for the 404's and CdA changed marginally to 0.2767. I can't say I know a lot about where this should fall so I don't know if this is low, high or in the middle. If I adjust the slider to a time that I think is more in line with what I'm doing now then the CdA is 0.378.

sch340:
Really!? 4-5mph slower on training rides due to riding kit, traffic lights/signs etc. That's a lot more than I would have figured.


I plan on driving to the course and riding it as a race simulation a few weeks before the race in full set up (will be carrying more water than I will on race day though). It will be interesting to see the results.
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Re: BBS vs. Current Speed [23scadoo66] [ In reply to ]
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If you want to spend some money, buy a Phil Wood bottom bracket with carbonyte bearings.
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