Following along on a recurring theme…thought I’d share another data point relating power to road speed.
I did a low-key tri club race last Saturday. Bike was 15 miles, flat, very little wind, out-and-back. Had to slow 3-4 times to under 15 mph for intersections, plus the near-stop at the turnaround. Otherwise, a pretty clean run. Rode with snug sleeveless shirt, standard helmet and training wheels. No bottles on frame or behind saddle; Profile bottle on aerobars.
Average speed 23.1 mph; average watts 222.
The slowdown bits probably sucked a couple tenths off the speed.
The speed is quite accurate, as my PT is calibrated very well for distance.
That is the best watts/speed ratio I’ve had yet, and I didn’t even use race wheels.
That is amazing, you must have a great position. my best power around 23 mph is probably 270 (approximate). but that’s on a road bike setup with aerobars and am pretty high because i haven’t converted it, use it for both tt’s and road races.
That does seem awfully fast for that type of power. How fast do you think you’d go with another 50% added on to your wattage?
…any pictures to put your slipperiness on display?
That does seem awfully fast for that type of power. How fast do you think you’d go with another 50% added on to your wattage?
Ooops…excuse me…ha, ha…I thought you said 50% more power!
Cripes, isn’t anybody happy with getting over 200 watts anymore? 
(My 60MP is about 230-235.)
Well, I figure at 300 watts (in my dreams) I could go ~27 with race wheels. I know can go 25 mph on 250 watts. Since I did the 25/250 runs, I put new clip-ons on the bike, narrowed up the pads a little and tweaked my arm angle a bit. Since I’m focused on long course, I’m not going to lower the bars any more. I can hardly see where I’m going as it is. I’m comfy in the position, but looking up the road is a bit of a chore.
…any pictures to put your slipperiness on display?
Working on it. I actually set the bike up on the trainer in the driveway last weekend, but got sidetracked by a 7-year-old whose 8-year-old brother whacked him in the eye with a baseball.
What you will see is that I don’t look very extreme. This is a “road bike in the drops” bike position, translated to a TT bike.
This is freaking me out. How big are you? And forget the kids already, we need some pictures, this is serious.
How big are you?
5’11.5" 162 lbs.
This power-speed ratio is only surprising to triathletes (I have learned). In TT-world, it is considered the minimum standard.
People can go 25 mph on less watts than I went 23.1 on.
I am going to have to agree with Sojo, you need to post a pic because i’m 5’11 and 168 and like i mentioned before i’m nowhere near that speed at that power output.
i’m not sure about power/speed standards but I do know the standard for a 27 mph avg on my collegiate team at our local weekly tt (9.5 miles) is about 340.
Following along on a recurring theme…thought I’d share another data point relating power to road speed.
I did a low-key tri club race last Saturday. Bike was 15 miles, flat, very little wind, out-and-back. Had to slow 3-4 times to under 15 mph for intersections, plus the near-stop at the turnaround. Otherwise, a pretty clean run. Rode with snug sleeveless shirt, standard helmet and training wheels. No bottles on frame or behind saddle; Profile bottle on aerobars.
Average speed 23.1 mph; average watts 222.
The slowdown bits probably sucked a couple tenths off the speed.
The speed is quite accurate, as my PT is calibrated very well for distance.
That is the best watts/speed ratio I’ve had yet, and I didn’t even use race wheels.
My best performance last year was a 20 mile bike leg of a triathlon: very flat, one turn plus a turnaround, hot, humid (read: very thin air), dead calm. I did 24.4mph on 230W. Contrast that with a 40K I did in rather windy conditions: 24.9mph on ~279W. Both setups full aero, of course. I’m 6’, 172lbs.
Yeah, I’m gonna hafta see pics too - I’m jealous!
I have no idear what my watts is on the road, but I’ve done my local training 16m TT at an avg speed of 22.9, but that was w/ my 404’s on. And it’s somewhat hilly.
But I “know” that I musta been putting out quite a bit more watts than 222, and we are both of fairly similar size, so obviously you have a pretty slippery bike setup.
23+ at 222W is rocking.
Nice.
Makes me feel pretty pathetic though - at 6’2" 190lbs I averaged 22.5mph on 275watts over 11 miles (very flat course). Of course, I blame part of it on either my 404s or Tufo S3s cuz I just can’t imagine being that un-aero on my P3 and I always feel faster when the race wheels are not on…
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You show me someone that takes 340 watts to average 27mph and I’ll show you a horrible TT position…either that or the guy is 6’5" and 280lbs trying to punch a Mack Truck hole in the wind.
If I had 340 type power for an hour ride I’d be averaging about 30mph or so. Hell…only 60 watts more for an hour would put you in zone with the better pro cyclists who are riding 32-35mph.
my 404s or Tufo S3s
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I always hate to criticize equipment, but I’ve been faster on my training wheels with Michelin clinchers than with my 404 and Tufo. I’m suspicious of those Tufo’s. I have an 808 clincher on order, and the 404 with Tufo will go on Ebay.
Have you considering trying different tires before you sell the wheels?
Curious, because I also acquired sew up race wheels over the winter and put Tufo S-3 lites on and my first test was disappointing. Can’t say I’m too thrilled about ebaying the wheels and buying new clincher versions, I did very well on my purchases, so I could do well on selling them, but it would still cost significantly more to replace the wheels than replace the tires as I’m not likely to be able to score the same kind of deals again, especially this time of year.
Anyway, need to test more before I do anything and draw any firm conclusions.
interesting, I’ve always wondered how weight/height/power/speed/positioning all interelate with each other. my best performance was 21.76 mph over 14.0 miles. Average power was 175 watts. My height is only 5’5.5" and weight is 137 lbs. I think my position is decent (in my opinion). do those number sound good?
but I’ve been faster on my training wheels with Michelin clinchers than with my 404 and Tufo. I’m suspicious of those Tufo’s. I have an 808 clincher on order, and the 404 with Tufo will go on Ebay.
Interesting. I’m definitely moving over to clinchers…after using tubulars for a year I realized that they are just WAY too much of a pain for me. Combine that with slower times on race wheels and power/speed ratios that don’t make sense and I really want to move in a different direction. Right now I have a Powertap hub in my Velocity Deep-V trainers and one in my Zipp 404s tubulars. I’m definitely getting rid of the Zipps but I haven’t decided what I’m going to get exactly.
I guess a new aero front clincher no matter what. Then either I get an aero cover for my Deep-Vs, get another powertap built up around something more suitable for an aero cover (Mavic Open Pro maybe?) or get an aero clincher built around a PT that isn’t a 404 (since I don’t trust that either)…maybe the new 808s. I’m also not sure if I should just sell my wheels as a set and buy a new powertap hub of I should disassemble my wheel, sell the rim and reuse the hub. So far I’ve avoided the issue by ignoring it…DOH. I’ll be racing Auburn International on my trainers.
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The catch was that I had only 3 datapoints o/o 15 with the tubulars and wasn’t sure I could trust the pattern until other reported similar results (is Jens out there? )
I have a whole season of racing and training on both trainers and Zipps that does not add up. Any single point is easily explained away but I can’t ignore the general pattern (or my bike splits!).
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Now that I think of it I do have one data point from early last year that stands out - I compared trainer to Zipp on my computrainer. After fully warming the CT up and calibrating it to some number near 2.0 for BOTH wheels (exact same numbe for both wheels) and putting the CT in ergometer mode the trainers ran at (CT wattage +5-10watts) and the Zipps ran at (CT wattage +25-30 watts).
Since that took aerodynamics out of the picture I was totally focused on the hubs at the time. I examined them closely (thinking maybe the Zipps was binding), I had my LBS look at them closely (they didn’t see anything), I had my wheel builder look at them closely (he didn’t see anything), and - finally - I sent them back to Grabber…and they did not see anything wrong with the hub! So in frustration I just took the wheels back and used them hoping that maybe the hub would “break in”. Bike splits suffered all year because of that.
In retrospect, since the hubs between the wheels were identical and nobody saw any sign of problems with the hubs I should have questioned the tires earlier. The S3s had such good recommendations though that never even occured to me. Tubulars are better right? S3s are top of the line tubulars right?
Oh well…
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