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Does a better bike=better times?


Racingsnail

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YES - PERIOD!
But only if it is a Colnago!!!


You mean only if it's a Colnago from the 70's or 80's made from Columbus's finest lead water pipes...Big%20smile
Will post pics on the retro thread in a couple of weeks of your oldmans lead water pipes after step 1 of the makeover!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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YES - PERIOD!
But only if it is a Colnago!!!

 

You mean only if it's a Colnago from the 70's or 80's made from Columbus's finest lead water pipes...Big%20smile

Will post pics on the retro thread in a couple of weeks of your oldmans lead water pipes after step 1 of the makeover!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NiceThumbs%20Up

 

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I think it's pshycological, everytime I seem to get any sort of upgrade no matter how small it might be on both my mtb and road bike my times get better. It's weird.

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Racingsnail' date=' I have the same problem. Have a heavy entry-level hard tail and not doing too badly in races (well, middle of the field). However, I would love to know how much more I would enjoy the races with a nice bike...before spending all the cash on one... I am too bloody stingy to fork out the cash before knowing if I will like the bike on a 3 hour trip... :s

[/quote']

 

Get a loan bike from your LBS or borrow ask a mate that has a nice bike to borrow it, go to a relatively fast trail, ride consistently at say 140 to 150 beats per minute on your regular machine for a lap of 1 hour or less, switch to the shop bike, do the same lap at the same heart rate and compare the speeds.
The next day change the sequence around, ie new bike first and your regular bike second and compare.
Don't worry about going too technical as more than 70% of races are done over non-technical terrain, but try to include a nice big climb. This is where you should see the biggest difference in times. I did this comparing my Giant Boulder to my Merida D3000FLX and averaged about 15% faster for the 4 kg weight difference and the XT components vs the deore components.
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I think it's pshycological' date=' everytime I seem to get any sort of upgrade no matter how small it might be on both my mtb and road bike my times get better. It's weird.[/quote']

 

I can not agree with you more. There might be a small mechanical advantage but it is mostly pshycoligical.

On 702 this morning John Robbie quoted a study: People wearing red clothes perform 10% better in sport. I think the same can be applied to equipment.

 

A new bike make you feel better, you also created an expectation for yourself, that the new bike will be faster. You are going to live up to this come hell or high water.

 

 
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People wearing red clothes perform 10% better in sport. I think the same can be applied to equipment.

 

 

 

 

Two things, is this a plug for SRAM Red?

And second, don't let that drugged up insane Bolt dude start running in red kit...

 

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the lighter bike is definately a huge improvement, but remember it helps allot if you lose a kg or 2 of body weight too (and much cheaper Wink)

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Depends on the terrain and weight of the bikes, all thing equal (same rider and bike weights similar) DS should bike beat HT. <?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Top of the line HT has the advantage of weighing less than top of the line DS, which influences climbing speed on not to technical type of terrain.

I experimented with this before on my Trek HT and Sworks Epic DS riding the same route as fast as possible, spaz was always fractionally quicker (usually within a minute or 2) over +/- 4.5 km course which is 50% climbing (road) and 50% descending (single track).

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Thanks everyone!

 

Madaboutmerida...agree that would be a great exercise.

 

I also agree that more time on the bike would assist the fitness and allow me to feel better towards the end of a race...but if my training partners are training as much and have the better bikes...I will always be pushed to stay with them!!
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yes' date=' it will (to a certain degree)However, if you take a guy like Burry, and put him on a cheap deore bike with a cheap entry level rts fork, he will still whip most of us!!So what I am trying to say the difference is relative!!!

 

[/quote']

 

 

 

That is not true ... BS would have wrecked the cheap wheels accelerating from the start line.

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