Hi guys!
Just about to head to bed here, as it is well into t'morrow here already.
When I'm in late-Spring shape, my running average on my 32lb/14.5kg touring bikes often hovers around 17-21mph/27-34kph on flat ground in largely windless conditions when I push it. Add in some hills or wind or me going with the flow, and that typically drops to 15.6mph/25kph. This is, of course, all unladen or lightly loaded (2l of water, 2.26kg in the handlebar bag, maybe 1 kg in the underseat bag or rack pack).
This is early in the season and on the heavier Nomad so yes, I was pushing it, and hard. That's why I kept the distance shorter. I ended tired but not dead and any aches on arrival soon left. I was doing better on the outgoing northern leg, but by late afternoon, ran into that headwind on the way back. In Summer it reverses and I try to beat North as far as I can as early as I can, 'cos the wind starts coming down the Valley like clockwork at 10:30AM and it just bats me up. I could see my speed increase today when I went down on the drops. 'Couldn't ride without them after so many years with.
I'm a spinner, pedaling fast and light and shifting to keep my cadence up (cadence first, speed second. Think: Diesel truck). I actually tried mashing briefly at ~80RPM today, and I think the Rohloff rewards a nice, smooth spin (but that's my default, so it may just have been me being more comfortable). My typical cadence is 110-120RPM, and I spent nearly all day in Gear 11/direct drive @ 55 gear-inches or Gear 12 @ 62 gear-inches, my two favorite level-ground/still-air cruising gears on my half-step derailleur bikes, so it felt familiar. I am so glad I changed to a 36x17 for my needs. It gave me a true High range (37"-80") for cruising that is silent when pedaling and a true Low range (15"-33") that is noisier but great for the hilly stuff. 80 gear-inches may sound pretty wimpy at the top end, but it puts me around 45kph when it is wound-out and anything beyond that, I coast. The real benefit of the gearing change is it gave me my same familiar gears from the derailleur bikes. When the wind picked up, I dropped to my Gear 10 @48", and in gusts I dropped to my familiar headwind gear of 42 (Gear 9). The 38-gear incher conquers all the little roller-hills, as before.
Tire pressures were an experiment today. I'm running 26x2.0 Schwalbe Duremes, and I aired them F/R to 29/34psi // 2/2.3bar. It worked pretty well, but I did stop briefly and let an additional "puff" out of the front tire. I checked when I got home, and it was at 27psi/1.9bar and felt more comfortable but on the edge of noticeably losing efficiency. I'll probably go back to 29psi/2bar. I think I got away with so little air in the front 'cost 1) I was largely unladen except for the HB bag and two 1l bottles up front and 2) I'm running a 590M frame and to use compact drops with it, I'm also running a 60mm stem. Bottom line, not a lot of my weight is directly over the front wheel; the brake hoods where I place my hands are about 4.25in/10.8cm behind the front axle centerline. My back is at about 45° when riding the brake hoods.
I tried playing with the speed, my cadence, and the gearing on the ride, and I found the bike would very happily trundle along at about 14.4mph/23kph. A fun pursuit is to catch-up riders ahead, and I dispatched several on heavy bikes and those little pursuits were around 29kph briefly in the 62" gear, but I couldn't keep it up. It wasn't like I was going to cough up a lung or anything, but I really felt it this early in the season. I need to start laying in some 200km days back-to-back to get really ready for my Spring tour. Over that longer distance and in shape, I would expect my running average to drop to around 15.6mph/25.6kph. For comparison my last 400km ride on the much lighter (32lb/14.5kg) rando bike, I averaged 13.3mph/21kph in 10 of the 24 hours of total riding time*, and that included a lot of climbing. the last 14 hours would have likely been faster 'cos much was downhill. It also took me till mid-August to get in that kind of shape. With a load on the Nomad for touring the back of beyond, all bets are off. I'll probably keep to my daily average distance of ~73mi/117km and the running average will be whatever it is, probably edging down toward around 12mph/19kph, depending on hills, winds, and surface. I often grind along with a full load at around 2.5-3.5mph/4-5.6kph on steep gravel and dirt grades.
Compared to my lighter rando bikes and the tandem, I would expect to average around 15mph/24kph on long rides on level round. I haven't done any for comparison yet; my 200 km rides were in hilly-mountainous terrain and on logging roads, so were much slower than that. I was also "exploring". That's part of the reason I flogged myself a bit today, to see how it might do. I can't wait till I'm in better condition to see what "groove" it falls into naturally. It it happens to be as low as 10-12mph/16-19kph, I'll not be unhappy. As Andy so astutely pointed out, anything can/does skew an average, so it really shouldn't be a prime measure, just one data point among others.
*My PlanetBike Protege 9 computer is great except it only figures average speed on a 10-hour timebase. Go past 10 hours and it keeps the average up to that point but shows an "E" (Error) for any time thereafter -- sad.
My impression is the Nomad is not as fast as the rando bike, but when I look at the running average on the corrected computer readout, it isn't as slow as it seems and is amazingly close to my other bikes. Part of that impression is the Nomad's almost complete lack of the high-frequency vibration I experience on the rando bike with its 700x32C road slicks running 85psi/5.9psi. I can spread my fingers and they don't even quiver on the Nomad. On the rando bike, they sometimes blur at the tips. The difference? High-volume tires run at low pressures. Except for the 26x1.5s on the tandem, the Sherpa and Nomad are my first real experience with fat roadie tires. It is a lot to wrap my mind around and the results are contrary to my old roadie riding experience, but they don't seem to hold me back very much at all. It is amazing to ride over concrete expansion joints and not feel them. At all.
Remember, this is a Nomad rather than an RST, RT or Raven, and it is a heavy bike -- about 20kg bare as I have it setup dry and unladen. It feels much like when I have ridden my tandem solo (it weighs 21kg). It doesn't exactly jump to speed (the lighter Sherpa was livelier), but once there, it is pretty easy to keep the momentum going. Really, I think it acquits itself remarkably well for an expedition bike really designed for and intended to carry massive loads. Business of Life things have interfered with my finishing the bike -- I still have to install the lights and charging system and wrap the 'bar padding, then done -- but I have been meaning to rob the 25x1.5 skinwall slicks off the tandem to give a go for a day. They made the Sherpa feel like a jet fighter plane when accelerating, as they are so much lighter than the Duremes (and treadless and flat-prone and have less air volume and smaller tubes, etc). It would be fun to see what effect they have on the Nomad. Of course, they will alter the effective geometry a bit, but I'd like to see what it feels like briefly before going back to the Duremes.
Hope something in here helps, Ian. It is not a contest, just a series of data points, and I don't make a point of riding fast (I'm bog-slow compared to many of the other riders around here on lightweight racing bikes). I'd always rather emphasize the enjoyable aspects of a ride like scenery or good conversation with a partner than the distance or speed and usually don't make a point of noting how far or fast as I don't want to fall into the trap of an over-riding self-competitive goal. Been there, done that, enjoyed it less than what I do now. In this case, I was deliberately trying to answer the same questions as Ian's: "Wot'll she do?".
I've had the bike for about 6 months now and need to post my notes and impressions of the Rohloff. The balance is on the favored side, and closely mirrors what Andy Blance wrote in Living with a Rohloff.
Time for sleep.
Best,
Dan.
