The bag, the clean, the bar ends or the rest?

JoeSoap76

Couldn't get out at the weekend and had to take the car to work today so this evening I went out of a little (16 mile) run to warm the legs up. It was great - one of the best rides I've had. Speed was up by around 3mph, effort was down considerably... fantastic. But why?

After resorting to gripping the bare ends of my handlebars a few times to rest my hands I'd ordered some bar ends and these arrived Saturday.

Whilst fitting them I gave the bike it's best clean yet - pretty-much took it to pieces and scrubbed and lubed until I was knackered.

Didn't bother putting my panniers on before I went out so wasn't lugging the chain, lock, spare inners, tools, etc about with me.

Had been resting for nearly three days.

It almost felt like the riding position offered by the bar ends was the most help - but do bar ends really make that much difference? If they do I'm over the moon with them but I just don't know. Has anybody else found that bar ends make the whole trip slicker? :?

downfader

Bar ends? I have two on mine and tbh I dont use them all that much. :oops: If anything they are there to stop my hands slipping off

attica

Just cleaning your chain after a long period of neglect can make a bike noticeably faster.

Also I'm willing to bet you put a blast or two of air into the tyres - again making a noticeable difference.

Then there's the wind...

You know how riding against the wind hurts - well going down on bar ends is going to significantly reduce your frontal area (boiling aerodynamics down to it's bare minimum) and as for leaving your panniers off, that's goin to be an even greater reduction in wind resistance.

Cumulative effect old chap, as for the rested legs, only you know whether you were really feeling great or whether the easier-to-ride bike was giving you a false sense of strength.

Underscore

I put on a set of Ergon grips (with integrated bar ends) several months ago and find that I now hold on to the ends most of the time unless I need to cover the brakes. However, I've not noticed that it has improved my speed at all. However, I didn't cycle on Friday or Saturday before doing the London-Cambridge on Sunday and my legs felt like they could have taken on Lance Armstrong! Yes, I had pumped up the tyres the day before - but I do that regularly anyway - and I had cleaned the chain - but I do that reasonably regularly - so I put it down to the rest and it just being "one of those days" (in a good way for a change).

Having said that, I cycled home afterwards - making my total for the day 76 miles; my longest day ever - and the last 7-8 miles was a real, real struggle...

_

JoeSoap76

Yep - think it must have been the rest. Bar ends or no bar ends, my cycle to work this morning was definitely not one of the best. Got to work absolutely cream crackered and nearly ten minutes over my best time. Life returns to normal

Wooliferkins

The rest can do you good as well, we're all victim to over training.