How can I reduce my commute time?

daxplusplus

Evening All,

I commute 3 times a week. Approx 45-50 miles round trip including approx 4,000 ft of climb/descent. Hardly any traffic or reasons to stop. Road surface varies between really fast tarmac to light dusting of gravel and the occassional pot hole.

Average speed varies like crazy but can get be > 20mph for a fair few miles at a time. There's a lot of climbing too.

So .. I want to reduce the amount of time it takes me to commute this and was wondering if upgrading my bog standard Trek 1.5 (fitted with gators) would see me realisticly knocking minutes off my usual commute time.

Usual commute time is approx 1hr 15 minutes.

I'm thinking more aero is the way to go .. handlebar position is pretty aggresive (it's at the point where any lower and it feels like it affects my power output). I'm trying to build up the length of time I can stay on the drops as I'm not yet comfortable on them for more than approx 10 minutes at a time .. although even on the hoods I do drop low too.

Is there anything else I can attempt?

Never tried aero bars .. do they make a big difference?

Lighter more aero wheels perhaps?

Upgrade the entire bike?

Or is really just a fitness/training thing if I want to knock minutes off?

corshamjim

Personally I would (and indeed have done) move house to somewhere closer to work. Good luck to you though.

daxplusplus

It's not that I don't like riding the distance .. it's great. I just want to ride it quicker. Just for the aim of going faster really .. or perhaps extending the distance of the ride on some days.

MichaelW

Aerobars will help if you have long stretches of open road.
If your drops are uncomfortable, consider raising your bars or getting smaller radius compact drop bars (eg: 3ttt ergonova)
Aero wheels only help a lot at very high time trial speeds. Given all the hills and gravels, you are probably better off with a std set of training wheels, ultegra/open pro 32 spoke. These will be durable and maintainable.

saladdays

Your route is hilly? I'd think about different gears, a new cassette or chainset? What's you setup?

meanredspider

I like to do the same thing on my, less substantial but not totally different, commute.

Things I've found helped (measurable difference)
- Tight-fitting clothing
- Quick road bike
- Good shoes
- Fast-rolling tyres (though at the expense of punctures in crappy weather)
- Wider tyres (25c versus 23c) though I'm 93kg

My disc brakes have given me the confidence to descend even faster knowing I can stop. The Volagi is also faster up hills (stiffer? better fit?).

It's certainly worth having a bike fit if you haven't.

Then look at whether you are training optimally for the distance and resting/hydrating/eating properly

daxplusplus

saladdays wrote:

Your route is hilly? I'd think about different gears, a new cassette or chainset? What's you setup?

Yep pretty steep on the way home but TBH I haven't got a problem with the hills in themselves (although the 14% past the Green Dragon is a total bitch) . It's just that I'm vaguelly aware that aero wheels can be heavy so what I might gain in free speed on the descents and flat parts of the "course" I may loose on the climbs.

joshvoulters

Sounds like you're already going pretty fast- just keep doing it, and you'll get quicker.

For a commute, I'd forget about trying to accrue marginal gains through equipment- at the end of the day, you're just trying to get to work. Reliable and trustworthy beats 'a bit quicker'. That means that faster rolling but more puncture prone tyres aren't sensible- one minute saved over your round trip isn't worth the 15 minutes you'll eventually spend changing tubes.

Alternatively, you could go nuts and get one of these: Cervelo R5ca with aerobars & deep wheels - still comes in at c.6.8kg. All yours for a bajillion pounds.



And don't forget to get a pointy hat/ shave all your body hair. However, you might look a bit of a berk when you do get to work (albeit VERY early).

symo

MichaelW wrote:

Aerobars will help if you have long stretches of open road.
If your drops are uncomfortable, consider raising your bars or getting smaller radius compact drop bars (eg: 3ttt ergonova)
Aero wheels only help a lot at very high time trial speeds. Given all the hills and gravels, you are probably better off with a std set of training wheels, ultegra/open pro 32 spoke. These will be durable and maintainable.

Different wheel suggestion here:
Planet x AL30 c's - just got a set, aero profiled 32 spoke and strong.
Planet X also have these which were so good the UCI banned them, which will get you a nice position on long open sections where you can get your head down.

sloppycowpat

^

bet that bike is a b-iach in a cross wind looks rapid though

rolf_f

Equipment won't make that much difference - over an hour, my slick shod MTB is less than 10 minutes slower than my carbon bikes.

Think about it - if you were impressively fast averaging 20 mph, a 2mph increase in speed (ie a hell of a lot) would net you a six minute quicker commute.

The only obvious thing that comes to mind is the climbs. Ultimately, however fast you descend, you'll only save seconds. You can save minutes on the climbs so just get better at climbing. I could suggest a light bike with light, shallow rim (less aero) wheels but even that won't make anywhere near as big a difference as improving the engine.

And of course, the only real way of improving your times is to make sure you do your rides on days when you get a nice tailwind and no headwind. That makes a bigger difference than any new bike might.

daxplusplus

Rolf F wrote:

And of course, the only real way of improving your times is to make sure you do your rides on days when you get a nice tailwind and no headwind. That makes a bigger difference than any new bike might.

Yep for the first time in 70 odd commutes I had a tail wind the other week .. managed the timed part of my 20 mile commute in under an hour .. and that was all down to the tail wind (I mean I was totally knackered as well but the speed difference was down to the wind, not me)

daxplusplus

meanredspider wrote:

- Good shoes
- Fast-rolling tyres (though at the expense of punctures in crappy weather)

Yeah I've been wondering about the shoes .. I've got some cheapy Aldi SPD shoes and especially on the climbs they feel a little flexiable although still a million times better than my old trainers.

As for the tyres - I'm torn a little here. I want speed but I don't like punctures or a tyre that will wear out quickly. I've got gators at the moment, my first set of tyres where the ones that came with the bike and TBH I can't tell the difference in speed .. except that the gators are slippy when the road is damp (wheel spinning up hills so much so that I have to sit on the seat rather than stand) .. doesn't happen when properly wet though. Maybe I'll research my next set of tires and not worry so much about the puncture resistance/longevity.

meanredspider

DaxPlusPlus wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

- Good shoes
- Fast-rolling tyres (though at the expense of punctures in crappy weather)

Yeah I've been wondering about the shoes .. I've got some cheapy Aldi SPD shoes and especially on the climbs they feel a little flexiable although still a million times better than my old trainers.

As for the tyres - I'm torn a little here. I want speed but I don't like punctures or a tyre that will wear out quickly. I've got gators at the moment, my first set of tyres where the ones that came with the bike and TBH I can't tell the difference in speed .. except that the gators are slippy when the road is damp (wheel spinning up hills so much so that I have to sit on the seat rather than stand) .. doesn't happen when properly wet though. Maybe I'll research my next set of tires and not worry so much about the puncture resistance/longevity.

Some shoes with really stiff soles will help power transfer.

I did some tests last summer that showed that 23c GP4000s tyres were 1mph quicker than the same size Gators (on an 18mph avg). I'm running Vittoria Rubino Pros on my Volagi and I'm impressed with the puncture resistance. Might run a back-to-back test with Gators to see which is quicker.

I don't buy the "it's only a ride to work" argument. Just 10 minutes added to my commute would be 1.5 hours a week. Seeing my times come down is really motivating. It's also the basis of SCR and much of Strava. Every little bit helps

daxplusplus

meanredspider wrote:

I did some tests last summer that showed that 23c GP4000s tyres were 1mph quicker than the same size Gators (on an 18mph avg). I'm running Vittoria Rubino Pros on my Volagi and I'm impressed with the puncture resistance. Might run a back-to-back test with Gators to see which is quicker.

- thanks for the data that's exactly the sort of thing I'm interested in. Cheers.

meanredspider wrote:

I don't buy the "it's only a ride to work" argument. Just 10 minutes added to my commute would be 1.5 hours a week. Seeing my times come down is really motivating. It's also the basis of SCR and much of Strava. Every little bit helps

- totally agree. My commute _is_ my cycling and it's f'ing awesome :twisted: .. so much so that although there's a local rideout on a Saturday and occasional sportive's nearby on a Sunday I've yet to make it to any of them partly because of other commitments but mainly becuase I'm invariably knackered from some seriously hard riding during the week. For me it's not just a ride to work .. and the more I do it the more I realise this.

rolf_f

meanredspider wrote:

I did some tests last summer that showed that 23c GP4000s tyres were 1mph quicker than the same size Gators (on an 18mph avg). I'm running Vittoria Rubino Pros on my Volagi and I'm impressed with the puncture resistance. Might run a back-to-back test with Gators to see which is quicker.

I don't buy the "it's only a ride to work" argument. Just 10 minutes added to my commute would be 1.5 hours a week. Seeing my times come down is really motivating. It's also the basis of SCR and much of Strava. Every little bit helps

Ditto re getting the machinery for the job though the time doesn't bother me - it tends to come out of the excess free time I give to work!!

As for tyres - on my Gran Fondo this winter I have been running Durano S - the lightest of the Duranos. I don't think they are any significant amount more puncture prone (ie not a lot) than the standard Duranos I also have. I wouldn't dream of putting Marathons of any description on the bike or even Durano pluses.

The main thing is to keep on maintenance - don't believe all this stuff about tyres getting easier to puncture as they get older; all that is happening is that the glass they have picked up over time is being forced into the kevlar band. The solution is just to keep an eye on the tyres and have occasional sessions picking out the glass shards. I find it quite therapeutic!

meanredspider

Rolf F wrote:

The main thing is to keep on maintenance - don't believe all this stuff about tyres getting easier to puncture as they get older; all that is happening is that the glass they have picked up over time is being forced into the kevlar band. The solution is just to keep an eye on the tyres and have occasional sessions picking out the glass shards. I find it quite therapeutic!

+1 I take some (possibly perverse) satisfaction from pulling out glass chip or a flint that would have eventually holed whatever tyre it was in.

meanredspider

DaxPlusPlus wrote:

- thanks for the data that's exactly the sort of thing I'm interested in. Cheers.

In the same test, I found that 25c gators were 0.5mph quicker than 23c gators for me

DaxPlusPlus wrote:

- totally agree. My commute _is_ my cycling and it's f'ing awesome :twisted: .. so much so that although there's a local rideout on a Saturday and occasional sportive's nearby on a Sunday I've yet to make it to any of them partly because of other commitments but mainly becuase I'm invariably knackered from some seriously hard riding during the week. For me it's not just a ride to work .. and the more I do it the more I realise this.

+1 For me it's a bike ride. I'm fortunate that it gets me to home & back. The only issue I have is that I now only seem to ride at one pace - around threshold. Even on the occasional weekend 2 hour ride I do, I blitz it. Not sure this is going to work well for longer rides I have planned for the warmer months!

tarbot18

Try strava on your android or iphone records all your data etc but compares your times to others to on segments of your journey that others have done or you can make your own segments up. Does wonders for training every commute is now a race for me to beat my own time or others.

daxplusplus

MichaelW wrote:

Aerobars will help if you have long stretches of open road.

Finally tried a set of clip on aero bars on yesterdays commute .. what a revelation.

Not very aggressive position at the moment but even so there's a definite improvement. Makes it either easier to hold a good pace (for me) or makes it possible to really up the speed. Probably more of a difference in terms of speed than when I upgraded my wheels.

Just need my legs to get used to the slightly different pacing it's introduced to my commute but that's not a problem.

Rock on :twisted:

cookeeemonster

so how much extra speed have you managed so far? (or time saved)

daxplusplus

Well I don't have a tracking device so, of course, everything from here on in is conjecture. And I've only just started using them. On the plus side this is over roads I've travelled up and down over 250 times.

So with BS detectors set to the max, I reckon an increase of 2 mph on normal cruising speed. Flat roads, same perceived effort. So for me - roads that I would normally expect to be cruising at 16-18mph have crept upto 18-20mph.

On slight descents I've found the increase to be a little more. For me on roads where I'd expect to be touching approx 25 mph, I'm nearer 28-29 mph. I have hit these increased speeds before on the same roads but only with effort levels being close to maxed out.

One annomoly though - at the end of my commute home last night I tried to push on a stretch of road that I knew I had hit 30 mph on one occasion previously. Didn't happen this time - maxed out a lot earlier on the road at 28 mph. This could have been becuase I was subconiously pushing harder all those previous times that I thought I was putting in the same effort. I don't believe so though .. I reckon the previous 30 mph max was down to me being at a better place in the ride than last night. The extra speed was messing with my pacing for the whole trip .. I was resting on pieces of road that I'd normally be pushing on and going for it on other stretches where I'd normally be cruising.

Oh yeah - I nearly ended up in a hedge once .. turned my head around to see if I was being followed by a car .. the movement feed back to the bars .. que huge wobble.

All in all - they do give me more options (for speed and rest) so we'll see how long I stick with them.

rubertoe

DaxPlusPlus wrote:

Well I don't have a tracking device so, stuff about Speed

How do you know if you don't have anything to track?

daxplusplus

I meant a gps tracking system. I do have a speedo though.

passout

You are right to say use the drops more - that's key.

Tyre choice is a major factor too - makes sure the PSI is right.

I'd only change your wheels if the present ones are heavy in comparison to the rest of your bike but that would be the obvious major upgrade most of the time.

Clean your transmission.

Don't wear any baggy clothing.

Obviously make sure that you warm up properly - a warm up balm may help.

Nutrition is obviously important too - porridge with honey & coffee for breakfast?

Don't get drunk the night before.

Good night sleep (no sex - ever)

Get everything ready the night before!

CiB

Just read through this thinking 'go on get the aero bars on', and you have. Well done.

The comments about it being just the commute miss the mark; like others have said if it's a decent distance like yours is then the ride to work is the bike ride; different if you're only doing 6 or 7 miles but 20+ miles means you want it to be right.

Your speed improvements tally with mine - over a 21 mile undulating commute with only 2 or 3 places where it's necessary to slow down my usual PB is just around the hour mark. Fitting the aerobars shaves about 3 minutes off, and it's noticeable that shifting from the drops to full tuck on the bars gives 2-3mph improvement, and vice versa. Aeros will make a difference if you have the sort of run where you can make use of them.

Tyres - Mich Pro 3 are good - I rarely puncture with those, the last being when I was nudged onto a pothole at 30+mph and had a pinch flat. That apart they seem v good but that may be due to knowing the route inside out so avoiding holes and being rural there's no glass etc to bother with.

+1 for getting a bike fit too - that transformed mine from a good bike to being an extension of my limbs; when you're as one with it everything just works.

daxplusplus

CiB wrote:

+1 for getting a bike fit too - that transformed mine from a good bike to being an extension of my limbs; when you're as one with it everything just works.

.. reckon your right. For instance my drops consistently aggreviate my back. Where as the aero bars much less so. It probably means I need to go for a shallower set of bars. But can't afford one of those at the mo.

Curious to know how much these bike fits tend to cost?

As for the aero bars they really are great fun. Bolt on speed is lovely when it works. It'll be a shame to hand 'em back to their owner but he's still out of the country at the moment so it doesn't have to be right away. Actually they aren't the right size for me and my bike - too stubby for my liking. Would be more comfortable if they where slightly longer. But hey - at least I now know what they are all about.

CiB

DaxPlusPlus wrote:

Curious to know how much these bike fits tend to cost?

£80 a couple of years ago (Mar 2010) and it was the best £80 I've ever spent on biking stuff. I've spent better bigger numbers but that was the best £80.

Fits pop up on here every so often and they seem to be about £100 - £150 depending on the type of fit you go for.

cookeeemonster

CiB wrote:

DaxPlusPlus wrote:

Curious to know how much these bike fits tend to cost?

£80 a couple of years ago (Mar 2010) and it was the best £80 I've ever spent on biking stuff. I've spent better bigger numbers but that was the best £80.

Fits pop up on here every so often and they seem to be about £100 - £150 depending on the type of fit you go for.

I think condor still do them for £80 - only about an hour though, don't know if its any good or not.

wastegate86

pedal faster!
also make sure your tyres have high pressure

daxplusplus

.. resurrection time.

I've gotten into TTs since this thread started and, to get the miles in on the my new (2nd hand) TT bike, I tried it on the commute.

It went well: http://www.strava.com/activities/143963872