Bike is very hard to peddle.
chippie_chappie
Posts: 27
in Workshop
Hi, My Felt VR3 seems very hard to peddle since I've started riding it again. It was last serviced in May 2020. It has been ridden about 6 times since that service. The two times I rode it in the summer it was fine but since I've started riding it again in Late October it just feels extremely sluggish and very very hard work on the hills. Even a slight rise feels like a mountain forcing me to stand and peddle it never used to be like this. I changed the tyres to some Pirelli Cinturato velo which according to bicycle tyre rolling resistance website have a rolling resistance of 15.4 watts at 120 psi but nobody runs their tyres at 120 psi do they? So being as they are tubeless you are supposed to run them at 86 psi so the rolling resistance is probably closer to 18 watts. The tyres I was running before were Schwalbe one v guard with a rolling resistance of 12.2 watts could this be the reason for the downgrade in performance ? My summer bike which is a Giant Defy advanced pro 0 it has a compact 50/34 crank and a 11/32 cassette my Felt VR3 has a 46/30 crank and a 11/36 cassette and it harder up the hills than the Giant why is that ? It doesn't make sense to me. I bought it for hilly rides and it's harder so it's defeating the object of why I bought it in the first place. Any advice would be very much appreciated thankyou.
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Lift the bike and try to spin the wheels, if they spin freely, then it's just your form that has deteriorated since May... if they don't spin freely, find out why they don't... maybe they catch in the brake pads, or against one of the tubes of the frame or something
Like I said the only change I have made is changing the tyres from the schwalbe one v guards to the Pirelli Cinturato velo ones. The Pirellis are a very heavy duty winter tyre about 17 to 18 watts rolling resistance at 86 psi where the Schwabe ones are 12.2 watts at 100 psi. I am a regular cyclist I'm used to riding 200+ miles a week in the summer and I do around 13 to 14 centuries each summer so I don't think I'm out of condition and I have to fight tooth and nail to get to even 14.2 mph average normally j would be around 15.2 mph so I'm at least 1 mph down on my average speed.
Marin Nail Trail
Cotic Solaris
More seriously I doubt you're noticing a ~6w difference in rolling resistance from the tyres. What was your average speed before and what is it now?
If the wheels turn freely, what about the pedals? If you lift up the back of the bike can you turn them easily with a hand?
- Dolan Tuono
IMO Winter is about getting the miles done and sticking to some kind of training plan, not smashing out PR's on Strava.
If you do that you'll be flying again next Spring/summer.
If it helps, I read something once about the air being more dense in winter which contributes to slower speeds. Also there's less grip on the roads so you can't corner as quickly.
Re the front spin with your hand and again check the same
If its all spinning freely then its not the wheels/brakes so the logical conclusion after that would possibly be a rusty / old chain causing friction or tyres
Also lets not forget that you said you 'started riding again' if you have been off the bike for a while it will have a massive effect. I know this to my cost , my riding has dropped of a cliff since me and the missus had a baby in Jan (zero time to ride) and now I can barely average 15mph on a 1 hour ride (a year ago I was 18mph avg)
Not sure where you had your bike serviced but bear in mind bike servicing done at somewhere like halfords will literally be squirting WD-40 onto the chain and giving the bike a wipe with a rag (I have witnessed them do this) where as a proper LBS will adjust brakes / check chain / freehub etc.
Everywhere has good mechanics and bad mechanics, some places are great, some trash.
Halfords or a “proper” lbs are no different.
Some of the disasters I have seen coming out of “proper” lbs’, some of the good stuff from Halfords etc.
I’d be intrigued to see you say what you posted above to a decent Halfords mechanic.
Clubbies, eh....
#ooooh,bethe’sinaclub
#fastchaingang
Mrs Totale bought a new bike from Halfords last week, a Boardman ADV 8.9.
The front brake lever had quite a lot of travel, the Halfords mechanics were happy to rebleed it there and then and also adjusted the reach for her smaller hands. Brakes are working lovely now.
They gave everything else a proper once over and having run my eye over it everything seems good.
Throughout the whole thing they couldn't have been more helpful, for example they were happy to hold the bike for her until she came down to the shop and could try it, it also meant she could use her BC discount as you can only use that instore. That's despite these bikes selling like hot cakes meaning they could have easily told her to shove off and order it online.
Contrast that to some of the 'work' that has been done at some independent shops that I'll never return to, I've had bikes return with rounded off bolts, gears functioning worse than before...
#clubbies,eh
Let's say that if you go to Condor, you are unlikely to get a bad job on your bike, but otherwise... I've eaten in some seriously bad independent restaurants... worst of all was in Bethune, France
#Rollingthedice
#itsfiddly,notdifficult
I am not sure. You have no chance.
Felt Z6 2012
Red Arthur Caygill steel frame
Tall....
www.seewildlife.co.uk
Have a play around with this:
http://bikecalculator.com/examples.html
The drop in temperature has as big an impact as the 8 watt difference in tyres according to this.