The neutral water stop at mile 100 looked like a pop up army medical station with bodies strewn everywhere
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Airliners and pathfinder pros mounted up really nicely on 25ID rims, 2oz Stans race fluid.
Iāll get hub greased back up and install tomorrow.
Killing my aero gains
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Nice thing about the DT Swiss hubs is you donāt have to worry about a pawl springing out and getting lost on the floor. 
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Interesting day. 42cm pathfinders seem like a great tire, ran 23psi on the front and 25psi rear. I could feel the compression of the tire on the road, on gravel it floated perfectly.
Knocked out 6 hour 20min on the saddle today on gravel with 10k feet of climbing. Need to lower my pacing more. Hoping next saturday to have it better dialed in.
Iām 160 and run 35 rear 30 front with 44mm tires. And 22/20 on 2.3/2.4ā MTB tires.
Unless you are very light, 25/23 is quite low for 42mm gravel tires. Iād be concerned about pinch flats at those pressures.
Yeah. I miss read enves website. Tire Pressure - ENVE
I liked 25psi, didnāt like 23 psi felt squishy and 27psi felt stiff. Iām running Vitoria gravel inserts. I have a small section or road I am going to go test at, In the coming weeks. It felt good, I never bottomed out the entire ride. I didnāt feel it roll over on corners, never felt bumpy and didnāt feel compression while going up or down hill. Tad concerned about the loss of pressure in the rear.
@DaveWh is your pump giving you the correct pressure? I think you could go lower pressure. Enve says on a 25id 24psi on a 44mm tire and 32psi for 21id.
emphasized text
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Thatās a dialed looked bike.
Regarding tire pressure, at 185lb/84kg Iām running 40psi in my 43c (which measure 45mm) Gravel Kings and find that is a perfect amount of pressure for gravel and hard pack.
I run 50-55 psi on my 32c (35mm measured) Specialized Roubaix Pros which I ride gravel on.
Iāve never ridden on Kansas gravel/rock, but where Iām from (MN) those pressures are perfect.
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Ah yes - I missed this in your earlier posts. Makes sense you can run lower pressures with inserts.
Is that data from something like tire wiz? Pretty cool. 2 psi loss in 5 hours translates to maybe 8-10 psi over 24 hrs? Itās possible that may stop after a few more rides as the sealant does itās job.
But if not, would be something to investigate further. Unbound is a long ride. Donāt want to be messing about reinflating tires unless you really need to!
I have used the same pump for 10 years. Itās like power meters - consistency is more important than accuracy. I did check it a few years ago vs a pencil pressure gauge, and IIRC, they measured āabout the sameā at ~25 psi - close enough where it didnāt raise enough questions For me to dig more.
But I should do a more robust comparison vs other sources, as this pump is ending its useful life, and when I switch, Iāll need to check itās pressure reading vs whatever Iām switching to.
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I wish they had a metric to say these inserts will take up 4psi of air volume. I did some research and no one really has something measurable like that.
Yeah knowing what you like on your pump matters more then knowing what pressure your really at.
That was the first ride on the tire set up. Maybe Iāll add more sealant. Ran 2oz
Tire data is from tirewiz, it really makes dialing in pressure easy. You can make small changes and most of the time 1-3psi is all you need. Also when youāre riding you can see the pressure. Itās weird when you go from 40-80 and see pressure go up 4psi
Yeah. Temp vs pressure gets more important the lower you go in pressure. Itās is super important fat biking. A change of 2psi on a 4 psi base makes a huge difference!
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Knocking out a few final purchases.
- Tire patch, if the sidewall blows out, told this is needed.
- 4 16oz co2
- Ordered a pump that does co2 also, so no need for co2 thingy.
- velcro straps since the frame tubes are so big the top tube bags straps dont work.
- 4 new tubes
I wont be carrying all of this stuff, but wanted to half extras
pending
- derailleur hanger - want to replace that since it was bent when i dropped my bike
- ordered a skinsuit from bioracer, its been 3 weeks, they have yet to ship it. Sounds like ill be sticking to the stuff I wear this weekend.
If itās useful I made this spreadsheet anyone could copy. It letās me tweak pacing, nutrition and hydration to attempt to plan what to bring during each leg of the ride.
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I wanted to try fastest bike split but its $20 a month.
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After taking another complete week off, I did 60mi today. Felt good through 50 then hit the wall. Doing a recovery ride tomorrow, then starting back with my plan on Tuesday. Hopefully I loosen up and feel better by then but at this point I have to consider bumping my entry to 2022. I really donāt want to DNF due to fitness and having missed the better part of the past month, I fear thatās exactly where I am. It is what it is and thereās lots of other races this year to take part in. Maybe I come around and this anxiety is all for naught, but I have to face my reality and soon.
Sometimes you have to make a decision thatās best for you when you asses where your fitness is
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Ohh snap, its coming like a freight train.
Saturday I talked 4 friends into knocking out 160 miles on the road, my unbound dryrun. I set my Unbound rig up like I was doing unbound. Start of the ride it was 50, I over dressed., and 1 hour in ended up with my hydration pack full of clothes and no fluid. No fluid was part of the plan, but how I felt was not part of the plan.
4 hours 20 min in we had covered the 85 miles and 6000ā of climbing. I was feeling great, but some issues were starting to set in. I had not consumed a bunch of fluids prior to the ride so I wouldnāt be the whole ride and the temp was up to 70 and not a cloud in the sky. My numbers were right on target, we stopped for lunch and I ate rice like I want to eat for unbound, but it just sat in my belly.
Next hour I felt good, and power was not an issued, but the twinge in my legs was starting to become stronger. Up some 400ā climb it caught up with me, leg cramps. I did not drink enough fluid and only ran 1g of salt per 32oz bottle. The rest of the ride was me trying to work on the flats and limit power out put on climbs. All in all a great day.
Lesson
- Will run 2 32oz bottles and 1 bottle in jersey for start of unbound. One of those 32oz bottles will just be water and salt.
- Eat more solid foods earlier in the ride, I went right into gels and blocks and by hour four, I didnt want to eat those any more.
- More salt in my drinks, I might run closer to 1500mg per 16oz. I am big and I sweat A LOT. my black jersey was white and my hydration pack had white stains all over it.
This was my first hot day training, only my 2nd day outside without leg warmers on. I have been doing my training rides in the basement with no fan, but it doesnāt make up for the fluid loss. Also tried to run 660 cals per 32 bottle with gels and stuff I lost the ability to digest and really wasnāt able to drink or eat anything. If this was unbound I would have still finished.
I will be re thinking an aero helmet also.
Nothing on this ride was different then any of my other training rides but the heat. My pacing was slower in fact. I feel like this was a great ride since I know there are a few things I need to be more diligent on.
Time to knock out some intervals this week. Saturday they are calling for 90 degree day and I have a 120k gravel race. The people at this race can fly, also hilly and a few people beat me by 10min in the past race, so I might just turn it into my own Unbound pacing day again.
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Not sure what you want to carry for solid food, but Pop-Tarts are sugar bombs (70g carb for 2) and work really well for me. Kind of hard to eat while on the fly, so maybe Skratch bars would be better/easier?
Regardless, it can be tricky to unwrap and eat while on gravel. I would consider eating something right before rollout.
I might try snickers or something.
I have made rice bars and was unable to eat those in a gravel race, that was an interesting race.