Dont underestimate slow tires haha. I think you can definitely get tires that will get you to 150-200 watts sitting at 13-15 mph.
Swap your sealant for a litre or two of water.
Is there a young one @BrianSpang ? Perhaps you could take them out, a tag along/ trailer. My mate who was relatively weak before the birth of his kid according to my other mates has got really strong. He puts it down to towing the kid.
Tires are a good place to look to slow down. But you probably wonāt see much more than 30-40W at worst. Some of the bigger things to do would to wear baggy clothes and unzip them, sit upright, etc. But even then, if youāre decently fast and sheās not then youāll probably just have to accept that youāll be doing less power than you might otherwise want.
However, endurance benefits can be found at shockingly low power outputs so I wouldnāt worry too much. Some of the best things I do when riding with my wife are to have her drive to the trail and I leave a little early and ride there. That way I still get the training benefit and I worry a little less about my workout when Iām with her.
Yeah, thatās a great way to a LOT of resistance. But the kids are all grown and weāre slowly settling into empty nesthood.
Towing an empty trailer would not be cool, Iām trying to be subtle here ![]()
Set up your brake to drag or use a bent rim .
Swap wheels with whatever you are riding.
Swapping for my wheels and tires is a pretty good (and inexpensive) idea. Iāve actually been thinking of that in the last half hour or so.
Slow tires, baggy clothes, upright riding position, make your brakes rub.
Hot takes on the podcast someone asked about this
@Jonathan said itās a rocky Balboa way of training, and donāt do it
Link to pic reference above:
Thank you, it starts at 1:10:25 on the YouTube video.
Yeah that Rocky Balboa method would freak me out too. All of a sudden youāre on a rocket, and possibly in a bunch.
Yes, itās also worth noting ivy said when she utilized this method the handling felt off. That is a big downside.
What are the SLOWEST tires available? Probably theseā¦
Donāt know if youāll have enough clearance but you can probably find these on sale around $5k each.
Definitely run tubeless with lots of sealant, flats can ruin a ride. ![]()

I did something similar. Bought my wife a reasonably prices bike, then put a set of older Carbon Hunt wheels with Rene Herse tires. HUGE improvement.
OK, I get that hot take and think they made the right basic call there. But the OP above is sort of looking at this in a different light to my reading. I have definitely chosen to ride a āslow bikeā on a group ride as a bit of an equalizer. I think there are definitely use cases where it can make sense.
I know itās not in the cards for the OP, but my wife bought a Specialized Turbo Vado SL and it works great for getting her on the bike and riding with me. We can even do intervals together - itās that fast - plus it broadcasts power info over ANT, so she can track the workout! Bought on sale, it was ~$3000 and that included the range extender, which we use for longer rides and overnight bikepacking.

