Would that it were so, but take the relationship out of it, and you have the classic situation of a rider trying to improve while regularly riding out of their comfort zone by trying to keep up with stronger cyclist - there’s yet another “I can’t keep up with my club ride” thread active at the moment.
The best way to improve is to train with TR workouts and have easy pace group rides, so the best thing that can be done is either you don’t ride with her, or you ride up those hills when she’s at her endurance effort level.
Maybe you do this already, but that’s the way.
Or fit tyres too big for your bike so they’re rubbing the whole way like I did for 2019.
Completely missed your previous answer.
That’s incredibly useful info and something I can work with. Thank you for that.
You also taught me something about gears too which is an added bonus
If compatible why don’t you just swap the Crankset and potentially chain over?
If they’re both Shimano it’s a $1 tool plus an Allen key/torque wrench and about 5mins effort.
Also assuming this would be a temporary measure to ride together.
I highly doubt you are dropping your wife because of your gearing. In my team we have a very fit woman. According to a team mate, she ran a 3-hour marathon, which would qualify her for the Boston Marathon — as a man. But she weighs about 50ish kilos and women have less muscle mass as a percentage of body weight. So even though relatively speaking, she’s better than me, on 4-hour rides I can drop her with little to no effort. Even on the climbs where she is strongest, relatively speaking, I’m faster.
IMHO you should ride differently if your objective is to ride with your wife. E. g. I would try to limit my power to Z2, even on climbs. And you could wait on top of climbs. Mountain bikers do that all the time (at least this has been my experience).
Also this is an option. Or you could limit yourself to the small ring on the flats. In any case, if I were to ride with my wife, I’d focus on enjoying the ride with her.
To be honest, I am struggling how to include my team mate on rides, because she is way too fast to ride with the slow group and can’t keep up with us on the fast group.
I know lots of couples with a big difference in ability/fitness on different rigs that manage to ride together successfully. The trick is for the stronger rider to reign in it. It’s that simple. Press on the pedals as softly as you can, even if it means crawling up a hill like it’s a track stand competition. It can be done and you’ll improve your bike handling skills in the process. Best of luck if you do go for the cassette change but I don’t think it’s the magic wand you’re looking for.
It’s not something I have considered but I am far from technical on a bike. I can see me buggering both bikes up with my DIY skills and then not cycling at all lol.
The idea of swapping bikes was to bring us closer together on the flat…i.e. make me a little slower and make her more efficient. I already reign in my speed, (not that I am particularly fast) on the flats and then we usually rides hills on our own.
I have been doing a Polarised plan so Z2 on the larger zone model) work is useful for me with hills used as my Z3 (on the three zone model).
So swapping bikes on the flat worked well. We were much closer and all great…until she hits a sharp hill and just doesn’t have the leg strength to turn the gears without the higher number of teeth she is accustomed to.
It’s almost a pointless thread because my wife and I cycle 99% of our time together so what am I really trying to get fitter for? I can only cycle at her pace but you always want to feel those hours on the indoor trainer over winter are there to help you get fitter in the long term, (so pride or justification). I’m always slightly torn between trying to get as fit as I can (definitely ego) and accepting we cycle as a team so just get fit enough.
My wife makes cycling way more fun so I’m not saying I am being a martyr. She is a top woman and if anyone is ever going to get a top 10 or KOM on Strava it sure as hell isn’t me! lol
The cassette was just one option and one I wanted to understand better because of my very limited knowledge.
We have some cycle trips planned together but I find once my cadence drops to about 55rpm, my knees start playing up. My wife has more gears on the big hills so can spin a little more if we cycle those together.
At present I give her a head start and then try to guess when we will come together. If I get it right, we join back up about 3/4 way up the hill and then cycle that together. If I get it wrong, I either never see her or I whip past her at the half way point and just keep riding my pace.
Don’t get me wrong, on ramps and undulating roads, she is way way better than me. I give a monster kick and hammer it over those then turn around and she’s sitting quite happily behind me lol. My top end power is poor so I think I just suit longer hills with a steady lower cadence and she suits short bursts of power.
Horses for courses so to speak and this question was just on how we got closer on those longer hills.
Stupid question: why do you say that increasing your performance is an ego trip? Keeping you healthy and letting you do something you enjoy is a good in and of itself. If you are healthier, on average, you tend to live longer, which is a plus for your spouse. In my case, time on the trainer also serves as therapy and makes me more balanced. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be faster.
Ok, this is a red flag. Then this means your gearing is way too hard and you should definitely change your front chain rings in addition to getting a cassette with a wider range. If you are ok with pedaling up to 55 km/h, then 46/30 chainrings with a 11-32 or 11-36 (SRAM) cassette would be a good combo. And you’d still be able to hang with friends on group rides. You might even go lower than that.
(For comparison, I have a 1x setup on my road bike with a 42-tooth chainring and a 10-36 cassette. So my top gear is equivalent to 46:11 = 4.2 = 42:10. I can pedal up to 60 km/h quite easily. I have no problem sticking to the fast group on group rides in terms of gearing.)
I agree. The gearing is a problem and will need to change the chain rings and maybe cassette to deal with it. If you and/or your wife can’t do the climbs at the speed you need to ride on this bike because your cadence gets super low, there’s no solutions other than getting much stronger, altering the gearing or walking.
If you’re not real technical, then work with a bike shop to explore your options and do the swap.
I suggest to get down to a 0.95 or lower lowest gear. It will be a huge benefit over your 1.2 you have now.
I only say it’s ego as health can be gained without performance increase. I maintain health through how I eat and my training so the performance desire is a little ego. But everyone has an ego to some degree
Thanks for the info regarding chainrings.
I think it may be a matter of we just keep our bikes and ride separately on steeper hills. My bike was recently serviced and that took a while to get in with the mechanic as it’s now officially cycling weather for everyone and now everyone needs their bike looked at lol.
I think I may return to this thread latter part of the year and look for next year’s events and then look at swapping chainrings plus chain plus cassette.
But your input has been amazing and I really thank you for that. Really good info and has helped me when I didn’t understand this. Much appreciated buddy
As long as your ego is about benign things like there where you are in competition with yourself, pfft. And while cycling is not a cheap hobby, to quote my wife and sponsor “At least you are not into cars.”
In the mountain biking world it is completely accepted that people climb at their own speed and you wait for the other at the top or at some prominent point (in case this is a long hill). It’s not common among roadies in my experience, but this could also be a solution — provided your wife is cool with that and doesn’t see this as “riding by herself”.
At the end of the day, I get the impression that you cycle with your wife, because both of you like cycling together. Do whatever emphasizes this aspect. (What a great match, I might add!)
