Sweden N-S (July 6 - 11)

Velocivixen

Velocivixen

Well-Known Member
Have a wonderful & safe adventure! I notice a few Finlanders entered into the race (I’m Finnish), so I will be supporting the motherland, as well as you two. Cheers!
 
DavidCH

DavidCH

In thought; expanding the paradigm of traversity
Oh gosh... it looks epic. I will support you from Spain. Maybe Larry, you can give us a run down on your bike setup. Amazing cda with all those bags. Clearly a very cleverly designed bike
 
DavidCH

DavidCH

In thought; expanding the paradigm of traversity
LarryOz said:
Tor Hovland and I will join about 100+ other riders in riding Sweden N-S in July. While Tor is an accomplished randonneur (as many have seen his great videos) - PBP, this Sweden ride 2 years ago, and many others - this is my first attempt at anything like this! We signed up for the "fast" group which has a 150 hour time limit to complete - the other groups leave 1 day and 2 days before us. That way we have people to chase. The record is something just over 101 hours. Tor thought we could probably break 100 hours if the weather was nice and we rode really hard with little sleep. However after talking about it, we both decided it would be much more enjoyable if we did it more like a tour and made sure to take breaks during the day (to smell the roses), and also get 6 hours or sleep in a real bed at night. Tor has graciously already made reservations for us along the way based on that scenario

To make the trip I purchased Jim Parker's Citron V20 when he moved up to his V20C. Since Tor's V20 is also the Citron color I thought it would be really cool to have a matching pair for the ride (maybe mine can learn through osmosis!)

To get ready for this event I have been riding about 800-900 miles weekly (mostly on my indoor trainer) - and building the V20 up for the task. This has taken longer than anticipated as part of the challenge of this ride is that it is self-supported (like all randonneuring) - therefore we must take all our clothing, drink, food, tools, etc) with us. This means basically outfitting the V20 to a "hopefully" high-speed touring Recumbent.

Based on suggestions from Tor and his past experience - I needed to add large bags (about 7 liters each) under the seat on both sides and under the frame between the wheels. Also above the front wheel under the boom - and also a rear case of some kind.

To make this all work I decided to put a long chainstay (21.5") so I could get a larger bag above the wheel.
This caused my BB to be higher so I also dropped the curved slider as it was too low and caused my handlebars to trap my legs more.

To make matters even more complicated when I installed the wonderful new Race Cage on my stock headrest - the bottom of it hit my rear wheel - this is because I am so short the headrest is pushed way into the back of the frame to fit me nice - Therefore I needed to pull the headrest out about 3" to raise the cage up so it cleared the wheel. This caused me to not be able to use the stock headrest if I wanted to use the Race Cage. So I installed the suspension adjustable headrest (which felt really nice) - but then the Race Cage was about 3" above my shoulder causing a huge aero problem.

So I decided to install the Cruzbike Adjustable Carbon Fiber Seat and Headrest - I'll have to admit - I was never a big fan of this seat as it really curved up at the top and stuck the head and shoulders up way higher than the stock seat did for me. But I will have to say after installing it - I really like it - and with all the other adjustments I made (longer chainstay (so higher BB), straight slider (so higher hands) - I think I was able to move the disrupted air (hole) higher so there was not quite as high a penalty for my head and shoulders being higher now.

I am still not as fast as I am on my stock V20 seat, stock headrest, 19.5" chainstay, and curved slider) - but it is close enough for randonneuring! Plus it allowed me to use the new Race Cage too - so I have the carrying capacity I need.

Another thing I found out is that I really like the headrest (both the suspension adjustable one) and the one that comes with the Cruzbike Adjustable Carbon Fiber Seat. The reason I love it now is that the pad fits nicely on my neck and also exerts a gentle pressure on my head that pushes it forward and more level (so I am looking more straight ahead - therefore more aero).

Here is a picture of my Citron V20 with all my bags on it - and loaded up. The entire V20 now weighs in at 50 lbs with the bags and all the gear. What a beast!
View attachment 17200View attachment 17199

I took it out today for a test Century (with segments at different power levels) - Yes, this is what I do! - to see what kind of speed to power ratios I have now with all the weight and also all the bags (as I know it is not at aero as before). After my Century I was quite pleased with the initial results!

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/11549188712/

I rode my standard 10.8 mile out and back loop for the testing - I marked 5-mile segments within each out and back - and ran those segments at different power levels. I started at 150W (2.5 W/Kg for me), and reduced 5W each succeeding loop (for 9 loops) until I reached 110W (1.83 W/Kg) - Here are my results. I think these results are awesome considering my head and shoulders are 2-3" higher than they used to be and I have 5 bags attached various places and stuffed full- adding at least 25 lbs to the empty V20. Even at 110W I am able to average above 20 mph!

FYI: If you even come work with me on aero testing - this is what we do!
View attachment 17201
Windsock gave me a 0.165 CdA for the entire ride -
View attachment 17202
Click to expand...
800-900 miles a week!

Might you have overdone your training programme? I can't even get my head around it. Gale must be able to get a sleep in and hand you a new set of bottles for breakfast
 
DavidCH

DavidCH

In thought; expanding the paradigm of traversity
I took a look at previous years. If you go hell for leather with little sleep , you will find a lot of garages shut so stock up with nuts. Sleeping on a hard surface for a couple of hours a night doesn't seem that enjoyable. I guess it depends if you want to set a record.

Enjoy the Reindeers

 
DavidCH

DavidCH

In thought; expanding the paradigm of traversity
I don't think they are breaking records as they are on the old v20s. I guess you could call it an epic life experience. Not many can say they rode the whole of Sweden after recovering from such a condition. I think its absolutely epic!
 
B

Beano

Well-Known Member
Chapeau to both.

For Tor it's another brevet added to a distinguished palmarès of brevets having being ridden and completed.

For Larry, you're never to old to do your first brevet and is the ultimate flex.

Cyclist: You ever done any brevets Larry?
Larry: Eh, just the one.
Cyclist: Yeah?
Larry: Yeah, 2200km covering the length of Sweden #Justeasy.

Again chepeau to both yous, seriously well done.
 
LarryOz

LarryOz

Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Day 5 Tor-Larry.jpgWow - I have been home a whole week - I have been diligently working on the ride report since I returned. Turns out it took as long to write it as it did to do the ride (a little longer actually)- thanks to Tor for his notes, and both sets or our pics to jog this 64 year old memory.

Here is my link to the ride - enjoy and be forgiving of any typos please! :)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...rQI7sowltOWQMySGIlLkKm_CYAE1SKB8bbXSj9xHm/pub

I'll be working on a video next - I have 12+ hours of video I took - I tried to turn the 360 camera on every 30 minutes and give an update as to how far we had gone that day and what has happened so far. It will probably take me another week or more to process all that footage.
 
Andreas

Andreas

Active Member
LarryOz said:
Here is my link to the ride - enjoy and be forgiving of any typos please! :)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...rQI7sowltOWQMySGIlLkKm_CYAE1SKB8bbXSj9xHm/pub
Click to expand...
Wow, I’ve only made it to the middle of Wednesday so far (have to read the rest later), but I’m already deeply impressed.
Not only did you start with brevets at 2,100 km (75% more than my longest), but the rain god also added an extra challenge.
I’ve been riding brevets since 2016, but I can only remember 3 where it rained for several hours.
The sauna must have felt like paradise. Or was it just for the clothes?

You guys are heroes!
 
LarryOz

LarryOz

Cruzeum Curator & Sigma Wrangler
Andreas said:
The sauna must have felt like paradise. Or was it just for the clothes?
Click to expand...
Yeah, the sauna was just for the clothes - there was really no "extra" time for that - we were so focused on getting to bed and sleep at the time
 
SteveY

SteveY

Member
Thanks for sharing the story of the trip. You both showed incredible perseverance and some bullheadedness to complete the trip. I am grateful you both made it safely (besides Larry's bruises).
 
C

cpml123

Zen MBB Master
LarryOz said:
Here is my link to the ride - enjoy and be forgiving of any typos please! :)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...rQI7sowltOWQMySGIlLkKm_CYAE1SKB8bbXSj9xHm/pub
Click to expand...
That was a great write up! Such an amazing ride @LarryOz and @Tor Hovland !
3 friends and I finished a 400 mi around western WA Olympic peninsula a couple weeks ago. I was debating whether to use my V20 or S40. I am glad I took the S40. The total bike weight was around 55 lb. I was able to stay upright at around 3.5 mph going steep uphill as opposed to a minimum 5 mph on a V20 before I would flop over. The weather was much better... between 60-90 deg F and sunny everyday. We took 5 days and stayed in hotels. Too old to rough it in the rain or camping. :) The only scary part was frequent giant tractor trailers pulling loads of logs passing by at 60 mph.

By the way @LarryOz , how did you stitch your multiple day Strava rides together? I couldn't find that function in Strava.
 
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