It’s been awhile since I’ve posted.  Life’s got in the way, but in that time I’ve gone out and put some  oval chainrings on my bike.  Apparently they are good for dodgy knees.  The technology has been around for a 100 years and if they’re good enough for Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins to win Grand Tours on –  they can’t be all bad.  Mind you, maybe they go better with some asthma medication in your system!  Jokes aside, I saw this ad on Facebook for some oval chainrings, did a load of research and decided to jump on.

The premise is that during the weakest part of your pedal stroke ( think when the pedals are at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock ), you are pedalling a smaller chainring and during the strongest section ( think 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock ), you’re pedalling a larger chainring.  Therefore you get more bang for your buck at all times.   Amateurs, which most of us are, have a very inefficient pedal stroke.  We tend to pedal in squares.  Pro’s pedal in a circular action, which is more efficient.  These oval chainrings improve the efficiency of your strokes by making it more circular – go figure – and allow the cyclist to produce 10% more power (give or take) by virtue of broadening the muscles that you use thus meaning less work for your legs, reducing heart rate and improving ventilation, etc. etc.

Cutting to the chase.  How’d I go?  Well I haven’t been on the bike seriously for good month or two due to work,  study, holidays, the bloody winter lurgy and life – so I guess my conditioning isn’t great, but today I did a short 18 km’s from Greenvale to Poytons in Essendon.  It felt very cruisy.   Yes, it’s mainly downhill and for the first time, I did it all by road.  Mickleham, Melrose Drive, Keilor Rd, Coopers St and finally The Boulevard in Essendon.  Always a great destination, particularly for a reintroduction onto the bike.

My heart rate was a little over 8% less than average (not bad considering I haven’t shaken the lurgy) and my average moving speed was the second fastest I’ve done on a single ride (33kmh).  So, for a sample of one, I think they’ve come up trumps.  I was expecting the pedalling to be a bit lumpy, but it felt …. normal.

Check out the ride

Oh.  There was an important variable that I’ve left out.  The wind was right in my back.   A strong northerly.  Blowing at 44 kmh.  The cycling gods were smiling.  Athletics would deem it an illegal wind.   You be the judge.  🙂 I’ll keep you posted as the sample grows.

Happy Father’s Day to all.  Happy Birthday Dad.

Now.  Where is that inhaler!