Nice!  I've been looking at upgrading my cooling setup.  Right now I've got one of those big Lasko fans that just blows a ton of air, but not very directionally.  How well can you aim the airflow from that fan vs just blowing in a general area?

Its stream of air is super well defined, and easy to aim. One of the reasons I got it, is that it appears to have more flexibility in adjusting the up/down that some similar competitors than don't pivot (those have legs/peg every 45ish degrees or so, this one pivots with some clicks)

I'm coming from an old basic Holmes "Blizzard" fan, sure feels like the Lasko blows not only about 20 thousands times more air, but it is super sharply defined where it blows. ie. big improvement for me, your mileage might vary

If I get a second one, I would put one on the left and another on the right, and have one hit a little higher (torso, face, head) and the other maybe slightly lower (abs, core, legs) 

@eloy

 Love the thought of the remote.  I set my fan on medium, and if I chill the room (aka open the window) before the start, my opening minutes sometimes necessitate a sweater.

How much a difference is the low from the high on the setup?  How many stops in between.  And, how loud?  

@mugwump

Same, I usually pedal ten minutes or so before turning on the fan. This is the little power remote I got. It is just on/off but works for me. 

The loudness is not too bad, seems honestly manageable, and kinds white noiseish but the fan is certainly the loudest part of the set up, including the bike (but not the music  )

By low to the high you mean the speed of the fan? It has 3 speeds. So far, I just run it at the top speed, and can turn on/off as needed. Else if you mean the position, it is pretty wide and adjustable. 

hope this helps!

I may need this

I have two Vornado's; one on the floor and one on the pedestal. Cranked to max they aren't too loud and they seem to get the job done. The only problem is that anything I use as a sweat catcher obstructs the flow of air.

Shane Miller's 7 year old tips on fans
-- TLDR: The main takeaway is that while intuition is to put them in front, two on the sides is better + a remote to turn on/off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1JHhHxDVQ0

DC's battle of the super fans much more recent... 
-- TLDR: These super fans are amazing, but fans like the lasko I got (he has it in the video) do everything we likely really need.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm_B21-7KJA

On a another note. Rain for the forecast tomorrow, so setting a zwift meetup to ride zone 2 as a group. 

Sunday January 28th 8am 9am EST.

You must follow me on zwift and let me know here so I can invite you.

Moving the meetup above to 9am

Which lasko?

Jules said:

Which lasko?

https://forum-archive.kissenacycling.com/discussion/1204-p41.html#Comment_122180

I have been riding indoors more often this year and have been using a big box fan set up close to head on for as long as I have ridden indoors. After reading the discussions above and watching the GPLama I added a cheap small fan aimed at my head and put both fans ahead of me to the right and left of me.

It's unbelievable how much of a difference this makes. I am no longer sweating profusely. I used to have to wipe my forehead every few minutes with any effort above endurance. I can't believe how long it took me to discover this.

Now I just have to figure out how ERG mode works. I never use it because when I do I almost always end up spinning away in a 53x11 or if I stop to take a phone call I suddenly feel like I am climbing a 30 percent grade just to get started again. I am sure I am doing it wrong, but seems like more trouble than its worth

@PatrickGrehan Erg should control the resistance so the gear shouldn't matter. The whole idea is that all you need to concentrate on is the cadence and the resistance of the trainer will automatically adjust based on the cadence to keep you at the target power. I think GP Lama once did a test and found that erg is generally the most accurate when you're in the small ring up front and dead smack in the middle of the cassette because of chain line efficiencies.

As far as the phone calls and that experience, that's the erg death spiral. Because the resistance adjusts with your cadence, as your cadence drops, the trainer will continually adds resistance, which makes it harder to pedal, which adds more resistance, so on and so on until you end up unable to turn the cranks. Once you hit zero cadence Zwift is pretty good about disabling erg mode so that you can spin back up and once you're near the target watts, it reengages. Alternatively, if you know you need to stop for a second, you can disable erg mode manually and turn it back on once you're at a comfortable cadence. A last option in Zwift during structured workouts is to pause the workout. This turns off erg mode and has the added benefit of not messing with the segment so you can still get the XP for finishing it (because there's nothing worse than doing a long segment, having to stop randomly for one thing or another in the middle and then losing half of the XP by only getting half a star)

I'll add a note, that Tim Cusick, depending on the workout, often pushes us not to the workouts in ERG and rather use "Incline" mode -- so we develop a sense and awareness of what certain zones feel like.

Since I do all my indoor riding on rollers, the one thing I want is an ERG mode option.

There are a few workouts, mostly 30-30 VO2 max intervals, that ERG would be great for.  It's 30s at your max VO2, then 30s at mid tempo.  If you didn't have to worry about cadence, they'd be much easier.

https://robertovukovic.com/vo2max-intervals-cycling/

Idk about anyone else, but 30-30s are one of the more annoying workouts to do in ERG mode due to the time it takes the trainer to adjust.  Maybe I'm just being picky.

I am absolutely loving the ability to just pick a workout and then focus on making the pedals go around.

@GregHoge only worse erg workout is one of Tim's burst workouts that are 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off. I'd argue it's nearly impossible to make it a "good" workout with erg on

Thanks for the ERG tips. Still gonna use it infrequently 

agree, anything that is in the 30 seconds or less, go all in, zone 5 plus is usually terrible for erg. They might have targets, but the basic goal is to go go go and give it all you got

— so the plan on zwift (or any other app) will have specific targets that will invariably be too low or impossible to hit. Much better to set a resistance (ie incline mode on zwift) and just go as hard as it makes sense for those shorter efforts 

I've done 30-30s on rollers with resistance.  I have to pedal at VO2, then tempo, and repeat.  It was hard to get the shifting right, so I'd basically set the gear for what would be the best cadence for VO2, then pedal much slower at tempo.  As I got tired, it got harder to hit the lower target, which, in turn made it harder to hit the higher.  

Disappointed to read that it might be harder with ERG.  I thought would be easier to program the thing to be at my VO2 wattage for 30 then tempo wattage for 30 and have it cycle ten times, then drop to a low resistance for a break.  

It really comes down to the erg lag (for better or worse terminology). If the unit can adjust quickly, then they're totally doable, but if it's a bit slower, then you start to lose the benefits. I have to imagine some trainers are faster at adjusting than others (especially new trainers when compared to older ones) and the strength of the bluetooth connection or wireless network plays a part too so YMMV from trainer to trainer.

An acquaintance is an execise physiologist.  He's doing a study on topical supplements and looking for people who Zwift to participate.  Seems like he needs a fair number of participants.  Feel free to share.
 
here's the link  

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOOZxz7iT9DJfzVdnkm_mOG5UlUzv8sGAj0oElEMB936X8_Q/viewform

here's his pitch: 

I am looking for US cyclists on Zwift!
I am recruiting for an at home study comparing different topical supplements. At least FOUR 90 min trials that involve riding the original ZWIFT hilly route. MEN and WOMEN!

LAP 1 EASY warm-up
LAPS 2 - 4 Endurance tempo pace except for the climbing and sprint segments, which are as fast as possible (ie, ~2.5 min and 30 sec interval) with in between steady pace.
LAP 5 is a Time trial over the entire course, so overall time rather than a segment is most important.

The TT is supposed to be in a fatigued state.

Considering the rainy outlook tomorrow anyone want to do a chill Zwift ride while watching Strade Bianche? It's streaming on HBO Max and the sports package is in it's "promotion" period so it seems free for my ad free subscription. Unless someone has a better/preferred euro stream.

David Yang said:

Considering the rainy outlook tomorrow anyone want to do a chill Zwift ride while watching Strade Bianche? It's streaming on HBO Max and the sports package is in it's "promotion" period so it seems free for my ad free subscription. Unless someone has a better/preferred euro stream.

Created an Kissena Cycling Club Zwift event. Tomorrow Sat March 2nd 8am:
https://www.zwift.com/events/view/4253617

Anyone with the link can join. Cheers.

Tomorrow, Thursday March 21st 7:30am, as the weather is again below freezing, let's ride on Zwift
https://www.zwift.com/events/view/4296636
Anyone with the link can join...

lmk if you are, cheers!

Speaking if rainy days, what's the haps tomorrow?

8am https://www.zwift.com/events/view/4288706

Oof I don't think I can do the 100mi

David Yang said:

Oof I don't think I can do the 100mi

haha, I rode about 30 miles, one just joins and drops out whenever