One of my riding buddies cooked up a pretty easy to read/follow chart on Gear Ratios. Its main purpose is to help you decide which route to go when choosing a specific cassette or chainring combination.  I'm running a 110 BCD with a 52/36 chainring and a 11/26 cassette.  It seems to be all the craze right now and it's great for climbing.  Here's a direct quote from BJ, the guy who put this together, a little background on Beeg as we call him... he took 1st overall in the 2011 MORBA (Missouri Road Bicyling Association) in the Mens Cat 3 Standings and recently upgraded to Pro 2.  So when this guy talks in a group ride, we all listen... so enjoy - compliments of Beeg.

Had a couple question about how to make heads or tails of this. Low gear ratios make for easier pedaling/climbing and are green. Big gear ratios are the 'harder' gears and are red. The main purpose for this is for comparing different chaining and cassette combinations.

For example: "Jason" is used to climbing with a 34tx25 gear combination. From the chart you can see this combo is a 1.36 ratio. "Jason" now has a 130 bcd crankset but is looking for a similar 1.36 gear ratio for climbing. Using the chart you can see that by switching to a 38t (130 bcd chainring) and switching to a cassette with a 28t lowest gear his ratio will be 1.3571 (nearly identical to 34:25 @ 1.3600).

P.S. bcd = bolt circle diameter and is measured in mm's
P.P.S. This is great for cross gearing too.

One of my buddies took a photo of himself training on the trainer the other day and posted it on facebook.  I looked at the pic and was curious what the heck was on his computer screen, so I asked him.  He mentioned this new software application from TrainerRoad, so I checked it out and really liked what I saw.  I havent tried it out myself yet as it requires a Garmin ANT+ USB for the Mac/PC, but the overview video they have online as well as a great review by EnduranceReviews.com.  You can get the Garmin ANT+ USB adapter for about $28 bucks at Amazon.com, and the TrainerRoad software itself is via subscription for $10 a month.  

The software is packed with features, such as  the ability to grab the ANT+ data from your speed/candence sensor and heart rate monitors, if you have a power meter it will also pull that data in.  The softare also includes......

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Quantum Mesa Cycles put on a great CX race in mid December, this race wrapped up my overall CX season.  I decided not to attend Nationals in Madison, WI or do the Masters World Cup in Louisville, KY.  My decision was based on two things 1) I needed a break before I started my basemile training 2) with the holidays it was tough to justify the 7-8 hour drive to both locations.

At any rate - this video is a symposis of the CX race that was held in Columbia, IL.  I had just cat'd up to Category 3 and was curious how I would do against the faster group.  I ended up placing 4th, and even held 3rd place for a few laps before I was overtaken by a stronger rider.  So sit back and enjoy the video, I made it trailer style so its short and sweet, not to mention action packed!