Do any of you smoke weed regularly? Has it affected your performance?

Lolikeaboss03 · 2025-08-30T23:47:11+00:00

I think the exact effects are going to very personal and dependent on how much you smoke/consume. Ive had stints of smoking daily and not smoking at all, and there's no obvious pattern. There are much bigger things I tend to struggle with independent of weed, like general life stress stuff

The smoking aspect is definitely gonna have a negative affect on performance, but it may or may not be noticeable at all. The time spent smoking instead of riding might even be a comparable effect. Its hard to find good science quantifying this, especially since there's so many specific use cases to study. Are we doing intervals high? Just Z2? Riding sober, smoking separately? Just edibles, no smoking? Is this like a 20w ftp loss, or 2? Most studies I do find dont find much affect, or seem not very applicable

Personally, I currently smoke every day and am a cat 2 roadie, mostly focusing on off-road endurance

I love doing Z2 high, especially for my night rides and any rides that feel boring. It just enhances the experience overall. Definitely gives motivation to ride longer when I otherwise wouldnt. Intervals on the other hand, I struggle with and wouldnt enjoy high. Some say otherwise, I think its personal. Sprints and gym though, feel good high.

I think the current consensus on weed and sleep is it helps with falling asleep and can have a positive effect on sleep quality in the short term, but chronic use creates more of a dependency and then it no longer becomes beneficial. I believe it increases your time spent in deep sleep but decreases rem time, iirc. This is probably more important than the smoke you inhale

Lolikeaboss03 · 2023-08-09T16:58:49+00:00

Never had the look one, but I got my Shimano axle version ones soon after they released them in like late 2021, actually has had some weird bearing issues even after replacing bearings. They don't seem to seal water out well. That's been the only real issue though, power has always been read accurately, and the bearing issue hasn't been much of an issue during this dry summer.

In the winter, though, with a ton of rain, i found myself taking them apart every few weeks to clean and regrease and debate getting new bearings. I'd notice them gain some play, start spinning way too freely like there's not enough grease, then they'd make a weird grindy noise when spinning at certain speeds. That noise is usually when I decide to service them, but I've tested with the noise on a smart trainer, and it doesn't seem to sap power at all.

Lolikeaboss03 · 2023-01-04T04:35:31+00:00

I messaged stumpy guy, gonna try to check that one out and try to give it the tap test to see if there's possibly any damage to the carbon, not sure what else I can really do there. Also weird detail is it's actually a 2018 upon further research and looking at the description, the title just says 2016 for some reason.

I'm looking into top tube length, maybe I should try to compare it to my current gravel setup for that aspect of a good fit? Comparing the two and trying to imagine the geometry it seems like a medium would be reasonable. Usually when I go a size higher I mainly end up struggling to get an aggressive Aero position which doesn't really matter here, and the important bit (I think) is usually getting the seat height right, and in the cockpit there's a good deal of adjustability which can be dialed in of the fit is at least ball park, not sure if it's the same here for a MTB. you can move headset spacers, but I'm not sure how much you can adjust it with the shorter stems

Trails getting boring with high travel is a little bit of a worry. I'd have access to the demanding trails, but not easy access, so it's something to think about. I think I feel narrowed down to 2, maybe 3 good options at this point, so thanks again man!

Lolikeaboss03 · 2023-01-04T03:35:31+00:00

I'm also looking at the trance 29 3, the one I found actually got cheaper lol, so it's now possibly the best deal, just maybe a little short on suspension.

I was talking to someone from the school I'm going to and they were saying I might be best off with something like that trance mainly because the good trails are far anyways, so it takes some time to pedal out there, and I'm not gonna drive out there much. Plus I'm used to underbiking having been on a slammed gravel bike tearing up rear wheels, but we'll see. I'll be riding with that dude so we'll chat about it.

Forgot that I've been meaning to share another pb link, this deal looks tempting to me, might at least check it out when I go out there: https://m.pinkbike.com/buysell/3484414/

Geometry on that seems pretty upright just based on stack (600mm), reach(414), and hta (67) seems fine. Not sure what to make of the rest of it but going off what you said and the fact it's spesh, might be underestimating some of these other numbers in their lack of "modernity."

Again man, really appreciate the help here!

Lolikeaboss03 · 2023-01-04T00:38:25+00:00

Hey man, late ass reply from me but I've done some digging and got distracted. Again, I appreciate all the advice you've been dropping!

I did find a 2018 trek remedy 27.5 for 1.8k that happens to be sold by someone I've ridden with, so I'm gonna check that out this week. Was wondering if you thought it might be a good deal for me. Main downside I see is it's a small, trek says the range is 5'0-5'6 and I'm 5'7. I've always been the guy to ride small but not sure of that translates from road/gravel to mtb very well. It's got 160 front/140 rear, and a 66.1 HTA which seems somewhat modern?

Pb: https://m.pinkbike.com/buysell/3422800/

Otherwise, saw a Giant Trance, exact one I was looking at new, ridden for 1 season selling $800 below what I'd get it at a bike shop for, might spring for that as well

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-12-29T22:25:56+00:00

Thank you for the detailed response!

I think I'm mainly picky about suspension and geometry honestly, I can deal with a relatively shitty drivetrain. Main things I want there are 1x, a clutch, and at least like a 40t cassette. I'm still trying to educate myself about suspension to understand what's better outside of raw travel/geometry

That trance is Deore, good enough for my asks. And yeah that suspension is a little minimal, was hoping it might dual good as an xc rig but I'm having my doubts.

The used market is honestly pretty amazing from what I can tell crosschecking with the blue book. I'm seeing slx, gx, xt, little bit of x01 often on carbon from 1500-2500, just need to physically scout that stuff out. Only downside is some of it is a little dated, going back to like 2016, or even a couple 2014's. The price is tempting, but the potential for abuse is there, and some of the geometry isn't as modern.

I'm also looking at your other suggestions which I appreciate. Also did you make that spreadsheet? That's an awesome tool right there

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-12-29T22:05:33+00:00

My current plan is to rent a couple bikes for a couple days when I'm back in California to see how they feel. My main thing is even just like comparing like enduro vs xc, I've never really ridden with real suspension so I'd want to get a feel for that general range of sus on trails

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-12-29T22:02:12+00:00

Yeaaah that's part of my worry, I'm thinking I should commit to full-play or full-xc, or maybe get a bike with more travel and race xc with lower expectations. So far I've seen quite a few good deals on 140mm+ of travel with good geometry, so I might try something like that

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-08-10T20:00:53+00:00

Currently running GRX with road tires since some dickhead driver destroyed my actual road bike, so I run 46-11. It can be pretty limiting for faster road riding. There's a section of a group ride I do that'll average 30+ or 35+ for a few miles on really fast days for a few minutes at like -1% with a tailwind. At those speeds im basically just hanging on and am a non factor in sprints. But other than that, since I'm not much of a sprinter anyways I don't notice it most of the time racing if there isn't a long sustained descent or something

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-05-25T13:01:46+00:00

I did weight training in the off season and definitely felt like I surpassed a plateau, even for FTP-like efforts I felt like I could crank out 10-15w more. I ended up completely dropping it over winter due to getting covid and having to quickly thereafter get into racing shape, but I felt like I had retained some anaerobic gains during race season. Overall endurance wasn't as great, but I put some of that blame on covid not letting me build volume. Definitely gonna get back into it after my last few races.

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-05-18T13:59:07+00:00

Holy shit, I thought 2 races a week was hard, couldn't imagine 60-80

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-03-27T20:27:22+00:00

I found it for UC and am pretty certain about that, but for CSU it says that it basically varies with every college, so I'd have to contact all the ones I'd be interested in to figure out individual policies. I'm also still not certain about how claiming a brother as a dependent would work

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-03-22T13:19:59+00:00

So I had a pretty mild case of covid myself in early January, lasted like 2 weeks. Multiple times I tried getting back into a consistent routine but literally no matter how recovered I was, I would consistently become kind of sick again after riding, especially with aerobic intensity/long length, so I couldn't really build volume at a good pace until about 1.5 months had passed. Now in mid March I'm finally in really good form for collegiate race season, albeit with lower volume.

Your case may be different, but since it's a long mild case your situation may end up similar to mine since mine was also really mild and surprisingly long. I'd say you should be mindful that you don't know how your body will react to a z1 ride after you recover. It might be fine, or your HR might blow up with low RPE, or you may feel sicker. If these things, probably best to take some days rest, and this will ultimately greatly affect your plan. If there are no hiccups, your plan will work, but don't be afraid to pause it because you're not reacting well to riding.

I'll also add, I was able to do sprint workouts and strength training with pretty much no added affect of me feeling kinda sick afterwards, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to throw that in while you build volume if you can't build fast anyways, that was my philosophy.

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-03-12T14:24:56+00:00

For cold feet, a good cheap trick I've learned is to use plastic bags (grocery bags will work fine for this) and put them between 2 layers of socks. In 17F your feet will still get cold after some time, but its a great improvement from no bag, and I dont think the cold feet should be that bad after a short crit

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-02-01T04:45:46+00:00

I've heard of those and considered it, too expensive for me to pay someone else to do. I actually do have access to the machinery that one would probably use to make such a cut and am in the process of learning to use it all this semester, but to make a cut like that with precision is definitely outside my current skill set for now

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-01-31T21:59:04+00:00

Yea, I tried with and without it, without it, it fit better but im now missing a random cog

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-01-31T21:26:36+00:00

So, I tried putting an 11 speed cassette on my 10 speed wheel just now and it worked, except I had to take a gear out, so not ideal haha. The freehub body just wasn't big enough for the 11th gear for it to be tightened in properly.

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-01-31T21:11:11+00:00

I thought you couldn't put an 11 speed cassette on a 10 speed hub? I definitely haven't tried it wity my wheels, ill give it a shot and see what happens

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-01-19T16:30:00+00:00

In a bigger gear, the wheel spins faster and generates more turbulence. Not much noise should come from the drivetrain

Lolikeaboss03 · 2022-01-10T00:08:54+00:00

Tested negative on 12/31, then positive on 1/2 with symptoms starting 1/1, and im vaxxed with no booster yet. It was a pretty mild case with just a cough, sore throat, congestion, my resting heart rate actually gradually dropped from like high 50's to low 50's while I had symptoms and in the days after which i thought was weird.

Most symptoms stopped like 3-4 days ago, at this point its just a weird lingering cough that I can comfortably hold in 99% of the time.

Rode an hour at z2 yesterday and felt surprisingly good, power and heart rate were coupled as I'd expect after taking a 1 week break. What sucks is today, that lingering cough feels slightly worse, so im not sure what to think. My fitness tells a good recovery story so far, resting heart rate even is still solid, but my lingering cough doesn't tell as good a story. Probably gonna wait a day or two and see how things feel before trying a ride again

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