Road Cycling Essentials

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Dimple said:
I was trying all morning and then took it back to the shop.
They had the same problem and then all of a sudden it clicked and started to work.
He noticed that my little red marker was fully right when it shouldn't be there so I must have kept shifting one way and it stuck.
What they suggested was (and they are competitive cyclists) that at my level of experience I shouldn't be coming off the small cog and just go through the nine gears and that should be enough unless I'm going down bank.
I took it out for a ride and they were right, the only time I needed to shift was when I hit about 25 mph down bank so I free-wheeled until I was back at the speed where the top gear on the small cog worked so I didn't use the big cog for any of my ride.
They were describing pro cyclists and how they keep their rotation at an equal pace whether going flat, up or down so I will try it.

I also bought some Shimano SPD M064 shoes but I've got to wait for the pedals and I bought some padded shorts.
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I'd personally not ride in the bottom 2/3 rings at the back as the chain lies at a bit of an angle and you have a less teeth engaged which promotes more wear on them.

If it's set up with the correct cable tension and limit screw adjustment you should struggle to get into the 3rd click.

Just try to remember what gear you're in and to only click up once. Once I click up to the big ring at the front I shift up two gears at the back to get a similar cadence.

Lopez, tell me about it with the 20% off. Might as well give bikes away :o
 
touch said:
I'm doing a stage race this weekend. This is my main focus for this year. I did this last year and did a reasonable time for the prologue but i got dropped on stage1 and lost some time so finished just over 3 mins down overall.

It's 3 stages over 2 days:
Prologue TT - 4.3miles, Saturday Morning
Stage1 - 50 miles, Saturday Afternoon
Stage2 - 50 miles, Sunday

My plan is to do the best i can in the prologue then try to stay in the main bunch over the 2 road stages. I doubt there will be any attacking/breakaway attemps from me. Really looking forward to it though. I'll put it on my strava if anybody is interested.
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Well, things went completely opposite to what i planned today, but in a good way.
There was a slight tailwind for the prologue and, being a very short (4 mile) TT, it was very fast. The winner averaged over 32mph! I put in a pretty average time, 57 secs behind the winner, and finished somewhere around halfway down the standings.
I wasnt particularly disappointed with my time, i was more just impressed that a lot of people had done some really good times.

The first road race stage went a bit better. I felt really good on the climbs. The climb at the start of the first lap was neutralised then the second time up it i tried to bridge across to a break of about 8 guys but i soon realised that i wasnt going to catch them so i sat up. The climb really suited me, it has a short steep section (around 10-15% for the first 200m, then evens out to a long, gentle slope for about 2-3 miles. So the final lap i attacked from the bottom of the steep section and got a bit of a gap, but i was on my own so i wasnt really sure what to do. Luckily, i didnt have much time to think about it anyway, because another guy came across to me. We had a decent gap on the bunch and the other guy was really strong. (Poor guy was shouting at me all the way up to do some work, but i was struggling just to hold his wheel). We worked well together on the flat section at the top. We didnt get any time gaps as we were racing, but afterwards i was told we had over 1 min at one point.
My breakaway companion then dropped me on the next climb and i was on my own with around 6 miles to race but still a decent lead on the peleton. I was knackered by the end but managed to finish 2nd, just 5seconds in front of the chasing bunch.

Here are the gps logs:
Prologue
Stage 1 - you can see the jump in my heart rate when i got in the break. Averaged about 170bpm for the last 30 mins!
 
Join a local club, thats the best way to get into it.
It really is a lot of fun. I did the same race last year and got dropped after 2 laps. But even in races where you get dropped from the main group, you still have fun, and usually end up having a good chat and riding back in with the others who have been dropped.

It's also a lot cheaper than a sportive as well, most races cost £10-£15 to enter, and theres prize money :D (although you do need to join britishcycling and pay for a race license to enter)
 
I tore the rubber and canvas for about 5cm on the bead of a marathon plus tyre while fitting it with a plastic tyre lever (it was more of an ordeal to fit than building the wheels:mad:). It buboes out when inflated at the place of the tear, don't trust it enough to ride. Any chance super glue will fix it?
 
Trothy said:
Hi all, work have recently reopened our cyclescheme and I'm thinking of getting a singlepeed to add to my bike collection. I'm looking around the £500 mark (bike would have to be at RRP due to cyclescheme) and I am pretty convinced by the Specialized Langster at that price. Anything else I should be considering?
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As a fixed gear rider, I'd say that you'd be better off spending 300-400 on building one up yourself, great way to learn how to put together a bike and the off-the-peg singlespeeds aren't up to much at the 500 or less mark from what i've heard
 
Picked up my Giant Defy 1 this morning...

d6bcb0da.jpg


No clip pedals or anything else yet as I dot get paid until Tuesday.

Went for a v short ride this afternoon. First thoughts were how light it is and quick it moves :) pleased so far and I've not started paying for it yet!
 
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K13LCC said:
Picked up my Giant Defy 1 this morning...

No clip pedals or anything else yet as I dot get paid until Tuesday.

Went for a v short ride this afternoon. First thoughts were how light it is and quick it moves :) pleased so far and I've not started paying for it yet!
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Sorry - don't know how to resize posted image code on my iPad. Can't remember the HTML for it. Feel free to enlighten me :)
 
touch said:
Join a local club, thats the best way to get into it.
It really is a lot of fun. I did the same race last year and got dropped after 2 laps. But even in races where you get dropped from the main group, you still have fun, and usually end up having a good chat and riding back in with the others who have been dropped.

It's also a lot cheaper than a sportive as well, most races cost £10-£15 to enter, and theres prize money :D (although you do need to join britishcycling and pay for a race license to enter)
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Wow, I can't believe how flat it is there!

Do you need to worry about a harsh wind coming in off the sea?
 
Draeger said:
Nice ride, looks great. Enjoy. SPD's will increase your riding pleasure by a fair bit!!
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I have had some SPD pedals to put on the bike for nearly a year but haven't as i have cages on the foot pedals so i can ride in trainers.

How do they improve the ride? Do people go quicker using them?

The thing that worries me is i use it on the road and it's taken a few times falling off to get used to cages and i imagine SPD to be less forgiving which i don't want at a busy roundabout with arctic lorries lol....
 
helpimcrap said:
I have had some SPD pedals to put on the bike for nearly a year but haven't as i have cages on the foot pedals so i can ride in trainers.

How do they improve the ride? Do people go quicker using them?

The thing that worries me is i use it on the road and it's taken a few times falling off to get used to cages and i imagine SPD to be less forgiving which i don't want at a busy roundabout with arctic lorries lol....
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Spds are easy to use. I'd be more worried about getting my feet out of cages than spd pedals, I think. With spds you twist your foot and you're out. They take a bit of practise, but it's really nothing too difficult.
 
ok here's a "Real World" question,
has anyone actually experianced any mesurable improvement from going for more expensive tyres? and if so how much/what conditions?
my swalbe durano s rear has a 2-3mm round hole in it though to the weave, no punchers yet but I'm guessing it's only a matter of time.

Front tyre is nearly new (done 400+ miles since I got the bike and the front must have been new then as it's still got it's mould marks) so really only want to get a new rear or swap the front to the rear and put the new on the front.

I suppose what I'm asking is this:
Is there really any point going for these:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/schwalbe-durano-s-performance-folding-tyre/
over these:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/schwalbe-lugano-road-tyre/
or even these:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/vittoria-rubino-slick-clincher-tyre/

?
 
a 'race' tyre will feel very different to a tyre designed to resist punctures. between the same class of tyres i doubt it but I'm no pro. i hate punctures so verge more on safety. i was looking for durano s next time on my winter bike
 
Berger said:
Wow, I can't believe how flat it is there!

Do you need to worry about a harsh wind coming in off the sea?
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The coast road that we used for the prologue is very flat. There is a bit of wind off the sea, but it's quite a sheltered bay so not too bad (it was a tailwind anyway).

Today's stage was much hillier (and windier). I just wanted to stay in the bunch and hope that if a break went it was only a few riders and i could hold onto my position on the overall standings. I didnt have any trouble staying with the bunch on the hills, but i struggled a wee bit on the flatter parts. With a huge tailwind, the bunch was flying along at 40mph in places and i was finding it hard to spin my legs fast enough. I hit 47.5mph on one of the descents with a tailwind :eek:
The wind caused quite a few problems in the bunch and it was down to around 15-20 riders by the end (with 5 ahead in the break). I managed to hold on and dropped 2 places overall to a couple of the guys who got in the break.

Very happy with my weekend's racing. I'v got enough points on my license from this race to move up from Category4 to Category3 :D Pretty happy with that, another of my goals for this year checked off the list.
 
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