Road Cycling Essentials

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Did anyone here buy the Tacx Satori trainer from Decathlon? Someone is picking mine up for me and I just want to know if the mat and front wheel support come inside the main box or they have to be picked up separately.
 
Finally a dry day yesterday and i managed to put 25 miles on my aero rims, have to say they were pretty cool, once above 20mph you can definitely notice the difference, first side wind was an interesting experience tho:D
 
Yes it can be fun! The worst part is when you're cycling perpendicular to the wind along side a hedge or similar, then there's a gap for a fence, and you get that sudden gust.

I've only got 50mm section rims, and it can still be pretty scary sometimes.
 
Just weighed myself on the scales we have in packing, just dropped to 79.6 kgs! Whoop!

I've always been hovering just over 82 before. I'm not weight concious at all though, so it's just out of curiosity, but nice to know the cycling is paying off a bit...despite eating like a horse still!

And my legs are definitely getting bigger too. Seeing definition in the upper leg I havent had before. Again, not something I'm too bothered about or trying to achieve, but nice to see some fruits for my labour!
 
I've stayed the same weight but lost some size from my legs. I was on a deliberate no-exercise drive over the Christmas break to make sure I fully recovered from last year's exercise excesses.

Cleats.

2013 is year of the cleat for me - it's time to make the change. What am I looking for, MTB cleats and shoes with recessed cleat plates? I'd considered all-out road cleats but I'd rather have a shoe I can walk in for those occasions when I can't carry extra shoes. What's the best plan of action, try them out in Evans and then buy online or is Evans ok, pricewise?
 
Jonny69 said:
Cleats.

2013 is year of the cleat for me - it's time to make the change. What am I looking for, MTB cleats and shoes with recessed cleat plates? I'd considered all-out road cleats but I'd rather have a shoe I can walk in for those occasions when I can't carry extra shoes. What's the best plan of action, try them out in Evans and then buy online or is Evans ok, pricewise?
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MTB cleats are the way to go for something you can walk in. Buy the pedals online wherever you can get them cheap and try the shoes instore. In terms of pedals, M520s are good, cheap pedals and they're double sided which makes life a bit easier in terms of clipping your feet in. A530s have cleats one side and flats the other, if you are likely to ever ride in normal shoes, but they are more expensive. I have A520s which are single sided and they're doing me OK; they fall in the middle pricewise. For shoes, if you buy Shimano, beware of their sizing - their shoes are somewhat renowned for being small. I'm a size 9, which should translate to a 43, but my Shimano shoes are size 44 as 43s are just too tight.

Either of these:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/shimano/r077-2011-road-shoe-ec025524

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/shimano/m077-2011-mountain-bike-shoe-ec025516

are pretty good at the low end of the spectrum, pricewise, though obviously without knowing your budget I don't know whether that's where you're looking. The first pair is compatible with both SPD and SPD-SL if you choose to move to SPD-SL road cleats and pedals in the lifetime of the shoes, but they don't have a recess for the SPD cleats so you'd not be able to walk in them so easily. The second pair has a mountain bike style tread and a proper recess for the cleats, so you'd be able to walk in them no bother. I think they're the shoes I have, though I got mine in a sale for about half that price. You can also look around for the RT32 "touring" shoes which are styled more along road lines in terms of smoother soles, but which still use SPD cleats, but they're a bit pricier, and they only have two velcro straps rather than the 3 on the shoes I've linked above, so there's more risk of them pinching.
 
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Jonny69 said:
I've stayed the same weight but lost some size from my legs. I was on a deliberate no-exercise drive over the Christmas break to make sure I fully recovered from last year's exercise excesses.

Cleats.

2013 is year of the cleat for me - it's time to make the change. What am I looking for, MTB cleats and shoes with recessed cleat plates? I'd considered all-out road cleats but I'd rather have a shoe I can walk in for those occasions when I can't carry extra shoes. What's the best plan of action, try them out in Evans and then buy online or is Evans ok, pricewise?
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I'm sure you'll get some good advice on cleats. I'm using Shimano SPD (MTP type shoes that you can walk in perfectly normally) with M520 pedals. A fair few here use the same pedal. If you want to be able to ride in other shoes/trainers, you can get 'hybrid' pedals that are flat on one side and clip on the other.

Remember that even instore Evans will price match pretty much every large online retailer showing stock. They do it all the time so don't worry what they think as they won't bat an eyelid:

http://www.evanscycles.com/help/price-match
 
Jonny69 said:
What's the best plan of action, try them out in Evans and then buy online or is Evans ok, pricewise?
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IMHO, if you are going into a shop to try a product out for size / comfort (eg running or cycling shoes) and make use of their facilities / stock holding / goodwill, then you should pay the price premium (if there is one) and purchase the item from them.

You should find a few choices in MTB or touring shoes which can take cleats but are okay for walking in.
 
Shimano M520 pedals are the stock answer to that question, Jonny69. The shoes are more a more personal choice; I went with the wide version of the Shimano M087s, due to my big feet. I switched to Shimano A530 pedals last year on both of my bikes, but you'll probably prefer pedals that allow you to clip in on either side.
 
To be honest, I don't find it a big deal to have pedals that I can only clip into from one side. You've got to get used to clipping in, and it's not much more to get used to rolling the pedal up a bit to get it in the right position. The way they're weighted, they fall down with the opening facing backwards, so you just have to roll it forward with your foot and keep moving to press it in. It's rare that I have any difficulty clipping in. I doubt my cycling life would be orders of magnitude easier if I had double sided pedals. For me, the main draw of the M520s would just be price. Evans has them at £18, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than the A520s (£37) and A530s (£41) that I referred to above.
 
Found some unused speedplay cleats in my spares box, no idea where they came from...

have ordered some used speedplay chro-mo pedals and going to give them a go..
 
I must say I do like having SPDs that can clip either side on my commuter, just seems less hassle.

I have SPD SLs on my other bike, and I still slip out of them when trying to clip in, especially when I have traffic behind me and on a slight incline where I can't roll as much.

I can't really say the SLs are more supportive etc, or there's a distinct advantage to having them over normal SPDs.
 
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