Road Cycling Essentials

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I think most of us are feeling a bit woeful after the winter hibernation. I'm up about a stone since October :( need to get some miles in and back in shape! If you're there in the morning say hello so I can put name to face :)
 
Must be a relative of Sagan's :)

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Going to take a punt and say no, as their's nothing on the site that indicates they do and they don't come up on the list of cycle scheme partners when searching for 'Wiltshire' which is the address listed for the UK office. Could email/call to confirm though,
 
Talking of repairs... My rear shifter or something is playing up. Sometimes it won't shift at all. Other times when I shift down it dumps it all the way to the biggest cog. My neighbour said it sounds like a cable sticking. Any thoughts? It's just a bog standard 2300 shifter going into an 8 speed 2300 derailleur.
 
Well that was an interesting experience. Did my first 50mi ride today.

First 30 miles were ok though I didn't realise just how much the wind took out of me.

The next four miles were into a very stong headwind and being a cold wind I lost all core temperature. Normally I'd just spin a bit faster for a few mins to get the heartrate up but my legs didn't want to know.

At about 35 miles my rear mudguard fell apart resulting in a 5 min delay going through a hedgerow trying to find it.

At 45 miles my body gave up completely and I though i'd lost the ability to see properly, though a quick stop revealed I'd actually lost a contact lens.:o Trying to get the other one out with frozen hands was fun!

Conclusions:

I need to take on more fuel pre ride. I intentionally didn't take much ( just normal breakfast) as I want to experiment with different options and needed a baseline, though I think the wind scuppered that plan.

I do a lot of running and cycling and running seem to differ when reaching the limit. When running my performance drops of gradually. With cycling it seems more like fine one minute gone the next.
 
saddler said:
I do a lot of running and cycling and running seem to differ when reaching the limit. When running my performance drops of gradually. With cycling it seems more like fine one minute gone the next.
Click to expand...

I run and cycle a lot and am completely the opposite. I can feel it coming when running but it'll happen really quick. On the bike I can keep going for a good 10 miles when it first starts to go bad.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
I run and cycle a lot and am completely the opposite. I can feel it coming when running but it'll happen really quick. On the bike I can keep going for a good 10 miles when it first starts to go bad.
Click to expand...

I've done much more running than cycling do date so maybe I'm just better at pacing myself when running and need to spend more time exploring the limits when cycling
 
Vonhelmet said:
Talking of repairs... My rear shifter or something is playing up. Sometimes it won't shift at all. Other times when I shift down it dumps it all the way to the biggest cog. My neighbour said it sounds like a cable sticking. Any thoughts? It's just a bog standard 2300 shifter going into an 8 speed 2300 derailleur.
Click to expand...
If it goes from a big cog and jumps a few to a smaller cog and you only ever clicked once, then the shifter.

If its on a big cog and does nothing when you shift to a smaller cog and then you shift a couple more times and then all of a sudden jumps a few then probably the cable sticking.

If it jumps to bigger cogs, then that is just odd, I can't possibly imagine how that is happening.

If you changed the cable get some PTFE coated gear cable, should cost about £3 delivered from ebay.
 
Looking at the Strava basemile challenge and the winner a vegan did 3800 miles on a bamboo bike :eek: wtf you couldn't make it up.
 
saddler said:
Well that was an interesting experience. Did my first 50mi ride today.

First 30 miles were ok though I didn't realise just how much the wind took out of me.

The next four miles were into a very stong headwind and being a cold wind I lost all core temperature. Normally I'd just spin a bit faster for a few mins to get the heartrate up but my legs didn't want to know.

At about 35 miles my rear mudguard fell apart resulting in a 5 min delay going through a hedgerow trying to find it.

At 45 miles my body gave up completely and I though i'd lost the ability to see properly, though a quick stop revealed I'd actually lost a contact lens.:o Trying to get the other one out with frozen hands was fun!

Conclusions:

I need to take on more fuel pre ride. I intentionally didn't take much ( just normal breakfast) as I want to experiment with different options and needed a baseline, though I think the wind scuppered that plan.

I do a lot of running and cycling and running seem to differ when reaching the limit. When running my performance drops of gradually. With cycling it seems more like fine one minute gone the next.
Click to expand...

Fuelling is the key difference between running and cycling. Anything over 2hr 30 min for me and i can feel my energy vapourising. You get used to it though eventually you will be able to knock out 50-60 miles without much fuss.

Also a big thing that inexperienced (and some experienced cyclists) do is ignore your equipment. In winter you can not afford to have mechanicals it is unpleasant and can be dangerous, a puncture in the dark at 0C in the freezing rain in the middle of nowhere I can assure you is both unpleasant and frightening. Get some tough wheels and those marathons on, and keep the chain well lubed.
 
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