Road Cycling Essentials

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Hye uniQ,

Changed my front derailleur cable yesterday on my DA9000 from whatever the bike mech used (he also ditched the "special" DA cable as it seemed to be sticking for some reason) to a spare Jagwire slick stainless cable, i greased it as well with some light grease i have and it seems a lighter action than it was previously on the shifter. :)
 
Jonny ///M said:
Can you not just ride around it? Get off bike, walk round the edge, get back on bike then enjoy life.

Edges of water tend to not be as deep as the middle either.
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yea it's just funny that it is supposed to be national cycle route 72 and that happens any time it rains.
there solution is to add a diversion sign that leads into a bunch of trees with no actual path.

I guess it just about sums up Britains cycling paths ill thought out and not maintained at all.

what they should do is use the money they have been granted this year to go around and fix all the bodge job cycling paths they added in the past
surely the NCN routes should be the gold standard of cycle paths and atleast partially maintained
 
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Jesus it's a puddle, they happen when it rains. I'd rather the government sorted out the roads first than a bike path that looks perfectly adequate in the first place. Chap riding through it doesn't seem too bothered!
 
It is a charity and they seem to spend a lot more developing routes as the money they have received is restricted to developing rather than maintaining routes.

The one round here goes through Parkhead and can be really dodgy with broken glass and yoofs and a lot of the tarmac is broken or rough due to tree routes under it.

I tend to use the roads more than specific cycle paths to be honest.

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/files/about us/Sustrans accounts 2013.pdf
 
arknor said:
I guess someone with your miles would have done this anyway.
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It's not a creak as such, more a weird vibration. To be honest I'm 99% sure it's a worn chainring. The teeth are filed to a lot narrower and finer a point than the inner ring and I reckon the vibration I can feel is the misaligned teeth trying to mesh with the links on the chain. The old chain was worn enough to be skipping a lot so I had to replace the cassette too. I just thought the chainring itself could take a lot more abuse before needing replacing.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Jesus it's a puddle, they happen when it rains. I'd rather the government sorted out the roads first than a bike path that looks perfectly adequate in the first place. Chap riding through it doesn't seem too bothered!
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but Newcastle has money every year for cycling paths etc it's not money that would be spent on the roads anyway.
and we were just warded an extra 5.7mil for it aswell

that chap probably has a cheap bike and doesn't care if it gets submersed in water ruining all his bearings
 
Arsey said:
Just got back from Majorca, not a cycling holiday but took a day trip to Pollenca to hire bikes and tackle Sa Calobra. What a climb, almost had to stop near the middle but battled through and finished it.

http://www.strava.com/activities/79708631

The descent off Col de Sa Batalia was amazing, and I don't normally like descending.
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Well done! The descent from Sa Batalia >Pollenca is best descent i'v ever ridden. The surface is perfect the whole length and it really gives you confidence to lean into the corners knowing you wont hit a pothole or anything like that.

Your times up the hills are pretty good. I dont have a strava time for sa calobre as i didnt have my garmin the year i did that one but on the sa batalia I'm beating you by 10-20 seconds on 30 min climbs (ignore my fastest times - was sitting on a wheel and doing no work :p). Doubt i could do those times in the heat that you're riding in though!
Did you make the classic mistake of going up the monastery road or did you intend to do that? :p
 
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One More Solo said:
A really interesting article on nutrition for endurance exercise:

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/08/high-fat-low-carb-diets-good-for-you-and-your-cycling/
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/09/high-fat-low-carb-diets-the-effects-and-how-to-try-one/
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Nnnnnnn...... Mmmmmmmmm.... I'm just not sure about that. My diet is by no means ideal, but coming from someone who generally consumes around 3500 calories a day and if I'm training for a serious running event I'm looking for nearer 5000 calories, a high fat diet will kill your efforts for two reasons: 1) If you've ever tried to train or compete the morning after a large donner kebab and chips you'll know what I mean when I say if you've got a lot of fat processing in your system it significantly slows the rate at which you can get any energy. It will slow you down. 2) Most significantly is that fat is quite a serious appetite suppressor. When you're trying to consume large intakes of calories, you simply can't do it if you've got too much fat in your food because it kills your appetite. Been there before. Keep the carbs up and the fat down and you'll keep getting hungry and you can keep eating. You can't do it with a high fat diet. It's fine for a post-event blowout, but during regular training you'll find by the end of the week you're running way behind with your calorie intake.
 
Training your body to be able to rely more on fat for energy may be a good thing for cycling, but as said in that article the body already has more than enough fat stores for any continuous period of exercise you may do - so surely you don't need to add to those?

Don't think I'd fancy a low carb diet for this, other articles talk about training fasted occasionally ie. before breakfast in the morning which sounds like a better way of training to use fat reserves rather than restricting what we use for high intensity exercise from the whole diet.

But them I'm no expert, don't really pay much attention to diet either other than net calorie intake.
 
I think the point is that the body won't start to use the fat you have stored until it's been trained to do so through low carb intake. The article is not suggesting that high fat food is the ideal thing the night before exercise, but that a gradual change will encourage your body to use fat more efficiently for exercise. They do concede that for very high intensity work that fat is not as potentially not the best source of energy.

Certainly I've found that eating a low carb diet but with carbs before and during tough rides has suited me better than carbs all the time. I feel like I get a genuine boost from sugars now rather than needing them to function. That said, it's not for everyone.
 
I've been doing all my 20miles rides on an empty stomach :D
I'm trying to lose weight firstly though.

I wonder how much more energy and how much faster I would be with a proper cycling diet.
 
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