Road Cycling Essentials

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janp said:
Rack isn't required, mudguard mounts are though.

I can afford to buy a nice bike, but I will need to store it in the bike shed at work. My commuter bike gets vandalised a lot, last week somebody stole my pedals :/ I really wanted a KMT Canic CXA, but it's £1,200.
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Once again your work sounds horrendous :/

Not sure what to advise really. How far is your commute? You could maybe get a singlespeed CX? At least it'd be cheaper and less susceptible to damage/etc?
 
FrenchTart said:
Once again your work sounds horrendous :/

Not sure what to advise really. How far is your commute? You could maybe get a singlespeed CX? At least it'd be cheaper and less susceptible to damage/etc?
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To be fair, it's not necessarily anyone from work. Probably someone off the streets.

I like the idea of a single speed, but I guess they aren't great for hills? My commute is only 2.5 miles each way, but I wanted to get something that I could use off road in the summer. I wanted to ride the South Downs next year, which I should imagine will involve a lot of hills.
 
I got a cannondale CAAD X with 105 group set for £1000

I was looking for a good winter bike with mud guard mounts and the CAADX seem to be one of the best
 
Eliot said:
http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/bike/rose-cross-pro-rs-2000-747269/aid:747272

Full 105 and its only 8.5 kg!
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Same 105 groupset and setup as my Giant Defy 1 2015 (aly frame, carbon fork - same weight & has mudguard eyelets for the giant specific guards) which is over £150 cheaper - more than enough to put some CX tyres on and even invest in some heavier duty wheels if you wanted! ;)

Then again if your bike is attracting unwanted attention it's better to buy a S/H frame that's seen some wear (for an aged look) then spend the money on changing the groupset/wheels/tyres etc? :)
 
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Roady said:
Same 105 groupset and setup as my Giant Defy 1 2015 (aly frame, carbon fork - same weight & has mudguard eyelets for the giant specific guards) which is over £150 cheaper - more than enough to put some CX tyres on and even invest in some heavier duty wheels if you wanted! ;)

Then again if your bike is attracting unwanted attention it's better to buy a S/H frame that's seen some wear (for an aged look) then spend the money on changing the groupset/wheels/tyres etc? :)
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I don't think you'd ever comfortably get cross tyres on a Defy. Maybe 28mm road tyres at a push. Brakes would be one limiting factor, but frame clearance wouldn't be great either (I have a 2011 Defy and I don't think they'd fit on mine, at least) As much as I like my Defy I don't think it'd be suitable for anything more than very light offroad (gravel path would be pushing it imo)
 
Phil99 said:
I don't think you'd ever comfortably get cross tyres on a Defy. Maybe 28mm road tyres at a push. Brakes would be one limiting factor, but frame clearance wouldn't be great either (I have a 2011 Defy and I don't think they'd fit on mine, at least) As much as I like my Defy I don't think it'd be suitable for anything more than very light offroad (gravel path would be pushing it imo)
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I just used it as a comparison, hinting at the Rose being an expensive option... Maybe if it had good disc's for that price it'd be an option for him, but it doesn't ;)

My Defy 1 2015 came with 26mm and fairly sure 28mm would fit... You're right about anything larger being a royal pain! I'm fairly sure the giant guards I have would struggle with 28mm road tyres...
 
daveski said:
How many of us are planning on doing the Festive 500 this year?
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I will be :)

Taken some holiday between christmas and new year for the first time ever :p Vague plans of 500miles rather than kilometres but we'll see what happens.
Hopefully make a big dent in it on boxing day.
 
Unlike Thomas I'm doing more running and swimming, was going to head out early on Christmas eve but it's the only chance I'll have to get in the pool for a few days so doing that instead.

Have a long ride planned for Saturday which should make it easy.
 
janp said:
To be fair, it's not necessarily anyone from work. Probably someone off the streets.

I like the idea of a single speed, but I guess they aren't great for hills? My commute is only 2.5 miles each way, but I wanted to get something that I could use off road in the summer. I wanted to ride the South Downs next year, which I should imagine will involve a lot of hills.
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2.5 miles? Buy the crappest old steel 5 speed bike you can find on ebay. Then buy a decent bike for fun.

That being said... Who the hell steals pedals? Who even has a pedal spanner with them? And who has a pedal spanner with them who doesn't go on to steal everything else on the bike?
 
my Under Armour base layer just turned up today :)
much better fit this time, I can feel it under my arms a bit, but other than that not too tight, just perfect, but what is the trick to get them off? lol
 
How do you celebrate having the day off and getting the ceiling painted in the morning (hate painting ceilings!) ... a quick spin on the turbo. Did the new Angels and then decided to give the new Nine Hammers a go too. Bit of a mistake there, was going 'alright ...ish' until the last three where I struggled to even get up to threshold power - still, easily the hardest day I have done so thats something

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1376768-Sufferfest-Angels-2015
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1376961-Sufferfest-Nine-Hammers

Only real goal I have for next year is to attempt some 10 TTs (maybe 25s too). Need to join a club for that (which is also kinda a goal aswell) but looks like the Wheelers are full up these days and not sure about th Dynamo's ... any suggestions?

Could throw out a random FTP target too, 237 atm so not sure what a reasonable target would be ... 275?
 
Roady said:
I just used it as a comparison, hinting at the Rose being an expensive option... Maybe if it had good disc's for that price it'd be an option for him, but it doesn't ;)

My Defy 1 2015 came with 26mm and fairly sure 28mm would fit... You're right about anything larger being a royal pain! I'm fairly sure the giant guards I have would struggle with 28mm road tyres...
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Yep, I would agree with that! I tried out the Giant-specific guards and thought it was painful enough with 23mm tyres, let alone 28mm 'cross tyres. Out of interest how are you getting on with the Giant guards? I gave up after a short while because they would tend to rattle quite a lot. This was a couple of years ago though, not sure if they've updated them.


In terms of suggestions for a 'cross bike, I have a TCX SLR2 and think it's a great bike, but Giant are pretty terrible at getting any stock out for people to actually buy. The Cannondale CAADX looks pretty good too, but no idea how good the brakes are (never heard of "Promax Render R" before). For commuting 2.5 miles to work I would echo vonhelmet's suggestion and just buy something second hand/cheap for work and get something nice for other trips. 2.5 miles is what, 10 minutes each way without pushing it, I wouldn't want to leave anything fancy lying around just for that distance.
 
Womble said:
Need to join a club for that (which is also kinda a goal aswell) but looks like the Wheelers are full up these days and not sure about th Dynamo's ... any suggestions?
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Join Team Zebra CC, consisting of me, Oli, Steve and my flat mate. We can't be tamed!:D
 
I've got the team kit sorted...

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