Road Cycling Essentials

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Vonhelmet said:
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?
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I have a decent bike for fun :) I often go places after work, visiting friends etc. Can easily clock up 20-30 miles, which on a hybrid is a little slow.

As for the pedals, they were gold Hope F20's, which stood out on a white Halford's bike :P
 
Is it just me or is the CRC website an utter, utter nightmare to navigate around just now? It's like they have a high server load issue or something. Pages take ages to load, some pages half load up then stop and some show nothing at all. And randomly, the search function seems to have a mind of its own.
 
Draeger said:
Is it just me or is the CRC website an utter, utter nightmare to navigate around just now? It's like they have a high server load issue or something. Pages take ages to load, some pages half load up then stop and some show nothing at all. And randomly, the search function seems to have a mind of its own.
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*Tiss the season to be jolly (or buying stuff online* tra la la la :D
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Peak this year was 300w for FTP, managed a 23.30 in pretty stiff wind doing 321w. I'm not light at about 83kg atm and only 5'10", I've not got a cyclists build. I'm way more aero now than when I did that last one, so hoping with more watts I can get where I want to be.

Also giving up the running and swimming this year, so will be solely concentrating on cycling which should mean slightly better progress through the year.
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Fair enough, bit more weight than me, you must be huge top half! Weigh 16kg more than me at pretty much same height :P I will be posting my targets probably just after NY, once I establish some numbers!


daveski said:
How many of us are planning on doing the Festive 500 this year?
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No chance! Be working in between Christmas and New Year again. One year, I'd love to do it in one go, but couldn't do it in this country.

105 Cassette - £20.99
Ultegra 6701 Chain - £12.99
Vittoria Rubino Pro Folding 700x25 - £17.95

Any cheaper anywhere else?
 
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ShiWarrior said:
*Tiss the season to be jolly (or buying stuff online* tra la la la :D
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True dat! :D

Eventually got to the page I wanted to view (Shimano 105 Brake Calipers - they are in their sale at £17.99 - bargaintastic!) and added it to my basket, went to check out and it asked me to sign in to my account for the 4th time! Then when I tried to make payment it tripped up and fell over at the last part of the Paypal process. Gaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! :mad:
 
I need to sort myself out. Besides commuting my riding has really dropped off recently. I've sort of lost motivation. Last Saturday was a good day for riding and I opted to stay in bed rather than ride.:o
 
kiteloopy said:
Anyone got any new years cycling resolutions planned? Im looking for ideas.

Total miles and climbing seem obvious choices.
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I'd like to do 1000km a month, with at least one metric century none stop a month.

That's a 10% increase on this year, just need to get more longer rides in.

Also, I'd like to try and win an A grade race, but that's not likely to happen! Maybe a handicap I have a chance....

Power wise, I'd like to do 400w for ten minutes (5w/kg).
 
Phil99 said:
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.
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I've found the Giant guards good but I've not had any heavy rain with them yet... Road spray and standing water will be the real test for them!

I have found them quite noisy, over this Christmas break that's something I'm going to try and resolve as much as possible - first step will be putting some dampening on the metal parts through the forks to avoid any vibration. Next thought is adding some rubber washers to the 'fork supports' to give them a little more flex while keeping them firm. Any other thoughts? What did you try and what did you replace them with? ;)

Draeger said:
Eventually got to the page I wanted to view (Shimano 105 Brake Calipers - they are in their sale at £17.99 - bargaintastic!) and added it to my basket, went to check out and it asked me to sign in to my account for the 4th time! Then when I tried to make payment it tripped up and fell over at the last part of the Paypal process. Gaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! :mad:
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Try calling them up? Might save a lot of hassle!

daveski said:
How many of us are planning on doing the Festive 500 this year?
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Might do a festive 100 (not in 1 ride!) ;) :D

Shamrock said:
I need to sort myself out. Besides commuting my riding has really dropped off recently. I've sort of lost motivation. Last Saturday was a good day for riding and I opted to stay in bed rather than ride.:o
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Motivation is really hard this time of year, bad weather not withstanding - it's the shorter days. Especially if you work 'normal' hours similar to me... Leaving home in the dark and getting home in the dark really takes it out of me! All I want to do in the evenings is watch TV/game :mad:
 
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My Giant Defy 1 2015 came with PR-3 700x25 tyres on PR-2 rims, would you expect any problems with me changing them to 700x23 Mitch Pro4 Endurance?

Even if they're tyres I've used on my old bike on different rims - I wouldn't need to balance/true them afterwards would I? Or am I better buying new 700x25 pro4's? Not a problem for me as at ~£23 each they're hardly 'expensive'! :)
 
Im going to try to cover 5 times the distance and climbing ft as last year.

thats 5k miles and 165k ft.


I did think 10 times but I love the pub too much.
 
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