Road Cycling Essentials

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Seems to be a common theme - it's the same at track league. The step up between the bottom group and second bottom group is huge, but then it's a lot tighter after that.

Did my maiden ascent of Swiss Hill yesterday which was a fun one, 10%ish but the real kicker is it's cobbled the whole way up. :) A good technical challenge as well as a leg burner since you have to climb seated to keep traction!
 
Have been needing to give my bike a clean for a few weeks but was putting it off. After Friday's torrential rain and having to ride home on the dirt tracks because of some incident in Feltham which closed the roads, I had no choice. I posted a while back that the bearings in my back wheel were finally feeling a bit rough after ~11k miles, so I took the opportunity to swap to my spare wheels. Well I can't even turn the axle by hand now, they've almost completely seized up :p

So, anyone got any recommendations for bearings, or just go for straight old SKF or similar manufacturer? I'm assuming there's nothing different about a wheel bearing compared to any other ball bearing? Pretty low rpm and relatively low load to what they are designed for.
 
touch said:
Yep, they are real.
Quite common in japan apparently both underground ones like the one in your video and inverted ones built into a tower.


Well done Thomas!
E123 races are a big step up from 4 or 3/4 races, and there isnt really much else in between either.
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Yeah, it was a pretty huge step in in pace from 4ths, and I was told after (may have been trying to make me feel better :p) that it was a particularly fast race. Being the last of the series a lot of riders where competing for the series win.

Hopefully the next couple won't be as extreme, and I'll be a bit better conditioned.
 
Nice ride in the wet this morning.

Difference with rim brake performance in the wet vs. dry is making me look at discs on my next bike even more!

Budget is £1k (cycle to work scheme) so my options are fairly limited, I'm looking at the Canondale Synapse 105 which has mechanical discs but with a view to upgrading to mechanical-hydraulic at a later date...

Looking at the Whyte range which have the mechanical-hydraulic brakes but you seem to take a hit on the groupset with them, which I'd rather not upgrade instead of the brakes!
 
Dunks said:
Nice ride in the wet this morning.

Difference with rim brake performance in the wet vs. dry is making me look at discs on my next bike even more!

Budget is £1k (cycle to work scheme) so my options are fairly limited, I'm looking at the Canondale Synapse 105 which has mechanical discs but with a view to upgrading to mechanical-hydraulic at a later date...

Looking at the Whyte range which have the mechanical-hydraulic brakes but you seem to take a hit on the groupset with them, which I'd rather not upgrade instead of the brakes!
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Does the Synapse have mudguard mounts? Personally I'd be tempted by the Whyte Suffolk (just top up the extra £200). The brakes on the Synapse look a bit pap - BB5 (i.e. tiny) pads. You'll probably find with the Hy/Rds that you don't feel the urge to upgrade from them to proper hydraulic for a lot longer than you would with the Render.
 
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FrenchTart said:
Does the Synapse have mudguard mounts? Personally I'd be tempted by the Whyte Suffolk (just top up the extra £200). The brakes on the Synapse look a bit pap - BB5 (i.e. tiny) pads. You'll probably fine with the Hy/Rds that you don't feel the urge to upgrade from them to proper hydraulic for a lot longer than you would with the Render.
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Hm, the Whyte Suffolk looks very nice :cool:
 
Dunks said:
Hm, the Whyte Suffolk looks very nice :cool:
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A friend has one and it's a very nice bike :) Only thing to be careful of (and this is true of HyRd brakes in general, not just the Suffolk) is that many LBS will set up them up incorrectly. If you do end up getting a bike with HyRds check out the technical bulletin on this page: http://www.trpbrakes.com/category.php?productid=1198&catid=206

ArmoVanBuuren said:
Where's the cheapest place to get Jagwire cable sets? eBay?

Only need one cable and a black housing for my rear derailleur but all I can find is sets of all four cables and the cheapest at £11.99 for a black outer(http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jagwire-C...cycling_bikeparts_SR&var=&hash=item2ed00868af).

Edit:
Scratch that, I've found the cheaper set:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301240278...49&var=600285513557&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
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That's useful to know, thanks :)
 
touch said:
Yep, they are real.
Quite common in japan apparently both underground ones like the one in your video and inverted ones built into a tower.
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Derek W said:
Saw a gif of that a few weeks ago. Certainly looks real. Great idea though for secure bike storage.

EDIT

Ordered up some leggings and a skullcap so hopefully i won't be cold next week if i get out on the bike :)
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Amazing but doubt we'll ever see anything like that over here, except in London where all the cycling budget seems to get spent! :rolleyes:

The sportful skullcaps are good quality (I've got a couple).

One More Solo said:
Did my maiden ascent of Swiss Hill yesterday which was a fun one, 10%ish but the real kicker is it's cobbled the whole way up. :) A good technical challenge as well as a leg burner since you have to climb seated to keep traction!
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10% up cobbles, no thanks! There's a short sharp 12% on one of the routes I do, can't imagine climbing something like that but cobbled! How long a stretch is it? It'd be tricky to even walk up it, more cyclocross territory methinks!? Did you use normal 23/25mm road tyres? Impressed! :)

Quite a good deal on PlanetX - Holdworth Trentino in medium for £899 - carbon frame, shimano 105 (10 gear) and amazing colourscheme! :cool:

Commute in this morning hurt, overheated as it was 5 degrees and I was wearing my thermals and waterproofs! Bit of a headwind but nothing serious, I'm guessing it's a hangover from Saturdays FTP so gonna take it easier home! :rolleyes::D
 
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I refuse to cycle up (or down) Swiss Hill. I think uv on here had the KOM going down it for a bit. Unrelated, he's broken about 4 spokes on his rear wheel :p
 
FrenchTart said:
I refuse to cycle up (or down) Swiss Hill. I think uv on here had the KOM going down it for a bit. Unrelated, he's broken about 4 spokes on his rear wheel :p
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10% cobbles loooool no.

Those £6 jagwire sets are good, I bought one. It's not got quite all the nick nacks you get in the proper boxed road pro set, but I don't know what half of them are for anyway.
 
Mmm, I'm looking to get a new bike (Westbrook Cycles BMC di2 deal), but they want to charge me an additional £150 for using a cycle to work voucher to part pay for it.

I'm contemplating looking elsewhere, but need to understand if there are any other deals, or retailers offering di2, I'm 5'9, so need the relevant frame size, was potentially looking at the Ribble aero di2 deal. Could do with some quick responses as should have my voucher this week.
 
Vonhelmet said:
10% cobbles loooool no.

Those £6 jagwire sets are good, I bought one. It's not got quite all the nick nacks you get in the proper boxed road pro set, but I don't know what half of them are for anyway.
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Yup. It's a ridiculous hill :p

I might pick up an extra Jagwire set too. I have loads of bits left over from my last full boxed set but with the new bike build I'll probably need more bits.

SoliD said:
Mmm, I'm looking to get a new bike (Westbrook Cycles BMC di2 deal), but they want to charge me an additional £150 for using a cycle to work voucher to part pay for it.

I'm contemplating looking elsewhere, but need to understand if there are any other deals, or retailers offering di2, I'm 5'9, so need the relevant frame size, was potentially looking at the Ribble aero di2 deal. Could do with some quick responses as should have my voucher this week.
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That's ridiculous. I understand 10% on top of the £1000 part (even if I don't like it) but any more than that is ripping you off...unless some of the other C2W schemes have higher charges for the LBS than 10%.
 
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