Road Cycling

Vonhelmet · 2 May 2015 at 09:43

physichull said:
About to go on club ride with the shiny bike....think it might get wet....

Yeah, it looks like being a wet day. I think I'm going to head out tomorrow evening instead for a 50 miler, probably getting home in the dark.

I'll let you know if I'm free on Monday btw - not sure if we've got any plans here. Where you thinking of heading to?

Berger · 2 May 2015 at 11:57

Thomas. PLease. said:
Starting a 3 day stage race tomorrow, with each stage at around 70 miles its going to be an accomplishment just to finish I feel. Especially as stage 2 is on a particularly tough course.

Half tempted to give it hell on the first day for an attempt at some BC points then see if I can hang on the rest of the days. Rather nervous about it now.

If it's a big race then it's easy to roll in the group.

Will only hurt on long climbs.

Everyone will be eager on stage 1. Finish in the bunch then kill yourself on stage 2

FrenchTart · 2 May 2015 at 13:15

Stopped in Stafford for some lunch. Almost half done. The headwinds and the constant gentle incline near Bidulph utterly sucked

Vonhelmet · 2 May 2015 at 14:10

Ooh, just seen that Dolan accept Halfords Cycle2work vouchers, which our work use. That's going to be hard to resist when benefits renewal rolls around...

Must be good, I've already had one new bike this year.

physichull · 2 May 2015 at 14:11

Dowsett new hour record. Smashed it by ~26 seconds.

Great effort and he didn't look to smashed when he got off the bike either! Suggestions from him to have a go after Brads attept

52.936 km.

Kudos!

Jimbeam3678 · 2 May 2015 at 14:18

Tour de Yorkshire approaching York passes my house looking forward to it!

booyaka · 2 May 2015 at 14:35

physichull said:
Dowsett new hour record. Smashed it by ~26 seconds.

Great effort and he didn't look to smashed when he got off the bike either! Suggestions from him to have a go after Brads attept

52.936 km.

Kudos!

yeah - super impressive stuff.

http://roadcyclinguk.com/racing/reports/alex-dowsett-smashes-uci-hour-record-in-manchester.html

physichull · 2 May 2015 at 14:56

Vonhelmet said:
Yeah, it looks like being a wet day. I think I'm going to head out tomorrow evening instead for a 50 miler, probably getting home in the dark.

I'll let you know if I'm free on Monday btw - not sure if we've got any plans here. Where you thinking of heading to?

Maybe down south to Tatton or somewhere like that? Not been there in a while. As I said, depends on the weather for me, if it's going to be slinging it down I won't be so eager!

Had my legs ripped off me today on the club ride. Only averaged around 27km/h but the speed was exhaustingly high on the way out and set a ton of PRs. On the way back we were relentlessly smashing it into the wind and it was bloody hard going as the wind was very strong. Was exhausted by the end of it though, that's what you get when you join the faster groups!

Jimbeam3678 · 2 May 2015 at 15:00

From the great man himself well chuffed!!

physichull · 2 May 2015 at 15:05

Haha! Brilliant! Get it framed...haha!

Roady · 2 May 2015 at 16:04

topgun06 said:
I just searched the book name on Google images.

Great tip! Thanks

FrenchTart said:
Riding to Cheltenham in the morning. Technically the longest ride I'll have done though given how flat it should be I don't think it will be the hardest.

Should be fun anyhow.

Hope you're getting on ok mate, few spots of rain and a shower or two here in Hereford but nothing major, winds are currently calm but were worse this morning!

daveski said:
How far is that?

Got my new wheels from Halfords, they look lovely but there's not many spokes so might have to take a bit more care around potholes

They look nice! Enjoy!

Jimbeam3678 said:
From the great man himself well chuffed!!

Flog it on eBay for a tidy profit, or maybe after he smashes the hour record?

Did some basic maintenance this morning before the rain, complete clean, changed chainring bolts and stripped down mudguards to check some rubbing as I've noticed a mark on one of my tyre sidewalls. Couldn't quite figure out the marking until I realised how buckled my wheels are! They're terrible! Easily 5-6 mm lateral movement, maybe more!

As I've noticed my ride feeling harsher I was sure I needed to tension some spokes so started to tighten them on my rear and now it's even further out of true

I started off with half turns but some of the spokes were so loose they needed 4-5 complete turns to get anywhere near tight! Now I've tightened them all the wheel is so buckled it touches the brake blocks and frame!

Got rained off so I'm now searching for advice on how to 'start again' with my spoke tensioning, I'm guessing the first step is to remove all tension from all the spokes? As for a 'spoke tension tool' I only see the park-tools TM-1 mentioned, at £50 I think I'd rather take my wheel somewhere or buy a new set! Any other options for testing the tension?

TLDR; I've done my spokes too tight and buckled my wheel, how do I sort?

Vonhelmet · 2 May 2015 at 16:07

Take it to the bike shop!!

broona · 2 May 2015 at 16:09

broona said:
So, I'm looking for a road/CX/gravel road bike for less than a grand, anyone got anything they'd recommend?

Currently looking at the Planet X London Road, Ridley X-Bow or Giant Revolt but I'm open to suggestions too.

I'd like 10 or 11 speed, chunky tyre clearance and disc brakes please...

So, I've been in to my LBS and test ridden a Giant TCX SLR 2 as they didn't have any Ridleys built up in my size, seemed very nice but I'm still undecided, lol!

Calpol · 2 May 2015 at 16:28

Our club organised sportive today. Decent ride only marred by a puncture when I smashed into a pothole. Front tyre was a **** to get off - took about 15 mins to fix the bugger. Headwind sapped me on the way back and I was pretty cooked for the last 10 miles or so. However including the ride out and back to the start I got 85 in today.
https://www.strava.com/activities/296562736

daveski · 2 May 2015 at 17:05

Entered a 25 mile TT today but because of road works they changed it to one lap (~12 miles)

Had to come to a complete stop because of traffic but finished with a time of 30:13.

Edit - winner was Matt Bottrill in 24:53. My time puts me 21st out of 48 starters.

Need to get another 25 mile one entered.

Draeger · 2 May 2015 at 18:33

Question folks!!

My left hand Tiagra 4500 9 spd shifter is kaput. I need to source a replacement but I'm finding it difficult. Is it possible to fit a pair of 105 shifters to the bike instead of Tiagra ones?

Also, I've found a couple of Tiagra shifters online for sale but one of them has the word 'double' on the shifter. Another advert on the bay says the 4500 shifters are 9 x 3 types. Does that mean that these 4500 shifters came in different forms depending on the chainset or will any 4500 9 spd shifter fit any bike, double or triple?

Cheers!

Vonhelmet · 2 May 2015 at 18:42

Draeger said:
Question folks!!

My left hand Tiagra 4500 9 spd shifter is kaput. I need to source a replacement but I'm finding it difficult. Is it possible to fit a pair of 105 shifters to the bike instead of Tiagra ones?

Also, I've found a couple of Tiagra shifters online for sale but one of them has the word 'double' on the shifter. Another advert on the bay says the 4500 shifters are 9 x 3 types. Does that mean that these 4500 shifters came in different forms depending on the chainset or will any 4500 9 spd shifter fit any bike, double or triple?

Cheers!

Your left shifter? I'm more than prepared to be wrong, but I'd have thought almost any left hand shifter would do, provided it matches whether it's a double or a triple. Even then, most triples can be bodged to work like a double.

But yeah, eBay is your best bet for this stuff.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=291446586990

Bid on that, then sell the spare right shifter and you'll make most of the cost back. Or the same with a triple set, whatever.

syke · 2 May 2015 at 18:43

Got myself a little cheap camera (SJ4000) to mount on the bike. Usually the mount is for under the bars, but I wanted the view to show the brake levers in screen - just need my out front garmin mount to arrive for the other side, as had to move it from the stem. Not bad for £40!

Draeger · 2 May 2015 at 18:57

Vonhelmet said:
Your left shifter? I'm more than prepared to be wrong, but I'd have thought almost any left hand shifter would do, provided it matches whether it's a double or a triple. Even then, most triples can be bodged to work like a double.

But yeah, eBay is your best bet for this stuff.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=291446586990

Bid on that, then sell the spare right shifter and you'll make most of the cost back. Or the same with a triple set, whatever.

Cool, cheers for the link. The bike is a Pinarello FP1 with a double compact chainset. Is it possible to fit 105 9 speed shifters in place of the Tiagra ones?

Vonhelmet · 2 May 2015 at 19:00

Draeger said:
Cool, cheers for the link. The bike is a Pinarello FP1 with a double compact chainset. Is it possible to fit 105 9 speed shifters in place of the Tiagra ones?

I can't think of any reason why not. How old are 9 speed 105s, though? It may be that by the time tiagra got to 9 speed it was just the same as 9 speed 105 anyway. But by all means go for it if you've got a decent source for the 105 kit!