Road Cycling

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Roady said:
I've found my 810 less reliable with lots of routes loaded onto it. I try and keep the number below 5 and it's much better! Could be coincidence ;)
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I've got loads of routes and loads of saved rides on mine (in fact all the rides I've ever recorded with it!) and it runs ok, so I don't think that will be the cause.
 
It has actually started working again now. Another three or four restarts of both my phone and the Garmin, along with the software updates and unpair/re-pair....*and* the deletion of the 140 mile ride from the Garmin seems to have made it work.
 
physichull said:
I've got loads of routes and loads of saved rides on mine (in fact all the rides I've ever recorded with it!) and it runs ok, so I don't think that will be the cause.
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It could be my unit but it behaves better 'trimmed down'. Previously I had 20-30 courses on it and it would only auto-sync for 4 or 5 of my 8+ commute rides a week. Now it only fails on 1 or 2. Usually restarting the unit resolves it, but I still have 1 or 2 a month I have to plug it into my PC to sync (it then does auto through Garmin Connect). Once or twice I've had rides which I've had to manually upload to Strava but they really are exceptions.
 
Yesterday was western gales and rain.
Today was eastern gales and rain.
Gotta love the Scottish Highlands.... :|

Whacked a pothole (opencast mine/quarry) in the road on a descent doing 38mph and it popped the tube instantly. Not very happy. Was 2 miles from home at the bottom of a 180m climb to my house having to change the tube in the pouring rain. Hope my wheel is alright! What's the best way of checking a wheel is OK and spinning 100% true? I've got it on my stand looking at it all ways and it seems fine but I am a paranoid one!
 
Just breaking in my Boardman Hybrid Comp atm, probably only put 100 miles on it so far. Still tweaking setup and fit a bit.

Try as I might, I can't get the saddle to feel comfy. I've followed various bike fitting suggestions and I'm confident that my seat-crank distance is right, and my seat height relative to bars is right, so I'm assuming that the saddle just isn't right for me.

Any suggestions on what to replace it with? I'm only a casual cyclist so don't want to spend daft money really.

(Also, when do I need to worry about BB30's dying? Heard lots of horror stories but don't seem to have any issues yet...)
 
physichull said:
Going to change the brake cables and pads on my Giant tonight. Got all the bits and pieces and new bar tape ready.

The brakes are next to useless at the moment. The rear one offers no braking power whatsoever so I'm doing a complete cable changes, presuming that's what was wrong with it. Rims are clean. as are the pads, but it feels like neither offer any braking power at all. It was dangerous to ride. Never changed the cables before so should be a.....laugh.
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Bar tape had just arrived to allow me top change the cables on mine too. I got some brand new (pretty much) Campag chainrings for £30 the other week as my current ones are so worn. I'll post pics when I replace them. They are atrocious.
 
topgun06 said:
Wow! That is impressive. That's 160 times up the closest hill. :eek:
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I think if I was ever insane enough to try something like that, and believe me I'm not, I'd be looking for something long and steady. Any steep bits that sap your cadence would be murder after a couple of ascents. Something like the Skye Road ascent in Yorkshire would be pretty good. 3.2 miles at an average of 6%. It took me 25 minutes on the one occasion I've climbed it, and you'd need just over 28 ascents to Everest it, so you'd be looking at about 17-18 hours once you factor in the descents and the inevitable slowdown as you get tired!
 
73 Wizards to Everest it. Christ. I've tripled it once, and that was really painful.
 
topgun06 said:
Ignoring the rain, the wind direction looks pretty good for my ride home from work :)
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Opposite for me. I need to find a way to make myself a lot more aerodynamic, FAST :D

Roady said:
Plus point - Feel I could now build a wheel from scratch! :cool:
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Give it a go, it's really rewarding :)

You basically did the right thing in your method. Looks like you've worked out how much effect tightening a spoke 1/2 turn can make and you have also understood that doing the neighbouring spokes takes the pressure off the single spoke. You can use the brake caliper as a guide for centring the wheel. The frame is symmetrical so you can put the wheel in the other way round to check if it is offset at all.

The pinging that you hear is where the spoke is twisted, i.e. you turned the nipple round but it didn't turn all the way on the spoke thread, it just twisted the spoke round a bit. You always get this to some degree, but it's worse when the nipple is a bit tight on an old spoke. When the wheel is true, lean your weight on the bike and roll it round one or two revolutions, then spin it and check the trueness - then give it a final tweak. I love that pinging sound on a brand new wheel!
 
Vonhelmet said:
I've never done hill repeats. I'm tempted to go out one weekend and try like 5 times up a cat 3 or something.
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I've done a few and quite enjoyed it purely for novelty value (and it's good training of course). I don't think I could be bothered making it a regular part of my riding though. I prefer to do routes where you hit multiple interesting hills.
 
Jonny69 said:
Give it a go, it's really rewarding :)

You basically did the right thing in your method. Looks like you've worked out how much effect tightening a spoke 1/2 turn can make and you have also understood that doing the neighbouring spokes takes the pressure off the single spoke. You can use the brake caliper as a guide for centring the wheel. The frame is symmetrical so you can put the wheel in the other way round to check if it is offset at all.

The pinging that you hear is where the spoke is twisted, i.e. you turned the nipple round but it didn't turn all the way on the spoke thread, it just twisted the spoke round a bit. You always get this to some degree, but it's worse when the nipple is a bit tight on an old spoke. When the wheel is true, lean your weight on the bike and roll it round one or two revolutions, then spin it and check the trueness - then give it a final tweak. I love that pinging sound on a brand new wheel!
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Ahhh ok that explains it, should I maybe oil spoke threads next time I do it (to aid with stopping them twist) or is that a no-no (ie they'll work loose easier!). Good tip with testing and checking. Any tips about spoke tension? I previously had them far too tight (damaged several trying to get them loose) but now I'm thinking I may not have them tight enough so will find them loose sooner...? :confused:

More than happy to do the work again (just give my fingers a few days to recover!), but would ideally get a new set of nipples first to replace some/all of them. Can you get harder nipples? (feel free to quote me out of context anyone! :p)

Easier to do with a Tru'ing stand or not much point unless building multiple wheels?

FrenchTart said:
I've done a few and quite enjoyed it purely for novelty value (and it's good training of course). I don't think I could be bothered making it a regular part of my riding though. I prefer to do routes where you hit multiple interesting hills.
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I do some repeats of my 'local' hill, it's the easiest (5 min ride away) and long enough that a couple of repeats is more than enough! I'm getting better on hills (from more riding) so hill repeats are more enjoyable now than they used to be! ;)

Edit: Aldi had a big cycling sale started on sunday with loads of stock in - I bought a couple of the softshells and wore one for some hill reps. It's good but a little too warm for afternoon wear but ok for temperatures 5-14 degrees as a jacket replacement. Bought for commuting as Windproof and waterproof. Arms are removable so I may be imitating grudas some rides... ;)
 
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Roady said:
I do some repeats of my 'local' hill, it's the easiest (5 min ride away) and long enough that a couple of repeats is more than enough! I'm getting better on hills (from more riding) so hill repeats are more enjoyable now than they used to be! ;)
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Decent hills are fairly far away for me. I keep meaning to try setting up the turbo in "hill climbing mode" (massively elevate the front wheel and cycle with high power/low cadence). At the moment I'm getting out enough to feel that I don't really need to spend massive amounts of time staring at Trainer Road though, thankfully.
 
Surprisingly good ride today, thought I'd be fairly weak, was thinking of doing 100km, but the wind was quite brutal, and I thought better of it, coming home, wind was so strong on a slight downhill, and pedaling hard, speed dropped to 12mph :D

https://www.strava.com/activities/298578663

My 1000 updated earlier, hopefully make it more stable, as it crashed again on upload just before updating.
 
The thought of doing even 20 makes me sad :(

I get bored easily of same old same old. I get bored occasionally when cycling around the flat Cheshire lanes. They are all the same. I get bored of the turbo trainer. Nothing happens. So more than 5 repeats would have me fed up.

I always prefer to do a loop rather than go from A to B and then B to A over the same route.

I guess hill repeats ain't for me!
 
You don't generally do hill repeats for the scenery/enjoyment!

I quite often leave them to a cool, wet windy day. The cool wind helps to cool me down and as not really travelling at pace it doesn't overly sap my strength! It doesn't matter how fast the descents are as you're not really there for them... ;)
 
Roady said:
Ahhh ok that explains it, should I maybe oil spoke threads next time I do it (to aid with stopping them twist) or is that a no-no (ie they'll work loose easier!). Good tip with testing and checking. Any tips about spoke tension? I previously had them far too tight (damaged several trying to get them loose) but now I'm thinking I may not have them tight enough so will find them loose sooner...? :confused:
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Oil or grease the threads because it stops them seizing on. Even stainless with brass nipples eventually seize if they are dry and get salty winter rain on them. They won't come loose unless you have so little spoke tension that the spoke completely unloads when you put weight on it.

In terms of spoke tension, next time you're in Evans or your LBS, give the neighbouring spokes on a couple of wheels a squeeze to see how tight they are. You can just match this. You can also run as much or as little tension as you like for a mega stiff wheel or one that soaks up the bumps - it's really all your own choice :)

Roady said:
More than happy to do the work again (just give my fingers a few days to recover!), but would ideally get a new set of nipples first to replace some/all of them. Can you get harder nipples? (feel free to quote me out of context anyone! :p)
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Just use standard plated brass nipples. You can get alloy ones to save a few grammes but don't expect to ever be able to get them to budge once they've been on there a while!

Roady said:
Easier to do with a Tru'ing stand or not much point unless building multiple wheels?
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I just build all of mine in an upturned bike tbh. Not needed a stand. You have plenty of datum points to work with and it's really easy to get a brand new rim to run perfectly true :)
 
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