Road Cycling

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I have some £100 Elite jobby from Halfords. It's quiet enough but not mega quiet but my landlord already confirmed he can't hear it and isn't bothered.

I have speed sensor, power meter and a turbo. All I need for Zwift is a ANT+ dongle now, yes? I think Zwift would be a great way to make the turbo fun inside, we could have OcUK group rides online? /nerdz
 
That's right.

It'd be pretty fun to do a group ride sometime. I'm totally going to lie about my weight and 'forget' to do up the tension screw on my turbo though...
 
Just ordered myself a pair of Continential 4 seasons for the upcoming winter.
Decided on trying out some 25mm rather than my usual 23mm tyres this time.
 
I have several locks on it all, but because I try and use the bikes daily, I don't want to have "too many", so I thought an alarm as a deterrent would be a good idea for when the street is asleep

I get what you're saying about the light, they can be good as a deterrent - but unless the area is monitored they can also serve as an aid to a thief!

I guess it wouldn't take much to use a PIR sensor to trigger an alarm, would work as a proximity alarm but I guess you may as well just alarm the locks themselves. My thought was the fact the area is fixed - the alarm doesn't need to be mobile, so you could power it from the mains/have alarm inside with 'trigger' outside etc etc. Just me thinking outside of the boring 'alarmed lock' label! ;)

Set up the turbo finally and wrestled with the initial configuration of the InRide power meter. Bit of a pain but once up and running it seemed like a hell of an improvement over my old cheap BT speed/cad sensor.

Interesting to see, why did the initial configuration require wrestling with?

I'm still in 2 minds about getting one... It's *another* ~£70 when I could sell my Road Machine II for ~£200 and pickup a Tacx Vortex/Bushido for similar money or bit more for a Wahoo KICKR SNAP (for fully electronic resistance)... Gah! :o

With regards to road bike tyres, how do they fair in the wet?

Bike tyres don't aquaplane line a car tyre as the profile is so narrow, so you're left with certain tyre compounds giving different grip in different situations along with grip 'patterns' also doing different things.

The Mitchelin Pro4 Endurance tyres we all love are 'slick' tyres, they have no real grip/tread pattern, yet they are still pretty good in the wet due to the compound used.

The Continental GP 4 Seasons and GP 4000s II are both great in the wet and both tyres have grip/tread patterns unlike the P4E (the 4Seasons are bigger & more pronounced than the 4000s). The Continental Gatorskin, although the tyre structure is very similar, with very similar tread/grip patterns. I'm guessing the compound used is different to the 'Hot Chilli' compound used on the 4Seasons and 4000s II (think it's the same) and actually provides less grip in the wet. But as they are one of the most puncture resistant (especially the Hardshells) many LBS and people prefer them. We don't here as we don't tend to follow trends! Most people who've used them consider them inferior to much cheaper tyres - in the wet! ;)

Disclaimer: I've only used cheap Giant, unbranded (Kenda), Mitchelin Pro4 Endurance, Conti GP4 Seasons & Conti GP 4000S II's.

Soooo another session on the rollers.

Managed to total an electric clothes horse and bruise my muffin top! I must have slowed down to much on my easy minute lol.

Now a filling has fallen out too. Good day for me :)

Ouch! Numpty! I was going to comment before about rolling in the doorway looking like a great idea when first starting on rollers, had you moved? Bike ok? :o :D
 
If I had a turbo, I'd be having a go at this. With Lurpak obvs.

Speaking of which, turbos, who has what?

Been looking at the Elite Muin as it seems to be the quietest around at the moment? Want something to get on zwift with really, for when the weather is too awful to ride, but don't want to make enemies of my housemates/neighbours.

I've just got a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine, used one at the bike fitters, not too bad, but not tried mine yet. Will be giving it more of a go this week at some point. Solid bit of kit though!
 
I need to get myself one of them sandwich makers.

Wife? Girlfriend? Mum? :D

Just leave the butter out, it's soft enough then. #lifehax :p

Obvs. But that's something you gain from experience! Personally I find room temperature butter has more taste. But then for ease/longevity/cost we only buy it for baking, everything else we use marg and usually an olive based substitute. Gotta watch the figure - so I can eat more cake baked with butter! ;) :D

Been looking at the Elite Muin as it seems to be the quietest around at the moment? Want something to get on zwift with really, for when the weather is too awful to ride, but don't want to make enemies of my housemates/neighbours.

Kurt Kinetic Road Machine 2 here, no comparisons other than various mag/fluid trainers I've seen people use for demonstrations (on street side/shows/demos) which have all seemed louder than mine. It's not quiet by any stretch of the imagination, but I wouldn't say it's loud. Can imagine on a wooden floor (or any surface with a cavity below) it's loud, that's why I generally use mine on concrete (patio slabs outside or tiled in my conservatory). I've only ridden a few times with it without headphones in, the sound does soon get very boring lol

I've only used Zwift once, but I know if I wanted to use it as a training platform I would almost certainly want a trainer with an electronically controlled resistance. You can 'get around it' by adjusting yourself (changing gear on the RM2) but for me that's not something I want to be having to control to optimise my training, I just want to ride - hitting zpower/cadence levels rather than having to adjust my resistance (to increase/decrease effort) to hit them. Call me lazy but I want less brain and more riding! ;)

I have speed sensor, power meter and a turbo. All I need for Zwift is a ANT+ dongle now, yes? I think Zwift would be a great way to make the turbo fun inside, we could have OcUK group rides online? /nerdz

I didn't see anything on Zwift to currently create a 'group' or club so riding and 'meeting up' is about the only option. Would be quite hard to ride in a group without some 'leader' that everyone is keeping up with. I can't see how else you would keep a group together, probably using something like Teamspeak would be the way forwards?

Regarding Zwift, if you have ANT+ power then you don't need speed or cadence sensors. Zwift only uses cadence/HR/speed/settings to estimate a zpower (calculated power). If you are supplying the app with your power directly then it is my understanding it doesn't need any of these other things.

Just ordered myself a pair of Continential 4 seasons for the upcoming winter.
Decided on trying out some 25mm rather than my usual 23mm tyres this time.

I love 25mm, so much so I'll not go back to 23mm, even in the summer...! I've found it no slower than 23mm and a noticeable increase in comfort. Even going from 25mm Mitchelin Pro4E's to Conti GP4 Seasons - the tyre profile is wider so I noticed better cornering grip, more comfort and better muguard/brake bridge (where my guards fit) clearance.

Edit: Ordered myself a 'replacement' pair of Sportful Fiandre Norain bibshorts (can save £20 from the price I paid from Evans'!) and also the Sportful R&D Wind Jersey I'd umm'd and arr'd about for a while... Figured with the current strength of the pound (close to 1.4?) buying kit from Spain was a great way to save money! :D
 
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Wife? Girlfriend? Mum? :D
We can categorise all under "woman". Any of the above except wife, ain't got no time for that hassle man :p

I didn't see anything on Zwift to currently create a 'group' or club so riding and 'meeting up' is about the only option. Would be quite hard to ride in a group without some 'leader' that everyone is keeping up with. I can't see how else you would keep a group together, probably using something like Teamspeak would be the way forwards?

We 100% need TeamSpeak so I can shout at you all when you all get blown out the back when I take my 1200w turns on the front of the group. YEAH!
 
We 100% need TeamSpeak so I can shout at you all when you all get blown out the back when I take my 1200w turns on the front of the group. YEAH!

Does it have settings for weather?
You wont be blowing anybody out the back if we turn on a headwind and you get tossed around like a leaf :p
 
We can categorise all under "woman". Any of the above except wife, ain't got no time for that hassle man :p



We 100% need TeamSpeak so I can shout at you all when you all get blown out the back when I take my 1200w turns on the front of the group. YEAH!

That would be funny. Although, a bunch of heavy breathing down mic's may sound questionable.
 
I've only used Zwift once, but I know if I wanted to use it as a training platform I would almost certainly want a trainer with an electronically controlled resistance. You can 'get around it' by adjusting yourself (changing gear on the RM2) but for me that's not something I want to be having to control to optimise my training, I just want to ride - hitting zpower/cadence levels rather than having to adjust my resistance (to increase/decrease effort) to hit them. Call me lazy but I want less brain and more riding! ;)

Zwift has to use a set resistance to calculate the virtual power properly, if you are adjusting that mid ride it will screw up the maths.

Why they didn't use the maximum resistance setting on the cycleops mag+ is beyond me as it doesn't exactly create tons of resistance. I run out of gears and cadence before I run out of legs over a short sprint. Can't say I'll be paying for it unless the training mode adds a lot to the experience. Annoyingly I'll be out of the country during the beta so won't be able to try before I buy.
 
It's annoying Zwift doesn't also have InRide support.

@Roady - If you've got a decent quality ant+ speed/cad sensor already and don't plan on getting a power meter for your regular bike then I'd not bother with an InRide. I like it but it's not going to drastically improve the quality of my workouts.
 
We can categorise all under "woman". Any of the above except wife, ain't got no time for that hassle man :p

We 100% need TeamSpeak so I can shout at you all when you all get blown out the back when I take my 1200w turns on the front of the group. YEAH!

Lol, thankfully I'm in the middle category but it will only be a matter of time until I'm in the first, when is the next leap year? ;)

I'm sure if we Teamspeak'd we'd just have complete deadpan from Thomas "Guys, can you please stop dropping off the back, it's someone elses turn...!" ;)

Zwift has to use a set resistance to calculate the virtual power properly, if you are adjusting that mid ride it will screw up the maths.

It calculates from the speed sensor, as it has no way to read resistance from the trainer - my garmin could read 18mph but on screen it'll be doing 5mph as it's up a hill...

Zwift doesn't use resistance, it calculates the power from speed/cadence sensors to calculate against your HR (and I believe age & weight) to come up with a 'virtual' power (zpower) which determines your progression on screen. The progression through the course/track determines the resistance and measures your power output against it to determine your progression.

Anyone with much insight knowledge on Fizik saddles? I understand the 'SPINE' concept but I only see that as a determination of rider flexibility, not of suitable saddle shape which surely comes from sit bone width?

I'm a 'Snake' as I've got short legs and can easily touch the floor, limbered up with some flexibility exercises I can almost get my knuckles on the floor with straight legs. Now I'm after some comfort (not loads) so that places me on a Arione. Nothing about sit bone width?

I currently use a Charge Spoon and I'm after something with some slight 'mid' relief but also a slightly thinner profile as my thighs are big and I do get some slight rubbing still at 3+ hours of riding. I think the wings Fizik have on most of their saddles are the way forwards, I also want to be a poser and have a Fizik saddle to match bar tape when I change it. I like many of the bar tape and saddle designs more than others. Also many people selling Ariones and Antares online so will pickup a second hand bargain rather than buying new :)
 
Roady - get a fake Tioga Spyder from Aliexpress. There's three or four of us on here that have moved over to them and they're the most comfortable saddle I've ridden on. Before that I was on a Charge Spoon and had similar issues.
 
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