Road Cycling

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I've used my work's cyclescheme a few times over the years - for bikes and once for accessories (helmet, two sets of shoes). It has been pretty decent but tbh I've now reached a point where buying anything from my LBS is a last resort...which is a shame as I'd like to support local businesses where I can but it's just so expensive. I still go to them for some maintenance when it comes to jobs I cba with - truing wheels, replacing spokes, dealing with the annoying internal routing on my cables, etc.
 
FrenchTart said:
Pretty ridiculous that you have to resort to that however :/
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Well, given a bike won't trigger the induction loop in the road I'm not sure what the alternative is, unless the sequence is set to include some amount of times when it shows a green on an empty road, which would likely inconvenience more people than it helped.

Besides, as said, if the road is clear you can just ride through anyway if it won't change for you.
 
Jonny69 said:
I've just successfully repaired my faulty Fibre Flare. It's surprisingly simple inside but badly made
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Hunt them down 'broken' online and offer a repair service? ;)

SoliD said:
I must say DHB make some quite good looking clothing nowadays! Still got a lot of shockers, but a lot of their stuff is very good compared to some other brands.
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Yup tell me about it, the 'Active' range did give them quite a bad rep (quite wrongly so I feel) but with the ASV stuff now it's a very professional look.

hooneeawr said:
Think I might need to play with the settings. Just about killed my self in 6 minutes! https://www.strava.com/activities/473170124
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I'd encourage you to do a good warm up before any intensive turbo work! Most sessions (Zwift/Sufferfest/TR) will do one & I regularly make these longer to fully warm up! :cool:

FrenchTart said:
You can get a customised logo on the side. I just need to think of some really annoying text...
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'My other bike is faster'? :p

Got my spoke tension tool if you do a rebuild and want to borrow one :)

Vonhelmet said:
If you can read this I'm stopped at the lights.
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Hahaha, love it!

How about 'Haha, I don't pay road tax' :rolleyes:
 
Vonhelmet said:
Well, given a bike won't trigger the induction loop in the road I'm not sure what the alternative is, unless the sequence is set to include some amount of times when it shows a green on an empty road, which would likely inconvenience more people than it helped.

Besides, as said, if the road is clear you can just ride through anyway if it won't change for you.
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I wasn't suggesting that there was a great alternative but it's extremely frustrating to sit around whilst the lights don't change. Riding through red is also something that as cyclists you try to avoid.

Then again, you could easily have a 'cyclist crossing' button or something if you really wanted to not completely ignore people that perfectly validly use the road.
 
FrenchTart said:
I wasn't suggesting that there was a great alternative but it's extremely frustrating to sit around whilst the lights don't change. Riding through red is also something that as cyclists you try to avoid.

Then again, you could easily have a 'cyclist crossing' button or something if you really wanted to not completely ignore people that perfectly validly use the road.
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Riding through red is fine if the light doesn't change i.e. if it isn't working. Highway Code rule 176. Mind you, I'm sure it would be fun explaining that to a driver if they took umbrage.
 
FrenchTart said:
Thanks but I enjoy not doing any wheel maintenance. It's the last bit of bike stuff that I don't do for myself :p
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Same here, unless I ever get all the gear, I will never ever try to do anything but tighten a loose spoke.

Cold cold cold this morning, glad I had the gloves on the radiator overnight, meant they lasted a mile before hurting. Although had warmed up by the time I had got to work.
 
schizo said:
Just wondering,how many people use the cycle scheme through work ?

I'm on my 2nd (orbea mountain bike and cube peleton).

I will do my last scheme this year with accessories,want a garmin 810 plus some other bits,probably spend around the £700 mark.
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I used it last year for my Cube Agree GTC Race. Honestly don't feel there's a major discount with it after the 7% final fee after 3/4 years but it's a good way to spread out the payment at least and I wouldn't have spent so much on a bike without it. The shop I went to (and most) seemed to allow you to top up the voucher if required.

Also, the discount on last season bikes often tends to be a pretty good deal overall but many shops won't allow you to use cycle scheme against discount bikes :(

I've yet to actually cycle to work :D
 
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There's some discount if you're a basic rate payer. It's much more effective if you're a higher rate payer, though. Rather backwards, though, given that if you're a higher rate payer then chances are they're throwing company cars at you.
 
Workmate that is planning to come along for the Velothon Wales is looking to buy a road bike... Is there anything better for £400 than this Giant Defy 3?

Sora and carbon fork doesn't seem too bad. Likely worth £100 over the Giant Defy 5 with Claris and alu fork.
 
Calpol said:
Here is a link to a question I asked on Weight Weenies about the seatpost. The guy bought from Paul's and built up

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=67421&start=1680#p1198357
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Hmm, weird, I got my tape measure out at the weekend and I was sure it was 25.4mm. I even had it in my head it said that on the seatpost collar but I was very tired and a bit hungover... I'll remeasure tonight and confirm.

Google does seem to suggest 27.2mm with the 2016 frame being 25.4mm so it's more than likely I was being an idiot.
 
Lethal` said:
Ha. I had some lights just now that just wouldn't detect me as a cyclist despite having a massive ASL :(<snip>
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There's one in Hereford where traffic filters out of a one way side street that has an additional junction on it you can turn into from the main road. It's utterly useless but is such a shortcut I tend to use it when going home from the LBS. I've previously waited through 4-5 complete light changes (probably 10 minutes as it's 3 way lights, was long enough that my garmin switched off!) as one of the entrances is hard to see oncoming traffic from. Here towards the 20mph signs. I now use the pedestrian crossing after nearly getting run down by a taxi cutting the corner.

FrenchTart said:
I had loads of Garmin crashes when my SD card was about to die. Since getting a new one it has been much more stable. Could be worth trying.
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Good shout, I have the same problems with my 810 and I'm just using an old 2gb junk card in it...!

ThaReaperGuy said:
I grabbed a few from Aldi, the Crane ones have been great for me! They were £15 I think? and when compared to similar merino wool base layers they seem like such a steal! :eek:
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May have a look for them when Aldi cycling stuff is next in... I have some Nike Pro Combat but didn't find them that wicking (tend to use them snowboarding). I also have a selection of Lonsdale long and short sleeve but they're all cotton and are like sponges with any moisture! Thankfully they were cheap and I got them for layers in the winter when working outside (thankfully a thing of the past)! I've got more bases than jerseys! :rolleyes: :D

ThaReaperGuy said:
The Aeron + windslam is also a good combo as the sleeves on the windslam are quite thin so work similar to a base layer with the windslam front.
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Not a bad idea actually as I do have a Windslam jersey although it's utterly useless on the arms/shoulders so of very limited use... Also has a really short collar unlike everything else DHB! :rolleyes:

Lethal` said:
I have noticed it's a bit slower to boot up recently but that's seemed to scale with the amount of courses I've added to it.
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Mine's the same, although my crashes are usually freezes when loading/riding a course. Holding Power+start is a reset but quite annoying/tricky to do while riding along!
 
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FrenchTart said:
Thanks but I enjoy not doing any wheel maintenance. It's the last bit of bike stuff that I don't do for myself :p
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Slack!
SoliD said:
Same here, unless I ever get all the gear, I will never ever try to do anything but tighten a loose spoke.
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Rebuilding a wheel is only a small step further! Although to be truthful I've never fully relaced a wheel yet, just replaced a spoke, removed all tension (& fully retensioned) and replaced 1/3 of all spoke nipples... :cool:

Tempting!

Lethal` said:
Closest is the £450 Triban 520 which is pretty similar spec wise but considering he's already jumped up from £300 and isn't even sure he'll keep a road bike (will try to convince him otherwise!) I doubt he'll stretch that far.
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May find a Cube Peloton 2015 for similar money, although for that I'd be very tempted to push him towards second hand or a trade-in from a LBS. More bike for the money = more fun to ride = more likely to get him hooked! ;)
 
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Roady said:
Not a bad idea actually as I do have a Windslam jersey although it's utterly useless on the arms/shoulders so of very limited use... Also has a really short collar unlike everything else DHB! :rolleyes:
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I wore one of those last night, the collar is comicly short but I combined it with a buff tucked under it and the back of my helmet + a Janus merino hiking base layer (going to have to get some cycling specific ones!) and some hivis (with reflectors) arm warmers over the top purely for visibility. Wasn't too bad despite the temperatures but it is annoying that you can't get away with just the Windslam sleeves.
 
Roady said:
May find a Cube Peloton 2015 for similar money, although for that I'd be very tempted to push him towards second hand or a trade-in from a LBS. More bike for the money = more fun to ride = more likely to get him hooked! ;)
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Good point. I've sent that to him as well to confuse him even more! They're available for £389... internal cable routing. Backstep from Sora to Claris though triple so he might prefer it for The Tumble :D
 
Lethal` said:
I wore one of those last night, the collar is comicly short but I combined it with a buff tucked under it and the back of my helmet + a Janus merino hiking base layer (going to have to get some cycling specific ones!) and some hivis (with reflectors) arm warmers over the top purely for visibility. Wasn't too bad despite the temperatures but it is annoying that you can't get away with just the Windslam sleeves.
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The sleeves are beyond disappointing, and wouldn't attempt to wear the wind slam in anything under 7-9 degrees as my arms get way too cold. Paired up however with a decent Roubaix jersey and having the windslam front is quite effective.

Think I'll use it more in the sprint > summer transition where it's cool enough to warrant the need to keep my body slightly warm.
 
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