Road Cycling

Berger said:
Not much riding this week, first week at new job.

Commute from Wigan to Birchwood (Warrington). I could probably ride in the same time or less than the drive takes but I need shirt & tie every day in the office. Maybe when the weather gets better I could possibly ride if I was super organised. Had to de ice the van to get home one day after work, not good riding weather at all!

Agreed to purchase a house which comes with its own training shed ;) already scoped out the neighbour as a training buddy as that's how his is setup! Will be better if I can leave the bike setup on the trainer and just get going straight after work, not so easy living with the in laws!
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Wigan to Birchwood must be a fair distance - is it 15 miles or thereabouts? I do 11 or so each way.

Whereabouts in Birchwood are you? Cycling provision on the science park itself is pretty good, in terms of changing rooms and so on.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Wigan to Birchwood must be a fair distance - is it 15 miles or thereabouts? I do 11 or so each way.

Whereabouts in Birchwood are you? Cycling provision on the science park itself is pretty good, in terms of changing rooms and so on.
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Our offices are in the centre of the science park not too far from the spar and Starbucks etc.

I believe there are showers on the ground floor, not sure about secure bike parking.

Would be 15 miles door to door, it's 19-20 in the car. I get a company vehicle so costs me nothing to drive in but riding in would get me some needed exercise and might be nice a few days a week in summer!
 
Berger said:
Our offices are in the centre of the science park not too far from the spar and Starbucks etc.

I believe there are showers on the ground floor, not sure about secure bike parking.

Would be 15 miles door to door, it's 19-20 in the car. I get a company vehicle so costs me nothing to drive in but riding in would get me some needed exercise and might be nice a few days a week in summer!
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You pay tax on a company vehicle though.
 
Berger said:
Our offices are in the centre of the science park not too far from the spar and Starbucks etc.

I believe there are showers on the ground floor, not sure about secure bike parking.

Would be 15 miles door to door, it's 19-20 in the car. I get a company vehicle so costs me nothing to drive in but riding in would get me some needed exercise and might be nice a few days a week in summer!
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I'm in Chadwick House. I use the showers etc in the Centre and park my bike in the racks opposite there. They're good solid racks, you can lock a bike really well there. Front wheel goes into a solid plastic bit and then there's a metal rail with a small loop at the right point for going through the rear triangle and wheel. No trouble for me in the last year. I see people parking nicer bikes than mine in there, so that's my insurance in a manner of speaking!
 
Roady said:
You'll love it! Diverge Comp carbon owner here, had it since September-ish and clocked up 1500 miles or so. I went with SKS Chromo plastics on mine, great fit on the rear but the front was a pain and took some fettling. Heard the plug n plays are good but still not 'plug and play' (no mudguard is). You pay for them though. Mine came with Roubaix pro tyres and they're awesome, I took them off and fitted slicks (Pro4 endurance), before refitting the Roubaix when the wet weather/winter came (and had the pro4''s slide out on me). I've only had 1 puncture on the Roubaix''s from a pothole.

There is a 'Specialised Diverge Owners and Enthusiasts' group on Facebook that's pretty amazing for info, big majority of them are Americans but still all good info and many members worldwide. Some of them doing some crazy stuff! Seen flat bar & fat bike conversions, CX racers, tourers, trail/gravel riders as well as lots of road riders (like me). Such a versatile frame!
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Thanks mate i am sure i will, i can't wait for it hate using trains at the moment!

What PSI should i go with on them? i am 95kg roughly.

My main concern is flats which i had often on my old bike but it was nearing it's end plus didn't have puncture resistant tyres so probably will go tubeless on the Diverge by next month if needed.
 
20 mile loop today. Far more headwind than there has been and this was the first ride I've done in light rain. Headwind was by far the biggest factor but we(2 of us with me leading 90% of the ride) still managed to maintain an average speed of 19mph; i burnt 709 cals and had a heartrate of 170+ for about 20 minutes straight :eek:

Attached my new pedals and used cleats for the first time today; so much better than the trainers I have been using :p
 
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Sycho said:
Thanks mate i am sure i will, i can't wait for it hate using trains at the moment!

What PSI should i go with on them? i am 95kg roughly
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I'm running something like 85ish on the front and just below 90 on the rear, probably less now as i've not checked for a few weeks. Was running higher but with the pants weather I wanted whatever extra grip I could. Could easily run lower but the majority of my serious winter riding is club runs on tarmac so need the speed (not to mention the pinch resistance as our Herefordshire roads are so poor). My Axis 4.0 rims are tubeless ready with new rim tape, may well do that in future as my long term aim is a 'road' wheelset and a 'trail' wheelset (the axis) which i'll br riding with friends on MTB''s.

I used more traditional pressures with the pro4 endurance 28mm as they had lower air volumes, 90 front, 95 rear. Probably higher than needed but anything lower was risking pinches.
NooBish AbbZ said:
20 mile loop today. Far more headwind than there has been and this was the first ride I've done in light rain. Headwind was by far the biggest factor but we(2 of us with me leading 90% of the ride) still managed to maintain an average speed of 19mph
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Good work & well done! Might sound slightly odd but if you're the stronger rider already (and will continue riding with your buddy) then stick him on the front more. Unless he''s riding more and progresses faster (fitness wise) you'll leave him behind loads as your fitness improves and you'll be continually reigning yourself in, which gets very annoying after a while! ;)

Last night in Jamaica today. Zero riding for 8 days (& counting). Fully intending on some solid turbo sessions later in the week so i'd not reliant on the weekend (or horribly dropped if the weather is good for Saturdays club ride!) :o
 
Off for some early season coaching/testing this morning.

Local coach offering a full hour session of testing/programs/coaching etc for £20 intro offer.

Watt bike testing/VO2 max/heart rate zones etc - Will report back later on but thought I needed something to kick start the year properly.
 
merlin said:
All depends on the elevation you're experiencing.
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I can do 19mph no problems on a flat/london route but my avg always drops due to traffic/red lights.

so I usually end up at 15-17mph :o

but if you're killing it down hill for 80% of your commute then 19mph is easy
 
grudas said:
I can do 19mph no problems on a flat/london route but my avg always drops due to traffic/red lights.

so I usually end up at 15-17mph :o

but if you're killing it down hill for 80% of your commute then 19mph is easy
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Yes cycling through the city you're never going to run up a decent average, too many interruptions and even if the clock pauses when you stop - there's still the slow down to the lights and the getting going after the lights.

This is my commute in - there's lots of starting/stopping and there's also a fair bit of elevation:

https://www.strava.com/activities/815444957

The run home though is an absolute piece of cake!
 
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