Road Cycling

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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8,441
Location
Hereford
Base layer, jersey, softsheel and gilet? Where are you riding, the North Pole?
Soft shell = no breathability = maximum sweat.
No, Herefordshire! ;) That morning (friday) it was -5 with the windchill. :eek:

As my work commute is so short (2.5 miles!) I have no chance to work up a sweat, quite the opposite in fact as it's barely long enough to even get warmed up. I also ride with my other half in the mornings & evenings so a even more leisurely pace! Average power will give you an idea and most of the time my HR doesn't break 150 bpm (poor example this morning as I did a 120rpm cadence 'Benny Hill Cycling' spot) ;)
My normal outfit to be fair, less the gilet. :o
This particular gilet I'm mostly wearing for visibility/reflective elements as the rest of my clothing has very little. It's also quite handy with my softshell to give it additional waterproofing, meaning I'm ok in showers without a specific waterproof layer.
Sportful Gruppetto is my choice for sub 3C.. but even at 0C it's too much.
I've got one now too, it's ok but it needs windproofing. It's quite thin but the fabric is quite impressive for warmth, just a shame the Large fit is so poor on me. Body is perfect, arms are baggy around the forearm and too long (although not many sleeves fit me well! Short arms!).
You see, I tried that and when it was proper cold I found the moisture in my breath condensates on the fabric and I increasingly feel like I'm waterboarding myself!
Haha, I only find this after multiple hours of riding, usually get around it by wearing it over my chin and not my mouth for the real efforts/climbing when I'm thankful of the cold air. The majority of time I'm wearing it over my mouth is when commuting short times/distances (see above). When things are warmer and there's more moisture in the air I tend to wear them as a more traditional buff (around neck) without it pulled up over my ears/face.

Occasionally on the freezing club rides I'll carry a spare for when/if the primary gets soaked (also handy for the ride home!).
 
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Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
Posts
5,386
I've got one now too, it's ok but it needs windproofing. It's quite thin but the fabric is quite impressive for warmth, just a shame the Large fit is so poor on me. Body is perfect, arms are baggy around the forearm and too long (although not many sleeves fit me well! Short arms!).

This one? I do find the arm fitting isn't so great but I've worn this a few times in sub 2C weather and it's perfect for warmth. Similar to the dhb blok softshell. Arms are a little bit of a funny fit on me too but I'm not super fussed. They're quite tight in the forearm which I've never seen on another jersey!
 
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Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2006
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16,048
Innertubeshop have been out of stock for ages on their 42mm/62mm tubes.

Continental 700 x 20-25 Race28 Black - Presta 60mm on Wiggle £2.99 - Next best option??

Any others to consider?
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,441
Location
Hereford
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Just picked up my Diverge, just rode it too...so comfortable and fast!

Going to replace the pedals though, any suggestions? :D
They go like a scalded cat when you stomp! Speed pickup is great on mine, although it's not the most aero of frames, it's no slouch! :D
I've rode bikes for many years(not consistantly as i am not a serious bike rider and i do not really know my components that well) but nearly always a mountain bike with clipless pedals so fancied a change again and was recommended buying the Diverge.
From this comment I'm assuming you're still got the MTB and clipless? If you have you could always swap the (probably SPD) pedals over to the road bike and use the same shoes. Lots of guys I know who ride road & SPD just stick with SPD (and not SPD-SL) on their winter bikes, only switching out to SPD-SL/Look Keo on their summer bikes (and then having 'summer' shoes too)!

I rode flats, then SPD for a good 18 months before switching to SPD-SL. I found the transition quite tricky but that was partly due to a huge majority of my riding being commuting in stop/start traffic. I got quite good at pedalling unclipped and I still do it occasionally now. If anything the Look Keo I'm now riding are better at riding unclipped than the SPD-SL, flipping the pedal and clipping in & out is quite a lot easier/more natural than SPD-SL too...
Cheers guys, have ordered one so will know for sure soon. Many of the reviews mentioned the different size cups, apparently an adapter for the standard tool comes with the BB.
You may even find your press fit installation tool comes with the adaptors to fit the BB, but only for installation purposes.
50 miles today and I'm feeling it now, so tired.
-7 when I set out.
Forecast here was for below freezing temperatures to continue near to midday for saturday and sunday so I did two sessions on the turbo. We were snowed in anyway. ;)

Saturday morning as my laptop decided to spend a long time installing WU's I fitted my 11-28 cassette (replacing 11-32) and new crankset (gone for 105 36*52 from FSA 34*50). When realigning gears my FD cable screw ended up threading the FD arm. Doh! At least it's still the original so several years old now, it's had some abuse! There's a 6800 on ebay I'm hoping to snag as a replacement, for now my bodge will have to do (just no climbing the pretzel!). Wasted quite a bit of time so couldn't do the couple of hours I'd planned. :rolleyes:

Sunday morning although things were freezing cold in my garage I was determined to get a couple of hours done! Jumped on the turbo... and... Puncture! :eek: Thankfully an easy change, it looked like the previously repaired tubes patch had degraded as the patch had split/fractured. Maybe from the cold? :confused: After an hour my arse was starting to suffer so sacked it off. think 10 days off riding has helped my legs, but my bums gone far too soft! :(
 
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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,441
Location
Hereford
This one? I do find the arm fitting isn't so great but I've worn this a few times in sub 2C weather and it's perfect for warmth. Similar to the dhb blok softshell. Arms are a little bit of a funny fit on me too but I'm not super fussed. Their quite tight in the forearm which I've never seen on another jersey!
I've just got the 'normal' jersey version, not the windproof jacket. The fabric, although good, is just so thin that it can't retain heat in any cold wind. Without the wind it's as good as a thermal type jersey, yet around half the thickness.

I'm the same with the arms, find the forearm/wrist area of the gruppetto far too flappy and not enough elasticity to hold it in place. I've got a DHB macro roubaix probably very similar to your Blok, the arms fit lots better, forearms are tighter but more elastic so they tend to stay in place. I just wear the gruppetto tucked into my gloves, usually I'd pull a thermal jersey/jacket over them.
Innertubeshop have been out of stock for ages on their 42mm/62mm tubes.

Continental 700 x 20-25 Race28 Black - Presta 60mm on Wiggle £2.99 - Next best option??

Any others to consider?
Probably the best, can save a little hunting around but questionable quality/paid delivery on most. Free delivery from Wiggle if you've got other things to order, or ordering a bunch of them. Last time I ordered from ITS they where £1.78 a tube or something anyway, so not a huge saving (tend to order in 10's).

EDIT: Had snow on sunday morning, there were queues at supermarkets for bread (no joke):
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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,619
just ordered a set of M530 "trail" pedals. My winter boots arent exactly stiff of sole, so i quite fancy trying out the bit of extra support they offer. will post feedback if anyone's interested

Needed new cleats, and a set of pedals is £20 with cleats while a set of cleats is £12, so if they dont offer any benefits no big deal/i'll just chuck them on my MTB
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Feb 2004
Posts
18,197
Location
Hampshire
Always good when you get a refund on an item you didn't really 100% want that you used just to get a discount code, still have the discount code applied and receive a further £5 discount code to use :p
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,074
This is the year I go aero - My new helmet arrived this morning : Specialized Evade

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View from the back

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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
20,701
Location
England
Just the ticket for getting that extra few mph hurtling down the Champs De Salop Road. At least you'll look the part, plus disc brakes for the bottom save you going through the electricity sub-station.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,441
Location
Hereford
just ordered a set of M530 "trail" pedals. My winter boots arent exactly stiff of sole, so i quite fancy trying out the bit of extra support they offer. will post feedback if anyone's interested

Needed new cleats, and a set of pedals is £20 with cleats while a set of cleats is £12, so if they dont offer any benefits no big deal/i'll just chuck them on my MTB
I was running M530's before, still have 2 battered sets of them in my 'cycling toolbox'. I didn't exactly have any other comparison apart from when I changed to SPD-SL which were obviously a more secure & solid fit! :rolleyes:
Always good when you get a refund on an item you didn't really 100% want that you used just to get a discount code, still have the discount code applied and receive a further £5 discount code to use :p
wiggletricks.com?
back to the cycling coach again today for some training plans. Sounds painful already what he has in store for me........
Goodluck! grudas is my coach... 'Just keep pushing...!' ;) :D
This is the year I go aero - My new helmet arrived this morning : Specialized Evade
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Good colour choice, superb helmet! Think Thomas sold his but unsure what he replaced it with? I tried one on and the Large was a strange fit on me... It looked very small on my head! :D
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2006
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5,386
Having terrible luck on the winter shoe front. I tried 3 sizes of the Northwave Celsius but all too wide.

Ordered a pair of Louis Garneau from Evans for the princely sum of £65 (procrastination discount - previous day they were £90!) but they are about five sizes too small and no bigger sizes available any more!
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,074
Did you pay £160 or so?
Yep - £160. There were some other colour options for around £130 but I wanted red and black to match my bike and clothing. Even the line graphics on rear of the helemt match the graphics on my deep section wheels :)

In terms of time savings : Specialized did a Win Tunnel test and concluded that switching from the Prevail (my current helmet) to the Evade saves you 40secs over 40km (25 miles).
Switching from the Evade to the S-Works TT helmet saves another 20secs, but I don't fancy that for standard road riding.

Shadowness - What is your Strava name in the OcUK club?

Spesh helmet test/data video

 
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Soldato
Joined
17 Sep 2006
Posts
4,148
Location
Gloucestershire
Yeh I'll def get one. They're meant to divide opinions on looks apparently though. Tried one on in my local shop the other day and it felt really comfortable.

I would have to get the matte black with white logo. They actually do a torch version which changes colour, like my s-works frame. But a bright orange bike and helmet is a bit OTT I think!

I noticed they did a Tri version for an extra £10 or so. Do you know what that version is?

EDIT: My name on Strava should just be my name, Dan Freeman
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,074
I noticed they did a Tri version for an extra £10 or so. Do you know what that version is?

EDIT: My name on Strava should just be my name, Dan Freeman
The Tri verson has a magnetic buckle to help transition faster.

So you're the guy who keeps knocking me out of the top 3 OcUK climbing list :p
 
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