Road Cycling

[Lethal`]

I'm in a bit of a Strava "war" apparently. A "climb" back in Sussex (small hill) I had the KOM on got taken a few weeks back. I though it a bit weird to do a 2 mile ride to seemingly just take that segment, looked at the guy's ride and profile and he's got a photo of an e-bike. Commented that the pace looks almost electric, no response so I flagged it to see if he'd respond.

On Saturday during stormforce winds which would have been 50mph gusting crosswinds, he takes the KOM again and goes further and takes the segment from me that includes the next road too. Shaved a good 16 seconds off my 2:35 time ascending at 23.5mph. He posted the ride as "no one likes a sore loser" with a photo of a Trek road bike with flat pedals

I've obviously got no way to prove he didn't do it on that bike but seems unlikely. I guess my next move will be targeting a 25mph ascent of that road. Ouch. I wonder how powerful his illegal e-bike really is!

 

[Saytan]

I once watched a youtube video of a bloke trying a home-brew 9kw e-bike he'd built

he pulls onto a dual carriageway, says "time to try full power". For a minute or so you hear nothing but rushing wind, then it slows down and he says "fully starred out hell, never again"

 

[Lethal`]

Haha. I've seen some fairly powerful contraptions. I remember waiting with a mate at some traffic lights and it sounded like a moped was coming down the pavement behind us. Looked back and there's an old halfords-special bike with various add-ons and a guy that was barely pedalling. He then hops off the pavement after the red light. Lights go green so we chase for a laugh, catch up and ask about it. He made it himself of course, petrol tank fairly visible and it looked like a death trap. I asked "How fast?" and he responds "35mph". He took the lead over some rolling terrain cue us pushing ~30mph chasing. He got away as he could accelerate far faster but his pedalling was absolutely hilarious. I guess he had to considerably "toe out" the crank arms to clear the engine so he looked like a frog on a bike furiously pedalling away.

Edit: actually did get that on video...

 

[Saytan]

oh yeah, they always start off with some janky BSO that you wouldn't want to pedal to that speed even if you could.

I've got some hope V2's knocking around somewhere that'd be the starting point for a superpowered e-bike if I was ever so inclined.

 

[Jonny ///M]

That's what I've got and it doesn't fit my frame FFS!

That's the one I've been looking for and turned a blank ffs lol

I wasn't aware there was so much difference between PF30 & BB30 (4mm difference ID in this instance!?)

https://wheelsmfg.com/tech/PDF/PF30-OUT-SHIMANO-INSTRUCTIONS-WEB.pdf
https://wheelsmfg.com/tech/PDF/BB30-OUT-SHIMANO-INSTRUCTIONS-WEB.pdf

I wish!

Yeah, try working with it daily. Generally it's the same crank that will fit it's just how the bearing fits in the frame. Really you want a big hole in your frame and a long spindle on the crank which will mean you can convert to anything.

The best one is BB30A - A for Asymmetric found on Cannondales...with BB30 branding on the frame and only for the Hollowgram cranks I believe. The best part? It's actually PF30???

The original BB30 cranks had really short spindles which gave a narrow Q factor. Someone recently had a Giant of sorts with Shimano press fit 41mm 86mm wide. There is a bearing that goes in the hole and reduces to 30mm but he needed a 'long' BB30 spindle to fit through the frame width. Rotor have always been that wide I believe and Sram also offer some too.

You have quite a simple bike, my boss fitted one of those BB30OUT to his Felt F1 with a BB30 shell and a R8000 chainset and it runs nice and quiet compared to BB30+Kforce light chainset.

Start looking into headsets mate ZS56 vs ZS55, Scott Foils with their 1mm different IS46 lower bearing compared to the more often used IS47 and these days VERY specific bearings for things like Specialized Venge or Futureshock models.

Had a Pinarello a few years back that had BB30 6806 bearings for a headset with no chamfer at all. Frame was still BSA threaded too

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Carbon rims and brake pads.

So today I went for a ride with my new Swiss Stop carbon pads on carbon wheels I've been riding for a while... Got caught in a couple of showers hence the crud, but does anyone else find it odd how they have reacted so differently front and back.
Both brakes feel good, and worked surprisingly well in the wet. Not grabby or anything at all.

Spoiler: pics

 

[Deleted member 68110]

'FTP' is just a power figure. An FTP test in the general sense we talk about is a 20 minute threshold 'maximum' effort. You then calculate 95% of that figure, to give a rough figure to what you should be able to sustain over an hour. Some riders may even be able to ride at more than 95% over the hour, there are hour long FTP tests. But the fatigue and time they carry/take (including warm up & cooldown) most riders find the figure from a 20 minute test accurate enough.

W/KG Steve has covered well, in the sense of CAT's on the road and virtual racing like Zwift, then the figure is your FTP/KG. So for me this season I've been using 250/76 to give me 3.3w/kg. Firmly a CAT C and quite a competitive one at times. But bear in mind that's my maximum. The majority of Zwift races you don't ride that hard, it's all efforts and recovery before a sprint. I'm quite good at a long sprint and rolling terrain, so generally try and break away/close gaps and go long. But Zwift that really doesn't work well at all, I just can't peak high enough to beat real sprinters so have to try something. Usually find myself leading others out.

First Strava link should show my average power at 274W. The ride back with the Chariot was at 200W. Those are power figures, not w/kg.

If it was w/kg then the first would be ~3.4w/kg (me 76kg and backpack 2/3kg) with the second something ridiculously different around 2w/kg (I'm towing a 4-5kg chariot with 15kg child, me 76kg and 2/3kg backpack). I only called it FTP in the first as that was my previous FTP figure, when I weighed around 74kg (3.6w/kg!), trained more and rode more! Had a little boy in 2017 and it's really killed my cycling lol

I thin your confusion comes from getting muddled over power, w/kg and FTP when they're all related. Average power over an hour is generally an FTP (wattage) figure. Then w/kg is generally that figure divided by bodyweight.

Ah, I see the problem now - on my phone Strava says your power was much lower than it does on the PC...

 

[Saytan]

rediscovered this article recently

https://novemberbicycles.com/blogs/blog/wind-tunnel-testing-the-al33-xr31tfsw3-and-other-alloys

only one test, but shows just how effective a relatively cheap rim like the kinlin XR31T can be against some pretty serious competition.

 

[Bear]

rediscovered this article recently

https://novemberbicycles.com/blogs/blog/wind-tunnel-testing-the-al33-xr31tfsw3-and-other-alloys

only one test, but shows just how effective a relatively cheap rim like the kinlin XR31T can be against some pretty serious competition.

I wonder how much the data would change if they used 25mm tyres instead. Zipps are relatively wide wheels and suit a 25mm tyre much better than a 23mm so would improve the aero of them. Saying that a 303 is not really a full on aero wheel as such but more of a climbers/all rounder carbon wheel with aero features so I guess its not too surprising an aero aluminium wheel should perform similarly. As you say though, on a price vs performance point there's very little in it so makes the alloy wheel very good value for money

 

[Saytan]

The kinlin is 'wide' 24mm external and the aforce is enormous, 26mm external.

Overall though it does show just how small it is. From memory the jump from a zipp 303 to 404 is pretty small.

 

[One More Solo]

I wonder how much the data would change if they used 25mm tyres instead. Zipps are relatively wide wheels and suit a 25mm tyre much better than a 23mm so would improve the aero of them. Saying that a 303 is not really a full on aero wheel as such but more of a climbers/all rounder carbon wheel with aero features so I guess its not too surprising an aero aluminium wheel should perform similarly. As you say though, on a price vs performance point there's very little in it so makes the alloy wheel very good value for money

I think the opposite is more likely with a 23mm tyre suiting the rim shape better. The trick is generally to avoid a tyre “ballooning” wider than the rim itself so the tyre and brake track presents a single shape to the wind.

I used to run 21mm tyres on my 808 front when I just wanted to go quick in a straight line, cornered like pure crap though.

 

[Roady]

It doesn't say anywhere it must be done on a road (Rad?) bike though

We're all rad dudes in here.

Spoiler

Showing my age!

Just got back from a week in the Dolomites. Quick summary would be... great weather (apart from one hailstorm), scenic and challenging climbs (I was over-geared!) with lovely/technical descents, not the smoothest roads ever, dodgy Italian drivers/motorcyclists and of course good food.

I think the Mortirolo takes the award for hardest climb I've ever done but it is quite different in character to both Hardknott Pass and Valley of the Tears.

Mega riding all of you, really glad you had (mostly) good weather, especially for something like the Mortirolo! EPIC!

What where you running gear wise and how did it differ to your setup for VotT?

I've always considered the crazy climbs we have in the UK to be a different kettle of fish to those European classics, so never really directly compared them. Probably because I've not ridden any of the European ones!

Talking of hills, local legend took the Elan Valley TT CR last week. Not bad for a junior, he's always been a bit of a hill monster, but that's quite a popular hilly TT segment/CR to get! Then again he weighs about as much as 1 of my legs. He must be close to 50kg. He'd make @xdcx look big!

I meant the shell, sorry.

Get one of these

https://wheelsmfg.com/bottom-bracke...om-bracket-for-24mm-cranks-shimano-black.html

Job done, sleep easy.

Forgot to say, thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Not quite sure why I'd missed to note the ID difference between PF30 and BB30. Maybe if I'd noticed it I'd have confirmed mine before ordering...!

<snip>I guess my next move will be targeting a 25mph ascent of that road. Ouch. I wonder how powerful his illegal e-bike really is!

Lol you really do attract them don't you!?

Just flag his ride again. Any time he does it. He obviously hasn't the power to beat you fair, so let the Strava admins do their job. You have the rides, power and data to prove you're not using an ebike. He doesn't! If Strava stop you flagging it, then send it this way, more than happy to flag cheats!

<snip>
Edit: actually did get that on video...

That's awesome, really love the chase and those speeds come out really well on camera! Better than my VIRB, which still looks 'slow' at 30mph. Unless that chase is loads faster?! Your mate did a supreme chase effort, opening quite a gap to you. Your chase, close and overtake is quick too but that ebike is long gone! Some meaty power figures/speeds for that chase I imagine?!

 

[Lethal`]

Just flag his ride again. Any time he does it. He obviously hasn't the power to beat you fair, so let the Strava admins do their job. You have the rides, power and data to prove you're not using an ebike. He doesn't! If Strava stop you flagging it, then send it this way, more than happy to flag cheats!

To be fair though I can't actually prove he didn't do it. It's possible but seems unlikely, I really doubt Strava spend time debating this either. My understanding is that when you flag a ride it's just up to the person that got flagged to decide if it should stick.

That's awesome, really love the chase and those speeds come out really well on camera! Better than my VIRB, which still looks 'slow' at 30mph. Unless that chase is loads faster?! Your mate did a supreme chase effort, opening quite a gap to you. Your chase, close and overtake is quick too but that ebike is long gone! Some meaty power figures/speeds for that chase I imagine?!

Filmed from my YI 4k. Chase is about 20-30mph. I've not got power. I didn't realise we were gonna chase the second time but I can't sprint for toffee anyway hence the gap opening up but my mate did 580w for 30s from the corner there, peaking around 900w. He's probably capable of a fair bit more. I caught up though at least

 

[Shimmyhill]

I did a local Sportive on Sunday, 75 miles but the organisers had to make a couple of changes so said it was 77 - I did 82... It was very windy and at times not much fun but with a mate we pressed on and he hit his longest ride thus far so was well worth it.

I got a weird knee pain after the last stop, I wonder if I did something just by stopping but I could ride around it at high cadence and swift progress. No idea what that’s about but for the last few miles I went solo just to get back but missed a turn sign (as did my mate behind me so maybe missing or wind and blown round) and my Wahoo wanted to reroute back to where I had gone wrong rather than reroute to the end, this would have been ok but it was one way roads and I knew another way out so did that until the Wahoo sorted the route back out!

The Wahoo performed well on the ride, rerouting was very quick and given I didn’t have the updated route on the unit it had plenty of practice - really impressed with it and it’s so easy to see in any lighting condition I’ve thrown at it. @Shadowness my buttons seem to have loosened up and no issues pressing them with gloves on (not full winters obv but I always ride with full finger gloves in summer) and thus far I can’t think of anything that would make me want to switch back to Garmin - I did wonder about the re route stuff when I was ‘lost’ but my mates 530 did the same.

 

[Lethal`]

So Wiggle this year have not only stopped free returns they've now disappeared from TCB and Quidco

 

[Roady]

Yeah, try working with it daily. Generally it's the same crank that will fit it's just how the bearing fits in the frame. Really you want a big hole in your frame and a long spindle on the crank which will mean you can convert to anything.

<snip>

You have quite a simple bike, my boss fitted one of those BB30OUT to his Felt F1 with a BB30 shell and a R8000 chainset and it runs nice and quiet compared to BB30+Kforce light chainset.

Really good info mate. Glad to hear I seem to be going the right route with Wheelsmfg BB30/PF30 as a replacement for some standard/quality cranks and (hopefully) more drivechain silence.

To be fair Specialized seem to be totally backward when it comes to maintenance guides/manuals/parts info on their frames (ie there is very little info and seems like no technical specs FFS). Everything you read/find online says to goto your LBS to find out. I know from experience mine have a Specialized partner thing which tells them which parts, but they've commented before that 'it's not very accurate/reliable'.

Really surprises/annoys me for such a popular brand!

Ah, I see the problem now - on my phone Strava says your power was much lower than it does on the PC...

Ahh yeah I can see and does explain. The phone is just showing the whole activity averages in the app, although my link is only a part of the activity. The selection I've made doesn't match up to a segment and the phone app has no way to 'select' part of a ride for the detail. If it was a segment it may work, how does this show?

I wonder how much the data would change if they used 25mm tyres instead. Zipps are relatively wide wheels and suit a 25mm tyre much better than a 23mm so would improve the aero of them. Saying that a 303 is not really a full on aero wheel as such but more of a climbers/all rounder carbon wheel with aero features so I guess its not too surprising an aero aluminium wheel should perform similarly. As you say though, on a price vs performance point there's very little in it so makes the alloy wheel very good value for money

Interesting you guys are talking about this. I watched a GCN video last night where they'd looked at the TdF TT bikes/equipment and a large number now are running clinchers and tubeless rather than tubs. Some for just their front wheels and most where 25mm, not 23mm!

I think the opposite is more likely with a 23mm tyre suiting the rim shape better. The trick is generally to avoid a tyre “ballooning” wider than the rim itself so the tyre and brake track presents a single shape to the wind.

I used to run 21mm tyres on my 808 front when I just wanted to go quick in a straight line, cornered like pure crap though.

Obviously rim width is the huge thing when it comes to the tyres aero profile when mounted.

We seem to be getting wider and wider on general wheelsets. So even though a 23mm tyre is generally considered more aero (than a 25mm) on the 'standard' rim widths (around 19mm), most people fit 25mm's to them for other benefits (less rolling, more comfort etc). The more modern 21mm wide rims a 25mm will have the most aero profile, but I'm unsure how many of the newer modern/race/aero wheels are really that wide yet? Some of the pro level kit might be, but with things like the 454 NSW clincher still being 17mm wide I don't think we'll see much change in behaviour from general road riders seeking 'aero' tyres for aero wheelsets. Let's be honest, these same guys where riding 23mm's as their 'go to' only a handful of years ago. Some of that transfers across to your general TT riders too. Most seeking aero from rim depth, rather than a complete package of rim & tyre.

I mean in the UK we're quite used to blustery/windy conditions so most TT'ers will want a front wheel which can handle various conditions rather than going as deep and narrow as possible. Although anything is possible from the triantelope crowd, or those crazy ones doing 12/24h TT's...

Great effort mate, real kudos deserved! Going to do a writeup in the Race/TT thread for us?

 

[SoliD]

So Wiggle this year have not only stopped free returns they've now disappeared from TCB and Quidco

Can earn avios with them though. Have you tried CRC?

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Carbon rims and brake pads.

So today I went for a ride with my new Swiss Stop carbon pads on carbon wheels I've been riding for a while... Got caught in a couple of showers hence the crud, but does anyone else find it odd how they have reacted so differently front and back.
Both brakes feel good, and worked surprisingly well in the wet. Not grabby or anything at all.

Spoiler: pics

Anybody have any input on this please?

 

[AndyCr15]

So Wiggle this year have not only stopped free returns they've now disappeared from TCB and Quidco

When did this happen? I sent something back for free a few weeks back. I have something else to go back, but I'm in no hurry as it said I could return any time within 365 days. I just paid the £9.95 for free next day delivery for a year too.

 

[Lethal`]

Can earn avios with them though. Have you tried CRC?

Didn't know about Avios. Looks like CRC might still be on cashback sites.

When did this happen? I sent something back for free a few weeks back. I have something else to go back, but I'm in no hurry as it said I could return any time within 365 days. I just paid the £9.95 for free next day delivery for a year too.

At least 3-4 months back. You can free returns via Toyou at Asda but that's all. I suspect they'll still "pay for" the returns where you use the free returns slip in an order from before though. Didn't know there is a £9.95 for free next day delivery for a year, that actually sounds kinda handy as I usually end up doing 2-3 next day deliveries a year anyway.