Road Cycling

[Berger]

I have two Mandibles, I paid $50 and $55 for them which was about £30 ea at the time.

I’d struggle to justify more than that! On my Kinesis I have King Cage Iris which are a really nice stainless cage in fitting with the frame and don’t cost the earth.

TT has one of those cheap Elite cages, but the grip on the bottles is terrible, I haven’t lost a bottle but on rough roads it would likely happen.

Edit: After a 30 minute bedding in with some 800-1000w efforts on my TT.

I did a recalibration, did another 30 mins and the Quarq was tracking close to the Neo. 231w to 239w. There’s going to be some drivetrain loss as well as 1.5% accuracy error on both units. Quarq state 2-3 rides or sooner with hard efforts.

I think that looks to be pretty correct, as long as it is always that amount, DCrainmaker had a similar difference (3%) between his Riken and Powertap and obviously the Neo measures at the hub too.

 

[Lethal`]

Is there a site that does a Google Street View of every corner of a gpx file? Sounds like something BestBikeSplit might do?

Unlikely as I think it would be quite expensive to provide for free. Veloviewer will let you drag street view man onto a route. Put the route in Strava and then if the strava route URL is strava.com/route/132 visit veloviewer.com/routes/132.

http://gpxhyperlapse.com/
There is this tool. It's kinda neat but lacks a lot of features which would make it useful for route checking. Also, I think they're likely breaking some Google terms unless they're really paying for each panorama load.

 

[Saytan]

You guys just reminded me of the elite titanium bottle cage I got for £2 at a bike jumble a couple of weeks ago that's still in a box of assorted tat.

Cheers!

 

[One More Solo]

There are, or at least were, some very good Mandible clones on Aliexpress, I’ve had the same pair on my bikes for about three years now and never lost a bottle, plus they look snazzy.

 

[Roady]

The carbon bottle cage is an investment Roady. Think how many times you use it on a ride, it can transfer from one bike to the next etc. (semi serious).

If you have a 5k bike, what’s a £60 bottle cage ontop!

Oh I get that semi seriously, but equally if I could save £125 by buying 2 cheaper cages then that's an average pair of shoes/helmet cost! But maybe that's just me... Saving money - making what I've got go further!

I'm not ashamed to admit when I heard a rumour about a sale on the Specialized concept store I went straight for the Venge and Tarmac frames... Still can't justify £3000+ on a bare frame though...!

I'm ashamed to say I bought two S-Works carbon cages for my Tarmac.......at £50 each! £100 on bottle cages!!!

(added on the price of the bike, it didn't seem too bad though!)

Haha, ouch, I've seen them on sale for around £30 and still thought it was a bit steep! Be careful mounting them and keep an eye on them - they can be a bit fragile as they crack around the mounting holes...

Although with the Torch it's a bit special... Why not have special cages!

TT has one of those cheap Elite cages, but the grip on the bottles is terrible, I haven’t lost a bottle but on rough roads it would likely happen.

Which Elite? I'm using the resin stealth cages and really rate them, I've never lost a bottle - https://www.wiggle.co.uk/elite-custom-race-resin-stealth-bottle-cage/

Although my front cage is the Specialised SWAT one, I'm not a huge fan of it but holds bottles well (a little too well, they can take more than a swipe to put back in). That's not dropped one either. It's one of the 'Zee' cages. 43g.

I'll admit the Elite and my Specialized are twice the weight of the Enve (42-43g vs 21g) but equally less than 100g for 2 cages is pretty good... Especially when they cost £15 instead of £140!

Sounds like you've got the PWM verified/tested enough to trust the numbers. 'Pretty close' is all you can ask for and expect - as it's very much like comparing apples and pears with different PWM's with differing points of measurement...

You guys just reminded me of the elite titanium bottle cage I got for £2 at a bike jumble a couple of weeks ago that's still in a box of assorted tat.

Result!

Anyone riding Look Keo cleats ever ended up with the 'non' Grip versions? I got a pair from the 'bay without realising but now looking for them they're on various sites and a few quid cheaper. For me they'll probably last longer as it's no more than a month before the rubber grip bits fall off anyway...
https://www.merlincycles.com/look-keo-cleats-46639.html

 

[SoliD]

Back end of last year I treated myself to my first pair of proper Oakleys, and this morning/last night I have managed to lose them!!! So annoyed! Had them in my bag pocket as riding in with sunnies and home with clear lense and think I've dropped them at some point! Back to Foakleys for me!

 

[Roady]

Argh! Gutted! Fingers crossed they turn up somewhere... If in the bag pocket they can only have fallen out either end of your journey? Hooked on a coat/something else? Funny story... When wee man was smaller and we where carrying a 'changing bag' everywhere we picked up two extra pairs of sunglasses hooked onto the arms and didn't notice until we got home. Had been in so many shops and the labels didn't say which one they'd come from. Shame they wheren't Oakleys!

More than happy with Foakleys here. Using Jawbreakers, I own a genuine pair too. For my fakes I bought genuine clear lens after the first one picked up a bunch of scratches. Perfect fit and lens. Broke an arm a couple of months back, bought genuine spares. Perfect fit.

So I'm only really using my £20 Foakleys for the frame... With a £30 genuine clear lens (far more scratch proof) and £10 of arms (bought from Rxsport if anyone needs, they're the cheapest anywhere and from what I can tell are genuine, the plastic more similar to my genuine arms than the fake ones). Still does mean if I spot a genuine pair in a sale for £60 they'll get snapped up...

 

[Jonny ///M]

One step closer to new bike day...

Can get a heavier black and white bike or a nice all round bike in gloss black with a colour.

Both disc brakes too so hopefully my opinion of them will change for the better

 

[FishFluff]

People with Ultegra disc brakes, what pads are you using once the originals wear out? It's a god damn minefield trying to find compatible replacements!

 

[Jonny ///M]

You looking for non Shimano pads?

If it is up to date then https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-BR-R8070-4255D.pdf shows the pad model. K is non finned and L has the fins to help cooling. The 02/03 thing is just an update to the resin pad for quieter pads with more modulation at the cost of more wear and the 04 are metal pads for less fade and more power at the cost of more noise.

The older non series calipers used the same pad as mountain bikes that are wider and not as tall.

https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-BR-RS785-3743F.pdf

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-xtr-xt-slx-alfine-g04s-disc-pads/

 

[Bear]

Back end of last year I treated myself to my first pair of proper Oakleys, and this morning/last night I have managed to lose them!!! So annoyed! Had them in my bag pocket as riding in with sunnies and home with clear lense and think I've dropped them at some point! Back to Foakleys for me!

Very annoying. Photochromic lenses for the win

 

[Begbie]

People with Ultegra disc brakes, what pads are you using once the originals wear out? It's a god damn minefield trying to find compatible replacements!

Doesn't uberbike do some?

I use them for my mountain bike, but the standard Shimano pads on my GRX groupie seem fine.

 

[FishFluff]

You looking for non Shimano pads?

If it is up to date then https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-BR-R8070-4255D.pdf shows the pad model. K is non finned and L has the fins to help cooling. The 02/03 thing is just an update to the resin pad for quieter pads with more modulation at the cost of more wear and the 04 are metal pads for less fade and more power at the cost of more noise.

The older non series calipers used the same pad as mountain bikes that are wider and not as tall.

https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-BR-RS785-3743F.pdf

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-xtr-xt-slx-alfine-g04s-disc-pads/

Super helpful, thank you! Just ordered some L03As from Sigma.

 

[SoliD]

UBerbike packs of 4 usually! Much cheaper and last just as long

 

[Roady]

One step closer to new bike day...

Can get a heavier black and white bike or a nice all round bike in gloss black with a colour.

Both disc brakes too so hopefully my opinion of them will change for the better

You're choosing a bike by it's colour rather than specification/design/components/wheels/brand?

Throw the specs/models up on here and you know I'll have an opinion!

People with Ultegra disc brakes, what pads are you using once the originals wear out? It's a god damn minefield trying to find compatible replacements!

Which Ultegra calipers?

I'm using the earlier non-series BR-785 calipers (meant to be comparable to Ultegra) and like the resin pads best (for me J02A). Metal I found too noisy. I didn't get on well with the Uberbike pads that lots of people raved about (not worth the minor cost saving).

I did try XTR pads at one point (emergency spare pair) that Jonny linked, enough to get out of a bind but not a great fit - pads would move within the caliper a tiny amount every time brakes applied so you'd hear a click. Annoyed me after a week so went back to proper pads. Still have them on the shelf for the same 'emergency pads' use again.

https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-BR-RS785-3743F.pdf

Great info buddy, I'd never seen those Shimano docs before! Thanks!

Very annoying. Photochromic lenses for the win

I'm still quite scepical about them, but my only experience with photochromics was 15+ years ago on standard glasses. Do they change fast enough to be worthwhile? The number of times I feel I have the 'wrong' lenses is quite low... One thing about the UK weather is that it's quite predictible for cloudcover/sunshine!

 

[Jonny ///M]

You're choosing a bike by it's colour rather than specification/design/components/wheels/brand?

Throw the specs/models up on here and you know I'll have an opinion!

Which Ultegra calipers?

I'm using the earlier non-series BR-785 calipers (meant to be comparable to Ultegra) and like the resin pads best (for me J02A). Metal I found too noisy. I didn't get on well with the Uberbike pads that lots of people raved about (not worth the minor cost saving).

I did try XTR pads at one point (emergency spare pair) that Jonny linked, enough to get out of a bind but not a great fit - pads would move within the caliper a tiny amount every time brakes applied so you'd hear a click. Annoyed me after a week so went back to proper pads. Still have them on the shelf for the same 'emergency pads' use again.

Great info buddy, I'd never seen those Shimano docs before! Thanks!

I'm still quite scepical about them, but my only experience with photochromics was 15+ years ago on standard glasses. Do they change fast enough to be worthwhile? The number of times I feel I have the 'wrong' lenses is quite low... One thing about the UK weather is that it's quite predictible for cloudcover/sunshine!

It's not all about colour just not a big fan of white bikes to be honest, the other colour isn't available or else it wouldn't be a choice.
Both are going to be ultegra mechanical and carbon wheels as standard.

Is it the R785 or RS785 you have? The R785 are basically a mountain bike caliper with the banjo fitting vs straight hose.

 

[Berger]

Bloody Rotor. Thought I’d install the software and update the inpower as the firmware is a older version, the pc software also lets you look at other metrics.

First off you have to register and provide all your details to download the software from the website which is OTT.

Claims to be missing a DLL file when you run and try and connect to it. “Ant wrapped” or something similar.

Funny, zwift and Qalvin (Quarq legacy software) both work fine grrrr.

 

[Jonny ///M]

The joys mate.

The bike industry is too interested in getting products out for riders to test before it's really finished.

I had similar issues with the powertap hub, had to find a ftp server in the states to download different versions of the software and firmware and then do it in a stupid order to bring it up to date.

The prices they charge things should be flawless.

 

[Roady]

It's not all about colour just not a big fan of white bikes to be honest, the other colour isn't available or else it wouldn't be a choice.
Both are going to be ultegra mechanical and carbon wheels as standard.

Is it the R785 or RS785 you have? The R785 are basically a mountain bike caliper with the banjo fitting vs straight hose.

I'm not a huge fan of White either, but then always said that about cars and currently own a white Fiesta and actually love the way it looks, so I could be converted...!

The RS785 with the straight hoses, not the banjo's! Nearly learnt that one the hard way when ordering my replacement! Did hear that the fitting is the only difference, they could be mixed and matched with MTB levers to road calipers for those wanting to put flat bars on a road bike... Unsure if you can still do that with the newer? I did a little bit of reading into if the Di2 8070 levers would work with my RS785 calipers and seemed to think they would (switching to Di2 I'd have to retain post mount calipers for my frame)... Still not 100% but can't think Shimano would've broken cross compatibility at this stage as they're normally good at retaining it.

Claims to be missing a DLL file when you run and try and connect to it. “Ant wrapped” or something similar.

Weird. Maybe make sure installing as Admin account, or maybe install under compatibility mode?

Any prerequisities listed in install instructions?

 

[Berger]

Spent a while troubleshooting and searching online.

I went through a lot of things.

Remove ANT+ Drivers, install Garmin ones.

Install Garmin Express.

Tried running in different compatibility modes.

Checked it and the dll was in the folder where it should be, so removed it. Got a different error. Put it back. Same error.

Searched the whole machine, the Garmin express app had a dll with the same name as the rotor one, but with a slightly larger file size. Pasted it in the rotor folder and overwrote the one in there.

Now it works fine.

The Rotor signal does seem weaker than the Quarq and Tacx so I have to input the ANT ID. But connected up, updated firmware, calibration value looks fine. And I can see how un-round my pedalling is now!