Had a depressing moment this morning that's making me think about packing cycling in. Not through lack of enjoyment but just the sheer lack of time and lack of space. Absolutely adore my bike and everything that goes along with it but I just don't have the time to ever ride. Prior to our daughter being born I was easily doing 150-200km a week with a mix of Zwift and real riding. Since she's been born I don't think I've managed to even do 200km in a month. Can't really go out for 4 hour rides and because we only have a small 2 bed house the room I was using for my turbo trainer sessions is now her bedroom. We're not really in a position to move for another few years so I'm a bit stuck.
I could spend a few thousand and get a space created outside but we aren't planning on being here once our mortgage is due to renew so it seems a bit pointless. Just gutted as not sure what to do. I work until 4:30 and on a perfect day I suppose I could be ready to get going at 5pm but then if I'm doing a zwift session it doesn't really give me more than 2 hours before I need to disassemble everything ready for our daughter to go to bed and then I can't really go outside and leave my partner alone for a few hours.
wah wah wahhh.
Sucks doesn't it, but don't get dishearted! How old is your little one now? Must be over 6 months? She's awake more and more? I'd love to tell you to not worry and things will get easier... They do, but it's not that imminent I'm afraid! Soldier on through and really don't stress/worry about it. You have enough of that going on, with the loss in sleep/routine already. A new balance has to be found, it won't feel very much in your favour - but be reassured it may only be for a short period of time! Things can & will rapidly change!
So Zwifting a bit more 'unstructured' and maybe by 'time' or session is better than considering 'weekly mileage'. Go for 'just getting in whatever easily fits'! Fitting it in around that 'family schedule' will be much easier than trying to dictate a very variable family schedule around a rigid riding schedule. If that makes sense? Don't 'give up' riding. You don't need to - it'll only lead to more frustration and regret.
I got into Zwift racing a huge amount more, even found my own 'new' schedule from just jumping on when convenient. I could have continued the 3-4 hour saturday morning outside club rides , but I chose not to. It just made things easier at home to be there maybe on Zwift able to stop at any point to help out (I was lucky and didn't need to more than a few times, but if I'd been away from home I'd probably have had far more calls and complaints!). Always hate to use myself as an example, but my son was born end of September 2017, so transitioning then to riding indoors over the winter/spring fitted in pretty well. My riding did suffer for around 12 months, but around 18 months later I was finding it easier and easier to get out & ride more so picked back up again (Spring 2019) . But being able to 'tick over' riding during that time really helped my mental state, I was still commuting to work and back, but being able to jump on Zwift for an hour here and there (2-3 times a week) really felt like 'something for me'. Being crazy fatigued from overnight wake ups and interrupted sleep probably hurt my riding more than anything else! Not to mention migrating 25 year old systems at work! I couldn't have timed things worse!
Now that's considered... The setup! It's tough in a small house. But realistically it's tough anywhere when you need to set everything up, ride and then put it all away again. So consider what you can do to make that simpler! Our previous place was a 2 bed house, I had no room indoors for a Zwift setup. So for a period I had an outside shed which I kept the turbo in, pulling it out and then riding outside the back door. The 'garden' wasn't even big enough to leave it setup (consider 5 x 8 patio slabs). There was a little bit of cover next to the patio doors for when it was raining (and a bit of light), but times I would be riding online in a raincoat... Really wouldn't recommend it, but it did work. Back then was pre-Zwift and a cheap 'dumb' trainer and an Android tablet (in a case) so didn't have to worry about electronics getting wet... I considered getting a kinda gazebo setup to get some shelter - it would have worked well for me. We actually built a 2.5m x 3m conservatory and I rode in it a few times. Do not recommend! Was wetter than had I been riding outside in the rain! But I know several Zwifters who ride outside in sheds so consider that if you have the outside space, easier to ventilate ! Another alternative more indoorsy, consider riding inside Turbo & bike setup on a trainer mat. You could pull that across the floor to move it out the way rather than take it all apart each time. Have seen some of the trainer rocker plates made now with wheels on the bottom which would also work. One of those trainer desks or some desk with wheels/casters could assist with that (if you where riding on laptop), you'd have a whole setup you could move rather than taking it all apart each time. I've got a Belgian friend who rides a lot in his attic. Literally with rafters and roof above him with his laptop balanced on some storage boxes. You can make anything work - especially if it means being able to leave things setup! It doesn't have to be glamorous!
There are a couple of points that look almost damaged inside. I put new rim tape in on Saturday evening when changing the tyres again.
Tbf, it's not consistently. It was Saturday and maybe two tubes. Well, the one tube still in the rear is still leaking, but at like 2 or 3 psi an hour. Not all that much worse than laytex tbf. The front seems to be holding now I did them properly with grease etc. But yes, the TyreWiz does enter a couple more points where air could escape.
Tbh, this weekend and last weekend has possibly moved me further away. A cuts like that where the tube is pushing out through the tyre would not seal with tubeless, right?
I definitely get more than most, but that's where my theory about weight comes in maybe. I get less now I keep the pressure up though. I do wonder how I get through tyres so quickly though. The Vredesteins I took off at about 1,400 miles look pretty shredded, cuts all over the place. Could it literally just be I head down more nasty looking lanes than most, combined with quite high mileage?
Recently I've been running around 90-94psi. Is that still considered high with tubes?
No, not used these for a couple of years. I went Corsa 2.0's to these Vredesteins.
Regarding the 'damaged' rims, have you had punctures you've seen and can't explain from an 'external' source, so could be caused by what you've found internally? Matching up the hole on a tube to the area of the tyre is pretty easy - as should matching it on the 'inside' of the tube to an area of the rim.
A regular 'loss' or leak of more than a couple of PSI in 24 hours, especially with tubes is something which shouldn't be happening, even with the lightweight latex tubes. With tubeless, yes it can happen with bad sealing, slight leaks in rim tape etc (that sealant generally seals within the first few hours/day). But with a tube in there really should rule out much of those 'interface' type problems - the air is enclosed within what should be an airtight tube! Unless you really are using some of those super lightweight racing tubes made of paper tissue and a higher price per gram than gold (don't - just have a poo before you ride to save more time/money/weight)...
Correct, a cut like that would be unlikely to seal with sealant. But with a plug/worm it probably would. But I'd also point out that a tubeless tyre being likely tougher possibly wouldn't cut like that, or at least not as big so could possibly seal, also the point I was probably trying to make - it being also run at lower pressure, it would probably not have cut as much as that either.
Weight could come into your 'bad luck', but I'd argue you're no heavyweight. 90-94PSI is not high in a 25mm tyre, probably not in a 28mm tubed one either. But that is really tyre & size dependant (generally marked on the sidewall). Many tyre manufacturers will give recommendations for different weights of riders on their tyres, within the range marked on the side of the tyres themselves.
Might be worth listing the tyres you've tried, the size, the PSI you ran them at and how many miles you got out of them... Might start to notice patterns.
Were the the Corsa G2.0's the graphene ones? Come with tan sidewalls? Several clubmates use them. They cut up a bunch and look very scrappy, but they don't seem to puncture any more than anyone else. Don't know/see anyone running Vredesteins. Aren't they Dutch? Would expect them to be good quality and to last far more than 1400 miles, but equally the Dutch have perfectly smooth cycle lanes everywhere not filled with flints/debris like UK roads.
but you'll likely not find many 100kg cyclist doing 8,000 miles in a year, so there wont be many we can compare puncture frequency with I guess?