Road Cycling

[AndyCr15]

I know someone else posted recently that had an off when front wheel

Managed to see how crashes are caused in the pro-peloton. I was behind my brother-in-law going up a shallow hill. We had a nasty headwind so it was a bit of slog for a pretty easy gradient (sub 5%). I think my concentration went for a second and I lightly buzzed his back wheel with my front wheel.

I had a crash yesterday with my front wheel skimming on someone's back wheel. In the group, when someone apologised, I took responsibility being the person behind but, I was rather annoyed.

We were heading along a single track country lane, two abrest and a car appeared ahead. The call went out and we slowed a little and started filtering into single file. I was about 7th wheel (of 8) and was trying to slide in behind the guy in front. As we got closer, someone broke harder, just as my front wheel was about to slide behind the guy in front. Because he had to brake, instead my front wheel caught his rear wheel and off I came. Thankfully, we'd slowed reasonably and I landed into the verge, just getting some grazing on my left leg, which I guess still landed on the road.

You could still say it was my fault, as I knew a couple of the guys where the overly nervous/cautious types, but still, riding in a group of 8 you can't just put your bakes on like that, surely?

I have it sometimes descending. People brake just because they're going fast. It's perhaps completely clear road for 200m, no bends, no dangers and they apply the brakes! I tend to log who that is and avoid being behind them.

 

[Roady]

Oh no, the plan was to have it as an external office/break out space. I’d put my gaming pc desk set up in there, a TV, sofa and the usual bits. It’ll just also be somewhere I’d have a turbo/exercise bike also in.

Ahhh fair enough. But again, sounds like it doesn't need to be a 'garage'! A garden summer room/cabin type thing more suited and much easier to do as providing you're not sleeping in it there are fewer regs to getting permission for it.

My old boss had one built, used it as a fitness room and summer office. Ended up running remote backup & support from it for a few years with a bunch of servers, kept it nice and warm, then easy to vent heat in the summer! He originally couldn't get planning (mid wales) to extend the existing garage which was already converted to offices, he used a shipping container for the servers for a while then figured could get a log cabin under the same use without planning needed as it had no real 'groundworks' or hard foundations. Looks like someone now is using it as a holiday let with a stove and converted to bedrooms. Pic on one of the google reviews shows the size.

Much cheaper than building a full garage/outbuilding, they come in kits so probably need someone local who's doing them to come quote you. £15k would get you a pretty big one.

https://logcabinkits.co.uk/planning-permission-and-building-regulations

Last few rides have been pretty miserable and cold as it's been raining and colder, as I just ride in shorts + T-shirt. I'll have to buy some more suitable clothing as I won't be very motivated to carry on if I get drenched within minutes of leaving the house!

According to Strava I'm burning a lot less calories when recording the ride with my phone vs the watch before (cracked screen + water ingress = watch tries to call emergency services constantly so I stopped using it)

Calorie burn will be calculated from HR or 'time in zones'. If you're using a different HRM for the 2 activities then likely your readings are very different - you'd not burning less calories, it's just not registering you are - put that extra cake down!

Yeah riding in changeable weather is one of those things. Expect to get wet. I'll usually then dress so I'm 'damp and warm' rather than 'wet and cold', so things like a softshell to keep the cold wind out can make a big difference. Thicker socks, toe warmers to keep the worst of the water out if it's sunny but you get caught in a downpour. I'm in full Spatz overshoes already commuting, but am usually carrying some toe warmers for the warmer afternoons if the sun really comes out warm.

Out cx training with the kids team was awesome this morning. First races start up tomorrow the CX season.

Great job! Bunch of my club do CX and it seems to be getting more and more popular. I'm tempted, then I see the conditions they sometimes end up doing it in and any jealousy is long gone!

It wasn't so bad in the end!



Run, not so much..... But this is a road cycling thread so I won't talk about that

100kmk leg? Not bad considering the conditions, shame you couldn't do it 12s faster - target for next time?!

No harm in mentioning the run (& swim if it happens) in here - we appreciate being multi discipline. But as soon as you're trying to justify ankle socks and are talking about gait and strike then we'll ask you to leave

As we got closer, someone broke harder, just as my front wheel was about to slide behind the guy in front. Because he had to brake, instead my front wheel caught his rear wheel and off I came.

Ouch! Glad just a minor one and no lasting damage - to you or the bike! Bit sore now? Usually afterwards things ache... They happen occasionally, even in good groups and I think those of us who ride regularly soon get to know the riders we ride with. You soon learn who is a good wheel to climb on (mine) or descend on (not mine) along with how different riders can act in traffic.

I've got quite happy at letting gaps open in situations like that - I'll react fast and drop back aiming to give everyone in front more room to shuffle themselves about. I trust my skills and riding far more than others - being more used to riding in traffic than them. Give them room while they try and figure out how to fit through a gap 4x the size of them without being at walking pace. So I'll open a gap/let the wheel go, give myself more time to react to what others are doing whatever up front to narrow the group & they'll have the extra room there if needed... With the expectation that I'll have more gaps to close and efforts to put in when things need closing up.

 

[f666]

Great job! Bunch of my club do CX and it seems to be getting more and more popular. I'm tempted, then I see the conditions they sometimes end up doing it in and any jealousy is long gone!

Getting muddy is the fun bit, plus with CX what position you are in, or where the kids are gets all mixed up, so being off the back isn't as demoralising compared to road racing.

It has a great age range also, from under 8's race to vets in their 70's racing. So there is something for everyone

 

[Defy Belief]

100kmk leg? Not bad considering the conditions, shame you couldn't do it 12s faster - target for next time?!

91k / 56 miles, it's annoying as towards the end and the start, due to the staggered start it was slow due to traffic and then a narrow climb at the end where there was no passing, so the 11 seconds has really annoyed me

 

[AndyCr15]

Bit sore now? Usually afterwards things ache...

Yeah, you don't bounce as well as you get older... I'm a little sore, like someone gave me a good dead leg, but nothing too uncomfortable.

 

[Martynt74]

I thought I had updated you lol. So the house we ended up buying did not have the garage. The one with the garage got reserved the day before we called up!! Though, in hindsight we are glad as we prefer the layout of our house as it has a significantly bigger kitchen without an annoying breakfast bar separating it.

Maybe you did and i just forgot.

Tried to look at the new Mondraker Arid yesterday. Seems i can either have it immediately in black, or the system was showing Sept 2026 for stock of the pink. The store were also kindly willing to do me a deal on the top of the range 2025 model for only €7.5k
Mondraker themselves haven't been that much help which has been frustrating, it's a frame i'd really like but just seems so difficult to even see one in person and i'd rather not spend €2k on a frame without even seeing it.



Was watching Youtube last night and this came up, a Titanium bike made for Gravel/Bike packing and still built very locally (<10km from my town). Clearance for 50mm tyres which is unusual for a Ti build and the homepage has it using the same forks as i have.

Far Away - Velouria Cycles

FAR AWAY TITANIUM GRAVEL BIKE GRAVEL Y BIKEPACKING SIN LÍMITES Para nosotros, desarrollar el modelo Far Away ha supuesto un gran desafío

velouriacycles.com

They've said they have a mate riding an XL frame and can arrange a proper demo which is good of them.

 

[f666]

Far Away - Velouria Cycles

FAR AWAY TITANIUM GRAVEL BIKE GRAVEL Y BIKEPACKING SIN LÍMITES Para nosotros, desarrollar el modelo Far Away ha supuesto un gran desafío

velouriacycles.com

Tempting titanium !

 

[Martynt74]

Tempting titanium !

Yeah, and I love its built locally.

The UDH is an annoyance and they’ve confirmed there’d be no option to reweld in the future which I thought was odd. I’m a SRAM person which means it limits me quite a bit to old group sets and who knows what the future brings.

It looks like the 2025 Mondraker is available in the base spec at €2100 in a decent red colour. Which has come down quite a bit since I last looked.
Means that it’s only €300 more than the 2026 Frameset in black. Confirmed that there’s no changes other than colour. This is a better colour than black though and I’m sure I could sell all the components for more than €300 which is starting to make it look decent value.

Mondraker Arid Carbon 12-speed carbon gravel bike earth red/black/flame red 2025

Bicicleta gravel Mondraker Arid Carbon 2025-Mondraker Arid Carbon 12-speed carbon gravel bike earth red/black/flame red 2025

www.lvr-cycles.com

 

[Roady]

Getting muddy is the fun bit, plus with CX what position you are in

Noooo, getting muddy and wet through choice is not something I do much of these days. Get enough of it road social riding and commuting! Imagine if I turned up to ride CX with mudguards on?!

My club running the West-Mids one this weekend at Foxley. Will go along and help marshal if I've got time! More and more getting into it - if anything more youngsters getting drawn in for that than road riding!

91k / 56 miles, it's annoying as towards the end and the start, due to the staggered start it was slow due to traffic and then a narrow climb at the end where there was no passing, so the 11 seconds has really annoyed me

Haha, yeah that'll bug you. Like me setting a time goal/target in 2017 on The Tumble of 26 mins, first time riding it hard did 26.16 so a great target... Have done it hard 3 times since and got close twice - 26.11 and then last time 26.01 in 2023! Crazy. Quite gutted I've not tried it since - especially being there a couple of weeks ago for ToB and not having time to ride it. The last couple of years I've got better legs so need to get it done!

Yeah, you don't bounce as well as you get older... I'm a little sore, like someone gave me a good dead leg, but nothing too uncomfortable.

Good to hear, hope that's continued to heal!

Went down to Chessingham World of Adventure for the weekend and feeling pretty beaten up from that too! Blaming my old age, also didn't sleep well & picked up a minor sickness kinda bug - thought it was originally mild food poisoning (still could have been) but only just shaken it now. Didn't ride all weekend but then bounced back hard into ZRL last night. Legs not as good as a few weeks/month back but not bad. Reset and away we go again - need to get some longer endurance base volume in as my summer BBQ food weight is still keeping me around 77/78kg. Probably some more regular intensity will help as we're now into the autumn zwifting/racing season, but easier to balance alongside some longer sessions and slightly cleaner eating. I don't do well when trying to count calories or restrict!

Was watching Youtube last night and this came up, a Titanium bike made for Gravel/Bike packing and still built very locally (<10km from my town). Clearance for 50mm tyres which is unusual for a Ti build and the homepage has it using the same forks as i have.

Far Away - Velouria Cycles

FAR AWAY TITANIUM GRAVEL BIKE GRAVEL Y BIKEPACKING SIN LÍMITES Para nosotros, desarrollar el modelo Far Away ha supuesto un gran desafío

velouriacycles.com

They've said they have a mate riding an XL frame and can arrange a proper demo which is good of them.

With that kinda response and again supporting local it's be hard to say to go with the Mondraker. Doesn't feel like they value your custom or even want a sale. They don't deserve your support! Customer Support and Sales service should sell the bike - like Velouria's are doing!

 

[DJMK4]

Not been out on the bike in about 2 and a half weeks (commuting) probably the longest break i have has since the start of the spring/summer


Been far too windy and stormy

 

[SoliD]

Noooo, getting muddy and wet through choice is not something I do much of these days. Get enough of it road social riding and commuting! Imagine if I turned up to ride CX with mudguards on?!

You wouldn't be the first or the last!

 

[baritonejohann]

mudguard bike is getting loads of use atm. weighs well over 15kg this thing. the price i pay for dry feet and arse eh.

 

[UTmaniac]

mudguard bike is getting loads of use atm. weighs well over 15kg this thing. the price i pay for dry feet and arse eh.

You don't have use mudguards made of lead.

 

[Martynt74]

With that kinda response and again supporting local it's be hard to say to go with the Mondraker. Doesn't feel like they value your custom or even want a sale. They don't deserve your support! Customer Support and Sales service should sell the bike - like Velouria's are doing!

Yeah, it's been frustrating. Issues seem to be that they have no central stock management tool, so they've shipped everything out to retailers who are now low on stock and they've not being replaced until early 2026, although weirdly the local store i was in on Monday had the 2026 frameset in stock in XL (only size they had) but it's black.
The benefit for me is that i think it's a great looking bike (clearly important), and it's a new design to take advantage of newer developments in the gravel world in the last few years. I also like the internal storage option. I wouldn't have to keep forgetting my tools!

Annoyingly i messed up on that website for the red version and the price had switched to GBP instead of EUR so it's actually ~€600 more than the frameset in black, and that's getting into questionable territory for whether i'd recoup the costs selling the wheelset/groupset etc

I'm kind of back considering the Chinese options. The Lightcarbon L-074 at €700 is tempting me again, although they've stolen the Cannondale pivot thing and who knows how reliable it is. I also considered the new Winspace G3 but they've said using my suspension fork isn't advised which whilst probably not an issue, isn't ideal. Probably need to look into the geometry a bit more.

The Ti bike has great support but that lack of UDH is niggling. I'm not sure SRAM are going to release non UDH stuff in the future. The new 13sp XPLR groupsets are UDH only and half the reason for a Titanium bike is that it's a bike for life! Although i'd a messer and realistically i'd probably get excited by a new bike in 5yrs anyway

 

[Martynt74]

Tried to do a gravel ride today using a map provided by Strava and it was pretty crap to say the least - first few kms were fine then it led me into a forest where it was sand for horses and impossible with a bike

Strava is awful for this. I plan routes around me that would be sketchy for hiking and yet Strava thinks its an acceptable gravel route! Probably because some lunatic went down on a full sus bike and recorded it as a gravel ride by mistake.
I think for unknown areas you really need to combine with google maps and some local pictures but that starts to take up a lot of time

 

[Martynt74]

Also finding buying groupsets as components is crazy expensive! Annoying as i need a mix of road (Sram Force for shifters and cranks) and mtb (Sram Eagle for the cassette/RD).

Tried looking second hand as the Eagle stuff hasn't moved on much, but a used rear derailleur is coming up at ~€380 vs €400 new, cassette/chain i don't want to go used on either and even if i did there's not much cost saving.

 

[fez]

Not been out on the bike in about 2 and a half weeks (commuting) probably the longest break i have has since the start of the spring/summer


Been far too windy and stormy

Been ******* miserable for ages now. I have been out about 4 times in the past month or so and two of those were while I was in France on holiday and the weather was nice. Hoping this isn't the end of the decent weather until Spring.

 

[Martynt74]

Ignore all this nonsense, i've done a standard and got carried away and bought a higher model headset.

Also i just worked out the price of this new bike. The problem when you buy bits from different places. It's easy to not realise

 

[baritonejohann]

You don't have use mudguards made of lead.

Trust that i am inspired to rebuild my old carbon Rosebike with pdw guards ive been putting off doing for a while. Just finished a tracklocross build to bomb around the forest with, so i can start on the next n+1!

 

[Roady]

Been far too windy and stormy

It's been very changeable but nowhere near as bad as the forecasts have looked. 3 weeks ago I think I got wet a couple of times, then last 2 weeks only 1 real soaking. Lots of drizzle and 'light rain' where it hasn't really amounted to anything.

You wouldn't be the first or the last!

Haha but I'm also rubbish at cleaning my bike(s)! Another excuse not to ride in the mud... Typical rain forecast all weekend here with the club run CX, when last 2 days have been glorious!

Couple of them out today got the route marked - https://www.strava.com/activities/15864975288

mudguard bike is getting loads of use atm. weighs well over 15kg this thing. the price i pay for dry feet and arse eh.

Got mine down to 9.9kg - full metal guards, zipp 303S and Gp 5000 STR tubeless in 30mm (with inserts). Fairly pleased with that! Was always 11-12kg with alloy wheels & cheaper tyres.

The Ti bike has great support but that lack of UDH is niggling. I'm not sure SRAM are going to release non UDH stuff in the future. The new 13sp XPLR groupsets are UDH only and half the reason for a Titanium bike is that it's a bike for life! Although i'd a messer and realistically i'd probably get excited by a new bike in 5yrs anyway

It does say it's got a replaceable Ti derailleur hanger - so likely something they manufacture themselves??? Not impossible they would they make a UDH version and you can just screw that in...

Don't know if SRAM have royalties etc on them - probably. Very much the American way name it 'universal' then have a patent on it so nobody else can use except under licence

Also finding buying groupsets as components is crazy expensive! Annoying as i need a mix of road (Sram Force for shifters and cranks) and mtb (Sram Eagle for the cassette/RD).

Tried looking second hand as the Eagle stuff hasn't moved on much, but a used rear derailleur is coming up at ~€380 vs €400 new, cassette/chain i don't want to go used on either and even if i did there's not much cost saving.

SRAM always been expensive but did notice everything else creeping up too... More than just Brexit/imports? Things which cost £21-23 last year on regular deals now around 25-26.

@Roady and anyone else who's relatively technically minded! I just placed the order for the Titanium bike and was chatting to the guy to see what else i needed. The fork i'm covered for as i'll have my Rock Shox Rudy fork

They sell a Cane Creek headset which it seems i need, but wondering if i can get away buying individual parts as i'm not bothered about them being a cane creek. Here's what he's said

• Compatible with tapered forks using EC44-ZS44 headset.

My forks use a 1.5" tapered 1-1/4 tube, and i didn't have any issues re-using the bearings when fitting to my current bike.

I've been looking at bearings, but i presume i also need a crown race, top/bottom cups and then a top cover? Based on this diagram below. I assume i also get the choice between Internal/External?

I might end up just buying the kit to keep things simple, but it'd be good to understand. Language is a slight issue with the framebuilder so thought i'd ask here first!

It's not usual you'd be able to choose between internal/external as usually frames+forks are designed for 1 or the other (note the internal size differences in your diagrams)?

The EC44-ZS44 sizing for the headset would usually imply the EC44 upper being an External Cup, then ZS44 being Zero-Stack at the bottom - which is possible... But just sounds strange, possible with the translation it swapped them around? Thin it would be more common to call it ZS44-EC44 - so the external cup was at the bottom. Depends on the cost of them fitting and supplying it to not have the hassle yourself of mixing and matching - some are expensive - but look colour options! https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Chris-King-Inset-8-ZS44-EC44-Headset_250010.htm

With your suspension forks on it you might have to use an external at the bottom anyway? Best read up on the requirements and sizing for fitting them to check. Looking at their website pictures of the builds they are a mix, most with different forks using an external cup... But mixing and matching or swapping around headsets is something I have no experience of. I've always swapped/replaced like for like.