Road Cycling

I’ve never been good at it either.

There’s guy who designed my bike frame and fitted mine did an amazing job. Used double sided tape on the bars and started from the top and so it didn’t need electrical tape wrapped around it. Sadly I changed bars 2 weeks later :(
 
I did the left side first and it has a ridge and a lump. I'd score it a 4/10.

Right side I had a bit more of a feeling for it and I'd give that effort a solid 8/10. If both sides ended up like that if have been chuffed.
 
Gravel bikes allowed in here? My CTW voucher for my new gravel bike finally arrived late last week so picked up this beauty:
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Its a fairly entry level Giant Revolt but I'm absolutely loving it. I have 2 E-MTBs that I occasionally use to cycle the 30 miles to work (and 30 miles home) but wanted to get back to basics and really test those legs out (and help shed a little bit of weight to).

The route is primarily gravely canal path with a small section of road either side. I knew it would be a good chunk more difficult/harder work than the E-MTBs but my legs were cooked by the time I got to work (2 hours). Total time difference between the gravel bike and E-MTBs is +20 mins (though there is a cobbled viaduct I have to walk in the gravel bike that I can nuke on the E-MTBs).

Overall, I'm very pleased with the new Giant.
 
Half a mile from home (a quarter of a mile into the last steep climb up to my estate) my legs were done. The tank was empty :cry: Had to stick it in the lowest gear and just spin those pedals for the last wee bit. Tough but felt worth it for sure.
 
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N0ddie said:
Half a mile from home (a quarter of a mile into the last steep climb up to my estate) my legs were done. The tank was empty :cry: Had to stick it in the lowest gear and just spin those pedals for the last wee bit. Tough but felt worth it for sure.
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mind you.. it doesn't really get easier, you just go up faster :D

e-bikes are good but imo if you have the ability, do it the hard way. Nice bike. I'm a gravel only cyclist and I enjoy my bike on everything.. I know it isn't as fast/agile as road bikes when on road but the fact that I can jump into a random woodland on a random route and enjoy nature in a different way is amazing.
 
grudas said:
mind you.. it doesn't really get easier, you just go up faster :D

e-bikes are good but imo if you have the ability, do it the hard way. Nice bike. I'm a gravel only cyclist and I enjoy my bike on everything.. I know it isn't as fast/agile as road bikes when on road but the fact that I can jump into a random woodland on a random route and enjoy nature in a different way is amazing.
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This was a biggie in my decision to go down the gravel route also.
 
Help me decide something!

[pre-amble]
Took my gravel bike on a little offroad adventure (thanks GCN for inspiring me yesterday) and just before the last offroad hill before the end of the trail I found the handling was like a boat due to my front tyre being pretty much flat. I hop off and walk up the hill and notice that the tyre is still holding some air. Pumped in some more and it was enough to get me the mile home on the roads.

[main question]
I want to go tubeless but every time I have tried, the tyres will not seal against the hookless sidewalls. The gravel bike wheels weigh a massive 2KG without tyres. I can get some cheap 1300g carbon gravel wheels for £400 with tubeless tape already installed. Do I give me current wheels to the bike shop for them to work it out or just get new wheels?
 
He was in Melbourne during the summer. He did the Saturday morning Hell Ride. He's got some legs to be fair, I usually get dropped at around 10km and he did the whole thing including the obligatory sprint at the end.
 
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Vandle said:
He was in Melbourne during the summer. He did the Saturday morning Hell Ride. He's got some legs to be fair, I usually get dropped at around 10km and he did the whole thing including the obligatory sprint at the end.
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Yeah, hes a strong boy. Clearly a gifted cyclist because by all accounts he wasn't training that hard for a while and still had an FTP of about 4.5w/kg.
 
Question:
Does anyone else notice a big increase in the frequency of cannabis smells when out riding in moderate traffic. I'm sure this wasn't a thing a few years ago but I regularly get a big whiff of it when behind a car or queue these days. Maybe I'm hyper sensitive after my accident but it worries me that there can be drivers on the road quite blatantly smoking as they drive?
 
It's just @Junglist spending all his DI2 money on weed whilst listening to Bob Marley

Onto less stereotypical Jamaican notes.

My gravel bike seems to massively over read by around 20% i think. I even feel like i can precisely remember the occasion. I'm normally averaging 180-190w on my hour lunch rides which i keep around Z2, and around 2 weeks before the Traka i went out to put in a real effort as i felt good and came back smashing records (both power and segments) and averaged around 270w i think and saw it as a real mental boost. Then in the following rides it seemed to stay high and i remember thinking it was a boost from training load.
Then into the Traka it kept showing me i was averaging 280w around 3 hours into the ride and whilst i felt a knackered i couldn't see how i could hold that.

Then in the last 2 months i've noticed on my gravel bike i'm regularly now averaging 230w on my lunchtime rides (example from this morning https://www.strava.com/activities/19413520067) but going absolutely no faster. I then switch to my road bike (also a Sram PM) and it averages around 180w which feels more realistic.

I've been meaning to calibrate my power meter for ages. Finally remembered after todays ride and so will be interesting to see how it goes. Also need to check my Garmin as the start of every road ride it pops up asking me to calibrate, but doesn't do it on my gravel bike.
 
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