Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
Amazing info and read mate. Find that side of it incredibly interesting as it really structures numbers to the performances we see. Data nerd, but equally know I do not have that discipline or time to commit. Hell at the moment I don't even have the health to continue my ongoing struggle to maintain fitness...! Sucks!I have a new blog post on body composition, lack of bodyfat, VO2Max testing and how getting fatter is faster -
https://dcun.co.uk/body-comp-vo2max/
To be fair I have huge respect for you and how you've been able to continue riding with such structure as we've both got our boys at similar ages. And I know how impossibly hard it must be - as I've ended up the polar opposite. Although you're a few years younger than me so can I blame old age? I actually can't as my ex-neighbour is a few months older than me, had another boy (a few months younger than mine) and already had 2 boys... And he's out riding the alps.
Still trying to figure out how you sent it this way. Migratory plague? Some form of avian flu?
Just hope I've got the first and not the latter...
Looks a great setup and spec for the money. Would be interested to see how that frame is reviewed, although discs look cable and not hydra? The RD cable exiting the frame there would annoy the hell out of me though.Just to revisit this...
Planet X are shortly launching this, with Force for £1200, and I'm sorely tempted...
... Seems like just what I've been after, and a bit of a bargain...
Love my 2016 Specialized Diverge Comp Carbon. But I don't have a direct comparison to a 'race' bike.
I ride it as a do everything road bike, 32mm tubeless on wide rims with full mudguards. It commutes all weathers, it commutes towing my 20 month old in a trailer (who's now nearing 15kg which is the limit of the trailer!), it rides club rides, it rides hills (I like them as challenges) and it rides solo fast loops. I will hopefully ride it a few TT's later this year too! It does everything!
Soldato
Nice! Another big guy on a bike! I started 3½ months ago at 21½ stone, now down to 18½. I started around 4 mile journeys. now doing 14 miles at a time. It just takes some commitment (I'm cycling 4-6 times a week over these last 3 months)
I have a new blog post on body composition, lack of bodyfat, VO2Max testing and how getting fatter is faster -
https://dcun.co.uk/body-comp-vo2max/
Good read, regarding the higher z2 efforts for longer, since coming back from holiday I've really noticed how my legs have ramped up being able to do this, especially when fatigued, before I went away I struggled most weeks on my longer Z2 rides to get into and hold the higher parts of these zones, but now it seems almost too low and I have to hold myself back, all while sitting at 115bpm, one benefit of this is that as the weather warms up I'm not sweating anywhere near as much!
Soldato
I'm 6ft5 110kg and also looking at getting my first road bike. Currently thinking of a Triban rc520 or a Canyon Endurace 7. I want something good enough to do the occasional Pyrenees col as well as long local rides.
Hopefully I can lose a few kg's as quickly as you. Good effort!
Good stuff, keep it up! You'll notice rapid changes - you have the willpower to continue!
Relish the challenge, but setting yourself some realistic goals can really help. You will know what motivates you best - exploring new roads/villages/fantastic views/revisiting old places/attacking hills/getting faster on the same loops, etc.
Check some of my progress from 2013 when I started logging my rides on Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/330...rval_type=week&chart_type=miles&year_offset=5
I was around 14 stone at that time, fairly unfit (flight of stairs would make me puff). I'd started riding my work commute around July/September that year at just below 15 stone, starting once or twice a week as it took me 35-40 minutes. So within a couple of months I'd got it down to 25-30 mins. The cardio came quite fast - ability to ride at intensity (threshold!) which generally got easier and easier before getting a real increase in speed. I think it was only when I was comfortably riding the commute at similar speeds and a far lower intensity that I realised I could push hard and ride it faster. Switching to a road bike from a hybrid was a huge change for me too.
Yup - higher cadence is less strain on your muscles for similar output - uses your cardio more than muscle power.
Great work! Well done and keep it up! My previous commute (a flat 5 miles each way) was so tough when I first started out that riding it 3 times a week really broke me. Within a year I was comfortably riding it all weathers every day and hunting out 30-40 mile group/club rides on the weekends.
The Endurace is probably the better buy of those two, they're very similar except the price, if that difference doesn't bother you then I'd say the wheels and frameset of the Endurace make it a better bike. It's probably lighter too! (couldn't see any quoted weights of the Triban). It would also have better future resell value as it's a Canyon.
Soldato
The availability and colours are making me hesitate at the moment, I like the black but hate the yellow highlights, and red is just... red! (https://www.canyon.com/en-fr/road-b...ml?dwvar_2176_pv_rahmenfarbe=BK/YE&quantity=1). I remember the RC520 being around 10.4kg so quite a bit lighter.
I may wait for the Canyon sale they seem to do at the start of the Tour and even if I only get it late August/September I suppose there's still plenty of nice weather left before winter.
The Endurace 7.0 is very capable. Friend just cycled around Cyprus in one. 100-140miles per day. Has also done other daft stuff like 0-2000m (i.e, straight up, with pretty much zero descent). And is planning on a Iron Man with the same bike.
Love my 2016 Specialized Diverge Comp Carbon. But I don't have a direct comparison to a 'race' bike.
I ride it as a do everything road bike, 32mm tubeless on wide rims with full mudguards. It commutes all weathers, it commutes towing my 20 month old in a trailer (who's now nearing 15kg which is the limit of the trailer!), it rides club rides, it rides hills (I like them as challenges) and it rides solo fast loops. I will hopefully ride it a few TT's later this year too! It does everything!
I like these, a lot. They are expensive, in comparison. I might look out for a 2nd hand model. Though I do get 20% off Specialized bikes so........
The 2016 I have came with road gears/geometry. More similar to the Tarmac and Roubaix than the current. It's the one with 'Zertz' in the frame rather than the Futureshock headset, more of an endurance road bike than the gravel bike the new one is aimed at. The 4-5 people I know with Futureshocks (2 Diverges and the rest Roubaixs) have quite a mixed experience of noise/rattling/faults/service woes.
When I got mine it was in a sale, £1750 (down from £2400). Original was quite a high price being 105 but it was before hydraulics where really incorporated into several of Shimanos groupsets, so you paid a premium for them.
Guy from Zwift/WBR/3R is doing an unsupported LEGJOG with his twin brother in memory of their father. I'm not saying to donate but if they happen to be passing your door/convenient then ride out and meet them. I'm sure they'll appreciate a tow! (passing through the midlands over the weekend) - https://www.strava.com/activities/2463306820 www.twinsontour.co.uk
I had a 2015/16 Tarmac, plus I don't fancy any weird rattling faults etc.
Tempted by a Sonder, Canyon or maybe a Planetx thing currently.
Soldato
The changing is stupid. It was bright sunny on the way in to work, cloudy and rainy while at work, and now it's sunny and bright again.
Tuesday was the same apart from the rain was timed perfectly to start as I left work too.
And the fact it can feel like summer one day, and winter the next is really getting tedious.
Tuesday was the same apart from the rain was timed perfectly to start as I left work too.
And the fact it can feel like summer one day, and winter the next is really getting tedious.
Soldato
I want a heatwave like last year!
20C at 6am for my pre-work park laps was glorious.
20C at 6am for my pre-work park laps was glorious.
Soldato
Seriously regretting staying up stupidly late last night for me (~2230), reluctantly crawled out of bed late for me at ~0730 and spent the morning feeling like I had a hangover... Missed the best of the weather in the Warnford/Hawkley/South Harting area and this afternoon it's on-off showers, again. 
It's not about me getting wet, I have to deal with all weathers at work for 3+ hours a shift, but I still refuse to expose my two year old road bike to South Downs rain and grit.
If the fatbike didn't currently have temperamental cassette sprocket shifting (still trying to work out if it's a cable and/or mech issue), I'd be more enthusiastic about heading off to the hills on it and just accept it will be a slower ride, but for commutes this week I've kept it in the 17T sprocket and simply swapped between the 24/38T chainrings!
The alternative is another session on the turbo, maybe a steady climb up Ventoux in https://www.rgtcycling.com/ (free open beta these days), in the hope of some dry weather tomorrow to try and climb some real cat4 hills at 275W+. :/
It's not about me getting wet, I have to deal with all weathers at work for 3+ hours a shift, but I still refuse to expose my two year old road bike to South Downs rain and grit.
If the fatbike didn't currently have temperamental cassette sprocket shifting (still trying to work out if it's a cable and/or mech issue), I'd be more enthusiastic about heading off to the hills on it and just accept it will be a slower ride, but for commutes this week I've kept it in the 17T sprocket and simply swapped between the 24/38T chainrings!
The alternative is another session on the turbo, maybe a steady climb up Ventoux in https://www.rgtcycling.com/ (free open beta these days), in the hope of some dry weather tomorrow to try and climb some real cat4 hills at 275W+. :/
Hydra, which is nuts for the money, and presumably odd exit to avoid the problems caused by the tight turn many other exit options create... But yeah, not as aesthetic...
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 10,646
Looks like a similar routing to an older planet x I had to drill and remove the internal guide from. That was a gold day at work.
I'm enjoying the dura ace wheels too much, when up and running at speed you can jump so easy compared to my quattro.
I'm enjoying the dura ace wheels too much, when up and running at speed you can jump so easy compared to my quattro.
Soldato
I want a heatwave like last year!
20C at 6am for my pre-work park laps was glorious.
Next week is supposed to be 33+
Soldato
With potential for thunderstorms!
Thanks for that, should make a nice change from zwift. How do you find it?
Soldato
For solo training, the mix of routes is pretty decent. You've got Ventoux climb; Stelvio Pass climb; Cap de Formentor out and back; Paterburg loop; Pienza loop; Canary Wharf loop; plus a new pancake flat circuit in a desert similar to Zwift's new addition.
However, they radically changed the RGT program a few months back, so now you have to use an app on your mobile as a remote control along with a base program on your pc. Not a fan of the change so far.
But as a freebie, it's worth trying.