Road Cycling Essentials

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Vonhelmet said:
Whee, payday. I've just ordered a Vittoria trainer tyre and some DHB Amberley II winter gloves. Only £25.65 - Gold discount, y0 - and they're apparently waterproof and pretty decent in the cold. Let's see how that turns out...
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FrenchTart said:
I'd be interested to hear how they are. My Endura gloves from last year are still going strong but with my new jacket I could do with some gloves that will cover part of my forearms more.
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Whee Platinum £23.75 ;)

According to reviews they're very good, if a little thin on padding. Heavy prolonged rain on a long ride they eventually let the wet in but I imagine for most uses they're perfect. They're on my wish list for when my cheapy Aldi (£12)'s give in or they sneak onto a good deal! :D

I've been using these so far, even in the wet as it's not been cold enough for the others. For the price they're great! Fingers even work on my smartfone with them! :D

Itchytrigg said:
Any short/tight recommendations? Currently, I have some cheap muddy fox padded shorts which I then hide by wearing baggy MBT shorts over the top of (For shame, I know).

Although winter is coming, I fancy switching to a single layer with comfy padding.
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Padding & bibs all the way! I almost exclusively use DHB for my clothing - quality, fit and price are all perfect for me! Would be nice to have more colour options but I need to increase my budget for that! ;)

Active Shorts, Aeron Shorts, Active Tights (longs) & Active Thermals (longs).
 
Roady said:
I'm 5'7" ish, but have short legs (30" or less), so no trousers legs fit me! :eek:
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I'm 5'9 with a 28" inside leg; it means I can wear 3/4 length bib shorts as though they're tights :P

I've just completed my first full month of cycle commuting; 412 miles in October. My legs are only just becoming conditioned to it - hopefully I'll be able to do five days a week instead of four, and be rid of the burden of public transport for good!
 
Some of you may remember about me posting about going to the #ridelikeapro final up in Doncaster. Went up today, luckily stayed with a friend in Sheffield, would not have wanted the 5 hour drive up in the morning.

Day started off well, managed to blow up my pump before even starting, few too many high pressure pumps, turned up to the day, with it being split into two, driving activities in the morning and then the time trial in the afternoon.

The driving activities had an autotest too, so equally weighted between cycling and driving.

The TT in the afternoon was around Blyton Park and was 6 and 3/4 laps on super smooth lovely tarmac, severe headwind on the back straight, then lovely tail wind back in. Didn't get a chance to warm up, but set off just fine, all the way until the first corner, where I managed to fall off! Doh, couldn't get the chain back on, took me about 30 seconds, but got it going eventually. Thought just go at my own pace and smash it out, see what I can do. I was a bit cautious on the rest of the route, and got around in 25 minutes, but wasn't sure as Garmin paused when I fell.

I went back and was cleaned up by the St Johns guy, as cut up my hand, leg and knee, but just surface wounds. Found out I finished 3rd in the auto test, but found one of the only other guys on a TT bike (all people selected at random) came 4th, so thought I've got no chance. Went and had some grub all prepared to Sky's recipes, and chilled out, then they announced the winners, you know where this is going.

I managed to bag the win, by coming 3rd in the TT and was best overall winner.

So I will be heading to Majorca in January to ride with Wiggins/Froome etc, and shall be receiving full team gear to keep.

To say I was surprised is an understatement, but reminds me why I never give up.

Also got to have a look around the Team Sky bus, met Rod Ellingsworth and see the F Type Coupe with bike rack up close, fantastic day, and can't wait for January to come around now.

Even got a tweet (me on the right...)

https://twitter.com/TeamSky/status/528221705643524096
 
SoliD said:
I managed to bag the win, by coming 3rd in the TT and was best overall winner.

So I will be heading to Majorca in January to ride with Wiggins/Froome etc, and shall be receiving full team gear to keep.
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Excellent work!
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Good cycle home, can't belive it took me this long to get a real bike

http://www.strava.com/activities/213940394

Probably helps that I haven't cycled in about 6 weeks, but have lost about 1/2 stone in that time and have been running during that gap.

Something new though...never did a cross wind push me across the road on the hybrid..that was interesting to say the least.

Do need a mount for the new torch though as the one provided was a little small so couldn't get the bolt back through so every bump knocked it down.
 
physichull said:
Wow....and well jell!
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Saundie said:
Excellent work!
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dodg3rman said:
Great job and congrats. We'll all be looking forward to the write up and some top pics of course
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I'm honestly still in shock. With the fall I thought I had no chance, cannot wait now going to be the trip of a lifetime for a cyclist really. Just to get the chance to stay and understand what these guys go through. I had properly reserved myself to coming close to the top. In the end I won by 4/1000ths of a second. So proper narrow margins.

Got myself a nice team sky merino jersey. And they're going to kit me out in full replica team gear so even more freebies to come!
 
I bit the bullet and got a one week bici pass. LIBERACION!

I can now totally understand hire bike schemes. The bikes are a bit cranky, but coupled with some offline Google maps and GPRS you can go anywhere. Off down to the beach today.

There are separate cycle lanes everywhere but they snake around and cross roads all the time which is a litte frustrating at times. I tried the road last night on the way back. 5 lanes on the wrong side, seemingly no speed limit or rules, it was mental!
 
Went out for 40 miles this morning round most of the hills I know around here. Was a tough ride in the end as I aren't in peak fitness at the moment so it felt hard work. Need to shed a bit of fat and start eating properly. Too many takeaways junk food and ice cream lately. It really makes a difference, especially with recovery.

Had eggs benedict when I got back though!
 
SoliD said:
To say I was surprised is an understatement, but reminds me why I never give up.

Also got to have a look around the Team Sky bus, met Rod Ellingsworth and see the F Type Coupe with bike rack up close, fantastic day, and can't wait for January to come around now.
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SoliD said:
I'm honestly still in shock. With the fall I thought I had no chance, cannot wait now going to be the trip of a lifetime for a cyclist really. Just to get the chance to stay and understand what these guys go through. I had properly reserved myself to coming close to the top. In the end I won by 4/1000ths of a second. So proper narrow margins.
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Amazing news, huge congratulations fella! Well deserved after the day you had lol! At least without the fall you'd have stormed it with an even larger margin - just remember that! :)

I'm having woes with my GSC10 at the moment... Went to go have a good session on the turbo and it would not report speed/cadence even though it seems to be working... A number of resets and attempting to pair it and I've wasted 2 hours and ridden no more than a fraction of a mile! Infuriated as it's only a couple of months old and there's sod all instructions/troubleshooting these things without it paired to a Garmin! I've never succeeded in pairing it to my S5 - it just doesn't show up. My Wahoo HRM paired without a hitch first time. The GSC10 was reporting speed/cadence unpaired so I just continued with it... Now it won't even do that! :(

Any tips/thoughts/things to try?

I've run out of time today as gotta get ready to go to a wedding party laters so I'll be trying to get my turbo session done tomorrow, providing the weather let's me! :rolleyes:
 
Itchytrigg said:
Good cycle home, can't belive it took me this long to get a real bike

http://www.strava.com/activities/213940394

Something new though...never did a cross wind push me across the road on the hybrid..that was interesting to say the least.
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Good work - the crosswind thing I've always put down to the fact I'm travelling faster and how small movements translate so quickly on the road bike. A 'twitch' on skinny road tyres can really translate into a lot of lateral movement at the higher speeds!

whyscotty said:
This fat man must be getting fitter. :D

No stops apart from lights/junctions :)

http://www.strava.com/activities/214096795
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Good work! You won't be a fat man for long notching up rides like that! ;)
 
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