Road Cycling Essentials

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Womble said:
Why would you call that ugly? Love that frame (although I seem to have a bit of a thing for the aero bikes). Just needs the spacers removed!

Been playing around with my seat height and my left knee is now bggered. Not too sure what is up as right one is fine. May lower it a bit and see how I get one. Should have really just left it where it was :(

Still, main aim for today was to look a bit more at my cadence ... average last week was only 77 so consciously tried to up it a bit. 83 seems a good enough number now - averaging clearly involved me being lazy and freewheeling. Went off way too fast at the start but there was a guy drafting that I was trying to shake or at least keep them working

http://www.strava.com/activities/193801639
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Good pace for that sort of mileage mate.

I didn't say it was ugly, I actually really like it. Some bikes are genuinely beautiful but the AR isn't one of them.

I'm liking Di2 the more and more with each version and would consider it on a bike in the future.

I like the sprinter switches, I like how user friendly it is to update and set buttons etc, I don't like multi shift but that's easy enough to disable. £180 for an ultegra rear mech if you bend it is a little steep though...

Sram 11 speed is sexy too, hell Shimano 5800/6800/9000 are all epic. Bikes really are getting better and better. If only they could move away from press fit bottom brackets the world would be a better place :D
 
SoliD said:
Going riding with a mate next week, thinking of meeting him South of London somewhere, was thinking about doing Box Hill/Leith Hill combo, or is Box Hill still shut, he lives London Bridge, so anywhere good that is within access from that line would be good. Nothing too major a route, 45 miles would be a good distance for him.

Just found this one actually, looks like a nice flattish gentle ride.
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Take a look at my ride above - the route south down laymans road is pretty nice and its probably the quickest way out to the countryside from London Bridge. OR ... just get the train to Orpington/Sevenoaks from there if you're feeling really lazy

Box is open now but pebble hill closed (not that that is too much of a problem)

Cheers - really trying to up my speed a bit but keep overdoing it at the start. Always seems easy to plod along quick swiftly and then 50 miles in I really struggle.

Di2 is definately something I may consider for my next bike ... was just out of the budget this time round. I'm waiting for ALL the cables to be hidden withing the handlebars/stem a la TT bikes. That with the hidden brakes starting to make an appearance too :)
 
I'm not really sure I get the way that you're interpreting your cadence. Looking at the points on your graph where you're not clearly stopped or having to slow down for traffic it is pretty much always well above 90. Obviously cutting down on times where you free wheel is good but looking at a mean average that includes times where you actually *can't* peddle or just seems to be a bad way of interpreting the data. Your average cadence when you were actually peddling was a lot higher than 83. I'm not having a go - I just don't really get the way that strava likes to present cadence and aside from the point about cutting down on times that you're free wheeling it looks to me that you've already got a good cadence going. I'm assuming that more isn't always better of course - I thought 90 was regarded as a good efficient number to aim for. If you're going at 100+ a lot of the time to bring your mean average up to 90 (including times you can't peddle at full pelt) then surely that means you're sacrificing efficiency for the sake of a numbers game?

Anyhow, wall of text aside, I've planned part of a route for tomorrow's ride. Hopefully ending it by coming back through Alderley and doing a figure of eight so we get to climb up the Wizard. Does anyone have any thoughts?

http://www.strava.com/routes/943304
 
Womble said:
Take a look at my ride above - the route south down laymans road is pretty nice and its probably the quickest way out to the countryside from London Bridge. OR ... just get the train to Orpington/Sevenoaks from there if you're feeling really lazy

Box is open now but pebble hill closed (not that that is too much of a problem)
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I'll be meeting him coming up from Portsmouth, so train down is best for him, your route would only be about 32/33 miles by the looks of things, Thanks though.

Also average of 83 cadence is about right, 0s probably arent being counted, and when you tink about slowing down/speeding up. If you're worried just have cadence on your computer and monitor it, I ride about 85 or so, although mine is slowly coming down as I'm preferring to push a bigger gear than spin, as better for the TTs.
 
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FrenchTart said:
I'm not really sure I get the way that you're interpreting your cadence. Looking at the points on your graph where you're not clearly stopped or having to slow down for traffic it is pretty much always well above 90. Obviously cutting down on times where you free wheel is good but looking at a mean average that includes times where you actually *can't* peddle or just seems to be a bad way of interpreting the data. Your average cadence when you were actually peddling was a lot higher than 83. I'm not having a go - I just don't really get the way that strava likes to present cadence and aside from the point about cutting down on times that you're free wheeling it looks to me that you've already got a good cadence going. I'm assuming that more isn't always better of course - I thought 90 was regarded as a good efficient number to aim for. If you're going at 100+ a lot of the time to bring your mean average up to 90 (including times you can't peddle at full pelt) then surely that means you're sacrificing efficiency for the sake of a numbers game?

Anyhow, wall of text aside, I've planned part of a route for tomorrow's ride. Hopefully ending it by coming back through Alderley and doing a figure of eight so we get to climb up the Wizard. Does anyone have any thoughts?

http://www.strava.com/routes/943304
Click to expand...

Yea, I get your point. I was more that when I saw 77 after last week I thought I should pay attention a bit more which I did today. I could happily spin away at 70-80 so more of trying to adapt to tad faster.

Oh, and about the route - once in kent you're pretty set. Can head further south/east/west from where I went (I just wanted to keep the miles down. Its a good alternative to Surrey if you head there all the time
 
Had a little tinker this afternoon. After reading some comments about front brake judder (might have been on here) which is something my bike has suffered with from day 1 I followed the advice of checking the stem bolt. Wasn't particularly tight so I nipped it up and no more judder.

Fitted my new rear light as it came quicker than I expected, first time I'd ordered from Ribble and probably won't be the last as the service and price were spot on.

Also put my saddle up (again) by another 20mm or so. That is probably 50mm now in the last couple of months. Think it is nearly where it should be now :o Hopefully get a chance to try it out beyond a spin around the block tomorrow morning.
 
Jonny ///M said:
I've not been riding much other than two days commute last week but thought I'd show what I put together today. It's loved or hated, it's not beautiful but I can see why it's the shape it is etc. Felt Ar1 frame with AR2 spec so Ultegra di2 and 3T Accelero 40 wheels.
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Liking the frame.
 
20 something miles for me this morning. Arm warmers and full gloves :( Climbed my local cat 3 for the tenth time this year. Slow as hell as the wife and I did go ape yesterday and it wore me out!
 
SoliD said:
Good ride out to the Tour of Britain today, rode from home to Easebourne, just north of Midhurst, so only about 30 miles in, managed to find a good hill and watch them come up and then pass up the road. Didn't have to hang around too long as turned up about 45 minutes before the main bunch came through. Long old day, but glad I went out. Couple of pictures on my Strava ride.

http://www.strava.com/activities/193849117
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Haha. I'm pretty sure I was standing about 20 meters down the rode from you! Were you part of the group that cheered at the guys in the black skoda that stopped for a nature break a few mins before the lead group came through?!

Pics from me:
xaDBK4g.jpg

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JYm4fZT.jpg
 
Ok, which bike time......

£1,200ish, 35mm tyre clearance, guards, hydro discs, gears (drops natch, before anyone recommends a proper tractor).

Current options are;

Pinnacle Arkose 4
Charge Plug 5

Any other contenders?
 
[DOD]Asprilla;26897517 said:
Ok, which bike time......

£1,200ish, 35mm tyre clearance, guards, hydro discs, gears (drops natch, before anyone recommends a proper tractor).

Current options are;

Pinnacle Arkose 4
Charge Plug 5

Any other contenders?
Click to expand...

Aluminium frame, I'm assuming?
 
Vonhelmet said:
"Jens Voigt can beat the hour record in under 60 minutes"
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I saw that, I'm not sure if they didn't get the joke or have just worded it wrong. The hour record is measured in distance, so yes, he can beat the record in under 60 mins.
The original wording i saw that i thought was better is "Jens Voigt is so fast he can ride for an hour in 55 minutes. "
 
touch said:
I saw that, I'm not sure if they didn't get the joke or have just worded it wrong. The hour record is measured in distance, so yes, he can beat the record in under 60 mins.
The original wording i saw that i thought was better is "Jens Voigt is so fast he can ride for an hour in 55 minutes. "
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Well, yeah, obviously if he can beat the hour record then he has implicitly done it in under an hour! Maybe it could be worded better!
 
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