Road Cycling Essentials

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Asprilla said:
A sub 20 lap is apparently a good target, and once you are there aiming for a sub 60 three lap challenge.

It's a useful too if you want to get some miles in before or after work without heading all the way out of the city (Regent's Park is also pretty good).
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First of all, congratulations on finding Richmond Park and secondly for navigating it. For new-comers, finding a gate and then navigating the myriad roundabouts can be quite intimidating!

In all seriousness, for base miles, I love RP. I wouldn't choose to go riding there on a weekend, "sharing" the road with a ludicrous amount of traffic, bad drivers and the Dynamo isn't always a pleasant experience. However, pre-work (especially now the clocks are back) it's a lovely place to ride. I went out with a friends for a pootle and save three or four other riders we had the entire park to ourselves - can't beat it.
 
GSVBagpuss said:
Was a bit naff in the end - they broke nothing, given the solo recumbent record is 750+ miles. I was more disappointed in the lack of any detail - "This is the biggest mental challenge ever" but not discussion of it. No talk of watts generated, or calories consumed barre a short cooking show about quinoa and salmon. Shame, could have been better

Did get me wanting to od a 24 hour tandem ride though - anyone know of such an event?!
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http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...gh-the-24-hour-time-trial-championships-26190

there are usually three or four a year, try the CTT website

http://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/Events-List
 
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Roady said:
The previous 24h tandem record they quoted as 505 miles, so they increased the record to 565!?
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Except they weren't riding an upright tandem bicycle, they were riding a faired recumbent trike, and the record for a HPV (which is what that is) is over 750 miles for a solo. There's no established record for a tandem HPV, but it should be more than a solo easily....
 
grudas said:
how's regents for cycling then? Its very close to my work, might be worth popping down on a good day.
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The outer circle is good for laps as the road is wide so even when it's busy there's plenty of space for cars to pass. It can get annoying with pedestrians at the crossings and getting caught at the lights at the junction with Hanover Gate really ruins your lap.

Your commute must be very similar to mine if you go from South to Regent's park albeit a chunk longer for you. I go Streatham - Clap. Common - Chelsea Bridge - Knightsbridge/Hyde Park - Regent's Park.
 
grudas said:
as we approach a corner this guy then stops in the darkest spot and pepper sprays right into our path

#londonlife pfth.
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Weird & odd behaviour! You should've reported him really, then again you did the best/safest thing - got the hell outta there! :eek:

You get odd people everywhere, but I guess a place like London there's such a concentration of people they really stand out more (and it seems there is more of them...)!

Saytan said:
Except they weren't riding an upright tandem bicycle, they were riding a faired recumbent trike, and the record for a HPV (which is what that is) is over 750 miles for a solo. There's no established record for a tandem HPV, but it should be more than a solo easily....
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Good points, I hadn't appreciated there would be such a huge distance between the records - I'm guessing without their stops and the bad weather they would've gone much further but 750 seems huge! At least the 505 miles I can kind of appreciate - I drove 512 miles to Inverness a couple of years ago!

GSVBagpuss said:
I never stood through 3 months of Sufferfest traiing but I got massively fitter! AVDP was a favourite, especially the cobbles :)
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I'm intending to do more standing - get more comfortable doing it so when I have to on the road I don't feel so unstable! Thanks for the AVDP recommendation - any others in the series you'd recommend? I'm pretty sure I'd get very bored of any 1 film every week! ;)

My fave part of AVDP was near the start where the rider gets sideways on a wet road - incredible recovery!
 
Roady said:
Thanks for the AVDP recommendation - any others in the series you'd recommend? I'm pretty sure I'd get very bored of any 1 film every week! ;)

My fave part of AVDP was near the start where the rider gets sideways on a wet road - incredible recovery!
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Angels was always fun and their longer one based on the Giro is actually a good way to spend a two hour turbo session. I'd be straight back on them if i wanted to get bike fit - I knocked a minute of my local 8 minute climb after a few months training with SF.
 
Thanks GSVBagpuss! Will have a look for them :)

Just about to commute home and damn is it dark! Dark mornings I can kinda cope with as they gradually change but dark evenings seem to come from nowhere with the clock change! :o

Thankfully the wind seems to have calmed down and it's definitely not cold!
 
So, thanks to that park tools page i finally learned how to set preload correctly. Which i did. Then i started putting the bike back together. And there's still an odd noise coming from the rear wheel. It mainly seems to happen when freewheeling, so i'm guessing that means i need to service the freehub? Tried making a video of it, not sure how well the sound translated though:

 
Roady said:
I'm intending to do more standing - get more comfortable doing it so when I have to on the road I don't feel so unstable! Thanks for the AVDP recommendation - any others in the series you'd recommend? I'm pretty sure I'd get very bored of any 1 film every week! ;)

My fave part of AVDP was near the start where the rider gets sideways on a wet road - incredible recovery!
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I've got...

Angels - love the Alpe d’Huez section
Downward Spiral - vomtastic intervals
Rubber Glove
There Is No Try
I****IATT - 2 hours on the TT? It's ugly.
Long Scream

I like the look of The Rookie. Love how they got Giant Shimano on board :D
 
So excited as my road bike's a coming tomorrow. Ended up pickup the Felt z85 105, friend had the 2013 version which I took for a spin and liked, I'm sure the giant defy 1 would have been just as good.

I told myself I wasn't going to cycle to work once the clocks changed as I have a number of country lanes with no lighting but the desire is pretty high!
 
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Time to give these a whirl tomorrow! :)
 
Itchytrigg said:
So excited as my road bike's a coming tomorrow. Ended up pickup the Felt z85 105, friend had the 2013 version which I took for a spin and liked, I'm sure the giant defy 1 would have been just as good.

I told myself I wasn't going to cycle to work once the clocks changed as I have a number of country lanes with no lighting but the desire is pretty high!
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Good choice, I have the 2012 Z85 it's a good bike!
 
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