Road Cycling Essentials

daveski · 21 Nov 2014 at 16:23

I did a racing skills session some time last year which worked on pedalling technique. Cycling with one leg etc. Found it quite interesting at the time but it was too far to travel to do it regularly.

Bike control is another weakness of mine, I have friends that can bunny hop, ride non handed whilst taking their jackets off etc. I can't do any of that.

topgun06 · 21 Nov 2014 at 17:04

ShiWarrior said:
which strap are you using ? the Garmin one or the polar one ? (im assuming your using a garmin edge)

Yeah. The Garmin 'Premium' HR monitor I think.

grudas · 21 Nov 2014 at 17:17

anyone with a garmin virb?

Roady · 21 Nov 2014 at 17:25

I'm using the Wahoo TICKR and it's been fine for my use... Mainly chose it because it's ANT+ and has a replaceable battery. But I'm not using a Garmin computer (recording through ANT+ to IpBike on my mobile then uploading to Strava).

I'm hoping to catch an 810 on E-Bay at some point as there's no way I'm paying the retail inflated Garmin prices! :rolleyes:

ShiWarrior · 21 Nov 2014 at 17:39

topgun06 said:
Yeah. The Garmin 'Premium' HR monitor I think.

see my post above to DC Rainmaker

change your strap to the polar one, and its much better than the Garmin one

Derek W · 21 Nov 2014 at 17:42

These two arrived tonight. They were on sale at Wiggle for a shade over 16quid, link is a couple of pages back. I ordered the XL ones as I've got other DHB compression tops and underarmour at the XL size. Although the fit isn't as tight as the latter items it does fit quite well but isn't too baggy either.

SoliD · 21 Nov 2014 at 18:39

GSVBagpuss said:
Wiggins gets told "Cadence Bradley" thorughout his timetrails from the onboard stuff I've seen, and he aims for 100 at all times

If you read his autobiography it states he brought his cadence down as he couldn't best cancdllara spinning away.

I used to spin at about 105 on a tt but have brought this down to low 90s since I got a cadence on the tt bike and have improved my times massively as my muscles are under more load and aren't as restricted by my lungs and heart but now just by my lactic tolerance!

ShiWarrior · 21 Nov 2014 at 18:41

ive been told, (and I read recently)

you don't want to be spinning too high, you need some sort of resistance otherwise you will just burnout

grudas · 21 Nov 2014 at 19:27

I think that's kinda obvious

I personally only shift down is there's very little resistance.. I bet my rpm is in the 80-90 range..

Jimbeam3678 · 21 Nov 2014 at 19:42

Anyone used these http://www.merlincycles.com/etxeondo-bikoterm-bib-tight-69311.html ?

I've got the bib short version of these http://www.wiggle.co.uk/etxeondo-ohri-bib-tight/

and they are superb would prefer to pay £90 rather than £130 though!!

daveski · 21 Nov 2014 at 20:52

grudas said:
anyone with a garmin virb?

A friend of mine has one. His videos are unlisted on YT but asked him for one and he sent me this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ_5c1nX0wY&feature=youtu.be

Richand · 21 Nov 2014 at 22:04

Hi Gents,

Seeing as I joined the Strava club I thought best to actually post!

I've just started cycling not done much since about 17 years old, I'm now 30.

I bought a road bike and went straight in to 20 mile each way commutes 3-4 times a week, I've only just started logging them but started in late September.

The thing is, I haven't seen much improvement in terms of speed. still takes me a consistent 1 hour 30 minutes and I cannot beat this! even on rides that I feel are more effort than the day before or the week before it still takes 1 hour 30!

I currently have a chest infection and taking amoxicillian and still do the same speed, I would expect to go slower but doesn't really seem to be the case, I took a flatter but longer route this morning (got slightly lost) but this was again 23miles in 1:40.

my ride this morning: http://www.strava.com/activities/221517096

seems pathetic when compared to you lot

FrenchTart · 21 Nov 2014 at 22:05

Post some of your rides on here and we'll comment

Richand · 21 Nov 2014 at 22:08

FrenchTart said:
Post some of your rides on here and we'll comment

This was this morning: http://www.strava.com/activities/221517096

and this was the evening before: http://www.strava.com/activities/221343143

Asprilla · 21 Nov 2014 at 22:17

Bargain.

Rapha eBay outlet just pushed out a load of medium Pro Team Race Capes for £75. Ithankyouverymuch. I've had the small before and it was too short on the back. This one fits on the back but is a little too long on the arms.

I'll keep it and see if I wear it over the winter and then sell it in the spring. I bought my last one for £90 used and sold it three months later for the same.

Profit.

Dunks · 21 Nov 2014 at 23:45

Richand said:
This was this morning: http://www.strava.com/activities/221517096

and this was the evening before: http://www.strava.com/activities/221343143

Nice to see a fellow Nottinghamshire resident :cool:

Quite an odd way you've taken on those routes, I thought the section you've taken from Borrowash through Alveston was a sort of gravel track? Might be better going through to Spondon and down via Raynesway and into the riverside path to Pride Park and then out to where you ended up!

Just followed you on Strava incase you're wondering who it was!

Richand · 22 Nov 2014 at 00:26

Dunks said:
Nice to see a fellow Nottinghamshire resident

Quite an odd way you've taken on those routes, I thought the section you've taken from Borrowash through Alveston was a sort of gravel track? Might be better going through to Spondon and down via Raynesway and into the riverside path to Pride Park and then out to where you ended up!

Just followed you on Strava incase you're wondering who it was!

The way I planned the route was good old google maps navigation and follow the signs for route 6, possible not the most effective routing method.

There is a few miles of gravel in there, not that bad to be fair, Derby council seem good at keeping that Derwent track level and its probably the prettiest section of the ride. Sure my bike doesn't think that though!

I seem to remember trying the Spondon way and following the route all the way into Derby past the Asda but traffic around there was just crazy and the road was gravel from road works, I'm still not massively comfortable with roads so will try and avoid them subconsciously (and consciously).

Will give it another shot that way on Monday, No problem on the follow, motivating to have people watching.

Berger · 22 Nov 2014 at 02:10

daveski said:
I did a racing skills session some time last year which worked on pedalling technique. Cycling with one leg etc. Found it quite interesting at the time but it was too far to travel to do it regularly.

Bike control is another weakness of mine, I have friends that can bunny hop, ride non handed whilst taking their jackets off etc. I can't do any of that.

I can bunny hop, no handed taking jacket off etc, saddle angle makes a big difference I noticed over bike control with no hands.

I get shown up by people doing no hands track standing, show off basts!

From order to dispatch with wiggle in 3.5 hours using their free delivery!

Got a 12-28 force cassette for my hilly race, starting to get worried so wanted another gear to bail into! I was pushing a 10% grade into a headwind this week in the 39/26. Anything longer than a few km would be too much at a sensible cadence, even doing 400w I was mid 70s.

Itchytrigg · 22 Nov 2014 at 09:47

Is there such a thing as a cadence and/or heart rate sensor that will hook into Strava on an iPhone? Or would I just be better off getting a GPS computer and uploading afterwards?

whyscotty · 22 Nov 2014 at 10:02

Bit of help please.

My ride this morning.

Strava shows 613 calories burned, yet my Garmin shows 1023 burned.

Which is the more realistic reading please?

I think the max cadence is just a smidge out