Road Cycling Essentials
- Thread starter Matutu
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Has anyone ever had gear shifter outer housing fail? The reason my shifting has been so awful/impossible is that the metal wire that is part of the housing has been forced out the end by the shifter. So when I tighten the adjuster on shifter, these exposed wires press into the shifter cable.
Should I just replace the lot?
Should I just replace the lot?
It totally depends on your fitness, cadence, level of workout intensity, amount of climbing, wind etc etc..
Yesterday I averaged 39 calories per mile doing a 63 mile ride, with 900 meters climbing and a high wind. My average HR was 157, max 190.
yep, they're not expensive enough to be messing around
OK sounds like a plan. Not keen on the silver gear/brake housing on there at the moment anyway. What I do need is some of the clear plastic sheath stuff (I've got internal cables) for the BB area, but I can't find any!
Soldato
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Your heart rate is only high/low relative to what your max is when well rested. Until you've got an idea of that, you don't really know what you're working on. With those numbers you've probably got an actual HRmax closer to 200, but you'll need to do a ramp test or something similar to find a more accurate number. I usually find a 20-30min hard threshold session with 20-30s all out max effort at the end does the trick, and will also give you an idea of your lactate threshold HR.
I've had an outer fail on me. The shifting got worse and worse until I couldnt shift into the bigger sprockets, and using the barrel adjuster and the adjuster at the derailleur didn't help. I figured it had to be the cable so I replaced it and when I took it out of the shifter I found the outer was ruined. It had all been pulled into the shifter and the outer was all squashed and chewed up, so it wasn't a wonder it wasn't working. For want of a few quid on cables it was miles better.
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Yeah, I'm guessing my actual max must be around 200, given that I wasn't at max effort at 189bpm this morning. 200 wouldn't be bad, given I'm 32... I'll have to do some more concerted testing to figure out the actual max. I'm still wondering whether my high heart rate might be compensating for my ropey lungs. If it is my lungs holding me back there'll be less I can do to fix those. You can't really exercise your lungs in the same way you can your heart.
Don
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really struggled today
first ride of 2015 and I did 50 miles
been so ill for 2 weeks, not been on the bike at all...
oh and here's my 2014 story :
http://2014story.strava.com/video/1072386
first ride of 2015 and I did 50 miles
been so ill for 2 weeks, not been on the bike at all...
oh and here's my 2014 story :
http://2014story.strava.com/video/1072386
Soldato
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There isn't a good/bad HRmax - some people have a high one for their age like me (approx 210) others have a low one, it's only relevant to the individual. Resting HR can have some physiological significance but it doesn't mean someone with a resting HR of 40 is going to be fitter than someone with one of 60.
I doubt your lungs are holding you back unless you suffer from asthma or something similar? The limiting factor in exercise is nearly always how much blood your heart can pump/beat
I have asthma which stems from inhaling a bunch of meconium (foetus poo) as I was being born. Lovely. Whether that caused any permanent damage, I don't know. Maybe it is just my heart that needs work. I'll have to do some reading up on training my heart. I skimmed an article at bikeradar about riding in a lower zone than usual and building up your heart that way. Maybe that would help.
Soldato
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Ah, do you use an inhaler when riding? might help to have a puff before a hard interval. I get exercise induced asthma - well and cat induced but that rarely affects me on a ride - and have been meaning to get an inhaler from a doctor for it as it does hit me when I go all out, especially in this weather!
I really don't buy into a lot of that zonal training - it's useful for base mileage but if you want to improve your performance at threshold to get faster up hills and in general I think your best bet is various forms of interval training from 1min-20min
Got up all nice and early this morning to go out on the club run, all layered up, go to shut my garage and boom, the door breaks! Had to wait around for someone to come and assist to get it shut, so washed the car (in my bibs, gabba, base layer etc 
with joggers and jacket over the top!) Realised how cold it was when I was doing it!
Managed an hour and 15 on the turbo doing White, managed to tempo about 80% of the workout so very happy with that, definitely feeling like Turbo work is getting easier now I've done a few workouts on it. One of those things I really hate if I haven't done it for a while. Got a nice little set up with TrainerRoad on the laptop screen and a TV show on a 22" monitor with some enclosed headphones to drown out the noise.
Had to wait around for someone to come and assist to get it shut, so washed the car (in my bibs, gabba, base layer etc with joggers and jacket over the top!) Realised how cold it was when I was doing it!Managed an hour and 15 on the turbo doing White, managed to tempo about 80% of the workout so very happy with that, definitely feeling like Turbo work is getting easier now I've done a few workouts on it. One of those things I really hate if I haven't done it for a while. Got a nice little set up with TrainerRoad on the laptop screen and a TV show on a 22" monitor with some enclosed headphones to drown out the noise.
Man of Honour
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I don't yet have a HRM but would like an approximation at to the calories burned per mile of cycling at 14-16mph for a 195lb/89KG 25yo male.
My current nutrition has me in a slight deficit promoting a minor downtrend in morning weigh in so is spot on.
I'd like to take a little more of a deficit from my Sunday rides so am eating back all bar 2-300 calories that I estimate I burn.
I was using 30 calories per mile but think that this is probably quite on the low side and that perhaps 40/45 calories per mile might be a little more accurate as the actual burn rate?
Any input would be appreciated
30 kcal per mile is very low. If you were a tiny manlet with very little body mass that was extremely proficient at cycling it might be close to right but for someone like yourself right now I'd assume 50 as long as you're pushing yourself on your rides. Keep riding regularly and that will rapidly drop to somewhere near 40 unless you are climbing a lot of hills.
I don't know, I think some people overestimate how much effort they do on a bike because of estimated Strava/Endomondo outputs, look at this for an example
https://www.strava.com/activities/193849117
81 miles - 2559 Calories (31.5/Mile) and this is using a power meter, so will be much more accurate. I was weighing about 69kg at that point, so although a chunk lighter, will be at the higher edge of Bennys estimated speed and I'm guessing he'll be aiming for fairly flat routes at the beginning. Yeah I do a lot of riding, but I wouldn't say I'm especially slight or massive on power, but think it shows that you can push a speed, but not actually do a great deal of effort.
That's exactly what's happened to me.
What's the best outer to get? The Shimano stuff? then get a load of ferrules and a decent cutter and some new inners. Am I missing anything? Could do with some of that inner housing stuff but can't see where to get it?
Thanks
That's exactly what's happened to me.
What's the best outer to get? The Shimano stuff? then get a load of ferrules and a decent cutter and some new inners. Am I missing anything? Could do with some of that inner housing stuff but can't see where to get it?
Thanks
Buy a jagwire set on eBay and it'll come with everything you need for both brakes and gears for under a tenner.
Man of Honour
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You were riding in a group and weigh a good 20kg less....you're also going to be pushing a 16mph average at a much lower hr than benny.
Strava and MFP and such do tend to overestimate (MFP hilariously so) but 30 kcal per mile for an untrained rider that's almost 90kg is far too low.
Don
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Sir David Brailsford has set out is 2020 vision (the next 5 years of Team Sky)
read it here :
http://www.teamsky.com/teamsky/home/article/17520
read it here :
http://www.teamsky.com/teamsky/home/article/17520
Thanks for the input:
This was today's ride up to Ashridge, my first group ride, which I enjoyed though the two others average 16mph so were getting away from me at points but slowed/stopped semi-regularly.
https://www.strava.com/activities/239710361
Generally found it to be quite a comfortable ride, didn't struggle particularly on the climbs more with just keeping pace/cadence up on the flat/fluctuations.
Christ, the first/last couple of km/h are completely exposed and on the way back was mahoosive headwind, felt like I was actually climbing in granny gear
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