Road Cycling Essentials

FrenchTart · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:13

Brabbinho said:
I'd be wary about carbon bars and stem from China.

That's kind of what I've thought in the past and also what I've heard people I've spoken to in RL say but in general nobody can back that up with (lots of) solid examples of why to avoid it. Whereas online there are plenty of people that seem to have had a lot of positive experiences.

I'm not having a go at you for saying this - I guess in some ways I want people to convince me not to go the Chinese carbon route

Brabbinho · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:23

I'd just go aluminium handlebars or pay abit more for branded carbon ones.

The frames themselves do seem to get good feedback

FrenchTart · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:26

Brabbinho said:
I'd just go aluminium handlebars or pay abit more for branded carbon ones.

The frames themselves do seem to get good feedback

Hmm.. Interesting. Is this based on that really bad tv show recently or some other experience/thing you've heard about?

To be honest the handlebars do worry me slightly. They're the least researched part of the build so far.

Brabbinho · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:32

No concrete reason but if they aren't well made it could lead to a nasty crash. The weight penalty for going for alloy bars won't be massive and would give greater peace of mind. a lot of the pros don't ride carbon bars I believe.

Everything else on the list looks good though

FrenchTart · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:33

Brabbinho said:
No concrete reason but if they aren't well made it could lead to a nasty crash. The weight penalty for going for alloy bars won't be massive and would give greater peace of mind. a lot of the pros don't ride carbon bars I believe.

Everything else on the list looks good though

Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely take it on board before I make any purchasing decisions. To be honest your reasoning seems pretty sound so I may well change my handlebar choice

Jonny ///M · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:36

tedmaul said:
Ooft, nice!

That for Greig? Seen some pics of his bike after it snapped - some state. I trust he's ok?

Aye for Greig, he's alright as he was only doing about 3mph. Steering had stiffened up and he kept riding but when it got so bad he slowed up.

will see how this goes, I wouldn't ride it personally but he made the choice.

Vonhelmet said:
@Jonny///M What do I need to know about fitting a crown race to a fork? I'm a couple of months away from building a bike for the first time and that's going to entail fitting a headset. I've got a headset press, which I think will be cool for the actual frame side of things, and I'm happy enough with the spacer/stem side of things at the top, but what do I need to know in terms of fitting the crown race to the fork? Googling suggests I can just pick up a length of pvc pipe and use that to fit the crown race by banging it against the floor, but is that cool? Will that work?

That could work. The tool is just a big tube with a cap on the end that matches the crown race faces. The plastic should be enough to tap it down without damaging the faces. Some crown races are split and just slide onto the fork.

Some high end forks have integrated crown races which require nothing else.

Jonny ///M · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:59

As for the china carbon the forks are a prime example! The last chinarello was quite bad for fit and finish too.

I'd just get a good set of alloy bars like Pro Vibe 7s, Easton EA70 or Ritchey whatever.

FrenchTart · 22 Jan 2015 at 22:10

So that in your picture was a good example of Chinese carbon forks? Ouch :eek:

Vonhelmet · 22 Jan 2015 at 22:12

Brabbinho said:
No concrete reason but if they aren't well made it could lead to a nasty crash. The weight penalty for going for alloy bars won't be massive and would give greater peace of mind. a lot of the pros don't ride carbon bars I believe.

Everything else on the list looks good though

I heard Cav won't use carbon bars because he's had a bad experience of snapping them when sprinting.

Jonny ///M · 22 Jan 2015 at 22:28

I highly recommend Vibe 7s bars and at least a PLT stem. The barsare 31.8mm all along the tops making them stiff as my proverbial.

Berger · 23 Jan 2015 at 07:09

Vonhelmet said:
I heard Cav won't use carbon bars because he's had a bad experience of snapping them when sprinting.

Yeah, with all that head butting and crashing he's bound to snap a few

Saw a photo of him with his arm up after being beaten on stage 3 of the tour de San Luis, anyone know why, not watched the highlights.

He's going better than Kittel by a long way who just seems to use the TDU as a warm up for the year.

Roady · 23 Jan 2015 at 08:50

FrenchTart said:
You can set TR to use your max HR as a way to measure your current effort level - then it will tailor graphs/targets based on that in the correct zones. In fact, once you've set it and done a ride you'll notice in the summary afterwards it mentions which zone you were in. When you choose a ride to do it will give you a summary of the zone it's aiming to train.

Going back to my pizza-ride last night if you click on the Power Zones tab you can see which zones I was riding in and it'll also highlight the corresponding area on the graph:
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1526068-Galena

You can do the same for HR zones if you have that set up (I don't).

edit: Personally I would calculate your FTP asap and not worry about the HR stuff too much. If you don't reckon you can face the 20 minute test (it's actually an hour of riding but the only bit that will make you cry is the important bit - the 20 minutes of pain) then you can try the 8 minute test as discussed above.

Thanks for all that mate, taken on board and I need to start looking through Trainerroad rides the same way I look through Strava rides to learn about things before I really get started...

SDK^ said:
Do you have a power meter roady?

Nope, just ANT+ HRM and S&C which should be enough

ShiWarrior said:
oops

soorrry

Not a problem mate, I need workouts like that!

SoliD said:
Roady, get yourself a sweat catcher, that level of sweat pouring on to your frame will do it no good!

I'm not overly worried as I usually wrap an old cloth around the top bar - didn't that time as it was cold (didn't think I'd sweat that much!) and it slipped my mind.

This is a £300 bike that's almost 2 years old and more than paid for itself (it's been hit by a car and insurance 'replaced' it - I'm not happy to ride it on the road but LBS say it's ok).

Berger said:
Yeah, with all that head butting and crashing he's bound to snap a few

Saw a photo of him with his arm up after being beaten on stage 3 of the tour de San Luis, anyone know why, not watched the highlights.

He's going better than Kittel by a long way who just seems to use the TDU as a warm up for the year.

The same guy (a young ~~Argentinian~~/Colombian?) beat Cav on Stage 1 (he supposedly left himself too far back so couldn't catch), beat him again on Stage 3. Read something about bad tactical choice but think Cav blamed the rider who came in 3rd for blocking him.

EDIT:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...econd-san-luis-sprint-fernando-gaviria-153692

Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step) has lost his second straight sprint in 2015 to 20-year-old Fernando Gaviria. Just as in stage one, the Colombian, riding for his national team, jumped Cavendish early and held him off for stage three of the Tour de San Luis in Juana Koslay, Argentina.

Cavendish, with over 100 career wins to his name, finished three bike lengths back, gesturing angrily behind him towards third-place finisher Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida).

FrenchTart · 23 Jan 2015 at 09:18

Roady said:
Thanks for all that mate, taken on board and I need to start looking through Trainerroad rides the same way I look through Strava rides to learn about things before I really get started...

To be honest you don't really need to. Just get your sensors set up, set your wheel size and then do the 20 minute test. It appears at the top of the list of workouts

Once you've done one session on it you'll find it all a lot easier and less daunting to get your head around. I know I did.

Jonny ///M said:
I highly recommend Vibe 7s bars and at least a PLT stem. The barsare 31.8mm all along the tops making them stiff as my proverbial.

Stiffer than your unicycle and clown horn? High praise :eek:

edit: Saved your post so I can look at the bar and stem later. Thanks for the suggestions

grudas · 23 Jan 2015 at 09:31

my balls are still rock hard after todays ride! COLD.

and on that note, my rear tyre is sure gone.. slips all over the place! was sketchy on a round-about when the rear just went "nope forget about any kind of grip"

FrenchTart · 23 Jan 2015 at 09:34

Time to get some Pro4s?

grudas · 23 Jan 2015 at 09:48

FrenchTart said:
Time to get some Pro4s?

dunno why but slick + grip don't make me feel confident? How are you guys finding them grip wise in the corners, when getting of the line etc? in weather like this? right now the roads seem to have this thin layer of "icy water" kinda thing and it's just zero grip all over the place!

getting of the line at lights? 2-3 pedal strokes = rear going nuts.. brake harder? rear is all over the place.. pedal a little bit on a round-about? you can feel the rear literally stepping out..

not confidence inspiring if I'm honest.

FrenchTart · 23 Jan 2015 at 10:00

Slicks are better tyres with deep treads in the wet - more surface area in contact with the ground. The Pro4s have a sidewall compound that is softer/more grippy than the central strip too, so cornering is good.

If you want to go all-out for wet grip you could try the Pro4 Service Course Grip. Sadly only available in 23mm though.

edit: My grip and cornering is fine at the moment to be honest. Including on icy days. I'm using Pro4 Endurance 25mm tyres, which are meant to be less grippy/good at that kind of thing than any of the others in the Pro4 range.

tedmaul · 23 Jan 2015 at 10:01

Roady said:
Thanks for all that mate, taken on board and I need to start looking through Trainerroad rides the same way I look through Strava rides to learn about things before I really get started...

If you have TR set up with the sensors etc i wouldn't pay much attention to heart rate at all for your efforts. It's too variable and responds too slowly on short efforts and drifts on longer ones - not great for judging your effort level. Power is always better for this, even if it's just virtual power. Keep your set up exactly consistent (bike, tyres and tyre pressure, wheel clamp set up etc) and you can trace improvement over time.

The best way to do it i think is just to pick one of the TR training plans. Sweetspot Base is a good place to start. The first workout of any of the plans is always a fitness test anyway, and once you complete that it will tell you your current FTP and use that to set the effort level on all subsequent rides until you test again.

The first time you do a test, TR doesn't know what your FTP is so it defaults it to 200. It's meaningless for the purpose of the first test though - just ignore it and make sure that you work as hard as you can for the 2*8mins (or 1*20mins if you chose to do that test). It'll then work out your actual FTP from those efforts and use it for every training session from then on.

FrenchTart · 23 Jan 2015 at 10:04

^ Sound advice

FishFluff · 23 Jan 2015 at 12:05

I'm just about over a chest infection that's plagued me since New Years and am going to have my first go on Trainer Road tonight. Does anyone use it with the iOS app? I've got bluetooth smart cadence and HR sensors which hopefully it will recognise.