Road Cycling Essentials

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SoliD said:
On another note is foam rolling your ITB possibly the most painful experience of a mans life?
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I'm a great believer in using the foam roller and use it every day as I dont want them getting tight again. The ITB was an absolute nightmare to start with , I could hardly place any weight on it at all. Now though i'm happily rolling up and down no problem. My biggest pain atm is deep in the glutes which i'm working on releasing gradually , much better than a while ago but still not fully there yet.

Everywhere else is nicely released : calves,quads,shins,hammys,back,adductors etc etc
 
dodg3rman said:
I'm a great believer in using the foam roller and use it every day as I dont want them getting tight again. The ITB was an absolute nightmare to start with , I could hardly place any weight on it at all. Now though i'm happily rolling up and down no problem. My biggest pain atm is deep in the glutes which i'm working on releasing gradually , much better than a while ago but still not fully there yet.

Everywhere else is nicely released : calves,quads,shins,hammys,back,adductors etc etc
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To be honest, it hurt for the first few rolls, then done a few other stretches and went back, bit better, then same again, done this about 4 times and by the end could put full weight on it and done about 4 rolls, going to try to remember to do it daily when I finish riding along with some specific stretches and strength techniques. Although sometimes you forget by the time you've got in showered etc.
 
Some superb views on the moor tops on our ride out this morning

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Thats hibernating until spring, was on the Kinesis which constantly amazes me. Was sat at 25 mph with the wind behind us quite happily for 10 miles.

Fantastic bike would highly recommend.
 
FrenchTart said:
Don't forget to include costs for damaged clothing/etc. Also get seen by a doctor. Your injury may seem minor now but it could be worse than you think.
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Robzere31 said:
+1 for this.
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I was planning to get my shoulder checked out again, hopefully I will be able to get an appointment tomorrow. It doesn't feel all that serious, but you're right, it could be worse than it feels. To be honest, I am just glad I didn't break anything.
 
This popped up on my facebook earlier

Making me want to try some downhill at some point lol :eek::D

oli collett said:
That's probably more than a lot of pros do?!

Don't know how people can regularly do that kinda mileage and have time for any other social activities.
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I think the point is, they don't have any other social activities! Leaderboards online are one of the few social things I bet some of them do! :o

Saundie said:
have any of you guys been involved in a road accident on your bike? I was hit by a car on my way home from work on Friday evening. I was turning right out of the junction of College Road onto Crystal Palace Parade, and the guy in the car drove into the side of me. My light had definitely turned green as I entered the junction, so I assume that the driver tried to make it round while his light was amber and wasn't quick enough. Fortunately I am not seriously injured; it seems that my left shoulder bore the brunt of the impact and so I can barely move it, but otherwise it's not too bad. The driver of the car that hit me stopped at the scene, so I have his details, and the driver of the car behind me also stopped and waited with me until the ambulance and police arrived. The ambulance crew checked me out and the police took my statement, and then I went on my way.

What I need advice on is how to go about getting my bike and kit repaired or replaced. Given that the driver of the car was responsible for causing the accident, I assume that I just need to give him the quote for the repairs and then it's up to him to claim it on his insurance? Or is it more complicated than that, and should I seek proper legal advice? I've never had to deal with anything like this before, and my research online has lead me towards those "no win no fee" claim sites, which are not helpful.
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Saundie said:
I was given a reference number by the police officer who took my statement. I assume that the driver hasn't contacted his insurance company yet, as I haven't heard from them. I've already taken my bike to the LBS to ask them to quote for repairing the bike, so I think I'll wait until I have the quote before calling the driver who hit me; I'll let him know how much it'll cost and leave it with him to call his insurance company.
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I was knocked off back at the start of December, thankfully was not seriously hurt. I made contact with the guy later that day and he didn't want to deal with me (very uncooperative after he was helpful and apologetic at the scene) and told me I had to "deal with his insurance company as he'd been told not to speak to me" (gave me his policy number and they'd given him an incident number). I reported it to 101 (one of the few things you can do as a cyclist is report it) and went down to the local station to fill out the report/statement. Although they've still not pursued it with me they said if I wanted to press charges then they think I'd have a case - as he never reported it.

I was happy dealing with his insurance company (RSA). Once I had told them that I wasn't after a personal injury claim were more than happy to deal with me. Gave them a list of all the things damaged and copies of some invoices from Wiggle for the items and they gave me a payout for around 80% of the total value (more than happy) along with the value to replace my bike. I used the payout to buy a new bike and repaired the old to use on the Turbo.

You need to speak to the guy as he was clearly at fault. Use the Police incident to your advantage and try to persuade him to put it through his insurance! If he's really helpful and you're a nice guy (like me) then it's worth getting a quote to repair the damage from your LBS, just tell them not to cut any corners when it comes to the price!

If you were in the wrong then it'd be a different story!
 
Any recommendations on a turbo in the sub £150 range? At Christmas I had my eye on the Elite Fluid as it was £130 at one point but it's up to £176 on wiggle now :(
 
Spam...

Looking at SRAM stuff. It appears that the SRAM Red, Force and Rival hydraulic shifters all feature zero-loss on both shifters. Is that right? I've read some (old) reports that only one shifter supports it aside from on Red but they appeared to be talking about the non-hydraulic shifters as far as I could tell.

edit: Why is choosing a bike so hard? I'm now thinking back to the original suggestion of a Canyon Inflite Al 9.0 and really struggling to justify getting anything else. Is a more racey geometry going to make that much difference? I do plan to start racing this year (only beginner/cat 4) but more of my riding will be long endurance/sportive style riding. That said... I do want to start practising riding in a more aero position. I guess I could set up my Inflite in a fairly race/aero way?

Itchytrigg said:
Any recommendations on a turbo in the sub £150 range? At Christmas I had my eye on the Elite Fluid as it was £130 at one point but it's up to £176 on wiggle now :(
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Look out for a second-hand Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. Whatever you buy, make sure it's compatible with Trainer Road's virtual power or you'll end up kicking yourself later.
 
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Urgh, I think Merlin have sent me a new Tiagra rear derailleur rather than a derailleur hanger :o The package was too large to fit through my letter box and the price I paid over the phone matches the derailleur... Bah.

Chilly commute next week, -3c some days! Should be dry though so not too icy I hope...
 
Can anyone recommend a speed sensor & HRM for a Virtual Power trainer? I have a Elite Qubo Power Fluid, and wouldn't mind setting it up in the garage :)
 
syke said:
Can anyone recommend a speed sensor & HRM for a Virtual Power trainer? I have a Elite Qubo Power Fluid, and wouldn't mind setting it up in the garage :)
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Do you mean Trainer Road? If so, you can use anything really. Cheapest Ant+ speed/cad sensor will do the job (available from Decathlon).
 
FrenchTart said:
Do you mean Trainer Road? If so, you can use anything really. Cheapest Ant+ speed/cad sensor will do the job (available from Decathlon).
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£17 at Decathlon. I have one and it's been working fine for, I don't know, 8 months or something. I'm going to pick up a couple more for my other bikes.
 
Roady said:
I bought a nice big bag of porridge oats yesterday to make some of these
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Made these yesterday, they don't taste very peanutty and I didn't put as many seeds in as suggested (as only had poppy and sesame), just as well as the sesame are really overpowering! Dates and raisens seem to have worked well but I'll find some cranberries to add for next time. :D

Roady said:
My DHB Neoprene overshoes have started to 'shed' elastic and stitching so I'm semi-looking out for some replacements. I'm after some socks for spring too so are the merino ones from planetx ok? Anyone use these not-so-think ones? I'll probably get overshoes from them too.
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Any thoughts on the Planet X socks guys?

Itchytrigg said:
Any recommendations on a turbo in the sub £150 range? At Christmas I had my eye on the Elite Fluid as it was £130 at one point but it's up to £176 on wiggle now :(
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Second hand KKRM as suggested. There are others in the Elite range and they seem to review well, some of the Tacx have dropping in price as there are new ones out too! Sure you need fluid?

syke said:
Can anyone recommend a speed sensor & HRM for a Virtual Power trainer? I have a Elite Qubo Power Fluid, and wouldn't mind setting it up in the garage :)
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Vonhelmet said:
£17 at Decathlon. I have one and it's been working fine for, I don't know, 8 months or something. I'm going to pick up a couple more for my other bikes.
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Another vote for the Decathlon S&C. I have it on my trainer, I have the GSC10 on my road bike and the Decathlon is more well made and reliable. I wouldn't buy the GSC10 again! It's also twice the price! :eek:

Cold commute in this morning and insane queues of cars as the main road North/South over the river in Hereford is closed at an important junction. 4 car pileup with a fire crew having to cut someone out - not quite sure how that can happen in a 30 mph inner-city zone that is traffic lighted but it shows the mentality of drivers around here. :eek::mad::rolleyes:

I actually wore my cheapy chinese bibs (with pad removed) over my DHB Active thermal bibs and they worked well! Thick socks too but were not ideal - think I need to try some of the Planet X merino's...

I ended up having 2 rest days over the weekend due to a number of things, but has given me the perfect excuse to do some TR some evenings when my USB ANT+ arrives! :D
 
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Another disappointing weekend :(

Managed to get to the gym on Saturday for a session on the torture machine but that was it. And I was busy Yesterday. Was torture seeing other cyclists out.
 
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