Road Cycling Essentials

[Dunks]

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXLDNRIV/planet-x-london-road-sram-rival-22-road-bike

Another contender, but not sure how SRAM compares to Shimano especially with the double-tap mech...

 

[grudas]

Double tap is awesome! Love mine

 

[SoliD]

Customer Service levels have just been massively exceeded.

Dropped a mail to epic bleed solutions about their bleed kit, and got a reply within 30 minutes on a Saturday night! Shall definitely be buying from them!

 

[Berger]

Quick Step, oh dear.

3 vs 1, I know they had to keep the gas on to stay away but even so!

Few bitter comments from their DS too.

 

[SoliD]

If anyone's chucking away any chain ring pedalarm or other larger components please let me know. I may have a use for them.

 

[daveski]

Have an old Sora triple chainset that I'm storing for some unknown reason if that's any good to you?

 

[Bear]

My wife is buying me a bike for my birthday so I've decided on a road bike. I'm quite a fatty now, a touch over 100kgs. Anyone have any idea how much weight road wheels can put up with?

I'm looking at getting a Ribble Gran Fondo with a pair of Shimano RS21 wheels.

 

[Calpol]

I had Racing 5's on for 4 years and many thousands of miles and the hubs were flawless.

Same here - not a single issue with mine

Route turned out to be nice, at least any part of it that wasn't either going towards or in any way near Oldham.

Wind was pretty relentless. Headwind on the climbs, side gusts so strong on the descents that we ended up going incredibly slowly and carefully on those too.

To top it all off, the guy riding with me had an issue with his brakes and crashed into the side/back of me. We're both okay but it snapped my front gear cable, rear light mount, knackered my rear mudguard and ruptured the sidewall in my fairly new rear Pro4 SC Grip That happened just before we re-entered Oldham for the journey home so I ended up limping back with a really dodgy back tyre (two innertube changes...) and not being able to shift to my big ring on the front, which was lots of fun during the nice long downhill section of the A62.

As I say though, the route was nice - just a frustrating end to the ride.

Sounds like we had a similar time yesterday. My leg was sticking to the duvet last night as a result of my off. Rear mech, pedal, RH shifter and bar tape all scraped to compliment my hip and arm.

True - but you can often safely assume that the Kenda tyres supplied on a cheap bike are going to be pap.

Gatorskins are also awful enough to still make the average Continental tyre below average, despite GP4000s being awesome

Part of me is blaming the Gatorskins for my off yesterday. I have been running them for ages and they won't wear out. Maybe that was the cycling gods way of telling me to stop being such a cheapskate and bin the things. Pro4 Endurance up next possibly?

 

[FrenchTart]

Yeah..I'm starting to think yesterday wasn't the best idea with regards to cycling. The weather forecast said today was going to be much worse but so far it's not so bad. I need to get my bike sorted before I do any riding though - gear cable will be easy enough to fix but I really don't trust the tyre for anything longer than a short commute.

Definitely bin the Gatorkskins. In fact, set them on fire first and salt the ground they were on. Just to be sure

What size tyre to you ride? I'm a fan of 25mm so you've got the options of P4 Endurance or SC at that size. SC have slightly better grip (though the Ends are still light years ahead of Gatorskins). Ends will last longer and have slightly better puncture protection. At 23mm I'd go with the SC Grip, which have better grip and puncture protection than the regular SC. Sadly they don't make SC Grip in 25mm.

 

[Calpol]

Yeah..I'm starting to think yesterday wasn't the best idea with regards to cycling. The weather forecast said today was going to be much worse but so far it's not so bad. I need to get my bike sorted before I do any riding though - gear cable will be easy enough to fix but I really don't trust the tyre for anything longer than a short commute.

Definitely bin the Gatorkskins. In fact, set them on fire first and salt the ground they were on. Just to be sure

What size tyre to you ride? I'm a fan of 25mm so you've got the options of P4 Endurance or SC at that size. SC have slightly better grip (though the Ends are still light years ahead of Gatorskins). Ends will last longer and have slightly better puncture protection. At 23mm I'd go with the SC Grip, which have better grip and puncture protection than the regular SC. Sadly they don't make SC Grip in 25mm.

I prefer 25's also. I run 23 SC on my other bike, but it has 23mm rims so they come up a bit wider. I do like them, plenty grip, light and seem to wear quite well. I think I have only had one puncture with them. Only concern is how they fair through all the winter **** that is on the roads. Will have a browse around today and see what's on offer.

 

[FrenchTart]

Ah, wasn't aware you already knew your way around the P4s. Ignore my rambling

 

[Vonhelmet]

Quick Step, oh dear.

3 vs 1, I know they had to keep the gas on to stay away but even so!

Few bitter comments from their DS too.

Yeah, I watched the closing stretches on steephill. Amazing work by stannard to hold off three!

 

[Roady]

You can't lump a whole brand into one like that, take continental, gatorskins are awful and GP4000s are one of the most popular tyres around

I was being fairly generic I'll admit but have a read around different reviews of kendas and you'll see that opinion is very divided.

Here's an example of my only experience with them:

Admittedly they were cheap kendas on a cheap bike, did around 400 miles before this happened

True - but you can often safely assume that the Kenda tyres supplied on a cheap bike are going to be pap.

Gatorskins are also awful enough to still make the average Continental tyre below average, despite GP4000s being awesome

@Roady - do a turbo session at high intensity and then head out for an easy ride. Best of both worlds

Yeah the worst thing about skaterskins is all the marketing and hype around them and the fact they're the go-to tyre for Halfords. They're overpriced and from what I've heard, damn dangerous on a wet road (the last thing you want from a tyre)!

Considering going out but gonna do a turbo session first, gonna see if I can get zwift working on my below spec laptop, failing that my next TR session which i'm long overdue! Actually gonna put my Defy on the trainer and not worried about tyre wear (as it's for 1 session) as have a couple of things to tweak (& service it). It's a cool wind out there and rain is due after lunchtime, if it comes to nothing I may go out for a local hill too. Service & clean is more important

For those with Virbs, it's possible to use the Go Pro Editing software which has a lot better editing options and does not have the stupid 4GB file size limit on W7 but you do miss out on the speed and GPS overlays though.

Thanks for the heads up! I've not hit the 4GB size limit yet but are you sure that's a Garmin thing? Not you using the x86 (32bit) version of Windows 7? The overlay is one of the main things a VIRB is better for cycling than a GoPro...

My wife is buying me a bike for my birthday so I've decided on a road bike. I'm quite a fatty now, a touch over 100kgs. Anyone have any idea how much weight road wheels can put up with?.

100kgs is nothing, you may be worth checking tyres as some have a 'limit'. Others do not! Although I've seen more weight limits on frames than wheels... I was around 15 stone before and that's not far off 100kgs and it soon dropped off! I'm getting close to 80kgs now all from cycling and a little more thought about what I eat

It's hard work starting but you'll soon find things easier and enjoy it more - don't bother weighing yourself just concentrate on having fun on the bike and enjoying riding (for me it was making my work commute easier/quicker and then the reduction in car running costs). The weight will take care of itself, just keep doing the miles!

 

[Vonhelmet]

My wife is buying me a bike for my birthday so I've decided on a road bike. I'm quite a fatty now, a touch over 100kgs. Anyone have any idea how much weight road wheels can put up with?

I'm looking at getting a Ribble Gran Fondo with a pair of Shimano RS21 wheels.

The Gran Fondo is a great looking bike. Most factory wheels have low spoke counts, like 20f/20r, so it's probably worth checking the specs for what shimano reckon the wheels can take.

 

[FrenchTart]

Gah, it's so nice-looking outside :/ I really should take a rest day though. Perhaps I'll at least walk a long route through a park or two or something.

...and fix my bike.

 

[Saytan]

The Gran Fondo is a great looking bike. Most factory wheels have low spoke counts, like 20f/20r, so it's probably worth checking the specs for what shimano reckon the wheels can take.

at 100kg I'd definitely be looking for proper 32 spoke wheels. Unfortunately it's very difficult to get something like that from ribble.

 

[Shamrock]

Tri training has commenced.

Brick session this morning, 19mi ride @ 18mph followed by 5k run @ 7:00/mi.

Why did I sign up for a triathlon again?

 

[touch]

I had fulcrum 7s and I was pretty close to 100kg at one point (maybe 95ish). Didnt have any trouble with them.
Between me and my dad, i think we have 5 pairs of fulcrum 7s which get moved around between bikes, so i've lost track of which ones were my originals and i'm not sure of the mileage, must be several thousand. All of them run fine, so I know that the originals are still fine too.

Just checked the weight limit on fulcrum website: 109kg (but over 82kg should have more frequent services)

 

[Vonhelmet]

at 100kg I'd definitely be looking for proper 32 spoke wheels. Unfortunately it's very difficult to get something like that from ribble.

Hard to get 32 spoke wheels anywhere unless you're buyin touring wheels or getting them handbuilt.

 

[FrenchTart]

Whilst I wouldn't go for 20 spoke wheels (and I'd be a bit hmm about 24) I don't think 32 are an absolute requirement for a 100kg rider.

That said, extra spokes don't add that much weight and give you more peace of mind so if there's an option available with more it's probably worth going for it.