Road Cycling Essentials

Status
Not open for further replies.
My Charge Spoon leather saddle with titanium rails arrived today. It's incredibly light at 240g that I'm not used to and looks smart. I used to have a Charge Surface cro-mo one on my single speed and I liked it, so thought I'd plump for the more expensive (albeit 40% off at Wiggle) on a leather one.

I was tempted by a Brooks but this seems to be just as good from all the reviews. I'll probably drop the bike and tear it soon enough :s
 
*sigh* here we go.

IMG_7760.JPG


IMG_7761.JPG


IMG_7762.JPG


IMG_7763.JPG


IMG_7764.JPG


I've counted 14 holes like this in total around the tread area :(. I pulled out 7 bits of debris before the Kentish Killer, a couple during the event and these two today. The bit in my palm was a shard of metal and the other was a sharp piece of sand or grit. I've made double sure it's clear this time by pulling the tyre off, turning it inside out and carefully going round the inside. I've also let the front tyre down and worked my round it where there were another 2 bits of stuff stuck in the tread. Ugh.

Lead_Head said:
My Charge Spoon leather saddle with titanium rails arrived today. It's incredibly light at 240g that I'm not used to and looks smart. I used to have a Charge Surface cro-mo one on my single speed and I liked it, so thought I'd plump for the more expensive (albeit 40% off at Wiggle) on a leather one.

I was tempted by a Brooks but this seems to be just as good from all the reviews. I'll probably drop the bike and tear it soon enough :s
Click to expand...
Cool, I've only heard good things about the Spoon. Shame they don't make it in the shiny brown any more, because it was a good retro-looking option for older bikes.
 
My tyres are covered in them but no punctures...strange.

I was doing my bosses winter bike a few weeks back and he had a slash about 2 inches along the tread, not enough to puncture it but a weird one.
 
The cheap no name tyres on my commuter have only ever punctured when I rode over a screw which went straight through the tyre. On my road bike I've used Kenda Kaliente tyres for several years and rarely get punctures.
 
Fitted the Krylions and removed the saddle bag last night as the jersey arrived, so pump, tube, levers etc. are now in the jersey pockets.

The Krylions were what I would call a perfect fit actually. They *just* went on without having to use levers, which is always nice to avoid punching through tubes.

There's a layer of dust-type stuff on the tyres which needs to be washed off so the tyres look newer because at the moment it looks like I've put 1000 miles on them. However they instantly felt much more supple on the road than the Specialized Mondos they replaced. They seem comfortable, grippy, and fast so far. Though how much of that is placebo is anyone's guess.

Also in the picture is a full sized Fibre Flare, in case anyone's interested in what it looks like and possible road bike mounting positions (awful pic but you get the idea).

pY3VH.jpg
 
Do you guys put your mobile phone in your jersey pocket? thing i worry about is it getting sweaty and the dreaded water damage.
 
I put my phone, wallet and keys in my bar bag if I'm cycling properly (ie not commuting, in which case they're in my bag). Would find it very uncomfortable having all that plus whatever else dangling around my ass.
 
Took the Canyon for it's first ride today since it arrived. Really impressed with how well it performs compared to the Trek.

I beat my previous personal best on this particular route by a whopping 15:37mins averaging 19.18MPH for 30 Miles. I was hoping for some improvement but never did I expect anything like this!

canyongram.jpg
 
Nice hipstermatic :p

Forgot to mention that I went to spin for the first time yesterday. I've done my own HIIT routines on a bike before but that was the first time on a spin bike and in a class.

Was good fun but just a shame it doesn't record anything - total watts produced would be nice.

Anyway, thinking about joining this gym for that (which 3 of my friends already go to for spin) and the pool and all the other usual bits. Get a health MOT as well; very interested to find out my VO2 max!

Does anyone else incorporate spin into their week/training?
 
uniQ said:
I beat my previous personal best on this particular route by a whopping 15:37mins averaging 19.18MPH for 30 Miles. I was hoping for some improvement but never did I expect anything like this!
Click to expand...

So you did 30 miles in 1.5 hours. That's impressive (by my standards anyway).

Averaging 19 mph over that kind of distance is something I can currently only dream of.
 
Robbie G said:
So you did 30 miles in 1.5 hours. That's impressive (by my standards anyway).

Averaging 19 mph over that kind of distance is something I can currently only dream of.
Click to expand...

I'm quite surprised myself tbh, as I'm not as fit as I was at my peak last year after a long Winter hibernation so most of the credit goes to the Canyon. It made 19mph feel like the same effort as doing 15mph on my Trek.

Good start though, looking forward to lot's of Cycling this year :cool:
 
That excites me uniQ, can't wait to see what a new road bike will do for me compared to my current hybrid! Just need to drop my weight so I can reward myself with the bike, only 1st 7lbs to go!
 
I bowed to my inner pressure and bought myself a copy of Fixed. I'm feeling like I need to get the Yellow Peril back and fit it up with a set of moustache bars and cottered cranks.

It was nice riding with gears this morning though, with the stinker of a hangover I've got. Felt good to flick the lazy levers down to a 42/18 pensioner ratio and not feel like I needed to vomit every time I pressed downwards :p
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom