Road Cycling Essentials

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These just showed up:

zonda.jpg


Wasn't expecting them until tomorrow. Ordered from Germany on Thursday :) See if I can get my work finished a bit early today then take them for a spin.
 
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uniQ said:
I have 12-25 on the Canyon. The Trek has a bottom of the range 8speed and I haven't found a hill that's beaten me yet.



You can spin fine on a double. Unless your in a granny gear going no where fast at 120rpm I'm not sure what you're argument is.
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I'm adjusting to using 52/39 and 12/25 on my bike.

I still have no chance of getting up "The Mountain" of Mt Panorama on the race track though, its almost all 10% and up to almost 20% in places. Might be able to manage it by Xmas!

I have a smaller practice hill which is pretty much all over 10%, not sure how Strava decides where the start/end of the segment is, that gradient would be much higher if the flats were cut out of it.

http://app.strava.com/segments/1219189
 
I can understand people spinning out a compact on a downhill, but does anyone spin them out on the flat regularly?

I ride a compact and have no desire to go to a double at all, the compact gets me to around 40mph when I put the hammer down.
 
I've only been doing any serious cycling since May/June of this year, so I'm a long way off moving to a double... I struggle to seriously push the compact on the flat. My limiting factors are my fitness and weight, followed much later by the weight of the bike. I could do with more lower gears for the hills, never mind more higher ones for the flats/descents.
 
uniQ said:
You can spin fine on a double. Unless your in a granny gear going no where fast at 120rpm I'm not sure what you're argument is.
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My argument is that I don't need those extra three teeth at the top. 50/12 allows me to get above 30mph and gives me better gearing for hills.

I used to have doubles all round but now I'm on compacts and I much prefer it.

Actually, to be honest I'm on Q rings on the weekender and although the gear changes suck they are a brilliant. Gearing on the big ring is 50-52 equivalent.
 
I like to think I'm relatively fit. I regularly commute at north of 32kph yet I've never come close to spinning out on my compact while on the flat. Even with a tailwind. It's good for 60kph for Christ's sake!
 
Jono said:
Why are people discussing speed in kph rather than mph? Just wondering...
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Without resorting to showing you The Rules......

....I generally use kph because it's a better unit for running and triathlons. Also, my background is in physics so I tend to default to metric in most scenarios; imperial is just a confusing mess of a system.
 
In other news; never use Shiny Bikes.

Ordered a load of stuff in mid July, including an Apex RH shifter. Weeks pass.

I call them and when I eventually get through I'm told my package was sent out the previous day. A week later my package turns up, clearly having only been in RMs hands for 24hrs. Said RH shifter isn't there but a pair of S300 single speed levers are.

I call back SB but get no answer. I email but get no answer. Eventually someone responds and acknowledges there is a problem, but doesn't offer a resolution only that they will look into it. Weeks pass while I try to contact them.

Eventually I contact them and they want to know if I've returned their levers yet. I explained they aren't the ones out of pocket yet, the levers are unsolicited and I expect them to pay postage for their return. That was a week ago and since then I've called 58 times without answer, left 2 voicemails and two email. No response.

Shower of sugar. Don't use them.
 
Re: compacts/doubles. A lot of you are missing the point when referring to cycling on flats as you can be a spinner/masher on either types and will effectively be using the same or very similar gearing ratios.

The main difference is easier (granny gears) on hills generally at the sacrifice of some top end speed at the other end. Flats are largely irrelevant in the comparison.
 
uniQ said:
Re: compacts/doubles. A lot of you are missing the point when referring to cycling on flats as you can be a spinner/masher on either types and will effectively be using the same or very similar gearing ratios.

The main difference is easier (granny gears) on hills generally at the sacrifice of some top end speed at the other end. Flats are largely irrelevant in the comparison.
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I'm no quicker with a double though so I'm not sacrificing anything. In return I get to stay in the saddle on hills.
 
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