Road Cycling Essentials

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Not that impressed with Rapha at the moment, I ordered over $300 from them last Thursday morning, opted for the free DHL delivery which it said 5-7 days, no problem will have it by the end of the following week I thought.

Even though all items showed as in stock I didn't get a dispatch confirmation until 3pm Tuesday of this week, so I'm not expecting anything to show until at least next week now..

First world problems I know, but paying premium prices I'd expect a premium service. That to me is a little slow, certainly slower than the chain stores I have used with perhaps the exception of Evans at Xmas.
 
Humm. Ill have a look to see what is available. I do have a softshell which is excellent. But I'm looking to replace it as it looks abysmal after a fall a few weeks ago. Might just "make do" with the softshell :)
 
Rapha order processing is slow as owt. I'd never pay for quick delivery from them as the slow dispatch time negates it.

On the subject of the rain jacket, I only use it if its properly torrential rain or I think it's going to be raining for over an hour. Most of the time I just make do with arm warmers and a gillet. As Saundie said wet and comfortable is better than dry and hot. Besides, what's the point in keeping the rain out if you just fill your jacket with sweat? The montane stuff is highly rated as is Sportful, but I don't have any direct experience.

In other news; occasionally I keep trying to support my LBS but its a difficult thing to do when they are ****.

A few weeks ago I needed a new headset on the Ti frame and I wanted a new BB whilst I was at it. Booked into the LBS, and asked if they had a silver Hope BB. Great, I'll have it and could they fit it whilst doing the headset? Yes. Brilliant.

I get the bike back and it's got spacers either side if the BB. I point this out and they say its as it should be and if I didn't have them on before then I had fitted it in correctly. Suitably chastised I pay up and leave.

This evening I fail to fit the cranks and discover the reason it needs spacers is because its got an MTB centre tube not a road one. Hence the spacers. I can forgive the sales guy for selling me the wrong one, but not the mechanic for fitting it when it was blatantly wrong.
 
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Bah over-tightened my seat clamp and it cracked. Had planned on getting out at 7 tomorrow morning in the sun and calm winds. Now I need to either ditch the ride entirely or wait for the lbs to open at half 8 and skip a morning of work.
 
Had a good ride this evening with Damien - 25 miles and 1500 feet, which is a good dent in that climbing challenge. It was raining, but the sunset was nice! And my knee felt OK, so that's good. Raising the saddle has definitely helped, and trying to keep my cadence higher and gears lower.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Had a good ride this evening with Damien - 25 miles and 1500 feet, which is a good dent in that climbing challenge. It was raining, but the sunset was nice! And my knee felt OK, so that's good. Raising the saddle has definitely helped, and trying to keep my cadence higher and gears lower.
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I make it 1800. I think your phone's been on the weed again... ;)
 
Heh. I guess I'll just have to do a bit more to make up the difference!

Yeah, your elevation graph has the top of Belmont at about 100 feet higher than mine. Crazy.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Heh. I guess I'll just have to do a bit more to make up the difference!

Yeah, your elevation graph has the top of Belmont at about 100 feet higher than mine. Crazy.
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Well that sucks. I just clicked the update elevation button and now your ride has more feet than mine...

Edit: Deleted and reuploaded it until I can compare it against previous rides up that way. Either strava's messed up or my Edge is.
 
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Elevation is pretty sketchy. There's different ways it can be measured. It is technically possible to get elevation from GPS, but for that you really need satellites above you, and car and bike GPS units worry more about satellites on the horizon because they're better for position. Some GPS units - I think including your Garmin - have a barometric elevation sensor, which should be more accurate, but is subject to variations in air pressure than happen with the weather regardless of the elevation you're at, so if you went to the top of Belmont on a rainy day, as we did, you might get a different elevation reading to if you go on a clear dry day. If all else fails, Strava has some data on elevation, I don't know where from, which it uses. I think that's what gets used for people uploading from units without the barometric sensors - lower end GPS computers, phones and whatnot.
 
I got caught in a thunderstorm once and my garmin showed a big elevation loss as the pressure suddenly changed. Usually it seems good, more reliable than when I used a phone.

How are people going on the Castelli challenge? I'm not entered as I know I won't do the distance, unless you are commuting its quite hard to cover 60km a day. I already didn't ride the first day and won't ride Friday which puts me 120km down, that's if I do 60km the next two days!
 
[Damien];24279262 said:
That's because we're all wind up merchants :)

In my case I'm 25-30% BF according to my (probably not very accurate) scales so take anything I say regarding wrapping up warm with a pinch of salt.
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As a teenager I was over 90kg at my heaviest and hated being anywhere remotely warm. I'd happily walk around in winter with just a t-shirt on. Now I'm 67kg and rarely without a jumper. :( My internal thermostat has never adjusted! As a result, I hate riding in the cold and rain.
 
Berger said:
Not that impressed with Rapha at the moment, I ordered over $300 from them last Thursday morning, opted for the free DHL delivery which it said 5-7 days, no problem will have it by the end of the following week I thought.

Even though all items showed as in stock I didn't get a dispatch confirmation until 3pm Tuesday of this week, so I'm not expecting anything to show until at least next week now..

First world problems I know, but paying premium prices I'd expect a premium service. That to me is a little slow, certainly slower than the chain stores I have used with perhaps the exception of Evans at Xmas.
Click to expand...

[DOD]Asprilla;24281260 said:
Rapha order processing is slow as owt. I'd never pay for quick delivery from them as the slow dispatch time negates it.
Click to expand...
I've always had stuff delivered next day, despite never paying for express deilvery. Just email them, they'll be happy to sort it out.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Elevation is pretty sketchy. There's different ways it can be measured. It is technically possible to get elevation from GPS, but for that you really need satellites above you, and car and bike GPS units worry more about satellites on the horizon because they're better for position. Some GPS units - I think including your Garmin - have a barometric elevation sensor, which should be more accurate, but is subject to variations in air pressure than happen with the weather regardless of the elevation you're at, so if you went to the top of Belmont on a rainy day, as we did, you might get a different elevation reading to if you go on a clear dry day. If all else fails, Strava has some data on elevation, I don't know where from, which it uses. I think that's what gets used for people uploading from units without the barometric sensors - lower end GPS computers, phones and whatnot.
Click to expand...

I double checked the elevations on the graph with a site that will give you the elevation for a point you choose on a map. It's definitely me that's off. The change in weather probably confused the barometer. I'll see if it happens again. If it does I'll just recalibrate the elevation.
 
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