Road Cycling Essentials

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arknor said:
I keep getting the urge to get a bike to lose weight :(

6"3
36inch leg (assuming I measure it right , I stuck a pen and groin level and draw a line on my door then measured that :D )
I'm not sure what I weigh probably around 16-17stone

My concern is being rather heavy, am I to fat for a bike and likely to get loads of punctures ? and is being tall a big disadvantage when it comes to bike choice and prices?
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No problems really at you weight in terms of frames. Wheel choice might need some care but go with a high spoke count if in doubt. Get a durable tyre. I wouldn't say it was a disadvantage being tall. Its not as if you are freakishly big.
arknor said:
If I were to spend say £300-£500 could I get something decent for that amount of money new? or would I just be wasting my time.
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You can get the ubiquitos Triban from Decathlon if the have your size. It is the best value, entry level road bike in the market. To get anything better you need to spend £600 for new. £600 would get you a very good used bike if you are prepared to be patient
arknor said:
I say new because being my height I'd imagine getting something my size second hand would be a bit of a problem.
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There wont be so many 60cm ish frame bikes around but because demand is lower then price will be lower too I reckon. Keep an eye on Ebay, Gumtree and Bike Radar Classifieds

arknor said:
I would mainly be riding on roads or paved surfaces and unlikely to go down anything more than a flat dirt path

I could afford to spend more but if I would rather not jump straight in with a 1k+ bike to find I don't spend much time riding it as it would only be for leisure and fitness.
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Pretty sensible, so many people crystalise a big loss selling on £1k bikes that they bought in haste and dont use.
 
Getting back into cycling once again, got a couple or PR's and one KOM today, excellent. :)

Hope the weathers good for Saturday, I'm off on a ~75mile ride, building up to the big ones again. I'm also actually enjoying doing some vague interval training in the week, hopefully that coupled with the longer weekend rides will give me a good balance...

I'm also loving my bike, £400 about a year ago and it still feels awesome and bang on for smashing it up hills. :cool:

No idea why I'm sharing this, just on a post bike ride, post recovery dinner high. :p
 
Jonny ///M said:
It goes Sandford hall, boghead, turn off a back road that takes you to lesmahagow, down the road at the services. Turn at the roundabout and back up the same route. Once into lesmahagow you don't go as far as kirkmuirhill as they turn up the back road to boghead.

The road you are taking about is bloody terrible. Enough for me to want to out 25c tyres on when i thought i had 23c on. Turned out i already had 25c tyres and it hurt a lot.
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Yup, went up it with the 23c summer tyres on saturday and it was nasty!

Jonny ///M said:
The wiliers are beautiful to look at but maybe not as technically advanced as the felt. A felt at similar price has bb30 and tapered steerer tubes. The izoard is more about comfort so that might be the reason for that. We have a medium in stock in ek at the moment in the darker colour. The frame hasn't changed much visually in a few years but they did trim the weight a year or two back.

Not sure if its discounted on our site but id be able to move from the rrp whereas they are usually strict on discounting.
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Comfy rather than racy definitely suites me better I think. Is this the one you have in stock?

http://www.cyclelane.co.uk/m4b0s6p6231/WILIER-Izoard-XP-Ultegra-2013

I'd be v tempted to come down and check it out at some point in the next couple of weeks. I'm 5'9" and 30" inside leg, so i reckon a medium might be about right. Currently riding a medium Giant Defy 2, though i've had to put an 80cm stem on it to get comfortable with the reach which has made the handling a little twitchy - would rather avoid doing similar on my next bike if i can.

Calpol said:
I have an Izoard XP but with campagnolo veloce groupset. I love it. I love looking at it, cleaning it and riding it. Bought it 2nd hand last year but it was pretty mint. For £800 I thought it was a relative bargain and probably more bike than I would need. A year on and 2500 miles later i still feel pretty much the same (n+1 aside). I find it a very comfortable bike over distances up to 100 miles - haven't gone further yet.

Personally I like Campagnolo. The levers and hood shape I find more comfortable than Shimano. I also like the downshift thumb mechanism. Have a flick through the pages of Your Road Bikes over at BikeRadar to fuel your lust. I warn you though its bike porn and dangerous.

Here is a link to my bike

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40044&t=12843901
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Oh, I've been looking already, don't worry! :D Had actually looked through your thread just the other day. They are lovely looking bikes. I know it's deemed a bit wrong to have Shimano on one, but my current bike has Tiagra on it and i just figured it'd be handy to be able to do things like swap the wheels easily between the two. If i get round to trying one out though, i'd like to see how i get on with Campagnolo as i've never used it.
 
Well that was an experience!

Have read plenty of cat 4 race reports but still didnt really know what to expect. Signed up and managed to pick up number 13, probably not the best to start my racing career.

It was 17 laps of castle combe circuit. I managed well for the first 12 laps and stayed with the main group. Until with 4 laps to go I got dropped comig through one of the chicanes and never made it back to the group. Don't think long distance triathlon fitness quite translates to the short sharp bursts of acceleration needed but I had a good go. Enjoyed it, and will probably do it again when I have more relevant fitness.

edit: average speed while I was with the main group was 26mph :eek:
 
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Thomas. PLease. said:
Well that was an experience!

Have read plenty of cat 4 race reports but still didnt really know what to expect. Signed up and managed to pick up number 13, probably not the best to start my racing career.

It was 17 laps of castle combe circuit. I managed well for the first 12 laps and stayed with the main group. Until with 4 laps to go I got dropped comig through one of the chicanes and never made it back to the group. Don't think long distance triathlon fitness quite translates to the short sharp bursts of acceleration needed but I had a good go. Enjoyed it, and will probably do it again when I have more relevant fitness.

edit: average speed while I was with the main group was 26mph :eek:
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Nice one, respect for entering... fitness is fitness, get signed up for the next!
 
arknor said:
yea I reckon I'll order one in about a week or get a triban 5

no decathlon stores anywhere near me :mad:

should be straight forward and simple to put it together as it will come mostly assembled right? I haven't touched a bike in about 18 years :eek:
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I only had to adjust my bars the rest was built by one of their mechanics and safety inspected too.
 
tedmaul said:
Yup, went up it with the 23c summer tyres on saturday and it was nasty!



Comfy rather than racy definitely suites me better I think. Is this the one you have in stock?

http://www.cyclelane.co.uk/m4b0s6p6231/WILIER-Izoard-XP-Ultegra-2013

I'd be v tempted to come down and check it out at some point in the next couple of weeks. I'm 5'9" and 30" inside leg, so i reckon a medium might be about right. Currently riding a medium Giant Defy 2, though i've had to put an 80cm stem on it to get comfortable with the reach which has made the handling a little twitchy - would rather avoid doing similar on my next bike if i can.



Oh, I've been looking already, don't worry! :D Had actually looked through your thread just the other day. They are lovely looking bikes. I know it's deemed a bit wrong to have Shimano on one, but my current bike has Tiagra on it and i just figured it'd be handy to be able to do things like swap the wheels easily between the two. If i get round to trying one out though, i'd like to see how i get on with Campagnolo as i've never used it.
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I will double check tomorrow as our site isn't making sense. It has RS30 wheels but I'm sure I saw it had Ultegra on it.

http://www.wilier.it/en/products/road-bike/izoard-xp/ are the specs that frame can come with so it can't be ultegra with RS30s going by that.
 
if you cant get the red one then yes it is a pass.. white one is a POS compared to red :) and afaik you can get it why wouldn't you? i saw them both in stock.
 
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