Road Cycling Essentials

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With my 11-28 i personally have never felt the need for one of the ratios im missing, dropping to the smaller ring has me covered for any climbs ive encountered so far and the 11 is just fantastic to be able to keep grinding away on long descents, through Windsor Great Park it really comes into its own

If i was buying a bike again today id go with 11-28 and standard. Oh course its just personal preference and for my area its perfect, although when i went to Devon i would have like a 32:p
 
Coming to my current 10sp 50/34 and 11-28 (replacement for the insane 11-32 the Canyon came with) from my 9sp 46/36 and 12-27 on my CX it feels like cheating now when climbing. I ended up scaling Mow Cop in the saddle the entire time on Sun...

If I was to ever change anything it would probably be to swap the cassette for a 12-27. I rarely use the 11t cog and I only use the 28t cog if it's really steep.
 
Kimi said:
With my 11-28 i personally have never felt the need for one of the ratios im missing, dropping to the smaller ring has me covered for any climbs ive encountered so far and the 11 is just fantastic to be able to keep grinding away on long descents, through Windsor Great Park it really comes into its own

If i was buying a bike again today id go with 11-28 and standard. Oh course its just personal preference and for my area its perfect, although when i went to Devon i would have like a 32:p
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I have a standard as well but i still think that a compact is the best choice for most people. You get a lot more bottom-end ratios to use and dont really lose out much on top-end speed. You'd need to be going about 45mph to spin out a compact and at that sort of speed its faster to stop pedalling and tuck down anyway.
 
anyone know which aldi/lidl stores in london will have the repair stands? (north of the river)

Trying to work out how I can get hold of one
 
olv said:
Well done, which route did you go for it to be that far, London - Dover - Calais - Paris?

We did London - Newhaven - Dieppe - Paris on Friday evening/Saturday which is around 310km so doesn't sound quite as extreme as your ride. Plus we spent most of the time fannying around eating pastries and tootling along.
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About 437km I think (271.5-275miles). Went that route although in all honesty i was just following the markers so i wasn't paying much attention.

Most I'd ever done in a day was 70miles! And I missed a rest stop at about 210miles so ended up doing a 75mile stint on a bottle of high 5 and a couple of gel packs! I somehow caught the fast guys up (mainly to cadge a bit of food off the lead pace guy and find out why I didn't see stop) and stuck with them for 15miles! They were doing 25mphish on the flat so god knows how I caught them! All of this was 25+C in the day and mid teens at night in France!!! It absolutely destroyed me!

First time I'd ever done a cycling event so lots of firsts or PBs were set in this!
 
I've currently got a compact front with the largest rear something ridiculous like 34t, it gives me brilliant range for the welsh hills I like cycling. I'm not sure what I'll do in my next bike, it wont be for another 8 months or so, and I hope to be a lot fitter by then so I'll probably go for a more standard compact set up, but if I don't feel up to it I'll probably go triple as I find I'm often wanting a gear in between the available ones.
 
can someone spec me some decent padded shorts please, i picked up my first road bike a couple of days ago and havnt got more than a few hundred yards due to discomfort :/
 
Shamrock said:
Has anyone used one of the Lidl stands before?

Tempting for £30 unless it's a turd!
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Got that same lidl stand, had it for a few years and it's great. I don't have another stand to compare it to mind. The Aldi one looks the same design with a few slight changes.
 
Russinating said:
Just deciding whether to stick with 23c or go with 25c. Trouble is I obviously don't have my bike with me at work to check the clearance. I know the early Boardman's are supposed to be quite aggressive but it'll have space for 25s surely?
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im in the same boat. gonna go for 25s and then return them if they dont fit

now i need to decide between gp4000s, pro4 service course or an ultremo (probably DD)
 
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[Damien];24582759 said:
If I was to ever change anything it would probably be to swap the cassette for a 12-27. I rarely use the 11t cog and I only use the 28t cog if it's really steep.
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Went from 12-25 to 12-27 cassette and love it, this is on a compact.
I find i can stay in the big ring quite a lot, may use the big ring and 27 for a very short time if required to save changing the front and rear gears.
 
InQ said:
Went from 12-25 to 12-27 cassette and love it, this is on a compact.
I find i can stay in the big ring quite a lot, may use the big ring and 27 for a very short time if required to save changing the front and rear gears.
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Anything less than 27 round our way on those hills and I reckon you're pushing it. I'll probably stick with my 11-28 for the forseeable because it seems to handle anything thrown at it.

I laughed my head off when I tried out the 11-32 my Canyon originally came with. I'd have to be scaling a brick wall to need that.
 
arknor said:
Just went for a ride locally for some sun and amazingly discovered loads of roads with bike lanes :O I never noticed before

only managed a few miles.. front reflector rattled itself loose and half of it fell off after about 40seconds on a fairly poor conditioned tarmac path across a field So I didn't want to risk going to far....

lolhalfords..

metal > metal please use loctite.... the blue one
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lool reflectors.. ripped them off as soon as i got my bike :(

got some locking skewers now.. in GOLD.. bling bling.. ;) ill snap some pics.. looks great on the bike.
 
On my CX I can go 34/32. What hills?

Generally I'm 11-25 for most stuff Surrey and The Downs can throw at me but my lack of miles means I'm putting a 12-27 on for the London-Surrey at the beginning of next month.
 
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