Road Cycling Essentials

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Yeah, I'm going to just ride my bike as is and forget the clip-on aero bars. Seems like a faff.

If I miraculously came into some money though I'd buy a TT bike for it.:D
 
Vonhelmet said:
Question: When I head to London for the triathlon, I'm thinking I'll book a hotel near Euston, to save having to trek across town with my bike and bag/case. I'll then need to get to the ExCeL centre in East London for the event. How am I best doing that? Tube? Or do I cycle there and risk dying on the deadly London roads of doom? If I'm going to do the latter, what route should I take to maximise my chances of arriving with my head still attached to my body?
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Definitely ride down, much easier. If you're leaving early I'd just go Euston>Old Street (A501)>Excel (A13). Although the A13 looks scary, it has a bus lane and traffic shouldn't be too bad at that time.
 
This Scott Foil Forumula 1/Redbull design is pretty nice:

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Vonhelmet said:
I've just had a look at heading out to that hill in Billinge. This route would violate my rule of not going back the way I've come, with the stretch through Bickershaw and Hindley. I might do that tomorrow night, if it's not raining too much... Maybe I'll see you there, or maybe we'll just see each other's times on Strava afterwards!
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If you are up for this route tonight, I will be. Could meet at Lowton near Sols Chippy if you like or near Braithwaite Road then ride on up together towards Ashton on Makerfield to do the route?
 
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Weather looks minging tomorrow, so I'll think it's time to strip down and replace the drivetrain. At this point, I start to wonder exactly where did I put the cheap KMC chains I got from Amazon... :confused:
 
The Womens tour of Britain passes close to me tomorrow.I'm going to ride out and lend my support as they head through Codicote. Looks like the race had been well supported so far and has produced some decent racing over quite short stages.
 
VeNT said:
the old ones where carbon iirc. guy at work has one and it's carbon tastic. rear seat stays too?
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old ones are carbon, and 2300 groupo.. those were IMO the main selling point of the red triban..

with white they lost the carbon fork and replaced it with old-school looking steel one, got microshift gears on it too..

IMO it isn't as good of a buy as the old RED triban 3 was.
 
Went out with Vonhelmet tonight for a ride to a "bump" in the Cheshire landscape near a village called Crank. All rather embarrassing getting cramp in my calf almost straight away. I think I just didn't judge my pace in those early parts. I can still feel the cramp now :(

Well done Von on making the top of that hill though, its definitely food for thought and my next milestone is to make it up in one go. I could still feel the cramp in my calf half way up but then I was done, pushed the bike for 30 m or so then managed to get back on and do the rest. Overall a little disappointed I couldn't make it in one go. After we had done that hill I felt really comfortable on the rest of the ride and made it home pretty quickly.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't shoot off like a hare for the first 10 km and pace myself better.
2. Perhaps you were right Von, maybe my saddle should go up a bit.

Great to meet a fellow OcUk'er though and hopefully I shall be a bit less of a girl next time around and I'll try and reduce my over-reliance on my Garmin as we took so many wrong turns. Mostly because I just wasn't paying enough attention, sorry!

http://app.strava.com/activities/139281962
 
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physichull said:
Went out with Vonhelmet tonight for a ride to a "bump" in the Cheshire landscape near a village called Crank. All rather embarrassing getting cramp in my calf almost straight away. I think I just didn't judge my pace in those early parts. I can still feel the cramp now :(

Well done Von on making the top of that hill though, its definitely food for thought and my next milestone is to make it up in one go. I could still feel the cramp in my calf half way up but then I was done, pushed the bike for 30 m or so then managed to get back on and do the rest. Overall a little disappointed I couldn't make it in one go. After we had done that hill I felt really comfortable on the rest of the ride and made it home pretty quickly.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't shoot off like a hare for the first 10 km and pace myself better.
2. Perhaps you were right Von, maybe my saddle should go up a bit.

Great to meet a fellow OcUk'er though and hopefully I shall be a bit less of a girl next time around and I'll try and reduce my over-reliance on my Garmin as we took so many wrong turns. Mostly because I just wasn't paying enough attention, sorry!

http://app.strava.com/activities/139281962
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Ah, don't worry about it. That was a hard hill by anyone's standards. When there's a sign saying 14% you know you're in trouble. Next time we do it, we'll take [Damien] and he can leave us both for dust :eek:

I'll take you out some time to some longer, gentler hills some time. This would be a good "segment" to aim for. The Chorley Old Road climb at the start is long and steady, then there's some fairly flat bits, a bit of a tough section coming over the back side of Rivington, and then a long descent down to the barn. That's probably a better bet than taking you up the full Rivington climb from the reservoir side, but you'll still get to see the area.

If it makes you feel better, you were fast on the flat bits, and I'm not going to pretend I didn't take advantage by hanging off your wheel!

Here's my ride.
 
Vonhelmet said:
If it makes you feel better, you were fast on the flat bits, and I'm not going to pretend I didn't take advantage by hanging off your wheel!

Here's my ride.
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Maybe timetrialling is my forte! :)

By the way, congrats on your pb on the segment "Dying for a poo"....haha!

Definitely going to go back and do that hill again, probably from the other way round next time then have another crack the way we did it tonight. Its a good route for a summer's evening though, not too hilly and it had some good variation in skills, fast descents, some longish uphill slopes and one steep one.
 
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grudas said:
old ones are carbon, and 2300 groupo.. those were IMO the main selling point of the red triban..

with white they lost the carbon fork and replaced it with old-school looking steel one, got microshift gears on it too..

IMO it isn't as good of a buy as the old RED triban 3 was.
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odd, guy at work as white one but it's got carbon forks and rear triangle?
 
Need a bit of input from our Scottish contingent. Going to be back in the homeland for 2 weeks in July/August and will take the bike. Base locations will be Crail, Fife for a week and Kenmore, nr Aberfeldy for a week. Anything I shouldnt miss in either area? Looks like Kenmore is close to Etape Caledonia route but I would also be interested in any good climbs that are around there.
 
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