Road Cycling Essentials

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I'm gonna pick up an HRM sometime soon and see what my rates are like. I rarely get to the point where my heart feels like it's absolutely racing. Maybe I ought to, I don't know.
 
Vonhelmet said:
I'd say your Triban 3 is worth £250 to the discerning buyer, given it's got decent wheels on it. Whether you can find that buyer is another matter.

Let me know how you find SRAM gears. I'm eyeing them up for my next bike, never mind that my last new one hasn't even got 1000 miles on her yet :D
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I'd generally agree as Tribans do hold their value but the paintjob might be off-putting to prospective buyers so I'd say £200 is probably nearer the money. But then on eBay, you never know. Bikes always seem to go for WTF prices (unless I'm selling in which case the buyer invariably gets a bargain, grrrr).
 
One More Solo said:
I'd generally agree as Tribans do hold their value but the paintjob might be off-putting to prospective buyers so I'd say £200 is probably nearer the money. But then on eBay, you never know. Bikes always seem to go for WTF prices (unless I'm selling in which case the buyer invariably gets a bargain, grrrr).
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paintjob is the best thing about it haha ;) loads of people ask me about the bike:o which is surprising lol.

I EVEN HAD A CHICK COMMENT ON MY BIKE! HOW's that eh.. :D
 
nydryl said:
That's mad how long you can sustain the 190+ heart rate on the climb! I know it varies from person to person but I'd be absolutely cooked at that rate.
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I wasn't really pushing that hard - on Saturday I was going well over 200 and went over 210 for a while. My max preciously recorded was 211, it all comes down to conditioning and the individual. This is why it keep saying people shouldn't train on HR unless they have a good understanding of these things!
 
grudas said:
paintjob is the best thing about it haha ;) loads of people ask me about the bike:o which is surprising lol.

I EVEN HAD A CHICK COMMENT ON MY BIKE! HOW's that eh.. :D
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Pfff who hasn't had that? A "chick" complimented my Rose near Holborn once. Best day of my life.

I also got mistaken for a car in California. A guy shouted "car back!" only to turn and see it was me breezing past him and the sound of my deep rims mimicked a car engine.
 
Shamrock said:
Pfff who hasn't had that? A "chick" complimented my Rose near Holborn once. Best day of my life.

I also got mistaken for a car in California. A guy shouted "car back!" only to turn and see it was me breezing past him and the sound of my deep rims mimicked a car engine.
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I KNOW.. I did her too.. awesome

FrenchTart said:
Was the comment "God, that paint job is fugly"? :p
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you know you love the paintjob.. I know it's hard to admit but cmon ;)

neh she just said "nice bike ehehehehehee.." she was WASTED tho and wanted some vitamin D I'm sure of it.

pfth.. lambo's to pull a chick please. A repainted triban 3 does the job ;)
 
Bike fit this morning for me. Excellent experience.

Not one of the "modern" fits - more of the old skool fittings.

Some of the modern ones use computers/motion capture etc but cost £200 plus. This one was simple and straight forward. Anyway - generally warm up on the bike for a few minutes (attached to turbo trainer), the chap took some notes on what I was wanting to achieve, aims, problems, niggles etc etc. Measurements taken of height, arm length, legs etc.

Took some pictures as well regards the current set up.

Moving on first thing was that my foot position/cleats seemed too far forwards, i.e needed to move the cleats back in the shoe to bring the widest part of my foot move over the middle of the pedal axle.

Seat height needed to go up a fair bit (probably around 50mm), also very slightly lowered my stem height (10mm). Tried these again and some more tweeks etc.

Anyway, after some more measurements and discussion, I was pretty happy with the new setup. Didn't feel drastically different but only time on the roads will tell. Otherwise, the chap was pretty happy with the fact I had already put on a shorter stem (110 to 80mm) and my general handlebar positioning/level etc was good as was my seat position/level.

More pictures taken and the difference in my position on the bike even with the small changes was evident.

Detailed report to follow from the chap with all my measurements, setup etc so that I can use it for future bikes/setup.

Bascially go out and ride - give it 3 or 4 rides to see how it feels and generally any tweeks or changes that I feel have not worked - I just need to contact him and go back again for a quick change.
 
I did this ride yesterday:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/525832271

I feel fine today, nowhere near as bad as I thought - I only intended to do about 15 miles total, but I felt fine so kept going... my legs gave up on me (got thigh cramps) about a little over halfway, going up a hill, so I had to walk up that, and they were ok... but the last 8 or so miles were hard going - I couldn't push myself to go faster than I was at the end, at all.

I wasn't really pushing myself at all, as it was just a "for fun" ride. But to be honest that's the longest ride I've ever done and more than twice as far as anything I've done in the past year anyway - I've not ridden NEARLY enough as I'd have liked to :\

I only had a bowl of muesli for breakfast and took some jelly babies with me. Didn't really eat a proper dinner the day before...
I'd like to do that ride again, as it was quite fun/pretty, without getting lost in Ripon :o But I think next time I should prepare properly fuel-wise... any advice about that kind of thing?
 
I'm after a bar clamp for my Nexus 5 so I can monitor avg speeds etc but would like it to be waterproof

Is there such a thing?

Seen a few on the forest but not well reviewed
 
Dunks said:
Route to work tried out. 17.6 miles at 15.8 mph, quite chuffed considering until the past couple of months I was partaking in zero exercise!
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About the same for me for my new commute, I've been cycling once or twice a week for the last month - relatively easy 16-17mph on the way in and a harder 15-16mph on the way back (uphill, into the prevailing wind) for the 20 miles :).

My cardio fitness is OK from other sports, getting used to sitting on the bike and cycling for 1hr+ was the hardest bit.

I went for a bike fit too at the weekend, just a couple of saddle tweaks and a recommendation to try shortening my hand position before getting some short reach bars so I'm not overreaching. Immediately felt smoother on the ride home! Good that the basic fit of my second-hand bike is OK and the fitting was done well, just feels a bit like I didn't get the most out of it as it was short and sweet :p.
 
All into the wind on the way home from my commute, it always is unfortunately so I always get frustrated as to how slow I am forced to go.

On the other hand, because I was going slow today I spotted a Rapha Condor Team Car, with all the racks on it. Sadly no bikes or cyclists, parked up on a street in Lowton. That made my mundane commute a little bit more interesting.
 
Well i think that's confirmed I am a stronger rider this year! Nearly 50miles @ 19+mph average on yesterdays cycle ride in this heat (20+ degrees) with the intent of pacing myself. Got faster the longer i stayed out and pain crept in but nowhere near as bad as before Cat1 Cycling sorted the bike! Had to come back because i ran out of drink.

Just weighed bike with 2x water bottles with water in (+mudguards +frame bag +saddle bag +lights+ beefy lock+ tri bars +pump on frame) - 14kg lol.

'Cycling terms' sounds better - 70+km and over 30km/h average.
 
Vonhelmet said:
We've got a lad in our office who is always in the gym, trying to get hench, or whatever the kids call it.

He was asking about my cycling and we got to talking about the body composition of cyclists, and how tour riders are generally dinky, but Chris Hoy has epic thighs for track sprinting. I said that Hoy needs massive muscles because he can put out thousands of watts during a sprint, and laddo confidently states that he could manage 1000W on a bike.

Never mind that his experience of cycling is limited to the odd stint on the static bike at the gym.

I am pleased to report that I contained my laughter.
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He probably could manage 1000w. I can. For 1s. Hoy could do around 2000w for 10s whilst having to steer.

Ask him how much he can leg-presses? On Hoy's Twitter feed it showed him doing 5 reps of 631kg.
 
[DOD]Asprilla;26501006 said:
He probably could manage 1000w. I can. For 1s. Hoy could do around 2000w for 10s whilst having to steer.

Ask him how much he can leg-presses? On Hoy's Twitter feed it showed him doing 5 reps of 631kg.
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Michael Hutchinson (former 10 mile TT record holder) talked in his book about how bad his top end power is because he's hardly got any of the right muscle fibres. He was at a cycle show with a friend and his mate was getting people off the street who could comfortably beat him for 5s power!
 
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