Soldato
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Yeah, I really like the Rotor cranks, that said I'm kind of stuck with them as I use 165mm and a Power2Max.
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Yeah, I really like the Rotor cranks, that said I'm kind of stuck with them as I use 165mm and a Power2Max.
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Ouch. Expensive. Also, 165mm? Crazy.
I'm hoping to pick up a 4iiii later this year. Until that was released all power meters just seemed like more money than I could justify.
Soldato
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Yeah, I took them on to help my TT bike fit, shorter cranks worked much better for me as it meant I could get lower at the front with a better hip angle, than stretching to get over a 175mm crank for example. Also I have pretty short legs for my size apparently
When I first tried them I was spinning so much easier than with anything longer, so it was academic really. Kind of the same on the road bike now I've got a fairly aggressive position so have just stuck with them.
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Yeah, I took them on to help my TT bike fit, shorter cranks worked much better for me as it meant I could get lower at the front with a better hip angle, than stretching to get over a 175mm crank for example. Also I have pretty short legs for my size apparently
Kind of the same on the road bike now I've got a fairly aggressive position so have just stuck with them.
That's really interesting. I've got slightly longer legs for my size (6'1'') so I think I get on okay with the fairly standard crank size. I might have to check things out a bit more though before I click buy on a new set.
Cleaned up my gears a bit. Ran the chain through the chain cleaner that i bought with some neat dirt juice followed by a rinse. Added a spot of muc off dry lube to the chain and rear cassette. Surprisingly the chains running very smooth again!
Looks great, that's cleaned up a treat! Actually looks quite a bit cleaner than my rushed job last weekend... It was raining so I was in a rush, will be done again this weekend!
Which ones did you go for and why? I actually watched 'Fight Club' last night while doing a TR session. 'A Very Dark Place' is probably my favourite so far...
It's great and one of the best ways to help improve your fitness but it's absolutely not required so if you're enjoying things as-is there's no rush to change them
Coming from someone who's fairly new to TR, it's good for giving yourself structure and 'something to do on the turbo' but I find it does take a lot of time to really make a difference. The 'low volume' plans are still 3+ hours a week. During the winter months that's time when it's miserable/dark/wet/cold outside, but during other months you'll want to be out actually riding not turbo'ing.
It it's any consolation I just received my order of p-clips to attach new mudguards to my bike.
I measured the rear stays as 60mm and the fork as 70mm...and ordered 60mm + 70mm pclips....
So close...
I just spat my coffee EVERYWHERE! lol
Man of Honour
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That's pretty cool. I think I'll just make do without one until I can pick up a cheap 4iiii though
That is assuming that they continue to be reviewed relatively favourably.
Soldato
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Yeah its worth doing I'd say. It was when I went for my bike fit with these guys (http://www.ten-point.co.uk/) who were superb btw. I was on a rig, and they could just slide the pedals to mimic the different crank lengths. I started off on 175mm and worked down to something ridiculously short, calling out how I felt. At the time using the direct comparison the difference was night and day in my pedal action and how it felt.
Interesting. How big a change were they making as they adjusted the crank length?
I have 175 on one bike and 170 on the other, and honestly i can't tell the difference at all. Pretty sure if you blind tested me i'd have no idea which was which.
Though it would no doubt result in me crashing into the back of a parked car. So lets not put that to the test.
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That sounds pretty awesome. I've had a very basic bike fit before and want to get a proper one for the new bike so I'll add them to the list of possibles - though it's a bit of a trek to get all the way down there.
That's pretty cool. I think I'll just make do without one until I can pick up a cheap 4iiii though
I'm tempted to hire one, just so I know where I'm at.
Soldato
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Haha yeah, don't try that. They didn't tell me the changes until I arrived at a result so I didn't try to influence it I guess, just tweaked it, asked me to pedal, watched the action and looked at cadence, and asked me how I felt. At the end I was clear in how I felt when I got to 165mm. I don't remember the cadence numbers at the time, but I was spinning much higher easier with that length.
Yeah it was very good, I'm dead average height at 5'10", but seemingly have an odd morphology
. I went to them and got set up on this rig which was adjustable in all ways, and we just worked until we have my most comfortable fit. From there we looked at all the bikes with geometry that would suit. It meant buying a 58cm Cervelo P3, a size I would have never ended up on otherwise. And I've put about 1700 miles on it since, with about 5-6 100+ mile rides pretty solidly in the aero bars. That was for a TT bike, but same concept would apply for a normal road bike.
I've had other bike fits before and they've been largely useless in that they put your bike on a turbo, and try and get a position you're comfortable in. Well, I could just do that at home.
@FrenchTart - if you ride to Holmfirth you can go to the cafe they filmed Last of the Summer Wine in
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Fair point. I wouldn't mind knowing for sure either tbh.
That said, I'd probably be more likely to by a Kurt Kinetic InRide than rent one of those - purely because I really cba messing around with fitting things (and the price would be about the same for something that I get to keep).
Yeah it was very good, I'm dead average height at 5'10", but seemingly have an odd morphology
That was for a TT bike, but same concept would apply for a normal road bike.
I've had other bike fits before and they've been largely useless in that they put your bike on a turbo, and try and get a position you're comfortable in. Well, I could just do that at home.
The one I had at Freeride Cycles in Disley certainly wasn't as good as that but there was a decent amount of measuring all (well, most) of my appendages and such before messing around with fitting the bike. It wasn't perfect but it definitely helped. I wouldn't go there again but that's because I want something a bit more indepth - I'd certainly recommend them to anyone that is on the fence about a bike fit though. For £35 it's a no-brainer.
@Frenchtart - if you ride to Holmfirth you can go to the cafe they filmed Last of the Summer Wine in
Argh. Now I've got the theme tune stuck in my head
Might as well just buy one
I looked at those - The installation and calibration process is a bit tedious for my liking.
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Dave you've become my mentor!
Intentionally or not I can only thank you for the inspiration - your words actually got me on the Turbo last night and did a full hour of Trainerroad - Mount Field which was next in my rough plan (Sweet Spot Base - Low Volume 1).Legs are sluggish today so I took my commute in very easy this morning, was very lucky with 2 traffic light changes and actually pushed a near 15mph average!
Getting out and about is definitely far superior to being on the turbo in terms of enjoyment. I think you'll find that as the days get lighter your average miles will creep up without you even really noticing it. Definitely get some fitness base stuff in now whilst you're still inside a fair bit (maybe concentrate on sweet-spot as you'll only be doing it for a short while).
By the sounds of things within a few months you'll easily be over 100 miles per week
That's what I'm hoping! Really want to get out on a social ride they do from my favourite LBS, usually 30-35 miles on a saturday morning at 9:30... I'm half telling myself I'll be doing the one on the 14th, depending on the weather! I'm actually using one of their rides as a basis for a ~30 mile route I'm planning solo for this saturday
Crazy the locks are gone as well as they're not the sort of thing they could force easily (meaning they cut them and took them?!). Any damage to where you secured it? Might be a fault/problem with that!
Yeah I find it hard to focus, I tried watching GoT on tablet while TR'ing and struggled, I've been watching catchup TV of rugby matches but if it's a good match I struggle again
For things like sweetspot I guess it's ok, but intervals/changes in effort really require more of my concentration!
Anyone seen/heard/used this site before?
http://www.cyclingjerseysstore.net/2014-team-giant-shimano-black-white-cycling-jerseys
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Rather large different in cost there, it's £99 to hire one for 3 months. You could hire one for 2 years or so before you matched the cost of buying one.
Dave you've become my mentor!
Told you
I've got the routes for my May charity ride.
Liverpool to Manchester
Manchester to Sheffield
Roughly equal split in terms of distance, but the second leg has nearly three times the climbing of the first, as expected. It looks like 2 cat 3s and two cat 4s, so nothing too tricky. One of the cat 3s gets up to 15% or so, which could be interesting for the less experienced cyclists.
Liverpool to Manchester
Manchester to Sheffield
Roughly equal split in terms of distance, but the second leg has nearly three times the climbing of the first, as expected. It looks like 2 cat 3s and two cat 4s, so nothing too tricky. One of the cat 3s gets up to 15% or so, which could be interesting for the less experienced cyclists.
The pedestrian gates should be open all the time, however, this morning it only opened as we arrived at 6.30. Apparently there's another deer cull on.
You are welcome to join in the early suffering if you can get to Roe gate for 6.30am? Bang out a 1h triple then go to work. We were off pace a bit this morning, 21min laps. I found it tough and was tucking behind Steve (aka Going to Cali) a lot!
Soldato
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The pedestrian gates should be open all the time, however, this morning it only opened as we arrived at 6.30. Apparently there's another deer cull on.
You are welcome to join in the early suffering if you can get to Roe gate for 6.30am? Bang out a 1h triple then go to work. We were off pace a bit this morning, 21min laps. I found it tough and was tucking behind Steve (aka Going to Cali) a lot!
Yeah there is a cull on it the moment so wasn't sure when it opened. It's closing at 8pm at the moment which is a pain too.
I could get there for that time, but it wouldn't leave me enough time to get home and changed before work, otherwise I'd take you up on the offer.
Maybe when it starts getting a bit lighter and its open for 6.00am or something?
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