Road Cycling

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grudas said:
uhh man up ;) How I work -;

It's nice and sunny - cycle to work
It's cold and icy and dangerous - cycle to work
Heavens opened up and its seriously wet - cycle to work

sooner or later you learn to just smile when it starts peeing like there's no tomorrow ;) teaches you a few things re grip, bike handling and your tyre limits.. - speaking from experience ha ;)
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Oh I'm fully intending on doing 5 days in the nice weather, I just like to take a 'rest' day during the week so I feel like I can do whatever riding I want on the weekends. Also with my girlfriend and I working all week (she does 6 days, I do 5) we gets things delivered to my work and I bring them home in the car on my 'rest' day... I'm not fussed when I have my day so I try to time it mid/late week when the weather is stinky! :p

I needed these coffee pods home ASAP, not too sure on the urgency of the dog bed as he's already got 6 of the damn things...! :p

Sods law the rain they forecast has yet to appear... :rolleyes::D

Asprilla said:
I generally commute thre days per week, but that's because I usually work from home on Mondays and Fridays. I used to do 5 miles a day 5 days a week, but that was too much and I was just shattered all the time.
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I can do 5, but like you say feel slightly tired *all* week then, including the weekends... HTFU maybe but I like to enjoy my riding, including my commutes (to a certain extent as I treat them as training for the weekends)! ;)

Dunks said:
Not sure if a rest day is really going to make much difference with your mileage (not that mine is much higher), just keep going out and you'll see gains.
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Agreed, but now I'm riding more on the weekends (now I know I can survive a 30 mile ride!), I want to continue! 2*4miles for each commute for 5 days a week = 40 miles. Until recently I've been nowhere near equalling that miles on the weekend, but now I am I'd quite happily skip more commuting if it impacted my weekend riding! I want to 'get out there more'! :D

grudas said:
are you actually saying that you can't crash in sunny weather?
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Need to frame that ;):D

grudas said:
yeah metal + water is hell! I had close calls on manhole covers but never had an off yet! oddly, had a crash while riding over the rubber "paint" w/e you wanna call it, the lane markings.. those were seriously thick and sticking out of the road + wet roads = me on the ground.
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Manholes are a nightmare! And avoid painted lines like the plague, especially when cornering and even more so in the wet! But I think that might come from fast road/track driving I've done...

grudas said:
4 crashes in 12,668.7 miles IS NOT THAT BAD!!! ;) especially in london.
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It's not bad, but lets look at averages... 12,668/4 is 3,167 miles between crashes. Your commute is ~11 miles each way, twice a day so 3,167/22 gives us 144 days between crashes. You work (& commute) 5 days a week and work for 50 weeks of the year = 250 working days. So you crash every 6 months-ish? If my rough maths are correct... :p

When was your last? Place your bets everyone! ;)
 
Roady said:
Good tip on the V-Brakes, you really do need to be easily able to unclip them... The rubber bits will soon deteriorate like that too, especially commuting! Might almost be easier to leave them off?
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Yeah, I think I'll pop the little rubber bits off.

In terms of getting the wheels off, it seems it's a known problem that when using road levers and mini vs the pads have to be so close to the rims that you can't unhook the brake noodle from the yoke. The suggestion seems to be to either deflate the tyre fully before removing it (not a problem if the cause for removal is a puncture!!) or to use a noodles with barrel adjusters, so you can tighten up the cable as necessary and then loosen it to remove the wheel.
 
I'm contemplating treating myself to a new wheelset to replace the original Shimano RS10's that came on my Eddy Merckx AMX1.

Generally it's used for commuting to work on once or twice a week in the warmer months and a weekend blast ranging from around 20 - 50 miles normally.

My main fitness interest is powerlifting and i'm currently around 95-97kg, so i'm pretty heavy and reasonably powerful. So I don't want something that is too light and weak. But also would prefer something lighter and better quality than what i've got already.

To be honest i don't really know what i'm looking for but I'd like them to come in at under £200 ideally.

Would a set of Fulcrum Racing 5 be suitable?
 
opened up the 105 front hub from my kinesis, after 3000 all-weather miles it needed new ball bearings, but the surfaces are still like new.

Proper job.
 
Roady - your commute is less than 5 miles each way. You could cycle this no matter what training you have done the day before and no matter what you're planning to do at the weekend.

I wouldn't even consider it 'training' as you'll barely be warm.

My other half cycles 8 miles a day on a heavy MTB and she hates cycling!
 
Vonhelmet said:
Yeah, I think I'll pop the little rubber bits off.

In terms of getting the wheels off, it seems it's a known problem that when using road levers and mini vs the pads have to be so close to the rims that you can't unhook the brake noodle from the yoke. The suggestion seems to be to either deflate the tyre fully before removing it (not a problem if the cause for removal is a puncture!!) or to use a noodles with barrel adjusters, so you can tighten up the cable as necessary and then loosen it to remove the wheel.
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Couldn't you just get longer barrel adjusters to use? Or double them up at the lever ends (as well as the V ends)? Or as mentioned some spacers on the brake arms...?

daveski said:
Roady - your commute is less than 5 miles each way. You could cycle this no matter what training you have done the day before and no matter what you're planning to do at the weekend.

I wouldn't even consider it 'training' as you'll barely be warm.

My other half cycles 8 miles a day on a heavy MTB and she hates cycling!
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I know I *could* but I just don't (currently). In my mind the large amount of cycling I'm now doing (consider previously I only rode my commute 3-4 times a week for a year) means I want to feel fresh occasionally, rather than tired all the time! :p

I do get warm on my commute and several days into it I do some easy rides, but then again I've come from being fairly unfit and overweight less than 2 years ago till now, 82.5kg this morning (first weigh in for a week or two, previous was 84kg) and I'm convinced I've lost more from my waist as my work belt needs to go tighter and I'm outta holes... :rolleyes: :D

Quite a good sale on a few DHB things on wiggle at the mo, 40% and 50% off some clothing.

Planet X Echostorm Winter bibs 50% off (£30)
 
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Roady said:
It's not bad, but lets look at averages... 12,668/4 is 3,167 miles between crashes. Your commute is ~11 miles each way, twice a day so 3,167/22 gives us 144 days between crashes. You work (& commute) 5 days a week and work for 50 weeks of the year = 250 working days. So you crash every 6 months-ish? If my rough maths are correct... :p

When was your last? Place your bets everyone! ;)
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HAHA good stats! Although I can't laugh after having 3 crashes in a two month period, but 2 of those were when Time Trialling.
 
Everything is relative. When I first started cycling doing 2 miles each way every day was actually knackering (I was extremely unfit).

Now it takes actual training sessions or extremely long rides to tire me out. It wasn't an instant switch though.
 
Yeah sure everything is relative & perhaps I have a different view as when I started cycling to work it was out of poverty.

It was 13 miles each way and I did it on a MTB with slicks.

Sure when I started I drove half way and cycled the rest but I was doing the full return route within a fortnight. Then I bought a second hand 80s road bike, joined a club and never looked back.
 
Yup..necessity will definitely give you a different outlook and make you get fitter/faster quicker :)

I blah'd around being slow at cycling for a year or two before I finally decided to put the effort in to get fit. Can't imagine going back now but then again, I couldn't imagine ever getting to this point only a few years ago.
 
Roady said:
Couldn't you just get longer barrel adjusters to use? Or double them up at the lever ends (as well as the V ends)? Or as mentioned some spacers on the brake arms...?
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Spacers won't help. Based on the length of the arms, a certain amount of pull across the top translates into a certain amount of movement by the pads. If I space the pads out wider, then I'll still only have the same amount of movement at the top of the arms which gives the same amout of movement by the pads, so they won't close on the rim.

At the moment there are no barrel adjusters anywhere, so introducing some is the plan!
 
Vonhelmet said:
Spacers won't help. Based on the length of the arms, a certain amount of pull across the top translates into a certain amount of movement by the pads. If I space the pads out wider, then I'll still only have the same amount of movement at the top of the arms which gives the same amout of movement by the pads, so they won't close on the rim.
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Spacers behind the pads wouldnt change the pull rate so you'll still have the same problems removing the wheel.
It will fix the problem with the squashed up rubber boot though.
 
Roady said:
It's not bad, but lets look at averages... 12,668/4 is 3,167 miles between crashes. Your commute is ~11 miles each way, twice a day so 3,167/22 gives us 144 days between crashes. You work (& commute) 5 days a week and work for 50 weeks of the year = 250 working days. So you crash every 6 months-ish? If my rough maths are correct... :p

When was your last? Place your bets everyone! ;)
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LMAO, well done ;) that's not too bad for london tbh! you've seen how busy it is ;) so I'm actually proud of my riding/filtering skills. :p

SoliD said:
HAHA good stats! Although I can't laugh after having 3 crashes in a two month period, but 2 of those were when Time Trialling.
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YEAH SHUT UP ;):D
 
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