Road Cycling

[Thomas. PLease.]

It's a very impressive run anyhow I might give in and buy a Stages next month, despite the slightly dubious stories I've heard about them on here. Sadly there aren't many cheap options just yet. I was hoping the 4iiii home-install kit would be out by now.

Power2Max were selling off classic units very cheap recently, with the Euro exchange rate making it even more favourable. Powertap chainrings are also out pretty shortly too if you want an alternative.

 

[uv]

Nice

My largest KOM win is 55 seconds ahead over 7.4 miles, and I was super happy when I got that

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

Living in London sucks for KOMs, think I've only taken one since I've been here.

 

[Roady]

Haven't even got near to a KOM yet!

Not a proper one anyway, just some short segments which are generally traffic/light luck rather than actual achievements!

Edit: got a 3rd on this, but then 'lost' it after the rest of the group posted their rides lol

These are the sorts of machines I need to compete with to get local KOM's

 

[Jono]

What's the point in a power meter? Other than obviously what it does (tells you how many whats?! you're generating.

 

[SDK^]

What's the point in a power meter? Other than obviously what it does (tells you how many whats?! you're generating.

It helps you pace your riding effort. Average speed is useless because wind, gradient, road surface etc all impact speed, so you cannot compare it against your other rides.
If you know your max power over 5mins, 20mins and 1 hour etc then you can pace yourself so you don't go into the red.

At the bottom of a hill pedaling at 300-350 watts feels quite easy and it's very easy to go harder over your limit. Pacing yourself along is quicker, than going all out and running out power and/or Heart rate before you get to the top of the hill / end of your ride.

From PM data you can generate your power curve so you know how to hard to push (watts) for each time segment.

This is mine.

1 minute : 530w
4-5 mins : 380w
20 mins : 303w
1 hour : 250w
5 hours : 200w

 

[Liefrich]

I rode 75 miles on Saturday (Cotswold Sportive – it hurt) with a pair of B'Twin 700 Bibs which I bought for £40 quid about 3 months ago (I note they are on sale now but in weird sizes). They were okay for about 50 miles but after that my backside did start to ache and it is still aching today – 6 days on!

I have therefore just purchased the Hoy bibs and cycling jersey for £63.00 off Evans Cycles and I am hoping they are a step up from the B’Twin bibs given I have a 7 day cycle holiday in 6 weeks.

I probably should have bitten the bullet and paid for Castelli’s but I just can’t bring myself to pay over £50 for a pay of shorts at this stage in my cycling “career” when my bike is only worth £700!

 

[One More Solo]

It helps you pace your riding effort.
If you know you max power over 5mins, 20mins and 1 hour etc then you can pace yourself so you don't go into the red.

At the bottom of a hill pedaling at 300-350 watts feels quite easy and it's very easy to go harder. Pacing yourself along is quicker, than going all out and running out power and/or Heart rate.

That's part of it, and it's also a very good training tool.

You can use it to establish your training "zones" and structure workouts around them. It enables you to train much more efficiently. For example, a typical session of intervals would be 4x5mins @ VO2 max and 6x30s sprints.
If you know your VO2 max is around 350w, you can do 4 quality 350w intervals. Without the power meter, you'd do 4 intervals based on perceived exertion and either get progressively less powerful or go out far too hard and not complete the set.

I don't use mine for pacing all that much, at least on shorter efforts, because it's a bit self fulfilling. If you think you can go out and ride at 250w, you'll ride at 250w even though your legs are capable of 270w on the day.

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

That's part of it, and it's also a very good training tool.

You can use it to establish your training "zones" and structure workouts around them. It enables you to train much more efficiently. For example, a typical session of intervals would be 4x5mins @ VO2 max and 6x30s sprints.
If you know your VO2 max is around 350w, you can do 4 quality 350w intervals. Without the power meter, you'd do 4 intervals based on perceived exertion and either get progressively less powerful or go out far too hard and not complete the set.

I don't use mine for pacing all that much, at least on shorter efforts, because it's a bit self fulfilling. If you think you can go out and ride at 250w, you'll ride at 250w even though your legs are capable of 270w on the day.

All that, and it makes tracking performance very easy, as instead of looking at pure speed across rides/segments, you can look at absolute power which is directly comparable to each effort. You can therefore build a picture of progression or lack of over time.

Getting geekier it allows you to manage performance in terms of preparing for races, when to peak, when you're likely to be in best shape, fatigued, or coming into form.

 

[One More Solo]

Exactly. Nothing better than when you turn up for a race in peak form... just hoping I'll soon have enough data to make that involve less guesswork.

Do you track your heart rate as well Thomas to keep an eye on fatigue?

 

[Robzere31]

It's not often you beat a KOM by over 2 mins : https://www.strava.com/activities/373952715

24 mins at 290 watts

Not seen that segment before, might add it to tonight's after work ride to see how slow I am
I've ridden sections of the route before though, so there's no need to worry about your KOM!

 

[FrenchTart]

Power2Max were selling off classic units very cheap recently, with the Euro exchange rate making it even more favourable. Powertap chainrings are also out pretty shortly too if you want an alternative.

I'll have to keep an eye out. To be honest I was going to reward myself with a PM based on my carrying on with improving fitness at the same rate I'd been doing over winter (quite a lot of turbo work with TR). Instead I've put on several kg and though I'm still cycling, have certainly not improved fitness

Perhaps I should hold off a bit longer. Though it is my birthday in October...hmm...

 

[One More Solo]

Power2Max were selling off classic units very cheap recently, with the Euro exchange rate making it even more favourable. Powertap chainrings are also out pretty shortly too if you want an alternative.

+1

Think you could get a new one for £450~. I got a 2nd hand one on eBay (about 6 months old) for £325 last week. Still in warranty and barely looks used. Would much rather that than a Stages, heard too many bad stories.

 

[FrenchTart]

I've not had any trouble with my Stages so far (touch wood) but I haven't ridden it in the rain yet as I generally wouldn't ride my TT bike in the rain unless I had to.

My friend bought a Stages with the recent cheapo deal and it seems pretty reasonable. It has messed up once around 60 or 80 miles into a ride but I can't say I've seen any bike/electronic equipment that doesn't mess up now and again.

 

[FrenchTart]

+1

Think you could get a new one for £450~. I got a 2nd hand one on eBay (about 6 months old) for £325 last week. Still in warranty and barely looks used. Would much rather that than a Stages, heard too many bad stories.

That's not bad. I assumed you had a hub-based PM for some reason.

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

Exactly. Nothing better than when you turn up for a race in peak form... just hoping I'll soon have enough data to make that involve less guesswork.

Do you track your heart rate as well Thomas to keep an eye on fatigue?

I have tried to most of the time, recently though my 810 hasn't wanted to play ball with my HR strap. Ended up buying a new strap and garmin sensor but its still intermitent, so need to have a look at it soon.

When I start riding track more, I'll probably keep more of an eye on it.

I look at my resting HR quite often, but found for actual rides its never been that useful, more just a nice to have.

 

[Roady]

I have therefore just purchased the Hoy bibs and cycling jersey for £63.00 off Evans Cycles and I am hoping they are a step up from the B’Twin bibs given I have a 7 day cycle holiday in 6 weeks.

I probably should have bitten the bullet and paid for Castelli’s but I just can’t bring myself to pay over £50 for a pay of shorts at this stage in my cycling “career” when my bike is only worth £700!

Sounds like saddle sores, sometimes you can't even see anything - just know it's sore *there* afterwards! I occasionally got 'dimples' of soreness which I'm assuming were compression from my sit bones on my tissue where the points of saddle contact were. Change of saddle mostly solved it and I changed bibs soon after also.

See previous posts from me about bibs, basically I would spend around £50 and get Northwave bibs (for my 'best'), they were good quality for the price and regularly on sale. When the Castelli Evoluzione's came on sale @ £45 I tried a pair (had poor experiences with Castelli before). Within days I bought 2 more and considering a 4th pair... They're worth the original £75 price tag. Coming from a skinflint like me that's quite an endorsement!

I have tried to most of the time, recently though my 810 hasn't wanted to play ball with my HR strap. Ended up buying a new strap and garmin sensor but its still intermitent, so need to have a look at it soon.

Have heard of this happening with the garmin HR's quite regularly, have you got the 'premium' strap? Heard good things about using some of the polar straps rather than garmins (with garmin HR) but unsure how compatible they are. That coupled with the lack of standard replaceable battery on the cheap ones I was looking at, made me go for the Wahoo TICKR. Got it in October 2014 and only just had to change the CR2032. It's not skipped a beat (literally)

Agree about HR not being that great as a training aid, I mostly use mine to make sure I'm taking it easy when I should be (commuting) but also find it useful for endurance (keeping to a HR I know I can sustain). Easier and better to do with power but cheaper and 'good enough' for me with a HRM. Something is better than nothing!

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

Yeah, both of the straps are the Polar ones so should be ok. Maybe I need to give it another try.

 

[janp]

I rode 75 miles on Saturday (Cotswold Sportive – it hurt) with a pair of B'Twin 700 Bibs which I bought for £40 quid about 3 months ago (I note they are on sale now but in weird sizes). They were okay for about 50 miles but after that my backside did start to ache and it is still aching today – 6 days on!

I have therefore just purchased the Hoy bibs and cycling jersey for £63.00 off Evans Cycles and I am hoping they are a step up from the B’Twin bibs given I have a 7 day cycle holiday in 6 weeks.

I probably should have bitten the bullet and paid for Castelli’s but I just can’t bring myself to pay over £50 for a pay of shorts at this stage in my cycling “career” when my bike is only worth £700!

Are you sure you have the right size saddle? I ride in the cheapest shorts going (£5 MuddyFoxes - SportsDirect). I had no end of problems, mainly with saddle sores but occasionally aches. Turned out I needed quite a wide saddle (I had my sit bones measured at my LBS), every since getting the correct size all seems to be ok

 

[Liefrich]

Are you sure you have the right size saddle? I ride in the cheapest shorts going (£5 MuddyFoxes - SportsDirect). I had no end of problems, mainly with saddle sores but occasionally aches. Turned out I needed quite a wide saddle (I had my sit bones measured at my LBS), every since getting the correct size all seems to be ok

You may be right. I am actually tempted to go and get a proper bike fit as given I am starting to do 50+ mile rides frequently I want to make sure I am fitted correctly as the last thing I want is an avoidable injury which puts me out of action.

Although saying that I am starting to agree with Roady that you do get what you pay for in bike clothing especially with bib shorts and the pad. I am going to Italy in October for my riding holiday so may check if Castelli is cheaper out there - I suspect not!