Road Cycling

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It's actually quite nice in Manchester today. I'm assuming it's going to be horrendously windy with clouds/showers/etc once I'm out of work of course.
 
Tried out my new Hoy bib shorts this morning that I picked up in the Evans Sale for £32 instead of £80.
Not sure about them at the moment, they are very thin, & I found the pad position rather uncomfortable. To high at the back & not padding further forward.
For £32 they are ok, but I certianly woudn't have paid £80 for them.

As this mornings ride was only a short one, I'll give them a bit longer to bed in hopefully they will improve.

I bought a jersey to go with them as well, haven't worn it out on the road yet, but again I find the cut of it a little odd.
Body fits ok, but the arms are very baggy compared with all my other tops of the same size.
Again for £30 I'm not too fussed as it will be an autumn/winter jersey as the material is quite thick, but as it's original list price was nearer £80 I would be very disapointed if I'd paid full price.
 
I'm eating my words here, but SRAMs eTap does look really rather good. Especially at that price point, in a year or so it'll become a genuine alternative to Di2 pending no warranty fails. Looking forward to when it trickles down to Force.

+1, I was tempted by Di2/Ui2 but SRAM's setup looks great. The engineering of it all is genius really (switchable batteries, shifters automatically going to sleep etc). If the price eventually nudges below £1k for the shifting kit that would be nice though.
 
Tried out my new Hoy bib shorts this morning that I picked up in the Evans Sale for £32 instead of £80.
Not sure about them at the moment, they are very thin, & I found the pad position rather uncomfortable. To high at the back & not padding further forward.
For £32 they are ok, but I certianly woudn't have paid £80 for them.

As this mornings ride was only a short one, I'll give them a bit longer to bed in hopefully they will improve.

Yeah actually I'm thinking the same - especially regarding the pad location. They seem comfy enough but the lack of things left to the imagination .... no.
 
+1, I was tempted by Di2/Ui2 but SRAM's setup looks great. The engineering of it all is genius really (switchable batteries, shifters automatically going to sleep etc). If the price eventually nudges below £1k for the shifting kit that would be nice though.

Wouldn't surprise me if it did, I think it will take a fair bit to tempt people away from Di2. Wouldn't surprise me if their pricing is revised as a result as well.
 
That's why lots of guys carry a banana with them on their ride.

Laffo :D

I really need to learn how to pace myself for hills.
Last night's first "club" ride.
https://www.strava.com/activities/378130316

Started off slow, from Ripon, uphill to just outside Masham, then a bit flatish with the occasional bump in the road to West Tanfield, then mostly flat (ever so slightly downhill) back to Ripon, apart from a little climb out of Hutton Conyers at 22miles which absolutely killed me.

We were a group of 5, some really fast guy (fastest in club, anyway) - someone else about my level, someone a bit faster/lots fitter than me and a larger fellow on a boardman hybrid (rest of us on road bikes). Mostly went slow waiting for the hybrid chap, but I wasn't in any rush anyway.
Stopped at the pub in Tanfield and I had a pint of Theakstons, which was probably a mistake... but I thought I might as well, then realised what time it was and I had to get back to Morrisons in Ripon to do my shopping before 9.

So the fastest guy took off at a billionty one miles an hour while I kept pace with another guy between about 18 and 20mph, which was kinda pushing myself a bit, but not uncomfortably so... until i got to that stupid hill.

I just couldn't keep going at anywhere near that speed (and it's not even that steep) - so I lost him until we got back into the middle of Ripon, but he was off home another way.

Sooo do I just need to man up and get better at going uphill, or shouldn't I have tried to go so "fast" between tanfield and the hill... Or did the pint of tasty ale ruin me?
Or am I just fat? :D
 
Does anyone have any castelli gloves? Are their hand sizes as ridiculously small as the bib shorts ones? I have large endura ones at the moment, but I want some new fingerless jobbies.
 
Bike fit first and will probably move to SPD-SL next spring (really fancy myself some yellow Sidi's!). :rolleyes:

My fantastic wife bought me a pair of black and white SIDI Dracos (although they are the MTBs ones) for our anniversary this weekend :cool:
 
Sooo do I just need to man up and get better at going uphill, or shouldn't I have tried to go so "fast" between tanfield and the hill... Or did the pint of tasty ale ruin me?
Or am I just fat? :D

I'm just fat but with going up hills quite a bit I can go up them a couple of gears higher now than when I started, if only I can shift the weight:o. Its the only thing stopping me from joining a club as I don't want to be dropped all the time on hills.

Just keep going up and down them in your own time improving fitness and if you lose weight doing so, all the better but power to weight ratio is king
 
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Does anyone have any castelli gloves? Are their hand sizes as ridiculously small as the bib shorts ones? I have large endura ones at the moment, but I want some new fingerless jobbies.

I have some Castelli fingerless gloves and honestly they're not that brilliant. I'm on my 3rd pair now as the first 2 developed loose stitching after a couple of rides. Sizing is about the same as Endura though, so I'd get large if you do go for the Castellis.
 
First ride after this collision with a pedestrian on my way home from work on Sunday.
Decided to try the Olympic park road circuit, had a lot of fun.
IfPyUdul.jpg

vBTBb9cl.png.jpg
 
Cheers for that Wez, I'll have a gander at those. Though the Mrs is getting the hump, saying I can't buy anything, even though the bloody back is falling off these. I'll get them delivered to work instead :p

Haha yeah, let's just say I've got some new castelli bibs (another pair of Evoluzione in the yellow/greeny colour, my others are red and blue) along with 2 castelli tops to match (as I've not been able to match any castelli tops to my blue/reds), a rapha order of some gloves and caps etc... It won't be 'going home' until after pay day next month! ;)

Friend of mine is going to work for Wiggle. The first words out of my mouth were "Discount Code?"

'Friends & Family' he doesn't mind sharing? ;)

Last night's first "club" ride.
https://www.strava.com/activities/378130316

<snip>
Sooo do I just need to man up and get better at going uphill, or shouldn't I have tried to go so "fast" between tanfield and the hill... Or did the pint of tasty ale ruin me?
Or am I just fat? :D

Well ridden, quite a difficult ride to start with, the first 8 miles being mostly uphill! The hill at 22 would zap anyones speed with that much at the start of the ride. The fast bit before may not have helped, but no more than all the climbing at the start.

The best advice for getting better to climb hills; is to climb more hills. It's fairly simple and straight forward but that is basically it! ;)

Does anyone have any castelli gloves? Are their hand sizes as ridiculously small as the bib shorts ones? I have large endura ones at the moment, but I want some new fingerless jobbies.

I have an XL pair of Prima which were ok-ish and as soon as they got wet they stretched and are now baggy on my hands. So I would say size up only slightly and wouldn't recommend them.

I would say I've got small/medium sized hands but my fingers being quite short and stocky makes me go towards medium/large.

I've got a pair of L Gripgrabs I've worn almost to death but are slightly large on me. My hands are 9"/23cm 'girth', making me just XL in Castelli (23-24.4cm) and Large in Gripgrab (22.9-25.9cm). I've bought some Rapha Classics in medium (9") so will see what the fit is like tomorrow when they arrive...

My fantastic wife bought me a pair of black and white SIDI Dracos (although they are the MTBs ones) for our anniversary this weekend :cool:

Awesome! Jealous as they're beautiful shoes! :o

I'm just fat but with going up hills quite a bit I can go up them a couple of gears higher now than when I started, if only I can shift the weight:o. Its the only thing stopping me from joining a club as I don't want to be dropped all the time on hills.

Just keep going up and down them in your own time improving fitness and if you lose weight doing so, all the better but power to weight ratio is king

I wouldn't say avoid club/group rides mate, you'll find most guys will be more than willing to ride with you as 'we all started somewhere'. The self imposed 'pressure' to keep up with a faster group will really rapidly improve your riding! For me I started out only riding the group rides which hadn't got lots of hills in, for my leisure riding I actually hunted down hills as well as trying to push up my distance. I shouldn't have worried about the distance as it's all similar 'leg endurance' once you're over the ~30 mile mark. I now really enjoy hills and with the increased fitness over the past couple of months I'm down in weight to 80kg. I now drop my mates (who don't club ride) on most hills even though they are faster riders than me! :D
 
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First ride after this collision with a pedestrian on my way home from work on Sunday.
Decided to try the Olympic park road circuit, had a lot of fun.
IfPyUdul.jpg

vBTBb9cl.png.jpg

Ouch!

Hope you were ok? Just bruising/hands/side at that speed?

More importantly how is the bike?

Not to sound mean but at least the guy/kid looked to be 'hurt-but-ok'. Doubt he'll cross the road without looking again! I have no sympathy for pedestrians who do this!

Olympic circuit looks like great fun :D
 
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Ouch!

Hope you were ok? Just bruising/hands/side at that speed?

More importantly how is the bike?

Not to sound mean but at least the guy/kid looked to be 'hurt-but-ok'. Doubt he'll cross the road without looking again!

Olympic circuit looks like great fun :D

I got off alright, just bruising on my right hand and some road rash on my shin. Bike was checked over by an engineer, mechanically sound but scuffed my Sram red shifters, rear derailleur, saddle, clothing and helmet :mad:

Police were sitting at the zebra crossing less than 10m away and took all the details, hopefully he'll just pay for the damaged parts and not need any legal action.

The Olympic park is a 1 mile circuit, met some nice people. Thursday is cheap day also only £3.
 
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