Road Cycling

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Going to Cali said:
Apologies for begging message....

This bank holiday weekend I'm planning to cycle from Norwich to London and then the return journey on Monday. My primary motivation is that I enjoy cycling and that it would be a nice personal achievement to tick off, as well as getting to escape London and catch up with some friends and my family.

Speaking to a friend about my plans he referred to it as, "mental", and "crazy", which got me thinking about the stigma / taboo of mental health.

At the fringe I went to a performance, fake it til you make it, on the subject of clinical depression in men which happens to be the biggest killer of men under 50. If you're interested, there is a good article here :

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/15/suicide-silence-depressed-men

Cutting the begging email short, the performance really moved me and an issue that will affect us all in some way or another. To that end I'm trying to raise a few quid for a wonderful charity CALM (campaign against living miserably). My target is £239, a £ for each mile I'll be aiming to ride this weekend. If anyone would like to sponsor me on my mental challenge I'd be very grateful.

justgiving : https://www.justgiving.com/London-Norwich-London/

Stephen
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This is an issue very close to my heart, and something that affects me personally, as I suffer from depression, anxiety, and maybe some other stuff besides. It's not much fun for me, or those around me at times! As it goes, cycling is a big help for me, as it gets me out and about, gets me some exercise, gives me things to aim for.

You'll definitely get a donation from me.
 
So i've just repeated the ride i did last Thursday, and i got 3 PR's and i thought i'd done better than last week, but strava says my average speed was slower by .1mph, i stopped less than i did last week, (taking pictures). Would it be to do with the auto-pause not pausing? do you use auto pause or do you pause yourself when you stop for a minute or so? Also, the last section of my ride back to my work place is a 12% downhill, so i got my speed up to ~ 30mph, only for a family leaving the rental place near the top with 2 dogs on elastic leads, which they had no control of, the dogs wandered right across my path, forcing me to break hard :(

Anyway, todays effort...

https://www.strava.com/activities/378612049
 
wez130 said:
So i've just repeated the ride i did last Thursday, and i got 3 PR's and i thought i'd done better than last week, but strava says my average speed was slower by .1mph, i stopped less than i did last week, (taking pictures). Would it be to do with the auto-pause not pausing? do you use auto pause or do you pause yourself when you stop for a minute or so? Also, the last section of my ride back to my work place is a 12% downhill, so i got my speed up to ~ 30mph, only for a family leaving the rental place near the top with 2 dogs on elastic leads, which they had no control of, the dogs wandered right across my path, forcing me to break hard :(

Anyway, todays effort...

https://www.strava.com/activities/378612049
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It's easy to lose .1 mph rolling down for traffic lights etc. It'd only take a couple of extra stops for that
 
I use auto pause. I think once I get below 3mph. Seems to work ok. I try not to go below 3mph unless I'm stopping. Is it windy over there?
 
JeffyB said:
First ride after this collision with a pedestrian on my way home from work on Sunday.
[YOUT/UBE]Zu3Tbxjohs0[/YOUTUBE]
Decided to try the Olympic park road circuit, had a lot of fun.
[i/mg]http://i.imgur.com/IfPyUdul.jpg[/img]
[i/mg]http://i.imgur.com/vBTBb9cl.png[/img]
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Ouch! The pedestrian putting his hand out reminded me of an incident I (almost) had in Surrey the other weekend. Pedestrian started to walk out, saw me, then decided to continue anyway then used a stop sign with his hand like someone halting traffic as if to freeze a 25mph cyclist from 10ft. Cue a nice big skid and swerve around him.
 
PermaBanned said:
but they are a lot more involved, a lot more mechanically complex and a lot easier to completely screw up.
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They're really not. The cable (or hydraulics) pull the pads closer to the braking surface, in exactly the same way as rim brakes. With my TRP Spyres, if they need adjusting due to pad wear, you use the in-line cable adjuster to move both pads closer to the braking surface - in exactly the same way you would rim brakes. If you need to replace the pads, you pop them out of the calipers and shove in new ones, just like rim brakes.

Mechanically, it's slightly different - but no more complex and no more difficult to adjust. Disc or Rim, cable tension moves brake pads on to the braking surface in the same manner.

In what way could you possibly "completely screw up" disc brakes? Seriously, I can't think of a single thing you could do to screw them up that you couldn't also do to rim brakes.
 
Jono said:
I use auto pause. I think once I get below 3mph. Seems to work ok. I try not to go below 3mph unless I'm stopping. Is it windy over there?
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I think I have mine set at 3mph. All well and good until you hit a ludicrous hill and even when you know you're doing a whopping 6 or 7mph and then your Garmin starts beeping at you telling you it's autopaused!
 
Vonhelmet said:
I think I have mine set at 3mph. All well and good until you hit a ludicrous hill and even when you know you're doing a whopping 6 or 7mph and then your Garmin starts beeping at you telling you it's autopaused!
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The amount of times uv and others have heard me shouting "Shut the **** up Garmin" on steep hills.... :p
 
FrenchTart said:
Good point. I hope nobody ever lost the nut to screw on their brake cable either ;)
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Trying to bleed them but getting even more air in by forgetting to pressurise the system... :o They work ok for the first couple of pulls on the lever, but then...
 
Vonhelmet said:
This is an issue very close to my heart, and something that affects me personally, as I suffer from depression, anxiety, and maybe some other stuff besides. It's not much fun for me, or those around me at times! As it goes, cycling is a big help for me, as it gets me out and about, gets me some exercise, gives me things to aim for.

You'll definitely get a donation from me.
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Hi Vonhelmet - thank you for sharing. I personally had an episode of not feeling quite right (can't explain it any better). It wasn't anything I could put my finger on, over the course of a few months my self esteem deserted me, my enthusiasm and self respect went with it until the point I started thinking about the world without me in it. Still can't explain why, what I do know is that it wasn't until I was able to speak about how I was feeling until that I began to get better. At the time I don't think anyone could have realised what I was feeling, on the surface I was functioning and fine. It's easy to say that people don't need to go through their dark moments alone - as a society I think we need to become more compassionate and less afraid of displaying vulnerability. Thanks for sharing your experience, that's not an easy thing to do. Also in complete agreement about how cycling has helped, for me it's been the single greatest positive change i've made to my life in recent years.
 
FrenchTart said:
£2k for 105 with cable discs is a bit of an exaggeration - or at least I hope so. That would be an utter rip off, no matter the frame.
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It was an exaggerated example to illustrate my point, swap it for £1500? :p

Vonhelmet said:
I screamed blue murder at him and he looked sore and sheepish.
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I've not hit anyone yet but come close a couple of times, I always make a bit of a drama about it in the hope the purpetrator remembers and learns...

Going to Cali said:
Apologies for begging message....
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Donated you £2 each way, I'm stingy (I know) but I always consider a 'little for everyone' rather than singling people out.

SoliD said:
BUT, if I was getting a bike for mainly summer use, I would still get non discs, as the benefits the discs bring don't outweight the downsides imo.
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What downsides rather than expense? ;)
 
SoliD said:
I'm sort of half way house on this, I do love my disc brakes coming from MTB, so much so I took an age to decide on a CX bike and eventually went for one with Hydraulic Discs, which are absolutely fantastic and easily the measure of my MTB brakes, which they should be. I can see the benefits, such as not having to replace the rims, and the enhanced braking power, which is fantastic!

BUT, if I was getting a bike for mainly summer use, I would still get non discs, as the benefits the discs bring don't outweight the downsides imo.

I would also never buy cable discs either.
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Missed this earlier sorry. :)

I can see how if you were to only ride the bike in the dry (or nearly only - which I assume you mean by Summer use?) then it might make sense. Part of me is tempted by an ultra lightweight bike that I'd only ride in perfect weather but I'm very much a "1 bike does everything" kind of person (which I know is sacrilege) so discs are pretty much a must. I imagine I'd be a lot slower without them as I simply don't trust rim brakes in the damp/wet.
 
FrenchTart said:
I think we already established that hydraulic was a different beast to cable-actuated.
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Ah I missed that, sorry. Only ever had MTB-based hydraulics.

FrenchTart said:
Missed this earlier sorry. :)

I can see how if you were to only ride the bike in the dry (or nearly only - which I assume you mean by Summer use?) then it might make sense. Part of me is tempted by an ultra lightweight bike that I'd only ride in perfect weather but I'm very much a "1 bike does everything" kind of person (which I know is sacrilege) so discs are pretty much a must. I imagine I'd be a lot slower without them as I simply don't trust rim brakes in the damp/wet.
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I think my next bike will have discs, if possible. Going 40mph is kinda fun, but scares the bejesus out of me, especially when corners are fast-approaching. I don't know if Ultegra brakes are better than 105, but I think they use the same pads?
And as you say... when it's wet... eek. I never really remember to keep drying the pads before i need to actually use them.
 
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Close call today.

Riding primary past some parked cars, pass them and start moving to the left, light ahead turns amber so I come to a stop, car behind me who must be incredibly focused on passing me sails through the red light at around 30 mph missing someone crossing by around 2 meters.

Madness.

Literally rained every time I cycled to and from work this week, seemingly nice before I set off and then boom, rain!
 
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