Road Cycling

[Roady]

I've finished my 5800 upgrade project.

Good work! My old Carrera is still in bits... Maybe 1 of these weekends I'll finally sort it!

A better photo of the 'dale, not taken with a potato this time. Sorry its not gearset side

Spoiler

It looks awesome, those FR5's suit that frame colours/decals so well! Look like they were made to go together!

Dodgy as fudge. I understand that retailers get away with this kind of thing all the time but it's one thing suspecting something vs obvious proof and the really dodgy privacy implications.

This. Although nice to know the device was returned in perfect condition! Consider it 'pre-tested' lol

Although quite annoying Wiggle didn't back up their apologies with some kinda credit/gift apart from replacement (but then someone else would get it!). Their returns guys obviously don't know you can easily factory reset Garmin units!

Well, that escalated quickly!
<snip>
Total of 192 miles done on Saturday, my longest road bike ride so far

Awesome work! Crazy total! Getting near to 300 miles over a weekend!?

Well, that was a disaster. 7 miles into my ride to work, absolutely storming it, and my chain snapped.<snip> I think I'll buy a bunch of spokes and do it myself - I've been wanting to try building a wheel myself! Joy.

Ouch! That's your single speed pompino yeah? Dangers of SS I guess - loads more strain on the chain compared to geared!

As you say, good opportunity to do a wheel rebuild, certainly the most cost effective with you selling the bike.

 

[Vonhelmet]

I think the chain breaking is probably my fault for being lazy. It had been making odd noises last week, and it's a £3 chain that was a year old and had done over 1000 miles... This is probably the bike gods' way of telling me to check my chain more often!

 

[Lethal`]

So, at this junction traffic on the major road has right of way right? (luckily even a cyclist in the street view image)

Mentioned an almost head on I had here yesterday to a workmate with a car turning right across the cyclists path. He first commented that if the car was already on the roundabout it had right of way (No roundabout!) Then he reckoned cars turning right have right of way anyway... Facepalm..

Hopefully I don't meet him while I'm out cycling.

 

[Roady]

Bike god saying 'new bike plx'!

Do Evans' sell buttocks, knees and legs? I think I need to retire my current and buy new.

So, at this junction traffic on the major road has right of way right? (luckily even a cyclist in the street view image)

You're right but I hope the road behind the signs (just below blurred) hasn't got a dotted line? The only road markings I can see are very feint, in theory the road markings show priority? Dotted line = do not cross unless safe to do so (not your work colleagues priority!). The junction/lane in front (silver parked cars) doesn't appear to have any markings, but it should have some as the road the cyclist is proceeding on I believe (due to chevron) bears to the right?

 

[randomshenans]

They don't seem to be the smartest at distribution. Incorrect quantities, laughable number of boxes. No Haribo.

Saying that though, they've messed up a number of my orders. First I ordered a cannondale I think it was last year, but they then said it was out of stock, so I managed to get them to send me the bianchi for the same price +50quid, which was another 250 off the bianchi price.
They did the same for my Cateye 700, was out of stock and then discontinued so got them to send me the new model, which wasn't in the sale, for the same price.

Basically, complain and hold firm and you can make it worth your while.

 

[Vonhelmet]

Then he reckoned cars turning right have right of way anyway... Facepalm..

I always think of it in terms of how many streams of traffic I have to cross to get where I'm going. The more streams of traffic I have to cross, the less priority (no such thing as right of way!) I have.

 

[Lethal`]

Saying that though, they've messed up a number of my orders. First I ordered a cannondale I think it was last year, but they then said it was out of stock, so I managed to get them to send me the bianchi for the same price +50quid, which was another 250 off the bianchi price.
They did the same for my Cateye 700, was out of stock and then discontinued so got them to send me the new model, which wasn't in the sale, for the same price.

Basically, complain and hold firm and you can make it worth your while.

You had better luck than me!

I complained when they only sent me one Garmin Virb battery instead of the two ordered. I had also ordered some mulebars to get the order total to £40 for free delivery. I asked about a discount or something so he added two mulebars with the delivery of the second battery... a total of £1.40 value

 

[randomshenans]

If I complain, I do it well

 

[physichull]

I think the chain breaking is probably my fault for being lazy. It had been making odd noises last week, and it's a £3 chain that was a year old and had done over 1000 miles... This is probably the bike gods' way of telling me to check my chain more often!

Deffo worth replacing all scratched and marked spokes. I got my chain properly wedged against the spokes once (fortunately at the Lowton lights so I was near home!) and once I'd freed it I didn't bother checking the spokes for damage. In a few months a spoke snapped on the way to work so I took my wheel in for truing and he replaced all the damaged spokes.

 

[randomshenans]

Is the charging point for the battery under the stem?

Bravo touch!

Yea and as I have the garmin aero mount as well, that mounts over that cover plate too. Bit of a pain. I reset the di2 holding the button (think that's what it did, it beeped so...) and all started working again. No idea what the issue was but least I have gear change back again now. Was peddling my ass off at 120rpm doing 48kph yesterday as I couldn't get the big front cog

 

[madindehead]

Amazing job on those rides touch and Roady! Pretty epic stuff!

The proper route for the Liege-Bastogne-Liege sportive has been posted now, and I'm starting to worry! This is the full route here (my upload to RideWithGPS as the official route doesn't show elevation)

It's double the elevation and distance of my ride last Sunday. I think I should be ok going into it, not going to go mad. And will be eating lots of waffles!

 

[Lethal`]

First ride since November today. Feel like I've done 100 miles! We done 35 miles, Henley, Reading loop and back. Head wind was brutal

Ah nice. I did a bit of cycling around Henley area and up to Christmas Common back in October. Some great routes there!

You're right but I hope the road behind the signs (just below blurred) hasn't got a dotted line? The only road markings I can see are very feint, in theory the road markings show priority? Dotted line = do not cross unless safe to do so (not your work colleagues priority!). The junction/lane in front (silver parked cars) doesn't appear to have any markings, but it should have some as the road the cyclist is proceeding on I believe (due to chevron) bears to the right?

That road has a dashed line for entry, give way for entering the main road. The main road has a dashed bit in the middle for cars to wait in before turning. I imagine the cyclist is following the road round to the right as I was too. It's a poorly designed junction really. The signage probably hid me to some degree.

Amazing job on those rides touch and Roady! Pretty epic stuff!

The proper route for the Liege-Bastogne-Liege sportive has been posted now, and I'm starting to worry! This is the full route here (my upload to RideWithGPS as the official route doesn't show elevation)

It's double the elevation and distance of my ride last Sunday. I think I should be ok going into it, not going to go mad. And will be eating lots of waffles!

That looks fun. Good luck!

 

[Jono]

I'm gonna post this here because it's road biking related, but concerns mountain bikes.
I know I suck at climbing hills on my road bike. I took my mtb to hamsterley forest on saturday and started from the car park with a climb. I was dead by the time I reached the bottom, and crawled up everything else after that.

To people that do both: Are Mtb's that much harder (haven't been on it for 5+ months) or am I really that pathetic?

Also I had to take my car to the garage this morning and didn't want to leave my road bike secured unsecurely (only have an Anus combination lock) so fettled up my old hardtail mtb and put some sort of slick tyres on it. omg it's horrific. Riding position is wrong. IT's just *****.

 

[randomshenans]

They're heavier, with fatter, more grippy tyres, which makes it hard work. You can't climb really like you can on a road bike I found. Apart from picking a comfortable gear to spin it up a slope in.

 

[Vonhelmet]

Anus combination lock, eh? Well I never.

 

[randomshenans]

Doesn't everyone have one?

 

[madindehead]

Ah nice. I did a bit of cycling around Henley area and up to Christmas Common back in October. Some great routes there!

Yeah, right in my backyard there basically!

Christmas Common is quite nice, and the routes down to Stonor and Hambledon are pretty nice. Lots of climbing in the Chilterns actually!

 

[Roady]

Amazing job on those rides touch and Roady! Pretty epic stuff!

The proper route for the Liege-Bastogne-Liege sportive has been posted now, and I'm starting to worry! This is the full route here (my upload to RideWithGPS as the official route doesn't show elevation)

It's double the elevation and distance of my ride last Sunday. I think I should be ok going into it, not going to go mad. And will be eating lots of waffles!

Thanks & that's quite a route/ride, although not as far as I thought (thought it was over 100 mile). The climbs look awesome, once you're over the second big one (at 52) you know you'll get a good recovery for almost 15 miles. Would be best to rest as much as possible here, maybe even consider stopping?! The climb at 70 mile is the steepest of the day (10%) I imagine that one will be a real test for most of the riders! The other climbs before the end at 80 and 90ish you'll probably just have to spin up, thankfully they don't look that long and as brutal as earlier in the day. The elevation profile really puts it into perspective - although quite how you train for multiple 2-3 mile digs of constant 5% to 8% gradient around you is a tough one. The 'long one' I did yesterday was only 2.5 miles at 3% avg (1 mile at 5-6%).

It's a poorly designed junction really. The signage probably hid me to some degree.

It sounds like it's designed ok just not enough common sense used by drivers has lead to it being quite dangerous - I bet there's a large proportion of the oncoming traffic turning across you? Many drivers seem to 'forget' the highway code (when it suits them) and not to treat cyclists as vehicles/hazards. They don't look for us, don't consider us travelling at speed and worst of all - they see us and 'ignore' us and proceed regardless (turning across our path etc).

 

[Vonhelmet]

I've just called the bike shop to get a quote for a wheel repair. They'd want anywhere between £15 and £25 for labour and £10 for spokes.

The alternative is I spend a tenner on spokes and figure out how to fix the wheel myself. However that would mean figuring out how to measure the spoke length and then doing the fixing without a proper wheel truing rig, which sounds like hard work. Argh.

 

[FrenchTart]

Just pay the money. Your time is more valuable