Road Cycling

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Hoping to get out for a quick 20 miles this morning. Looks not terrible outside but the forecast says it should be raining heavily as of an hour ago. How much do I care about getting soaked..hmm...
 
Raining badly here and of course I have 2 or 3 hours spare without kids and wife. Can I find the motivation to get out the door in the pouring rain.................
 
Completed a little ride round Majorca yesterday, known as the 312.

https://www.strava.com/activities/561276326

193 miles of rain, sunshine, hills, more hills, yet more hills, some bonkers descents especially on closedroads, then some bonkers flat bits too and a final loop of pain for the last 50 miles.

Awesome experience, started out as a group of 8 but we lost 2 due to a broken mech hanger after a fall fortunately without injury then we got a bit split up with the manic feed stops while in a group led by pro's with white jerseys and green spots.

Unplanned stops for a double puncture plus the tumble and mech problems ate into the time limit, I finished with about 20 minutes spare.
 
As I've dropped my stem so much the cable outers were going to hit the fork so I had to shorten them.

What a **** job with used cables, the coating starts to come off them so they get stuck, then the end flares out a bit and one strand of the wire pokes out making running them back through a nightmare.

The BB on the R5 is a tubular sleeve all the way through the frame for extra stiffness, great but makes the FD cable a 'mare as the tube is in the way.

Pro tip, remove the cable guide, cut a drinking straw in half so it makes a U shape, then thread it down into the frame. 5-10 minutes of poking around and I got the straw all the way through. Can then just push the cable up the straw through the frame without making a hash of it easy peasy.
 
tl45 said:
Completed a little ride round Majorca yesterday, known as the 312.

https://www.strava.com/activities/561276326

193 miles of rain, sunshine, hills, more hills, yet more hills, some bonkers descents especially on closedroads, then some bonkers flat bits too and a final loop of pain for the last 50 miles.

Awesome experience, started out as a group of 8 but we lost 2 due to a broken mech hanger after a fall fortunately without injury then we got a bit split up with the manic feed stops while in a group led by pro's with white jerseys and green spots.

Unplanned stops for a double puncture plus the tumble and mech problems ate into the time limit, I finished with about 20 minutes spare.
Click to expand...

Really really impressive, especially with all that climbing added in. More than 3x the climbing than I had on my 200 :p
 
Went out today, and my headset got loose, might have over tightened it when I changed the stem, as when I do the top bolt up it makes a noise (maybe it just needs lubricant which I don't have)

so im going to get it booked into the bike shop to be safe


If I have over tightened that top bolt, what are you actually damaging? so I know what to replace

thanks
 
The bolt goes into a star nut inside the fork which pulls the fork upwards into the bearing on the bottom of the frame, and the top cap compresses down on the spacers around the fork and then onto the bearings on top of the frame.

Once you do the stem bolts up the top bolt is redundant, it is just to make sure the fork and bearings are loaded properly. Before you go to the bike shop I would grease the bolt, check the stem bolts and add carbon paste between the bars and stem if required.
 
The top cap compresses the stem and spacers by screwing into the star nut (or bung) inside the steerer tube. If you were over tightening it you could strip the threads on the star nut or bolt, or maybe crack a spacer, but I think you'd be more likely to snap the bolt before that happened.

Chances are you need to loosen off the stem bolts, tighten the cap, then redo the stem bolts.
 
What spoke magnet do you guys to that actually stay in place?
lost my Garmin ones ages ago, so I've been using an ebay one, but its just broken, and the magnet isn't strong enough to pick up the sensor sometimes (a lot weaker than the garmin one)
 
ShiWarrior said:
What spoke magnet do you guys to that actually stay in place?
lost my Garmin ones ages ago, so I've been using an ebay one, but its just broken, and the magnet isn't strong enough to pick up the sensor sometimes (a lot weaker than the garmin one)
Click to expand...

Don't bother anymore!gps picks everything up.
 
I use a Giant speed/cadence sensor. Not great aesthetically but that magnet has never moved nor has the loosely cable tied sensor on a piece of rubber.

Well it moved once... but that was because the flat bladed spoke twisted!
 
Lethal` said:
Cool. I'll take a look at that one.

Yep - Velothon Wales is closed roads. I'm surprised that it's not sold out already (@Roady - you could still join if tempted!) considering the over popularity of things like the RideLondon. I'm just hoping for some good weather. I'll have been on holiday without riding for 10 or so days before it so hopefully I can still make it up the climbs! Some workmates are coming too though not sure I'll hang around with all of them... hoping at least 1/2 will go a good pace.

Good luck for the one tomorrow and let us know how it goes!
Click to expand...

Thanks - I think it would be fair to say it went better than I was hoping for :)

Weather was spot on in terms of temperature and sunshine, but the wind definitely played a big part! First 50 was with an almost perfect tailwind. As it stands I hold the KOM for a segment covering the first half of the route :eek:. Average of 21.7mph for 51.1 miles. That was also near enough solo, no drafting at all for that part. I suspect my position on the leaderboard might change when everyone uploads their rides, but still :D

The second half was a completely different story, it was more of a case of surviving against the headwind. Fortunately a guy who had been drafting me for some of the first half took some turns at the front, then a group of 3 caught up with us and kept us going. Overall brought it home at 5hr07 moving time for 98.6 miles, stopping for less than 6 minutes on top of that.

I'm not sure if my privacy settings on Strava will let everyone view this, but here's the link: https://www.strava.com/activities/562039476/. Just look at that elevation chart :D:D
 
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