Road Cycling

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Shorts and t-shirt weather this afternoon and not at all cold! Time to sharpen the tan lines then, summer is here! (I'm feeling confident today!)

Went out for a short ride and got a pb on a local slope, dead windy out still so was a right slog in parts but mega fast on the way back.
 
Great day over on the IoW with Ben & Max, cracking weather too! The route was far easier than I was expecting with a really good spread of climbs. I swear I've felt more pain on 30mile 2500ft rides purely because the majority is quite flat with 3-4 cat 3/4 climbs. I was certainly feeling it in the last 10miles though as there was some really short but 15% (I think?) climbs. Looking forward to doing it again and getting under 4hours.

https://www.strava.com/activities/562262995
 
Hmm, removed the crank tonight but one of the pedals is fairly stuck on. Had to be the drive crank with all the nice jagged cogs to make mincemeat of my hand when it does give way :mad:
 
I find the best way to remove pedals is actually to leave the cranks on the bike, sit on the saddle, put the crank with the pedal you want to remove facing forwards and put a pedal spanner on facing the other direction so you can push down on it with your foot.

Wear shoes.
 
Great day over on the IoW with Ben & Max, cracking weather too! The route was far easier than I was expecting with a really good spread of climbs. I swear I've felt more pain on 30mile 2500ft rides purely because the majority is quite flat with 3-4 cat 3/4 climbs. I was certainly feeling it in the last 10miles though as there was some really short but 15% (I think?) climbs. Looking forward to doing it again and getting under 4hours.
https://www.strava.com/activities/562262995

Was just about to say you went a day late. But then clicked the link! Big turnout for this by my club. Fareham wheelers. For its location I've never actually lapped the island!

What permabanned said about removing pedals too!
 
TdY Sportive yesterday : https://www.strava.com/activities/563375181

Good route and an enjoyable ride, bar getting up at 4:15am to be in Scarborough for a 7am start. Little highlight was as we (me + BIL) rolled out, a couple of photographers said "Morning Gary" to a rider next to us. I wondered how they knew his name until we turned the first corner and realised it was Sir Gary Verity :cool: Rode with him for a few minutes talking about Saturday's stage and what went wrong with the plane. Came across as a top bloke, somebody you'd quite happily share a few pints with.

One lesson learnt... Don't wait until the start area to turn on your Garmin. My Edge almost went into meltdown buzzing up warnings about the number of HRMs and cadence sensors it could see. Picked up my HR once we were moving, didn't see the cadence properly all day though.
 
Pretty happy with my ride yesterday - https://www.strava.com/activities/563197618

Managed to climb Whitedown Lane which had me walking the final steep 20%+ section last August. This time it was after a variety of other hills including Leith Hill too.

I had gone out expecting rain etc so fully covered up and rain jacket stuffed into jersey pocket.. Weather actually brightened up a lot about midday and only turned bad 10 mins before I got home with some drizzle and the winds picking up.
 
Went out on Saturday with a different club to my usual, the NFTO guys were doing an 'easy/newbie' ride. Had an excellent time and really really enjoyed it! Did a social 52 miles, didn't struggle with the pace at any point as it was a fairly flat one... I felt a little like the odd one out as I was wearing Blue/Black and the rest of the guys/girls in mostly club kit or colours (Red/Black). :cool:

The one climb on the route I was totally unaware of (climb the same hill a different direction). It was brutal! The climb I know kicks multiple times, has a rubbish road surface with overhanging trees & mud on the road. It regularly has cars on it too. The one we climbed is much more open, has a fantastic surface and a fairly constant gradient. Of 25%! Which then eases off... My pacing was rubbish and already had a ton of miles in my legs so I blew and had to stop. Couple of the other did too so I didn't feel too bad! There was a driveway half way up so used that to remount and continue (with 90% of a fall after my cleat unclipped on the second pedal stroke!). The descent afterwards (down the climb I normally do) was quite scetchy (down a 20% with corners, wet/dirty roads and oncoming cars) so really had to back off. Rear wheel hopping and smelling my pads a couple of times makes me think I need to work on my descending...! :eek:

Fun ride anyhow..just me and one other guy from Manchester Wheelers :p
Lol your 'club ride' was just 2 of you?! :o
A lot of the wait came as the new frame takes a pressed bottom bracket, can some one tell me the difference between a that and the original one? and also that Giant did not send a new seat post as my original one was an o shaped post and the new one is shaped like a D.
Yup, pressfit BB! Your original was probably threaded and not HTII (due to being an older years model and lower in the range).

I have the exact frame, although mine was a complete Defy 1 2015from the shop (with 105), it looks like they've put your older shifters and saddle on? Which wheels did they give you? If they're the P-R2's (and tyres) then keep an eye on them. The tyres are shocking in the wet and my wheels didn't stay true after 1000 miles...
You really want to keep your drivechain clean but aside from that mud everywhere doesn't matter that much.
Drivechain is the most important by far. I've been lazy/busy and not cleaned my frame for probably a month... :eek:
EDIT - Oh and a quick spin with the Khamsins revealed two things 1) Silent freehub, never had one of those before :p
The freehub on my Khamsin's wasn't silent but over the first 6 months got quieter and quieter... When my LBS gave them a once over as part of another service they changed the spring in the freehub as campag's are known for having limited life springs in them. They were not as clicky as when new but not silent. On par with normal Shimano freehubs (and very similar as the new one on my RS81's).
Completed a little ride round Majorca yesterday, known as the 312.

https://www.strava.com/activities/561276326
Saw this on Strava mate, awesome riding! I've got a couple of friends over there at the moment, some of them very good riders with 'Spot On Coaching', but none of them joined the 312. Not sure why - although they'd had a busy week before it!

EDIT: The couple of guys I know who went and rode in the Alps (Huez, Galibier etc) took a detour on the way home and rode a short loop of the Paris - Roubaix cobbles! Jealous! :o

They only did a short one as did Morzine & Avoriaz the day before...! :o
 
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A solo anything above 50mi is impressive. More for the mental strength required IMO. Nice one!

Aha true. I had originally planned to do 58 miles but weather seemed alright so I extended it. My workmates had bailed out of riding all weekend so a solo 24+62 on Saturday, rest day Sunday, then this 102.

I want to do London-Brighton-London (120-130 miles or so) at some point but don't think I could do that alone or I'll get super bored.
 
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.

Awesome ride that mate. I presume it was Mr A with the unfortunate mech hanger issues? He must have been gutted.
 
Any idea what the actual gearing is on a Boris bike? I think it's 3 speed but which gears... also think I read somewhere they're about 23kg :eek:

I have no idea but I thought it was hilarious, amazing job all the same. http://road.cc/content/news/188240-riders-boris-bikes-conquer-alpe-d’huez-charity

Edit: It looks like they are 23kg single speeds. Someone has ridden one up Mont Ventoux as well, grinding up at a 25rpm cadence, must have killed his knees :eek: http://road.cc/content/news/102778-video-boris-bike-vs-mont-ventoux
 
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A solo anything above 50mi is impressive. More for the mental strength required IMO. Nice one!

Is it? I've done several solo metrics, and I'll probably do quite a few more this year. Last year I rode to see the Tour of Britain and while there were other riders around at the bits where we were watching the race I was fundamentally on my own. That was 80 odd miles.

I am a lone wolf, though, in life in general as well as in riding, so maybe it's just me.
 
I had my first proper go on Zwift with the Wahoo Kickr yesterday, it was awesome! i didn't know where or what i was doing but ended up going up some big mountain, got to the top and there was a 13-14% section that went on for ages. That was tough! the decent was wicked tho, you could free wheel all the way down or you could smash it and try to hit some serious speed.

Id like to know how to get to the climb because i was riding around aimlessly for about half hour before i stumbled upon it. It would be good if you could sort of do a 10 minute warm up then hit the mountain.

Overall tho, Swift is pretty damn cool
 
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