Caporegime
Where are you off to?
Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
Where are you off to?
Haha I'm not far off considering the same myself but always things getting 'delayed' due to something else!
This weekends job:
- drilling out stripped mudguard mount (actually broken off inside so bolt stuck in it) to replace with an internally secured bolt, as it's behind a plastic cable guide I can get to but need to take the BB out which needs a new bearing, so no point until I had the bearing for it...
And the longer term:
- gummed up rusty old gear outer cable at head tube = no point when going DI2
- bar tape = no point if doing DI2 means redoing it
- new handlebars (these slightly bent from a crash 3+ years ago!) = no point until doing bar tape
Really need to just list out the DI2 stuff I have and spitball what I think I need, for someone to give a once over then get it ordered...! Any volunteers?
Good luck doing 7NM+ on one of these
I'm peeved recently... My area is littered with level crossings. It has a distinct lack of road bridges. Health and safety standards nowadays seem to mandate they come down around 2-3mins before the train and there's often multiple trains so it can be 5 mins+. I used to start 70% of my rides by going via a level crossing that was only half width across the road and it generally came down just 30s before the train. They've just replaced it with a full width crossing like the 3 others so now quite often I get stuck for 5+ mins at the start/end of my ride. Feels pretty significant on short rides.
The tool says it goes up higher to 12 nM but you're right, once towards 7-8 nM I'm always questioning just how accurate a bending piece of uncalibrated spring metal can be! But have a proper torque wrench (or 2) for that!
Oh that is annoying, guessing more regular trains as well?
I've got an annoying spot on my way home, it's nothing like yours but regular 1 minute waits, sometimes as long as 5 just to join the road from a badly designed segregated cycle path. The road narrows and (imo) they built the cycle path on the 'wrong side' of the road. So due to houses there the segregated cycle path ends and you have to cross incoming traffic to join the road (at this point here - cycle path on right). It's on a slight rise and corner in the road, so me coming to a halt, waiting for traffic, crossing and then continuing with the trailer is not a very fast thing. It's a 3-5% drag so a 40kg trailer takes a bit of power to get going again! But now as the SAS camp has built a new entrance on the top of that rise where the road is narrow, there's far more traffic. I'm regularly waiting there (probably 90% the time now, it used to be 30-40%). Some of these waits are a couple of minutes, it's not much, but a couple of minutes wait in an 8-10 minute commute gets old very quickly!
A sensible thing would've been to also add a cycle path that side, so the cycle path directly crosses the road and continues that side to the camps main entrance (even better if they built an extended slip road there for the increased traffic - busy mornings there is a 0.5 mile queue to enter the camp), whereas at the moment the cycle path finishes on an uphill for 50m before starting again over the top on the same side. So the 'slow' bike traffic going uphill has to cross oncoming traffic to join the carriageway, before then stopping on the carriageway to cross oncoming traffic again to rejoin. The second of these is on a bend, so you're stopped in the middle of the carriageway trying to turn right onto it with traffic approaching from the rear not seeing or expecting you to be stopped. It's unsafe to be stopped in the middle of the carriageway where drivers do not expect you to be, especially with a kid in a trailer, so I don't do it!
Good to hear mate, spotted some of the house stuff you've been doing too - good work! Well done! That rest on the honeymoon will be a welcome one!
I'm off to Florida for 14 days at the end of the month. Absolutely gutted to be riding so well right now and seeming to be 'doing the right thing' to hold the good form... I just know the best part of 3 weeks away from the bike is going to throw that out the window. So June is going to be me mostly trying to get back to where I am right now! Grr! At least that should mean a couple of months of good weather to do some riding in before the days get shorter again.
Caporegime
Nice. Enjoy!
If you can rent a bike that would be a beautiful place to ride I imagine.
Really need to just list out the DI2 stuff I have and spitball what I think I need, for someone to give a once over then get it ordered...! Any volunteers?
You going for older 11 speed or newer 12 speed. If they ever get around to releasing a 12 speed 105 I might bite in future. I want that tidy cockpit with just the hydraulics going into the frame. Much easier to set up as well.
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I'll be in group K for the ride London 100 (715 arrival for 755 start). Which means I can get the first train up into London with plenty of time to get to the starting pen.
Plenty of time to fuel stationary too. 5am wake up and porridge at home, 630am banana on the train, flapjack in the starting pen.
Plenty of time to fuel stationary too. 5am wake up and porridge at home, 630am banana on the train, flapjack in the starting pen.
Soldato
I think I would have preferred an earlier start... as I'll likely be one of the slower ones round...
No chance. There will be people who usually cycle on hybrids and have never even done 60 miles let alone 100. A fair few will walk up slight hills too.
Soldato
Oh okay, thanks, I feel better about it now 
Is there a cut-off time?
Is there a cut-off time?Oh okay, thanks, I feel better about it now
6pm.
Can confirm. I heard of one person who will be one week post his last prostate cancer treatment doing the ride.
"Ludicrous": Disappointed RideLondon cyclists learn safety car will set 22mph pace limit
"A safety car will travel at the front of the event at 22mph. Those riding at the front of the event must not pass this vehicle for safety reasons"
Well.. that's rough.
I think the front group when I did it was nearing 25mph avg. Still a bit annoyed I wasn't drafted early enough to join that group. Found myself in no man's land just solo for majority of it.
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2004
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Not sure with that one, if you want to do 25mph enter a race but if everyone is bunched up at 22mph then it's potentially more dangerous.
I can see people hanging back for a bit then riding at a pace through slower riders, again more dangerous.
I can see people hanging back for a bit then riding at a pace through slower riders, again more dangerous.
Yeah, it's definitely going to really bunch up behind the safety car. They'll have a peloton of hundreds of amateurs... :/
I think a whole bunch of the cohort would relatively easily do 22mph solo when you factor in the closed roads aspect (and it's flatter this year). They'll easily do it in groups.
I think a whole bunch of the cohort would relatively easily do 22mph solo when you factor in the closed roads aspect (and it's flatter this year). They'll easily do it in groups.
Caporegime
Whats the thinking behind that limit?
Soldato
I hadn't twigged until the discussion of this started, but is that why I'm going later, because I'm slower? The faster you are they send you out earlier, so as there is not so much overtaking etc?
As I think it says you can't go earlier, but you can wait and go later, surely faster people will just wait and hour and set off?
As I think it says you can't go earlier, but you can wait and go later, surely faster people will just wait and hour and set off?
What time did you put down? I went 6-6.5 but hoping to get into a nice group that does it in 5.5-6. I went slightly slower as was concerned about not being able to get to the start line in time.
It does seem ironic to have a 22mph limit for safety when cars can legally travel at 60mph on the same roads (outside of the event). I could understand the speed limit for the start until they get out of the city, but not in the country and once the riders have spread out by the end.
Soldato
I can't actually remember. The only time I've done 100 miles the actual start to end elapsed time was 8hr 44mins, but we stopped for a full hour for lunch and twice more for half an hour. We were in no hurry! I would be expecting 7 to 8 hours or so in total.
It doesn't seem to be quite a hard and fast rule. Pretty sure I put the min estimate in (maybe 4 hours?) but I was still at least half hour after the first group. Of course achieving such a time would have been dependent on being in good groups
Depends how you ride it but I'd imagine with a fairly good cycling base you could manage it in 5-6 hours. People usually overestimate how long it will take. There's no stopping at junctions etc - this makes a huge difference to usual average speeds. Best thing to remember is just to enjoy it. For some that is going for a "time" others it involves enjoying the scenery/cake stops etc.