Road Cycling

[SoundEng]

She's back!



Never thought Di2 would be such a huge difference - its fantastic. Feels like a similar difference to going from the slushy autobox in my old 2007 Toureg to the Porsche DCT

Very happy with the cream sidewalls on the GP5000 AS's

May have been a bit ambitious on my fitness, done 50 miles since yesterday evening and the legs are feeling it. HR was worryingly high for not many watts...

 

[Martynt74]

She's back!



Never thought Di2 would be such a huge difference - its fantastic. Feels like a similar difference to going from the slushy autobox in my old 2007 Toureg to the Porsche DCT

Very happy with the cream sidewalls on the GP5000 AS's

May have been a bit ambitious on my fitness, done 50 miles since yesterday evening and the legs are feeling it. HR was worryingly high for not many watts...

Yeah. I went from mechanical Ultegra to electric SRAM and don't think i'd want to go back!

Bike looks awesome.

 

[fez]

Always get tempted by di2 but I can't imagine the shifting is much better than my mix of ultegra and dura ace 11 speed mechanical and even second hand I would be looking at the best part of £900 for last gen di2. I'm sure i'll get it one day but I have a power meter on my list before di2.

I would like to not have to faff with gear cables periodically but for now I will suffer through it.

 

[AndyCr15]

I can't imagine the shifting is much better than my mix of ultegra and dura ace 11 speed mechanical

Tbh, keep it to the imagination. Once I'd tried it, I can't go back. A friend finally moved to electronic and can't believe the difference either.

 

[One More Solo]

Always get tempted by di2 but I can't imagine the shifting is much better than my mix of ultegra and dura ace 11 speed mechanical and even second hand I would be looking at the best part of £900 for last gen di2. I'm sure i'll get it one day but I have a power meter on my list before di2.

I would like to not have to faff with gear cables periodically but for now I will suffer through it.

Honestly if you have a smart turbo already I’d get Di2 first. Save power for indoor training.

 

[SoundEng]

Always get tempted by di2 but I can't imagine the shifting is much better than my mix of ultegra and dura ace 11 speed mechanical and even second hand I would be looking at the best part of £900 for last gen di2. I'm sure i'll get it one day but I have a power meter on my list before di2.

I would like to not have to faff with gear cables periodically but for now I will suffer through it.

I was pretty skeptical about whether it would be *that* much of a difference - but honestly, it is worlds apart. It's not just the speed and accuracy of the shifts, it changes the ergonomics of shifting massively. Being able to just click a button and have an instant change, not have to think about letting off the power at all feels much more efficient. Sprinted away from standstill at some traffic lights this morning and could move down the block so much smoother and faster, whilst under full power (~1300W according to Garmin) than I have ever been able to do with mechanical shifting.

I also find myself changing up the block way to early for junctions/corners now and having to change back down as I'm not used to how quick the shifts are.

It really changes your riding style.

Also being able to upload the data to di2stats and see what gear ratio you spend the majority of time (52-15 apparently) in, and how many shifts you're doing on a ride is cool

 

[Martynt74]

I like being able to see current gear too. If i'm on a hill, and know it's only getting steeper, i like to stay in a harder gear so i've got space to drop down as it gets steeper, because my balance is crap, looking down at the rear cogs causes my to wobble all over the place.
Glancing down at the garmin reading is lovely.

 

[fez]

Curse you all!

 

[Roady]

How amazing was the weather on Sunday?! Skipped the club social as also had a kids Birthday Party to go-to. Any and all local Coronation celebrations seems rained out/off. Had a local 'Street Party' where they'd closed the street and as we drove past the end of the road at around 1pm it was 3-4 people huddled under umbrellas and a table so we didn't bother.

absolute CLOWNS who don't even know their own stores policies and can't be bothered if you ask them anytyhing.

I would have been spending probably 150-200+ in their store and instead walked out with nothing, no wonder the high street is dead

Sounds about typical for them and a prime example of why most of us don't use or rate them - but I'll admit there are some quality employees at various Halfords who do a really good job. Just wish there was more of them and it was a company wide/policy driven kinda thing!

The final 22 miles though... Wahoo had identified 11 'climbs' (So generally quite flat for the distance, I finished with just over 4,000 ft of elevation) but the final 9 miles had 4 of the climbs in... and my legs weren't happy about this. The power just wasn't there. Still, overall I didn't feel too bad when we made it back to the car. 431 RE was the 5th biggest I've ever had and I was shattered all evening and had an early night. Also got a little sunburnt, as the weather was close to perfect starting at around 7°C and finishing around 14°C with plenty of sun included.

Excellent ride mate and quite a testing route for an Imperial looking at your elevation, very rolling!

She's back!



Never thought Di2 would be such a huge difference - its fantastic. Feels like a similar difference to going from the slushy autobox in my old 2007 Toureg to the Porsche DCT

Very happy with the cream sidewalls on the GP5000 AS's

May have been a bit ambitious on my fitness, done 50 miles since yesterday evening and the legs are feeling it. HR was worryingly high for not many watts...

Where's she been?! Looks nice, that's a Ribble isn't it?

Di2 is nice but people always saying it's worlds apart from mechnical I do wonder... I don't find it massively 'extra'. Yes it's nice, very slick and precise. But I don't find it massively different to the 5800/6800 & R8000 mechanical I've ridden.

Still have a mixture of R8000 & 6800 mechanical on my outdoor using 785 Hydraulic shifters. Indoor is 785 di2 shifters with R8070 derailleurs. It's nice but I would say I don't find it a massive step up over the well maintained, reliable and accurate mechanical... But I've always looked after mine and like to keep it crisp & accurate!

Always get tempted by di2 but I can't imagine the shifting is much better than my mix of ultegra and dura ace 11 speed mechanical and even second hand I would be looking at the best part of £900 for last gen di2. I'm sure i'll get it one day but I have a power meter on my list before di2.

I would like to not have to faff with gear cables periodically but for now I will suffer through it.

Cost me £704 to put di2 on my indoor but was new shifters and used the old junction box with buying the derailleurs before Covid/Lockdown price hikes, with new battery a new R8050 FD and SH 6870 RD. Currently up to £572 on my outdoor setup. SH R785 di2 shifters New R8050 FD and New R8050 RD on the new 910 bar end junction. Not fitted yet, need a battery and 2-3 more cables! So providing you where not too stressed about riding SH kit you can get some good deals...

 

[AndyCr15]

Excellent ride mate and quite a testing route for an Imperial looking at your elevation, very rolling!

Thanks. Tbh though, we went a little north to get a flatter ride. Of all my rides over 80 miles, this is the second flattest! Herts is generally fairly lumpy.

 

[SoundEng]

Where's she been?! Looks nice, that's a Ribble isn't it?

Di2 is nice but people always saying it's worlds apart from mechnical I do wonder... I don't find it massively 'extra'. Yes it's nice, very slick and precise. But I don't find it massively different to the 5800/6800 & R8000 mechanical I've ridden.

Still have a mixture of R8000 & 6800 mechanical on my outdoor using 785 Hydraulic shifters. Indoor is 785 di2 shifters with R8070 derailleurs. It's nice but I would say I don't find it a massive step up over the well maintained, reliable and accurate mechanical... But I've always looked after mine and like to keep it crisp & accurate!

Back to Ribble for a frameset replacement - small crack in the seat tube, fortunately just within 3 years! But logistics of getting it from bike shop to Ribble, back to bike shop and re-built meant she was away for 5 weeks But yes - Endurance SL Disc (purchased Sept 2020), now with 105 Di2.

I still to me di2 is a world apart, but maybe I was struggling along on old 105, I think the biggest thing for me is the ease of shifting, especially down the cassette, I have a dodgey wrist from an accident a few years ago, and twisting the whole lever to downshift was sometimes a pain - a small button click really helps!

 

[Roady]

Well found out this morning why I've not been unable to solve my 'clicky' bottom bracket... I've refitted it twice the last couple of weeks thinking it was grit ingress, then replaced the bearings in it... To then end up looking at some kinda 'retaining' fluid/solution (rather than just greasing it) thinking the Wheelsmfg BB shell (being old) and my frame also being worn meaning there was some movement... Then saw the price of the Wheelmfg stuff at the moment (£100+ for a BB!) so was looking for alternatives...

Pulling into the work car park this morning, slight skip over some rough road and 'CRACK'!

Thanks. Tbh though, we went a little north to get a flatter ride. Of all my rides over 80 miles, this is the second flattest! Herts is generally fairly lumpy.

Haha yeah - just something most of us consider with our broad assumptions of areas!

Prime example is my 'flat' ride from Sunday. Was going to do hills, but with a noisy bike went for one of the flattest totally unplanned and ad-hoc routes with a couple of loops I can do around here (then ended up doing an extra hour as the sun was so glorious!) - https://www.strava.com/activities/9028947227

But going by the numbers - your 1200m over 170km and my 700m over 75km - for me your ride IS a flat ride!

Back to Ribble for a frameset replacement - small crack in the seat tube, fortunately just within 3 years! But logistics of getting it from bike shop to Ribble, back to bike shop and re-built meant she was away for 5 weeks But yes - Endurance SL Disc (purchased Sept 2020), now with 105 Di2.

I still to me di2 is a world apart, but maybe I was struggling along on old 105, I think the biggest thing for me is the ease of shifting, especially down the cassette, I have a dodgey wrist from an accident a few years ago, and twisting the whole lever to downshift was sometimes a pain - a small button click really helps!

Ahh yeah I recall now - sorry brain fart and didn't scroll back to remind myself - thought the colour looked familiar! Great they covered it without a hitch, but those logistics I dread to think of the costs involved - hope the LBS covered it all!

I've never had problems with mechanical but do admit it's all I've ridden over the last ~10 years so I know no different! To be fair I used to get 'aches' in my hands, from holding onto the bars too tightly, either far more comfortable/relaxed now or just built up hand strength over the years. Probably both, will admit my hands/arms are pretty 'trim' and veiny these days with very little 'padding' compared to them previously! I'd look like a bodybuilder with big veins, just with no muscle under them! Guy at work commented yesterday if he kicked my quad if he'd probably break his foot! That's where my muscle is - each of them has a 24" circumference

 

[UTmaniac]

Pulling into the work car park this morning, slight skip over some rough road and 'CRACK'!

Any chance Shimano will cover that by 2 year g'tee, or are you looking for a crankset deal again?

 

[Roady]

Any chance Shimano will cover that by 2 year g'tee, or are you looking for a crankset deal again?

Got it in July 2018 from Wiggle's Ebay page (was a return with a ripped box if I recall), so no chance of warranty. I'd figured it was newer than that but would only have 1 year on it anyway. Oh well!

Looks like I paid £125 for it then. I picked a new one up this year in the Merlin sale for £149 - so glad they had them that price (when the R7000 where 125?) when I was only really looking for new chainrings!

 

[fez]

I would have thought that Shimano would warranty them out of normal because its a well known and accepted problem.

 

[esoteric]

Took a different and slightly longer route by 1 mile to work today. Two nice long roads but a bit hilly at places compared to my normal route so it's a tougher ride and one of the roads has a nice bus/cycle. I enjoyed it and will go that way again.

 

[grudas]

trying to get back into cycling but I'll be honest.. I hate my bike! I just want something comfy-ish with fatter tyres and decent groupo.. - say 1000-1500 budget, anything that's worth looking into?

current is a sensa SLE with 105 grouppo but I'm just not feeling right on it no matter what I do. Sizing wise it's no different to my previous bikes but its just a jarring frame - alu. My previous holdsworth carbon frame was lovely compared to this even on 25mm with 100psi in them.

 

[#Chri5#]

Just been looking for a new 50t 10 speed chainring for the turbo bike. Last one I got was a 5750 105 from Wiggle for £39 and that's looking cheap for a Shimano one now. Anyone used any 3rd party ones like this?

Stronglight Dural 5083 Outer Double Chainring Shimano 9/10 Speed

Stronglight Dural 5083 Outer Double Chainring Shimano 9/10 and a Wide Range of Top Quality Cycle Parts And Accessories at Competitive Prices with Free UK Postage.

www.highonbikes.com

 

[SoliD]

Weren't gcn or someone looking for examples @Roady or road.cc for a bigger piece of action.

 

[fez]

Lovely weather for a ride today. All went a bit wrong though.

Was 4 of us at the start but we lost my mates partner early. He had put shimano spd-sl pedals on her bike but look cleats so that wasn't working. Luckily I had some spare cleats so off we went. About 200m into the ride a gear cable snapped and she called it a day.

On the three of us went and about 8km in my mates front tyre exploded. Sidewall had perished and blown on a downhill. Luckily we weren't going fast and weren't on a corner. Checked his rear tyre and that was about to blow as well. Cheapo tyres that were about a year old and probably hadn't even done 1000km. He limped home on a new inner tube because we didn't have anyone available to pick him up.

Got to the 2/3rds mark and pulled into a pub and for some reason the tyre plug I put in last ride popped out when I was wheeling the bike on some stones and I had to put another one in for the rest of the ride.

Apart from that though it was lovely weather and a fantastic route. There are few feelings that match hammering the acceleration on a good road bike and chewing up the ground at speed. Love it.