So I did make it to the NFTO final closing down sale last Saturday... Changed the NFTO Black jersey I had in Large for a Medium. Grabbed another 2 Team Aero jerseys (£10 each! Castelli!
), a couple of sets of Shimano brake pads (few quid each) and some other bits. The main 'bargain' I had was the NFTO Rain jackets... A week ago I picked one up reduced down to £90 (from £180!). Well they were selling them at £20 each! I picked up another as couldn't miss out on that! I'll keep one for future. The first I bought I wore on Sunday in around 4.5 hours of rain/drizzle and it coped brilliantly. Probably should've bought a bundle of them (to flog to you guys) but I'd spent far too much money already!
Also good job on the sportive, looks like hard work!
It was brutal in those conditions! Although I felt good so with less dodgy climbs, slightly less elevation and no rain I know I'm now capable of 100 mile sportives.
My legs didn't cramp up, I had one quad twinge on one of the last climbs but stopped rather than push on which I think stopped me from cramping. As I didn't cramp up and had built up my weekly mileage previously (so the Sportive didn't take me much over my normal weekly amount) my legs actually felt ok the day after. I'm well recovered now and want to get home tonight to clean the bike and head out for an easy loop!
I've ordered one. Based on my experiences with the other I'm not expecting much but will let you know how it is. To be honest not sure if it would fit a virb... maybe just about enough room to squeeze it underneath.
Will be good to hear how you find it!
Is the virb pretty much the go to choice for on bike camera-ing? Any alternatives? It's awfully expensive is all...
Battery life is pretty good 2h30m-3 hours per battery (yes replaceable!) in 720p60. I find 1080p30 too slow a framerate when you slow a video down. Video quality isn't up there with GoPro but if you factor in price it's not bad at all. It's also a little bulky compared to a GoPro.
As mentioned the Elite isn't worth it.
I've used my VIRB to record probably ~4 hours of footage (2 hours of commuting & 2 hours of leisure) per week (a very conservative estimate) since March 2014 when I got it (got knocked off December 2013). I tend to get 3 hours out of a charge and around 10 days of 720p (ECO mode) on a 32gb card. I'm not sure if any of the GoPro's have longer battery life than the VIRB, when I got mine they didn't (grudas?).
I've picked up an external charger & spare battery and have noticed no decrease in battery life on the original battery. I did buy a cheap £18 battery from China but the capacity was much poorer than the Garmin branded ones. I lost it at some point from my saddlebag after a tyre change & I wouldn't recommend cheap batteries for it. VIRB accessories tend to be cheapest from Evans' and I think they're the only reputable place I could find that stocked the batteries.
The VIRB itself is heavy & using the Superstar combo mount (with my 810) I see lots of vibration in my footage, making it blurry on rough roads. The newer GoPro session would be much lighter than the VIRB and probably not suffer as much. GoPro's have better sound than the VIRB gen1 too (hear the newer one is better) which suffers from wind and road noise (mine picks up everything from the headset & hardly anything from ambient).
I'm happy with mine, even with it's limitations and slightly lesser quality video than the GoPro's. For the trade off you get a waterproof unit out of the box, with increased battery life and much cheaper (& so are the accessories).
Since day one'th of cycling I've been getting pretty hung up over average speed and trying to keep it up etc. but why do we when FTHR and or FTP is a much better indicator of how you're riding across most rides?
Or have I reached the point where I'm starting to take my training a little more seriously and noticing better numbers to stare at my stem for?
Probably the latter! Although FTHR and FTP are more training effort 'guides' and a measurement of effort, rather than average speed which can be vastly affected by weather conditions, traffic, roads and routes!
OMG fast!
OMG fast!
OMG slow!
No, it's been absolute crap. There has not been a single baking hot day, where it I still hot in the evenings for a longer cycle in the sun. Exactly the same as last year. Although last year was probably slightly better.
