Road Cycling

Have a good ride, serves your legs right for attempting that running lark! ;)

I've got 2 choices for tomorrow and I'm torn, neither route has any particular climbs or sections I want to ride or much climbing in general. The earliest ride (Climb on Bikes) is at 9:00 and always a pain for me to mission to (40 mins to get ready and ride the 6-7 miles there after taking the other half to work), but several of the riders are guys I've ridden with regularly this year and I've not seen most of them for a month. Much of the route is around roads 'my side' of town so I've ridden them numerous times the last couple of weeks (boring!).

The second ride (ELY Race Club) leaves at 9:30 from an easier & closer start point, it'll be a quicker group ride with more riders along but much of it is along roads I rode as part of a Charity ride 4 weeks ago and know well from living south of the city last year (boring!).

I'm leaning towards the CoB route as I'll clock more miles as it's further and I'll ride further to get to the start. Get to have a catchup with the guys too (who I rode the Charity ride with). I could also extend my route back with a guy who'll probably be along and lives 4-5 miles out of town passing my house. So could clock up around ~45 miles rather than the ~35. Pace will be lower so I'll be a bit fresher next week and if I wanted to do a turbo session on sunday/monday.

Have a good weekend all!

Some of my weekend will involve removing this stuck disk caliper bolt/screw. If I go along on the CoB ride I'll get the added bonus of finishing at the shop and being able to ask one of their very experienced workshop guys what to do! ;)
 
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FrenchTart said:
You'll probably find that your cycling isn't as impacted from running as you expect. After a few miles they'll loosen up and not be too bad.
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I'm coping OK with riding to work on them, at least. Pushing off from the lights hurts, but I'll be able to manage that better when I'm out on a geared bike tomorrow!
 
I didn't do my metric in the end. As I was leaving the house my neighbour was coming out of his door about to set off for a ride and just waiting on another guy. I stuck around for a bit and went out with them. We did 46 miles with not far off 4000ft of climbing. I was familiar with most of the route, though I'd not ridden it all in that direction, and there was a stretch of 5 miles or so that I'd not ridden before which joined up two bits I was familiar with. I was on my new bike and was glad of the 32t sprocket at times as there were some pretty steep bits here and there. It was good to ride with other people for once, even just two others, as I've not been out with others in yonks.

So, shorter distance but more climbing than I'd planned. Can't complain.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1018900031
 
I think I know the answer to this before I've asked it but still... my gears shouldn't need adjusting every time I take my rear wheel off, should they? They were fine before yesterday (tyre change), well the hardest gear (smallest on the cassette), usually took a little bit 'extra' to settle into place but once it was there, it was fine :o

Just been out on a ride and now some of the gears, mid-cassette, are struggling? Any tips?

Thanks.
 
Was looking forward to finishing the week off with a nice 60 miler up to Bourton-on-the-Water today, but a mixture of hayfever and fatigue have put an end to that. Last night I did my 13 mile loop that I did when I first started, the one where I made a post saying I was annoyed that I didn't beat my time as I felt like I was smashing it. Well last night, I did that as an intended recovery ride, thought I'd do a nice and casual pace, but ended up going all out to try and smash my time, was against a nasty head wind for a lot of it but took 11 minutes off my time averaged 19mph, but I'm suffering for it today.

Streatley twice and 2 fairly long rides have done me in a bit :D It doesn't help that I'm trying to shed weight at the moment so probably not recovering as quickly as I could if I was eating above maintenance. I think I need to remember that I'm still very new to this and my eyes are bigger than my stomach in terms of the rides and miles I want to do at the moment.
 
slipd said:
I think I know the answer to this before I've asked it but still... my gears shouldn't need adjusting every time I take my rear wheel off, should they? They were fine before yesterday (tyre change), well the hardest gear (smallest on the cassette), usually took a little bit 'extra' to settle into place but once it was there, it was fine :o

Just been out on a ride and now some of the gears, mid-cassette, are struggling? Any tips?

Thanks.
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Sounds like an indexing issue, though I wouldn't expect it to happen every time you put the wheel back in.
 
slipd said:
I think I know the answer to this before I've asked it but still... my gears shouldn't need adjusting every time I take my rear wheel off, should they? They were fine before yesterday (tyre change), well the hardest gear (smallest on the cassette), usually took a little bit 'extra' to settle into place but once it was there, it was fine :o

Just been out on a ride and now some of the gears, mid-cassette, are struggling? Any tips?

Thanks.
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Do you put the bike in the car RD down? Or lean it up against the wall or do something that might physically move how the rear derailleur sits?
 
556 miles, 30,141 feet of climbing. And you know, if someone had told me I had to turn around and go back, I could have done it. I did 3 days of mountain biking around loch lomond when I got there I felt so fresh.

I think bike touring is definitely for me.
 
Anyone doing the Wales Sportive on the 8th July, or has anyone done it before? I know it will be hilly probably 8k of climbing in 112 miles, just wondering what the roads are like. Prep is going well for it, did an 89 mile ride on Saturday with 6k of climbing followed by a 23 mile run yesterday. https://www.strava.com/activities/1019157508
 
Wild Wales sportive?

Lots from my club do the Wild Wales each year and I believe the route changes each time, they have a great time though.

Wet as an otters pocket this morning :(
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
0.95*20min power wildly over estimates unless you have exceptional aerobic endurance.
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Agreed, one of the stupidest things I've done in the past is be super rested for an FTP test as all that means is your training sessions are too tough... Unless you ride/train well rested all the time (and I certainly don't!).

Roady said:
Some of my weekend will involve removing this stuck disk caliper bolt/screw. If I go along on the CoB ride I'll get the added bonus of finishing at the shop and being able to ask one of their very experienced workshop guys what to do! ;)
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Had a good ride with the Climb on guys saturday. 18 riders out so quite a big group for us (the ELY ride going on at the same time had 32 people out!). I spent an early long turn on the front into a headwind before shepherding & towing a lady who kept getting dropped for the remainder. Gave me a good excuse to put a couple of efforts into some of the climbs - annoyingly I was nailing 'Tin Hill' and some other unknown riders at the top were shouting things (asking me if I'd seen one of their group) before I'd finished the climb so I had to ease off before the summit (grr!). I had seen their missing rider (at the base of the climb). Still smashed my PR by 13 seconds (& 4th fastest this year of 142 I'm pleased with). Will have another crack at it soon! :D

When back at the shop asking some of the workshop guys what they would do about my stuck caliper bolt... They had a second hand caliper which they could do me a deal on if it came to it. Chatting to Tom he said he'd probably split the caliper rather than try drilling it out, but before that he had a 5s crack at it with a screw driver and got it undone! I'm so relieved! A few jokes about my girly attempts at unscrewing it, but he agreed it wasn't arm strength more a knack & screw driver combo. One of the other sales guys (Richie) who'd also bought a Diverge (after seeing the deal Spesh did when I bought mine) had the same problem, we surmised it was probably corrosion caused by road salt from riding over winter rather than 'rust' as we think the carrier and bolt are probably aluminium. Certainly something I'm going to be aware of in future! For the MTB calipers they have a split pin rather than a bolt, so it might be worth switching them out (they only act as a guide for the pads, not holding any tension).

TLDR; Anyone with Shimano disc calipers, be aware that certainly the BR-785's caliper the bolt can corrode in the caliper leaving it stuck. Shimano don't sell parts for many of their calipers so they're not very serviceable (& expensive!). It's easy to remove the bolts and grease the threads before you have the same issue!

Vonhelmet said:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1018900031
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Good riding & always fun to ride socially, I couldn't miss out on the social/club riding I do now!

slipd said:
I think I know the answer to this before I've asked it but still... my gears shouldn't need adjusting every time I take my rear wheel off, should they? They were fine before yesterday (tyre change), well the hardest gear (smallest on the cassette), usually took a little bit 'extra' to settle into place but once it was there, it was fine :o
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You shouldn't have to but if your cable outers are rusty/dirty and/or your gear cable is particularly old then getting indexing correct will get harder and harder with less 'margin for error'. Although your issue sounds possibly more like the rear derailleur needs a good clean/service as I don't think it sounds like it's moving very freely so is 'sticking' in places possibly causing your issues.

Steedie said:
I think I need to remember that I'm still very new to this and my eyes are bigger than my stomach in terms of the rides and miles I want to do at the moment.
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Slow and steady! Fatigue can stack up quite easily when you're excited about riding, it can be a tricky balance on doing enough training and also being rested enough before a big planned ride. I'm still rubbish at it after several years of riding ! ;)
 
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platypus said:
556 miles, 30,141 feet of climbing. And you know, if someone had told me I had to turn around and go back, I could have done it. I did 3 days of mountain biking around loch lomond when I got there I felt so fresh.

I think bike touring is definitely for me.
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Fantastic job. I'm still waiting for mine to be built, but should be starting in a few weeks. Can't wait to start putting some miles on it. Do you have the route you took? As I was looking to take the north sea cycle route from Edinburgh to back home which is a slightly longer route but I'm open to alternatives
 
Brutal headwind this morning into work, not quite what I wanted for first thing! Have avoided much rain so far today... Fingers crossed!

platypus said:
556 miles, 30,141 feet of climbing. And you know, if someone had told me I had to turn around and go back, I could have done it. I did 3 days of mountain biking around loch lomond when I got there I felt so fresh.

I think bike touring is definitely for me.
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Fantastic riding! Your day 4 looked brutal! Longest ride (91 miles) with by far the most elevation (8000ft!). Well done! :D

R0B75 said:
Its in Tenby, South Wales and part of the Long Course Weekend.
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Not heard of it, got a link to the route/name/website? I'd be able to give you an idea what the roads around Mid & West Wales are like.
 
R0B75 said:
http://www.thewalessportive.com/

Part of http://www.longcourseweekend.com/
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Mad, I've not heard of it and it's been running 8 years and 'as well as being the UK's only televised sportive'! (I grew up in mid-wales and previously worked around much of south-wales).

Unfortunately I don't know any of those roads, the only slightly known one being around Narbeth and then I only know the A road in from the A40. Although I don't recall the roads around Narbeth being particularly bad. Like much of South-Wales the roads can be quite old but in generally better condition than the broken up and 'patched' roads of England.

Although I'd note the A477 is a VERY busy road with lots of lorries and ferry traffic on it, I'd avoid it but you don't really have that option! The A4075 (which part of the route follows) you might also find busy, often people will race between Pembroke and Fishguard if a Ferry is cancelled or running behind schedule. Although they tend to get cancelled more frequently from Fishguard than Pembroke so the traffic would be going the other way. I guess much of these depends on the Ferry times and how they coincide with the Sportive time.

Your prep ride over the weekend looked superb, kudos :)
 
Roady said:
A

TLDR; Anyone with Shimano disc calipers, be aware that certainly the BR-785's caliper the bolt can corrode in the caliper leaving it stuck. Shimano don't sell parts for many of their calipers so they're not very serviceable (& expensive!). It's easy to remove the bolts and grease the threads before you have the same issue!
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Is this the retaining bolt?
 
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