cool - i'll take it back and see what they say. Will stick the campag zonda's back on for now as they have been superb in the 3 years i've had them
Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
cool - i'll take it back and see what they say. Will stick the campag zonda's back on for now as they have been superb in the 3 years i've had them
I guess... They didn't build the wheelset after all. I guess it really depends how much they charged for the repair... If it was 1 spoke (couple of quid) and half hour labour (£15) then fair enough. If it was the classic £45-50 many shops charge for an hour's labour then I'd expect them to check the tension of all the spokes on the wheel & possibly retension the whole thing (what it probably needs!).
/signed.If people want to be idiots then they can get on with it as long as they stay out of my way
And they shouldn't expect me to give way to them if they're not obeying the highway code. If you come off a cycle path, onto the main highway, without looking, I WILL SHOUT AT YOU.
it was 1 spoke which I supplied and £15 to fit and retention all the spokes AFAIK.
The
OK, I didn't think it relevant to bore the forum with my particular situation but here we go-
My phone is a company issue iPhone. I don't always want to be burdened with the constant ping of work emails or calls on my days off so sometimes I'll leave that phone at home and take a ratty old PAYG Nokia out with me with a PAYG international SIM that I use on overseas work trips. I don't believe said phone even has BT on it and even if it did it is irrelevant as often it isn't even switched on.
Ironically the one time I did need a phone on a ride (when some woman was pleading with me to call the Police as her husband beat seven shades out of her while she was driving along) I had no signal due to rural Norfolks patchy at best coverage.
Can't blame you for wanting to leave your work mobe at home!
There are times I wish I had an old Nokia, kinda bombproof & don't have to worry about charging them for a few days. My S5 needs a charge every 24h, there are even times I have to give it a boost mid-late afternoon otherwise it won't even last 12h. The bane of living/working in areas with patchy coverage - phone battery dies more from signal searching, than use!
Smartphones can't seem to survive without network coverage!
There are times I wish I had an old Nokia, kinda bombproof & don't have to worry about charging them for a few days. My S5 needs a charge every 24h, there are even times I have to give it a boost mid-late afternoon otherwise it won't even last 12h. The bane of living/working in areas with patchy coverage - phone battery dies more from signal searching, than use!
Smartphones can't seem to survive without network coverage!
Soldato
- Joined
- 26 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 4,168
- Location
- Norwich
Cheers for all the posts on the Elemnt - I have been reading up and it does sound very interesting - I guess I am looking for reasons to get the Garmin over it rather than trying to knock it as it sounds good - I do always have my phone on me even if as lordrobs says signal can be patchy here out in the sticks of Norfolk where it is very nice to ride!!
Something that I would be interested in is how the Strava live segments work, reason I ask is that on a ride home it was fun with my mates 520 telling me how far behind we were falling and I do like the motivation of my 'best' times etc - does it work in the same way on the Elemnt?
Something that I would be interested in is how the Strava live segments work, reason I ask is that on a ride home it was fun with my mates 520 telling me how far behind we were falling and I do like the motivation of my 'best' times etc - does it work in the same way on the Elemnt?
The stand from Amazon someone posted a link to has turned up. Took about 5 minutes to build, if that. That said I haven't worked out the front wheel holder as its started to rain. Very sturdy and well built for the £30 odd I paid, highly recommended considering most decent stands seem to be £75 plus. An essential bit of kit for basic maintenance.
It even has a little magnetic tray, neat!
Sadly it looks like a storm is brewing and I wanted to cycle up Painswick beacon, hopefully tomorrow evening!
It even has a little magnetic tray, neat!
Sadly it looks like a storm is brewing and I wanted to cycle up Painswick beacon, hopefully tomorrow evening!
That looks like my ebay stand. Still does a great job and I haven't exactly looked after it.
I actually found a photo from the sportive that I wanted. Shelling out £7.50 for a digital file got my pulse racing faster than the ride did though
4 travel vaccination injections today and I feel a bit delicate so my plan for a nice evening ride has gone out of the window
I actually found a photo from the sportive that I wanted. Shelling out £7.50 for a digital file got my pulse racing faster than the ride did though
4 travel vaccination injections today and I feel a bit delicate so my plan for a nice evening ride has gone out of the window
- Joined
- 16 May 2005
- Posts
- 31,297
- Location
- Manchester
Just got back to Manchester, woot. Will write up my ride experience soon.
Though to summarise it just with the word "pain" might be enough...
Though to summarise it just with the word "pain" might be enough...
Pub Club tonight with few mates, somehow after a day of 30c or so, it managed to rain, luckily hid under tress less than a mile from the pub, but it was a wise decision. Great evening even with that rain, and good to get out for some more chilled riding, still got in a good 32 miles though!
https://www.strava.com/activities/687740902
https://www.strava.com/activities/687740902
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Sounds a bit like my ride... though it was tough because I'm slow and fat.
https://www.strava.com/activities/687733094
https://www.strava.com/activities/687733094
Like the one on top?
I guess you mean buy it separately... not sure about that.
- Joined
- 16 May 2005
- Posts
- 31,297
- Location
- Manchester
Okay. So, definitely the hardest ride I've done yet. Actually, up to the 250 mile point me and uv were discussing how we were far less ruined than when we did the unsupported 209 mile ride.... Then, what happened..happened
First off was the weather. Predicted horrendous rain and winds were super accurate. As was the announcer at the start - "It's forecast as being rain and 20mph headwinds on the trip down towards London - but that's only for the first 200 miles or so". It was really beyond anything I've ridden in before (and I've ridden in some horrendous conditions). Constant rain, flooded roads, headwinds so strong that even early in when 8+ riders deep back in the peleton you could feel it. Then there was the side wind in the exposed areas too. Riding at a 45 degree angle was the norm. From what I've heard the quickest riders were 2 hours behind those on previous years due to how horrendous it was. Similarly, only about 50% of riders actually completed
Then the pace. We made the somewhat rookie mistake of thinking it wouldn't be a big deal to start off "wherever" in the 9:00 group - which meant near the very back. It took almost an hour to catch up to the lead group and myself and uv burnt a ton of matches bridging gaps (and with a huge amount of those attempts being foiled by red lights at the last minute). Pace was kept pretty damn fast throughout with the lead group. The pace riders were absolute monsters and although they kept things doable most of us in the lead group were pretty much on the edge from the third segment onward.
So... the route. Mostly A roads as you'd expect. Not my favourite way to ride, especially in ropey conditions but at least the large amount of riders helped us kind of control the roads.
And...the riders. I saw tons of very dodgy manoeuvres early on but around stage 3 the pace rider really picked things up for 20 miles and made everyone cry a bit This had the advantage of really breaking up the 22 and 24 hour pace groups and essentially left only the more experienced riders in a peleton of 20-30. Things got a lot safer after that.
So, that was the background I guess. The whole thing was pretty damn hard with all the weather and such factored in. Sleep deprivation certainly didn't help as we went into the early hours of the morning. Actually quite a lot easier to deal with than I remembered (from my more "rum" days of youth) but it wasn't really until today that I felt normal again after.
A few things were quite annoying: Main one was the utter ********* that screwed up the fast group on the penultimate leg. The pace riders both dropped off to deal with punctures - they left instructions with the remaining riders on the front to not go too crazy...which they then ignored and promptly went at absolutely ludicrous speeds. The pace riders couldn't get back on and me and uv only managed to hold on for 35 or so of the 50 miles. Others in the group fell off at various times before and after us too. The gimps that did this and essentially ruined the whole thing were then told to make their own way to the end (which they did, and managed a decent time ahead of us..so yeah, they were strong riders..just utter gimps). None of us realised this was going on at the time btw - just when we arrived at the final rest stop to find the weird atmosphere and post-drama discussion.
Final results for me and uv were reasonable - better than expected but far below the top 15 we were due to finish in right up until 5 miles before the end of the ride - where one of our group's RD exploded and we waited for 30 minutes whilst he failed to get his bike going a few times then eventually shortened the chain so he could ride it single speed. It was pretty gutting to see two large groups go past us whilst we were waiting but...none of us were the kind of **** person that would leave someone behind in that situation so...it happened. Still wish that it hadn't happened of course but a final result of 58 and a 23.5 hour finishing time isn't too shabby (in reality this should've been just under 23 hours): http://newcastle2london.livetrail.net/coureur.php?rech=Cartwright
Oh yes, Garmins..how cack they were. Mine turned off twice and lost big swathes of the recording. uv's died right before the last stage and deleted his ride. Utter cack. So, my recording is missing about 4 miles (and 50 miles of it is just a straight line rather than the actual route but...cba fixing it). Many others had similar issues.
So, glad to have done it. Hated doing it Recording dodgy but still nice to have a big number next to longest ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/683353714
If anyone fancies belatedly sponsoring me it's here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/David-Crying-On-A-Bike or you could even sponsor uv, as long as he doesn't end up getting more than me
: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/IanBaron300
First off was the weather. Predicted horrendous rain and winds were super accurate. As was the announcer at the start - "It's forecast as being rain and 20mph headwinds on the trip down towards London - but that's only for the first 200 miles or so". It was really beyond anything I've ridden in before (and I've ridden in some horrendous conditions). Constant rain, flooded roads, headwinds so strong that even early in when 8+ riders deep back in the peleton you could feel it. Then there was the side wind in the exposed areas too. Riding at a 45 degree angle was the norm. From what I've heard the quickest riders were 2 hours behind those on previous years due to how horrendous it was. Similarly, only about 50% of riders actually completed
Then the pace. We made the somewhat rookie mistake of thinking it wouldn't be a big deal to start off "wherever" in the 9:00 group - which meant near the very back. It took almost an hour to catch up to the lead group and myself and uv burnt a ton of matches bridging gaps (and with a huge amount of those attempts being foiled by red lights at the last minute). Pace was kept pretty damn fast throughout with the lead group. The pace riders were absolute monsters and although they kept things doable most of us in the lead group were pretty much on the edge from the third segment onward.
So... the route. Mostly A roads as you'd expect. Not my favourite way to ride, especially in ropey conditions but at least the large amount of riders helped us kind of control the roads.
And...the riders. I saw tons of very dodgy manoeuvres early on but around stage 3 the pace rider really picked things up for 20 miles and made everyone cry a bit
This had the advantage of really breaking up the 22 and 24 hour pace groups and essentially left only the more experienced riders in a peleton of 20-30. Things got a lot safer after that. So, that was the background I guess. The whole thing was pretty damn hard with all the weather and such factored in. Sleep deprivation certainly didn't help as we went into the early hours of the morning. Actually quite a lot easier to deal with than I remembered (from my more "rum" days of youth
) but it wasn't really until today that I felt normal again after.A few things were quite annoying: Main one was the utter ********* that screwed up the fast group on the penultimate leg. The pace riders both dropped off to deal with punctures - they left instructions with the remaining riders on the front to not go too crazy...which they then ignored and promptly went at absolutely ludicrous speeds. The pace riders couldn't get back on and me and uv only managed to hold on for 35 or so of the 50 miles. Others in the group fell off at various times before and after us too. The gimps that did this and essentially ruined the whole thing were then told to make their own way to the end (which they did, and managed a decent time ahead of us..so yeah, they were strong riders..just utter gimps). None of us realised this was going on at the time btw - just when we arrived at the final rest stop to find the weird atmosphere and post-drama discussion.
Final results for me and uv were reasonable - better than expected but far below the top 15 we were due to finish in right up until 5 miles before the end of the ride - where one of our group's RD exploded and we waited for 30 minutes whilst he failed to get his bike going a few times then eventually shortened the chain so he could ride it single speed. It was pretty gutting to see two large groups go past us whilst we were waiting but...none of us were the kind of **** person that would leave someone behind in that situation so...it happened. Still wish that it hadn't happened of course but a final result of 58 and a 23.5 hour finishing time isn't too shabby (in reality this should've been just under 23 hours): http://newcastle2london.livetrail.net/coureur.php?rech=Cartwright
Oh yes, Garmins..how cack they were. Mine turned off twice and lost big swathes of the recording. uv's died right before the last stage and deleted his ride. Utter cack. So, my recording is missing about 4 miles (and 50 miles of it is just a straight line rather than the actual route but...cba fixing it). Many others had similar issues.
So, glad to have done it. Hated doing it
Recording dodgy but still nice to have a big number next to longest ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/683353714If anyone fancies belatedly sponsoring me it's here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/David-Crying-On-A-Bike or you could even sponsor uv, as long as he doesn't end up getting more than me
: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/IanBaron300
Ride 300 miles eating french bread? Interesting...
Some of the Sportive 'extras' are an absolute joke. Heard of one where you had to pay extra for food stops & a drink at the end!I actually found a photo from the sportive that I wanted. Shelling out £7.50 for a digital file got my pulse racing faster than the ride did though
4 travel vaccination injections today and I feel a bit delicate so my plan for a nice evening ride has gone out of the window
Going anywhere nice?
Forum job lot of ELEMNTS?
Awesome ride regardless mate, probably the 'biggest' we've seen here considering it was open roads & those conditions! Interesting writeup, sounds like you needed a pace-group rather than just a couple of riders. As well as some roving support to deal with things like that RD. Idiots will always be idiots - I bet they'll put some rules in place to stop that happening next year!
Glad you've got the stand, actually quite jealous as my 'Jobsworth' is slightly unstable with it's 2 legs and doesn't have a magnetic tray...
Are you going to catch the ToB anywhere, think it goes very near you as goes through Gloucester and then heads south? I'm in 2 minds - I can either head to Builth Wells to catch the end of stage 4 (there is also a sportive in the day which finishes at the finishline which could be fun!). My original option was to ride down to Gloucester the day after and catch it somethere there at the roadside. Some of the club guys had mentioned it but I've not got the legs to do both!