Road Cycling

[Roady]

Decided to go for the Spatz Pro 2 overshoes... Will post a review once I have gone swimming with them on.

Interested in how you find them!

Really like my Roadman 2 but really glad I went for M/L and not S/M (being an EU42 I should be S/M). They're a bit of a faff to get on (although not as bad as Velotoze!) so can see how people damage them. There's a knack to it and you really can't put them on in a hurry. The smaller size would be even worse! They but do stay in place really well. I've not ridden in any torrential downpours to report about, but several showers and lots of surface water/large puddles of standing water. Really good. You do get 'moist' feet/shins from them, but you're warm and feet are 'dry'. It's condensation from sweat, not moisture from outside!

Although I've worn them for several wet commutes, I would've been mostly ok in 'normal' overshoes so they where not worth the time taken to put them on (at a guess 5+ minutes) for my ~8-10 minute commute. I carried them for several weeks waiting for heavy rain, generally for the Nursery commute (half hour) and we didn't have any... Had plenty the week(s) before!

 

[Jonny ///M]

Not surprising with those efforts/speeds! Good stuff!

That [URL='https://www.strava.com/activities/3031926784/analysis/3130/3585']fairly long drag/climb up Greenlees/Nerson towards E.Kilbride[/URL] must be a killer after a session like that! :o

Haha I actively avoid Greenlees Road mate.

Tbh, I was destroyed by the sprint but on the way up that I could have pushed on. Gary was spent. Poor lad.

I don't have any long stamina but the pressure I could keep on the pedals seems better than usual. Maybe there is something to be said for just eat bags on your back and/or trailers with kids

 

[Berger]

Not sure I could work in a bike shop... I am sure every day would go like this!

My dad rides an old Giant Defy Alliance, I bought it second hand in 2010/2011 and gave it him in 2013/2014. He rides a lot, I crashed it once and he has too.

Anyway the freehub died on the wheels, Shimano RS500. So he bought some new cheap Shimano RS100 from CRC and a new chain/cassette, it only runs Sora 9 speed so super cheap. Brings it over.

Headset bearings need replacing. Recommended he gets it done.

Rear brake doesn’t spring back when releasing lever. Free’d it up and recommended rebuild or replace and new cable.

He bought a 30T cassette which just fits, adjust B limit screw, but either the mech or hanger are twisted and it doesn’t contact and adjust properly.

Fit new cassette and wheels, adjust brakes. Come to fit chain, it’s a cheap shimano and uses a master link pin not a quick link, what a faff for what must be 25p saving.

Don’t want to turn into a full time mech! I’d do the headset for him but flat out at work and with the million different standards take a few days to source the right one.

 

[Jonny ///M]

Haha bike shop life.

I need to find a tiny bolt for a remote lockout cable stop as one snapped today and has to use heat to get the rest out.

The chain the customer had fitted wasn't joined correctly, jockey wheel missing one of the spacers and the mech /hanger bent to hell.

The pads the customer had fitted were the wrong model so they rocked back and forth when you braked.

Had to hacksaw a rear mech off a steel wilier as it was seized solid at the b pivot.

I don't know how they get so bad before they come into the shop.

Blowtorch and big hammer is out every day at this time of year.


I don't look after my bike much or wash it but it never seems to get as bad as customer bikes.

 

[Saytan]

I don't look after my bike much or wash it but it never seems to get as bad as customer bikes.

i learned a lot of my stuff overseeing the volunteer workshop at a bike recycling/reuse charity.

I think the highlight was a guy who's downtube had cracked on an elderly steel peugeot so he cut it out and used a steel cable wrapped around the headtube and BB to stop the frame collapsing as he rode around town on it for 6 months....

 

[Roady]

Haha I actively avoid Greenlees Road mate.

Haha yeah I can see now - you PR'd those segments, but no award, so 'first' time Strava has seen you ride up there!

Should've pushed on, only gotta go up there more than twice as quick to take Ross' KOM!

I’d do the headset for him but flat out at work and with the million different standards take a few days to source the right one.

They're an absolute frigging nightmare ain't they!

Even with the crane creek headset finder thing to identify mine by frame/year the IS numbers it gives are hardly used anywhere on the actual damn websites selling the bearings... So have to build up your understanding of the measurements, then interpret them when identifying bearings from what little scattered info there is on the sellers pages.

Doesn't help me that Specialized are utterly useless about providing this kinda 'technical' information about their products, they try and push everything out to the LBS to deal with (and all they end up doing is taking them out the frame to see what they are...!)

I don't know how they get so bad before they come into the shop.

Blowtorch and big hammer is out every day at this time of year.

I don't look after my bike much or wash it but it never seems to get as bad as customer bikes.

Ignorance is bliss for most of them! Have guys around here who I'd consider as regular club riders of several years who can't index their gears/change their inner cables.

I got blasted on one club fb group for posting a link to cheap conti tyres several months back (remember it?) about how 'they' don't shop anywhere else than the LBS the club is 'sponsored' by. Actual guy from the shop messaged me saying thanks as the price was cheaper than he could even get them for from his supplier!

For me I'll always try to do my own maintance/repairs. Just part of riding/commuting all weathers as far as I'm concerned! LBS only gets me when I've had a damn good couple of goes at something myself!

I think the highlight was a guy who's downtube had cracked on an elderly steel peugeot so he cut it out and used a steel cable wrapped around the headtube and BB to stop the frame collapsing as he rode around town on it for 6 months...

WTF! Haha, think I recall you mentioning that one before now actually, still hillarious!

 

[Roady]

Forgot to mention... Commute home from Nursery last night with the 'new' Chariot. It's 7.5kg heavier than the old (11.6kg->19.1kg), so we're affectionately calling it the 'Tank'.

https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bi...railers/bellelli-bike-taxi-child-bike-trailer

It's got 20" wheels (previous where 16") so actually rolls quite well, feeling quick on the flat but that's probably due to the better tyres and momentum than anything else. Sure enough once the couple of drags/short climbs came I could feel the difference! Commute taking around ~5 mins longer than usual for maybe 5% more effort... Very little wind around, when there is I have a feeling I'm really going to suffer with this thing (as I'm generally riding West/North-West and that's generally a headwind)...! It's large enough for 2 kids (we're not gonna have another!) but also is more than suitable for our little guy getting bigger. It can carry upto 35kg (wtf!). One trick I missed is now there's enough room to put my commute rucksack in there with little man so I can avoid getting as sweaty a back as I'm used to...!

One thing I've not done but considering. On Strava you can set a Bike's 'weight' under it's details, has anyone done this and seen it calculate calorie burn/TSS/IF/effort etc differently? Just wonder if it's worth doing. I know 'power is power' but if riding with substationally more weight (an additional 35kg at least) it's worth doing?

 

[merlin]

How's everyone's winter training going?

Noticed my Strava fitness chart showing a pretty flat/steady last few months, all ready for a bump up in effort over the coming 5 or 6 weeks or so:

 

[Roady]

Sharepoint images on your work sharepoint buddy, so not public viewable! I tend to snip (snipping tool) then save and dump into imgur as that's nice and quick (drag & drop) while also giving you an instant BBCode copy & paste to the image (so you don't even need to use the button here).

Good work getting an upward curve going! I wish mine was the same. #violins

Spoiler

As I missed a good ride over the weekend I've kinda settled into a steady line the last couple of weeks... Really need a bit more volume with this TdZ I'd be heading back to where I should be - much like my riding!

I do get the chance to ride with the club this saturday so lets hope the weather plays ball... I've not looked that far ahead yet!

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

@Thomas. PLease. Spotted Kwaitkowski is out there training from base near Mogan, so asked the question on an activity of his - Looks like the motorway tunnel is 'safe' from Mogan but technically 'forbidden' for cyclists, so imagine use the hard shoulder. Although a ferry ride to start the day does seem nice too! They must be more regular with the road closed?!

Not sure you can, without buying just the spider? Or is that what you meant? They're some weird 107BCD.


So well worth checking your cranks if you don't know... Although the article kinda hints/indicate you can't it's from 2016/17 unless you're using Specialized cranks and get that spider. The actual wording indicates you kinda can with the 8bolt being 'Quarq Ready cranks'.

The Quarq site doesn't even list the standard Dzero spider or Quarq with cranks anymore, everything seems to be DUB & AXS.

Seems good info here on WW: https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=143627&start=30

Not surprising with those efforts/speeds! Good stuff!

That fairly long drag/climb up Greenlees/Nerson towards E.Kilbride must be a killer after a session like that!

I think quite a few of the Ineos lot are out there at the moment, froome as well. We've got a couple of hire cars so might be that we just drive the road and park the other side with the bikes on board.

 

[NotAGolf]

Has anyone who started commuting regretted it due to it spoiling their enjoyment of ‘normal’ cycling? Maybe the extra miles resulted in extra aches and pains which stopped you going out as much for enjoyment, or perhaps the extra miles just made you enjoy cycling less?

 

[Roady]

I think quite a few of the Ineos lot are out there at the moment, froome as well. We've got a couple of hire cars so might be that we just drive the road and park the other side with the bikes on board.

That might be the easiest/safest. See what the road is like and how you feel about heading out on the hard shoulder for half a mile. If you're early you'll probably be ok - but that screws you later if you get back in the afternoon, it's busy and the car isn't the 'right' side!

Kwait is still there and some comments make me think G is/was there too. But think Froome has gone elsewhere now - he tends to train with Puccio and he is back in Monaco (2 days ago).

Has anyone who started commuting regretted it due to it spoiling their enjoyment of ‘normal’ cycling? Maybe the extra miles resulted in extra aches and pains which stopped you going out as much for enjoyment, or perhaps the extra miles just made you enjoy cycling less?

I certainly get more aches and pains from commuting, there are times I'll ride the commute more conservative to save some energy for Zwift that night, or like today I'll try and ride my Nursery pickup later at tempo so I'm carrying less fatigue as I want to go on a club social tomorrow. If the weather was forecast bad tomorrow I'd ride today harder, knowing tomorrow is a rest day (as I'd then generally plan to ride a big ride on Zwift on sunday instead).

But I also get a good amount of 'base' miles and fitness from commuting. It keeps me ticking over, doing ~30 miles a week without anything else. Which in turn allows me to enjoy my riding more as I have a low continuous base of fitness without having to 'work/ride' for it. But then, commuting is what got me into riding and I was doing it for 'transport' quite a bit before I really began to enjoy it/ride for leisure/with the club(s)...

Certainly this type of autumn/winter weather (rain & strong winds) can take the 'shine' off. There's some weeks I've got wet 4 or 5 times (or more) commuting and chosen not to ride on a wet weekends because of it. If I'd been in the dry all week I might have otherwise chosen to ride in the wet.

 

[merlin]

Sharepoint images on your work sharepoint buddy, so not public viewable! I tend to snip (snipping tool) then save and dump into imgur as that's nice and quick (drag & drop) while also giving you an instant BBCode copy & paste to the image (so you don't even need to use the button here).

Thanks for the tip Roady - I was convinced I could host pics off my sharepoint - learn something new every day!

 

[Roady]

No worries. Tends to need a bit of tweaking to get Sharepoint hosted stuff publicly viewable, then you get the worry of just how much exposure things can get by having public sharepoint files... We had a few we setup for training guides and the amount of crazy traffic they got (for the 4-5 users we'd set it up for outside our AD) we made sure we pulled it (and got them within the AD so they could get on the internal SP). Just too scetchy!

Now playing around with Teams, it could've been better & easier to do it that way. Meh.
(new O365 implementation, so only just 'discovering' all these things!).

I used to love how easy it was to setup Dropbox and have a public folder on that, then just drop any .JPG I wanted in there and use the public link. But they pulled that a while ago and I've not found a replacement. Imgur is almost as quick & simple, but just be wary of putting anything too identifiable up there as once it's up that's it, it's 'gone' out of your control!

 

[SoliD]

Has anyone who started commuting regretted it due to it spoiling their enjoyment of ‘normal’ cycling? Maybe the extra miles resulted in extra aches and pains which stopped you going out as much for enjoyment, or perhaps the extra miles just made you enjoy cycling less?

Nope, I think I have made it such a part of my daily life now it is just part and parcel of it like the previous drive was. I've gone from 1 or 2 days a week up to 4 or 5 most weeks all year round now, but still love my normal cycling as it's more of a release when I go off road or out for a big ride with the club at the weekend. Yes it can be stressful but no more stressful than driving the car/sitting in traffic and only adds another 10-15 mins on each end of the day for me if I go direct.

 

[Roady]

How's everyone's winter training going?

Noticed my Strava fitness chart showing a pretty flat/steady last few months, all ready for a bump up in effort over the coming 5 or 6 weeks or so:

Nice quite steady graph you have there. Are those dots (and corresponding red bars) Elevate/Stavastix?

My graph is much more choppy/all over the place when looking at a whole years data. I tend to only really be looking at 6 months (as 3 months is a little too sparse). I also have Form off, as it's pretty meaningless without structuring training/TSS towards an event... Which I do none of. I always feel like I'm always struggling to ride as much as I need/want to without any tapering!



Even now, you can see the more intense and slightly more regular Zwift sessions from the TDZ the last few weeks have helped me only stabilise a slow downward curve (generally caused by illness - you can see the 2 main dips). Fingers crossed I can get that going back upwards!

Nope, I think I have made it such a part of my daily life.

Pretty much how I/we consider it now. Commuting is part of daily life and 'going to work'. I actually prefer it to the car, it takes me only a few minutes more. I get to work in 10 minutes rather than 8! The wellbeing/alertness side of it are also huge boosts, while it saves us money and allows us to just have 1 small car (with hardly any running/maintenance costs as it's only used for 'leisure'). I also tell myself I'm allowed my vices if I continue riding my commute - snacks/beer/whatever along with kinda eating what I want without any real 'guilt'.

What does help is that last time we moved house we considered where we bought in relation to both our works and commutes. Meant we bought out of town, got far more for our money and I ended up with a really short commute. The other half is easily one of the main roads into the centre of town which generally keeps moving better than the others. It' just a nicer/quieter place to be on our bikes which really makes the commute an 'easy' and more enjoyable choice. She might ride a mile or two further (6-7 mile commute) but it's quicker than the previous 4 mile as there's less junctions/stationary traffic & lights.

 

[merlin]

Nice quite steady graph you have there. Are those dots (and corresponding red bars) Elevate/Stavastix?

The dots are either track races or sportives or occasionally just a ride out where I've made a point of just going absolutely balls out race pace. I think if you select race when you upload to Strava it marks the calendar/fitness graphs in this way.

 

[Adam-r]

How's everyone's winter training going?

Noticed my Strava fitness chart showing a pretty flat/steady last few months, all ready for a bump up in effort over the coming 5 or 6 weeks or so:

mine going pretty well. Didn’t ride for 10 weeks before Christmas. So far this year I’m maybe 2kg down and getting some decent Zwift sessions in.

 

[Shimmyhill]

No worries. Tends to need a bit of tweaking to get Sharepoint hosted stuff publicly viewable, then you get the worry of just how much exposure things can get by having public sharepoint files... We had a few we setup for training guides and the amount of crazy traffic they got (for the 4-5 users we'd set it up for outside our AD) we made sure we pulled it (and got them within the AD so they could get on the internal SP). Just too scetchy!

Now playing around with Teams, it could've been better & easier to do it that way. Meh.
(new O365 implementation, so only just 'discovering' all these things!).

I used to love how easy it was to setup Dropbox and have a public folder on that, then just drop any .JPG I wanted in there and use the public link. But they pulled that a while ago and I've not found a replacement. Imgur is almost as quick & simple, but just be wary of putting anything too identifiable up there as once it's up that's it, it's 'gone' out of your control!

You can still use Dropbox to embed photos here etc..

 

[Jonny ///M]

Good looking bike that. Bit of everything.

I may have a new bike coming soon, will try not to crash it