Road Cycling

haha I mean, I could get one... since you know, Canyon. But I figured I wouldn't mind building another. It's quite fun and gives me a little project to build up for it. Really enjoyed building up the Scott, so figured I'd do it again. Since the wife OK'd it, I'm running with it :D yet, I think if a whole bike turned up in her head that's different haha I can drip feed parts in and she'll be grand with it.
 
https://www.strava.com/activities/1872732902

Good group ride on saturday, my first for a while. Only 3 of us turned up for the usual so we headed over to one of the other clubs to ride with them. Around 25 riders in total out so split into 2 groups, headed out with the slow group and the winds where bitter! Good social speedy ride out to Pencombe. Just as we where coming up to the junction before the climb the 'fast' group caught us, some big watts going up the climb and I'd hung onto them and smashed my PR by nearly 30s. Not bad considering my lack of mileage and decreasing fitness so far this year! With the 2 groups spread all over the place and the pace of the front group kicking up over the top I eased up to ride with the slower guys, 6 of us forming a much easier chatty group on the way back to town. Good fun & as social as a 'saturday social' should be - the front group swelling to ~12 riders had turned into a fairly unsocial smashfest on the way back! :o :rolleyes:

Shadowness said:
It's getting to that time of dressing for winter in the morning, and summer in the afternoon!
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It's been like that for 2 weeks already! :p

Shamrock said:
I'm now running tubeless tyres on my Bowman commuter.

Let's hope I don't live to regret the decision to go tubeless!:D
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Which did you go with, why and how did you find mounting on your Hunts? Many questions but I'm really just after your experience/thoughts with what tubeless kit you went with :)

I've held off making much inroads into tubeless and with 2*28mm GP4Seasons sat on my shelf had kinda considered I'd go that route rather than the 2*£50 + £20 tubless kit route. Yet when chatting at the weekend one of the shop guys reminded me that the Specialized Roubaix Pro tyres in a 30/32 are '2bliss ready' (Specialiseds Tubeless branding). He knows I rode the 25/28 Roubaix Pro the last 2 winters (came with my Diverge and he owns the same model) but the smaller width are not '2bliss'. The shop have the 30/32 For £31 per tyre, so they're immediately interesting as if I where to sell the 4Seasons I'd also then pretty much cover the cost of the Stans tubeless kit. #winning

Only qualms I have are them actually mounting as I only have a track pump and a handful of co2's. Hmm.

garnett said:
Got my "2018 UPDATE SPEXCEL CYCLING BIB SHORTS Training or race cycling bottom with Italy high density 3D cut pad free shipping" yesterday.

Meh.

I suspect that a £25 bib from Decathlon would be comparable.
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Great review, thanks for sharing! :)

Armageus said:
Or maybe just a generic "Cycling clothing" thread/sticky?
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I'm sure we had one a while ago, think it was named 'gear recommendations?' or such.

Shamrock said:
This forum needs some new emojis to respond to this.:D
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:phwooar:

xdcx said:
That's one way to make a 30 year old MAN feel like a boy :( Even worse is that I reckon I could actually get myself into their XXS suit..... would be right tight like.
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You need to eat more battered mars bars.

SoliD said:
How do I get the 750W upgrade.
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New coach? ;)

lordrobs said:
I've read loads of people saying not to buy Chinese lights because of just this then go on to mention buying an Exposure which as far as I can tell have no beam shaping either, or at least not from the point of view of dazzling motorists. The German standard lights therefore seem the way to go but then these have really poor light output. Fine for lit roads, not great for my purposes. So is there anything I can get that isn't silly money? I'm almost tempted to run two lights and just switch off my main one when a car is coming but that is a chore without a remote.
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I previously ran Cateye front lights, Volt100, Volt400 and finally Volt800. Obviously being German they conformed to the German standards. When the 800 died under warranty I used it to 'upgrade' to the Exposure Race mk11 as I'd found 800 lumen Cateye not enough in miserable weather/fog. Really pleased with it. Beam pattern seems very similar to Cateye - I'd be very surprised if it didn't conform to EU standards (if maybe not German). I love Exposure lights! Really converted from Cateye, mostly due to build and battery quality.

Running my Race on a medium setting, so the full beam is around 1500 lumen and the dip around 1000-1200 lumen. I've found that more than enough, even with snow/sleet/fog and the battery life easily lasting me a week of commuting (20*10-15 min rides) with a weekend 2-3 hour with it running on low (500-600 lumen). I went with the Race, as although marked as a MTB light, it's far cheaper than the Strada, can go brighter and on medium modes has equal/better battery life. Would recommend getting the remote switch, although I've had mine for 2 winters I've never got one and always meant to. The button is easy to use in winter gloves (obviously easy enough that I've not bought a switch yet). Mount is great, charge takes a while but with a mains plug fast enough. It won't fully charge from flat via USB in a day at work (9 hours) but will with the mains plug in 2-3 hours.

randomshenans said:
I see them as things that, as above, enable people to do things they couldn't before. Like old people.
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*childish sniggers*

randomshenans said:
Then what are people using wheel wise?
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I love my Zipps but €600-800 possibly out of your budget. I would recommend the Hunts as an alternative and half of me regrets paying twice the price on my Zipps when everyone I've spoken to owning Hunts loves them. Getting the Aero-wide would've given me similar.

xdcx said:
So yet again we are getting even less in terms of "perks" for our VERY overpriced membership to BC but the cost of said membership is not reducing in line with them lowering the value of the "perks".
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Same. Hardly surprising they need to line their pockets more while Sterling is tanking against the Euro. I've been really lax about my BC membership the last couple of years (partly due to a lack of 'perks' that I use, others due to the clubs I ride with being overpriced/no bothered about membership unless you race with them). Just tend to 'buy' it when I want a 10% CRC code lol.
 
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Roady said:
Which did you go with, why and how did you find mounting on your Hunts?
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I went for 25mm Hutchinson Fusion5 11Storm All-Season tyres based on recommendation and filled them with Orange Seal sealant. My colleague mounted the first one to show me and then I did the second. It wasn't too bad at all actually and I didn't even need to use an Airshot - a track pump did the trick on its own.

DYskeuX.jpg
 
God damn that's looking good now! And I don't normally like black/stealth frames! :D

How did you black the guard stays?

Not sure if it's just the angle, but pedal looks very close to the floor :o
 
I was looking at the hunts tbh, might get them for me and Chinese ones for the wife :D

So might have just offered someone a lowish offer for a SRAM CX1 groupset on ebay and they just bloody accepted lol oops! Doesn't come with cranks but both DRs, shifters/ levers and brakes. So that's one thing down :o
 
Roady said:
God damn that's looking good now! And I don't normally like black/stealth frames! :D

How did you black the guard stays?

Not sure if it's just the angle, but pedal looks very close to the floor :o
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Looks good but rides like a tank relative to my Bianchi.:(

I used a uni-ball oil marker than can write on metal to black the stays.

It might just be the angle but I have actually struck the pedal tightly cornering once so far.:o
 
randomshenans said:
haha I mean, I could get one... since you know, Canyon. But I figured I wouldn't mind building another. It's quite fun and gives me a little project to build up for it. Really enjoyed building up the Scott, so figured I'd do it again. Since the wife OK'd it, I'm running with it :D yet, I think if a whole bike turned up in her head that's different haha I can drip feed parts in and she'll be grand with it.
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https://www.canyon.com/en/road/inflite/f-inflite-cf-slx.html
 
randomshenans said:
Would anyone recommend another groupset, or options? would be interested in opinions!
Then what are people using wheel wise?

Fanks!
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I recently tried to ride home from Edinburgh to London bike packing. I've got Hope wheels on my touring bike with a shed load of spokes so they can handle the extra weight should I use panniers. I have a dyno hub built into the front wheel which was used to keep the Elemt Bolt charged up while using the turn by turn Nav as turn by turn saps the battery or so I am told, plus the hub can power the Supernova dyno front light if need be.

Like you I went with mechanical as it would be a lot eaier to fix should anything go wrong parts wise. Not really an issue for Europe but I was planning on doing something more remote in the future.
 
Ah that's good thinking! Would be great to have something like that to charge as I went. Started a new thread just to keep it all in one place. I'll no doubt ask a ton of Qs while I try and get myself prepared :D
 
Shamrock said:
Looks good but rides like a tank relative to my Bianchi.:(

I used a uni-ball oil marker than can write on metal to black the stays.

It might just be the angle but I have actually struck the pedal tightly cornering once so far.:o
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It's not built to be a race/climbing machine! Still worrying you've grounded a pedal, think thats the pedals/shoes or the BB really is that low slung on that size!? :o

randomshenans said:
You're a bad man.
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:D:D:D

Why a gravel bike anyhow? Got a route in mind? It doesn't sound that hilly according to what Googlemaps plotted me. 763km, 1200m ascent.
 
Just my quick 2 cents...

You want a new bike so it's more comfortable... So you're buying a chinese knockoff/open mould frame and wheels, yet spending on the components which won't really have much bearing on multiple days riding comfort (except saddle). ;)

Also when you already own some good Canyon frames. I'd say the Ultimate will be more comfortable than either of those frames, especially if you fitted 28mm tyres on it.

But that's me, trying to get the best for myyour money! :cool:
 
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