Would love to get a tow mounted bike rack so I could take bikes to france with us easily but its about £1000 to get one fitted to our car an integrated with the electronics, then you have to buy the rack and we're not even sure how long this car is going to be with us because its a bit of a nightmare and might be binned off for another one soon. Roof mounted is such a faff though.
Road Cycling
- Thread starter FrenchTart
- Start date
I already have a boot rack and have had towbars on my previous 3 cars for it.
Current car is on lease and whilst I have permission to put a towbar on it, that comes to £700 from a good specialist. Main dealer prices were silly - £1175 for a detachable and £1500 for a folding towbar! Worse case the car goes back in November, best case I can extend for another year. Either way, if you do cost per use, it's not cheap...
Not a fan of roof solutions ever since I watched somebody go under a car park height barrier with bikes on the roof
In case anyone wants to nerd out. Really interesting IMO.
escapecollective.com
If you don't care about all the setup and want to go to the conclusions (albeit rather long conclusions too!), search for "Lesson 1 - Pressure matters more than tyre width"
The temperature results were especially interesting. Explains why I am just much faster in the summer. Well, 1.5km/hr faster maybe.
Introducing Escape tyre testing: Get ready to rethink accepted wisdom
Our detailed real-world test protocol challenges rules of thumb about width and pressure and reveals a long-overlooked factor in rolling resistance.
escapecollective.com
If you don't care about all the setup and want to go to the conclusions (albeit rather long conclusions too!), search for "Lesson 1 - Pressure matters more than tyre width"
The temperature results were especially interesting. Explains why I am just much faster in the summer. Well, 1.5km/hr faster maybe.
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Soldato
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What's the jist of it? Locked behind sign up thing which I CBA with.
Broadly speaking its thats we are probably running pressures too low if we are optimising for speed purely when we are using these online tyre pressure calculators. Obviously speed is reliant on power and if you're uncomfortable you might be slower over 2-3 hours even if your rolling resistance is lower.
Temperature made a much bigger difference than I realised as well. Warmer conditions obviously better than cold. This was accounting for air density and everything else as well so that the tyre was isolated as the location of change.
Author seemed to think that we might see more temperature/seasonal tyres being made for the pros. ie. a summer tyre for 30 degree heats, autumn tyre for temperatures below 15 etc.
Makes sense to me. I went to a few events at the commonwealth games when it was up on the Gold Coast a few years back. They cranked up the heat inside the velodrome to 34 degrees, which was warmer than it was outside, with the aim to create the perfect conditions to break some world records.
Altitude, heat and lovely smooth surface. One day I want to go ride at a velodrome just to experience it.
There’s one near me. It’s outdoor though but still good. People respect the lanes when someone is laying down efforts and you can really wind it up on a good day.
I’m at 26 seconds. KOM is 19 seconds at a 66km average.
Did I miss the last cyclists meeting where everyone agreed to stop acknowledging each other on the roads. Must have passed about 15 cyclists yesterday and I think 2 acknowledged me. Poor show!
I decided to give the higher pressures a go based on the article I linked above and it certainly felt faster. Based on the Silca/Zipp calculators I should be running ~60PSI but I stuck 70PSI in them. It just feels less draggy. For sure its not as plush but honestly the roads I was on were generally pretty good. You can feel that carrying speed is just easier with the higher pressure.
Now I know that sensations on a bike are very subjective and prone to confirmation bias and misreading but I think that I might stick with these higher pressures for now.
Would love to know what the pros ride for their weights. I know they are on better roads than we are in the UK most of the time but I reckon they are running higher pressures than most people who have bought into the wider and lower school of thinking.
I decided to give the higher pressures a go based on the article I linked above and it certainly felt faster. Based on the Silca/Zipp calculators I should be running ~60PSI but I stuck 70PSI in them. It just feels less draggy. For sure its not as plush but honestly the roads I was on were generally pretty good. You can feel that carrying speed is just easier with the higher pressure.
Now I know that sensations on a bike are very subjective and prone to confirmation bias and misreading but I think that I might stick with these higher pressures for now.
Would love to know what the pros ride for their weights. I know they are on better roads than we are in the UK most of the time but I reckon they are running higher pressures than most people who have bought into the wider and lower school of thinking.
Today was not nearly as nice as yesterday. Even yesterday it was 11 I think at the warmest. I was in bib shorts, long sleeved jersey and a windproof gilet and I was fine. I think today would have been a different matter.
Soldato
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What?! Road 100 miles today. Couldn’t have been better weather. Not a hint of wind, and nice and warm.
That's the huge issue isn't it. Best to just get one fitted to the new car straight away. My Kia had one fitted when i bought it. Then the 3rd MOT over here noticed it wasn't officially on the paper work and i had to cut it off to pass the MOT
It's around €700 to get one fitted and i'm changing that soon so i've now only got the one on the Jeep which costs so much in petrol i avoid using it on long journeys. For the Traka i've hired a Focus estate for €10/day which should pay for itself in fuel savings
Racks can be had fairly cheap second hand. Think mine was €100 for a 2 bike Thule one.
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Soldato
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- Gloucestershire
Depending on the context, 18.6 mph isn't slow. Our club normally has groups for 20+mph, 19mph, 18mph etc etc So that would be one of the faster group rides.
All depends on the terrain really. I'm by no means particular fit but I averaged 28km/h on my last ride which was 69km and just over 1000m of climbing and I wasn't pushing myself particularly on that ride. I reckon I could have averaged 30 if I pushed it. If the route was flatter 30km/h wouldn't have been super hard.
The GCN boys all have 4+w/kg FTPs as well. I reckon many of them are more like 4.5-5 depending on what they are training for. Most of them have that ex-pro base stamina as well.
Rubbish! Noticed this more certainly the last couple of years... Since Covid?! I make a point of saying hi to everyone even more now!
Around 5-6 in only 70 mins saturday, most part-timers out for an afternoon jolly, only 2 'real cyclists'... 1 who didn't wave - I made a point of overtaking him and saying hi again. He'd passed me while I was just getting going after helping change someone's wheel and hadn't waved the first time, no idea if he did the second time as I was going too fast to hear it! #dropped
Have to admit I'm generally running 55psi front and 65-70 rear, that's on 30mm GP5000 STR on my commuter, maybe a bit less during winter - feel like sacrificing a touch of speed for grip is worth it. But once lower than 50 they do feel pretty squishy and then seem to lose air fairly rapidy... The Zipp calc says I should be 53 & 56 - if I did I feel I'd need to put air in every few days!
On 28mm on my deeper/faster/summer setup I think I'm running a bit more but not much. 70 max maybe 60 front?! Not as much as 80 as really get shaken around on the roads here. I have the other half (25mm on tubes & alloy wheels) on 80ish
Yeah our 'social group' club ride on saturday mornings is 15/16mph but that will have parts where we'll do some through & off back home where the speeds more like 20-22mph. The 'fast lads' group - generally not a social ride and will be those with a racing licence is more like 18-19mph average. But lots of grippy roads and rolling around here, not many purely flat routes or loops ridden. My saturday loop I'd consider 'mostly flat' was 250m over 32km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/17806399399 - me too! Even on the fast bike (first summer bike jolly since september)!
Pushed myself quite a bit in some parts - only having time for 'around an hour' did a loop which I've always used as a bit of a '1 hour mostly flat roads' ride. Many parts I settle into the efforts and think I'm holding good speed and pushing 280W+ feeling good... Then look at the data afterwards and it's pretty humbling isn't it! Just lose so much speed & gain time the other parts... Rough roads probably the main saps for me. I even stopped for 11 mins to help an old boy change a tyre he'd ripped to pieces hitting a pothole! My legs where good and the power high, even zero-offset my PWM twice to make sure it was telling the truth!
Hmmm, not sure. Most of them good ex-Pro's they likely have a high watts FTP (Connor/Simon/Alex), they may still have as their riding volume still seems high... But the majority of them will be heavier than their Pro days. Dan, Connor, Manon, Simon and certainly Hank piled on the pounds while on GCN. Ollie would probably be the only one who seems to have got stronger & leaner - but then he wasn't a Pro to start with!?
Quite easy to have good base stamina when 50% of your day job can be out riding a bike!
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Was nice being outside yesterday. I almost went out with my Assos winter jacket as it felt a bit cold in the garden but had a last minute change of heart and went for a jersey, arm warmers and a windbreaker gilet. Still needed leg warmers but probably could've went without them as well.
Bike back on the trainer for this week though.
Bike back on the trainer for this week though.
Yeah I had a local garage quote me £900 to add one to our Fiesta and that was a few years back. He said the actual towbar is easy, it's the electrical wiring which takes the time and the bits needed as the majority of cars which don't have them from new will lack it and you can't fit one without the wiring for rear lights which have to get signed off for MOT and towing purposes.
There's outdoor dedicated cycling tracks dotted around as well as outdoor velodromes, most should have a 'turn up and ride' option. We had a track built a few years ago (which took a few years to get), it's next to a Leisure centre and if you're a member you can ride for free, else anyone else can turn up and pay £2.50 to ride as long as you want. Only occasionally it's closed for private sessions on the weekend, they're usually during weekdays and evenings are generally always free. But not really a good road racing track, more like a short crit - ACRSS have done a couple and they're full of crashes!
Was pretty good with us, saturday soon up to 10-12 and stayed that way. Sunday around the same with very little wind. I went out around 4pm saturday and it felt warmer. Summer jersey, arm warmers and thin windproof gilet. Bare knees and toe warmers was about perfect but rode fairly good tempo to stay warm and wanted to be back before the sun dropped. It's been really cooling off 5-6pm and we've even had some frost in the mornings! Being in the sun does feel damn good though! Even went to the beach yesterday!
