Forum Replies Created
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Replies
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Maybe the 30 is too SMALL
Maybe the 30 is too SMALL with a 23 tooth cassette? Maybe it’s too much spinning?
As to the Miche cassettes, I never had a direct comparison with a full Campag-equipped bike, but I never found the shifting to be an issue.
The BBB one is 12-27 on Ebay for £29, why not give it a try? If you don’t like it or it doesn’t work out, that’s not a huge amount to lose.
First question, have you lost
First question, have you lost the granny ring from the triple? Isn’t a 30 on the front and a 23 at the back “spinny” enough?
I had 9 speed Campag Veloce on my old road bike, 53-39 and 12-25 initially. When that wore out, I got a 12-27 (maybe from Miche rather than Campag) and then when that wore out, I went to 10 speed and got a 12-29 cassette, again maybe Miche.
Depending on how many miles you cover and how you maintain it, I would think the cassette, chain and maybe chain rings need replacing by now. Most people reckon 5k miles is enough to wear a chain and cassette, I believe.
Have a look on ebay, you can usually pick up bargain new cassettes etc there.
I think there may be a third manufacturer of Campag-compatible cassettes.
I wouldn’t want to lose the 12 myself, but it may not be a big issue to go with 13-28, which would give an enormous range with that triple.
Don’t rely on just one light
Don’t rely on just one light at the front and one at the rear, even if you don’t have all four on all the time, you never know when one will be out of charge or a bulb go kaput or a elastic retaining strap break, etc etc. Some people find flashing lights hard to judge distance to, so I would always haveone constant and one strobing front and rear light.
The Dartmoor Classic is great
The Dartmoor Classic is great, tough, but the atmosphere is brilliant.
Don’t think anyone has mentioned the Fred Whitton yet. If it isn’t the toughest, it is the yardstick against which all the others are judged.
I love Ridelondon, the sheer number of bikes, the closed roads and the London landmarks are just the best day out on a bike you can have. You go hard for 95 miles, you’re knackered, and then you’re on the Embankment with Admiralty Arch and Pall Mall around the corner, and you go again like a mad bastard.Went out on Sunday pm, and
Went out on Sunday pm, and was expecting grief from fierce cross winds, but it was fine. Didn’t even notice it heading into the wind. May try tomorrow, should blow me home.
Whereabouts are you Simon?I like the idea of 1x
I like the idea of 1x drivetrains, but don’t think the benefits are real. I like the way that Aithein looks in the middle but the cassette and chain – line look hideous! I’d rather have a smaller cassette (and mech) and a decent pair of cranks. It ain’t broke…The wind has dropped to a
The wind has dropped to a more manageable 25 mph now, but the missus has decided we have to go to the shops. :'( Might be able to whiz round and get an hour on the bike before darkBananas – maybe restrict your
Bananas – maybe restrict your intake. I developed an allergy to them (and similar foods like guacamole) from cycling. Would always take one on a ride, and would eat one a day on top too. Eventually your body can get saturated, the worst symptom for me is big puffy lips and a red itchy face. I really miss them now! Fig rolls are good, but you have to find what works for you.thesaladdays wrote:
I reckon that 20k would take me roughly an hour which is what I do when taking the tram, train and walk to the office… So to still fit 2 hours of exercise a day seems achievable. There is the CS7 from Morden which I can pick up on the way in Balham (where I used to start my commute from).I’ve never lived anywhere near a CS, but if it helps make the commuting time more stable then all the better. My commute is about 15km each way, with some decent, wide cycle lanes along the way, some bus lanes, but lots of shared road sections as well. Time varies between 35 min on a good day with light traffic to over 50 when everybody decides to use their car and I spend half the ride in ‘slalom’ mode. It helps that the ride to work is downhill in quite a few sections, but it makes the ride home a bit slower! Try a few different routes on a day off when you’re not in a rush to get your bearings and know your options. And don’t forget a good set of front and rear lights for the dark n’ rainy season. Enjoy!
Lights – get two sets, a flasher/strober and a constant both ends. You never know when a battery or charge is going to fizzle out. Most people see a flasher/strober more often and at a greater distance than a constant light but, judging distance to a flashing light is harder.I live in Steyning and
I live in Steyning and commute to Storrington, spooky! Have you had a chance to discover the quiet routes to Petworth yet? You can go through West Chiltington towards Pulborough, although I can’t think of a quiet route on to Petworth from there.
I used to ride through Parham House a lot, but they seem to be anti-bikes now and the gates are often locked. You can go along Greatham Lane to Coldwaltham (although it floods badly near CW and can be impassible at times) and then on to either Fittleworth and Petworth or you can hug the bottom of the Downs via Bignor and come out near Duncton.
Bignor Hill is an absolute killer, the steepest lower section I have done in Sussex and Surrey. The surface is also a bit flaky so maintaining traction is tough.
I love it just beyond Petworth. Lurgashall is a gorgeous village; if you go to Tillington and then turn right on to Upperton Rd it is a tiny quiet country road and comes out at Lurgashall. It’s so tiny I would advise caution on the downhills and corners, there isn’t a lot of room for a car and a bike to pass. Just beyond Lurgashall is Black Down, the highest point in Sussex and another good climb.
The Surrey Hills are a 2 hour ride away, worth a ride on a nice day. Classic hills including Leigh Hill Whitedown Barhatch Lane to name a few, lots of other cyclists around too.
Ditchling as someone said is worth a trip; it takes me an hour from Steyning so would be a good 90 mins from Storrington. The route there isn’t obvious, most of the main roads run north to south. The A272 does go cross country but is busy and I would avoid it in the week and at rush hour. You’d be ok at 7 am on the weekend, but it is quite a way north of the Beacon. To get there, go to Steyning round the back to Ashington via Warminghurst (another lovely tiny country road) then Spithandle Lane then go through Steyning to avoid the bypass. Then on through Beeding and to Edburton/Fulking/Poyning. The cycle route into Brighton goes beside the A23 and there are a couple of points you can get over the dual carriageway near Pyecombe. Then over Clayton Hill, and just at the bottom there is Underhill Lane which drops you off at the bottom of Ditchling.
I would disagree with Larry about the SDW being not technical! This time of year especially with the combination of mud & leaves it can be extremely technical. There are some flat-ish parts but bank on going up and down very often. Some of the climbs are rutted from heavy rain so they get large chunks of flint and rock as well as other things to keep you concentrating. I used to think a hard tail MTB was good enough, but would love a full susser now. A friend rides some of it on a hybrid but he is also looking at an MTB. Other friends have found it very hard on cx bikes; with the wrong tyres one had 3 punctures in about 20 minutes, the last of which ripped his tyre up.
There are some less extreme off road routes, the Downslink runs from Shoreham up to Guildford. Some of it is lovely, but some of it is boring – it’s an old railway line, so there are long stretches in old cuttings which just do my head in. Near Partridge Green is Stan’s cafe which is becoming a real meeting point for both road and off road cyclists.
I could go on!
Evans do good demos – you
Evans do good demos – you have to book and pay a deposit, but they can get almost anything in for you. Talk to them about how long you can have it for, I had a couple of bikes for an hour each, helped me to chooseSimon, there are loads!
Simon, there are loads! Whereabouts are you? Will put some route ideas up tomorrow – on the phone now, so it’s tricky. Lots of tiny country roads, plenty of hills, sea side paths, great pubs…Another vote for drop
Another vote for drop handlebars. Apart from anything else, you have something like 4 or 5 different places to put your hands, which then also affects the rest of your upper body. For half an hour rides, it won’t matter, but as you get into longer rides it makes a huge difference. It also saves you energy when the wind picks up, or when you are tanking downhill. At first it may feel skittish, but you will get used to it. Cynically, I think flat bar bikes/hybrids are the bike industry niche marketing because a lot of people get a hybrid and then when they get the bug realise it’s a jack of all trades…
I got bar-ends for my mountain bike as just having one place to put your hands on the otherwise flat bars really got on my nerves.
Otherwise the adventure road bike seems a good fit for the riding you describe. I disagree about disc brakes though, yes they are way better than rim brakes in the rain, but you will lose out elsewhere in the spec of your bike if you go with discs now. Maybe in 5 years time prices will come down etc.
Resting heart rate of 34 bpm? Wow! Mine’s about 90, but I have read that doesn’t mean too much, it is just “your” figure.
Well, about three years ago, when I first saw 40 bpm using Azumio Instant Heartrate on my phone, I was worried that I was a zombie. At a medical, I asked the doctor about it and he said that it was “Sports heart”. Since then, as my fitness has further improved, the bpm has gone down even more. For a long time, Miguel Indurain was known as having the lowest resting heart rate of a healthy human being, 28 bpm.I’m sure that there there must be a limit to improvement. But I think I still have some head room. The cycling bug only bit me four years ago. My son came home from university one summer and went out one day and came back with a Specialized Allez 105. After about three days he said “Dad, why don’t you give it it a go.”
The feeling of power transfer through the pedals reminded me of the mechanical satisfaction you get when pressing the shutter button on an SLR camera.
For my 58th birthday, I got myself a halfway decent bike with drops: the learning began.Last year I rode 4,500 km, which is half way to your suggestion of 5,000 miles to the plateau.
I work at home so there is no commuting. To make up for that, for four years, whenever I rode, I’d go all out all the time. I use the bike for most of our household shopping. I usually conspire to do more than 20 km going to several stores and then returning about 3 km uphill with 8 kg or more in the panniers. Where I live there are lots of hills. One I deliberately take is 1.2 km at 6% average. I’ve come to enjoy climbing.But what the Suunto training documents are telling me is that you do not get stronger when you are stressing your muscles. You get stronger during recovery. I had never given a thought to that. With the watch strapped to the handlebar, I can see the HR, even at night. Now, I control my effort and throttle right back when further stress would (according to how I understand the theory) be unproductive.
I’m not sure I could actually follow a training programme, but as you say, structure and organization, intentional action with a goal in mind, seems to be the way to go.
I seem to be learnng what I need to know. Doing intervals, and easing off, has added new dimensions of cycling pleasure.
What I found with the Strava training programme was an ability to fit more interval sessions in. At the start you pick a programme, and tell it how many hours a week you ride. You then get a weekly email telling you what you are doing each day, and then the night before you get more specific instructions about the next day’s session. I typically ride 5 – 7 times a week, which is 2 or 3 days commuting and a bigger endurance ride at the weekend, usually with mates. The Strava programme would have two rest days (usually Monday and Thursday) 2 endurance days and 3 interval days. After only two weeks, I can’t claim I feel hugely different, but I think if I had been able to carry it on for the remaining three weeks there would have been real benefits. Before I got on the Strava thing, I would do intervals that were similar to what Strava was getting me to do, but I would do one maybe two interval sessions a week. It was only when looking back at my activities that I could see I wasn’t doing them that often.
I need a new Garmin though, my current Forerunner seems to have a dieing battery as it only lasts about 90 minutes now and I daren’t use the light, never mind run an interval programme off it!
Recovery takes longer too. If I ride hard – which for me is up around 18-20 mph for an hour or so – it takes me at least 3 days to get over the effort. I can still ride the next day, but there is nothing there.I recently got a Suunto Ambit 3 for tracking rides and counting lengths in the pool.
After activity undertaken with the HRM on, it indicates a recovery period.
Last week, to attend a musical event, I cycled more than 100 km in a day. On the way there, I did what may or may not be intervals (I’m still new at this training stuff) and saw close to my max HR on four bursts (peak training effect 3.8). When I arrived home at 1:30 AM, the watch indicated 119 hours recovery. Observing recovery basically seems to mean no aerobic or harder excercise, in this case, for the next five days! Yesterday, the recovery period expired. I went on a shorter ride with three ‘intervals’ (peak training effect 3.3): recovery 19 h.
I’m not so sure about the algorhithms, but the comments in this thread have made me more accepting of the length of recovery.
With a resting pulse of 34 bpm, I am confidently fit, but after two years of seeing no improvement in speed on my Strava test segments, I grasped that there is a difference between being fit and being trained. Now, to improve my stamina and strength, I am trying to deliberately stress my muscles and tax my circulation. Having a heart rate monitor is actually teaching me to cycle more slowly. It is still hard for me to cycle at less than 125 bpm, which may or may not be my aerobic threshold (there are different ways of calculating).
I can understand why people engage personal trainers!Resting heart rate of 34 bpm? Wow! Mine’s about 90, but I have read that doesn’t mean too much, it is just “your” figure.
I have a similar lack of improvement in my performance now. Once you get up to 5000 miles a year, just riding your bike doesn’t give you much noticeable improvement. I started a Strava training programme which was going well until I got a trapped nerve; the nerve wasn’t from the training but I wasn’t sure what was causing it so eased off. I will definitely do more of them, if nothing else it showed me the benefit of some structure and organisation. If you just leave to see how you feel, you may push yourself one ride in 4, but it was possible for me to do more than that.
