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Biggest wind resistance comes
Biggest wind resistance comes from the rider, so in addition to shaped tubes etc on an aero bike they will generally have an aggressive riding position, ie face down ass up, otherwise the improvements on the bike will count for little. Make sure you’re comfortable on in that position before laying down your hard earned. Endurance bikes will be a fair bit more relaxed and upright. If you have really good flexibility then maybe not a problem.arfa wrote:
I can’t help but
I can’t help but think given its popularity as an event there does need to be some form of pre-qualification to demonstrate ability/understanding of endurance riding/skills required.What would that entail though? Only club members allowed? Have to have ridden a sportive before? That’s going to exclude a hell of a lot of people that the event is aimed at. I don’t really have any group skills (couple of 500 people sportives) and expected there to be carnage and was pleasantly surprised by how people dealt with the crowds, but then perhaps my expectations were way lower than yours and I guess people may have been looking at me thinking it was a knob!
Was definitely a bit frustrating on the climbs, I was surprised at how difficult people found them as I found them pretty easy (I didn’t get to do Leith). As you say people were dismounting about 100 meters into the first gentle climb.
Anyway I really enjoyed the day, the closed roads aspect was unexpectedly enjoyable mostly just for the speeds I could maintain. From about Kingston (2nd time) to the finish I averaged 35kmph whereas I usually average about 25 on a normal 2 hour ride and would probably have been dying on my arse by the end of previous sportives and doing sub 20 at the end.
Before the event I said I was just going to do it the once due to the high cost of both entry and travel compared to doing a smaller local sportive, but I’m definitely going to try and get a place for next year. Will probably do it for charity next year.
Brucie,
For someone else to
Brucie,For someone else to collect your numbers, collection only from excel, on your behalf you are supposed to supply them with the letter that is sent to the entrant by mail, a copy of your ID and a letter authorising them to collect the number. So someone would have to be willing to give you a photocopy of their driving licence/passport to give you their numbers if they can’t collect the numbers themselves.
Yeah that seems to be about
Yeah that seems to be about right. I had recently read this article when I was at the speeding course which was why I thought I’d bring it up with the guy doing the course.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2014/jul/25/can-cyclists-be-fined-for-speeding
I went to one of these speed
I went to one of these speed awareness courses last summer to avoid the points for speeding. At one point we were discussing different types of vehicles having different speed limits on the same stretch of road and I asked if speed limits applied to bikes (there’s a 20mph zone on a downhill on my commute which I break daily, along with >90% of cars).Although the course leader told me that speed limits do apply to bikes, which I believe to be false, he did at least stick up for cyclists when half a dozen of the class just started ranting about various issues; road tax, 2 abreast etc. One woman on my table just decided to shout “wankers!” despite the fact she’d seen me walk in wearing high vis and carrying a helmet.
Out of interest what is the
Out of interest what is the advantage of the short cage over the long cage? Slightly snappier shifting? Otherwise why don’t they just ship all bikes with the long cage so anyone can change to a bigger cassette?Get the advanced if I were
Get the advanced if I were you – that looks like pretty much all the bike you could ever need to me – good groupset and you won’t be wanting to upgrade to carbon or discs in a few years. As long as you can afford it and have a bit of spare money for some shoes, pedals, a jersey and some shorts on top then you’re sorted.That said I ride an aluminium bike with rim brakes – don’t notice any difference in ride comfort between that and my steel bike, and the ultegra brakes are pretty bloody good, although I’ve not ridden in the wet much – so the 0 will probably fulfill all your needs.
I’m staying at my mate’s
I’m staying at my mate’s place in Acton (west London), we’d heard there were special trains travelling from there so figured we were sorted. What we didn’t anticipate was that the first train from Acton (or indeed Richmond) wouldn’t arrive at Stratford until well after both our load and start times. We’ve decided to just get the train anyway and turn up late and hope that they still let us start.Bit silly for the trains to not be adequately early for the earlier start times but then I do appreciate that the whole thing is a big logistical undertaking for them and that putting on a special train at 5am might not be the easiest thing to staff. That said I guess that’s why I’ve parted with almost 60 quid.
If you give your (signed) letter they sent you with your latest pack, a photocopy of your passport and a letter of permission for a friend then they can pick up your numbers etc for you. Only one per person though.
Sure the ride will be great but I’m doing this one once only due to the hoops you have to jump through to do it and the high cost. Someone else’s turn next year anyway.
Jesus, I have to be at the
Jesus, I have to be at the start by 5.45 latest to start at 6.20 (typo’d or something and put down a 5 hrs estimated start where 7hrs would have been more accurate!). Staying in West London and was going to be getting the train over from Acton Central.Has anyone ever had success in phoning up and moving times? Otherwise I’m going to have to be on the bike at something like 4am.
Kind of depends on how you
Kind of depends on how you feel at the end of your 45 mile or so rides at the moment?I recently did a 100 mile sportive. About 2 months before did a 100km ride, at the end I was knackered and after some food had to go and take a nap. I then did a couple more of around 100km, after which I was basically okay, and an 85 miler in preparation for the sportive. I was still knackered on the big day though, but I think that’s probably pretty much unavoidable.
Take some food that isn’t sweet is my best advice.
Martyn_K
Remember if you actually feel hungry you’ve left it too late, you need to be eating for 30-40 minutes time.It is worth noting that the brain can’t tell the difference between hunger and thirst. You will only get feelings of hunger. So keep the drinks flowing too.
Sorry but can you expand on this please because it sounds a lot like bollocks to me.
Get yourself to the back of
Get yourself to the back of the group at the start of the descent so that you don’t have all your mates trying to overtake you and then go at your own pace with the option of following their line if you so desire. You’ll soon catch them at the bottom anyway so no need to get uncomfortable if you’re just out to do something you enjoy.Regarding the question about
Regarding the question about head tube it depends on how flexible you are. If you have tight hamstrings or lower back pain you might want to be going for a fairly relaxed position, especially if you are going to be doing 7-8hr rides, in which case the longer head tube is going to help you out.As a starting point when looking at geometries you might want to measure up your current bike to use as a comparison.
If Evans give you a proper test ride rather than a swing around the block then maybe try and get them to get the two bikes in and try and do 3hr+ rides on each, as usually any slight geometrical mismatches will take a while to turn into discomfort.
I got a Canyon last year, the
I got a Canyon last year, the Roadlite 7.0 which isn’t available in the build I had as they have now started selling as a ‘fitness’ bike with flat bars. The bike is great, cost me £1050 inc p&p with full ultegra, ritchey bars and stem and mavic aksium wheels. Saying that my previous best bike is a Raleigh record sprint with 6-speed cassette and downtube shifters so I guess I haven’t ridden a lot of like-for-like competition.Anyways customer service wise my experience was only okay. I bought a clearance bike and with these they are a bit funny about swapping things – so I wanted to upgrade to their fancy VCLS2.0 seatpost, which normally costs you £100 to upgrade, but is £200 to buy new and they wouldn’t do it. Also I knew I’d need a shorter stem and although they were willing to exchange it they wouldn’t do it before sending the bike out so I had the slightly ridiculous situation of them sending me the bike, then sending me the replacement stem a few weeks later and then I had to post the stem back to Germany. I appreciate the bike was already boxed up but they managed to open the box up and put a few things such as spare rear mech hanger and water bottles that I’d bought separately into the main bike box so why they couldn’t change the stem is weird.
I don’t think any of those things apply to non-clearance bikes though so your only issue with a new one should be waiting time.
My favourite thing about Rose and Canyon is they do 64cm frames whereas most manufacturers only go up to about 60/61cm.
Howie’s bib shorts, of which
Howie’s bib shorts, of which they only do two sizes (s/m and L/XL), fit me perfectly at 6’6″, 34″ waist and 96cm inseam. As someone says above the material is really stretchy.The Crane branded jerseys at Aldi are pretty darn long too. I have a long sleeve one which also has a bit of a flap at the bottom to cover your arse.
