[peted76]

Simon E wrote:

Morgoth985 wrote:

The pitchforks are out today!  Maybe I’m easily taken for a ride (so to speak) but I got the impression that our OP friend was actually a cyclist who on this particular occasion happened to be driving, and was offering friendly advice.

Who needs the advice? The errant individual he encountered, not people reading road.cc.

Pointless posts like the OP’s promote the erroneous idea that people who sometimes cycle are a homogenous collective (we are not) and we all need reminding about these things (we don’t).

 

I disagree, the OP raises an issue. Yes it’s an obvious issue and one which regular readers of this site most likely will not need reminding of. 

However I believe it is worthy of a post and or a discussion. If only to open this up from us, to other non road.cc readers by proxy.

I too almost hit a cyclist the other day to my horror! It was dark, raining and the cyclist was a yoof on the road with no lights, dressed in dark (black?) clothes with his hood up. My immediate thought was that I’d have hardly noticed if he’d bounced off my front off-side wing, but it’d could have been life threatening for him. 

It’s not just me a bit shaken by it, happens all too often and people get hurt. It’s an issue, which we in a local cycling club are trying to address, we’re currently in the process of sourcing some of those cheap front and rear led light sets offa China. We are hoping we can get them in bulk for less than a quid each a set, the idea is that we’ll buy a load with our club ‘dues’ and contact some local secondary schools, with the police, to hand them out to kids who cycle. 

It won’t stop the issue, but it should get some people thinking and it might just stop an accident happening. (The police near us did something similar a couple/few years ago).

[peted76]

I entered okay….  fingers

I entered okay….  fingers crossed!

[peted76]

It would be a fine idea for

It would be a fine idea for people to collect ‘stamps’ within their own personal cycling passport. Like a brevet card or sticker album, but one which never gets ‘filled’ up unless you run out of pages. 

 

[peted76]

I think a medal is a lovely

I think a medal is a lovely idea for someone who is entering their first, second or third sportive.. I remember thinking how nice it was to get a medal for finishing a ‘big ride’, that being a bit of a novelty and something to show MrsD.. but now I’m over it, between myself and my daughter we’ve collected more medals that we know what to do with… quite literally.

I think a printed map of a ‘big ride’ would be a far nicer thing to own, probably cheaper to produce and compostable. It’d probably be just as cheap to get it printed on a piece of material, you could call it a hankie and blow your nose on it.

[peted76]

Road.cc had canyon at their

Road.cc had canyon at their demo days last year (more planned for this year), if you can this is a great place to try the sizing out. I think Canyon can be a little odd with their sizing, my mate has an XS race spec frame and it’s got a taller head tube than my larger size TCR bike. 

[peted76]

Agree 100%, having a goal is

Agree 100%, having a goal is a good motivator! Whether that’s a 10k run, doing your favourite loop at a certain pace or just not getting dropped by mates on a 100mile sportif, whatever it is, setting a goal helps motivate.

[peted76]

Motivation in the winter can

Motivation in the winter can be tough going, I try and look at riding my bike in this way…if I can get on my bike once a week, I’m just about ticking over.. twice a week I’ll not loose fitness, if I can get on my bike three times or more, I’m getting fitter.

Personally I need a ‘regular schedule’ to stick to, or lack of motivation gets in the way and I’m buggered, so through winter I run a roller class on a Wednesday evening for my local club, the main reason being, that if I didn’t have that commitment I probably wouldn’t get on my bike. I ensure that I ride on a Sunday morning with the club, so there’s my twice a week tied up. If I can get out on a Thursday night or manage to cock a leg over the turbo on Friday night I will do that also. I found that last winter road.cc Zwift races the ran, which I think were on a set day for a number of weeks was also a motivation, to actually be somewhere at a certain time with an expectation. 

You’ve got some pretty odd hours to work around so you might find it difficult to find local riders to ride with weekly, but why not commit yourself a spin class twice a week, that way any actual riding you can get in, on top of that is a bonus. You only need about an hour for each session.

I do find turbo training generally to be really unmotivating, it’s more fun on rollers, you can’t switch off as you can on a turbo.

 

[peted76]

Yep, had a similar

Yep, had a similar conversation just the other week, AF is common. Good answers above, I don’t have anything to add other than chin up, you’ll be back on the road soon enough.

[peted76]

That more planted feel is

That more planted feel is ‘probably’ simply down to a longer wheelbase. You’ll feel more solid on a longer wheelbase, but it’s less manouverable, which is why I prefer my race bike to my tourer. Depends how you prefer to ride.

I love my tourer, it makes me smile to ride it, it’s very comfy, but in a group I feel the extra weight on every incline as I try to keep up.

[peted76]

Interesting comments above.

Interesting comments above.

I can attest to promoting road safety within my cycling club and by default, the wider community from reading certain articles and incidents read on this site, our club fb page has 1600+ members and they mostly are not  ‘died in the blood cyclists’ as wot would read this site.

So I can say that because road.cc is publishing these stories, myself, as a casual advocate has reached a wider audience and road.cc is NOT just preaching to the converted.

I wonder how many other ‘road.cc regulars/community’ have shared a story or started a campaign to their social circles directly or indirectly from reading something on here?

[peted76]

Decathlon Triban RC520 or the

Decathlon Triban RC520 or the Ultra 900 AF.

In answer to your question ref cheap and expensive bikes, they all roll along, but some weight less and ‘feel’ a bit nicer.  I’m not sure there’s a super amount of difference between £500 and £1000 but  I don’t think you’ll go too wrong with either of the bikes mentioned above.

[peted76]

I have an alpkit stemcell

I have an alpkit stemcell also, great bit of kit. 

I don’t think the conduct system would be a problem, a bar bag would usually sit underneath the  level of the bars anyway, I guess it depends on how flexible the hydralic hoses are which exit the underneath side of the conduct system.

[peted76]

SpikeBike wrote:

peted76 wrote:

Borg wheels from the cycle clinic, £800 and ideal for crit stuff, anything deep and aero should do what you want it to. 

 

 

Sorry to hijack the thread a little but these wheels look amazing. I have read the Road.cc write up. Whats your experiance with crosswinds and the brake tracks? Cheers

I don’t own a pair, although I am considering.. I have brought from Malcolm previously through and he knows his stuff for sure. 

Take a look at Hambini’s blog, he’s tested these wheels aerodynamically and they perform great for the money. https://www.hambini.com/blog/post/bicycle-wheel-aerodynamics-which-one-is-fastest/ 

[peted76]

Borg wheels from the cycle

Borg wheels from the cycle clinic, £800 and ideal for crit stuff, anything deep and aero should do what you want it to. 

 

[peted76]

brooksby wrote:

A little further on I decided that I wanted to pass the group ( I had warmed up and there were fewer pedestrians and this group were going quite slowly, in spite of what I said earlier) and let out a cheery “passing on your right” ( a couple of times) and was greeted with the lady of the group telling me that I wasn’t the only one who was using the path. I was now caught up in the middle of the group as it was still barrelling down the path, a couple of the club riders decided to close pass and cut in front of me in order to gain positions,

I’m very leery of dipping  a toe into this one, but am genuinely curious (never having ridden in a group).  If the group had slowed enough that Don wanted to and believed that they could pass the group, how were they supposed to do so?  What is the etiquette/Is there an etiquette for when an ‘outsider’ wants to pass a club/group? 

Only if safe to do so, same as a car, but with more ‘communication’ e.g. shouts of ‘rider coming through’, or ‘on your right’.

 

[Author]

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