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Bicycle age

Addnan

Member
I'm pretty stupid. Thought it's not nice weather so I'll use the trainer for the first time in ages.. Except it's so damn humid today. I made it 9km on the trainer and sweat just pouring off me. 9km!Stepped off bike and realised I desperately need water in me. I think I'll skip the trainer until the winter!


The dodgy oakleys I got came with a bunch of lenses. I used the yellow ones from say about 6pm few weeks ago into pretty much darkness in a small foresty area. seemed to work well enough. clear lenses would have been better but I didn't plan on staying out into the dark, but it happened.
 
Cool, thanks. Mixture of shade and sunlight?

I took them off when I entered a small trail system as I prefer to ride with clear lenses when in the shaded area. When I wore them into my garage it got pretty dark.

I'm pretty stupid. Thought it's not nice weather so I'll use the trainer for the first time in ages.. Except it's so damn humid today. I made it 9km on the trainer and sweat just pouring off me. 9km!Stepped off bike and realised I desperately need water in me. I think I'll skip the trainer until the winter!

Buy a big ass fan. Not one some $20 oscillating fan, but one that is like 2-3 feet in width and will move a lot of air (think velocity fans).
 

Mascot

Member
I took them off when I entered a small trail system as I prefer to ride with clear lenses when in the shaded area. When I wore them into my garage it got pretty dark.

Ah, that's my concern. It's the woods where i need them most to protect against mud, brambles, branches etc (although grit, mud and flies on the way to the woods are also a problem).

Think I'll stick with my £5 Bolle Silium lab specs. They are light, comfortable, I like the clear lenses and they hug my face really well with zero cheek gap.

Must remember to NOT buy the anti-fog versions though.
 

Facism

Member
Started riding again after 20 years of not having a bike. Been a few weeks and enjoying it immensely. Only bought a cheap mountain bike but it's holding up well enough so far. Last ride we hit about 50km in 4 and half hours through wooded, muddy trails, bike paths and some road.

Any good tips with dealing with uphill rides? Quite a few 10 degree plus slopes here and there and i know my gearing isn't being effective enough to deal with them without feeling like death after getting to the top of them.
 

Addnan

Member
Also... Pace yourself. If you blow all your energy in the first half of the hill because you feel good the rest will seem a lot more draining than it needs to be.
 

T8SC

Member
Didn't get my face on the TV last night so decided to cheer myself up with a 175 mile ride with 15,500 feet of elevation ... because, why not. (I've rounded the numbers to the nearest whole number, they weren't exactly that! :-D )
 
Just got back from a record attempt on the North to South Wales bikepacking route "The Cambrian Trail".
Man, you fucking cray cray. Have you considered coming to Australia to participate in the Indipac? It's an unsupported ~5300km race from the West coast of Australia across the south to the East coast.

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18777910

Sadly this year the race was cancelled <500km from the end when Mike Hall was killed. Many Australians seem to have an irrational hatred of cyclists.

More personally, since this is my first post in this thread, I've gotten back into cycling a bit since last year (cyclocross bike, just put some road tires on since I rarely ride offroad), done only about 1200km in that time, longest ride about 55km - about to ditch the M324s which I never used with cleats and get my first set of big boy pedals (probably R540s since they're cheap on Wiggle).

Any other Australians frequent these parts? I'm in the east of Melbourne.
 

gillty

Banned
They came with 5 lenses, but since I was on my road bike I used the polarized. I'm going to try the clear / smoke ones this weekend in the woods.

I've found polarized completely useless in the wooded sections of trails.

I hate polarized on the road, in a car or boat polarized are great on the eyes, but as a cyclist polarized filters the glare from surface liquids. This can impair judgement of depth of water filled potholes and affect perception of water vs. oil among other hazards.

Say no to polarized I say!
 

Franziska

Member
Any good tips with dealing with uphill rides? Quite a few 10 degree plus slopes here and there and i know my gearing isn't being effective enough to deal with them without feeling like death after getting to the top of them.

Similar sitch, resumed 3 months ago after a 10y hiatus.

What helped me was conserving momentum and not downshifting like Initial D. Build up momentum on the flat/down and ride that into the up. Drop gears only if you feel like you need to pedal harder and harder to maintain speed.

I've gone from running out of breath 2km into the hilly zone to dread during the approach to the hilly zone to barely even noticing it in three months. (though admittedly most of it is in the 5-10 zone)
 
Man, you fucking cray cray. Have you considered coming to Australia to participate in the Indipac? It's an unsupported ~5300km race from the West coast of Australia across the south to the East coast.

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18777910

Sadly this year the race was cancelled <500km from the end when Mike Hall was killed. Many Australians seem to have an irrational hatred of cyclists.
Yeah, I knew Mike Hall, and his passing hit the bikepacking community pretty hard.

But no, I'd probably never do the Indiapac, but I'd consider doing the Tour Divide. I doubt I'd get the time off work for it though.

http://tourdivide.org/

If I can find the time I'm very much considering doing this this year:

http://torino-nice.weebly.com/intro.html
 
I hate polarized on the road, in a car or boat polarized are great on the eyes, but as a cyclist polarized filters the glare from surface liquids. This can impair judgement of depth of water filled potholes and affect perception of water vs. oil among other hazards.

Say no to polarized I say!

Oh damn I never thought of that, good point.
 

ShapeGSX

Member
I ended up getting a 4iiii Precision Power Meter, and it has been working great. Love that I don't need a cadence sensor anymore. I ended up buying a Wahoo speed sensor, too, so I could get rid of my Garmin GSC-10.

I had a time trial this past Tuesday. I rode this course last August for the first time (first time trial in 25 years, too), and turned in a time of 28 minutes flat.

This time, I had my Garmin Edge 1000 telling me how far ahead or behind I was based on Strava Segments. Ironically, I thought I was behind the entire time, because it turns out that I had ridden 2 roads of the course with some friends in a pace line, and those were my best times, not the times from my last time trial.

My result was 27:16. I definitely needed to concentrate more on the riding, because I caught my heart rate falling to 171 a few times, and I wanted to keep it between 175 and 180. My average power was 204W. I definitely want to push that up with training.

I had a GoPro on my bike for the ride, and I overlaid my Garmin's sensors over the video using Garmin VIRB Edit. I think it came out really well:

https://youtu.be/P98ML7DZv3k

Here's the Strava ride:
https://www.strava.com/activities/990788174
 

ShapeGSX

Member
I wouldn't buy a chinese power meter. If you can't trust the meter, what's the point?

The 4iiii is definitely the cheapest out there that you can trust. I also considered the WatTeam Powerbeat, but it looked so fragile.
 
Even DCRainmaker says consistency is more important than accuracy. There's no point in getting a power meter that fluctuates by 20-30 just because it's closer to your actual power than a PM that overshoots by 40 but is always within 2.
 

Addnan

Member
Not gonna buy the chinese one. just found it interesting they even sell something like that and it seems people are actually buying it! If I can get rid of these overpriced headphones I'll have the 4iiii next week..
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Whew just did my best 40 mile ride and broke my old record by half an hour. Bumped my time from 3 hrs. 57 minutes to 3 hrs 27 minutes. Not even dead like when I started, nice to feel and see the improvement.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Awesome! Make sure to focus on hydration and recovery after long rides.

I bring a water pack with me as well as some Quest Bars or a Soylent and sometimes stop and eat on the trip. I almost always guzzle a few glasses of water when I get back and usually some fresh green tea or something along those lines and usually eat a big meal after.
 
A few weeks back I finally took my CX bike to Lysterflield Lake park (in Victoria, Australia - it was the 2006 Commonwealth Games mountain bike course) after not having done any mountain biking in a good 20 years (give or take a year). I took the medium difficulty track which turned out to be "difficult" in actual rating term. I don't think my body is cut out for mountain biking any more! At least not that style - maybe fire roads and such though. Could also be the CX bike isn't that suitable with no suspension and comparatively skinny tires.

If I can find the time I'm very much considering doing this this year:

http://torino-nice.weebly.com/intro.html
So I see that Torino-Nice course and shudder. Looks amazing though.
 
What are your thoughts on gumwall/skinwall tires?

Helped my brother go tubeless yesterday, and he got these Onza Ibex tires. I kind of like the look.

YAptOanh.jpg
 
I had an absolute hell of a bike ride today. I was basically numb the entire ride and could not find any form of comfort. I really hope I'm not going through seat hell again.
 
The chain dropped on my road bike and wedged itself really bad between chainring and frame. There was paint strippage but luckily no cracking of the carbon. But I have learned my lesson now, never again a Pressfit BB frame. It's one big design flaw. I'm half tempted to migrate all my good parts to the old Colnago steel frame.
 

Addnan

Member
It's worth getting a chain catcher I guess, probably should get one myself... If it's happening frequently though, might want to make sure your fd is setup correctly. Think I've dropped chain once and that was going over some stupid cobbles but luckily nothing as bad as it getting it stuck between frame and chainring.
 
Moved 5 months ago and where I am now is so dangerous to bike I've had to give it up.

No pavements and 60mph busy country roads where most drivers don't seem to give a shit.
 
It's worth getting a chain catcher I guess, probably should get one myself... If it's happening frequently though, might want to make sure your fd is setup correctly. Think I've dropped chain once and that was going over some stupid cobbles but luckily nothing as bad as it getting it stuck between frame and chainring.

Yeah, I'm thinking the fd really suffered from the 200km ride in bad weather. I need to clean it super well and readjust.
 

T8SC

Member
The chain dropped on my road bike and wedged itself really bad between chainring and frame. There was paint strippage but luckily no cracking of the carbon. But I have learned my lesson now, never again a Pressfit BB frame. It's one big design flaw. I'm half tempted to migrate all my good parts to the old Colnago steel frame.

Another reason to love Sram, comes with a chain catcher on the front mech.
 
Okay I need help. I have a Giant Contend SL Disc 1 (2017) and am looking for some nice fenders so I can ride in the rain. I have stock 700x25 tires but am going to upgrade to 700x28 soon so I can ride on gravel trails with a smoother ride and less of a chance for punctures.

I've done a little bit of research and narrowed it down to three:

SKS P45 Black Chromoplastic Longboard, Bicycle Fenderset (Tires Sized 700 x 28-37)

SKS P45 Chromoplastic Bicycle Fender Set (700c x 28-37 Tires, Black)

SKS Raceblade Pro XL Road Bicycle Fenders - Pair - Matte Black (Matte Black - 700x25-32)

Are all three of these even compatible with my bike? Any advice?
 

frontieruk

Member
Okay I need help. I have a Giant Contend SL Disc 1 (2017) and am looking for some nice fenders so I can ride in the rain. I have stock 700x25 tires but am going to upgrade to 700x28 soon so I can ride on gravel trails with a smoother ride and less of a chance for punctures.

I've done a little bit of research and narrowed it down to three:

SKS P45 Black Chromoplastic Longboard, Bicycle Fenderset (Tires Sized 700 x 28-37)

SKS P45 Chromoplastic Bicycle Fender Set (700c x 28-37 Tires, Black)

SKS Raceblade Pro XL Road Bicycle Fenders - Pair - Matte Black (Matte Black - 700x25-32)

Are all three of these even compatible with my bike? Any advice?

A quick glance at your bike shows no traditional mounting points, so the first two options are out, the race blade pro would be the one as it mounts with straps.

img_06853muig.jpg
 
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