Cycling chat

[njee20]

Absolutely nothing wrong with a £250 bike for getting around! Horses for courses as you say. I paid more for the saddle on the green bike, and it was insanely uncomfortable, probably my worst bike purchase ever!  
 

I’m certainly under no illusion that a bike at 1/10 the cost would do me fine, but hey, where’s the fun in that?!

Edited November 11, 2021 by njee20

[Bernard Lamb]

njee20

The Alp is indeed a great climb.

Either of the back ways down are superior to fighting the traffic on the climb itself.

2005 was the last time I rode it. 

A girl I used to race with claims that the men are soft. She rode the original women's tour and the finish was several kms further on.

Bernard

 

[njee20]

In mid-September it was deserted, so no issues with the traffic. Hadn’t really occurred to me that would be an issue. We did go down via the balcony road over to Auris once, which was lovely, and the descent into Freney d’Oisans was superb. 

[Bernard Lamb]

4 minutes ago, njee20 said:

In mid-September it was deserted, so no issues with the traffic. Hadn’t really occurred to me that would be an issue. We did go down via the balcony road over to Auris once, which was lovely, and the descent into Freney d’Oisans was superb. 

Try it on the day when it is climbed in Le Tour.

Over 1m visitors the last time I was there.

Bernard

[Classsix T]

15 minutes ago, njee20 said:

Absolutely nothing wrong with a £250 bike for getting around! Horses for courses as you say. I paid more for the saddle on the green bike, and it was insanely uncomfortable, probably my worst bike purchase ever!  
 

I’m certainly under no illusion that a bike at 1/10 the cost would do me fine, but hey, where’s the fun in that?!

Phew! I wondered if as soon as I posted I'd be seen as some sort of cycling anti-elitist, not my intention.

 

I am admittedly a bit "weird". I won't spend more for a bicycle than I could pay for a road legal car (including a month left before scrappy banger). Similarly, furniture adverts make me cough. A thousand pounds for a wardrobe! Has it got WiFi?! 

 

Conversely I'll pay (relatively speaking) silly money for a 12" single, so yeah. Whatever floats yer boat.

 

C6T. 

[Nearholmer]

I’m deeply in awe of you guys climbing those  mega-hills, I really am.
 

I’ve worked fairly consistently on trying to up my fitness since starting to cycle ‘properly’ again, and I still cannot cycle up the hill to my mothers house (just over 600ft rise at 1 in 12) without resorting to bottom gear, a trip that I used to make every evening in top gear, with not a puff, when I was a young man! 
 

 

 

 

[Classsix T]

I love a challenge when it's me (stamina) and the bike (gearing) against gravity. But headwinds...I curse like a docker when air pressure is against me!

 

C6T. 

[Nearholmer]

I’ve always adopted a philosophical view of wind: look at as a hill that you can’t see; just down-gear if necessary, and keep plugging away like you do on a long hill. 

 

It is a mystery to me, though, how it is possible to go out for what amounts to a circular ride, and have a steady headwind all the way. Which I’m sure happens on a regular basis.

[Nickey Line]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

It is a mystery to me, though, how it is possible to go out for what amounts to a circular ride, and have a steady headwind all the way. Which I’m sure happens on a regular basis.

 

I've wondered about this myself, and came to the conclusion that this happens when you're out-pacing the wind speed... maybe.

[figworthy]

8 minutes ago, Nickey Line said:

 

I've wondered about this myself, and came to the conclusion that this happens when you're out-pacing the wind speed... maybe.

 

Exactly.  It's what sailors know as "apparent wind".  Not only is the air moving across the ground, but you are moving through the air.  If you are moving in the same direction as the wind, but travelling at a slower speed, then you'll feel the wind on your back.  As you reach the wind speed, then you'll appear to be in a calm spot, and then as you go faster, you'll be overtaking the wind, so you'll start to feel it in your face. Different relative wind angles (e.g. a side wind) will modify the effect, but the same principles apply.

 

Adrian (occasional rider of a late 50's BSA)

Edited November 11, 2021 by figworthy

[big jim]

2 hours ago, Classsix T said:

I love a challenge when it's me (stamina) and the bike (gearing) against gravity. But headwinds...I curse like a docker when air pressure is against me!

 

C6T. 

tell me about it, Carlisle to silloth the other week, 25 mile with a 20mph headwind for a good 90% of the way! 
 

took almost 8-10 mile range from my motor with the extra effort 

[Classsix T]

So, wrt out of the box thinking re bike design, I've not seen oval crank rings since Sir Brad and Chris Froome brought them into the popular conscience on La Tour, are they a flash in the pan or very much a rider specific choice?

 

C6T. 

[Michael Edge]

I'm not convinced they ever did anything useful - just an expensive gimmick.

[Killybegs]

3 hours ago, Classsix T said:

So, wrt out of the box thinking re bike design, I've not seen oval crank rings since Sir Brad and Chris Froome brought them into the popular conscience on La Tour, are they a flash in the pan or very much a rider specific choice?

 

C6T. 

I had one back in the eighties, it came with the bike from new. Can't say that it made any difference.

 

Head winds? Not a problem with an ebike!

[Nearholmer]

From c1989-2016, when I was only cycling for commuting, short family rides, and once in a blue moon bridleway rambles, I had a Specialised Crossroads, a very good for the date steel-framed hybrid, and that initially had a slightly ovoid chain ring. It did seem to have very smooth torque delivery when I first got it, but TBH I’m not sure whether that was ‘all in my head’. When the ring wore out, a circular one went on, and I never noticed any difference.

 

I will say that the bike was still going well with no sign of rust after 25+ years despite living outdoors (I’d sprayed it with hot waxoyl on purchase, which made it look horrible, but worked a treat!), and is probably still cranking-away somewhere in the developing world. I would have kept it but for the fact that I found straight bars very tiring on longer rides once I had time to restart such fun.

[bodmin16]

With regard to hills, they don't get easier you just get faster is what I have always been told.  I am not really sure about that as if I am going up hill in a higher gear then that means it is getting easier.  That said there is nothing wrong with doing hills in a lower gear, there is no shame in that.  There are a number of hills that I used to dread and couldn't climb, so I imagine them in short segments and I set myself a target to things like a sign or a bush rather than the top of the hill.  I find this a great way of attacking hills, makes them a little easier for me.

 

As for bikes I don't have anything too flashy and there is nothing wrong with a £250 bike.  I have a Trek Domane with rim brakes and replaced my first road bike, a Giant Defy 3, which was stolen.  This is my everyday road bike which gets used in all weather's and when I commute it comes on the train with me.  My other road bike is a Giant Defy 2 which has disc brakes and is a carbon fibre frame, this only gets used in good weather and is really comfortable on long rides.  The 3rd bike which I bought only last year is a Trek hybrid, which is a complete contrast to the others and is heavily used in all weather's and for any off road stuff.

[Butler Henderson]

On the issue of there always seeming to be a headwind it is because its only in a relatively narrow band of angles to your rear that the head wind effect vanishes and there is a high probability of many rides never encountering roads where the lack of a head wind comes into effect. I quite often end up riding out with the wind and back into it, precisely the opposite to what is recommended, but with the wind direction usually being of a westerly orientation I would never ride outwards to the east if I kept to the recommendation.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Butler Henderson

[Guest]

3 hours ago, bodmin16 said:

With regard to hills, they don't get easier you just get faster is what I have always been told. 

 

Probably a good time to mention that bloke who rode up Mont Ventoux on a Chopper...

 

 

[Nickey Line]

42 minutes ago, 30801 said:

Probably a good time to mention that bloke who rode up Mont Ventoux on a Chopper...

 

Wonders will never cease! 

[bodmin16]

2 hours ago, 30801 said:

 

Probably a good time to mention that bloke who rode up Mont Ventoux on a Chopper...

 

 

Is that the guy that did the whole of the tdf on the chopper?

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, bodmin16 said:

Is that the guy that did the whole of the tdf on the chopper?

 

No that was a completely different lunatic.

[PMP]

On 10/11/2021 at 22:21, big jim said:

Something doesn’t sit right with me too, I’ve never seen one before until I saw the picture of PMPs bike, I think I’d be worried about the wheel spline snapping or bending if you had a bit of a jolt on it, also it seems to leave one side of the wheel exposed to dangers more so than the fork side

 

in my mind I’m also seeing it as being ‘one side heavy’ when turning, ok it’s carbon so it won’t be heavy heavy but surely it’s unbalanced 

It’s not unbalanced at all, they do feel subtly different, but there’s no steering’ ‘bias’. I don’t understand what extra dangers may occur over a twin fork either, one benefit is you don’t need to remove a wheel to mend a puncture or swap a tyre. The engineering is absolutely sound, you don’t see car wheels or wheelchairs falling off, motorcycle wheels seem quite safe, and the same principles are encompassed within aircraft nose undercarriage, both fixed and retractable. The single carbon fork is lighter than most regular twin forks too.
 

Ref Nearholmers why don’t other manufacturers make similar single leg designs, Cannondale have tied down significant numbers of patents over the whole design. It’d probably be easier for a manufacturer to design a ‘righty’ except disc design is steadfastly wedded to left side mounting. They’ve certainly been successful in competition in the gravel and mountain bike arena over the twenty years or so ‘lefty’s have been available, with both spec and technology upgrades. I’ve never heard of a lefty fork snapped or receiving significant terminal damage, (I’m sure some have), but if so, it’s highly highly unusual.

 

There are manufacturers now taking up the challenge of front suspension, Specialized have a sprung headstock on some models, and Lauf https://www.laufcycling.com/product/lauf-grit-sl also are known for their twin leg suspension forks. Cannondale often do things differently instead of formulaic bike design, the lefty’s are good and successful examples of this. I bought one and now have three.

 

 

 

My old school Marin mountvision (above) rarely gets ridden now and that was a controversial suspension design in its time too. Aluminium frame 20+ years of hard riding on it and no detrimental effects to its structure.
The real game changer for me is I want to ride the lefty’s, if it’s pissing down with rain I still go out on them, none of my conventional bikes ever enthused me that much. My daughter swaps between the marin and the lefty gravel with no issues at all. It’s just she’s far faster on the lefty and leaves me for dust.

[njee20]

Bikes are inherently 'lopsided' too, the entire transmission is on one side, which is a bigger weight discrepancy than a fork, to that end a Lefty-equipped Cannondale is probably more 'balanced' left-right than a normal bike!

 

Those Marins are showing their age (as is just about any mountain bike from 20 years ago, mind!), strong bar end game 

 

 

[PMP]

26 minutes ago, njee20 said:

 

Those Marins are showing their age (as is just about any mountain bike from 20 years ago, mind!), strong bar end game 

 

Bar ends. If Carlsberg made brakes..

[tractionman]

17 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

On the issue of there always seeming to be a headwind it is because its only in a relatively narrow band of angles to your rear that the head wind effect vanishes and there is a high probability of many rides never encountering roads where the lack of a head wind comes into effect. I quite often end up riding out with the wind and back into it, precisely the opposite to what is recommended, but with the wind direction usually being of a westerly orientation I would never ride outwards to the east if I kept to the recommendation.

 

In my part of the world wind is virtually a constant, and there are times it puts me off going out on the bike facing a nagging gusty wind makes it hard going at times... and being on the coast (north-east facing) means south and west are my only cycling options and they're the prevailing winds around here! I don't mind too much as long as the wind is less than 12mph, ideally 5mph, otherwise it gets to be a slog on the hills... putting the bike on the train and cycling home (with a backwind) is one way of beating it!

 

A bit of sun and warmth helps too, so really for me that leaves around 2 - 3 days of truly optimal weather conditions for cycling, it's a good thing the scenery is great :-)

 

cheers,

 

Keith