Road Cycling

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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4,617
How does everyone choose a new helmet? Mine (Kask Mojito in GB colours to honour Ian Stannard being National champ that year) is 5+ years old so I fancy a change / should replace. You can spend a lot of money on them and I don’t think aero really makes any difference at my paltry speeds. Just looks? They all pass the same EU safety tests it seems


I go on planet x and order a reasonable looking one for £20-30 and ride it until the pads fall apart or I drop it. if the pads fall apart before I drop it then it replaces my winter helmet (which has no pads because I always wear a hat with it)
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Hereford
you can try taking some sandpaper to the pads and disks, roughen them up a bit and take off the glazing. Makes them feel pretty good as long as they aren't contaminated
Had thought about this, I've got glasspaper and obviously pretty easy thing to do & probably better (more abrasive)? Although wouldn't a wet & dry style type well too?

One thing I've never been able to find information on, even though it's mentioned EVERYWHERE around disc brakes. Is how the flip do you tell if pads/rotors are 'contaminated'?! So many people seem to change pads 'just in case they're contaminated' just as soon as they look at pads & rotors. I'd be changing them every month if that was the case and at £30 a pair that's not something I want to even consider!

Never have this problem with rim brakes... ;)

How does everyone choose a new helmet? Mine (Kask Mojito in GB colours to honour Ian Stannard being National champ that year) is 5+ years old so I fancy a change / should replace. You can spend a lot of money on them and I don’t think aero really makes any difference at my paltry speeds. Just looks? They all pass the same EU safety tests it seems
I've previously picked helmets by colour and branding, so I've ended up with a fantastically comfortable, cheap (£50) white Specialized Echelon II I use for commuting. Then a badly fitting, uncomfortable Red/Black, expensive (£160) Kask Infinity. Always try a helmet on before you buy! Will be sticking with Specialized from now on and really like the Evade, just can't justify buying another expensive helmet yet.

I have a new bike
Pic doesn't work here :(

I usually get a choice of one size to fit my stupidly large head.
Large heads signing in! 62-63cm here. Annoyingly some companies don't make helmets that large, with their Large sizings only going up to 61cm. Some brands even different year models of the same helmet have different sizings, so one year a Large is 53-61, other years its 54-63! :rolleyes:

My MTB 7 iDP helmet fit's me well with a cap under it or stood normally, one 'notch' tighter to go capless or in a riding position and the rear annoyingly presses the back of my head. Gah!

Apparently the gritters are on standby around the south, to pour a load of "dust" on melting tarmac.

What about our summer drivetrains, dammit? Quick, to the winter bikes!
Lol madness! There's a load of equipment and some lights being put up on my commute this morning so fully expecting them to FINALLY resurface a stretch of road. They've already been out and repaired a couple of potholes on it on 8 separate occasions this year already. What a waste of time! :rolleyes:

I've just noticed Rapha have got 25% off code active at the moment. Picked up a Pro team jacket for £120 ready for when winter comes.
Care to share the code mate?
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Apr 2013
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3,067
Start times for British nat TT -

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/z...ampionships-2018-Time-Trial-Rider-Timings.pdf

Thomas is there but not sure if he has a ride? Also Phil on res list is coached by same bloke as I was so hope he gets a ride as he is super strong right now.
Griffiths off first and Archibald off fourth are guys I have raced against (been smashed by).
Number 36 in the u23 men is a local lad to me that we know really well so keen to see how he goes also.
Weird seeing lots of names you know amongst the rest of those guys......
 
Soldato
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Hereford
Start times for British nat TT -
I'm annoyed this isn't being shown on Eurosport! Looks like only the various national road races are, none of the TT's! :(

Local lad to me is number 34, Andy Turner after Chris Lawless. Expecting him to do well fingers crossed!

Also expecting both the Tanfields to smash it (Harry in seniors and Charlie in Juniors). Pidcock also off in the Juniors, find it really funny that he'll be wearing number 35 and going off mid field, when he's Junior World TT Champion! :D

Rapha code is save25
Thanks! Doh it's plastered all over the Rapha site! ;)

I do recall them doing a sale this time last year... Just before my birthday as I went mad and ordered several sets of shorts to check them out! Just ordered some more Core shorts... That's 4 pairs of them now, turning into a Rapha fanboy :cool: :o
 
Soldato
Joined
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Eurosport are covering the RR too, obviously ITV & ES have 'catchup'/steaming services.

Any idea how to watch the TT back afterwards? Lots of us can't watch at work! :(

I am fingers crossed for my man Dave Millar on ITV.

Long term suggestion = get a real job so you can watch at work! :p
Short term = I will keep eyes peeled for a highlights or a saved version as it is streaming from YT so might be fully available after the fact - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZVQoORlFwg&feature=player_embedded
 
Soldato
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Thanks bud, fingers crossed!

Where you been anyway? Thought the midges had finally eaten you alive! :p

Don't tell me you've been doing that running/getting injured thing?

I have a little dude demanded my attention for the past 8 months :) I believe you have a lad of about the same age now also?
I started new job in March that I can commute by bike with a 80% chance of being killed by cars/vans as opposed to last job that had a 95% chance. So I am getting the miles in again and back to the cycling world after my hiatus :)
 
Soldato
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Hereford
I have a little dude demanded my attention for the past 8 months :) I believe you have a lad of about the same age now also?
I started new job in March that I can commute by bike with a 80% chance of being killed by cars/vans as opposed to last job that had a 95% chance. So I am getting the miles in again and back to the cycling world after my hiatus :)
Ah-ha! Yeah my little guy just turned 9 months today, I didn't take much of a break from cycling as was back to commuting when back at work 2 weeks after he was born. I also got several Zwift rides in, first of which was 8 days afterwards! But I didn't get out for a club/social ride for 7 weeks, not sure what you where playing at for 8 months! ;)

How's yours doing?

Mine's going through his 3rd session of teething and got 5+6th teeth through, the first of which when we where on holiday in Spain last week. He's coping amazingly with them though and still sleeping 9+ hours unbroken, just the getting him settled is taking it's time in the evenings. Just figured out proper crawling (rather than faceplanting) the last couple of days too which is proving annoying... As we now need to move everything off the floors! :rolleyes:
 
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Soldato
Joined
24 Apr 2013
Posts
3,067
Ah-ha! Yeah my little guy just turned 9 months today, I didn't take much of a break from cycling as was back to commuting when back at work 2 weeks after he was born. I also got several Zwift rides in, first of which was 8 days afterwards! But I didn't get out for a club/social ride for 7 weeks, not sure what you where playing at for 8 months! ;)

How's yours doing?

Mine's going through his 3rd session of teething and got 5+6th teeth through, the first of which when we where on holiday in Spain last week. He's coping amazingly with them though and still sleeping 9+ hours unbroken, just the getting him settled is taking it's time in the evenings. Just figured out proper crawling (rather than faceplanting) the last couple of days too which is proving annoying... As we now need to move everything off the floors! :rolleyes:

I was best part 10 months off a bike completely so it's painful coming back.... :(
Oh jees you are only about 3 weeks ahead of us and we have no teeth yet! Like you getting 8-9 hours unbroken sleep from him about 60% of the nights now with some nights 1 or 2 wakeups for a feed.

Proper little characters at this age eh? Just amazing. He was upside down pulling himself underneath coffee table trying to yank my laptop off it yesterday so we are also at baby-proofing stage!
 
Soldato
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Ouch! And I thought my 10 days off for 7 days in Spain had been hard! It's only now after two brief hard sessions & 15 commutes later that my HR is back down to where it should be for the power output. Fairly sure my endurance has taken a huge nose dive so sunday's 100 is really going to make or break me! ;)

Teeth where annoying, until them we had a baby sleeping 11-12 hours a night then when the first ones came it was like having a 2 week old again - with the multiple night-time wake ups! Really hurt as he'd been such a good sleeper since about 5 weeks old. But after only a couple of nights he settled down again to 10-11 hours mostly unbroken sleep. We've had the occasional (once or twice a week) wake-up 'scream' 1-2 hours after bed time (which is 6.30pm) but he generally self settles from it, with a crib^cam we can tell if he needs settling as he often doesn't wake up. Just screams! We try to self settle/sooth settle as much as possible but have had to resort to Calpol for a night or two when the teeth are at their worst. Lots of ear grabbing... :(

Sounds like we're ahead of you with sleep too and meals... Could be because we bottle/formula fed? Sleep we get 10/11 hours 90% of the time. Food is one morning bottle of 120ml formula, one evening bottle of 90ml. Tons of real food! Mealtimes with us with only 2 extra 'snack' kinda times where he eats fruit, he's now mostly eating what we eat - has made mealtimes amazingly easy! Once you get to the stage of that, rather than liquid food/specially made meals it's great. A staple for the last month or three (when teeth arrived) has been home made fish pie (frozen cod, some veg in mashed sweet potato) as can make 8-10 of them & freeze. Also couscous. Ours loves it! While on holiday (Spain) he generally ate everything we ate - Paella, Pasta, Pizza, Spaghetti, Carbonara etc. And I think that was largely because he's eaten so many different things with us at home. Will literally eat anything! :D

They're characters, now we're crawling within the space of 3-4 days we're suddenly bored of loads of toys/gadgets which used to be our staple. Things like a rocking crib/chair & Jumperroo used to be an amazing way of keeping him occupied for 15/20 mins while you did something (washing up/hoovering/cooking). Now they don't last 1 minute (if that!). And now we can crawl we don't stay put in the 'ball pool' (which has tons of balls & toys in it), as it's more fun to be clambering out of it and grabbing things like cables, coffee table drawer handles, NowTV boxes, dog toys/the dog. They really are little monkeys at this age ain't they!? I had Harry last night, sat on the bed while I was getting changed, I was making chug chug chug noises as I'd put a Thomas book and a toy train in front of him. Lots of giggling and cuteness my chug chugs lead to (bad) beatboxing and he was dancing along to it. He listens to quite a bit of music and does tend to dance to things as we generally don't have the TV on with him there. He'll dance to my mobile's alarm in the mornings too, well funny! :D
 
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Associate
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26 Oct 2002
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Lincoln
So, did my first Sportif yesterday and also my first imperial 100
C2C2C 106miles which was nearly 60 miles more than I ever cycled before.
Was with a load from work who were similar experienced riders to me(I.E. under trained and slow)
Took us an absolute age but that didn’t worry me at all and was well impressed with the organisation and feed stations of it all. If that is the norm for these I shall do more though not that distance.
I had always decided that if I finished it I would treat myself to a new bike but as I got closer to the day I thought if I didn’t finish I wouldn’t have said bike so decided to order it beforehand just in case:D
Went with the defy advanced pro 1 in the end which is a nice step up from my old ally defy from 2014
JB
 
Soldato
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11 Jun 2013
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2,632
So, did my first Sportif yesterday and also my first imperial 100
C2C2C 106miles which was nearly 60 miles more than I ever cycled before.
Was with a load from work who were similar experienced riders to me(I.E. under trained and slow)
Took us an absolute age but that didn’t worry me at all and was well impressed with the organisation and feed stations of it all. If that is the norm for these I shall do more though not that distance.
I had always decided that if I finished it I would treat myself to a new bike but as I got closer to the day I thought if I didn’t finish I wouldn’t have said bike so decided to order it beforehand just in case:D
Went with the defy advanced pro 1 in the end which is a nice step up from my old ally defy from 2014
JB

Well done! It’s a big achievement to tick off your first metric 100. I did the exactly the same in terms of buying the new bike before my first century and had only done 45 miles as my longest. What’s next then?!
 
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