Touching up some corrosion on the rear cf frame, drop-outs - does anyone have a best practice ?<snip>
On alloy I'd just use nail varnish. Worked well on my Defy, but be careful if its bare carbon as think nail varnish can damage the layup.
What rear lights are looking good this year?
Explosure TraceR. I have 3 of them now, oldest is 3 years old and used 5+ times per week, day and night, all year round - as I always run a flashing rear even in the summer day times. Incredible lights for the money (well worth even the £40-45 RRP for the latest model with 'Daybright' but if you're after budget then find an older model one without).
If £30-35 is too ripe for you then look at Cateye. The Mini RC is a great little light for sub £20, if you can find it. The
cheaper copy (newer) Rapid Mini is ok, good for £17 but battery life is not as good as the Mini RC.
The Lifeline Aero Beam are ok, good for £15, although the rear rubber fitting is a bit iffy. I've had no water ingress problems with mine so far. They're around 8 months old and ridden all weathers (have had some good soakings!).
I'm running 2 rear lights myself (helmet & bike - Tracer & Mini RC) and then 4 rear lights on the baby chariot (Rapid mini, 2*Aero beam &
Cateye Duplex). The other half is running a TraceR and Rapid Mini.
My only experience with Knog was a cheapy blinder. Was a great little light but battery life was shocking. I have a Moon Comet which is superb, incredibly bright but as it got older the battery life started to drop off. Should still use it but broke the mount trying to fit it to the chariot.
Exposure or 4fourths offerings.
Not heard of 4fourths, thought you where running Lifelines?
Cleaned the dust off my road bike and cycled from Birmingham to Stratford on Sunday. Small fry at 39km compared to everyone on here, but I was pleasantly surprised with the average speed of 27 kph considering I've not done a "long" ride for over a year. 6 months of cycle commuting 22km a day at the end of last year at least kept my legs a little familiar with riding a bike. A 15 month old at home makes it slightly challenging to take an afternoon off on my bike! I think I'm going to have to convince my wife to form a support team with the little one and meet for a pub lunch in the Warwickshire countryside.
The Birmingham Velo isn't looking so terrifying in May, I just need to make sure I do a regular long ride to keep up my fitness.
Any recommendations for padded shorts?!
Good stuff! Although which Stratford?!
Haha, Stratford upon Avon is still a good distance. Regularly riding is key, regardless of distance. Although you should get some longer training rides in before the event so you 'build' towards it.
My little boy is 15 months old too, trying to balance riding with rest/recovery and him is hard. Especially since starting teething 3-4 months ago he seems to be waking before 6am, every.damn.day! Luckily we ride our commutes so some of my weekly commuting towing him is quite intense/tempo (baby trailer). Without Zwift/turbo trainer I wouldn't have been near 4000 miles last year!
Shorts pads are a very individual thing. Start with some of the cheap but quality/well documented shorts like the Endura FS260/Wiggle DHB/Castelli Evoluzione/Sportful Classic/Giro/Rapha Core. Get to know which pads work well for you, for me the wider and thicker pads of Rapha Core & Sportful TC work better than the thinner and racier pads. But that's a very individual thing - as I seem to be far more sensitive than others, who seem to be able to ride on anything!
Exposure TraceR should be available for £25-30.
I had a Knog front light jump off my bike. I didn't realise that was the plastic noise I heard until about 10 miles later
Hate it when that happens! I'm sure that's what happened to a
Cateye Rapid X (can't find it anywhere!) and my first Mini RC.
I dropped my VOLT 800 loads of times (rubbish/dodgy mount, eventually warrantied), have yet to drop an Exposure. Say much for their mounting as never really considered that until now!