Road Cycling Essentials

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Soldato
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^ Budget?

What's with everyone discounting the Fizik shoes, are they any good? First Merlin, trumped by Wiggle and now trumped by Ribble £299 R1 shoe for £135?!
 
Underboss
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Your looking used really at at that price point. Cheapest CX I can think of is probably a Revolution, on offer this weekend for £402:

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/revolution-cross-13?bct=browse/bicycles/cyclocross-bikes

so its deffo a Cyclocross (CX) bike I need then? do all CX bikes have mud guard mounts on them? (or most?)

was thinking 2nd hand as I don't mind what condition it is in , as long as its smooth running, don't mind scratched paint work as its going to get scratched quite often
 
Associate
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the only largish areas I can see that look out the way of traffic are.

  1. alongside the river tyne but a lot of it looks like dirt paths.


  1. I've ridden from the centre of Newcastle out to South Shields following the Sustrans route and it's all perfectly ok for a road bike, being on either dedicated paths or quiet roads. There wasn't any dirt tracks.
 
Associate
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^ Budget?

What's with everyone discounting the Fizik shoes, are they any good? First Merlin, trumped by Wiggle and now trumped by Ribble £299 R1 shoe for £135?!

Ive ordered some of the r1's in black. I tried on a pair a while back and they felt nice and supportive on my feet but about half a size too big. So ive ordered the half size below. They come with the heat mouldable insoles. Apparently they have to be molded in a special flash oven so i guess ive now got to find a shop that will help me in moulding them :confused:
 
Associate
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Garmin edge 810 arrived today, cracking piece of kit :) Looking forward to massively overanalysing my rides :). You can take the accountant out of the Lycra, but you cannot take the Lycra out of the accountant or something...
 
Soldato
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^ Depends on spec. They probably start around £800 ish and up.

I ran 5 miles on Wed morning (3rd run this year). And I'm destroyed. No legs at all. Need 2hr 45mins to finish Fizik and would like to get it done tomorrow. Don't really wan't to do more than 30 miles but that means I need to average around 10.5mph. So looks like 45 miles @ 16mph and to top it off it's going to be wet & windy. FML.
 
Soldato
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2 days until my first sportive and the weather isn't looking too great. Windy and wet for Sunday :/

Oh well, its all for charity so I've got to do it, which incidentally you can sponsor me for ;) :p
 
Man of Honour
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I need a bit of help or guidance on some new kit...

I've made the leap and ordered some SPD pedals - Shimano M520's to be precise. I can't make my mind up on shoes though. I think I've settled on non-recessed cleats because I'll only be using them for commuting or racing and I'll keep toeclips on the other bike for when I might need to walk as well. I was looking at some Specialized and Louis Garneau ones in Evans at around £100 per pair. Anything else I should consider?

And my other old chestnut - non-bib shorts. So I checked out a load of shorts in my local Evans and I think I conclude you either get padding that mainly sits under the perineum or you get a pair of round-ish pads on the back of your bum cheeks, but nothing in between. That suits me, because I don't really sit on my bum on the saddle, so I just need the perineum padding. My current ones are a pair of Pearl Izumi under-shorts and I'm looking for some I don't need to wear anything over the top of. The Gore ones seemed pretty good with the padding but at £70 I thought was a bit steep on the pricing when all the 'big' brands are around that sort of price. Again, what other options have I got?
 
Soldato
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I did the Cycle Live Relay race tonight. I started for our team and did 4 laps before coming in then going out later for another towards the end.

Great fun, showed me I am a way off actual racing though. Maybe with a better bike :)

http://app.strava.com/activities/61942855

Nicely done. Did I pass you on Warren Lane the other night going the opposite way? I'm sure I did.
 
Soldato
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I've made the leap and ordered some SPD pedals - Shimano M520's to be precise. I can't make my mind up on shoes though. I think I've settled on non-recessed cleats because I'll only be using them for commuting or racing and I'll keep toeclips on the other bike for when I might need to walk as well. I was looking at some Specialized and Louis Garneau ones in Evans at around £100 per pair. Anything else I should consider?
Make sure that whatever you buy has a 2-bolt fitting for SPD cleats and not the 3-bolt fitting. Now that you've chosen SPD, i cant see any reason not to buy recessed shoes. The tread patterns wont have any effect on the pedal/shoe interface so it makes sense to just get something you can walk in. Non-recessed shoes are used for SPD-SL cleats because the cleat is much bigger (wider than the shoe itself, actually) so it wont fit with any tread on the shoe.

And my other old chestnut - non-bib shorts.
Dont do it!
Just get bibshorts, they are so much better.
 
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