Road Cycling

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Just took delivery of some Lifeline Prime Armour and some chromoplastic mudguards. Hopefully I can get out for some rides in the next few weeks.
 
Soldato
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Good winter pastime, gluing tubulars... don’t have any to glue this year, but worked well sticking a sole back on a shoe!

And talking of shoes, put a brand new Shimano yellow cleat on. Walked to the bottom of the garden. Clipped in, turbo for an hour, unclipped, yellow block came off... I am sure Shimano have had a bad batch of these as I have had loads of crap ones like this, but before went years and wore the blocks out from walking on them.
 
Soldato
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Anyone know if a normal 105/ultegra crank arm will fit a grx chainset. Looking at power meters for new bike and presume they're the same offset etc but just wanted to check.
 
Soldato
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Brrr! First proper cold commutes this week with this week being the coldest yet this winter. Was -5 here with a windchill of -9 so 'feels like -6'. My ELEMNT measured 19 F which is -7. Cold enough for the head unit to freeze into the mount...! :o

But actually didn't see any ice here. Some thick fog but although I had frost on the outside of my clothing don't think it was quite 'freezing fog' - didn't have to wipe off my glasses. We had some heavy snow here yesterday but it melted within a couple of hours, so although earlier in the week things dried out a bit, it was all damp again for yesterdays nursery commute (which is always grim riding due to the increased humidity). This has been quite a shock after only 1 ride outside over Christmas...! :o

I'm moving to working from home, or at least based at home, but 'on call' so might get a few more rides in shooting down to the office (2.5 miles from home!) to fix something, then heading back home. The little one is still 4 days in nursery, needing pickup with The Tank 3-4 days a week. But it should hopefully mean some chances at more Zwift evening sessions as less of a rush around mornings/evenings to get everything ready for work! :D

fair point, i think the place i got all my gear from has closed down now, only place i know that sells bike stuff locally is halfords.
Halfords unlikely to have 'test' saddles as they don't generally partner with brands and become resellers for certain distributors like LBS generally do. Nor do they do fitting...

Easiest thing to do is sit on a piece of paper on carpeted stairs. Your sit bones should leave indents in the paper, measure middle to middle and you'll have a rough saddle width to aim for. Not very scientific but it gives you an easy starting point. A bike fit with an experienced fitter is the best solution, but quite an investment so best done when sizing for a new bike or when investing some money in increasing performance/fit/efficiency.

It will last very very long between minimal top ups of more Squirt. I am not exactly keeping tab on it but would say every 4 weeks-ish I am putting another fine layer of Squirt on the chain via 1 rotation and that's certainly enough.
Good shout. How easy is it to tell to reapply, I assume the drivechain gets a little more noisy like normal lubes? I currently use Finish Line Green, as it's gloopy it has more staying power than a dry lube, so I don't need to apply as often. Doesn't get as filthy as outside so I'm probably only applying every couple of months...

I'm convinced a lot of people get away with it due to lower time spent on the bike. If bike setup is good, saddle width is good, cleats are setup well, hygiene is good and bibs are well suited, you should never really get them.
Low time = less conditioned, is certainly true, but some riders are just more sensitive to it, certainly I am still searching for the 'holy grail' of arse/shorts/saddle combination. Other riders just seem to be able to ride any shorts on any saddle with little/no ill effects. Pedalling style/efficiency comes into it too - I move/rock around more than I should. It's bad enough that people 'recognise' me riding from it. It's probably quite inefficient and was told it was due to core strength - I've noticed I'm far 'better' when riding more in the summer at my fittest. Low amount of time on the bike, plus doing no core strength work, means I just 'put up' with it.

Guy on Zwift I know just did his Hells ROAM 10K (Everesting with 10,000ft elevation, 400km+ in under 36hrs) was actually showering and changing kit every 2-3 hours, as he suffers from sores if he doesn't. So someone doing near 10k miles a year and 730,000ft elevation still can suffer...

Quite happy to look at Shimano.

Trouble is there's nowhere I can try them on anymore :(.
Halfords/Decathlon? Just thinking of 'bike shops' which you can basically walk into and do what you did before - but may have that wrong as it's nearly a year since I last went into the LBS! :o :(

Yup, good quality fairly typical guards. Are not silent as they flex around a bunch, I went through a process of adding additional stays to my front to try and keep it quieter but in the end gave up and fitted some solid full metal guards.

And talking of shoes, put a brand new Shimano yellow cleat on. Walked to the bottom of the garden. Clipped in, turbo for an hour, unclipped, yellow block came off... I am sure Shimano have had a bad batch of these as I have had loads of crap ones like this, but before went years and wore the blocks out from walking on them.
Don't think I ever recall wearing the blocks off shimano's, seem to recall one even fell off when I was fitting cleats to a shoe once! Keo's are not much better, never seem to wear them down, the grippy things just seem to peel or pop off one side within a few rides. I got some of the earlier non-grip ones and they didn't do it as where solid plastic, but far more movement in the cleat, making it feel 'loose' in the pedal even when new. So just made cleats more noisy. They did wear far less, just got annoyed with the noises so changed back to Grips...

Anyone know if a normal 105/ultegra crank arm will fit a grx chainset. Looking at power meters for new bike and presume they're the same offset etc but just wanted to check.
No idea, done some googling? I bet some of the review kinda sites compared the cranks to 8000 so you're just after someone who actually swapped an arm to see. Even better if they measured the Q-factor or whatever it's called.
 
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Soldato
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quick look around suggests q factor on GRX is +5mm over road cranks, so a grx crank will sit 2.5mm further out at the pedal than a road one
 
Soldato
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@Roady

The conditioning is only part of it. Some issues don't present themselves as the time spent seated isn't enough to create the problem, which is both good and bad. The guy you know will have an issue with one of the above things I mentioned unless he has a skin condition. I'd stick my car on it. With mapping, checking bib line and using the mirror method as above, mine still isn't 50/50 even split pressure but it's very close. In theory, this still means I would eventually have a problem on the left, but it would take huge hours/mileage every week with little to no recovery. To get it perfect, like with many other people, it would probably take a physio and/or a strange very slight none symmetrical bike setup. The bike is never the problem, it's the person as left and right aren't identical. Even if identical measurements, still will be side bias, dominant leg etc
 
Soldato
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Good shout. How easy is it to tell to reapply, I assume the drivechain gets a little more noisy like normal lubes? I currently use Finish Line Green, as it's gloopy it has more staying power than a dry lube, so I don't need to apply as often. Doesn't get as filthy as outside so I'm probably only applying every couple of months...

Yeah I just go by noise and feel. Can tell pretty easily it needs a wee top up :)
Not used that Finish Line green wet stuff for ages. Black chain within 3 nanoseconds, OCD doesn't cope well with it haha.
 
Soldato
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Good old Facebook memories popped up this morning. It's been 8 years since I turned to the dark side and got my first road bike! Covered a lot of miles and spent far too much money in the time since but still loving it.
 
Soldato
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Moving...
Is disc breaks squealing like a pig a common thing when it's cold (freezing or just below), or is it more likely that they're reaching the end of life?

They're Shimano Ultegra R8070 with resin pads and have done approx 5000km (mostly flat) so are probably due a change, but I looked at them a few months back and seemed ok
 
Soldato
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My wax arrived! Woohoo!

Started cleaning up chains, factory lube/grease is a nightmare to remove. Even after 3 dips it’s still inside the hollows on the chain and can feel it in your hand when the chain is dry.

Almost worse than cleaning a used chain!

I’ve rub out of white spirit now and it’s freezing cold, so will have to wait a few days.
 
Soldato
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My wax arrived! Woohoo!

Started cleaning up chains, factory lube/grease is a nightmare to remove. Even after 3 dips it’s still inside the hollows on the chain and can feel it in your hand when the chain is dry.

Almost worse than cleaning a used chain!

I’ve rub out of white spirit now and it’s freezing cold, so will have to wait a few days.
Thats some elbow grease going on. I generally give the MTB a hose down if really bad, the road bike gets a quick squirt of GT86 once a month. I know, asking for trouble.
 
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