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...!
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...!
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!
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!
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.