Road Cycling Essentials

FrenchTart · 16 Jun 2014 at 09:50

grudas said:
for .e.g todays commute -;

strava - 410kcal
endomondo - 658!

lol..

Yeah. I looked at some of my rides over the weekend and my kcal estimates were all 20-40% lower than Strava :eek:

I remember the brief time I used Endomondo it's kcal estimates were laughably high, similar to MFP's dodgy as hell kcal estimates.

grudas · 16 Jun 2014 at 09:55

FrenchTart said:
Yeah. I looked at some of my rides over the weekend and my kcal estimates were all 20-40% lower than Strava I remember the brief time I used Endomondo it's kcal estimates were laughably high, similar to MFP's dodgy as hell kcal estimates.

I guess it depends how fit you are? lets say an unfit person would need a lot more effort and sweat to cycle 10 miles than lets say someone who does it twice everyday.. so the kcal burn will be different?

but what's the most accurate way to estimate it then? still all possible sensors on your bike and body ? that's the only way I can think off..

oli collett · 16 Jun 2014 at 10:45

grudas said:
I guess it depends how fit you are? lets say an unfit person would need a lot more effort and sweat to cycle 10 miles than lets say someone who does it twice everyday.. so the kcal burn will be different?

but what's the most accurate way to estimate it then? still all possible sensors on your bike and body ? that's the only way I can think off..

Calorie burn is all about what your putting into the pedals rather than effort. A power meter will be pretty accurate assuming the rider isn't incredibly inefficient at pedalling

Berger · 16 Jun 2014 at 11:20

I did 40km at an average of 234w.

Strava says approximately 260kcal which sounds about right to me, my figures may be more accurate as I have a power meter though.

I've read about aiming to consume 1g of carbs per hour per kg of body weight, if this was true I'd spend the whole ride eating!

Edit: Grudas your commute gives two figures, energy output in kj of 368 which is 88kcal.

Then underneath it shows calories as 410 which is confusing!

One More Solo · 16 Jun 2014 at 11:31

260 calories actually seems very low to me for a ride of that distance and relative intensity. I'm not a scientist, but Google throws up the following formula:

energy (kcal) = avg power (W) X duration (hours) X 3.6

touch · 16 Jun 2014 at 11:47

Berger said:
Edit: Grudas your commute gives two figures, energy output in kj of 368 which is 88kcal.

Then underneath it shows calories as 410 which is confusing!

The power you put into the pedals is only a part of the carlories you are consuming.
Heart, lungs, stabilisation muscles in your core, arms holding your weight (+steering/braking) - all of these muscles have to work harder when you're cycling but they dont directly effect the power input, so calories used is proportionally linked to total work done (kJ) but not a direct conversion.

platypus · 16 Jun 2014 at 12:09

Er so.

I love her dearly, but...I found the bikes outside the shed this morning. Lucky that someone can't look over the fence and see them..

grudas · 16 Jun 2014 at 12:14

platypus said:
Er so.

I love her dearly, but...I found the bikes outside the shed this morning. Lucky that someone can't look over the fence and see them..

smells like divorce..

oli collett · 16 Jun 2014 at 13:03

touch said:
The power you put into the pedals is only a part of the carlories you are consuming.
Heart, lungs, stabilisation muscles in your core, arms holding your weight (+steering/braking) - all of these muscles have to work harder when you're cycling but they dont directly effect the power input, so calories used is proportionally linked to total work done (kJ) but not a direct conversion.

It's around 22-25% efficiency, so usually people take the kj number as kcal, because it's good enough for estimation

So, 100kj energy (from power)

Divide by efficiency (let's use 25%) to get input

= 400kj

Converts to

95.6kcal

At 22% efficiency that converts to

109kcal

So we can just say 100kj ~= 100kcal and we've got a pretty good estimate

lordrobs · 16 Jun 2014 at 13:05

FrenchTart said:
How do people find Strava's kcal estimations to be? The estimates are somewhat higher than I usually come up with for my rides. I've just linked MFP with Strava, hence asking.

How do you do that?! I used to have Endomondo linked but as others have found that reads about 40% higher (for me at least) than Strava.

Garmin connect gives pretty pie tastic calorie burns as well reading about the same as Endomondo.

FrenchTart · 16 Jun 2014 at 15:26

lordrobs said:
How do you do that?! I used to have Endomondo linked but as others have found that reads about 40% higher (for me at least) than Strava.

Garmin connect gives pretty pie tastic calorie burns as well reading about the same as Endomondo.

Look in the settings on the actual Strava android app - it recently appeared in there

Under "link to other services" or something like that.

chanjy · 16 Jun 2014 at 15:37

platypus said:
Er so.

I love her dearly, but...I found the bikes outside the shed this morning. Lucky that someone can't look over the fence and see them..

grudas said:
smells like divorce..

Smells like a clever plan by her to have blingy new bikes for the French Alps to me

Phantom Shadow · 16 Jun 2014 at 16:01

For L2B garmin has me at 2,977 calories. Strava says 2,159 and is usually lower.

Using a heart rate monitor so at least has some idea of how much effort I'm putting in.

iMacMart · 16 Jun 2014 at 16:22

iMacMart said:
Gents

Been given these and they fit perfectly, just need some second hand pedals to go with them for my San Remo road bike, but not sure if its a specific type I need (Novice here!!)

Any ideas?

Hi Guys

Would a set of Shimano PD-R540 SPD-SL Pedals fit well with the above?

Think some kind soul on here said they would but wanted to double check

Thanks

One More Solo · 16 Jun 2014 at 16:24

Yes they will.

grudas · 16 Jun 2014 at 16:24

iMacMart said:
Hi Guys

Would a set of Shimano PD-R540 SPD-SL Pedals fit well with the above?

Think some kind soul on here said they would but wanted to double check

Thanks

yes

iMacMart · 16 Jun 2014 at 16:25

grudas said:
yes

Top man

Will order now

ShiWarrior · 16 Jun 2014 at 16:28

iMacMart said:
Hi Guys

Would a set of Shimano PD-R540 SPD-SL Pedals fit well with the above?

Think some kind soul on here said they would but wanted to double check

Thanks

yep

I was the one that linked to the 540's

khodos · 16 Jun 2014 at 17:38

hi guys, quick question: What's your favourite app to "record" your rides? I just need something that tracks me and able to export it to google maps or similar. Don't need to save altitude data, etc.

If it could log speed and burned calories that would be great, but I won't use that often.

Extra question for Londoners. How much is an average rate by the hour for servicing? I would like to fix my rear caliper brake. Despite all my efforts, it sometimes moves making one pad to touch the wheel, slowing me down, making noise, etc. My bike is rubbish (bought it just for casual rides during summer) so I would like to avoid replacing parts if possible. The brake itself works fine, but I can't attach/fix it to the frame completely so it won't move.

Vonhelmet · 16 Jun 2014 at 17:41

khodos said:
hi guys, quick question: What's your favourite app to "record" your rides? I just need something that tracks me and able to export it to google maps or similar. Don't need to save altitude data, etc.

If it could log speed and burned calories that would be great, but I won't use that often.

Strava, endomondo, mytracks... There's loads. Strava and endomondo are the most popular.