Road Cycling Essentials

[Saytan]

£113 for a cassette is still bonkers.. it's like 4x the price of lets say 10 speed sram..

I really resent spending big money on cassettes and chains. It's an area where imo the cost-benefit ratio of higher end stuff is not favourable.

 

[Saundie]

I have Ultegra on my Yukon, and a mixture of Tiagra and 105 on my Pinnacle - I can't really tell the difference between the two. I have Ultegra Di2 on my Aquilo, which does feel different to the other two, being electric. The shifting on the Aquilo is always perfect, whereas the mechanical shifting on the other bikes does occasionally miss a beat (not often, admittedly). I wanted a titanium racing bike, and as the Aquilo is Di2 only so I didn't have much choice. I should probably ride it more often than once a quarter, really

 

[FrenchTart]

I have DA9000 although might be swapping to Ultegra Di2 before next Spring.

Like anything, diminishing returns. Buy the fastest GFX card and its a little faster than the next one down but generally quite a bit more cash.

DA9000 stuff isnt overly expensive, dont pay list eg i got a new rear mech for £90 and not the normal well over £100 they are in the shops.
Just got a SRAM Red 22 cassette, £113 on Amazon, £185+ everywhere else.

Pays yer money takes yer choice.

That's pretty ridiculous money

The rear mech not so much but the cassette is utterly redonk.

 

[lordrobs]

Pretty much settled on a Plug 3 for my next bike and pretty much settled on next spring being a good time to buy it... Then Wiggle put them on sale at less than £500

I bet when i come to buy next year i wont find one below £700.

 

[platypus]

I have Ultegra on my Yukon, and a mixture of Tiagra and 105 on my Pinnacle - I can't really tell the difference between the two. I have Ultegra Di2 on my Aquilo, which does feel different to the other two, being electric. The shifting on the Aquilo is always perfect, whereas the mechanical shifting on the other bikes does occasionally miss a beat (not often, admittedly). I wanted a titanium racing bike, and as the Aquilo is Di2 only so I didn't have much choice. I should probably ride it more often than once a quarter, really

/drool Aquilo. What is odd that I thought the Aquilo was designed specifically for Ultegra Di2, yet when you configure it on their bike builder, it says that the Aquilo can't take Di2..

One of my dream bikes that, certainly. You lucky bugger . Whilst the boss has said I can get a new bike next year, I don't think €6,000+ is likely to find much favour. How much did yours cost if you don't mind?

 

[PermaBanned]

Is this University halls?

High five for studying in Aberdeen also. Graduated from Aberdeen University a couple of years ago!

Private halls down the road from uni ones. Found a place in the shed but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence, the thing it's locked to is probably easier to cut through than my lock and it's going to get battered around by everyone else getting their bikes. At least it's kind of sheltered, i suppose...

It's a pretty good uni though, yeah, what did you study?

 

[Kimi]

During the last 365 days you have spent: £572.14

Man, it all adds up! Im done buying stuff for cycling now tho, finally got pretty much everything i need.

Apart from a time trial bike, a single speed and a cyclocross.

 

[topgun06]

During the last 365 days you have spent: £672.46. Sheeeeeeeshhh!!

I bet I couldn't name half the things I've bought.

 

[sHo0sH]

£58.82 - winning.
If you count ebay and chinese parts ~£1100

 

[SoliD]

Anyway enough of this willy waving/depression posts! Are you all enjoying cycling on your new bits! That is the most important thing.

 

[grudas]

I'd say my total for 2014 is probably around £1800! Including new bike! And yes I enjoy riding it lol.

 

[FrenchTart]

So, adjusted the bike I'm using for the turbo trainer a bit more and the seat height is about right now. Still needs more playing with but it's pretty close to how I need it. I also used a usb extender to move the BT dongle closer to the speed/cadence sensor, which seems to have helped.

Ten minutes of the Sufferfest Very Dark Place video and I had to stop Ridiculously hard. Though I have already cycled 40 miles today so I'm a bit more tired than I could be.

 

[Dunks]

Private halls down the road from uni ones. Found a place in the shed but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence, the thing it's locked to is probably easier to cut through than my lock and it's going to get battered around by everyone else getting their bikes. At least it's kind of sheltered, i suppose...

It's a pretty good uni though, yeah, what did you study?

I studied Mechanical Engineering, you?

Wish I could go back, did rather enjoy my time in Aberdeen. Real life just isn't the same!

 

[GSVBagpuss]

So, adjusted the bike I'm using for the turbo trainer a bit more and the seat height is about right now. Still needs more playing with but it's pretty close to how I need it. I also used a usb extender to move the BT dongle closer to the speed/cadence sensor, which seems to have helped.

Ten minutes of the Sufferfest Very Dark Place video and I had to stop Ridiculously hard. Though I have already cycled 40 miles today so I'm a bit more tired than I could be.

Love that one! Rep 4 is always the worst

 

[FrenchTart]

Love that one! Rep 4 is always the worst

I'll "look forward" to that when I start spending some proper time on the turbo With the weirdly warm weather we've had lately I'm hoping that won't be until October though I'll probably try to get at least a few full sessions in before that. I just need to get everything perfect/run out of excuses to not do full sessions

 

[Womble]

I'll "look forward" to that when I start spending some proper time on the turbo With the weirdly warm weather we've had lately I'm hoping that won't be until October though I'll probably try to get at least a few full sessions in before that. I just need to get everything perfect/run out of excuses to not do full sessions

You aint done an FTP test yet? Surely thats the place to start as it must be way too high if you're bailing after 10 mins. Only done AVDP once, and every interval is painful but just about doable ... after the first you don't know how you're going to cope with the rest but somehow you're able to pull through

 

[oli collett]

Just got the start times for my first ever hill climb TT - I also saw Arsey on there!

Dreading it as I'm still low on fitness following my crash, but I guess it gives me a benchmark for next year!

 

[touch]

I'll "look forward" to that when I start spending some proper time on the turbo With the weirdly warm weather we've had lately I'm hoping that won't be until October though I'll probably try to get at least a few full sessions in before that. I just need to get everything perfect/run out of excuses to not do full sessions

You aint done an FTP test yet? Surely thats the place to start as it must be way too high if you're bailing after 10 mins. Only done AVDP once, and every interval is painful but just about doable ... after the first you don't know how you're going to cope with the rest but somehow you're able to pull through

If you havnt done an FTP test yet, do that first.
I thought that last link you posted to the trainerroad activity was just a random test of your bluetooth thingy. If you're trying to do the workouts properly, you're not doing it right.
Your FTP is actually set way too low but you were not following the power target anyway.
The blue block at the bottom is the target power and you have a graph of your actual power on there too, you need to adjust your power to match them up. You were going way too hard in the intervals (which would be why you didnt manage to finish it).

Set your FTP to 250 before you do the FTP test.

 

[touch]

Think you're fast at unclipping pedals when things go bad? I bet you're not as fast as Ben Swift

 

[PermaBanned]

I studied Mechanical Engineering, you?

Wish I could go back, did rather enjoy my time in Aberdeen. Real life just isn't the same!

Geology. Not sure it's really something i want to go into for the rest of my life, but i guess we'll see.

I do think it's a pretty underrated university though. I pretty much ended up here by accident, i didn't know where else to put as my insurance and it was first on the list (seems to be a pretty popular reason for coming).

Think you're fast at unclipping pedals when things go bad? I bet you're not as fast as Ben Swift

Jesus **** that reaction time!