TheBigYin Member

busy weekend coming up guys and gals... Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, followed by the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday. Traditionally, the "real" races have been plagued by horrible weather, as kind of befits the start of the Flemish Spring Campaign... if you want any info on the races, then click…

okay then - as the bulk of the rides are actually loaded into the events calendar over in Gears Steers and Cheers, I guess we'll go in that direction. I've had a look at the spreadsheet - i'd strongly recommend using Google Sheets again - mainly because i've already got a template taken from the end of 2017's sheet...…

good point, well made. lesser of two weevils....

right then... so I've a couple of willing victims volunteers for the spreadsheets... next question - are we running it all through this forum, or over on facebook? I do like the event thing and the reminders on facebook, but basically this forum has died on its arris since we moved most of the things over there, and it…

given this threads 18 months old, and the OP bought a bike before LAST winter, it's a fair bet that that the bike in question IS used now...

any offer of assistance in the planning/organising/keeping score for the Classics gratefully recieved... I'd like to keep SOME of the feel of the previous classics - though the cold weather bonuses and gradient points were a complete PITA to keep upto - requiring pretty much every ride to be manually inspected and pored…

I remember them trialling the Groupset with (iirc) Quickstep a few years ago - that was the shifters etc rather than the hydraulic brakes of course - but I seem to remember that the "protected riders" rode most of the big races using shimano kit with the logo's taped over, because the FSA prototypes weren't up to speed…

Felt something dragging on my back wheel yesterday when I did the Jungle Loop Extension... ;)

theres a lot of that about sadly :( really, really wish I had the time to put into running something, but I don't - anything I tried would be half-assed and probably fizzle out. It's a shame, we had a good little hardcore community on here, and I thought it MIGHT just keep going and someone else would step up to fill the…

clocks gone back this weekend, so weekday rides will pretty much all be indoors (apart from anything I grab next week, where I've got the final 5 days of my annual leave booked) I was on Zwift this saturday, couldn't resist doing the road to ruins extension after a hours worth of a group-social ride...

well, i'm still riding a little, though it's pretty much weekends only for the outdoor stuff due to work commitments - i'll admit it's been quiet from me all year in here, what with the classics challenge getting administered over on facebook, and the grand tours ending after the Giro when Jason pulled the plug on the…

the size of the bike is on the sticker under the toptube/seattube junction - I'd guess from the photo that it's a 56...

the other alternative would be TRP Hy-Rd's... they're hydraulic brakes, but actuated by a cable - by which I mean they have hydraulic actuated pistons on BOTH sides of the disk like "proper" brakes - not like most cable disks that just have one moving pad, and rely on bending the disk into the static pad...

pretty sure you'd have to step up to rival for the hydraulic levers... Fitting it isn't massively difficult (basically, it's just like a cable swap for the gears, and a complete replace for the hydraulic lines - it'll be easier if your bike has a full-outer cable install for the rear brake, as basically the hydraulic like…

Here's my "Tracking Sheet"... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19SZxMFdfZ_0mZ-yx_wsjGBdBxhQAcoHmhBKV4SwvAiI/edit?usp=sharing (it pretty much covers all my challenges back from the first Giro back in 2013 (apart from 2013's vuelta which seems to have disappeared somehow :angry: )

ok here's mine... well - actually it's YESTERDAY's ride, but by the end of it I just wanted to chill for a while and spend the rest of the day eating/drinking and avoiding getting cramp in my left leg... Went out yesterday to ride a "route" that the local authority have setup called the "Wakefield Wheel"... It's a loop…

I do like the Gates Drive though, and the disk wheels - it's just that I really can't get on with flat bars like that - I need some sort of way to change hand positions - even my MTB's ended up with bar-ends on them.

I can't get on with flat bar bikes, but it's a very lovely piece of engineering.

I've gone through the 705, 800, 810 and i'm now on a 520 (bought 2 weeks before the 820 was launched, or i'd have had the 820!) All round, the 520's probably the best so far - though I miss the touchscreen of the 800 series and the better navigation options. 705 and the 800 were probably the most "stable" (and both still…

well - as cycleagues has gone to the great bit-bucket in the sky, I guess you're down to "rolling your own"...

The hardest thing about being an "ex" racer is accepting that riding isn't about all the goal-orientated stuff anymore. I had it much easier, my "retirement" from racing was 25 years or so ago, and enforced by a RTA that saw me hospitalised for 3 months, and under daily medical treatment and off work for another 9. By…

had white tape on the Dolan from new. Baby-Wipes are the the obsessive riders best friend. Quick wipe over the tape after each ride, and when you actually clean the bike, get the "cillit bang (grease version)" and a nail-brush on the case. Many, Many thousands of Km's on the Dolan over the past 3-4 years, and it's still on…

I think that the main reason why there's not a real prescriptive "do this and all will be well" for "century rides" is quite simple really. Riding 100km isn't really all that difficult for a reasonably healthy person with a half-decent bike. Unlike running, where you've lots of "getting acclimated to the impacts" for your…

you say that like it's a bad thing... I'm completely OCD over how the bike is configured - not only had everything on the Dolan to be the perfect size to get my physical setup right, but I had to have everything colour coordinated as well - cost me quite a few extra £££ in upgrades I can tell you (for example the…

pretty sure everyone else is out riding - i'm stuck in the office at 7:40 in the evening, catching up on my second job after a week at the "day-job" , and hoping that I actually feel fit enough to go out and get a couple of miles in tomorrow and sunday.

Can't really offer much more in the way of advice, other than the "practice on the trainer" trick. I never really had an issue with getting into/out of clipless pedals because i'd already been riding for probably 10 years or so, mostly with toe-clips and straps, and very often with shoes that had the "shoeplates" nailed on…

On the recommendation of the Medics, I've actually got the garmin set up as follows... with an alert set to bleep and flash if my HR gets into Z5. even at the top end of Z5 there's a few extra beats "grace" to cover the fact that I don't really want to be exerting myself any harder than 139 without being under medical…

I think I'll just sack the recovery advisor off and do what I've done for the past 3 years or more, since I got the power meter - as NorthCascades said, use the TSS as a guideline. As to your question pedermj2002 - as my HrMax is "chemically limited" (beta blockers etc) to 145 (and that was achieved on a "test to falling…

After my heart problems of nearly two years ago, I never ride without the heart rate strap, so it's always getting that data as well as the power... May e it's just that my FTP is so ludicrously low that it reckons I can't take too long to recover from anything... Who knows, I only leave it on because it gives me a giggle…

not been using the auto FTP, but I do use the "recovery advisor" - It doesn't seem to be particularly discriminating though - 90 minute ride at "full gas" (np=98% of ftp), recovery time approx 22 hours. 135 minute ride, again pretty intense (np=102% of ftp) - recovery time 22 hours. Todays ride, 200 minutes, np=95% of ftp…