Official Road Cycling Thread

[M_Six]

No riding outside today. This is smoke from the Canadian wildfires. You can normally see a water tower above the tree line. Very nasty air quality.

[chassis]

New helmet!

Cannondale Quick, on sale 50% off at REI. Basic helmet that fits/feels good and looks OK. I have wanted a new helmet for a long time, my old one is almost 30 years old and was too small from the beginning.

I didn't want to pay a fortune for a helmet, and I saw them on sale when I was in REI looking for something else. First ride with it hopefully tomorrow.

[M_Six]

Got out for 23 miles yesterday, but it's super humid out there today with more T-Storms coming through. So it'll be an inside ride on the trainer today.

EDIT: Ok, I lied. Just low on energy today, so it's a non-biking day. Need a rest day every now and then.

[Markr]

I got out for almost 32 miles this morning, very windy and 359m of total ascent. This is how confusing this is - mix of miles for distance and metres for measurement.

I have also just upgraded my bike computer to a Garmin Edge 1030 Plus from an Edge 500. It gives me loads more data, but have to question how it calculates some if these things.

Anyone know how it knows and calculates how much fluid lost and how much fluid consumed and also how it calculates how many calories consumed?

I drank about 1.6 litres and it thinks I put in 2.1 litres, and I consumed about 150 calories and it thinks I consumed 600. I have not put in any data for this, it just reported this data.

Any ideas?

[chassis]

14 miles in the off/on drizzle, quite humid. Good ride, the new helmet fits and feels great.

I use Fitbit for calories, it uses heart rate and weight to do the calculation. I think it measures heart rate just fine, and I keep my weight updated in the profile as I have been on a slight downward glide path. I don’t know which formula fitbit uses to calculate calories, to me the data it gives is directional and I wouldn’t use it to budget calories or plan menus.

[M5Rick]

No ride today, great sunshine but far too windy so it'll be the hot tub instead soon

[M_Six]

Did 11 miles outside today, but got chased home by some nasty T-Storms. Had to ride 10 miles inside on the trainer to hit my goal for the week.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Markr

I got out for almost 32 miles this morning, very windy and 359m of total ascent. This is how confusing this is - mix of miles for distance and metres for measurement.

I have also just upgraded my bike computer to a Garmin Edge 1030 Plus from an Edge 500. It gives me loads more data, but have to question how it calculates some if these things.

Anyone know how it knows and calculates how much fluid lost and how much fluid consumed and also how it calculates how many calories consumed?

I drank about 1.6 litres and it thinks I put in 2.1 litres, and I consumed about 150 calories and it thinks I consumed 600. I have not put in any data for this, it just reported this data.

Any ideas?

If you're not inputting data, then it's just guessing. The best way to track calories while riding is with a power meter. Total watts is nearly a 1-to-1 ratio with calories burned.

Some pedal power meter info - https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/04/...ers-guide.html

I use Assioma pedals. They've been very reliable and hassle free.

[chassis]

14 miles on the usual route. Quite a few people on the trail. Temp around 70 deg F, partly cloudy. Good ride.

[M_Six]

I went out today for a low effort spin just because the weather was perfect. Rode 21 miles and enjoyed every minute of it.

[chassis]

7 mile loop last night, weather was great. Imported ambiance from Canada in the form of smoke and haze…

[chassis]

Normal 7 mile loop. Great ride tonight. Pleasant weather and quite a few sights:

Aventador in a nice dark grey color
991 GT3 RS
8-point whitetail buck (Odocoileus virginianus)
whitetail doe (Odocoileus virginianus)
hen turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
2 red-tailed hawk close encounters (Buteo jamaicensis)

Latin names included for our non-North American site members!

[M_Six]

I got out today for the first time since Friday. Took a break over the weekend and then strained my back on Monday morning, so today was an easy ride to see how my back handled it. It went ok. But man, 4 days off the bike really shows. I had no power in my legs. I managed 21 miles, but it wasn't one of my faster rides.

[Markr]

I have only been out three times in the last 7 days due to the poor weather here. I did almost 38 miles yesterday afternoon (after the roads had dried), but boy, was it windy - it was catching me every time I went past a break in the hedgerow and i was having to fight to keep it straight. Luckily the roads were not too busy, but on some of those hills going into the wind it was really hard work - a large proportion of my total 375m climb was into the wind. Unfortunately I had to stop at a country pub after 20 Miles or so for a welcome latte (what a shame), which was on top of my 1.6 litres of water (0.9 litres with Zero).

I had to spend some time on the smaller front cog when climbing, which is not normal for me, and it highlighted that I need make some adjustment at the extremes to stop a little noise (sounds like chain was catching the front mechanism a little). That can be my job for today.

I have just got up now, and it is peeing down yet again and forecast to continue, so no cycling today!

[Markr]

We had a break in the weather this morning, so I went out with the intention of doing just over 30 miles, however, 9 miles in and my gears broke, and I was stuck on the small front cog, with only 4 usable gears, without rattling on the front mechanism, so had to head for home and only did 18 miles.

I was expecting to have to adjust the high or low screws to fix it (Shimano Dura Ace set up) but it just was not happening. I had to resort to Youtube and had to use an Allen key to completely alter the alignment with the front cog, it had somehow moved and wasn’t anything like parallel - it wasn’t loose, so no idea what happened there.

All sorted now, but it has been raining on and off all afternoon, so could not test it under load - thank goodness for the work stand, as it makes doing this sort of thing much easier.

[M_Six]

I was out a couple of days ago and was climbing a hill after coming down another. I carried lots of speed into the hill and about halfway up I tried to shift to the small ring up front. Di2 decided to get finicky and wouldn't make the shift. I suddenly found myself in a gear I couldn't use to make it up the hill and I was moving too slowly to have time to shift. Luckily I was able to unclip and dismount. But it was the first time in years I had to walk up a hill. After I got going again, the Di2 worked fine. Just some weird glitch.

[chassis]

Did a quick 6 mile ride last week during our summer family vacation. Hoping to get more miles in soon.

[Markr]

Did 12.5 miles tonight to test the gears that I fixed yesterday, and all good - phew! It was pretty windy though, but no rain today.

Similar to your experience m_six, I was going up a very steep hill to a T junction with a main road about 6 weeks ago and was slowing to get out of the pedals, and hit a pothole that stopped me dead - I just could not get them out, and over I tipped. I grazed my knee, hurt the palm of my hand and my pride - my palm really hurt for the 11 mile ride home.

[M5Rick]

Just back from my usual 10 miler, was getting dark so back light was switched on.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Markr

Did 12.5 miles tonight to test the gears that I fixed yesterday, and all good - phew! It was pretty windy though, but no rain today.

Similar to your experience m_six, I was going up a very steep hill to a T junction with a main road about 6 weeks ago and was slowing to get out of the pedals, and hit a pothole that stopped me dead - I just could not get them out, and over I tipped. I grazed my knee, hurt the palm of my hand and my pride - my palm really hurt for the 11 mile ride home.

I had a similar tipover at a T intersection. A car coming from my right turned onto the street I was on and cut the left, so she almost hit me head-on. I had to slam on the brakes and then couldn't get unclipped in time. My helmet took a hell of a hit, but my head was fine. Gotta love helmets. Also ended up with a bruised knee and shoulder.

On and off rain today, so I did 15 miles on the trainer.

[Markr]

15.4 miles on Friday evening, 19.2 miles yesterday morning and 12.4 miles this evening. It really is a pain trying to cycle in between all this rain we are having.

I decided it was time to swap saddles, as the Adamo Typhoon I have been using has been great for my 12-20 mile runs, but I found that on bigger runs I started to have to move about a bit and was getting some numbness in my hands.

Probably like us all, I have drawer full of saddles of various types, so swapped the Typhoon out for a white Charger on Saturday morning (I have the black version on one of my other road bikes) and had to re-measure and adjust everything, so have been stopping every 5 miles or so to make minor adjustments - luckily the torque wrench just about fitted in my bar bag.

I think I about got there tonight, as no numb hands or nuts ��, but still might treat myself to yet another saddle.

What saddles are you all using?

The weather is set to improve next week, so hopefully out each night, and we are expecting the first sunny/dry weekend since what feels like the end of June.��

[M_Six]

I have Cobb Randee saddles on my bikes. I went through a ton of saddles before someone suggested the Cobb. I still can get a sore butt and I still get numb hands after an hour or so. But it's not as bad as when I first started riding. My newest bike came with a stock saddle and it wasn't half bad, but I still swapped it out for another Cobb saddle.