Punctures observed during a mass event

Panaracer Gravelking Slicks on the other hand… the devil’s tyres.

Mine are just about needing replacing due to wear after nearly four thousand trouble and puncture free miles – and they are on the winter/wet weather bike. Tyres are nearly as subjective as saddles!

Whenever I go out with roadies I’m amazed how little they carry, 1 pump between 4, never a 1st aid kit, rarely a rain jacket…..I reckon most of them just have their wife on speed dial!

TBH, i used to ride thousands of miles a year, punctures would be so infrequent that tubes would often be trashed from sitting in a saddle bag for 6/9/12 months. I’ve probably thrown away more worn out ones that punctured over the years. (Still take one though). I have, in the past, on arranged rides with mates and taken a couple of pumps between the group.

Rain jacket? Whats the point, if it’s really going to be crap weather (forecast) i wear suitable stuff on leaving the house, if it’s variable weather, i’ll probably get just as wet from sweat as i would from rain anyway.  Plus the faff of stopping to put it on, take it off, put it on, take it off, put it on… I might be covering 100+ miles in a day, it adds up, and i get cold. Decent kit in the first place will at least keep me comfortably warm. Even if i get wet.

First aid kits, meh, i can sort of see the point, but the list of things that a first aid kit can fix on a road ride is limited, and anything major, you’re going to need an ambulance anyway.

I’m more baffled by those riding road bikes with a middling sized backpack on for a 50 miler round the home counties.

All of these posts remind me why I don’t do massive participation events (with an exception for Dorset Dirt Dash, which is a slightly different beast)

Too many people, too expensive, too much faffing (logistically), no guarantee of a place, limited food, etc.

it’s really only RideLondon which is a problem, due to it’s high profile/popularity. I did Velo Birmingham a few years ago (the event was torpedoed due to Covid I think & won’t return which is a shame as it was a nice route) and it was the complete opposite of my RL experience in many ways – managed to get a cheap Travelodge 5 mins from the start line for the night before, very little waiting around, no ticket lottery (you could just sign up & pay your money!), plentiful food stops. Don’t think there are any others in England currently but there’s one in Wales & one in Scotland which I might try at some point – the closed roads thing is great! I wouldn’t bother with RL again due to the faff nor would I do a “normal” sportive (open roads).

How is that close to enough calories? 100 miles on 1 Weetabix, 3 bananas and a couple of gels. 🤨

Why do you need to match them 1:1?

You can store ~2000 calories of glycogen (actually you can store a lot more but depleting it during exercise gets harder),

So for someone averaging 150W in group doing ~19mph that’s 720 calories an hour. Of which (because they’re ticking over somewhere in Zone 2 most of the time) around half will come from fat, so only 360calories from glycogen.    Which means an averagely fit club rider could do RideLondon in about 5 hours using nothing more than a bit of body fat and their glycogen stores.  A few gels and some easily digested food on the way just keeps the legs fresh and guarantees not bonking without stuffing your guts.

Whenever I go out with roadies I’m amazed how little they carry, 1 pump between 4, never a 1st aid kit, rarely a rain jacket…..I reckon most of them just have their wife on speed dial!

Club rides are usually self sufficient, although that might mean one person has a C02 can, another has a tiny pump and both rely on the guy with a silca frame pump.

Rides with friends, generally the same although we might if it’s organized in a hurry from the office just do a quick roll-call of who has what.

A first aid kit for an RTA arrives in a big yellow van.  Anything smaller than that, just hope it stops bleeding before the cafe.  What actual practical use is a plaster?  You can make decent slings from innertubes and if we’re talking arterial spurting type levels s of bleeding you’d be better of packing it with the riders trashed jersey and Elastoplast.

Rain jacket, if it’s not raining, why are you taking a jacket?

Club rides are usually self sufficient, although that might mean one person has a C02 can, another has a tiny pump and both rely on the guy with a silca frame pump.

Rides with friends, generally the same although we might if it’s organized in a hurry from the office just do a quick roll-call of who has what.

A first aid kit for an RTA arrives in a big yellow van.  Anything smaller than that, just hope it stops bleeding before the cafe.  What actual practical use is a plaster?  You can make decent slings from innertubes and if we’re talking arterial spurting type levels s of bleeding you’d be better of packing it with the riders trashed jersey and Elastoplast.

Rain jacket, if it’s not raining, why are you taking a jacket?

from my roadie-ing days, completely agree with this.

A pump, tube (perhaps a couple for a really long ride) and 2 tyre levers would sort out the most frequent issue. a small multitool for any adjustments, non qr axles etc. first aid kit almost certainly useless and by its nature you are on a road with emergency access.

road riding especially recreational and long distance is a much more constant effort compared to mtb, unless we are talking lakes/highlands/alpine passes with possible weather variations, dress for the weather outside when you begin, adjust with arm warmers if necessary. a skin tight, laycra-elastene outfit will be suitable for quite a wide temperature range and even a rain soaking with very little detriment.

recreational mtb xc group rides on the other hand is going to see a lot more sprint/high effort interspersed with frequent stops (which always seem to be at the windiest, coldest spot) for regroup and recovery (and chatting) which is not too comfy in a sweat soaked loose shirt.

 100 miles on 1 Weetabix, 3 bananas and a couple of gels. 🤨

@squirrelking ….I didnt 100 miles on that…..I did 129.5 lol… its  on strava

I tend to use a small backpack these days (smallest Decathlon Rock Rider) on the road as I had my spine broken badly 8 years ago by a driver, and I don’t want anything in my pockets that may be hard as the pockets sit exactly where I’m missing half a vertebrae !  I tend to have a pack for gravel, road, and full on MTB.

Road pack has two tubes, minimal puncture kit with a quick link or two, multi tool, tyre levers, packable lightweight jacket (change for better ones for MTB) and a decent pump. It’s rare I take CO2 – I took them as a back up on a recent sportive due to the time imit to get back (205km and just over 10.5 hours to get back). All this would fit in my back pockets, but, due to the injury, don’t want anything there. The phone also get’s tucked away in the small backpack.

I may add in some gels or cerial bars for longer rides. This means it’s just grab and go. It’s not the thing for roadies, and I’d never considered it until my broken spine. I have a pack for gravel and one for MTB. Couple of extra bits in the MTB bag, like foil blanket (used my waterproof for someone inappropriately dressed at a trail centre that had crashed – cotton t-shirt, impailed on bars, nice day in April, but bloody cold and windy on tops.

I’ll also add, depends where you live for road – I’m near peaks so would always take a compact waterproof, just in case. The weather can change, and being on the tops can be bloody cold at times, rather than a few miles down the hills.

I was club riding in the 80’s 90’s where self sufficiency was taught into us.  I know many ‘cyclists’ that take the bear minimum, or will use ‘taxi of other half’ if they break down…

Rain jacket, if it’s not raining, why are you taking a jacket?

I always want an extra layer, I’ll rarely stop to put it on for rain but if someone punctures and I start getting cold it comes in handy.

I always have a tin foil emergency blanket taped under saddle in winter, they have come in useful a few times when riders have crashed. Good for protecting car seats from dirty crashed riders when a kindly passing motorist offers a lift home too!!

I have never, ever in 30 years of group rides ever considered organising spares and pumps etc between us. I have recently also given up on chain tools and quick links on a normal day to day road ride as well, although my winter bike still has this as it’s a gravel bike and so has a fuller toolkit on board.

Just on YouTube and watched a video by thewattlife or similar….him, arrived at start with slow puncture, had all the kit to fix it, didn’t, two mates didn’t have a pump between them, one of them punctures out intrepid you tuber only realises 4 miles later, stops at aid station, you would think he would get them to wack a tube in and buy another…no pumps it up a bit and waits ages for his mate. The one with a puncture bails and gets bus..intrepid ewe tubers carries on stopping at each aid station and pumping up tyre. He doesn’t want to use his fancy electric one incase batteries go flat.

You can also see people riding out of London over solid white lines in hatched areas that will be full of grit…no wonder they all get flats.

I am astounded someone would do a sportive with the ability to fit a tube and pump it up, the mind boggles…

The route looks a bit shit too

@thisisnotaspoon that’s kinda why I asked. From the outside looking in that looks like a miserable amount, I’d be greetin’ in a heap after the first 20odd miles. But I don’t do rides like that so I’m not really representative of the Serious types. I’m the tortoise, not the hare.

@cheekyget there’s a want about you. 🤨😉

I am astounded someone would do a sportive with the ability to fit a tube and pump it up, the mind boggles…

I assume you meant without the ability to fit a tube and pump it up…. ?

I’ve seen it several times on supported tours. Once I encountered a woman just stood by the side of the road, I did the standard “are you OK?” (cos she might just have been taking a photo or having a snack) but she’d had a puncture and was unable to even remove the wheel (thru-axle).

The other common one is people bent double over a bike trying to refit a dropped chain. Stand on the non drive side, bend over the bike arse in the air and fumble around with the chain while looking at it upside down. Yes, of course that’ll work… 🙄
Once had to stop a guy doing that literally in the middle of the lane on a climb, he’d turned his bike side on so was blocking the whole lane, other riders trying to go around him. Took a lot of effort to persuade him to stop what he was doing, stand up, move his bike 6ft to the left into the great big layby right next to him (!) and fix it properly.

So for someone averaging 150W in group doing ~19mph that’s 720 calories an hour. Of which (because they’re ticking over somewhere in Zone 2 most of the time) around half will come from fat, so only 360calories from glycogen.    Which means an averagely fit club rider could do RideLondon in about 5 hours using nothing more than a bit of body fat and their glycogen stores.

Strava tells me (with the benefit of my Favero Assioma pedals) I averaged 163W for 6hr26 on RideLondon.
I’m not, whether fit or not, an average club rider though.

I assume you meant without the ability to fit a tube and pump it up…. ?

I’ve seen it several times on supported tours. Once I encountered a woman just stood by the side of the road, I did the standard “are you OK?” (cos she might just have been taking a photo or having a snack) but she’d had a puncture and was unable to even remove the wheel (thru-axle.)

I worked with an GB Team mature triathlete and ironman competitor.

She had £2k race wheels. Etc etc.

But could not change a puncture. She struggled to even change the wheels for race day.

She even got a new bike an oiled the rotors as she thought a anything shiny and ‘moving’ should be oiled…

We spent an evening at the pub doing puncture lessons and swapping wheels back and forth…

I assume you meant without the ability to fit a tube and pump it up…. ?

Yes, I did.

I’ve seen it several times on supported tours.

Not that surprising there, the tour is supported, that’s why they are doing it. A sportive is a bike ride with some signs and food stops, you still need to carry a tube couple of tyre levers and a pump at the very least!!