Would something like this be any good?
Seems fairly cheap for a new bike.

http://www.sourcebmx.com/en/Hoffman-Seeker-BMX-Bike-2015/m-28607.aspx

How tall are you?

I’m about 5’11”

I’ve been looking around this afternoon but there seems to be a huge amount of second hand BMX’s about.

Can anyone recommend a make or model I should try and keep an eye out for that I could pick up for £150 or so used?

Sounds promising then!

Pick up a decent second-hand one for £100 – £150

That leads me on to another question, I’ve got no idea about BMX’s so what kind of thing do I need to be looking for spec-wise in a secondhand BMX?

I’m 5’11” so what kind of size?

Depends on your L/R balance. If your left leg is putting out more power than the right then it’ll be higher, if right leg is putting out more than the left then it’ll be lo

Good point. I never thought of it that way.

I was just thinking about powermeters last night after a training ride.

Does the positioning of the PM affect the reading that the PM gives?
For example, would I be correct in thinking that you would get a higher reading on the same ride from a pedal based system like the Vectors than you would from a hub based set-up like a Powertap hub?
If so, how much difference would you expect between the two?

Similarly, would you expect a higher reading from single sided system like Stages than you’d get from a proper dual-sided system like the Vectors?

I asked the same thing last week over here

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/do-it-all-cxroad-bike-options

I decided to go with the Singular Kite. The Pivot Vault and the Warbird Ti were two that I considered along with the Tripster but in the end I decided to go with the cheaper option. From speaking to Sam it sounds like the Kite his a great bike as well.

After a bit of comparing the different options and a helpful conversation with Sam yesterday I’ve decided to go with the Kite.
I’ve seen Sam’s around at a few races over the last 18 months or so and I’ve always liked the looks of them, on top of that I’ve always fancied a Singular but for various reasons never tried one. Hopefully the frame will arrive next week :-)

As a bonus I’m only working two days over the next fortnight so plenty of time to be out riding it!

Tripster is just about to have a facelift with internal cables and flat mount disc brakes- but it is going up by a few hundred pounds.

I’ve just read the article on Road.cc about the updated Tripster and it’s not really going to be worth it for me as I already have some post-mount Ultegra brakes to use along with some Kinesis CX Disc wheels which are QR only so I may just need to keep an eye out for deals on the current version.

Thanks for the offers of demo’s on folks bikes, it’s much appreciated. Looks like the 55.5cm will be the best size for me so curto80 I may be in touch soon!

I’d echo the above.
After reading up quite a it and soeaking to one or two people with the Vectors I’d avoid them. They’re way too fiddly to be swapping from bike to bike and for such an expansive piece of kit they don’t appear to be the most reliable with quite a lot of people having issues with inaccurate readings or signal drop-outs.

The P1’s are a great piece of kit, well worth the extra money. I switch mine between bikes fairly often and it’s a doddle.

Does anyone in the Surrey/Berkshire/North Hampshire area by any chance have a Tripster in a 55.5cm or 57cm that they’d be happy to let me swing a leg over to try it out for size?

So far I’m not having much luck locating a demo bike anywhere.

I’m a little biased (OK, more than a little…) but since riding the Kite disc I’ve had to re-think my answer to the ‘if you could only have one bike’ question. I like it, a lot. And I think once we get some folks out on them they will too

Are you likely to have any demo bikes about in a Large by any chance?

Second for the hydro discs, they are flippin awesome as well, did a wet, leaf covered, gravelly descent and felt in control all the way down, even with slicks on

Without a doubt it’ll have hydraulic disc brakes on it :-)

Has anyone tried using the Tripster for any CX racing?
I’m currently undecided between two different frames to build up and I want to use it for winter road riding, longer distance off-road stuff and possibly one or of the summer CX races.

I’m currently debating whether or not to get a Tripster ATR to replace the road bike as it’ll be good for a bit of riding off-road as well. Not quite a full-on CX bike but close!

I’ve ran both my P1 pedals and Quarq power meters at the same time and the figures are pretty much identical. The only difference I’ve noticed is that every now and again I’ll get a power spike up to about 1500 watts with the P1’s which I never had with the Quarq. Hopefully it’s something that they’ll iron out with an update at some point.

From limited miles with the P1’s and Look cleats on the road they seem to work ok together. As the Wellgo cleats were so cheap though I’ve just switched my shoes to them and kept Look cleats on my old shoes for commuting.

I was fairly lucky with the P1’s, I managed to get a discount through Sigma Sport using their loyalty program and got a 12% discount which was fairly good considering the lack of stock everywhere.

Agreed.
It would be fantastic to see how deep into it the Spanish football teams and tennis players ‘allegedly’ are.

Sadly though they’re both big-money sports so I imagine that it’ll all be swept under the carpet yet again.

Sounds like it could be a good few days :D

I’m not 100% sure where we’ll be staying, the wife’s work still have to confirm it. As she’s working for the three days we’ll be there it looks like it’s going to be three days riding for me so I might just take both bikes as it sounds like there’s plenty of options.

Ground Control’s here, same as ever in the winter.

Takeaway curry as neither of us can be bothered to cook!

I’ve currently got the older version of the Virb Elite after getting it cheap on Amazon last Christmas.
I’m really tempted to go for a GoPro Session after Christmas since the price drop as it would be a bit easier to fit on the road bike for a trip later this year.

Do those cleats work with Keos, out of interest?

Yes, the Wellgo/Powertap cleats seem to work perfectly well with the Keo pedals.

barrykellett – Member
bumpy – Member
both of which have different BB’s so a crank based unit is a non-starter.
What are the BB’s?

One bike is a BB90 and the other is GXP.
In the end I decided on a set of Powertap P1’s and I’m pretty happy with them so far.

If anyone else is considering P1’s then they might be interested to know that they do work with Keo cleats but they feel a little loose, even fairly new cleats.
The Powertap cleats that are about £15 a set are actually Wellgo RC7 cleats that can be found for about £7 a set.

Just finished an 8 minute test after completing the mid-volume sweet spot plan with various sessions moved around to fit in with work etc.

Managed to increase my FTP by just over 3% which doesn’t seem too bad. It also gave me a drop of 4bpm in my LTHR. It was also my first FTP test using a powermeter rather than the TR calculated power so I’m not sure how much of an effect that had on the figures.
I might need to do a session using both TR virtual power and my P1’s to see how close the numbers are.

I stuck a Lizard Skins one on my downtube.
Seems to work ok.

http://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/p/7241/lizard-skins-carbon-leather-downtube-protector?variantId=32323&gclid=CjwKEAiAhaqzBRDNltaS0pW5mWgSJADd7cYDAcXVSLUa1badlknGZ_84NMvH_awgyufInjxhb7WY8hoC6A3w_wcB

Pedals.

Does anyone know of anywhere with stock of the Powertap P1’s?

From looking around so far I can only find powermeter24.com with any stock.

I should’ve been a bit clearer there, I’m comparing the Vector 2S once the extra pedal’s been added to make the set to the P1’s.

The price difference doesn’t seem to be huge, you can pick up the Vectors for about £830 a set if I were to buy them complete rather than one at a time and the P1’s are £880 with the Wiggle platinum discount.

One thing with the P1’s is that the DC Rainmaker review says that they need to use Powertap specific cleats but the description on Wiggle says that they are Look Keo compatible.

I’ve pretty much decided that I want to get a power meter for the bike and I’ve been looking into a few different ones.
So far I’ve pretty much decided that I wan to go with a pedal based system so I can easily switch it between two bikes, both of which have different BB’s so a crank based unit is a non-starter.

I’m leaning towards a Garmin Vector 2S and an upgrade to a second pedal as and when funds allow. Is there any greta reason to go for a set of Powertap P1’s over the Garmin?
From what I can see so far there’s not much difference apart from price.

Managaed to do my TR session tonight and couldn’t believe how easy it felt. I even got off the bike at one point to check that the tyre was inflated properly and the roller was up against the tyre correctly.
When the session finished and I was looking at it on the TR website, it turns out that I’ve managed to change the turbo model that I’m using so the power figures were no doubt way out :oops:

Almost a good excuse to start looking at a power meter for the bike :D

Its brilliant! If you’re interested in the whole history of the cocaine explosion, check out the totally fascinating documentary Cocaine Cowboys about the fairly innocent naive guys in Miami who started importing it. How they ended up buying fleets of Mercs, and even private planes with suitcases full of cash. How the Miami banks were taking more in cash deposits than the banking system in the entire rest of the US.

That definitely looks like it’s worth a watch.

I just finished Narcos last week, really impressed with it. Looking forward to the next series.

Sadly I think you’re right, It’s only a matter of time before something happens here in the uk.

From what it sounds like on the BBC website it doesn’t sound good in Paris.

No racing for me until next year now, I’m training towards doing some 12h races next year so aiming to build up a good base during the winter.
I’m hoping that a good few longer base rides during the winter months will help with it.

I’m currently working my way through the mid volume sweet spot base plan. I’ve been replacing the 2h30 trainer sessions with 2-3h sessions on the road and so far it seems to be going well.

Next week I’ve got the week off work and I’m thinking of sacking off TR for the week and getting 3 or 4 good length Z2 base rides in instead if the weather’s not too bad.
Would this be likely to have any adverse effects on my training?

I did a search on here a while back and whilst some people like them a lot were complaining about build quality/reliability/longevity. That’s why I was looking at the Nomad – which is a fair bit more money, but I would be happy to pay that if it was twice as well made. Plus it has a proper, replaceable battery.

I’ve got to say that I’ve read similar things about the Mobi but i’ve had mine for two or three years and it’s never missed a beat. Great piece of kit.

Sadly the Transitions and Prizm lenses aren’t available in my prescription and I don’t get on with contacts.
I’m tempted by something like a set of Rudy Project or Bolle glasses with the inserts as it’s easy to swap lenses but the ones I’ve seen so far look a bit shit.

I keep meaning to read through this thread from the start one day when it’s quiet at work but I’m not sure that I can bring myself to manage all 1400+ posts!

From what I’ve read of it so far though there’s some pretty good pointers and advice in here.

That’s exactly what I find as well.
Usually by about 1/2 or 3/4 though a session I end up ignoring the videos anyway!

Try taking a look at the UCI YouTube channel.
You can watch reruns of most rounds of the XC World Cup along with World Cup CX races and some road racing as well if that’s your thing.

Quick question about a plan.

I completed Rubber Glove, a 20 minute test, on Friday and had a pretty disappointing result. After the test it suggested that I drop my FTP by 32w. I think it’s probably down to both pacing and the fact that I’ve not done any turbo stuff for about 8 months.
TR suggest the following:

use the second workout of this week to nail down your highest sustainable power via 3×12-minute repeats. If you find that you can exceed your assessment’s estimated FTP all 3 times, increase your profile’s FTP accordingly.

So how would I alter my FTP if I were to exceed my assessment’s FTP in this session? Should I just take the average over the 3 12 minute intervals and use that as my new FTP?