WWSTWD?

Scuttle off and whine to some internet strangers?

Pffft, a real man would use an Opinel, wipe it clean on his sleeve and then start cutting up apples and stilton for his lunch.

Getting in trouble for doing a bypass with a pocket knife? It’s elf ‘n’ safety gawn Maaaad I tells you!

Battery integration (into mechs) was the sticking point as I understood it.

Again I’m not sure SRAM can actually patent having a removable battery, but if they have, as alleged then Shimano being forced to have their batteries sealed up in the unit would be a real minus point against their products.

Hmmm, what’s the catch?

Vis a vis, it probably doesn’t matter unless you know you need more w/kg than the next guy

I do feel like I could do with raising my FTP as it’s is pretty ‘low’ TBH according to the Zwift ramp tests I’ve done anyway (not done one for a while though) ~180w @85 kg = 2W/kg.
It might have crept up in recent weeks just because I’ve been doing some consistent workout sessions, but I’ve never been able to really drag it up significantly. At the same time I know can sustain 180~220ish W for a reasonable period (say 10mins), have a 30-60 second spin and then repeat that effort on Zwift or real life climbs if I’m warmed up, fuelled up and feeling in “the Zone”, I’m just not attuned to the ramp tests I think. I might try another one this week just to see how I get on actually, while I can make bigger numbers, sustaining tham for more than a minute or two just ain’t feasible, I can’t imagine being able to sustain 300+W for several hours.

Thing is though I’m still fit enough to do solo a 6-8 hour road or Gravel effort on a weekend, crank out a few hours on the MTB now and then, and seem to be among the fitter/faster riders for my similar aged (non-racing) roadie peers, I reckon I’m a bit off the level for MTBing Vs younger me these days, and the occasional Sunday league CX race has really driven home that while I can ramp up the output for a long steady climb on the road or Zwift, “choppier” riding that requires more spikes in effort on top of a higher baseline level of output combined with technical riding, definitely does me in much faster, I can grind on through and find a rhythm to work at, but just churning out more watts at a higher cadence defeats me currently…

I think the biggest thing I could do to improve my enjoyment of riding in general right now would actually be to lose ~10 kg which, assuming I didn’t lose too much power, would put me at about 2.4W/kg, and mean that generally my energy was being used more efficiently, almost equivalent to rustling up an extra 50w…

I’ve recently done this to my Gravel bike:

4700 F&R mech 4720 levers, Chainset is an R553 Triple with a 30t inner, 46t middle and no outer, Cassette is SRAM 11-36. All works a treat.

You could probably get your stock setup to work with an 11-36 cassette with no other bodgery or new mechs OP; worth a go at least before spunking more money on a GRX mech.

Edit:

 I found an old (pre-clutch) SLX rear mech in the spares bin, I wonder if that would work…

Nope, wrong cable pull.

That’s why ‘dead mans cars’ are the best

Surely that depends on how he died….

I have a similar space to you OP, there’s no point in insulating a garage (IMO/IME) ten minutes on zwift/treadmill/huffing kettle bells about and I’m taking my top off and looking for the fan in pretty much all weathers.

If it does get really cold wherever you are then it might be worth having a small fan heater to blow some warm air directly on you (mostly if you have to change in there) but the cost of adding insulation (and presumably some type of heating system) Vs just blowing warm air directly at yourself for the handful of hours you’ll actually spend in there over a winter seems like a waste of budget you could spend on flooring and kit.

This whole thread reads pretty similar to a Daily Mail discussion about cyclists…

Perhaps, but then those same DM frothers will probably be conflating “cyclists”, deliveroo death-trap operators and surron scrotes on e-motos, three entirely different groups who end up getting treated with equal contempt by the public for the actions of a small minority.

All that has actually changed is the available technology, the classification of vehicle types and the rules to govern them was established long before Uber eats and your local drug dealers decided they needed to propel ~100 kg of metal and meat about in public spaces using old laptop batteries…

You can have your surron, register the bastard thing, fit lights and wear a lid. Same if you want to build your own electric motorcycle take it for inspection and approval, get a licence and ride in line with the law of the land. Fail to do that (as more and more seem to be doing) and sympathy will be in short supply when the inevitable happens.

Yep I had good luck with the R500 too, been retired to my turbo bike now.

Question has to be though, if your not a racing snake, why do you need carbon rims? Go 28h with alloy rims, save some money and probably break even on weight (possibly not aero, but if you’re not racing does it matter?)…

Hybrid Veloci-Swan, careful they hunt in packs and take turns breaking your arms…

Kerrang Radio…. Limp Bizkit…

Poor kid…

Anyway, I know you can enable swear filtering per-device with amazon music so I can play anything I like in the Garage but the boss insisted that the echo in the Kitchen excludes the rude words (that they’re probably very familiar with).

Trouble is that means paying for Amazon music (neither cheap or moral) but if you’re already giving money to Apple OP they must have swear filtering options…

I’m going to go out on a limb here, they should introduce an easier way to licence/register/insure ‘vehicles’ for the last-mile delivery service, and put the onus on any company using these services.

There is a ‘low barrier’ solution already, the pedelec rules compliant e-bike, with 15.5 mph/250w assistance limitations. No licenses or insurance required, assistance is limited specifically because there’s no further licensing or training required to operate one on public roads.

If you want more speed/power/mass then the associated costs and effort should go up. We already have a workable legal and regulatory framework, it’s just not being used or enforced properly…

I’d agree the companies currently deriving profits from the permissive attitudes of the police (and some of the public) need to contribute to solutions. Whether that’s by setting their own equipment and training standards, providing equipment or looking at the employment terms they set (or don’t).

As for Surrons, you don’t need to compel their registration, but you do need to give the police/DVLA the power to penalize dealers who keep selling them to scrotes who subsequently get caught riding on the roads, which means the sales and serial numbers will need to be logged (their needs to be traceability). Sellers should set their own policies, but if they’re induced to either require registration or refuse sales to untrustworthy customers for fear of losing profits, then the industry should regulate itself (in theory at least). If they fail to do that then more draconian are applied.

They also need to be crushed by default if caught being used illegally on the roads (the bikes not the scrotes, although…), putting Surrons in police auctions, just to end up back on the streets adds to the problems.

TBH the whole ‘model year’ thing has been a gun the bicycle industry holds to it’s own head for several years now.

Bike shops either end up sold out of scarce stock before it’s even landed in the country, or holding too much while punters hold out and wait for the inevitable winter discounts to come.

The boom and bust of the COVID bubble and the course corrections the bigger corporations have been able to make mean we’ll having a year or two of demand exceeding supply and prices staying higher for longer as a result.

I’ve had one missed day (Monday) because I had mega leg cramp from a run on Saturday followed by an evening walking about London with some mates and then an ambitious Zwift session on the Sunday.

Pummelled my legs with the massage gun, stretched as much as I could and flopped into bed early instead, sometimes you just need rest and recover rather than push for an injury.

I’m playing by my own rules through and I reckon I was already well in credit as plenty of my sessions have been 45mins to 1hr so far.

Otherwise it’s just been Zwifting Galore and I am starting to notice some minor improvements in both strength and recovery.

As said no, but they make no effort whatsoever to check the vehicles their delivery riders use.

It’s the “independent contractor” model, which works nicely in the States where placing liabilities and risks on an individual are just fine and wider impacts can be ignored so long as the share values go up.

Here in the UK it needs tackling head on and responsibilities need putting back on the companies deriving profits by inducing those contractors to create these dangers in our public spaces.

What staggered me was the reporting as if this was a new thing, anyone who’s spent more than 5 minutes outside in a town or city over the last couple of years will have encountered them.

Unfortunately the lashed up  super-eeebs are mostly a symptom of the zero hours fast food cartels (while Surrons are subsidised mostly by drug dealers)… All IMO.

-Winter SPDs

-XC/Gravel/CX SPDs

-Trail SPDs

-Road SPD SL

-Trainer SPD SL (old road SPD SLs)

So five pairs.

I do use pockets in baggies if they’re present, again just for a phone and keys, but I think the ideal solution is really ‘Bib-Baggies’ with an integrated liner that’s more like a cargo bib and all you have in the baggy bit is a hand access slit so you can shove stuff into an inner mesh pocket on your thigh, all sewn together so there’s no need for waistbands or other stuff, a lightweight trail baggy (water repellent of course)…

Why can’t I have a waterproof jacket with zippable vents on the forearms? I run warm even without a sweaty jacket on so vents in the forearms along with an exhaust vent in the back would be perfect for cooling down while you’re riding along. I get that zips are a point of entry if water but really, water is going to get in anyway if you spend enough tine riding in the rain.PPit zips and/or chest vents are OK but arm vents would be amazing.

^^This is kind of the reason why I’m more of a fan of Gilets for all flavours of cycling once summer is over; normally used in conjunction with arm warmers. While I have a few jackets I try to avoid taking all but the most packable ones.

My ideal Autumn/Spring Gillet has light/minimal synthetic insulation under a waterproof fabric on the front/over the shoulders, while the rear/sides have vented, uninsulated panels to stop me boiling and pockets of course for the arm warmers when they inevitably come off.

Also a bit like with your vented forearms want, for Spring/Autumn/Early Winter I want arm warmers but with a water repellent/DWR type stretch fabric around 3/4~2/3rds of their circumference and a stretchy mesh or perforated lycra panel that you could align with your inside arm to stop you overheating so easily would work well during periods where the temperatures are variable but also cope with showers/spray. surely that is a product that could be knocked up relatively cheaply(?) for a few niche weirdos like me.

I also like the idea of adding a mesh pocket, a bit like you get on Cargo Bibs now, to the forearm of an arm warmer so you can stash a snack or other items on your left/right arms, I’ve stuffed things like bars or gels inside my left cuff before, a pocket would be a smidge more comfortable IMO…

but generally I am happy to trade some insulation and/or water tightness for ventilation for a good chunk of the year TBH.

They’re not elasticated.

The ones on my MW5 appear to be, and they called those ‘speed laces’.

They’re just elasticated laces, you can find them elsewhere for running/tri shoes I think. I bought a few spare DHB pairs for pennies during the great chiggle stock purge.

I looked at both of these, the SV is taller hence the capacity. The boot seems a lot worse than the estate for carrying bulky stuff, like a bike.

Dunno, you’re either going to have to remove wheels and/or fold seat in either version right.

The main uses for our cars boot is luggage and shopping. 4″ shorter and a wee bit taller might actually work ok. Transporting My bikes is a secondary consideration, and as ever a towbar mounted rack is ultimately the bestest solution anyway.

Interestingly I’ve just been comparing a Golf estate and a Golf SV )on paper)

The SV has similar numbers and is obviously on the same basic platform, only it’s supposed to be the MPV version but it’s apparently only 100mm shorter and boot capacity is only 15L less (the key criteria for me looking at estates).

That minor pretty difference has me adding the Golf SV to my searches now. There must be a couple of other hatchback platform derived MPVs that cover very similar bases to the estate flavoured ones out there right?

I would buy another Avensis estate in a heartbeat.

I think it’s been the Corolla estate since 2019(?) we had some as fleet cars and they were good for motorway miles in terms of fuel efficiency and comfort, only seems to come in hybrid/auto config, I’d happily have one TBH.

Not sexy of course but, very much a discerning ‘Dad car’… IMO of course.

‘Behind the bastards’ there are so many…

-Does ‘winning’ really matter to anyone participating?

-Are the risks riders take reflected by the rewards (from their sponsors/RB)?

-Can you find anyone involved now, who was about for the original Rampage (pre-redbull) 20+ years ago, if so do they still see it as the same event?

The Go-Pro underslung mounts works well for me, I have a couple of lights with these, and lots of adaptors are available.

The best feature (IMO) is being able to set the angle independently of the mount. While I like the minimal size of the  Raveman FR160 and similar 1/4 mounted lights, it seems like the light’s  angle is effectively fixed by the mount(?) and I wouldn’t want to have to tweak my Garmin angle along with my light.

How on earth did this man get away with raping and attacking these women over many years?

The interwebs reckons at the time of his death he was worth an estimated ~$2 billion USD, Obviously he’d flogged the shop to Qatar by then.

Lets be honest (historically at least) very different laws seem to apply to the disgustingly wealthy, even if they’re not well liked by the establishment.  And I really don’t think that has changed as much as people might like to think…

We’re a week or so out and 12 other riders are listed as entered so far.

Plus we’re talking about a vets Open cat ion a local league round here, not the national champs or something.

I get that some riders are very committed to some race series and organisers like to hold spaces for series contenders, while I am just a casual participant TBH. I think it’s just whoever is responsible at the local club, applying the same setting for the online bit, as they would for a popular crit.

Perhaps more worrying is that there’s only 4 names against the seniors so far…

Eastenders is the British version of Cheers

What’s the UK version of Fraiser then? that one off Dot-cotton spin off?

there’s not loads of names on there yet, and historically it’s not been crammed in the tubby dad’s Cat so I’m going to tick ‘no’ then…

Cheers.

I think the term ‘targeted‘ has been overused here ‘profiled‘ is perhaps more apt.

The other thing that it raises is the question of when is an attack over a border, not an attack? If the IDF had simultaneously popped 1700 odd guided missiles into Lebanon all heading towards the best estimate location of a number of Hezbollah members it would have been called a military attack, and the high probability of collateral deaths would have drawn criticism.

This is only really different in that it uses a non-ballistic device and the explosive power of each device is much smaller. But it seems to have wrong footed the international community a fair bit, many of them seem unsure how to respond/comment on pager attacks despite it still being a clear escalatory action.

I’m not doing it, but I’m not, not (if that makes sense). So far three evenings in a row on zwift has me mulling over lunchtime runs or a mini circuit session for variety.

Weekend is going to be tricky, I’m away Saturday meeting mates so will have to squeeze something in first thing in the morning, Sunday I’ll be trying to score back brownie points for having a whole night away.

V70? E class Merc? Passat?

I paid £150 for the V1 (QR) version back in 2015, (that included a fork at the time) the quality of it was questionable…

Mine is from the “Wizards Sleeve” batch where the seat tube was reamed to 31.8mm (not the intended 31.6mm) for which I currently run a 3D printed shim and had previously tracked down a 31.8mm diameter seatpost (not a common size). The BB ain’t quite right either… Basically it’s shit due to imaginary QC.

PX obfuscated and bullshitted several punters with that batch of LR frames.
I persevered with it (I love a “bargain” see), but I wouldn’t spend more money than that £150 on any of their products ever again, and I couldn’t in good conscience recommend PX/OO to anyone else as a result.

Plus to get a frameset with a fork (which most people would actually want) they actually want £250,, and then a bit more for a headset, etc, etc you’ll probably end up handing them ~£300.

So Nah, it’s cheap but that doesn’t make it a ‘Bargain‘ (IMO/IME)…

The Geometry is fine, the weight perfectly acceptable and I’m sure there’s plenty of people with positive anecdotes WRT PX/OO quality, but that specific product is the one I want to replace on the grounds of quality and that previous experience with them means I don’t want a new London Road at any price, too much of a gamble IMO…

But that’s just me.

Edit: here you go, 18 pages of London Road chat: https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/psa-planet-x-london-road-frmaeset-for-150/?links=false%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F

Planet-x london road is £150 today in their 7 day sale.

Yeah but then you end up owning a planet X London Road*…

The GXA (Aluminium version) is on my radar, does the dropped chainstay on the CFR696/GXE play well with chain clearance and a 30t inner ring?

I’m using a 12speed chain on a cheapy 10/11 speed N/W ring, with a 9 speed cassette on my CX bike… works fine.

That was kind of my thinking, come up with a “non-competitive competition” so distances/elevation/speed/time based challenges are off the table.

Other such challenges could include:

-Draw a picture using your GPS trail?

-Most interesting item found and brought home on a ride (without stealing stuff)?

-Tallest/prettiest/oldest church visited

-Best mid-ride meal (photo evidence required)

The other thing you could do if you have a group with people who do like a more involved activity is a bit of Geocaching, stash a box somewhere roughly equidistant from the participants for them to find and drop off a little something for the others to find and add to. that might be a bit much effort thought TBF…