@jam bo – like I said, I’m really not sure how long it’s been set wrong, quite possibly it’s been wrong all the time. I’m not bothered since the efforts are relative to what I’m doing, it’s just the actual number that’s wrong. I did Ebbetts (along with everyone else it seems) at the correct resistance but with TR’s intensity set to 125% and it felt too light so I might split the difference

You can filter the workouts to just those with instructions: on the “Workout Library” page scroll down, it’s the next to last block of filter options.

How do you read through the session in advance? There’s the general description but I haven’t (yet) found a way to show the actual instructions without actually doing the workout.

Can’t help with the Media Player question as I’m on a Mac. You don’t say what your set-up is but could you get a second monitor and have MP on one and TR on the other?

The Obelisk workout I linked to earlier has on-screen hints on how to spin and avoid bouncing, it does require a bit of concentration at first to understand what forces are being applied and when. I found that it didn’t take long to go from starting to bounce at 95rpm to not starting bouncing at nearly 120rpm, by “not long” I mean within the one session. The trick will be to repeat it over multiple sessions so that the muscle memory kicks in and I don’t have to consciously think about it.

Your bike is worth more than the car you use to take it to the trails.

The first two bits are short maybe 200 metres for the first and 100 metres for the second. Here’s a map http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=325103&Y=492967&A=Y&Z=115

Memory slightly wrong – the first section begins as soon as you cross the first beck.

If you are pushed for time then you can also continue up the fire road to Natty Bridge rather than crossing over to Stephenson Ground and following the west side of the Lickle valley (yes it’s really called that!). You do miss out on some great singletrack though.

The section across Yaud Mire heading towards the Walna Scar track will be pretty boggy now, you will get wet feet! Once past there though, it’s easy riding with great views ahead.

I you can, you might be better starting at Torver then cutting down the bridleway through the quarries – take the second one which meets the Walna Scar track at roughly the same point as the Goats Water path does. This would avoid riding along the main road which is a bit of a pain.

The easy to miss singletrack basically cuts out a couple of switchbacks of the fire road. Drop in to the woods and down the fire road, when it crosses the beck and starts to rise the first section is on your left. It comes back out on to the fire road at the top of the rise and goes straight across and downhill. The second bit is easier to spot. If you miss the second part then the fire road starts to descend (it’s heading N at this point) after about 100 metres there’s a track that cuts back to your left, if you are going too fast you might miss it. The short cut drops on to this track and you follow it over the next beck and up to a larger fire road. The main bit of singletrack turns off right a short way along this.

I think you are getting the idea now – personally I wouldn’t take her to a trail centre unless that’s your only option – riding amongst a bunch of trees isn’t that interesting if you are not in to the technicalities of the trail in front of you. Being able to stop and admire the view will be much more appealing.

Find a local feature of interest that neither of you have been to or not been to for a long while. Ideally it will be near a bridleway and even better if it has a cafe attached or there’s a good pub nearby. Now work out a route to and from that feature that isn’t going to be too hilly or, at this time of year, too boggy. Make the return easier than the route out: “we’ll go to X, then come back along the canal tow path” type of thing. The route to and from the destination should be 3 – 5 miles each, that’s going to be more than enough for a beginner, maybe have a cafe near the end as well.

Look at it from her perspective: if she was in to horse riding and you weren’t, would you expect to go round the Grand National course as your first ride out?

Pick an easy route with good views, one or more cafes/pubs along the way and short cut/cop out options (but don’t mention those at the start).

It’s not about the bike!

I gave up on pairing my phone and Garmin – it would pair up at the start of the ride but drop out at some random point during the ride, possibly when the phone lost signal. Now who ever heard of a modern phone losing signal 😐

Check with Trainerroad’s list of supported devices, I’m not sure the original iPad is supported but if it is then you just need the ANT+ stick and as it’s 30 pin you don’t need any other connectors.

It’s surprising how much all the small rises add up, 20 metres here, 10 metres there and you soon get large totals. Did one of my “flat” rides a few months back, it’s flat enough to consider for HR zone training, and it has 400 metres of ascent in 30Km.

On the FW there’s a lot of up and down between Kirkstone and Honister for example and a hell of a lot between Whinlatter and Hardknott.

A quick question – what setting do folk use/recommend for power smoothing?

I’ve set it to 5 seconds as a start, seems like a reasonable balance between the output reading being too jittery and updating reasonably quickly when you change between efforts.

You know, that looks nice 😛

Ta.

I think I’ll do the Sweet Spot Base low volume but time shifted by a day.

I need to sit down and spend time reading through this thread to pick up hints and tips.

Having just signed up for trainerroad I’ve a question: For those doing the training plans how do you mix the turbo training with weekend rides? Looking at the Sweet Spot Base, the low volume has workouts on Mon, Wed & Fri; the mid volume has workouts on every day except Mon & Fri.

Do you modify the plan, time shift it or double up on rides at the weekend?

Actually in addition to avoiding 25th July it’s worth avoiding Saturdays in general during the ski season as that’s usually changeover day and the road will be very busy.

Cyclist magazine had a loop, including the Alp d’Huez climb, in the area as one of their featured rides – might be worth searching out, quite possibly summer only though.

Do some longish rides (you don’t say where you live) that are a mixture of road, easy track and short sections of more technical terrain as that’s typical of longer rides in the Dales.

Don’t aim to race, just go at a pace that you think you can keep going all day (and night). Look at energy economy: as richpips says, get off and push or carry if you start struggling to ride it and that goes for downhill as well as uphill.

Figure out what kit you need for a variety of conditions – gale force winds and horizontal rain need a little bit more than if it were a dry, warm gentle breeze. Ride your bike with this loaded so you know what to expect. Find out what works and doesn’t work for you. Don’t try anything new food or kit wise on the event itself, get it sorted beforehand. Also very important to work out a food strategy

I’d try and avoid it around 25th July this year 😀

Yep, currently use Strava App on my phone.

I would like to see my HR whilst riding as well as then uploading to Strava (for post ride analysis).

I’ll have a look if a ANT+ adapter for my phone is available.

What’s an optical HR monitor?

I find that using my phone for Strava is very heavy on battery life and I prefer having the phone for emergencies (or checking the cricket score when at the cafe 😀 )

The newer Garmin units let you chose what data you want to see on screen, you can have different screens for different bikes (called profiles in Garmin speak) so I have one for MTB, road bike, commuter, etc. You can also have activity profiles so if I’m doing a HR zone ride I just have HR and cadence showing – the device beeps at me if I stray out of the predefined limits; for mountain biking I have an activity profile with auto-pause turned off; etc.

Something like this http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/garmin-edge-510-hrm-performance-bundle/rp-prod95984?gclid=CKf3tZLIhMMCFQPHtAodjy4Ahw&gclsrc=aw.ds has everything you need.

An optical HRM is one that uses a small LED aimed at your skin and detects changes in what’s reflected back rather than “traditional” ones that rely on picking up the electrical pulses that trigger each heart beat.

Well you *could* get some exotic light alloy that would last a long time but it would cost a fortune. 😯

I don’t think I’d buy a bike with top end components on, well I certainly wouldn’t replace them like for like. Groupsets like XTR are for racers, not general leisure rides like me. Even the lower end groupsets are more than good enough. Like you say, there’s a sweet spot, it’s typically in the middle of the range where the decades of improvements have trickled down.

It’s a data protocol developed by Garmin but other manufacturers can use it, basically it lets one device talk to another. Think of it like Ethernet for personal devices like HRMs and GPSs. Thus GPS units like the Garmin 510 can listen for data from HRMs, power meters, cadence meters, speed sensors even weighing scales (!) and store it in the activity file ready for uploading to Strava or any other service that you might wish to use.

Since you appear to want to upload HR data to Strava I’d start by checking what devices they support. Apologies – I misread your OP and thought you *had* a Garmin.

Light, cheap, long lasting

Pick any two.

Which Garmin?

The Garmin HRM obviously will work with their GPS units but any ANT+ device would do.

spinning with no real effort needed, almost bouncing.

Usually that’s poor (or sub-optimal if you prefer 😳 ) pedalling technique but there will be a cadence at which everyone exhibits the problem.

Dear Customer,

We did extensive testing on the product both here and in Moab and it works fine. Apparently you live in somewhere called Europe. I’ve asked around the office and it seems you get a lot of rain over there and go riding in muddy conditions. Frankly we find this a bit strange – we only go out when it’s nice and sunny, which is most days really here in California. As a result I’m afraid that I have to inform you that repairing this product is outside our warranty so it looks like you are up mud creek without a bike. Sorry about that.

Return shipping for your product via our preferred carrier will be $100.

As a gesture of our appreciation of your custom we’ll put in a few stickers for you.

Thank you for your enquiry and have a nice day.

Some American Corp

One is for your entire ride *including stops* the other is just your moving time. So the first should be slower than the second.

BB7s are fine, easy to adjust and strip down. The hardest thing I find with them is changing pads. You’ll need a torx key to adjust the inner pads.

When I started on my HT I was riding it like a FS so got a lot of jarring. I don’t get that so much now that my riding style has changed to suit. Would the ride be smoother on a FS? More than likely but on longer rides (not trail centres) the extra weight of the FS will begin to tell. While there are other factors (on trail maintenance, reliability, carriability), most of the entrants in things like the HT550 use hardtails or rigids so there must be something to them.

If most of my riding was trail centres then I’d mainly ride a FS simply to handle the bigger hits, but I don’t so a HT suits me, I’ve got the set-up dialled in to my taste, I don’t get back pain or tired legs (other than from the distance). I’m not saying they are right for everyone but they are right for me.

Re: force/mass – yes I know it’s technically incorrect, couldn’t phrase it better at the time 😳

If you use Strava then dragging the mouse along the profile of the route shows the offset time you were at that location – there’s a dot that moves along the map at the same time.

I think Hora’s request was for group kit – I’d have things like spare clothing, tools, food, light as personal items, though obviously they can be shared.

Hora:

The foil blanket is more about heat retention in a casualty rather than as a potential shelter. They are about the size of a couple of mars bars and available from any outdoors type shop. single use only really as you can’t pack them down again very easily.

You can get group shelters – basically a big sheet of material that you wrap around the group – http://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Camping-Equipment/Bivi/Group-Shelters

Another option might be a tarp – http://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Camping-Equipment/Bivi/Bivi-Tents

As with anything like this there’s a lot of variables as to what to take on any given ride but even in relatively benign conditions you will soon get cold due to sweat and evaporation – even having a spare thermal is worth it as it will be dry though it does take a bit of nerve to strip off on the top of a mountain to put dry clothing on! Also I’d take different kit (read more) if I was in charge of a group rather than a member of a bunch of mates.

In order of increasingly poor conditions and/or seriousness:

first aid kit (no brainer)
foil blanket
sections of foam mat for ground insulation
group shelter
sleeping bag

Running events like the High Peak Marathon mandate taking a two man tent as part of the kit for each group of four.

While you can train on a turbo with nothing more than your bike, it’s pretty mind numbing and as has been said just getting on and spinning away for twenty minutes will guarantee that you’ll do a session or two then give up.

Some form of variety is essential, how you achieve it varies on how much you wish to spend. At the simplest having some music playing out and doing an effort for one track, ease off for the next and so on will work (providing you aren’t doing the effort to Tubular Bells!), using the random facility on an MP3 player keeps things a bit more interesting and is similar to the randomly spaced efforts whilst out on the road/trail. You could do things like sprint during the guitar solo or chorus as variations.

Next up are the workouts that you can set up on GPS units like Garmins. Depending on what extra kit you have (HRM, cadence sensor, power meter) then you can create a workout based on levels using the values returned by those devices.

Trainerroad really does rely on power readings and while you can get away with virtual power, a dedicated power meter is best. TR then gives you a series of workouts as part of a longer term plan.

I find I need to build up the time spent on the turbo – you are sat in one position for the time on the bike and there’s no coasting.

According to this http://www.trainerroad.com/ios it is available (or should be) – see table at foot of page.

Mounting the bike on the turbo raises the back wheel so lifting the front wheel makes the bike level again. A largish book will do.

You do realise when you stand up all that shock is going through your legs? Kind of like running downhill.

Well, it’s sort of what your legs were designed for 8), even on a FS you are going to be stood up using your legs as your primary suspension.

Running downhill is a whole different kettle of fish, the muscle contractions when your foot hits the ground generate a force of about 3 times your body mass.

I think the comments regarding seat tube diameter are valid – in general a larger diameter tube is stiffer over a given length. Unlike most of the other tubes in a bike frame the seat tube has to be circular.

You need to change your riding style a little when coming from a FS plus you have to anticipate things a bit more as well as possibly chosing a different line through technical sections. I found the hardest part to adjust to wasn’t the technical stuff but the moderately bumpy ground (something a bit bumpier than fireroads) that on a FS you’d sit down for and let the rear shock absorb the little bumps but on a HT you need to be slightly off the saddle or pick a better line.

Larger volume tyres along with tubeless and the associated lower pressures do help, it’s likely that without these innovations hardtails would be very unpleasant. The 650b+ and 29+ rim/tyre sizes now appearing will only help in this regard, of course fat bikes are the ultimate expression of low tyre pressures acting as suspension.

If you look at the continuum of mountain biking styles from long distance XC to pure downhill then hardtails will manage for most things up to somewhere around red/black trails depending on your skill level. I’m happy blasting around on reds on my hardtail and can keep up with those in the group on full sussers but I’d be pushing it to do a black. Having adjusted my riding I don’t find a HT that tiring but it’s balancing the extra effort in handling versus the benefits of a lighter bike.

The fork in the path on the ridge is slightly confusing as the path you want for Dollywaggon goes *uphill*. If you’ve never been there before or don’t notice or are thinking “descent” then you wouldn’t necessarily take it.

The path up from Dunmail Raise wouldn’t be pleasant carrying a bike – it’s not exactly easy going – easier than heading back up top though. But if you don’t know the district then you might want to get back to your mates.

Minor mistakes mounting up …

Distance 10,424.6 km
Time 502h 3m
Elev Gain 142,097 m
Rides 359

About 3K is commute, 2K on mountain bike

The problem then is: “How do you (or perhaps more pertinently, someone from outside the area) know when it’s dry? Someone has to ride it to find out.

Maybe some secret society style markings at either end of the trail? The old style tramps had things like twigs broken in a particular way to indicate whether farm owners were friendly or not. Perhaps the modern equivalent might be two discarded gel wrappers in the form of a cross 😆

Certainly with a 40T extender you don’t notice it.

There’s a lot of duplication or near duplication in a 3×9 or 3×10 set-up so you don’t really have 27 or 30 gears. You’d have to do a lot of double shifting to make use of all the ratios in order.

With a 1x set-up, you just go up or down the block, it’s basically like staying in the middle ring all the time.