Posted similar elsewhere, but I don’t really see Nieve as that great a loss for Sky. Poels will be back in action next year, and Ellisonde and Rosa should be able to slot in and fill Nieve’s role.

Will be interesting to see how the Landa/Quintana situation works out.
I doubt there’s much of a queue of teams waiting to get hold of Quintana, as he just wont fit in for many of them. And for Landa, he’s not going to get the chances he wants whilst Quintana and Valverde are both still at Movistar.

Barguil is a crazy move, but french teams love french riders and vice versa.
Seems like pressing the career self destruct button though.

CH, bent elbows, nice!
Shame you pinned number on like a parachute to compensate though 😛

I’m usually one for taking the middle of my lane and behaving like a car (including busting a gut to do car like speeds where possible) around town, but if its genuinely taking 2 mins making yourself a hate target in the yellow box, i think i’d just take to the path and use the crossing.

but it’s not jumper weather.

Its put a jumper on – too warm – take jumper off – too cold – on – too warm – off – too cold – on – off weather

May: Dry with occasional sunny intervals, but cold and mostly cloudy
June: Perpetual gloom with the odd shower and cold wind in the evenings
July: See June

Also worth checking chain – I had very similar, and it took me 200mi to discover i’d been riding round with pin half falling out of a chain link.

Think yourself lucky you ever had the jumper off to start with

Not an A4, but had to take the company A6 S-Line on a trip recently.
Nothing ‘wrong’ with it as such, but I was unimpressed.
Very little ‘feel’ fed back to the driver through the wheel – when you turned it turned sure enough, but it wasn’t a rewarding driving experience.
And the S-Line wheels/tyres also killed its credentials as a motorway cruiser as it was a bit harsh and noisy.

Would it stop me buying one at the right price second hand – probably not.
Would it stop me buying one new – absolutely.

Doesn’t really matter what type of coffee you use if you’re going to contaminate it with the white stuff. *disgusted emoji*

Anyone else think the side knobs look an awful long way down the side on those Spesh 2.8’s? May just be the angle of the photo, but looks like you’d need one hell of a lean angle to get those into play.

I’d love to have spare wheels, but given that we seem to have a new wheel standard every 27.5 weeks, whatever I got would only fit one bike and be obsolete shortly after.

It’s proving hard work for the willpower muscle, but still resisting feeding the bike industry any serious cash until they stop changing stuff non-stop.

Following with interest.
My dad is in a similar boat looking for a device

CH, all the +brownie points you’ve accumulated in this thread have been burnt in 1 go by making us watch that dude for 19mins….

Computer room / dumping ground.
Considering turning it into a turbo den, but bit tight for space.

Kinda feel the OP’s pain.
Had a ride like that last week – seriously considering getting an action cam and forwarding footage of 50 nutters a week to the police.

Gah, good write up as usual, and sounds like a lot of fun, but do a long sprint and get a point (or 6) already!!

Have an 800(USB died in a biblical downpour – still charges though) and 810.
Mostly, they are an impressive piece of kit.
However for what they cost, they are rather plagued by random crashes and other assorted minor bugs.

They’ve had a huge advantage in that there’s been very little competition over the years, but I wouldn’t hesitate to jump to another brand offering similar features at a lower price point.

I’m proper up for it tonight

Me too!
Thunder storms here, so my evening will be a turbo session followed by spamming F5 waiting for an awesome CH scores points write up.
No pressure 😛

so I plan on blowing out as many cobwebs as I can.

Attack from the gun, and when that doesn’t work out, sit in till the end and go for the long sprint strategy, hit the front with 350 to go then full gas till your eyeballs pop. No danger 10 people are coming round you if you are at 1000W+

Mason Definition is quite a racey geometry too, but again, a massive pile of case, and quite a beautiful thing to use as a winter bike.

Started trying 2 years ago, but I get bored too easily.
After 5 mins I just think F* it and go back to pedalling since i find that much more fun that screwing around.

Since its all about weight transfer, weighing next to nothing certainly doesn’t help, especially on bikes with heavier front ends.

If you’re young and fit, zwift can now be used to get a job!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/team-dimension-data-professional-contract-up-for-grabs-with-zwift-academy/

Really don’t understand why manufacturers insist on making gilets so baggy.

[FlameShield]Because 90% of the UK/US population are chubsters and wail like babies when brands make clothing to fit cyclists.[/FlameShield]

should I really be using the chest strap?

Probably

if not, am I likely to do myself a mischief running at these heart rates?

Probably not.

The real answer (this should really be a sticky given how often it comes up) is to do a LTHR test to determine your zones:
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/joe-friel-s-quick-guide-to-setting-zones/

Well its completely logical if you are riding with less effort that you go slower ( 💡 ?)
And cadence is determined by what gear you use for a given speed – if you want a higher cadence, pick an easier gear.

Kinda feel as though i’m missing something here…….

Downhill is harder than uphill, I am not a spinner, the 42:16 gets to me to 25mph at 120rpm ish, that’s about as fast as my legs will go and a lot faster than they go normally.

I turned up to local APR on my Plug SS with 42:16 (proper bike was in the shop), taking turn on the front at 35mph on a couple of down slopes was ‘interesting’ 😆
Not sure i’d want a bigger gear though – getting back up the hill on the way home was a wheezing, grinding world of pain.

Endura flipjak is quite nice, but properly warm so more of a winter only item.
It can *just* be squeezed into a large jersey pocket if you do overheat.

Just ride as hard as you can for 2030 mins and whatever your average HR was for the second last 10 20 mins is your threshold HR.

1). And instead of replacing worn stuff when winter is over, ditch the bike and get something cheap in a geometry you get on better with for the winter after.

You’ve ridden it several times, and yet it’s spotless.
How does that work?!

The last clubrun I did with MrBlobby illustrates this perfectly. At 26mph, I was using more watts IN HIS DRAFT than it was taking him

That sir is an impressive feat of unaerodynamicism (good word huh!) 😀

Middle chainring is indeed looking quite worn, maybe not to the point of replacement needed, but close.
Outer doesn’t look as bad.

I’m not sure I really see Nieve as a great loss (although many will), he massively under-performed in the 2016 TdF, and did an adequate, but not spectacular job in 2017.
Wout Poels will be back in the squad for 2018, and Elissonde and Rosa should both be capable of filling that role too – it may even have been exactly what they were bought for.

In theory it should indeed remain waterproof even when not beading as its the membrane that’s the waterproof bit, not the outer fabric.
However when it stop beading, it’ll also stop breathing, so wetness from inside out is likely.

Just put the old chain back on and run it until stuff stops working.
Not like it’s cost you anything other than time as you’ll still have the new chain later when you need to replace full drivetrain.

Something is wrong with OP’s chain checker. Probably more like 2.6% after 4500km.

Varies slightly from person to person, but as a reference, i tend to get ~3000km from a chain on the road bike and ~1000km on the MTB.

I’d stick the old chain back on as after that far on one chain, chainrings are likely toast as well as cassette.

Got to love Cav and Rochelle bigging up the dead/heavy road surface.
Poor pro’s better not go ride in some other areas of the UK as the Ride London course is widely regarded as one of the fastest sportive routes in the UK

Well done to TiRed and crazy-legs for some very impressive times.

Check the quick link is done up properly, but it does sound like a worn cassette. Is it a mtb or road bike, and how many miles have you done on it?

Saturday AM: Rain dodging turbo session
Saturday PM: 3hrs easy including a couple of showers and an hour long cold gritty arse rinse.
Sunday AM: 2hrs easy including yet another cold arse rinse.

Anyone know when summer is due to start? 😐

+1 for Dalbettie