I’d have thought the Rekon much faster rolling than the NN

Nah, looks like it should from the tread, but Maxxis rubber compounds invariably trade rolling speed for grip. Schwalbe and Conti tend to lean the other way and produce fast tyres, but perhaps not as grippy or robust as Maxxis.

iirc, rolling resistance data shows that an Ikon has around 50% more rolling resistance than a race king despite then having quite a similar design.

If you’re really after an audax bike, there are some good deals on the genesis equilibrium decade on ebay – guards, rack and dynamo front hub, plus a triple, for about £800.

Spectacularly fails the good looking test.
When you come out of the cafe freshly caffeinated to the max, seeing the bike propped up and waiting to go is supposed to bring a smile to your face not a grimace.

Edit: Having had some time to think about it more, and having knocked out another couple of 200km rides, i’m even more sure what I want is a light, fast, efficient bike with bigger clearance and mudguard mounts to increase practicality.
Yes it has to be comfortable (I don’t really find a full on carbon race bike uncomfortable), but if i’m going to ride a bike lots of miles it has to also be fun to ride.

Bump.
Any thoughts on the Genesis Datum?
Looks about what i’m after (perhaps a fraction overweight), supposedly has fittings for guards, but I can’t find any pictures showing eyelets on the fork.

Seems i’ve trashed the chain, cassette, big ring and rear mech on the Boardman CX, so may well be heading to the skip after winter 2017/18.

I’m kind of in the camp of if it needs lots of bits swapping when you buy it, its probably the wrong bike.

Prime example was I wanted a 22/36 double when i got my 29er, and at the time they were pretty rare, and expensive to buy as aftermarket parts. Ruled out a lot of bikes and helped make choice of what to buy.

And similarly, with a few contenders on the shortlist, the addition of a dropper as standard spec on my Spectral made it a standout choice.

All that assumes that you’ve read reviews and/or been on test rides to rule out bikes that just aren’t very good – certainly wouldn’t buy a poorly rated frame no matter how much nice stuff was hanging off it.

2017 Allez Sprint?

Very nice.
Think i’d leave the 808’s at home though, they don’t look nearly as nice once 10 muppets have run over them.

Why not use the good carbon bike? I raced crits for years and always rode my best race bike.

Don’t race what you can’t afford to replace.

@ben & lunge, i’d absolutely start now, but i’ve got a biking goal that needs full attention until at least the end of August and not willing to risk injury.

Rough timetable is NC500 end of August, week off and make decision on Relentless in October.
Worst case scenario a bit of gentle running starts mid November. Still gives time to start the ‘long’ run at 1mile and build by a fairly conservative 1 per week.

The problem for NQ soloing is that he’s tiny = absolute power is comparatively very low = unless its steep enough to severely negate wind resistance a solo isn’t likely to happen.

Does C25k apply if your starting point wasn’t the couch, but coming from being a fit(ish) bike rider?
Looking increasingly likely i’ll be targeting an ‘iron’ distance duathlon this time next year = probably start running mid autumn this year.
Bike leg doesn’t worry me, event lasting ~14hrs doesn’t really worry me, but running 39mi when I haven’t run properly in 20yrs is a tad concerning!

cos riding away from team sky is just so so easy.

That’s not the point.
The point is that NQ needs to do exactly that if he wants to make up for his deficiencies elsewhere.
I also think after the level of sportsmanship he showed at the Giro he better hope he has no problems or Sky/Orica/Sunweb are going to be queuing up to pull on the front and put time into him.

Just on my wishlist – MTB as an activity, MTB challenges, filtering MTB/road efforts on challenges and leaderboards, C temp with miles distance, sharing private rides, private clubs where only members can see the rides and they don’t appear on public leaderboards, ability to unmatch a segment without having to request that via support, segment management/ownership like Trailforks…

All of the above plus:
Ability to manually add sufferscore to activities where there is a problem with HR data (to keep the fitness/freshness chart accurate)
Ability to upload photos from the website
Make the @ tagging in comments work on website
Allow me to filter rides by bike
Allow me to have a more detailed breakdown of yearly stats (MTB/Road split, how many miles on bike X, average speed by bike etc etc)
Add ride analysis features from website to apps

Could go on forever, and indeed they have a suggestions forum which they largely ignore that is FULL of good ideas.

I’m overthinking it then, I’ve been bulk buying the free offer sis stuff all winter and spring so have a large box of energy bars, assorted gels, powders and other potions.

Not over thinking it at all. If your planning to be riding hard, then stuff that’s designed to be quickly and easily digested is perfect.

Doing it again this year, again no stops planned. Bars & gels for the ride and then off to a cafe straight afterwards. With any luck I should be finished by 10am so brunch it is.

Assuming you are aiming for ~4hrs then – how/where are you carrying the extra 500ml of liquid to not stop? Most folk will need at least 500ml/hr so 2x750ml only gets you to the 3 hour mark at best.

Just another reason not to renew premium.
And yes i’ll be ditching clubs that spam my feed.

They seem to have forgotten that they are primarily an exercise tracking service and there’s 100’s of improvements they could make there before expanding into facebook lite.

It’s too cold (weather wise) for me to wear short sleeve to work …

+1
And given that if it ever gets as much as moderately warm the chubby brigade turn the air con to the max, a softshell is a more likely thing to need than a short sleeve shirt.

There’s no danger it’ll hit those runtime/lumen figures unless theres a misprint in the battery capacity/voltage

And by ‘chatting with the staff’ you mean screaming your lungs out and bending the bed rail you were clutching?
That’s how mine went at least – much fun! 😯

As wilburt says, they are quite stretchy. Not only do they need to allow you to pee, but also need to accommodate a variety of MAMIL guts.

Not that many top quality shorts without bibs.
The best I have found here are Endura FS260 and Gore Oxygen

Last time I had to answer that question, it was:
“I’m not really sure, so at the moment i’m concentrating on doing my job to the best of my ability”

Maersk reporting they have been hit:

UPDATE 15:00 CEST pic.twitter.com/L5pBYvNQd3

— Maersk (@Maersk) June 27, 2017

but they think that we (private sector workers) just clock in a 9, go home at 5

Erm, we do don’t we?

Its the purpose of disc brakes to rub and make random noises.
This is not unique to BB7’s.

Why do people on these threads never understand that a car loan buys an asset? If you look at your personal balance sheet you have your £13k loan and (hopefully) a £13k asset against that loan… whats the problem?

Because the moment you take ownership of said £13k car its value becomes £9.5k

I am discovering that much of this kind of difference is often down to how much their background and parents has ‘set them up’, as much as their behaviours and efforts.

It can be that.
Or it can also be the £80pcm in gym memberships that get used once a fortnight, the £100pcm on phone contracts, £100pcm at the cinema etc.

Some folks have different priorities which is very understandable, but how they can cope with the needless stress of being permanently low/empty on cash whilst spending a small fortune on entertainment i’ll never understand.

Surely when your pay isn’t lasting until payday you just don’t go to the cinema rather than living off beans on toast and running the car on fumes for a week? 😕

It’s live from start to finish in the UK on ITV4

ORLY?!

Now that’g going to eat into either riding or sleeping time watching the recordings in an evening.

I have no idea how you manage to burn through that amount of cash.

Quite easy, SWMBO eliminates the word ‘NO’ from your vocabulary in the first couple of years of a relationship, before moving onto a £200/wk spend on cosmetics and double that on shoes and handbags.

Not quite so high wages, but its easy to see examples where I work (and I assume at most workplaces).
I worked with a few guys my age, all earning similar money. Going from one extreme to the other, one can buy new cars and still have ~£400pcm spending money, whilst another drives a banger, has at least £10k of debt and never lasts until payday without current account running dry.

Since we are on a theme of not recommending shorts for the OP, i’ll suggest pedalling harder so more weight is taken through the feet and less through the saddle.

Done the blue and the red down from the rock.
Definitely a place with a whole different character.
Enjoyed it and definitely need to go back, but when the chance arises either its wet (think the red would be a bit hard for my mincing in the wet) or i just can’t face the drive and ride from home instead.

Took a ride over to the south of Fife to see if i could spot the carrier this evening.
Bit dissapointing there was nothing to see – guess it hadn’t cleared the bridges yet.
And it was utterly freezing into the bargain. Would never have thought a gabba style top would be insufficient at this time of year, but turns out i should have had leg warmers and a full softshell on 😐

fifeandy – the water came thru the shoulders and back of the jacket. You could see from the pattern of water on the layers underneath. Not from sweat or down the neck. MrsTJs jacket has been replaced under guarantee, I am going to take the boots back tomorrow and see what they say. My jacket being 3 years old obviously not worth taking back

Shoulders and back are prime areas to get wet from inside out as i assume you’d have been wearing a pack? The pack itself will be blocking the breath-ability, and will also wear off the (not so)DWR allowing the outer material to wet out and stop the entire garment breathing.
A quick google suggests its very unlikely water is actually penetrating goretex membrane.

You can of course always be unlucky enough to get faulty kit.

I’ve not yet had a membrane give up and start leaking, even on cheaper jackets. The ‘D’ in ‘DWR’ may well be slightly optimistic though.

However, on a day like that, i’d never bank on being completely dry, either the outer fabric will wet out and cease breathing and you’ll get wet from sweat, or enough water will get down the neck and gradually soak everything else.

50/50.
Mostly no real harm done, but then again don’t think i’d be impressed if it was done on my land without permission.
I’d probably just be de-constructing it but not actually going to the effort of trying to track down who did it.

@Weeksy.
In a skill based sport (think racket sports), kids need to start out and commit really early as there is a LOT of skill development, and pretty much by the time they get through the late teens growth spurt they can be expected to compete with seniors.

XC on the other hand is predominantly about the engine, but the engine isn’t really going to start to develop properly until mid/late teens. At WC level riders are even segregated all the way up until U23s.
Based on that, i’d focus on skill development and riding/racing for fun rather than trying to chase fitness gains and results at a young age, plenty of years ahead to do that.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mark-cavendish-selected-for-tour-de-france/

Kind of in my own self inflicted non-racing doldrums at the moment.
Signed up for a charity NC500 this summer at the end of last year, and decided to not race this year so I could organise group rides etc and try to help the novice cyclists through their training.

Unfortunately, June seems to have rolled around, i’m on great form, but no racing planned to take advantage of it. Just itching to really go deep at a race/event, but nothing planned.
Even the local Tuesday APR keeps getting rained off so can’t use that as an outlet, and with rain forecast all day again tomorrow looks like another week of frustration.

Almost just want to get NC500 out of the way, then onto a new challenge of an ‘iron’ distance duathlon next year.

Yes, all the time.
I’ve got an abundance of mellow trails and double track around here, which makes for great fitness training, but a bit of a trek to get to something that really warrants a MTB rather than a gravel bike.

Also jealous of most places where the sky isn’t varying shades of grey 300 days of the year.

@scotroutes.
Might be a bit hit and miss with 9 speed links on a 10 speed chain.
Found a random chap in the woods with a broken chain a few months back. Got him up and running again with a spare 9 speed link, didn’t fall apart, but it wasn’t a good fit, seemed very loose and rattly.
I’d have ridden it back to the car, but not any further.

This is all seeming like a lot of effort to tubeless some mediocre tyres.
Just ride them with tubes until they die and then get some proper tyres next time.

Didnt actually know i had snails until i re-did the garden and put some new plants in.
A week later, a couple of mauled lupins and around 70 snails in the garden waste bin and i appear to have finally got rid of most of them.

@blobby, need to get the priorities straight is all.
Stick the wife and kids on ebay, and make sure to always wear a hazmat suit whenever leaving the house for anything other than a bike ride. Still a good few months of races to get some results yet.

£2.5k for a road bike, £3k for a HT, maybe as much as £4k for a FS, after that its really into diminishing returns and window dressing imo.

Certainly notice the difference between a £1500 13kg HT and a £3k 10kg one, but then probably double the price to drop 1kg more.