They’re passing close to where I live so might give them a cheer if i’m not busy. There’s some horrible climbs coming up when they get to the Peak District. Up Chapel Gate after 1080km no thanks…

Freshness plays a big part too. If you’re nice and fresh your HR will be much higher for the same RPE than if you’re a bit fatigued from previous rides.

I’ve not ridden that particular track but it does look like it’s moderately popular on Heatmaps so can’t be too bad… maybe!

I’ve just done 300km & nearly 8,000m round the Dales last weekend on a carbon Cannondale Scalpel. I wish i’d taped the headtube… apart from that all was good. I had saddlepack, top tube bag, bar bag and various other bits.

As already said, carbon is fine. Just wrap it up like you would an Alu / Steel bike to avoid rubbing

I was camping like nobody’s business, especially towards the end of the 2nd lap.

Anyone else get caught out by the massive root that seemed to turn most people 180 degrees in a split second? 🤣

Well that was a tough day out 🥵 enjoyed the course. The corn fields were certainly a bit different, loved it.

Yep, first time around that course for me too. Looking forward to it.

I stopped reading when I got to the £39.99 bit.

I recently threw a tyre out that was completely worn out right down to the canvas in places. It’s had a mushroom plug in it for at least 12 months so I thought I’d see how strong it was. I wasn’t able to remove it… not even without pliers!

I tent to consider those trail / roadside plugs a get me home kind of fix. However on a few occasions i have had them in for the lifetime of the tyre.

I do like the peace of mind that a proper repair gives you though. I’m always a bit nervous that the plugs might pop out (they sometimes do, event after quite a while of them being in there).

Those ebay mushroom plugs are a really good for a long term fix

Have you got a spacer behind the cassette that isn’t needed?

Sounds like it could be time for a new gear cable to me. I’d be changing the inner and outer before anything else

@steve_b77 I currently have some M8000 and M9000’s. I’ve had them for donkeys years but both are finally showing signs of giving up. I’d replace them with the same again if I could.

It’s the newer M8/9100’s that I’m sceptical about the dust seals on. Everyone I know of with M9100’s has the issue but I haven’t heard much noise about the M8100’s which is a good thing I guess but I think the axels and seals are the same so I’m struggling to see why they would be ok if the M9100’s aren’t.

Sell me your unused M8000’s please 😃

I occasionally use some Assioma duo power meters with some bodged Wellgo pedal bodies on them which are only compatible with SPD cleats so it’s going to have to be Shimano compatible I’m afraid!

4 posts and 4 different recommendations 🤣

Thanks guys. I forgot to add that I need to stick with Shimano compatible cleats which unfortunately rules out Hope and Time etc.

Thanks @large418 that’s good to know that there’s plenty of resupply points. I’m hoping to get through York and as far towards Scarborough as possible in the first day but that could be a bit optimistic, especially if there’s a head wind. I’m planning a Bivi stop for 4 hours or so and then trying to cover as much ground as possible on day 2 back towards Arnside. I don’t fancy pushing on right through the night and will be happy if I’m left with a reasonably short day 3 to finish things off. In all honestly I’ll be happy to get around it full stop… I’m glad it’s a bank holiday Monday that weekend too, just in case.

Just waiting for delivery of a 28t chainring…

I think last years quickest time was around 39 hours but conditions were really good (apart from those that got stuck out in some bad weather later on).

Not sure yet as the final route hasn’t been published. I think last years route was around 8,000m.

80mph+ gusts forecast here on Friday which is also bin day… tempted not to put them out as i’ll only end up collecting the contents from the other end of the road at some point. High Peak, Derbyshire. My house is extremely exposed from 3 sides too. I think it’s going to be interesting!

Another vote for the Favero Assiomas here. Consistently reliable

I suppose it meant we got to come down it twice.

Enjoyed that one this morning. Cheers gents

I just find the whole “I’ve done something daft and want someone else to pay for it” a bit tiresome and far too common these days.

What’s wrong with slowing down, and carefully navigating around it? Would you also kick up a fuss and blame the council if you drove through a deep puddle and ripped your front bumper off?

I am being judgemental here, the pot hole could have been obscured with wet leaves or similar and I’m sure under the same conditions I probably would have crashed through it too. It’s not the councils fault though.

On the other hand…

You drove into a big hole and want someone else / the council to pay for the damage…? May I suggest not driving into big holes in the first place.

Just count yourself lucky that you could fix it yourself, report the hole and move on.

I also had my booster on Sunday. I had a rough night with a fever after it and still a bit ropey today. A ramp test tomorrow might sort me out…

The weather forecast looks pretty dismal from Xmas onwards so back to the virtual world I go…

Hope I’m not speaking too soon but I think I’m in the all clear now… In the end I had 45 days / over 6 weeks of constantly reoccurring cold symptoms. I’m still producing a lot of the green stuff throughout the day and still have a bit of a cough on and off but I’ve been back on the bike for 3 weeks or so and feeling mostly ok. It’ll be 10 weeks since I started with this thing this week.

I occasionally suffer with them quite badly. I can get 2 or sometimes 3 at the same time and the worst ones can take 7-10 days to go. They can be really painful.

As above, stress can cause them but the biggest trigger for mine is when I’m physically run down and fatigued (normally through riding / training).

Really tempted to join you guys on the climb tonight but I went out at lunchtime today so I don’t think it’s a good idea! Zwift will probably take a back foot for me now until the rain returns! Forecast looks pretty good for the next few weeks. Cold, easterly breeze but sunny and dry.

I’m going for the Mega Pretzel badge tomorrow if anyone wants a meetup. Starting early about 7-8am. Pace will be a steady 200w which is around 2.6w/kg for me.

It would be interesting to know how much you could actually influence a race result with sticky watts. My old Kickr occasionally gave me a 2,000w boost for a few seconds which was entertaining.

I don’t think either option is perfect but they’re pretty close in the grand scheme of things as as good as we’re going to get until the technology improves.

I’ve not heard of sticky watts before. Looks like an interesting read. I’ve had a glance through it though and it appears that it may only happen when you stop pedalling quickly.

It sounds like something you may be able to exploit for a small advantage if you’re aware of it. I’d imagine for most users though, me included, that it’s a non-issue. I start pedalling when I get on Zwift and stop when I get off it! I’m sure the people exploiting it are probably those that weigh 10kg less in zwift than the real world but that’s another can of worms.

I think the main takeaway point is if your pedals and trainer measure the same then it doesn’t really matter either way. You won’t know unless you do a side by side comparison though.

I’ve been in the Wattbike FB groups for a while and some of the inconsistencies between side by side Wattbikes is quite alarming! Wattbikes official response is that they’re calibrated to be consistent within themselves rather than accurate against one another and I think that’s a similar approach adopted by the other big manufactures but obviously not something they shout about. Explains the parc ferme conditions at the zwift champs etc as they will be calibrated to be consistent with each other.

Outdoor is where it all counts anyway 😃 indoor we’re just staring at pixels going nowhere.

Ah that makes sense for the national events etc nixie. In the ideal world everyone would be using the same device and the field would be more fair that way.

I think there’s two ways to look at it.

1) If zwift race fairness and results and are important to you then use the Kickr power reading (although you’ll likely be racing against others with wild one sided power readings etc so I don’t think the field is even or fair in most zwift events anyway).

2) If consistent training figures are important and you train indoor and outdoor then use the pedals.

I used to have a one sided stages that would read about 30w higher than my current pedals. Whilst they would clearly give me an unfair advantage in zwift the fact that I could train indoor and outdoor with one set of numbers was more important to me so I used the stages. Fortunately my Assioma’s and Wattbike are pretty closely matched now so I could use either in zwift but I’ve just got into the habit of swapping the pedals over as it only takes a moment and things are completely consistent that way.

(I used to have a kickr and 3 stages across different bikes and training was a nightmare with so much inconsistency between them. I simply use my Assioma’s on everything now. Its great that I can swap SPD pedal bodies onto them too so I can use them on the MTB as well).

@crossed It’s probably worth doing a comparison between the two and making a decision based on what is more important to you.

On the other hand I’d suggest using the pedals to record power both indoor and outdoor. That way you get consistent numbers to train with.

I use my Assioma Duo’s on my Wattbike atom. Zwift takes the power reading from my pedals but controls resistance via the Wattbike. I can’t see a downside to that.

Or those attacks were as hard as they looked.

Probably something to do with the expired caffeinated drink tablet too. HR was 150bpm in the start pen doing 100w

Enjoyed that one guys, sort of!

Does anyone have an appetite for a longer endurance ride on Saturday morning if the weather is rubbish out there? 3 hours or so.

I have a new HR monitor and I think it reads about 15bpm higher than my old one 😆

Found some old caffeinated drink tablets that went of out date 2 years ago. Let’s see what happens 😂

I’m jumping on at 11:30 and might tag a little Z2 on the end

My objective is to be in a fit state to chair a video meeting at 2pm…

Today’s training plan tells me I should be doing an “Endurance: Undulating Aerobic Ride”. Somehow I don’t think 30 mins flat out comes close, ooops.

I’m signed up but not really looking forward to it…!

I barely rode for 6 weeks from mid Oct due to some stinking sinus & chest infection. I also haven’t done anything over threshold for months…. I’ve just started to get back into a routine in the last couple of weeks though.

So there we go, they’re all my excuses that I can think of for now. I’ll add some more as and when I think of them :)

ah cool. Is that an unofficial thing? Or does Zwift track your distance by signing up?

Sounds like a pretty decent challenge!

No I think it originates from one of the original Strava challenges many years ago. Lots of people used to sacrifice family time at xmas to go and do long rides alone in the wind, rain, snow, ice… Fortunately virtual miles have counted towards it in recent years