I’m going to have to bow out due to “injury” :-( Had issues with my shoulders since starting Zwift/using a road bike. I’m at the point that even with pain killers, which I rarely use, I still can’t stop the pain in my shoulder and ache down my left arm no matter what position it’s in. Without pain killers it’s agony! I’m going to leave it 2 weeks and, assuming my arm/shoulders have recovered, I’ll try and continue.

That’s funny as I did the same. First rack was a 5 bike with ‘normal’ hooks and second rack is a 3 bike plus gear. I’ve got 6 bikes, 2 full face helmets, a backpack and one spare wheel hung on them.

I struggled with two of the bikes due to width of tyres. Contacted Luis who advised to remove sleeve, put in vice, open as required then refit sleeve. He said this doesn’t affect warranty and he offered to do for me if I couldn’t manage. Anyway, it was simple enough and those bikes now fit perfectly.

@rossburton Which brand did you go for, Elfa or Gearhooks?

I’m lagging behind. Will need to do a ride everyday this week to catch up.

I’ve used Shipley for a bathroom sink and and tap with no issues. I thought the go to bike courier was Paisley Freight. I’ve had a bike delivered to me using them with no issues.

@reluctantjumper there’s a lot of used bikes on the market. It seems everybody’s offloading them now lockdown, WFH is over. I used FB marketplace to find mine. I got an unused Spec Allez sport for £350. Might be worth saving a search on there for a bike you want.

@ta11pau1 Where does the VO2 chart come from?

I did #8 on Tuesday. Will do Tine tonight. Really struggling with upper back/shoulder pain when I wake in the mornings. It eases once I get moving. Was hoping this would have passed by now. Anybody else experience this when you first started riding road bikes?

Morning all,
Returned from holiday yesterday. I did complete all of week one and really enjoyed it. The bike I’d recently bought for my Kickr wasn’t set up correctly, gears not indexed and other problems that would be an issue if I rode outdoors, so it went to LBS whilst I was away. I collected yesterday I took along the Kickr to check the gears worked perfectly on that too and it does.

Need to get everything set up again today and will attempt one of the week 2 workouts and another tomorrow. Any recommendations on which two workouts I should do?

I can’t do meet ups on Thursday evenings or Sunday mornings. These are the only two times in the week I can’t do, lol, but hopefully there’s a meet on another day in future so I can join in.

Is there a list of all the STW members who are doing this training plan? Would be good to see a list of us each week showing who is along for the ride and their status, i.e. ‘still going’, ‘quit’. Presumably you/we can see this through Zwift/Strava?

Thanks all. I’m after a saddle for an Orange Evo 2. Would need to be in really good, if not new, condition to match the bike.

I found a ‘new’ one to replace a bike that was stolen from me many years ago. Now I’m scared what my wife is going to say when she sees another bike in the garage.

Devedeset complete 👍🏼

Did the Zone Benchmarking. During the warmup it mentioned ftp so I checked mine and it was still at 158 so I changed it to 190 as per the Ramp test I completed yesterday. Will that have changed the Benchmarking test accordingly? Last two segments were 230 and 240.

I have them. They’re all green/available now but Benchmarking was red before. Must’ve been a glitch.

I’m going to do one or two tonight.

Good luck 👍🏼

I didn’t do the Zone Benchmarking before the end of Sunday. It’s now red and presumably I can no longer do it. Do I just carry on or does it affect the rest of the training plan?

Did my first FTP test tonight so will start training tomorrow 😬

Thanks for replies. I just need a cassette for my Kickr. Shimano will go on the Kickr and SunRace will remain once back wheel. Will stick with KMC chain.

@Saccades

@sillyoldman

Thanks both. I’ll look into it. A new cassette looks to be really cheap at £20. Might go for it. Thanks.

@DrP Yes, it is. Thank you. I must have mine on auto so it updates the ftp when it thinks it should be increased based on all my rides. It’s pretty low so hopefully it will increase during or after this training plan. The only way is up… I hope🤞

Trying to find my current ftp in Zwift. Is it actually recorded anywhere?

Was going to do an ftp test tomorrow but during a group ride today a notification popped up saying ‘your ftp score has changed to ???’ Now I just want to know what it is.

Googling it just explains how to measure your ftp. Why is everything in Zwift so unintuitive!!

@ta11pau1 Currently, I’m doing an hour every weeknight and an hour and a half at the weekends. All these are group rides in Cat D which seem fairly easy. I’ll do the training plan rides instead now but I’m away for a week fairly soon. I believe that means I just miss that weeks training and carry on. How tough do you think it’ll be to bridge that gap?

I will give it a go if that’s okay. I’ve signed up to the plan on Zwift. Have added DrP on Strava and Zwift. Is there anything else I need to do?

@twonks Thanks for the explaining. That all makes sense so feels less daunting to try both the training plan and group ride.

I have a smart trainer and will complete an FTP test today or tomorrow.

I know how you feel… I’m about 2 stone over weight having been unable to exercise for early 2 years.

Would like to join in with this. How do I know if I’m fit/good enough?

I’ve been looking at used bikes the last few weeks. I used eBay and local used bike shops but the place I found had more of the model I was looking for was Facebook’s Marketplace.

The bike I got is about 18 months old, bought for use during lockdown, only used 5 times (the rubber hairs are still on the tyres) and I paid a third of retail price.

I think we’re at the beginning of lockdown bikes coming to the market but there’s likely to be an abundance of cheaper models (under £1k) and less of anything above this price range. A lot of people will have bought to attach to indoor trainers so wouldn’t have wanted/needed an expensive bike.

@oikeith No, it was 50mph. A notification popped up on Zwift stating that I’d unlocked some kind of achievement for hitting 50mph. Strava has it recorded as “51.1 mi/h”

However, I have realised that Zwift is now in KPH so when I hit 76kph I thought I’d blown my previous record out of the water. Turns out it was slightly less at 47mph. Still had a lot of gears left though, I just couldn’t push the one I was in anymore as that particular ride had a lot of 10% climbing.

I used my mtb on Kickr for last few weeks and only used the highest 2 gears. Fastest I could go was 50mph and legs were spinning like crazy. Standing up and peddling was impossible until about 8% incline.

I bought a second hand road bike and used for the first time yesterday. The difference is huge in a positive way. Personally, I think it’s well worth having a road bike on a turbo rather than an mtb.

I always used Thule until 2 years ago as they didn’t do bars to fit my current car so I’ve had Yakami Whispbars instead. I use with Thule cycle carriers. They were a right pain to ‘slide’ on because they didn’t slide at all. I put a bit of silicone spray onto them and now they’re perfect.

@preseli

https://www.allesvoordefiets.nl/product/muc-off-display-werkplaats-rek-voor-werkplaats-flessen/

They should probably start calling them ‘Laze-E-Bikes’???

@endomick It was the Mere Brow, Tarleton store.

@sharkattack If the op was buying a new downhill bike then maybe a e-bike would make sense but he’s after a StumpJumper Evo which is a trail bike. Seems pointless, to me, riding trails on an e-bike.

@sixtoes Yeah, the previous owner bought it in May ’20. Said he rode it 5 times and, from the looks of things, he wasn’t lying. Paid £350 for it which I think was a good deal.

Bought the Stumpjumper Comp Carbon not Evo. This was an upgrade from an 18 year old Rockhopper Comp (hardtail). The bike is awesome.

I won’t consider an e-bike until I need one i.e. not having one means I can’t go mountain biking. To me, it’s as pointless as riding round in a mobility scooter when you can walk perfectly well.

@dyna-ti Depends who/what you believe. Personally, I think they get together over a few drinks and decide who should go to war with who next because having no war doesn’t help the rich to get richer. “I know, why don’t you invade the Ukraine, Vlad, and we’ll all get involved. Give us an excuse to spend billions on another war”.

@stcolin Loads of full sus. Only saw a few electric. Looked like they had a good range on display from £500 hardtails to £5k full sus.

Incidentally, the kids bike section was rammed too.

@benpinnick I remember seeing lots of Trek, Specialized and Whyte. Tons of each. Actually don’t think there was another brand there. The shop was absolutely rammed though.

Edit: There were some Cube bikes too.

It’s in the best interest of the agent to make a sale and keep a chain going so I’d say they should be in a good position to give you an insight to what the seller might or might not accept.

The price a seller will accept depends on tons of factors so it’s always worth a punt but I’d offer as much as you can afford and want to pay for the property right away rather than messing about with offer after offer.

Our friends sold recently under market value because they needed to sell in order to buy the house of their dreams. Just one scenario when you might get it for below asking.

Whatever the case, only offer what you can afford and would be happy paying for a particular property. If it’s not enough then move on and keep looking for another property.

@BadlyWiredDog Didn’t know that. Learning as I go. Thanks.

@BadlyWiredDog Okay, thanks. I’ll keep at 80 psi. It’s going to be used on a Kickr but I do want a quick ride before I attach it, I’ve never ridden a road bike before, and want it to be ready if I go for a ride with friends in the future. What did you mean by “in 25s”?

Picked the bike up today. Given it a quick clean and removed the bell and all reflectors. Need to clean the drivetrain, re-oil and adjust brakes. Apart from paint chip on top tube, I can’t see any damage or wear. The tyres even have all the ‘hairs’ on. All receipts, manuals, etc. present. I think I’ve got this for a descent price but really have no clue with road bikes. Hopefully there’s no major issue with it that I’m yet to discover.

Just gone to add air to the tyres. Tyres states 100-120 psi… is that right? I’ve pumped to 80 psi but scared to add more as my MTB tyres are about 20-25 psi. Have I misunderstood something?