32lbs, I’m still of the opinion all bikes secretly weigh 32lbs, in this case it sounds about right.

Have you considered plastic pedals and a plastic seat? Easy way to drop 5-6lbs.

Finding one to demo looks like it’ll be hard.

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/test-the-best

Most of the Concept stores will be able to get you a test bike to borrow for a while, if that’s easier.

I bought a 29er Stumpy a few years back, when they were 130mm travel, very light and speedy. They seem to have shifted their models around a bit, the new Stumpy is more beefy with a 150mm Pike, the Camber seems to fill the light trail bike slot.

I’m keen to test one as well.

How accurate do bathroom scales claim to be anyway? When weighing yourself + a bike you’d have to give them a bit of leeway.

If they were accurate to within 2% for example (which sounds fairly generous?) your bike would weight between 23lbs and 33lbs.

TUES look nice, still probably sub 30lbs!

These threads always leave me feeling like I’ve just had an argument with someone, and I’ve not even posted in it.

Everyone seems to have generous scales which under-weight things, except for mine, I got some of those Feedback Sports Alpine scales, all my bikes are 32lbs. Rubbish.

Loved Sleepless, hoping this has a similar vibe to it 🙂

318, 320, 330e all use a 2.0 engine

It’s even sillier than that now with the F30s, only the 335i and 340i use an engine bigger than 2.0, 330i is now a 2.0 turbo. The 320i EfficientDynamics uses a 1.6 turbo!

Toasty – so 50mpg in a car that does 0-60 in 6 seconds isn’t good in your book?

Name me one other car that can !?

Not only did I name one, I did it in the same post, it’s just not available for 18 months 🙂 If I was being even more pedantic I’d have said a Caterham! 😉 On a more sensible note, a 330d would match the requirements too wouldn’t it?

I don’t recall saying it wasn’t impressive, I’m just highlighting the fact that the claimed mpg is around 3x what people get in the real world.

You technically only have to complete one and, if you go solo, you can leave the course and return too. Couple of days of camping and a bit of bike riding for £30 seems alright by me.

Tragically I’ve always quite liked the familiarity of riding around in circles dozens of times, too many trail centers, not enough natural I think 🙂

Go for a fixed ball – they’re are a great parking aid.

We had someone slowly drive into the back of us at a roundabout, the towbar punched through their front grill, as they pulled back it tore it off entirely. Zero damage to our car. I heartily recommend them!

I’d get one on the front too if they’d let me.

I wouldn’t buy a 330e solely for the mpg, it’s not going to be that staggering:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/bmw/3-series-f30-2012/330e

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/bmw/3-series-f30-2012/320d-efficientdynamics

Not a bad call that really.

I think it’s the direction I’d go, it depends if you need to do crazy big miles in it.

The tech in them is amazing, the Model 3 really doesn’t sound hugely compromised, it just sounds like the Model S/X were subsidizing the project, hence the inflated prices. Autopilot!

Or get a preorder down on a Tesla Model 3, you love your 320d anyway 😛

This is true, although I was initially demoing 350z/370z and Caymans, then suddenly my wife became pregnant and it became 3 Series and Mondeos 😐

I think it was the potential car I lost, which left me desperately seeking a 6-pot “dad” car 🙂 Probably why I mentioned a Mustang above or possibly a 911, the kings of 4 seater dad cars!

They do sound luvverly though.

Tragically the sound isolation is really good, I previously had a Cooper S which was like being inside a lawnmower.

The BMW is really quiet and smooth, I must admit I do like how smooth the straight 6 pulls compared to any 4 cylinders I’ve driven though. I also convinced myself that the lack of filters, turbos and gizmos would mean it would last forever.

I really wanted a 6 pot, so bought an older 325i. In retrospect I’m not too sure why I was so desperate for a 6 pot, it’s not very fast most of the time, costs lots of VED, drinks petrol (15mpg around town!) and seems to cost lots to insure.

“There’s no replacement for displacement” is rubbish, turbos clearly are a replacement these days.

That said, you should clearly get a new Mustang GT, 4 seats, holding their value ridiculously well, only slightly less boot than a 4 series, can almost get away with go faster stripes.

Here?

Camber? Not the most exciting choice but they always have a decent weights and solid own brand bits.

Edit: Sorry, I wrote that before seeing the reply above. Camber 650b? 😉

https://www.rutlandcycling.com/309821/products/2016-specialized-stumpjumper-fsr-elite-650b-mountain-bike—green-grey.aspx

Ooh, old thread resurrected. I use them on my road bike, love them, you get very used to the clipping in after lights, as they always rest in the same position.

Can’t say I’d want to use them offroad, but I guess they probably offer better ground clearance than standard pedals once you’re clipped in.

My eldest child is 19, and very tall and slim (around 6’4″ or 6’5″).

I was exactly the same at that age, I’m 6’6″ and used to have a monstrous metabolism. Mid-late 20s it’ll catch up with him!

MFP is bizarre when you’re tall, especially when you walk a lot, it gives you an obscene amount of calories to munch though. I really wouldn’t worry. If I tell it I want to maintain my current weight, it gives me near 3000 calories a day, before exercise!

Go get a turbo and come join the Zwift lot 🙂 Probably won’t solve your core issues hugely, you can always have a crafty plank afterwards.

Those quoted Euro emissions standards still look pretty bad don’t they? A modern diesel is comparable to a 12 year old petrol car, or a third worse than a new petrol car.

Picking something fairly generic:

http://www.nextgreencar.com/emissions/make-model/ford/focus/%5B/url%5D

Petrol are 21-31, diesel are 40-75. I do short journeys, so avoided diesel personally. I’d also be fearful of huge taxation being added to push people towards efficient petrols in the future, be that on a change to VED or diesel I’m not sure.*

* that said, the new 2017 VED system seems to suggest the opposite, oh well. Buying a 1.0 Fiesta for 5 years got more expensive, buying a 5 litre Mustang for the same period got cheaper. Hmm!

Specialized Ambush also seemed quite popular last time this flavour thread kicked off.

True, the only group rides I’ve done have been “sub 2.0” event rides, pretty safe there 🙂 The longest one was 2 hours, which is always a good chance to watch a random Netflix film.

Might be about tonight, I’ll give KISS another chance since I’ve missed Mon + Wed anyway.

To anyone who’s not tried racing, there’s no pressure with them. You can sign up to one and not turn up, or give it a shot and drop out after 5 minutes. I’m rarely bothered about where I finish, the winners will always be the people skirting right up to the bracket limits (it’s a shame there’s not a slight overlap), it’ll always push me to try far harder than I would be otherwise though.

If you can maintain about 1.8w/kg or above, you’ll find a pack to sit with in the D races.

Cheers jambo, I’ll have a peep. Sounds like a good swap.

Looks like yesterdays EVR is up already, beats my Tuesday KISS race anyway.

On the notes about KISS being a bit hit and miss, what race series would people suggest as being a bit more reliable? Really enjoy the racing but can’t be arsed if the results are always going to vanish into the ether.

I used to try and aim for Tues + Thurs 8pm KISS races.

I’ll probably just use Zwift for Sub2/Sub2.5 sort of endurance events, if racing gets any worse. Seems a shame.

Which is around 30% higher than typical walking pace – i’m glad you agree

Wouldn’t go that far, I’m still scratching my head at 60rpm being a ridiculous figure for riding uphill offroad if I’m honest 🙂

You don’t need to be quite so defensive, I’m just saying I struggle at that sort of cadence reliably offroad, so it’s soft of pointless having that gearing. The main issue being that you need to keep that 60-80rpm going to remain upright, I couldn’t stand up to move the bike around for example while maintaining 80rpm. Pushing a bigger gear I’d be able to give it a sharp push to give me a bit of leeway.

Why the hell would anyone be climbing at 60rpm unless they are overgeared?

Is it that ridiculous a figure? Spin at 80rpm if you like, you’ll be rocking along at 4mph on a 29er. Love to see that get you up a techy climb. I just don’t see the point.

I’m just saying I’d rather push a bigger gear, with a lower rpm, as I’d find the stability a lot easier to manage.

Who said anything about sub walking speed?

22*36 at 60rpm on a 29er wheel is about 3mph or 2.6mph on a 650b wheel.

That’s going by a 2.3m circumference on a ~2.2″ tyre, traveling 0.6x this every pedal rotation. Obviously if you’re grinding up the hill at 40rpm you’re barely even getting 2mph.

You got that the wrong way round – spinning the same gear at the same speed heavy blokes carry more momentum and have higher pressure under the tyre for more grip = its much easier for you on rough sections whether pointed up or down

Well this is sort of the point isn’t it? At sub walking speed, up a steep hill, momentum really isn’t a huge factor. Trying to keep a smooth enough power input, which is still high enough to drag the extra weight up the hill is the issue.

No one is arguing about using gears up hills, it’s just the extreme end of the spectrum that some of us seem to struggle with.

Yeah, 6’6″/15 stone chap here and agree with the above, 22×36 is really getting into the range where I’ve got zero stability. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden anything offroad where that would help me, maybe a long 20% fire road or something. Even then I’d struggle keeping a smooth enough pedaling to keep the front end down.

I felt the same back when I had triples, loving modern gear ranges. Using 11-40s and 32 chainrings, although I could do with a bit more range if I’m honest 🙂 I’ve got a 30 ready to go on the Enduro after the weekend!

http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=3356

Argh, 26 hours on and I’m getting sick of waiting for this race to update. Most of the people listed weren’t even in that race. D cat was supposedly won by people who were also racing in A at the same time. 96 upgrades apparently.

So broken 🙁

It’s because the ZP watchers are more accurate than the way Zwift calculates the finishing order…

Zwift can be just as accurate as Zwiftpower if it likes, Zwiftpower is using third hand data from Zwift -> Strava -> ZP.

If anything it should be a lot more reliable as it doesn’t have to cross reference data between two sources. What happens currently if someone digital epos the fit file from Zwift before uploading to Strava? It just seems an unnecessary extra step.

I’m not saying it needs to always give instant feedback, it’s fine collating it later. It could offer a preliminary result, which is just how people cross the line if it likes. I’d just like to see my improvement via a vaguely reliable portal. Yesterdays races still haven’t been sorted, for example.

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zwift#/entity

Oof

I don’t even think it needs a VC to be honest, I just think they need to hire a few coders for a few months.

Yes, people will argue about DQs but I’m sure just as many won’t bother racing as it’s broken, but get bored of just rolling around by themselves, so quit. DQs only really apply at the top anyway, if people are outside the bracket they need to go up a cat, looking at last nights KISS for example, only 20% of racers are in cat A.

If it was totally solid and offered all the metrics which Zwiftpower offered, showing my improvement over time, I’d be far more into the racing aspect.

do you think zwiftpower make money?

http://www.titaniumgeek.com/cycling/zwiftpower-the-coding-behind-zwift-community-racing/

No, I think Zwift make money and have the functionality to organise races, yet have no ability to tell you who won. It seems bizarre.

Adding their own results just feels like something that would be fairly trivial, given they’ve recorded the start, end and full race data.

They’ve got somewhere between about 25k-100k paying users, all paying a pretty hefty monthly premium, direct to Zwift without any publisher. I just don’t see why they can’t contract a coder for a couple of months to pop out a results page. Why not even just buy Zwiftpower out and integrate it?

Getting quite frustrated with Zwiftpower, I really wish they’d make their own race tracking. I’m sure they’re raking in enough money now to fund a proper dev team.

I saw you on the first lap nuts 🙂 might just be a pacing thing, that group we were in ended up with about 2.4w/kg. If you’d gone for the group behind you might have been able to maintain it. I got about 3 miles from the end and totally died. They all zoomed off.

Oh that’s one thing to note about the smaller Fiesta as well. Ours merrily sits at just over 50 mpg at about 50-60, if you head up to 70 this tails back off to mid 40s or so. Still impressive, it just feels like it’s not really designed for lots of long motorway journeys.

We’ve got a 1.0 ecoboost Fiesta. The little 3 cylinder engine is a bizarre beast, it shakes around all over the place if you run it with the bonnet open. It’s light enough to zoom around town fairly comfortably and when you rev it enough to get the little turbo to kick in, it has a decent zoom.

We had a Mini Cooper S previously, with 180ish bhp. It had tons of zoom when you got going but I curiously found it a real drag at slow speeds, hill starts and things were a pain in the arse. 180bhp is 180 peak bhp, it doesn’t mean it’s great throughout the range.

E90 325i here, 1 kid + dog. Wanted something relatively fun that would be fine doing short journeys most of the time, which ruled modern diesel out. It’s an old 07 with a straight 6 engine, lovely to drive, very smooth. It hates petrol though, 20 in town, 35 motorway sort of figures.

No turbos or DPFs in there to explode. I’m hoping the extra fuel costs work out in the long term 🙂

Edit: Oh and, at 6’6″, it’s worth mentioning that BMW seemed to have better leg and head room than anything else I sat in!