Pedal Power Thread

TriggerHappy said:
:D Sorry, it was a slightly tongue in cheek reply because using the same gear and turning pedals at the same cadence will result on the same speed regardless of tyre. Chances are that the reduced rolling resistance of the new tyre coupled with the increased confidence in corners allowed you to either ride a gear higher for the same exertion, and/or allowed you to carry more speed through corners because you weren't scared of losing grip.

I'm done being a pedant though, I promise! :lol:
Click to expand...

;)

I don't have a clue what I am doing anyway!
 
Fastest commute by 2 minutes! Got into a good groove and kept my speed up through the corners. Rather pleased with that!
 
Just had to reorder the rollers I ordered last Monday (18th).. :|

Ordered from Cycling Mail Order Ltd (cyclingmailorder.co.uk), all showing in stock etc.

Emailed them a few times to get a despatch eta. No reply.

Called them Thursday "oh yeah if you don't get them today they should arrive tomorrow". ParcelForce (their stated courier) come quite late in the day to work so waited all day Friday with no joy. Gave them the benefit yesterday and sent another email (no reply).

Called them just now (got through on the 3rd attempt) and asked where my order had got to... "who knows.." followed by "oh we're waiting for those to come in". Queried why they were showing as in stock "they may have been when you ordered".. :thinking: (their site is still saying "Availability: In Stock" too).

Anyway cancelled with them and trying someone else.
 
It really annoys me when companies have such poor customer service :shake:
 
TopBanana said:
It really annoys me when companies have such poor customer service :shake:
Click to expand...

yes.. ive never used (or heard of) them before but their price was good.

seems to be a one/two man band, the 0845 number diverts somewhere after a few seconds (the first time i called the guy said he "wasn't in the office"). i also had a fairly low numeric order number so they may be a new venture.

either way, no excuse.
 
On-One/Planet-X are pretty good in my experience... Been buying stuff from them right back to the era of Brant's first white Inbreds ;)
 
Just ordered a new Cube MTB. Can't wait for it to turn up - it's like Christmas when I was 5!! :D

Got a Cube Reaction GTC Race 2012 at a very reduced price. :thumbs:

reaction_gtc_race_b.jpg
 
You've got to have a soft spot for a company that name's one of their frames after a cross-dressing relative, haven't you...
 
AndyB1976 said:
........I got lube, rear mech hanger, some sram power links and grease gun order between Chain Reaction and Evans so I'll leave some feedback here on service etc. Not used them before..........
Click to expand...

Evans goods arrived within two working days, Chain Reaction Cycles within three working days. Overall efficient service, well packaged goods - recommended if you are looking for an online supplier you haven't used thus far. :thumbs:
 
TheBigYin said:
You've got to have a soft spot for a company that name's one of their frames after a cross-dressing relative, haven't you...
Click to expand...

My track pump which is their own brand one is called a "Follow Through" by Phaart :eek::lol:
 
Sunshine! Glorious sunshine! And cold, icy headwinds. But still, sunshine!

By the way, does strava automatically +1 people to your ride if they are vaguely near you at the time? It is the first time I have had it happen!
 
Last edited:
How would you guys clean a slightly rusty chain before applying lube?
 
Nikon_Nick said:
How would you guys clean a slightly rusty chain before applying lube?
Click to expand...

WD-40 is a degreaser and can be used to strip away any lubrication still on them. Warm soapy water and a stiff brush might be able to remove the rust but there will probably always be some corrosion damage left. For the sake of £10 I'd be tempted to just replace it with a new one if it's any more than a very light rust.
 
Dont use WD-40 on your bike...its not a degreaser and not designed for it...attracts dirt and is really a water displacer not a lube...if you really dont want to fork out for a new chain (which you probably should) give it a scrub, degrese (proper degreaser - i use Muc off) and reapply lube.
 
slightly rusty... take it off and soak it in diesel for a couple of days, then wirebrush, thoroughly degrease and re-apply good quality chain-lube of choice.

but frankly, if it's properly rusty, i'd sling it - chains are (relatively) cheap - cassettes less so, and chainrings punitively expensive...
 
Thanks chaps. I got caught out with the weather, and ended up cycling home in a really heavy rain storm ( before I had lubed the chain), and the following day, the chain had a slight rust to it. Any suggestions as to the best place to get a new one from? My nearest store is a Halfords...
 
Nearly killed myself carrying it home from the train station but really impressed with the JetBlack R1 rollers.. I'm blown away with how silent and smooth the actual drums are. Just need to fit the slicks at the weekend and then give it a whirl..


JetBlack R1 Rollers by neilgates, on Flickr


JetBlack R1 Rollers by neilgates, on Flickr

Sorry for the crappy mobile pics.
 
neil_g said:
Nearly killed myself carrying it home from the train station but really impressed with the JetBlack R1 rollers.. I'm blown away with how silent and smooth the actual drums are. Just need to fit the slicks at the weekend and then give it a whirl..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilgates/8596558872/
JetBlack R1 Rollers by neilgates, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilgates/8596557402/
JetBlack R1 Rollers by neilgates, on Flickr

Sorry for the crappy mobile pics.
Click to expand...

Looks like a medieval torture device! Could have come in useful on the daft bint who ran out in front of me on the commute home yesterday. She looked right at me and ran out in front. Luckily I only clipped her bag having taken evasive action.
 
neil_g said:
the trek has a captive QR on the back, it sticks out a fair bit so its too wide for a TT
Click to expand...
Aha, I see - good luck with the rollers, I'm not sure I've got the skillz to pay the billz with them.
 
I've not been over keen on training on rollers after an incident years ago at a friends.

We'd got the rollers set up at the bottom of his drive, in front of the garage. My mate's kid brother was at the top of the steeply sloping drive playing with his toy cars. Eventually he tired of just pushing them around going "brum,brum" and decided to roll two of them down the drive as a race.

You can probably guess what happened next, and it got messy and painful very quickly :lol:
 
Thinking of getting a GPS with routing. What are people using? From what I see its either the edge 800 or 810.
 
As garmin have a nasty habit of stopping issuing updates for anything other than the newest bits of kit, and also sending the new stuff out of the door with half finished firmware it's a tough decision between the two. The 800's pretty much finally stable enough to be useable and reliable, but the added features of the 810 would be handy for some people - as I'm not in posession of a fancy smartphone that'd integrate with the 810, I'm in no rush to upgrade my 800. Whatever you do, get the unit without bundled mapping, and install the OpenMapSource OS 50K Routable mapping instead.
 
TheBigYin said:
As garmin have a nasty habit of stopping issuing updates for anything other than the newest bits of kit, and also sending the new stuff out of the door with half finished firmware it's a tough decision between the two. The 800's pretty much finally stable enough to be useable and reliable, but the added features of the 810 would be handy for some people - as I'm not in posession of a fancy smartphone that'd integrate with the 810, I'm in no rush to upgrade my 800. Whatever you do, get the unit without bundled mapping, and install the OpenMapSource OS 50K Routable mapping instead.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mark. The 800 is favourite as I am not sure the extra functions on the 810 are worth it and it also seems to be show stoppingly buggy at present- apparently you can't upload routes to it reliably at present. My plan is to use the maps from talkytoaster and use ridewithgps to plan routes.
 
Well, in fairness, I was a "late adopter" of the 800, only purchasing one last year when the altimeter/barometer sensor on my prior 705 went on the fritz... Emailed garmin, and the required fix was pretty much non-economic, so after reviewing the market, and deciding that Garmin were still a bit crepe, but less crepe than everyone else - I said I'd give 'em one last chance.

I still keep the 705 for MTB duties - the barometric altimeter goes banana's in the rain and regularly shows a 5% downhill slope while I'm riding up a 10% UPHILL, but if its not raining, it works great... and it saves getting the 800's touchscreen covered in mud grit and gloop.
 
TheBigYin said:
Well, in fairness, I was a "late adopter" of the 800, only purchasing one last year when the altimeter/barometer sensor on my prior 705 went on the fritz... Emailed garmin, and the required fix was pretty much non-economic, so after reviewing the market, and deciding that Garmin were still a bit crepe, but less crepe than everyone else - I said I'd give 'em one last chance.

I still keep the 705 for MTB duties - the barometric altimeter goes banana's in the rain and regularly shows a 5% downhill slope while I'm riding up a 10% UPHILL, but if its not raining, it works great... and it saves getting the 800's touchscreen covered in mud grit and gloop.
Click to expand...

I think this is the problem. It's the best of a bad bunch. I would just use my phone but its not rugged really, even using a case and quite frankly the battery would just be used up too quickly.
 
In fairness to garmin, the Hardware is way, way better than any of the competition, the only kit that comes anywhere near in my experience is the Bryton, but that's tied to their website to get the data anywhere - whereas the .TCX and .FIT files from Garmin hardware is pretty much the de-facto standard, and can be uploaded direct to strava/endomondo/training peaks and pretty much anywhere else...
 
Only real problem I have with the 705 (other than its broken altimeter/barometer) is the somewhat limited number of data fields related to power metering that it will display... Fair enough power/Average/average lap/Zone... but I tend to train using the 10s moving average for sustained intervals - also the TSS and IF calculations "on the fly" are handy when you're trying to keep to a nice steady z1 recovery ride. I also think that the newer style brackets are better than the old ones - though there's a handy workarund for that - Racewaredirect do an adaptor plate that allows the 705 to use the new-style quarter turn brackets (either the rubber band ones, or the "out front mount")
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top