FWIW, I think 36H wheels are a hangover from the days when rims were all 17mm wide, rim braked, shallow section and the extra spokes were the only way to improve strength.
I've done events in Belgium across the Flanders cobbles on my road bike with 24h carbon rims (averaging 40kph) with no issues at all, my current MTB has 28h alloy rims and it sees impacts and speeds way in excess of what an average tourer would get. OK, the tyres are considerably larger too but wheels now - with disc brakes, thru axles, triangular cross sections etc - are way stronger and more durable than any of the old narrow rim stuff of yesteryear in spite of the oft-mentioned (and IMO wildly overhyped) concerns about dishing.
Search found 1974 matches
- 28 Mar 2024, 9:58pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: touring wheels upgrade
- Replies: 75
- Views: 2900
- 28 Mar 2024, 5:34pm
- Forum: Health and fitness
- Topic: Calculate avg speed on a flat ride
- Replies: 8
- Views: 287
- 28 Mar 2024, 5:12pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: GPX devices...Garmin alternative
- Replies: 31
- Views: 1160
Re: GPX devices...Garmin alternative
The new ones are WAY better than anything from that era. Also the eTrex is designed for hiking where the lag and slow response of the map page is less of an issue. Plus modern ones will easily do 30+hrs on a single battery charge and can be recharged easily from a powerbank on the move.Milfred Cubicle wrote: ↑28 Mar 2024, 4:55pm Many thanks for the replies. Lots of food for thought.
I originally went with an Etrex for one simple reason London Edinburgh London 2013. I used the cue sheets, which are fine until it's dark and wet...must have lost a couple of hours through stopping to read the sheet or flip it. So I though, next big Audax, go for gps.
The Etrex was for one simple reason...AA batteries. Dead handy.
Regarding plugging it in - all units will need a connection to "home base" at some point, that's how they get map updates. It's done through Garmin Express (a separate, but related, portal to Garmin Connect).
So my phone and laptop are linked (same login via Google). I can log into Strava on my laptop, create a route with all the big screen / website detail and functionality and hit save.Milfred Cubicle wrote: ↑28 Mar 2024, 4:55pm Basically I'd like to be able to:
1. Find a nice gpx file online and save it to my phone.
2. Ping it from my phone to the device, without it asking me which of several device files it shoukd go into.
3. Ride my bike, and it gives me a little chirp and an arrow 100m before a turn.
4. 8-12h battery, ideally with the facility to charge it from a poweebank without any huge docking station.
Next time I turn my Garmin on, the route appears there. I don't need to load it or send it or connect it, it's just there because my Strava is paired to my Garmin Connect account (so all routes created on Strava automatically carry across to Connect) and my phone is paired to my Garmin so whenever the Garmin is turned on, it'll sync to the phone, download any new routes and be good to go. The process is seamless and takes about 15 seconds.
Finishing the ride, I hit save on the Garmin and within a minute, the ride appears on my Strava feed. I don't have to physically *do* anything other than that.
And as mentioned, my Garmin will easily do 24hrs on a charge, probably up to 36 if I run it in battery save mode.
- 28 Mar 2024, 3:40pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Tiagra ST-4703 Shifter Not Working
- Replies: 19
- Views: 651
- 28 Mar 2024, 1:27pm
- Forum: Health and fitness
- Topic: Calculate avg speed on a flat ride
- Replies: 8
- Views: 287
Re: Calculate avg speed on a flat ride
What are the Tour company calling "flat"? Just asking cos I've seen tours aimed at the more leisurely cyclist where the longest day is ranked as "tough" at 60km with 400m climbing and tours aimed at club-level riders where the average distance is 180km a day and a "flat" day is around 2500m climbing (with a hilly day coming in at 4000m!) so it'd be good to get some idea of where your tour sits in that spectrum.uhhu wrote: ↑28 Mar 2024, 11:50am I am doing a cycling tour and we are being split into groups. To go into the correct group, I have been asked for my "avg speed on a flat ride."
What would the flat road equivalent be? Or in the cycling world, 600m over 41km is relatively flat, and so this is the figure to go with?
Also what are the speed options being offered to you? The ride leading I've done has usually benchmarked 12, 14 and 16mph as the approximate slow, medium, fast although it does allow a degree of flexibility for (eg) weather and traffic.
British Cycling produced a grading system for Sportives which looked at distance and climbing to produce a matrix of difficulty:
- 28 Mar 2024, 8:13am
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: GPX devices...Garmin alternative
- Replies: 31
- Views: 1160
Re: GPX devices...Garmin alternative
That's going off into the minefield of using a phone vs using a dedicated GPS as the nav device - there are pros and cons to both but as a general rule, the phone and GPS work together, linked by Bluetooth so the GPS uses the much more powerful processing power and connectivity of the phone to do route calculations initially and then the navigation can be left to the usually smaller, neater, much more robust and weatherproof GPS unit.George goodyear wrote: ↑27 Mar 2024, 9:09pm What about RidewithGPS on your smart phone.
Can also be used to give spoken cues, eg turn right in 150 metres.
You can set them to give audible warnings for turns etc (I switch mine off because I find them very annoying) but it won't do spoken directions. Although personally I'd regard that as massive overkill - in the usually faster moving environment of a car where taking your eyes off the road to look at a screen is a bad idea, spoken satnav instructions are great but on a bike where it's a lot easier to look at the screen and where junctions, turns etc don't come at you as fast, it's not needed (IMO).
- 27 Mar 2024, 3:31pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: GPX devices...Garmin alternative
- Replies: 31
- Views: 1160
Re: GPX devices...Garmin alternative
All the route planning apps / websites offer the option to export the route as .gpx or .tcx, both of which work perfectly with all the head units. I prefer .tcx, it gives more comprehensive turn-by-turn guidance on Garmin (it's part of Garmin's "Training Centre" software) although it's an opensource format.carlislemike wrote: ↑27 Mar 2024, 3:11pm Yup folded map in waterproof case has been my default but recently used the iPhone. Tempted by using it as default and I think I can use my saved Cycle Travel routes on it. Simple question, can I load CT routes onto Garmin or other devices?
- 26 Mar 2024, 4:03pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Tiagra ST-4703 Shifter Not Working
- Replies: 19
- Views: 651
Re: Tiagra ST-4703 Shifter Not Working
Try hot water.
Sometimes the grease in there solidifies and normal oil (like WD40) won't shift it. Pour very hot water slowly into and around the mechanism. Using something like a teapot with a narrow spout helps ensure you don't end up with water everywhere! (as does taking the whole shifter off the bike).
Once it's free, dry it off, spray WD40 in there and reconnect it all.
- 26 Mar 2024, 9:21am
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Cycle Retail In Meltdown.
- Replies: 195
- Views: 24396
Re: Cycle Retail In Meltdown.
It's been in place at Evans for decades.
Used to get customers ordering in loads of stock from.the warehouse, it'd be picked, packed into a van, delivered to the store, unpacked, sorted, the customer would be notified that [thing] had arrived...
And they'd never come back. It was costing huge amounts of time, effort and money to move stock around, keep track of it, stop it getting damaged etc all for a few tyre kickers who'd never come back.
Putting a nominal charge on it cut that dramatically. It's often quietly "refunded" through discounts at point of sale anyway.
- 25 Mar 2024, 1:05pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: touring wheels upgrade
- Replies: 75
- Views: 2900
Re: touring wheels upgrade
You don't really need maths to prove anything though. Put some 2.5kg wheels on a bike, go and ride up a hill.
Replace the wheels (keeping the same tyres/pressures etc) with a pair weighing 1.5kg , go and ride up the same hill at the same power.
The lighter wheels will feel better (which is a bit subjective) and will be measurably faster (which is purely objective).
There's a reason that performance wheels are lighter and it's not all marketing or snake oil!
OK, for touring I'd probably prioritise reliability and standard parts over purely lightweight but it'd still be a consideration even once a bike is loaded with touring gear.
Replace the wheels (keeping the same tyres/pressures etc) with a pair weighing 1.5kg , go and ride up the same hill at the same power.
The lighter wheels will feel better (which is a bit subjective) and will be measurably faster (which is purely objective).
There's a reason that performance wheels are lighter and it's not all marketing or snake oil!
OK, for touring I'd probably prioritise reliability and standard parts over purely lightweight but it'd still be a consideration even once a bike is loaded with touring gear.
- 25 Mar 2024, 12:53pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: Cycle Retail In Meltdown.
- Replies: 195
- Views: 24396
Re: Cycle Retail In Meltdown.
Be interesting to see what happens to CRC's in-house brands like Vitus, Nukeproof and Prime.
- 25 Mar 2024, 8:55am
- Forum: On the road
- Topic: Huntingdon: Angry pedestrian guilty of killing cyclist
- Replies: 244
- Views: 15337
- 23 Mar 2024, 8:09pm
- Forum: Does anyone know … ?
- Topic: GPX devices...Garmin alternative
- Replies: 31
- Views: 1160
Re: GPX devices...Garmin alternative
Newer ones are much better. The older ones were terrible.Milfred Cubicle wrote: ↑23 Mar 2024, 5:10pm I'm not a techno Luddite...it just seems like Garmin are way behind when it comes to intuitive interfaces.
Pair it up with the smartphone app, get it all synced to Strava then use Strava for route planning (cos it's way better than Garmin Connect) and it'll just push the route direct to the unit in seconds. It doesn't need plugging in, you don't need to open folders.
Same in reverse - ride the route, press save and Connect feeds it through to Strava.
- 23 Mar 2024, 10:15am
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Is this terminal?
- Replies: 50
- Views: 2512
Re: Is this terminal?
I think so - I didn't really want to say it but I suspect that stripping it for parts is going to be near worthless. Those parts are 10 years old so probably worn out or obsolete or both unless the OP has a similar vintage bike that could take some of them.
- 23 Mar 2024, 7:41am
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Is this terminal?
- Replies: 50
- Views: 2512
Re: Is this terminal?
Fair point, I meant cut the metal part of the frame (only the seatstays and forks are carbon) but I should have clarified, apologies.cycle tramp wrote: ↑22 Mar 2024, 9:07pm Don't cut carbon fibre! There's more information now on the web that once carbon fibre dust enters your lungs it behaves in the same way as asbestos. Don't cut it, don't crush it.
It won't happen because it's fairly subjective, impossible to prove one way or the other and most dealers are not out to rob you blind or force another sale on you anyway. And as Colin correctly says, if there's any doubt at all, the part should be treated as unsafe until proven otherwise.Carlton green wrote: ↑22 Mar 2024, 11:43pm That’s only partially correct, sorry if you misunderstood.
# I would prefer the trader to be, to the limit of their knowledge, perfectly honest in their judgement and in their ability to judge.
# When a dealer doesn’t know whether an item is unsafe or not then he should say so.
# When a trader says that something is dangerous then he should do so in honesty and use expertise to validate that judgement.
# Some traders will choose to give customers false or misleading information in order to make another sale, not all but certainly some and I’ve met too many of the some. That’s fraud and such dealers give others a bad name and should be dragged before the courts … but it won’t happen.
Since proving it safe beyond all reasonable doubt is likely to involve X-raying the frame, you're into cost barriers that are beyond economic reason.