Cycling UK Forum

david7591 wrote:Good luck trying a maximal effort following five minutes gentle warm-up.

Really depends on how you define maximal effort. If it's just try as hard someone physically can then warm up time becomes less relevant to that point (though not to the not hurting yourself part). The second and third intervals will likely have a higher power output but if all are at what the person can mentally and physically give then that is sufficient. Again, the super short routines are not aimed at those who are already fairly healthy (though even then, if you're having a exercise poor week, dropping in a short HIIT routine is better than nothing. Doesn't matter if you only hit 80% of what you could output, it'll still give your body a kick up the bum).

Also consider that generally healthier people need longer warm ups so comparing your own time to get peak output isn't representative (I'm running off the assumption here that folk posting on a cycling forum are probably fairly healthy) for the kind of exercise shy people this programme focused on.

The presenter found decent improvements in his insulin response which reflects what the studies have found. He didn't get a VO2 max improvement but interestingly the scientists had predicted he wouldn't from his DNA. They found huge variance in how people responded to exercise and narrowed it down to a dozen genes. About 20% of the population will struggle to get a vo2 max improvement no matter how much they do.

You'll probably have to take the front wheel off for a small car. Depends on what your small car actually is mind and the frame size.

If you've got a really small car (eg aygo\c1\10* style) then you might find it easier with both wheels off, front only will do but you'll likely find parts of the fork or handlebars poking through between the front seats.

Wheel removal is not tricky though, you need to do the rear it's the same procedure but you have to pull the rear derailleur cage back when lifting the wheel out.

Also with v brakes there often isn't a lever to open the pads up, instead you need to squeeze the brake arms together and unhook the metal noodle the cable is threaded through.

Generally even the shortest HIIT routines will have a few minutes of warm up and a further few minutes of stretching/cool down. The media tend to gloss over that bit though. Which is perhaps daft as they're even more important given the relatively high level of stress it puts on the body.

And yes you won't reach max heart rate in the first burst if it's short but you definitely will on the third+ interval.

If you look at that horizon episode you'll see that he actually was pedalling slowly before each burst.

Thing is sprinting is particularly inefficient, you'll burn more calories sprinting 100m than walking it. You also use far more muscles and while the actual exercise only lasts for a short time, the heart and breathing rate stays elevated for far longer since the body has to replenish the energy stores in the muscles afterwards. Yes it's never going to be as good as larger quantities of exercise but the point of such routines featured in horizon is it's considerably better than nothing and more attractive than a 30min jog or whatever for those who struggle to bring themselves to do any exercise at all.

Even for those who do, HIIT routines bring significant benefits which is why most competitive athletes tend to have them in their training programme these days. Of course most field and racquet sports have such bursts in them by their natures.

Getting an expert report done is a fairly usual way of demonstrating faults for the consumer rights act, sometimes it's advised to get an expert both parties agree to. If it can be demonstrated that the frame was badly made under this then, the crashes are immaterial. Should also be noted that claim under this route lies with the retailer rather than the manufacturer.

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I developed a knee issue that was exacerbated by riding in cleats at my preferred height (which is relatively high) that eased significantly by dropping the saddle down to the same level I mtb at so I'd certainly disagree that to high saddle can't lead to knee issues. Similarly on the mtb side running relatively low saddles is not uncommon for those of us not willing to fork out a couple of hundred for a remote dropper post and I'm not aware knee issues are any more common there (ignoring crash generated injuries).

Ultimately my own problem was probably a knee cap tracking issue that I seem to have properly fixed (rather than just worked around) by doing some arbitrary lifting of heavy stuff at a gym (ie strengthening various leg and other nearby muscles so it tracked properly again).

As for London (or anywhere else) cyclists, there's a lot of horses for courses going on. Those with less flexible hamstrings will tend to prefer a lower saddle and once you're used to it it's not necessarily significantly less efficient, it's just working the various muscle groups differently. Sure if you always cycle with a high saddle then if you suddenly lower it you'll likely notice some nasty quad burn amongst other issues but I'd imagine the reverse is true as well for whatever muscles a high saddle works more.

landsurfer wrote:OH!!! Look, the Stock Exchange has risen .. The £ is where the BOE said it should be ....

I don't recall having seen the BoE suggesting the £ should go as weak as a 31 year low. And if we did wanted to devalue the pound I can think of a number of more constructive ways of doing that. And two property funds have had to temporarily prevent redemptions...

Certainly the apocalypse is not coming and yet another ugly outcome from the referendum was the extreme speculative fear-mongering on both sides regarding the future. However the overwhelming balance of opinion from independent sources was and remains that leaving will have a small but very real detrimental impact on the economy, particularly in the short to medium term, and I cannot see how that's unreasonable. Let alone everything else, if a country suddenly has to renegotiate trade deals with everyone it's inevitably going to result in a period of uncertainty which will suppress investment. Curious if they'd assumed quite the political meltdown in those forecasts though.

As for cycling, hard to say if Boris would be a benefit or not, he still could end up as a minister (transport perhaps?) but even then his true views are hard to figure out.

reohn2 wrote:

pickerd wrote:I do feel the anti carbon team aren't being particularly helpful?
I don't think carbon frames would be sold as cyclo cross / gravel if they weren't up to it. Ive read quite a bit now about the myths if carbon.

Enquire about weight limits and warranty length/restrictions before you buy,it may have some influence on your decision.

I'm happy to take on board constructive arguments but negativity is not what I'm seeking.

You don't want to read the truth fine by me.

I repeat just to make it clear.17 stone+touring load+off road=short lifespan(of the bike) and a 95% chance you'll be outside the manufacturers warranty weight limit.
It's not without reason CF has a far more restrictive and shorter warranty period than other frame materials.

Checking a few of the major manufacturers warranties I can't see much evidence of this. Eg specialized have 136kg for alloy mtb/city/hybrid and 125kg for everything else except where carbon seat posts or handlebars are involved then it's 109kg. All frames have the same lifetime warranty. Trek do have a disparity in that their session model (downhill) is two years for carbon vs three for alloy but more notable there is that the downhill bike in any format is excluded from the lifetime warranty. Specialized's demo model by contrast is lifetime.

It strikes me that carbon has got a really bad rep specifically in cycling due to, particularly earlier, road bikes being designed for lightness at the sacrifice of sensible durability. While this probably still applies to the faster road bikes now (though the lack of litigation in the US would suggest it's not a major problem, in part because the frames are engineered to fail in manners that don't kill the rider) it does not appear to apply to mountain bikes, there are plenty of videos demonstrating how tough those frames are and few people are going to buy a MTB that's a write off as soon as you stack it on a rocky section.

I'm not quite sure where the reputation of cfrp for limited lifespan in cycling comes from either, it has a far higher fatigue limit (if it can be called that) than aluminium. I've got a cfrp tennis racquet that's about 20 years old that has yet to shatter into bits, sure it only sees occasional use these days but did see plenty of use for the first five years and has had numerous localised impacts with tarmac (unintentional), modern resins are far better than was used when that was made. F1 cars and modern planes are also notable for being extreme environments in which crfp consistently fails to fail in a spectacular manner.

If the prices go up too much there are still plenty of others around (sjsand, acycles and jejames are three I've used before off the top of my head) along with a number of German online retailers who will probably keep them honest.

Ah, East coast was the other one I was trying to remember, and yes as with gwr it works for any operator, even for operators who if you used their site you'd have to phone up after. Which seems a bit weird

Regarding cheap tickets, most should be available regardless of site, however I'm under the impression that the occasional operator specific deals are sometimes only available through that specific operators site. Eg first have done 10% off online bookings before and other operators do similar things.

Gbh due to recklessness carries the same 5 year max sentence, the big issue here to me is the driving ban. Unfortunately a reflection of driving being seen as a right not a privilege.

e.g.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol-bus-driver-crashed-81-year-old-leaving/story-29334517-detail/story.html

"It was daylight. The complainants were visible. They were wearing relatively bright clothing. They were halfway across the road.

It is the Crown's position that the defendant – as he turned the bus into the street as they were crossing – was not looking the right way. This was a momentary lapse of concentration."

Did they have the inserts in? Mine (the almost ubiquitous back roller classics) came with 3 sets if grey plastic inserts to adjust the fit for thinner racks.

At least some Ortliebs go up to 16mm.

Presume this is about trains and not the German ferry company?

Well this won't help your current problem but in the future never book rail tickets with a third party, they have to make a profit and will attempt to make that from you.

Use either the national rail site or one of the operators, they won't try to slap you with booking fees and the like and your local one will usually have exclusive deals occasionally. I usually use first's site, aside from running the trains were i am you can dump multiple trips into a single booking which makes splitting trips easier and they actually let you reserve bike spaces online which I believe only one other operators site (I forget which one) does, most of the rest you have to phone up after. Oh, you get some token nectar points too.

I'm pretty sure they don't charge for first class postage either though I usually collect at the station, as such I can't comment if the bike res will come via post but I've certainly had not problem getting them from the self service machines, they come out with the rest of the tickets with a single res code.

MikeF wrote:
I should have been cycling further out in the road, but why should I have to make decisions for someone else's driving?

I think there's the difference between 'shouldn't have to' and the reality that the low bar to actually being allowed to drive means plenty on the roads appear incapable of making their own decisions and so it's easier to actively manage their idiocy!