Cycling UK Forum

I always wear a helmet when I am doing the Kernow and South West 600 audax

This is because the route goes along "Buzzard Alley" near Holdsworthy and helmets have saved me from swooping buzzard talons here on three occasions

So if you expect an attack by birds of prey, wear a helmet

gilesjuk wrote:Just get some SKS Raceblades or the similar ones from Crud.

The SKS raceblades and the crud roadrace mudguards are not similar

The SKS fit in a couple of seconds and have poor coverage.
The crud ones are like proper mudguards but are lighter/flimsier and have kit for fitting with close clearance. They take a few more minutes to take on and off.

Here is my Specialized Roubaix with crud roadrace mudguards on



Here is a bit more info on the Roadracer mudguards

paco wrote:I would ask: if you are staying in B&Bs or Youth Hostels, why does anyone need to take panniers? If you do, and you fill them, you need to do a post-ride analysis of what you actually needed and used along the way.

Not everyone is you. Some people like to have a spare jumper, shoes and a laptop.

Interestingly, compared to other forums, the CTC forum here has more people believing that slow riding is the probably cause of any speed increase. Make of that what you will

I've done another blog post summarizing the feedback I got:

"Faster: the Feedback"

The main reasons seemed to be:
1) You are trying harder. So in other words I am not any fitter but I am making more effort

2) Your bike actually is a bit faster. Some physical aspects of the bike make it roll faster for less effort

3) The riding you did last year has had some effect on your fitness, even though it was mainly low intensity

4) Although the routes you follow are “similar” they are not the same and so must be a bit easier

I'm guessing that the top half of the rear triangle is carbon and the chainstay is rigid aluminium? If this is the case then the stays won't bend much and I'm sure you can attach the rack as you have shown in the diagram

I have a Specialized Roubaix which is full carbon and very bendy at the back. It flexes quite a bit when the bike hits a pothole. Fitting a rack on this is more difficult because of the frame bending. i use a SQR mounted saddlebag

Mick F wrote:Error 404 - File Not Found

fixed, thanks for pointing this out guys

I have noticed I am doing 100km+rides faster this year.

I don't think I am doing anything much different except last year I commuted more

Full details of my bafflement on my blog


Given that "commuting more" isn't a recognised way of going faster, any ideas?

Does it make a difference? Not much IMHO

Last year I did the Mille Cymru 1000km audax. This has 13,500m climbing. To cut a long story short ( and you can read more about it on my blog Here ) Over this sort of distance loosing 3kg of weight would save me 45 minutes. So it wasn't worth dieting too much.

I agree with the comments above though, a nice light bike does feel nice. But if you do the math, is it worth it? I doubt it

massimo wrote:
4) I would like to cross new Forest and Dartmoor Park. I will travel with heavy bags and i cannot ride off-road. Are they beautiful and quite place to ride (on road) or is it better to follow the coast?
5) I would like to cross Exmoor park. But I don't know if following the coastal road or passing through the moor?
6) I would like to visit the Jurassic coast. Is there a panoramic road?

Dartmoor and Exmoor are both inland and there is no coastal route as such. There are roads around the edge of these areas
There is a road route on the Jurassic coast. It is very up and down. On a fine day it is loverly. The coastal path is only suitable for walking

Must I book the train tickets (London-Southampton and Winchester-London) in advance for bike?

The train regulations for bikes vary wildly from one operator to another. Bikes are not encouraged on trains. It is best to avoid "rush hour" (6am-9am and 4pm-7pm)

I have used "sustrans" maps to plan my trip.

Some Sustrans paths are good for short distances but generally they are unsuitable for long distance travel, having indirect over long routes and poor surfacing

kenny17 wrote:Get numb hands after 10/ 15 mins riding and is much worse in the cold, would carbon handlebars help ?

no

Fathead1 wrote:Hopefully going to be collecting my new specialized elite 2011 tomorrow or early next week, have bought it to complete a charity trans pennine run so will be needing some panniers can anybody recommend a decent not budget busting set please.
Also has anybody had experience of these frog strobe lights my mates are going on about, hopefully not going to be needing them much but are they any good? I dont trust these review sites as the validity of the person posting the review is never questioned.
Cheers Jason

Specialized Elite what? I don't see one that has a rack

Sirius?
Roubaix Elite? would need a seat post rack for panniers--I guess--as the rear end triangle moves about a lot
Sectuer? Some models of this have rack mount points
Allez? The magic of P clips

My PBP bike for 2007 had a Centaur compact with 13-29 cassette and 50-34 chainrings

I am a fairly capable of riding hills (live in Devon) and don't carry much luggage. If you are carrying all your luggage and don't live in Devon 34x29 might not be low enough

Fastest ever speed was here

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=52 ... 35.14,,0,5

The A470 out of Dolgellau, got 77kph (47mph). Trouble is the bike started to shimmy so I had to stop.

Regularly do 60kph ( 37mph ) but I'm too sensible to just let go of the brakes and see what happens

davo wrote:Has anyone got any info on fixed wheel specific audaxes.

Although I don't ride an 1890s bike myself, there are plenty of people that do Audax rides on fixed. No matter how unsuitable the terrain I always see someone. In 2005 I did the Kernow and South West 600 in the company of someone on a Pompino. i think there was even someone single cogging on last years 1000km / 13,500 metres ascent event in Wales.

diggersailing wrote:I bought (after 90 minutes of middle aged cogitation) a pair of 32h Mavic Open Pro rims / Deore M590 wheels from SJS.

They are for a Trek Pilot 2.1, but will likely get moved ...

Er, I could be wrong but does the Trek Pilot have a 130mm OLN dimension and these are 135mm OLN wheels?