[Ennoch]

I'm up north at the moment as I had a week's holiday to use and needed a break. Of course after deciding this the weather took a massive turn for the worse. Absolutely typical. So a wasted week's holiday. Still, I managed to get out on the bike over the bank holiday weekend when the weather was good and then got out yesterday in the snow on a new set of trails up here. This was one of them, it's a cracker with some nice senders. A mate of mine who lives up here recommended this place but might have neglected to mention the committing drops and jumps where they're not just fades but actually have gaps you have to clear!

[SantaEugence]

Well new bike should be here by the end of the week finally! (Orro Terra Gravel 105)
Just ordered the muc off tubeless sealant kit to put on/in when it turns up.
Unfortunately could only get the bike in blue rather than grey but at this point it was either that or wait until September so it was a no-brainer.

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Well new bike should be here by the end of the week finally! (Orro Terra Gravel 105)
Just ordered the muc off tubeless sealant kit to put on/in when it turns up.
Unfortunately could only get the bike in blue rather than grey but at this point it was either that or wait until September so it was a no-brainer.

Nice one, glad you got it before summer! Have you used tubeless before? Trying to get anything now is almost impossible. I'm looking at it probably being next year now before I can get anything, unless I want an Orange Stage 6, but I don't because they're just a bit outdated. And the one that could be easier to get hold of, the Evil, turns out to be made in a Myanmar sweatshop that apparently fired every union member on its staff back in October when they asked for more Covid protection. Safe to say I'm now not even considering it. Annoyingly my dad has managed to source a new bike before me (a Trek Fuel EX8!) to replace his 28 year old Cannondale, only two weeks after starting to look!

[gangzoom]

So I managed to get my wife out on her bike at the weekend, shes been making noises about wanting to some cardio stuff at home for ages, I've suggested smart trainers before but been shot down pretty sharpish.........however now she has realised cycling is quite good fun we have one of these coming soon!!



Am a tight git so the £39/month subscription is going to grate me, but the overall package looks neat enough to be placed in the house rather than the garage/shed.......Apparently its nearly silent, could it allow me to finally break my PB on a local climb this year without having to feel 'guilty' about leaving the family for hours at the weekend?? Will be interesting to find out.......Just trying not to think about the £39/month upkeep, my car costs less to maintain .

[JustChris]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

So I managed to get my wife out on her bike at the weekend, shes been making noises about wanting to some cardio stuff at home for ages, I've suggested smart trainers before but been shot down pretty sharpish.........however now she has realised cycling is quite good fun we have one of these coming soon!!

[Img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...88e146_c_d.jpg[/img]

Am a tight git so the £39/month subscription is going to grate me, but the overall package looks neat enough to be placed in the house rather than the garage/shed.......Apparently its nearly silent, could it allow me to finally break my PB on a local climb this year without having to feel 'guilty' about leaving the family for hours at the weekend?? Will be interesting to find out.......Just trying not to think about the £39/month upkeep, my car costs less to maintain .

...£39 a month that's like 2 packs and one stand alone option on a BMW. Just hope she realises that.

Never even seen their kit but I'm sure it very well done, nice one. I'm trying not to look at WattBikes still for next winter.

[BBri89]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

So I managed to get my wife out on her bike at the weekend, shes been making noises about wanting to some cardio stuff at home for ages, I've suggested smart trainers before but been shot down pretty sharpish.........however now she has realised cycling is quite good fun we have one of these coming soon!!



Am a tight git so the £39/month subscription is going to grate me, but the overall package looks neat enough to be placed in the house rather than the garage/shed.......Apparently its nearly silent, could it allow me to finally break my PB on a local climb this year without having to feel 'guilty' about leaving the family for hours at the weekend?? Will be interesting to find out.......Just trying not to think about the £39/month upkeep, my car costs less to maintain .

I need to convince my wife that the best part of £1k on a smart trainer, and probably another £1k on a bike/service/accessories is a good idea.
Sometimes I've only got an hour, and that could be a good hour on zwift, or by the time I get the bike out the garage, put it back, clean it off, I'm down to about 40 mins max, more like 30.

I'd rather get out in the real world for 2+ hours, which means I need a decent 3 hours spare, and save the short bursts for the indoor torture machine.

If only you could use ride2work vouchers on indoor trainers

[Nibbles]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

Am a tight git so the £39/month subscription is going to grate me, but the overall package looks neat enough to be placed in the house rather than the garage/shed.......Apparently its nearly silent, could it allow me to finally break my PB on a local climb this year without having to feel 'guilty' about leaving the family for hours at the weekend?? Will be interesting to find out.......Just trying not to think about the £39/month upkeep, my car costs less to maintain .

Keiser M3i and a Zwift membership is a better deal.

***Edit*** sorry, just seen you've actually ordered it so my suggestion isn't particularly helpful. Enjoy the Pelaton. For anyone else thinking of doing it, I looked at it and decided to go the Keiser route so I can use Zwift and t'wife can use a Pelaton subscription if she wants to and it's still below the £39/month that Pelaton charge their bike owners.

[KRS_SN]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

Been for a ride already, not quite tea and cake but it'll do.

[Img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...16045a_c_d.jpg[/imG]

Managed a better 17.3mph average, got my target for this year set, to beat my pervious PB up a local hill. Got close last year,

Need to find an extra 20 seconds of pace over 4 minutes.....or just a big tail wind

[Img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...65c847_c_d.jpg[/img]

that dosa and red and white chutney combination looks delicious!

[Nibbles]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

A mate of mine who lives up here recommended this place but might have neglected to mention the committing drops and jumps where they're not just fades but actually have gaps you have to clear!

Looks excellent, no idea how you're supposed to have enough speed for that gap near the end after the flat section, maybe easier in the dry.

[SantaEugence]

Looking forward to taking the new racer out for a spin this weekend

[Nibbles]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Looking forward to taking the new racer out for a spin this weekend

2-series active tourer in bike form

[JustChris]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Looking forward to taking the new racer out for a spin this weekend

It's a BMW too rear wheel drive?

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by BBri89

I'd rather get out in the real world for 2+ hours, which means I need a decent 3 hours spare, and save the short bursts for the indoor torture machine.

If only you could use ride2work vouchers on indoor trainers

Am really lucky been able to 'commute' to work on roads like this.....Done 80 miles this week, today I took the road bike rather than the hybrid. Its just a joy to cruise along on a good road bike with virtually no traffic and beautiful British countryside every where you look.

I doubt the indoor bike is going to be half as enjoyable but when the wife gives the OK to spend on any kind of bike equipment am not going to say no .

[BBri89]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

Am really lucky been able to 'commute' to work on roads like this.....Done 80 miles this week, today I took the road bike rather than the hybrid. Its just a joy to cruise along on a good road bike with virtually no traffic and beautiful British countryside every where you look.

I doubt the indoor bike is going to be half as enjoyable but when the wife gives the OK to spend on any kind of bike equipment am not going to say no .

At least with things like Zwift, indoor trainers have become almost like active computer games now

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by Nibbles

Looks excellent, no idea how you're supposed to have enough speed for that gap near the end after the flat section, maybe easier in the dry.

The one straight after the corner, or the one with the landing between two rather tight trees on the straight? The first one I did actually clear next run down, it just needed a slightly more committing hit to the corner (that was my first run down that part of the track). The longer one will wait for the dry, the take off was like ice and it'll take a bit of a pull to clear so I decided to go with self preservation! Great tracks though, and incredibly slick in places which was fun. It's actually the same forest a bit of the Strathpuffer is held in and true to form (some years it's a pair of pads a lap), it killed a set of brand new brake pads in few hours I was there! It was also a rather short and sharp hill as although I only did 18km, it was 1200m ascent/descent in that distance.

[mikeoz]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

I'm up north at the moment as I had a week's holiday to use and needed a break. Of course after deciding this the weather took a massive turn for the worse. Absolutely typical. So a wasted week's holiday. Still, I managed to get out on the bike over the bank holiday weekend when the weather was good and then got out yesterday in the snow on a new set of trails up here. This was one of them, it's a cracker with some nice senders. A mate of mine who lives up here recommended this place but might have neglected to mention the committing drops and jumps where they're not just fades but actually have gaps you have to clear!

Nice film...big plus for the BMW M Sport squeaky brake sound..

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by mikeoz

Nice film...big plus for the BMW M Sport squeaky brake sound..

Yup, the sound of pads disintegrating! They're normally quite squealy but really high pitch, that was just annoying last week as it was from the wet and cold, and the amount of incredibly abrasive grit there was just the brakes struggling to get up to temperature and boil off the water that was sitting on the discs.

[Ennoch]

With Scotland losing the travel restrictions to a degree, at least for day travel (tell that to all the camper vans everywhere!) we managed to get up to Dunkeld today for the first time since October. Awesome weather, hero dirt and dust, and some brand new trails to get tucked into. A few were a bit flat and nadjery but most were utterly sensational with that perfect gradient where you're not constantly on the brakes and can just let off and rip. Mega! Given we're riding tomorrow we decided to have a steady day today. Yeah right, 50km and 1650m vert later...

Some of the trails were split by a fair few fire roads and as they were new we were doing a bit of route finding. At some point I'll work out how to clip the best bits together but for now it's individual trail vids! These were all blind (i.e. I'd never ridden them before) which is my excuse for the dubious lines in a few places, and the last one was chainless after my rear mech died - the cage spring just gave up so I split the chain, took that off and then gave the mech a look when I got home. The knuckle was so packed with dirt that it was no wonder it gave up! Taking the chain off also re-awakened some suspension performance so I think it's safe to say that the sticky rear shock feeling for the last month or so was actually the mech. Oh well, it's cleaned and freshly greased for tomorrow now.

[gangzoom]

Lovely day for a bike ride, but its family time this weekend......I have to say the £80 cheapo folding bike is rather fun.

I managed to resist the temptation of scaring off all the kids at the local park by trying to tackle a mini hill on it!! It was surprisingly good on a dirt track.

Apparently though I looked nuts when pedalling a 100RPM, carrying my daughters rucksack doing about 10mph.......but who cares when you are having fun .

[SantaEugence]

Finally, new bike turned up today. Shoes are delayed due to Shimano so on the flat pedals for a few weeks.
What a difference though, not spinning out at 45kph and being to breeze along at a relaxed cadence and a good speed is a godsend.
Colour's growing on me very quickly too despite the jabs from the other guys that I bought a girls bike or I work for deliveroo the titanium/silver was a 'we'll have it in stock September' job though so I picked my battles.

Not sure if it's just my ass isn't use to that saddle though but ouch! I may be walking like John Wayne tomorrow and only did 40k today...

[Ennoch]

It certainly doesn't have much padding to it but I'd suggest persevering if you can, I always find any saddle takes a little bit of breaking in, and my arse usually takes some breaking in too. If you do decide to look at something new then Ergon are a great option for something that's comfortable and well shaped without being bulky. My dad just picked one up for his old Cannondale after the 20yr old gel thing he had before split. I was pretty impressed with it. That said they do seem to be in short supply, like everything right now, so if you do decide to change it may be a case of getting what you can!

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

It certainly doesn't have much padding to it but I'd suggest persevering if you can, I always find any saddle takes a little bit of breaking in, and my arse usually takes some breaking in too. If you do decide to look at something new then Ergon are a great option for something that's comfortable and well shaped without being bulky. My dad just picked one up for his old Cannondale after the 20yr old gel thing he had before split. I was pretty impressed with it. That said they do seem to be in short supply, like everything right now, so if you do decide to change it may be a case of getting what you can!

Thanks yes I did suspect it'll be a case of 'breaking my ass in' (not a phrase I'll ever use again).
I did read you're meant to measure the width of your sitting bones and ensure the saddle is the correct size to match that? Does it make a huge difference?