[JR1664]

Superb day today. The sort of day you dream of when stuck on the turbo in January or fighting an Easterly in March, or rain in May.

There was a hardly a breath of wind. Full sun for the first 90 minutes, about 25C but when I reached the big climb at Bulbarrow , magically the clouds formed a protective cloak, stillness and a long climb, just magical. 46 miles but for the first time this year felt as strong at the end as the start and for an old fart I'm a happy bunny.

[BBri89]

Better conditions than me then… I was shade-hunting, there was only one mile out of the 38 that I felt a comfortable temperature!

Felt like I had no energy at all in the heat, but still managed a 17 average.

I love riding in the sun, but that heat I'm just not used to. Two weeks ago it was a month of 10-12 degrees, before that it was icy every morning. It'll take me a few weeks in the mid-20s to get used to it. Dreading when it hits 30+

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by JR1664

Know it well and you went by my house on NCN 25 ... I often use the Sustrans routes for the longer rides although they're a mixed bag, sometimes strap a tent on however.

Will be heading this way again today, hopefully with less episodes of clipless failures…

[JR1664]

Originally Posted by SantaEugence

Will be heading this way again today, hopefully with less episodes of clipless failures…

Fair play hope it went well I was out today, decent day considering weather wise, did the Blandford / Wimborne section of NCN 25 on the way back, that was about 2 pm so probably before you.

I'm building up to a longish trip. I'm planning on doing your route in reverse, so up to Bath, follow Eurovelo 2 which is NCN 2, then route 42 Chepstow up to mid Wales for some hills, then cut across to Shrewsbury and back down via Gloucester , Swindon, Salisbury. About 500 miles or so, mainly using sustrans routes as a rough guide. I take a tent so will be dossing in some random fields/ woods avoiding farmer Giles.

[BBri89]

Haven't been out on the bike for weeks. The weather has just been really poor and when it hasn't I've been stuck working.

Really starting to get me down a bit, need my freedom and exercise. Wife has noticed I'm more irritable lately as a result.


Hoping we'll finally get some decent longer-lasting summer weather soon, bit of sunshine and dry heat without the humidity.


Incredible to see Mark Cavendish get another stage win though, his "comeback" is incredible.

[JR1664]

Originally Posted by BBri89

Wife has noticed I'm more irritable lately as a result.

I'm the same in the grumpy stakes. In one ear I get the 'you're going do get wiped out by a truck'..the next 'please, please just go out for a ride'.

Strangely the long stuff she just accepts, organises friends to come around, days out etc. I even paid for an all inclusive trip to Spain on one occasion for her and a friend - I was in a tent in the Pyrenees eating soddin pasta

It's certainly an addiction.

[SantaEugence]

Originally Posted by JR1664

Fair play hope it went well I was out today, decent day considering weather wise, did the Blandford / Wimborne section of NCN 25 on the way back, that was about 2 pm so probably before you.

I'm building up to a longish trip. I'm planning on doing your route in reverse, so up to Bath, follow Eurovelo 2 which is NCN 2, then route 42 Chepstow up to mid Wales for some hills, then cut across to Shrewsbury and back down via Gloucester , Swindon, Salisbury. About 500 miles or so, mainly using sustrans routes as a rough guide. I take a tent so will be dossing in some random fields/ woods avoiding farmer Giles.

Weather was lovely all day and didn't stack it with the clipless pedals so I'd say it was a good result!

Have a look at the 'Tour de Bristol' route (2020) it takes you pretty much from the end of the Bristol<>Bath cycle path nice route through the countryside and then over the bridge to Chepstow and up round the Wye Valley. I've done it both ways round it's definitely a nice one.
Also love how you describe 500 miles as long'ish' that would have me walking like John Wayne for a week

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by BBri89

Haven't been out on the bike for weeks. The weather has just been really poor and when it hasn't I've been stuck working....

....Incredible to see Mark Cavendish get another stage win though, his "comeback" is incredible.

Same here, work+weather = barely 1 ride out on the road bike in the last 2 months!!

BUT the Peloton bike seems to be really earning its £39/month subscription cost. Its been used nearly every day, and amazingly my wife has been using it just as much!! Yesterday we even had a stand off when we both got home at the same time and assumed the other one would do child care whilst the other got on the bike

I have got a real ride penciled in the dairy.....I guess I never realised how much time lock down 'freed up' by not having to socialise + travel restrictions last summer!!

[JR1664]

Originally Posted by Ridg

have you considered a thread together replacement like https://wheelsmfg.com/bottom-bracket...ano-black.html ?

Did the infamous BB30 conversion over the weekend on the cannondale supersix after years of fannying around.

I used a KCNC adaptor

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/bottom-b...or-road-68-mm/

Required a new 105 chainset that was about due, so back to Hollowtech II that's served me so well on the long distance touring bike .

If it creaks again I'm binning the whole bike off..strangely no issues with the CAAD10 BB30. (Alu V carbon? )

[Ennoch]

Had a good day out riding on Saturday up at Laggan but it's a place where I don't fully trust the trail builders so tend to not hit blind stuff flat out first run down. This drop below I'd ridden below but couldn't remember whether it was a drop or a roll...turns out it was a roll and a splat. Oh the embarrassment of crashing because I was going too slowly *facepalm* (my front wheel got stuck in the hole before the crest and punted me over).

My mate's advice was of course well timed!

[Nibbles]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

Had a good day out riding on Saturday up at Laggan but it's a place where I don't fully trust the trail builders so tend to not hit blind stuff flat out first run down. This drop below I'd ridden below but couldn't remember whether it was a drop or a roll...turns out it was a roll and a splat. Oh the embarrassment of crashing because I was going too slowly *facepalm* (my front wheel got stuck in the hole before the crest and punted me over).

My mate's advice was of course well timed!

Excellent. Good to know I'm not the only one that can crash!

[Arcticdan]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

My mate's advice was of course well timed!

Got to love your mates comments:
'Yeah you can definitely make it' followed by 'Is the bike ok'

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by Nibbles

Excellent. Good to know I'm not the only one that can crash!

Haha, for sure, it definitely does happen. Pretty glad that it was a daft low speed thing though rather than some of the 'moments' I've had at high speed recently!

Originally Posted by Arcticdan

Got to love your mates comments:
'Yeah you can definitely make it' followed by 'Is the bike ok'

Yeah, when he crashed on the climb earlier in the day I asked if he was okay, but he asks if my bike's okay. Typical He was right though, it was a piss feature that is totally rollable but not when your weight's forward to see what's behind it and your wheel get's stuck in a hole

[Nibbles]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

Haha, for sure, it definitely does happen. Pretty glad that it was a daft low speed thing though rather than some of the 'moments' I've had at high speed recently!(

Rocks are pretty hard no matter what speed you hit them but yes a slow speed crash is definitely better than one when you're at full pelt.

[JR1664]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

Haha, for sure, it definitely does happen. Pretty glad that it was a daft low speed thing though rather than some of the 'moments' I've had at high speed recently!



Yeah, when he crashed on the climb earlier in the day I asked if he was okay, but he asks if my bike's okay. Typical He was right though, it was a piss feature that is totally rollable but not when your weight's forward to see what's behind it and your wheel get's stuck in a hole

Watching that again you went down pretty hard. I'm not sure I should have 'liked' it....hopefully all is good.

On the road bike today, North Dorset view looking south towards the Purbeck Hills, wind turbine showing wind direction for the way home. That bloody thing can make or break me

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by Nibbles

Rocks are pretty hard no matter what speed you hit them but yes a slow speed crash is definitely better than one when you're at full pelt.

Some of the 'moments' I've had recently would definitely have been sore if they'd become anything more so I was quite happy to take this one. But yeah, rocks aren't very forgiving!

Originally Posted by JR1664

Watching that again you went down pretty hard. I'm not sure I should have 'liked' it....hopefully all is good.

On the road bike today, North Dorset view looking south towards the Purbeck Hills, wind turbine showing wind direction for the way home. That bloody thing can make or break me

Ha, don't worry about it, I'm all fine. Had a bruised thumb for a few days but that was it. Anyway, it's more sympathy than I got from my mates when I shared it on instagram!

Looks like a nice part of the world for road riding but really, you actually get tailwinds?! I thought they only existed in dreams and myth?

[Ennoch]

I'm still struggling a bit to get the bike to feel as dialled in across all terrain as I would like. And I still can't decide what forks I prefer. The damping in the Fox 36 Factory pisses all over the Rock Shox Zeb Ultimates, in all but big hits where the Zeb is possibly the best fork I've ever ridden for its ability to damp them. But most trails are in the mid stroke, and this is where the Zeb really comes unstuck. The air spring feels too linear without any volume tokens installed but install one and it gets ridiculously harsh in the last 1/3rd of the travel. But they're super stiff structurally which means they give good turning, which is where the Fox lose out. Somehow the Zebs feel both divey and harsh, and those two things should be reasonably mutually exclusive! The Zebs are also taller which hinders turn in on flat turns. I dropped the bars 10mm today which really helped in this regard as I could get more weight over the front wheel but because of the dive and the propensity for the fork to run really low in its travel while weighted meant that on steeper stuff it felt too low. But up the pressure and it pings everywhere. Basically I want the Fox 38 Factory, but they're not available, like everything else in the industry!

However, I did get an improvement today. The rear end of the Megatower is a great bike on big hits but can sometimes feel a little harsher on flatter trails where you're not carrying as much speed. This is because the kinematics favour big hits and pedalling platform which works really well on high grip and single big impact trails but on our local stuff here where there tends to be less grip and endless mid-speed impacts that comes unstuck at times. A company makes a bunch of different linkages for bikes to tune the suspension curve and they do one for the Megatower. A mate already has one installed and loves it, and one came up on ebay the other day for less than half the £350 they retail at so I snapped it up. Basically it lengthens the chainstay by 7mm, softens the initial stroke and then ramps up more highly at the end of the travel to help provide support and reduce bottom out while making it more supple in the middle. And it works! It's a little harder to get the front end turned in on tighter corners but it really freight trains the fast stuff now. A little more tuning should help return turn in to where I like it.

Anyway, here's a quick clip from today. We built this trail about twenty years ago, back when DH bikes were super short, steep, had less travel, terrible brakes and were generally a bit rubbish. It's quite hilarious how many people now go round all the big features and drops (as can be seen by the dark lines in most of the trail that I'm completely ignoring!), despite how good even trail bikes are now letalone DH bikes!

[gangzoom]

Beautiful day, only my 4th ride out on the road bike this summer. But Peloton FTP sessions seem to be doing their stuff!

Still cannot beat my PR on the killer hill though, need to work on some hill climbing sessions rather than just constant power zone outputs.

Also need to spend some more time enjoying the actual ride next time rather than stare at the figures on the bike computer.

[TouringPleb]

Does anyone pay for Strava?

I use the free version but it seems to be getting more and more basic.

Is the paid version worth it?

[BBri89]

I have the full Strava. Kind of forgot I'd paid for it but I'd say that most of the stuff is worth having and if I went back to the basic account I'd miss quite a lot of the other stuff.

What's it like £20 a year or something? If you do a lot of cycling that's nothing, it's not even the cost of a new tyre or replacing the chain.

[JR1664]

Originally Posted by TouringPleb

Does anyone pay for Strava?

I use the free version but it seems to be getting more and more basic.

Is the paid version worth it?

I use mapmyride. I think they've gone the way of strava in reducing stuff down to basic. I'm happy just having a record of mileage, average speed, altitude etc and I use average speed over the whole ride as a fitness marker, always have done. Not fussed about segments etc, it was Interesting when it was free but not a deal breaker.

Come the winter I Intend to buy a smart turbo and probably Invest in Zwift, just for added Interest over the winter months. I usually use a dumb turbo and youtube vids but probably the time to move on.

[gangzoom]

I only recently discovered the 'training' section on Strava. It's almost data overload, but I quite like that

For £50 a year am quite happy paying, I've been using it since 2011 for free, so seems pretty reasonable to pay something to the developers.