- Active Topics
- Forums
- Create Topic
-
can all clubs out there please run a campaign to tell your riders that littering is not okay, not even in a race.
cycled behind a bloke fully dressed in a Northcliff Cycles shirt who shamelessly threw tore the tab off the top of a gel sachet, dumped that on the road, sucked the gel and then dropped the empty sachet 200m further. (Before you flame me for not coaching him on the spot, I got close enough to read his name but not close enough to engage)
if you fit the description, rode in C batch and your name is Nigel (I think), please don't do that again. It's not okay, no matter how big the race and how many cleaners they may or may not employ to sweep the route afterwards.
edit: it was on the 947 close to braamfontein
9
Hi David
I haven't opened your site for some time. Logged in earlier today and just thought I'd let you know the improvements you've made since starting out are great!
Love the info about decoupling and the rider type and category!
Well done
4
If you're the original owner, i'd take it back and claim for some form of warranty / compensation / trade-in benefit. If you're not the original owner you don't have much to stand on as bike warranty terms are generally only applicable to the first owner by sales agreements.
Fatigue cracks starting at welds are typically due to weld defects, material defects or alternatively a marginal design. In either case you should qualify for a form of warranty compensation from the manufacturer / distributor. On their end, it's very hard for an bike manufacturer to shift the blame for a MTB frame crack back to the rider. MTB frames are built to be abused, unless you are above the specified weight limit.
See what they're willing to offer, they might give you a new frame, but you might be disappointed if you expect this from the onset. I'd argue that its not quite reasonable to demand a new frame out of the box. I personally buy bikes for a ~8 year effective life, so i'd deem it reasonable if the compensation is equal to % used, i.e.:
compensation = new frame price * (1- (bike age / 8))
General thoughts on this hairline crack being repairable? Anyone?
its two completely different experiences, done for completely different reasons...
it's a bit like comparing a night in the Michelangelo to a week long camping trip in the okavango.
tough one, but I would imagine that you don't have a good foot to stand on, legally or morally IMO...
as much as I despise poor workmanship, what would you do if your well-ridden car engine was damaged by the dealership due to poor workmanship? Would you expect your dealership to replace a used vehicle with a brand new one at no cost...?
where I would agree is if you instructed them to replace your frame with a second hand frame of similar condition. In that case I would argue that they should supply the labour for the re-build free of charge, because at the end of the day you're no better off than you were before, so it should not be your expense.
If you accept the upgrade (new frame), then it is only right to pay for the benefit that comes with a brand new upgraded frame.
2
I'll be off to Aus for an extended work trip that should last about two months. Based in the middle of nowhere in a town called Moura, closest places that seem a bit larger are Rockhampton and Gladstone.
That said, I'll probably be able to get as far as Brisbane, Townsville or Cairns over a long weekend or two if there's something good to ride within that stretch.
I might be taking a MTB, but i'm up for riding anything ranging from downhill tracks to tar road gran fondo's. Views and cool towns are importanter than trail quality for this trip, I'd like to get to see some nice places.
Happy to take some advise from anyone that cycled around there to give me some tips. PMs or a reply to this thread would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Rudi
You can get plenty fit between now and September, so don't stress about it.
Often people fall into the LSD, base training thing too quick which makes you lazy, so even though base is important, make sure you "train" and don't just sit on your bike.
What helps a lot is trainnerroad if you have an IDT. You can do a base and a build block before september, this will do magic for your fitness with few mid-week sessions having to be longer than 1-hour in length.
i just remembered... I have a box full of 26" stuff that I took off my old bike. It's mostly Shimano Deore or equivalent.
That includes a Mavic 816 (i think) rim, hub, i also have shifters, brakes, some spokes, nipples, a derailleur, crankset etc.
If you're keen to adopt all these goodies, send me a PM with your address and I'll come drop it off over the weekend.
Jako, stick it out for another while. the mere fact that you bought flats to me suggests that you would like to improve as a rider, so don't give up on it just yet. get the seat height correct, it will be different from your cleat setup depending on the thickness of your pedals and soles. in terms of losing your footing on rocky uphills, you'll learn the technique in time. standing and pedaling is compromised with flats, but that's the only real disadvantage from a pedal efficiency / technique perspective and on an MTB that's not such a huge requirement anyway.
I switched from clipless to flats about 4 years ago. the first 6 months I felt that I had to "re-learn" how to ride a bike, but gradually my confidence, skill and technique evolved to a level where i far prefer flats whenever things get rough.
some comments:
Swissvan: with cleats it's just not that important to know what the bike is going to do underneath you. take a drop-off for example, with clipless you can ride it with any mampara technique because your feet and your hands control where the bike goes and it's easy to land. with flats, you need to maintain contact with the pedals naturally, meaning that you have to throw the bike forward over the edge. this places you in a much better position when you land which helps a lot with shock absorption. why is this important? if you want to ride really big drops (2m+) then you need your technique dialled. same goes for bunnyhops and jumps, hence flats improve your technique. i'm a much better rider now than i was 5 years ago, and even though flats isn't the only factor, it surely made a difference
ChrisF: I have a spare set of clipless pedals, initially i thought that i'd use flats for enduro races and clipless for the rest. I did some (fairly unscientific) comparisons, but these indicated that I really can't measure the difference in pedalling speed. i enjoy the feeling of flat pedals a lot more so never used the clipless on MTB again and I doubt i ever will.
edit: thought id just add incase my comment might seem like its from some enduro hipster only into riding gnar with a closet stacked side to side with o'neil and troy-lee gear... i'm an all-rounder and not a proponent for any specific discipline or style. I've cycled everything from xco, xcm, downhill, enduro, road, ironman, stage races, ultra-endurance races and bike tours. so even though i have personal preferences just like everybody else, i have tested the "flats vs clipless" extensively over a very large variety of terrain and distance and i'm not merely making my pedal choice on the basis that flats & baggies are perceived cooler than cleats & lycra.
4
As many people here have suggested, you can ride almost anything on an 80mm hardtail.
So why then buy a trail bike which is slower and a LOT more expensive?
My take: A trail bike is less about the mm's of travel than it is about the geometry, i.e. slack head angle. This means you can "easily" lift the front wheel (by simply leaning back and pushing your feet forward - arms straight) which is the movement you use to get into a manual (what you would call it if you can keep it there). Also, having less weight on your front wheel typically sets you up to corner better without your front wheel washing out..
Why is this important? A manual (even if you can't hold it for long) is the fundamental technique behind a proper bunnyhop (not lifting your bikes with the cleats) and therefore also the fundamental technique behind jumping.
do you need to be able to manual: No
do you need to bunnyhop 40cm obstacles: No
do you need to land massive gap jumps: No
do you need to be able to rail bermed corners like Semunuk: No
are all of these things fun to do: Yes
do you need a trail bike to do it: No, but a trail bike does make all these things a LOT easier to learn (and do)
i almost forgot the dropper... not having your seat shoved up your @ss also makes it a lot easier to manual, jump, hop and wheelie
2
where are you guys watching these races... is it just me or did SS cut own on its coverage of the classics big time?
"gets double the descending" = trail take double the traffic / time unit
Good example of why E-Bike are welcome, but need to contribute proportionally to funds/costs that do are used for trail maintenance.
this is getting a bit petty don't you think...
who knows, the unfit newbie on his ebike that you despise might just end up being the same guy who goes out of his way to build/maintain trails every second weekend... compare that to a serious dude training for epic who would typically be way too obsessed with chasing strava segments and hitting weekly TSS targets to ever touch a rake or a shovel to fix a berm...
So I just bought an edge 520+ after using a fenix 3 for the last 2 years... Did the ftp test on the edge (the fenix does not have this option) and I completed the prompted sessions, but it "could not determine ftp".
I set my FTP om 285 (from a precious 20 min test) and then the garmin ftp test auto-prompted me to do 4 minutes on 250W, 275W and 305W and that's where it stopped...
I expected at least another step-up, but it just stopped... Anyone else experienced the same "bug"?
i try to always keep a level of fitness so that I can:
run 8km in 40 minutes
cycle at 200W for 3 hours (30km/hr on a flattish course with a road bike)
i find every type of riding/training (road, marathon, enduro, DH and triathlon) to be a tonne of fun when I maintain this level of base fitness
2
some nice looking intervals there !!! glad I'm not the only person that realizes torque is the key not power
care to share more info on the torque-training topic? All of the training systems that i know of (trainer road, training peaks etc.) strictly work on power output. id be interested to see how torque comes into the picture.
Right here right now Copenhagen has exactly that...without ebikes. 65% of Copenhageners ride to work in summer and 35% in winter (and we have proper winters!).
The only ebikes around are under older folk who still want to ride into their 70s. Most younger e-users are on escooters or those 1 wheeled death emachines. The Mate ebike is seeing some traction now.
The vast minority of people NEED an ebike. I'm still of the opinion that most ebikes in SA are top end carbon wonder bikes used by people who want to go fast without investing the time and effort. I'm all for that - knock yourselves out - just don't race them, steal KOMs or consider yourselves normal cyclists.
i get the point... i've never been to copenhagen, but most cities where bicycle commuting works well are quite flat and the city designs lend itself to living, working and playing in closer proximity to what we typically have in SA. i'm guessing the same holds there, probably an easy sub 30 min commute for the majority of those 65% bicycle commuters?
They should have indicators, number plates
and lights and stay on the road where they belong
imagine a world where every single one of us took an ebike to work...
a city with bike paths and trails everywhere (yes, even gnarly ones with jumps and berms and shi_t) so that you can hop and smile your way back home after work.
trails that are safe to use day and night (because they get used by everybody), a world where you don't need to drop your car somewhere and call uber every time that you feel like drinking a beer
people waving, smiling and greeting each other as they fly by each other 8AM on their morning commute instead of vloeking the douchbag pushing in front of you in morning traffic...
a place with no taxis or hooters or idling for hours and sucking up fumes
______
Now lets face it, normal bikes have been around for 100+ years, yet the amount of people actively using bicycles as a means of either transport and fun/recreation are confined to a select few lean and mean blokes (many of us) that have become too damn scared to ride our bikes anywhere but 50km outside of the city perimeter in some "safe" spot, and god forbid riding alone or out at night.
How do we get from this fking mess that we live with now to the picture above? E-bikes are currently the only likely transport technology (fast enough, cheap enough, capable to cover distance, fun enough and doesn't leave you in a puddle of sweat after you've cycled 1km up the road) that has the ability to even attempt this change. And the only way that we ill ever get a large scale take-up in ebike use is to make ebikes sexy, make them efficient, make them fun, make them cool AND make them inclusive. That would mean that we might have to drop our "tough-guy" / "purist" / "hardman" / "HTFU" and "earn your downhills" sentiments that many of us cyclists associate with and welcome those e-bike users to our trails and races...
Who knows, in 20 years you might thank yourself for your progressive new mindset and one day when you're 75 and no longer capable of pushing out 350W on the hills, you still might enjoy riding your favorite trail...
2
Can't give you any specifics, but you are correct, it is a 2006 model and it is the Raleigh 7000, not RC7000. The carbon frames never had the RC in front of the number. The RC 7000 was an alu frame with carbon seat stays and a carbon fork, the RC6000 was a pure alu frame with blended welds and a carbon fork. The little brother was the RC3000 was a stock standard alu frame with a carbon fork.
I know this because I bought my first road bike (Raleigh RC3000) early in 2007 and I remember drooling at its bigger brother (the one in your picture) that had the same paint job... The top of the range Raleigh at the time was a yellow "Team edition" and the 7000 was the next one in line.
Intervals.icu now supports editing intervals. Just drag the left or right edge to where you want it. If You drag an edge over or into another interval they will be merged. If you shrink the interval to nothing it will be deleted. You can also add new intervals at the marker position by pressing 'A'.
If you find yourself having to edit a lot please send me a link to the activities involved so I can improve the auto-detection algorithm.
Hi David
Once again no criticism, just comments:
The algorithm does not work very well for sub-FTP intervals, i.e. longer stretches of increased power.
In the example below, I did a 38 minute block of pretty hard work, where my avg power was in excess of ~250W (to me this is Zone 3B or SS). This below pic shows what it looks like in intervals.icu. It says recovery for efforts that were full on Z3B intervals. For the entire 38 minutes of hard riding, Intervals.icu only gave me credit for 5 X intervals all below 1 minute, where in fact I basically was balls-to-the-wall for 38 minutes.
Just an idea, perhaps one can have a slider function to adjust the sensitivity of the inteval intensity. I.e. if you know you did an long effort where you tried your best to keep constant wattage over longer periods of sub-FTP efforts, but could not keep it perfectly constant due to the terrain, then it removes some of the spikes and bumps and calculates your intervals over longer periods. If you did short HIT sprints, then you might want to increase the sensitivity?
In terms of editing, it works well if you want to edit only one interval, but if you have many in one ride, one would need way of saving your data as you go along.
Thanks again for the app
From the top of the M1 after the last bump to the Jukskei river, Ave. power = 113W, NP = 181W (which includes the bump after Grayston). I was digging deep on every climb, until the M1, refusing to give up my position at the back of the small bunch, so that I could enjoy the M1 in a group (out the wind). Paid for it once we turned into Kyalami, as it was a solo ride until Summit Rd.
Duration: Ave | NP
20-min: 285W | 308W
Screen Shot 2018-11-19 at 8.50.49 PM.png
30-min: 275W | 301W
40-min: 270W | 302W
60-min: 260W | 300W
40Km: 262W | 301W
Do you mind sharing what app/program you used to get these stats?
I thought the new route was harder, given the conditions we rode in.
2017 vs 2018
VD vs VC
Both years I went into the CC without specifically training for it - just going on my fitness level at the time. Only difference was that I had just over 900Km worth of running since last year’s CC.
Same bike, same gear, same weight, same result.
interesting... our power numbers are basically reversed. I expected to see a similar decline in avg power and NP due to the M1 factor...
mixed bags when i try to compare. I enjoyed the fast riding on the M1, but its a way different race. stats are much different and its hard to say if it was harder or easier...
2017: 2h53; average power: 218W / 274NP; avg HR 155; Max 20min: 265W
2018: 2h52; average power: 197W / 248NP; avg HR 155; Max 20min: 254W
both starts were from C, so the stats suggest a much easier ride in 2018. That said, at some point around hyde park / zoo lake i had a look and my average power was north of 230W and NP was 285ish, so the first half was crazy hard and once you hit the M1 the numbers drop big time coasting in the bunch for 30 odd minutes.
i thought i was fitter this year, yet i almost started cramping after kyalami yesterday and my numbers are way lower. how did you guys compare if you look at the effort?
New Garmin Fenix 6
in New Gear
Posted · Edited by rudi-h
I have an edge 520+ and a Fenix 3 (not the wrist HR version), both still working asif they were new...
training for 36One, so I'm pretty keen on making sure I do the maximum volume without over-doing it for the next 3 months... I have the trainingpeaks app, so I can track CTL and TSB, however these are static calculations based on TSS and don't account for lack of sleep, stress, inadequate diet etc. I was wondering how much better or worse the real-time condition assessment features (that actually measure HRV in real time) of the Fenix 6 are for this purpose. These are the following features in particular:
real-time performance condition
training load, training status and training load balance
body resources / body battery
also looking for a sleep tracker which I guess I can get from any wrist HR based monitor
so my question, how good and useful are these features for those of you that have these watches? If it's really useful for monitoring and adjusting training intensity on a day-by-day basis I'm pretty keen to try it out. If it's a gimmick that nobody really uses at then I'll stick to tracking CTL and TSB on trainingpeaks.
Any comments?
edit: I see there is a R6k difference between the Fenix 6S and the 6X Sapphire. Any comments on whether or not the "upgrade" is worth the dough?