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Cycling log - random events in the day of a cyclist II

4 hours out today, had an interesting time riding all the roads either side of Matlock, theres some rite climbs hidden off the beaten track up there.

Not enough rain...
 
4 hours out today, had an interesting time riding all the roads either side of Matlock, theres some rite climbs hidden off the beaten track up there.

Not enough rain...
Riber Road? Very hard climb that. Did the climb up to Holloway earlier in the week from Cromford Mill, quite tough.
 
I suspect I might have under-priced it (and I know if I'd broken it for parts it'd have made way more than I'm asking for it) as I've had about a dozen enquiries and someone is on their way to see it. Just need the space though, and can't be bothered selling bits via Ebay!
It's always the way. You will struggle like he ll to get 125 for that, even if it's got 200 worth of bits. You can always get more for the bits.
 
Riber Road? Very hard climb that. Did the climb up to Holloway earlier in the week from Cromford Mill, quite tough.


I literally rode every steep hill going up either side of the main drag. Ended up riding through someone's garden to get down from behind Gulivers...
 
It's always the way. You will struggle like he ll to get 125 for that, even if it's got 200 worth of bits. You can always get more for the bits.

The first person that got in contact bought it, and I suspect I could have sold it 10 times at that price given the number of others that wanted it.
 
The first person that got in contact bought it, and I suspect I could have sold it 10 times at that price given the number of others that wanted it.
Good news. It should have been worth that, all day long, but bikes of any quality are hard to sell for what they should be wirth. That said, at the moment there is huge demand for bikes. I advertised one recently that I couldn't give away last year, afte r about 10 calls that night I sold it and another one.
 
Good news. It should have been worth that, all day long, but bikes of any quality are hard to sell for what they should be wirth. That said, at the moment there is huge demand for bikes. I advertised one recently that I couldn't give away last year, afte r about 10 calls that night I sold it and another one.

I was tempted to strip some of the nicer stuff off that Hardrock as I suspect it'd have made zero difference on the ability to sell it at that price point, and certainly the folks that bought it weren't aware of the difference. The forks would have been a nice match with the Inbred (that used to be a classic combination back in the day and I ran my original Inbred with Bombers for a while) and those Racing Ralphs would have been useful spares given how difficult it is to get fast/light 26" tyres at the moment (although the Specalized Hart Trak's I'm using on the Soul seem decent).

The Inbred is listed at the moment as well, at £350 which seems a bargain given its spec however I suspect it'll be tough to sell as it'd need someone who understood what they're buying. I suspect I'll probably end up keeping it or stripping the parts and selling the frame, but we will see. If have a couple of contacts from folks asking if it's available as well as one from an idiot that offered £100 for it.

There is a 24" wheeled Ridgeback kids bike in the garage which is next up for sale once I've checked it over. I'll probably only ask £50 for it so think it should sell quickly. After that there is probably only the Giant OCR that is currently set-up as a TT bike but I suspect will sell ok if I convert it to a road bike (Giant, like Specialized, being a brand that the masses recognise). I've got a load of 10-speed road bike spares so should be able to put it to quite a nice spec without buying anything. If I can figure out what I've done with the spare road bars etc. that I know are in the garage somewhere.
 
Well the bad news is that someone pinched one of my KOM's during the week (actually he didn't pinch it, he destroyed it by nearly a minute!) although I think it's possibly within my capabilities to get it back. Next time I'm out with the Epic I might have a go - it's a mostly gravel section but pretty rough in places so while the guy that's now the KOM looks like he was on a gravel bike I think it's possible the combination of the Epic's light weight, MTB tyres and full suspension might make it faster - but we will see. I set my KOM on the Soul and at the time wasn't aware it was a segment so wasn't in any particular hurry at the time either. I've also noticed there are 2 other segments (basically the same segment but in different directions) nearby that might be do-able as well. I'd it one way before but stopped a few times to take pictures so my current placing isn't great.

On the upside I did pick up another KOM tonight to replace it, on the Soul again. I also improved to 4th on another segment where the Soul doesn't have the gearing to take the KOM as that was set at an average of nearly 27mph. That might be within my grasp on the Epic but the current KOM time (which was set by a couple of folks) is quite impressive. I improved to 14th on another one as well but I think top 10 is maybe the best I could do on that as the top times look to be gravel bikes and it is a good section for them - it has some bumps and roots etc. but not really enough to favour a mountain bike I think. There were a few other PR's as well, although really just because of the strong WSW wind pushing me on as they weren't really sections I'd go for a time on.

I am really enjoying the Soul now it's back in a decent XC/trail type spec. I used to run it like that years back and loved it, and it's great that it feels great to ride again (probably better than it ever did in fact). The only downside is a lack of high gears, although overall the current gearing (34 on the front and 11-46 on the back) is pretty good (and I've already KOM'd 3 segments with it geared like that so it can't be that bad). I hadn't realised the Shimano did now do an 11-51 cassette for 11-speed so I've got one of those on order as, with a 38t up front, it'd give the same bottom gear but more than 2mph more at the top end - which sounds ideal. I'd really ordered it as part of my Enduro rebuild but I'm thinking it might be better on the Soul.

Selling the Inbred isn't going well. Lots of interest (and I've lost count of the folks that have offered me £100 for it!) but no-one I think is willing to pay anywhere near the asking price (with some interesting reasons why, including one guy that thinks that a mountain bikes value is a direct multiplier of the amount of travel - so perhaps I should replace the 80mm forks with the spare 140mm Pike's I have just for him). I suspect I'm going to be keeping it as it's more value to me as a spare than it would be selling it for a stupid price just to free up some space. It's quite nice to ride at the moment however the Soul is similar but better (partly due to a lighter and livelier frame) so I can't see it getting regular use. Might even just give it to my son in fact, or see if my daughters boyfriend wants a bike (as he's a similar height to me). That's cost me though as I'd need to build her something of a similar level!
 
Great to see Herne Hill Velodrome open for business again. I rode an hour session today, bookings limited to 5 riders and a coach to fit in with BC guidance.
Road bikes only at the moment because the track bike storage sheds are still shut and they need to work out how to allow safe access to the bikes.
 
no-one I think is willing to pay anywhere near the asking price

Double the asking price and let them beat you down from there.

I really need to redo my brake cables. I keep grabbing the right brake and skidding the rear wheel because it's American.
 
Great to see Herne Hill Velodrome open for business again. I rode an hour session today, bookings limited to 5 riders and a coach to fit in with BC guidance.
Road bikes only at the moment because the track bike storage sheds are still shut and they need to work out how to allow safe access to the bikes.

I did a corporate event at the Olympic Velodrome in London which was fun, although it did take me a while to get my head round the while no-freewheeling thing (although I managed not to fall off - although I did have a moment or two). I even managed to pick up a couple of medals. I realised I was shit at the standing start/sprint type events (don't have the power to weight ratio) but was better on the pursuit type events and managed to win those.
 
Double the asking price and let them beat you down from there.

I suspect I'd still be getting loads of folks offering me £100 for it.

I really need to redo my brake cables. I keep grabbing the right brake and skidding the rear wheel because it's American.

My folder has the brakes the wrong way round although it took me a while to notice. I think I'd notice a lot quicker on any of the other bikes though.
 
I'm thinking of putting on some classic drop bars, but also interested to try this style :
How-to-set-up-drop-handlebars-5.jpg

Anyone have experience with them?

I have both ^^ (Ergonova?) on the winter and a classic more rounded shape on the summer bike. My style of riding is more head down than most and I prefer the 3T Ergonova shape on the drops, not enough to swap out the classic shape Zipp that came with the summer bike. I tend to use the hoods for the most part and wrist position feels a bit more natural with the Ergonova for my style of riding
 
So about 6 weeks since I restarted cycling after a 7/8 year lay-off and it is going much better than it ever did before, thanks I think to a bit more structure and understanding of my own body. First couple of weeks were a bit difficult as clearly attempting to ride like you did before is only going to bring disappointment, but it seems I've reactivated the cycling muscles now and things are picking up.

Today I thought I'd best do some sort of FTP test on Zwift as it will help with the multitude of training programs on there where it needs to have a base number so it can work out intervals etc. specific to you. I didn't fancy the 20 minute test as I've never done anything like that and I wasn't sure I'd be able to accurately gauge a 20 minute effort without ballsing it up by either going too hard and blowing up or not going hard enough and it being a waste of time, so instead I chose the ramp test.

I've no idea how it works it out from how you perform but you do 1 minute @ starting at 100w and then it goes up in 20w increments every minute until you can't go any more. I know that nothing but a proper power meter is the way to go, but I only wanted a number for Zwift programs and I calibrated the trainer twice before the test and made sure my weight was up to date so as not to skew anything. Result was 241w whatever that means.

Then straight after I did this ride as I needed 3000ft for those stupid Strava badges.



One thing I'd like to know more about that I'm finding a bit confusing is heart rate. I've got two different heart rate monitors here and I've been using them both for the past 6 weeks, now looking online there is something called HRR (Heart Rate Reserve) and when you calculate it then you can work out a heart rate training zone, now from my numbers my zone should be 142-162 and yet I only averaged 135 for the ramp test and then 144 for the following ride at what felt like a considerable effort, if I were to try and average the upper end of that zone I don't know how hard I'd have to go!

Does anyone here know much about heart rate? I do feel like I'm not breathing very hard, when I put in a big effort it is clearly my legs not able to clear the lactate fast enough that means I blow up, not heart rate/breathing. Will this change as my legs get better at dealing with lactic acid and enable me to push for longer?

Sorry for the long post but I'm finding it all really interesting.
 
241W is pretty decent, especially as on Zwift as I struggled to equal my FTP on there compare to outside world results from my power meter (that's using the same power meter on the turbo as I do outside). The FTP test on Zwift is pretty tough as well.

I seem to be about 235W at the moment (based on rides outside) which has improved but is still well down on where I was a couple of years back. Unfortunately my issue isn't power, it's weight - which is why I can KOM the occasional flat section but struggle on the hills.

For heart rate stuff to be useful it's important to get a good understanding of what your max HR is (e.g. using a ramp test, but be careful!) - not just one based on a calculation as they can be pretty inaccurate. According to the "220 - age" rough calculation my max HR should be 168, but the last time I checked it properly (a couple of years back) it was 185 and doesn't look like it's moved far as I've seen up to 179 on recent rides. Once you know that you can work out training zones as well as stuff like what HR you can maintain while climbing.

For that you need a ramp test and the FTP test might be a good start. The average HR isn't that relevant - but your max HR during it might be.

On the lactate thing I find for me it does vary a lot depending on general fitness as opposed to HR etc. At the moment I'm down a fair bit on power, but more noticeable is my inability to sustain higher power levels for any time at all, and the limiting factor does seem to be weakness in the legs rather than heart/lung capacity. I notice more when running - at some fitness points it's clearly my heart & lungs that are holding me back, at others it's definitely my legs.
 
Thanks, all makes sense. Does resting HR have any effect on max HR?

I haven't done any proper training yet, so I'd like to see where I am in say 6 months time.

My issue is also weight, strangely it hasn't come down at all since I restarted cycling and I was on a steady rate of decline up until then. I haven't changed my diet either so the only conclusion I can come to is that perhaps I've put on a bit of muscle in the legs and it has offset any fat loss.
 


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