advertisement


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

I've never snapped a chain, not on the road or on my mtb. But I always carry a spoke key...

I don't think I've snapped a chain (not that I can remember anyway) but I have ripped the rear mech off a couple of times, and also bent a rear mech hanger badly enough it needed a singlespeed bodge to get me home. I think there is a spoke key on the multi-tools I use but I wouldn't really know what to do with it as I've never tried to true up a wheel. I've got a wheel in the garage that needs sorted though, so might give it a go.

That's my "bitsa" bike changed to 2x10, with a 38:24 up front and an 11-36 cassette. Will give it a try later and see how it works in practice. 24:36 is probably lower than I need as a low gear so I suspect I might still be trying a few combinations out - both cassette's as I've a few 10-speed options to try - and also chainrings.
 
My worst mishap was when I managed to trip over my bike taking it off a bike rack. Landed on top of the bike and pringled the large chain ring so badly that it stopped chain running on the middle ring. Slow run home on the small chain ring.
 
I've never snapped a chain, not on the road or on my mtb. But I always carry a spoke key...
I have. A couple of times. Once by abuse, I was in middle ring at the bottom of a slope, clicked it down and stepped on it before the change was completed. Also did one for no reason in the middle of a moor. Fortunately I had a breaker and a link, I always do. Conversely I have never needed a spoke key. Different strokes, eh?
 
You were close enough Steve. Yes, it’s the old pit area/site here’s a good link I’ve just found http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2009/03/02/places_rothwell_country_park_feature.shtml.

I’d say north west, out towards the dales.

If you’re not too far away Steve and you have any kind of off-road bike (can’t remember if you’ve said earlier up the thread) I’d recommend a ride over, we usually link it up with a trip through Temple Newsam, it’s nice all round the area (Lemonroyd marina, St. Aidans etc) which you probably know already. They’ve also laid tarmac from this area all way into Leeds, so making it a fast route along the river/canal, entering Leeds at the Armouries.
That's a great suggestion Phil, I'll take you up on that. I have an old school hardtail mtb, set up 3x9 and 26 wheels for XC, it's ideal for that terrain. I'm only in Pudsey so I can be in Leeds centre in 30-40 min.
 
I snapped a chain on my singlespeed. Luckily, for me, someone I was riding with got his derailleur yanked off by a shrub. He had to shorten his chain to ride without a derailleur, so had extra links for me to repair my chain. Since then, I ride with extra chain links.
 
I have. A couple of times. Once by abuse, I was in middle ring at the bottom of a slope, clicked it down and stepped on it before the change was completed. Also did one for no reason in the middle of a moor. Fortunately I had a breaker and a link, I always do. Conversely I have never needed a spoke key. Different strokes, eh?

probably a huge generalisation and maybe completely wrong, but looking at your bike gear postings, i suspect that you ride mainly with more robust everyday wheels with higher spoke counts rather than the likes of myself (and Simon?) who tend to ride with stupidly lightweight wheels with lower spoke counts which are naturally more fragile.

You could argue that we get what we deserve! It has only happened to me once though.
 
To be fair, its probably how I ride, not what I ride that results in snapped spokes. Sending large gaps and overhead drops is what does it. I also have a penchant for going out on a road ride on my gravel bike then deciding to take an xc route home with 30mm tyres on.
 
probably a huge generalisation and maybe completely wrong, but looking at your bike gear postings, i suspect that you ride mainly with more robust everyday wheels with higher spoke counts rather than the likes of myself (and Simon?) who tend to ride with stupidly lightweight wheels with lower spoke counts which are naturally more fragile.

You could argue that we get what we deserve! It has only happened to me once though.
You're probably right, I run off the shelf wheels, my style is mostly XC when off road, though I have spent this morning falling off at a trail centre and I now have a grazed elbow and bent brake lever. On road I run Shimano r500, cheap and cheerful and robust. I'm not very big either, 5'6 and 12st, I should be 11 but I'll never be my skinny 10st 30 year old self again. Either way I'm light on wheels, worn out plenty but not bent them except in big crashes.
 
The 38:24 and 11-36 on my bitsa bike works pretty well. The chainline is fine right across the cassette when in the 38t chainring so most of the time you just ride it like a 1x bike, only dropping to the small ring for the really steep stuff. It's pretty fast as I had 5 PR's on the initial shakedown ride and even on the flat road sections the gearing is just about ok. One of the segments I PR'd is a flatt(ish - there are a few ups and downs) road section of about a mile or so and I averaged just under 24mph on that which is ok on a mountain bike.
 
Wait till they're six months old you have to inflate them every ride. ( I suffer for my art too).
 
I expected that from the start, but they haven't been too bad so far. It's a price i'm willing to pay, the difference in feel was like going from gatorskin tyres to something decent.
 
I'm still getting used to the power meter I'm now using on my mountain bikes and moved it to my spare parts XC bike for a ride last night. The only real thing it's been telling me so far (other than how puny I am!) is that it's a lot harder to average a decent power output on a mountain bike ride than on a road bike. On the ride last night I pushed reasonably hard (156 average HR with a roughly equal mix of Z3 and Z4) but only averaged 184W, where as a similar level of ride on a road bike recently (based on HR and how hard it felt) averaged 235W. It might be as much due to gearing as anything else i.e. not only does the MTB not have the gearing for putting power in on downhill bits but it also has lower gears meaning you can spin rather than grunt up the climbs. I had quite a few PR's on the ride as well, so I don't think it was just me having an off night.

I visited an old railway tunnel (now on a national cycle route) that's been painted up inside my a variety of artists (including my brother in law) and I've been meaning to go and have a look at for a while - it's very cool.

170917007.lDJW1Xkw.ct01.jpg


170917008.BYRNv1XY.ct02.jpg
 
There's something wrong there. Power should be irrespective of gearing, its force x time, assuming same mph on the road on the same bike..

235 watts should feel equally hard on each bike, you'll just be going slower on the mtb due to less efficient position, tyres, etc. Or have I misunderstood?
 
There's something wrong there. Power should be irrespective of gearing, its force x time, assuming same mph on the road on the same bike..

If you're able to pedal with a fair amount of force all the time - which, with mountain bike gearing, you're not.

235 watts should feel equally hard on each bike, you'll just be going slower on the mtb due to less efficient position, tyres, etc. Or have I misunderstood?

On a turbo trainer you'd be correct, in the real world the gearing seems to be a significant factor i.e. a lot of time on the mountain bike the high gears aren't there for you to be able to put 200W+ in.
 
You run out of gears on a typical mtb quite early on going down steep hills. Your legs do nothing.

And it's not just steep hills. That bike is on 2x10 (38/24 and 11-36) and at a typical 80rpm cadence in the biggest gear that's about 21mph. On any kind of downhill as well as on the flat I'm over that a lot, and while I can spin it up to higher speeds it doesn't need a lot of power.

Comparing last nights ride to a similar duration one on the road bike - on the MTB I spend 35% of my time in the "Active recovery zone" (in my case that's under 137W) compared to 21% on the road bike, and 20% in the "Endurance" zone (under 187") compared to 13% on the road bike. At the other end then combining the top 3 zones (VO2max, Anaerobic and Neuromuscular) I was 14% on the mountain bike but 31% on the road bike.

I've not had the MTB power meter long and that was the first time I'd pushed it a bit, so maybe I'll see averages closer to my road bike in other rides (and it also might be different on other terrain combinations). For example on my ride on my mountain bike ride on Monday I had an average of 191W (although with a lower average HR of 150) which might have been partly because I the trails were a lot draggier (it was wet and miserable that night) as well as being on a heavier bike with draggier tyres (i.e. I might not have been running out of high gears as often). In fact on that ride it was so windy I was having to pedal fairly hard even on the downhills that were into the wind.
 


advertisement


Back
Top