Cycling

[The Monkeysphere]

Cycling: awesome c/d: C

Time to start off the thread ~


I just did my first two rounds of the year in these past few days, both times around 17km with the average speed around 24km/h and tbh I was pretty beat afterwards . It's really too cold right now though, and it's pretty wet and windy. But still, I'm much too shit atm to do like 30km at 25km/h average :V


DISCUS



Also: let's be Endomondo buddies?

[Helen]

Been thinking about getting back into trail riding again as the weather is starting to look better in the UK.
Then I remembered I also need a new bike.

[MaZ]

Been thinking about getting back into trail riding again as the weather is starting to look better in the UK.
Then I remembered I also need a new bike.

This is the exact thought that went through my head a couple of months back (previous bike was kept in shed outside and was nicked



So I did the correct thing and blew a load of cash on a nice bike, now I have to find nice places to ride it

[Random Incarnate]

I used to cycle a lot. Gave it up about 2 years ago when riding to uni every day was just :effort:, and I couldn't afford a real (road) bike.

On the short (3.2km) school ride, it was 30km/h average on a shitty bike. Two 105km rides, with 10-15min food/water breaks at 35 and 70km. First year I did it, it was 25km/h average. Second time was 20km/h and a massive break at 70km. Turns out a little bit of training goes a long way...

I wish I'd continued, since I did enjoy riding downhill at 80km/h... I think I'm going to have to get a motorbike.

[shoki]

can a fat brother loose some weight on this infernal contraption?

[Random Incarnate]

It kept my weight down, and did wonders for my legs... but that's about it.

Jaw surgery was far more effective.

[fng]

What's a good brand for mountain/offroad bike? Not OMGExpensive?

[Frools]

depends on your definitions of good and omgexpensive

all the big brands (see Trek/Specialized/Scott/GT/etc.) will do bikes at various price ranges tho

you can get a Specialized Hardrock from about £340 or so but tbh you dont really get decent kit on a mtb til like £8-900 when buying new and retail now, prices for bike stuff have gone up ludicrously in the last 3 or 4 years alone

(edit: by decent kit i mean not fukken suntour forks and alivio drivetrain ¬_¬)

second hand will probably get you a much better deal if you can find something like a Specialized Rockhopper from 08 or 09
you could look at the retail places (http://www.evanscycles.com http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ to get you started) and then see if you can find second versions from a couple years ago of the £8-900 bikes

[fng]

Ok thanks, that is not cheap! But I really need something good as my current bike is very shitty and heavy.

[RazoR]

AWWW YEAH

[Frools]

Ok thanks, that is not cheap! But I really need something good as my current bike is very shitty and heavy.

second hand is your best bet tbh
somewhere like pinkbike is less likely to have completely shit bikes for sale too
because people selling stuff on that site are less likely to have bought shit-tacular in the first place
standard rules for buying second hand still apply obv tho

brief look through pinkbike shows 09 hardrock for like £225, 09 rockhopper for £350

edit: for comparison the bike maz got above is about £2.5k new, good bikes arent cheap

[Aeolos]

Ok thanks, that is not cheap! But I really need something good as my current bike is very shitty and heavy.

second hand is your best bet tbh
somewhere like pinkbike is less likely to have completely shit bikes for sale too
because people selling stuff on that site are less likely to have bought shit-tacular in the first place
standard rules for buying second hand still apply obv tho

brief look through pinkbike shows 09 hardrock for like £225, 09 rockhopper for £350

edit: for comparison the bike maz got above is about £2.5k new, good bikes arent cheap

Alternatively, if you're in Europe, consider some of the German brands like Rose, Cube, Focus or Haibike. They usually offer good spec bikes on decent frames, at lower prices than the top dogs like Cannondale and Trek/Gary Fisher.

[Aeolos]

can a fat brother loose some weight on this infernal contraption?

I bought a proper roadbike when on internship in the USA, brought the bike with me to Holland and have so far lost 20 odd pounds in 4 months. Yeah, it works

[Frools]

Alternatively, if you're in Europe, consider some of the German brands like Rose, Cube, Focus or Haibike. They usually offer good spec bikes on decent frames, at lower prices than the top dogs like Cannondale and Trek/Gary Fisher.

Cube are getting fairly popular in the UK i think but the others are pretty rare although they do seem to have a good reputation from what i've heard

[The Monkeysphere]

Just completed a 42km round at 22km/h average. More or less empty, dark city streets lit by streetlights =

Proper bike tracks with good lighting and lit tunnels under roads are epic, wish there were more

[Lorkin Desal]

Been thinking about getting back into trail riding again as the weather is starting to look better in the UK.
Then I remembered I also need a new bike.

This is the exact thought that went through my head a couple of months back (previous bike was kept in shed outside and was nicked



So I did the correct thing and blew a load of cash on a nice bike, now I have to find nice places to ride it

That bike looks awesome. how much it break you for?

[MaZ]

Been thinking about getting back into trail riding again as the weather is starting to look better in the UK.
Then I remembered I also need a new bike.

This is the exact thought that went through my head a couple of months back (previous bike was kept in shed outside and was nicked



So I did the correct thing and blew a load of cash on a nice bike, now I have to find nice places to ride it

That bike looks awesome. how much it break you for?

£2800 on 2 year finance (not including all the other shit I bought at the same time - pedals, new pair of shoes, night riding lights, HELMUT etc.

It is fucking amazing though, the last bike I had was a Kona Caldera (06?) Hardtail, set me back £800 new and that thing was pretty quick - this thing absolutely flattens it, and I can do the same speed over dirt track as I can on the road

That said I haven't had a chance to ride singletrack on it yet, have been blasting around chorlton / sale water parks (south manchester) for the last couple of weeks which is... nice gravely and p. quick but not really approaching singletrack complexity at all (also p. flat)

Btw everyone should totally be signing up for endomondo and adding me (pm for details), p. cool way to track rides and shit.

[Wensley]

Went out for a couple of rides in early February but found a massive ice slick and wiped out, fucking my knee up in the process. Getting back out now and been having fun blasting around a local 16 mile route on my road bike or bashing up into the forest on mountain bike. Couple more weeks of base stuff and I'll start moving on for some longer runs at the weekend working up to 60 - 80 milers.

Planning a 100 mile jaunt across the country at some point in the summer.

[Aeolos]

So apparently a friend I invited to join me and some others to climb Alpe d'Huez next summer misheard what I said, and we're going this summer instead!

Here's what I'm up against. Not the hardest Alpe Col, but sure is a serious one (hors categorie in the Tour de France)...


13.2km with a maximum gradient of 10.6% and 8.1% average. Alpe d'Huez is famous particularly amongst the Dutch, as "we" won a Tour stage there eight or so times. It's the one climb Dutch cyclists use to compare their dicks.

Anyone here done Alpe cycling before? I'm probably changing my cassette to something with more teeth for some extra souplesse, hoping to finish within 1.5hrs, which should be pretty realistic considering I'll have >2k kms in my legs before going.

[Antimus]

I did this looking a few weeks back for cheap good mountain bikes.
Here are the top two I found from reviews, spec, price, etc:

VooDoo Bocor from Halfords - Yes, I know, Halfrauds, but this bike gets amazing reviews
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/s...egoryId_165499

Decathlon B'Twin 8.1 - Cheaper alternative, still high end parts and good reviews
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/8-1-20...7/#INFO-DETAIL