Pedal Power Thread

Broke my right collarbone into 3 pieces 2 years back.
Hospital were 50/50 whether to operate but left it to fix on its own. I was told the possibility of complications to nearby nerves and blood vessels made it a close call for me.
Didn't really give me much grief while healing and was walking on a gutter crutch with it 3 weeks after breaking it. It has a distinct hump in it now and sleeping on my right side causes it to click sometimes when taking my weight off it but I'm glad they didn't operate.
Hope you heal quick!
 
Thanks Paul

That's almost exactly my situation. Snapped with a gap & nerves/vessels were an issue. I decided that the extra wait was preferable to losing some feeling in my arm.

I'm going to have a decent sized lump too.
 
I was initially in the "deal with the conditions" camp but having seen the sickening crash in the women's race, plus the sheer number of crashes I've moved into the "course should have been changed" camp. Whilst judging the conditions is obviously a big part of road cycling crashing out of an Olympic race due to a particularly challenging course is pretty cruel. It's one thing to lose cos you haven't got the legs quite another to go down on a ridiculously tight bend.
 
Sadly this course safety (or lack of) will will come down to money (or lack of) ?

When the TDF came to the Yorkshire Dales a lot of road resurfacing was completed in a hurry prior to the event. I guess the road conditions around Rio would have needed huge amounts of money to bring them to acceptable standard. I' m thinking of the tarmac edging (or lack of). Rio is 'broke' !
 
273K said:
Whilst judging the conditions is obviously a big part of road cycling crashing out of an Olympic race due to a particularly challenging course is pretty cruel. It's one thing to lose cos you haven't got the legs quite another to go down on a ridiculously tight bend.
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IMO, they managed to get round the bends the first 3 times but when the red mist descended, they misjudged and paid the price. Unfortunate, of course but the conditions were the same for all the riders and those who showed a fraction more caution (? better judgement ?) managed to finish.
 
badlywornroy said:
Sadly this course safety (or lack of) will will come down to money (or lack of) ?

When the TDF came to the Yorkshire Dales a lot of road resurfacing was completed in a hurry prior to the event. I guess the road conditions around Rio would have needed huge amounts of money to bring them to acceptable standard. I' m thinking of the tarmac edging (or lack of). Rio is 'broke' !
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i suspect the large gutters are to accommodate the large amounts of rain they have.
 
273K said:
I was initially in the "deal with the conditions" camp but having seen the sickening crash in the women's race, plus the sheer number of crashes I've moved into the "course should have been changed" camp. Whilst judging the conditions is obviously a big part of road cycling crashing out of an Olympic race due to a particularly challenging course is pretty cruel. It's one thing to lose cos you haven't got the legs quite another to go down on a ridiculously tight bend.
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id agree if a large amount of riders had crashed, but wasn't there about 7-8 in total?
 
I think that the problem is not road conditions, or tight turns, but that the penalty for a mistake was so high.

On the last lap, riders are bound to push the limits but the huge unprotected concrete kerbs & gulleys meant thet serious injuries were inevitable. The catch fencing looked feeble & Porte said he would have gone over, if he hadn't hit the tree! They didn't even repair the fence he hit for the next day. If someone crashed at the same place, which isn't unusual, who knows where they'd have ended up? Also, a rider may have had a puncture or mechanical that chucked them off, through no fault of their own.

Obviously money is an issue, but perhaps rolled bales could have been placed on the outside gutter on the fast corners. At least that way you wouldn't be face-planting a concrete kerb at 20/30mph!
 
badlywornroy said:
I wonder why Chris Froome competed today when the UK team was so strong others were capable of a podium finish. The time trial was always Froome's best chance of a gold. His exertions today must reflect on his physical condition on wednesday ? His potential main challenger Tom Dumoulin abandoned after 10 mins today. This may prove to be poor judgement by UK cycling.
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Looks like you were right about Froome, he's well off the pace here.
 
273K said:
Looks like you were right about Froome, he's well off the pace here.
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Well we will never know for sure but no way riding the road race could have helped.
 
it'll be interesting to see how the new track bike the american team are trying out fares - in case you've not seen it, the drivetrain is on the "wrong" side - i.e. it's on the LH side of the bike, which is the INSIDE of the track.

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Whatever the benefits this gives should have been easy to ascertain - simply ride around the Velodrome on a "normal" bike in a clockwise direction instead of the usual counter-clock at (say) 400w for 5 laps. Then get off, rest, and repeat going the "correct" direction. Whichever was the fastest is the optimum side.
 
273K said:
True no shame in getting bronze, cancellara is a beast.
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well, it cheered me up no end...

Tenner on a Nice little 1,2,3 forecast at the local bookies (couldn't find anything online, but asked the guy behind the counter and he checked the individual odds and quoted me a price about a month ago!)... Not saying what odds I got, but it'll keep me in beer money for the next few evenings watching the trackies going around in circles
 
TheBigYin said:
it'll be interesting to see how the new track bike the american team are trying out fares - in case you've not seen it, the drivetrain is on the "wrong" side - i.e. it's on the LH side of the bike, which is the INSIDE of the track.

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Whatever the benefits this gives should have been easy to ascertain - simply ride around the Velodrome on a "normal" bike in a clockwise direction instead of the usual counter-clock at (say) 400w for 5 laps. Then get off, rest, and repeat going the "correct" direction. Whichever was the fastest is the optimum side.
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Surely the unfamiliarity of turning clockwise would introduce at least one variable?

Maybe the slight flex caused by the riders' pedal pressure sets them up slightly better than it going the other way? Slightly surprised that the valve stems aren't faired in to reduce drag. Not that a cyclist on a bike is particularly aerodynamically efficient...
 
Nod said:
Slightly surprised that the valve stems aren't faired in to reduce drag.
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strange you mentioned that... this link popped up in my Facebook Feed abut 5 minutes ago - http://flocycling.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/flo-cycling-does-covering-valve-cutout.html

apparently, it makes about 8 seconds difference over a ironman distance or 2 seconds over 40km. so, for the 4k pursuit it'd be worth 0.2 seconds - which could well be a winning/losing margin. Not something that they'd necessarily do in training then, but for the "real event", well - yes, definitely.


as to the "turning right on the velodrome"... well, that's certainly something you'd have to contend with if you used a regular "trackie" - perhaps with a seasoned road time-triallist who wasn't quite so used to the whole track ethos of "keep pedalling and always turn left"...
 
I AM strange!!!
 
IMHO for the Olympics there should be the same "standard" bike issued to all cyclists, obviously available in a range of sizes/adjustable fit, which would make it a pure test of rider against rider, as it is now the nations with the biggest research budget will have an advantage. I may be wrong but seem to remember hearing the boats in the sailing are the same for all competitors. The same should be done for the formula 1 get all the drivers in identical performing cars and see who's the fastest. Swimming too, everyone wears the same material none of this hydrodynamic fish suit malarkey. Not for all (professional) competitions but as a one off it would be interesting to see who's the best "all other things being equal".
 
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Another good night in the velodrome... probably the highlight of the olympic program for me, the 4000m team pursuit. And, no, not because of the result... The Team Pursuit was probably the reason I got into competitive cycling - though I never actually rode the event myself.

(bear with me, some of the details may not be quite 100% accurate, we're dealing with my memories from anything up to 48 years ago here...)

One of my earliest memories, was sitting in my grandads living room, watching the 1968 Mexico Olympics (it had to be at my Grandads... we didn't have a telly back then, and my Grandad had rented one just before the olympics...) Sitting on the floor, in front of the tiny little screen, watching these two teams of 4 men whizzing around a little loop, trying to catch each other, taking turns on the front then flying off up the banking to drop back in again at the back for another turn. It was enthralling and I was, at the age of 5 already hooked.

1972, Munich, and the only thing I could remember about the Olympics was the Bike Racing. 9 years old and pleading with my mam and dad to be allowed to stay up and watch the racing. Success... And this was the year with the "big showdown" - East vs West Germany... Thinking about it now, the Semi-Finals must have been quite intense for people of my parents/grandparents age who'd lived through WW2 - think about it, East and West Germany, Poland and GB... I wasn't quite as nationalistic - I liked the East German team - think it was the fact that they were MASSIVE blokes in steel-grey kit - they LOOKED like some kind of superheros (strangely enough, we pretty much found that they had something in common with lots of super-heros - chemical intervention causing the superpowers, but I digress...)

So - amazing racing, and West beat East for gold/silver, GB beat Poland for Bronze... disappointing for my family, but riveting for me.

1976, Montreal, and we'd finally got Colour TV! And again, the only thing I wanted to watch in the run up to the games was the Velodrome. I'd got my first "proper" bike by now... 13, and I'd done allsorts of stuff to get the money for it - got peoples coal in, mowed lawns, helped the farmer stack hay-bales - all the kinds of stuff that these days would get you shot for child worker exploitation really, but back then just "showed some gumption" in me... Quarter finals - GB beat Poland again, just like for bronze 4 years before, east and West Germany had easy wins, but the Russians CAUGHT the italians... amazing. GB were seeded 4th and had to take on West Germany in the semi finals,(we lost that round, and were in for the bronze-run-offs...) while (my beloved silver - I still had a soft spot for 'em) East Germany were up against the Russians... Looking back, you can almost imagine the drugs dripping out of those 8 guys on the track back then... The russians won - setting up a final ride-off of West Germany vs Russia for gold/silver, and GB against East Germany for Bronze. For me it was a no-lose situation - but the rest of the family didn't see it that way, so it was a good thing really that Ian Hallam,Ian Banbury, Robin Croker, and Mick Bennett did the business and beat the east german team by a fraction of a second.

That was it. I was hooked on bike riding - I rode whenever, wherever I could, I got a saturday job at my LBS (sweeping up and making tea mainly...) to fund my next bike, and at 14 I joined the local bike club... I raced as a junior on the restricted gears, and found I was pretty poor at massed start stuff, but I could ride against the clock pretty well... Only times I did anything in a road-race was if I got into a break and stayed away - and every time that happened, the rest of the people in the break beat me for the sprint... But I got some points and progressed a bit. But I WAS half reasonable as a tester...

Now, the wrong side of 50, 25 years or more since I've been a "clubman", and well off the pace for competitive cycling, I still love riding my bike - and I've been told by at least 3 medics that the cycling I've done has saved my life when I had a health scare nearly a year ago... I owe so much to cycling, but mainly my life and sanity!

And it all stemmed from that 5 year old sitting in front of his Grandad's Rented Telly, watching a bunch of men ride around and around in circles.
 
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I started racing in the late seventies, after using my bike as transport (I had never owned a bike as a kid). I concentrated on time trials rather than road racing, and the local stars at that time were Sean Yates and Tony Doyle. I stuck at it for about six years and got down to middling tweny one minutes for 10 miles. I then took it up again the early nineties when I got married, and then gave it up in 2000 after illness intervened.
I have always watched cycling on the telly, and I think it was Chris Boardman's win in Barcelona in 1992 which made me take it up again.
 
Nod said:
I think you deserve a refund on the sanity ticket!!! :p
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I'm perfectly sane, I've even got the certificate to prove it...

Actually, that's a lie, hopefully for "comic" effect, but if you think I'm barmy now, think what I'd be like if I hadn't had cycling as an outlet... I doubt I'd have made it through the 10 years I spent as a full-time live-in carer to my aging parents without some way of getting out for a hour and blowing off a little steam.
 
How many fallers have there been in the velodrome?
 
Just a heads up incase anyone is looking for a cheap GPS cycle computer, my Garmin Edge 200 is up for sale in the classifieds section.

Now gone!
 
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Did my first Sportive yesterday, which was also my first experience of a group ride and first time doing over 50miles in one day (in the last 3 years).
It went really well and I had a cracking time, pretty much loved it from the moment I strapped a number on to my bike :banana: :woot:

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A new cyclist gets his first bike on the weekend! The bike is supposed to be for 2yrs+, but he can get his feet comfortably flat on the floor while sitting on the saddle, so thought better to have one sooner than later.

Hasn't got the hang of walking along with the bike, but i love seeing him swing his leg over to get on the bike. Cant wait to see him start pushing himself along.

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Great thread topic.

After being a keen mountain biker for many years (Spesh Enduro that I built up to a spec I was happy with, XT and Hope M4s) I was starting to get more interested in road bikes. After dithering about for 18 months I finally bought the new steed (http://www.cube.eu/uk/products/road-race/attain/cube-attain-gtc-sl-disc-carbonnflashyellow-2016/). I also treated the bike to a Garmin Edge 1000.

I think it is fair to say that road bikes have come a long way since my trusty old Peugeot Espirit with a 'magnet on a spoke' bike computer last saw some action. :)

Additionally, even though a 10kg 58cm road bike feels light to me and I'm absolutely delighted with it, in the scheme of things and with how modern race road bikes are, 10kg is quite lardy, like its rider. Disk brakes on a road bike is a nice addition though. I'm sure they are not to everyone's taste but I'm a definite convert.

My longest ride so far is only 25 miles (4th ride) but itching to get out on it again.
 
Well done Osmo for catching the cycling bug all over again. Don't judge yourself on " My longest ride so far is only 25 miles " it is as much about the terrain (how much climbing) and your average speed as it is on total miles.

Looks a lovely bike, I owned a Cube a couple of years ago, great bike, great value.

Disc brakes ? it depends. I have a high spec flat bar (bad weather) bike with mudguards and disc brakes and they do a great job in the wet.

I also have a Felt road bike with Ultegra groupset that I do not use 'in the wet' and I feel no need for disc brakes. This saves weight on the disc brakes and the disc wheels and I appreciate the 8Kg (on the road) weight when tackling the hills around here.

'Horses for courses' as they say. :)
 
Personally I love having disc brakes on my road bike - but then I use it everyday for an 18mile roundtrip commute, so the consistency of braking in all conditions is invaluable to me. But as Roy says, if you have a 'nice weather only' bike then I can see why you would choose not to have them.
 
I use my road bike in all weathers.
With 25mm slicks and rim brakes, in wet weather i have learned to expect not very much from the brakes.
I find that in dry conditions i am a heavy front braker (stems from mountain bike days) leaning of the saddle to put more weight over the front.
In the wet i naturally stay on the saddle (more weight) and brake slightly heavier on the rear
 
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I can see at least 2 reasons for having discs on a high-end roadbike

1 - while the braking with rim-brakes on alloy rims (or alloy/carbon composites like (say) the Shimano C35's et al) is definitely good enough in the dry that the tyre adhesion is the limiting factor, in the wet, the shorter "delay" before the brakes work and the lack of wear to the sidewalls from road-grit and water (a very effective grinding paste) make it a good idea for anyone who rides their "good bike" in bad weather. And, lets face it, I'm in the UK, it doesn't have to be january for the rain to come down for the 3 hours of the homebound leg of your century ride...

2 - All the above is even more true if you're riding on full carbon hoops. Wet weather braking on carbon rims, even the exceptional ones simply isn't as good as on Alloy. And, if you think the wear factor on sidewalls is bad with alloy - with carbon its WAAAY worse. A friend of mine did one of the Italian Gran-Fondo's last year, in the Dolomites, and it pretty much rained all day. When I asked him how it went he said "well, it was painful going up, and terrifying going down, and painful seeing the bike after. You should see the state wear on the 303's... " - when I asked him how bad the wear was he simply said "about £500 worth..."

I like the idea of disk-brakes on a properly light, fast bike - and I'd love the kind of money to get something around the same weight as my Dolan (say 7.5kg as an on-the-road weight - ok, sans bidon...) that had discs, but, at the moment, I can't see it happening. I would definitely like to pick up a steel touring frame with disk wheel compatibility though, then bung the 9 speed XT from my (largely redundant) MTB on it (along with the 9-speed ultegra brake-shifters I've had hanging around for years...), get some proper touring disk hoops built, and make up the rest from the parts bin... Then start taking off for a few days/weeks/months/years at a time rather than just riding "out the door, in a loop then back home in time for tea" all the time.
 
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My 2016 Rose Xeon CDX 3100 has Ultegra Di2 and hydraulic discs and is specced at 7.6 kg without pedals. Cost when bought last year was around £2,300.

I was out riding with a mate recently, with him on carbon rims. Weather was warm and dry and at the end of a step decent I stopped (easily) at a give way junction while he ended up in the middle of the road ahead of us, unable to stop in time. He's about 15 kg lighter than me as well. Christ knows where he would have stopped in the wet.
 
tdodd said:
My 2016 Rose Xeon CDX 3100 has Ultegra Di2 and hydraulic discs and is specced at 7.6 kg without pedals. Cost when bought last year was around £2,300.
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ah, the joys of buying european... now £2758.13, plus another £540 or so for a Stages powermeter and £90 for a pair of Ultegra pedals - as I thought really, a bit out of my current budget.
 
That Rose bike does sound perfect in every way [emoji3]

Here's my latest man cave creation

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