Pedal Power Thread

Anyone else joined zwift this Christmas to avoid the winter roads?

I treated myself to a kickr as a birthday and Christmas pressie to myself, Only got it running on my ipad until the 4k apple tv box turns up.

Maybe we can get a TP group ride up and running :)
 
I think i'll be in touch with you regarding your cave of wonders :)

I've done a few rides on it so far, but as i'm recovering from a massive case of man flu haven't really pushed it hard yet. Need to do an FTP test indoor really and see how it compares to the numbers from my tests outdoors but FTP tests really scare me !!
Have you tried a group ride yet?
 
I've done a few - though, being way down on fitness/power since the heart episode, my experience has generally been in the sub 2w/kg stuff - pretty much virtual "clubrun" type riding.

Most of the rides seem to be (ahem) less than disciplined, the billed 1.8-2.2w average generally goes out the window from the tape dropping and it takes a while to stabilise - then, first decent sized hill and they go smash it again. One of the few ones that actually keep to the specified wattage is the "PACK" sub-2 rides, generally around 18:30 - 19:00 start and around a hour plus occasional "after party" (generally monstering it up either Box Hill or the Volcano, depending on course schedule)

Best tip I can give you is this, find the "ride leader" and follow them temporarily, that way in the app, you'll be able to see if your ahead or behind them - ideally of course, you'd be sat wheelsucking them for the entire ride.

Other tips - lots of the group rides use Discord for audio feedback from ride leaders and sweeps, and for ride banter. Oh, and the obvious one - stay in the bunch draft, if you loose it, even if they're only doing 2w/kg and you're off the back by 15 seconds you'll need to be pushing nearer 4w/kg to catch them. The faster the group ride pace (higher the w/kg rating) the more pronounced this is - especially on flat courses - first time I did a group ride around London, I pretty much sat in the pack all the way, and monstered every PB i'd set - never seen as many gongs on a single ride of mine in Strava!
 
I have to agree with ‘TheBigYin’.
I have found group rides very undisciplined with w/kg targets being ignored and ‘fliers’ doing their own thing.
I don’t bother now with group rides but I still find Zwift motivational and fun.
I compete against myself (PR’s etc) and there are always riders around you who want to ‘destroy’ you and then you can ‘hunt’ them down.
Zwift ? Well it is what you make it.
 
I'm getting confused by it's power measurements

I've done 2 identical loops of london days apart, Todays was faster, had a higher NP, Avg Pwr, but the key metrics of 5s, 1m, 20min and ftp were lower than than the previous run. Only the 5min was higher and not by much more than a watt. I'm trying too keep cadence locked on the 80-90 range regardless of terrain and had done so on both rides.
 
I don't fret too much about the "spot measures" - my Strava's direct linked to Zwift, and I just look at the data in there for an overview - or if I'm feeling a bit more obsessive, I'll scoop it all up into GoldenCheetah for a proper "deep dive" into the data. If you're going to compare, I'd suggest just looking at NP - at least if you're "Just riding around" rather than doing specific training.

Speed could well have been different purely because of there being more or less riders on the 2 rides you did - even outside of a group ride there's still drafting effects.

Think I need to throw myself back into something more structured - I'll probably just go with the 10-12 week ftp booster program - though I may well drop some of the more endurance based sessions in favour of riding the Pack group rides
 
digitalfailure said:
Only got it running on my ipad until the 4k apple tv box turns up.
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Just watched the Daily Lamas review of that... it looks pretty decent if you've got all bluetooth sensors (or a dual HR belt like the Wahoo Tickr - which i'd definitely recommend over the garmin HR belt which is resolutely ANT+ only) - personally, I tend to record "belt and braces" - with the Garmin head unit recording as well as Zwift - its very rare that Zwift does lose anything, but I still never trust anything computerised.

If anyone's not seen the review it's here... it DOES look a cost effective way of getting big-screen Zwift going if you don't have a good enough Laptop (or, you're prohibited from using the works laptop) - and its certainly cheaper than buying a dedicated PC for the job.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KVkjmeW6AM
 
I bought the wahoo tickr hr monitor the other day because the garmin one was only ant+, so thats tied to zwift and my elemnt bolt now :)

I don't bother with phone calls, mails etc when i'm riding in or outdoors, usually too busy trying to keep my lungs in my chest cavity :D

I have a 32" screen doing nothing, so apple tv will fit right in..... plus im cancelling sky in Jan and switching to now tv which is on apple tv :D, so the 4k seemed logical.

I think zwift won't currently scale up past 1080 anyway, so thats probably why you didnt see an improvement Roy.
 
digitalfailure said:
I think zwift won't currently scale up past 1080 anyway, so thats probably why you didnt see an improvement Roy.
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Yes, I appreciate that. I guess I was ‘scratching an itch’ getting the Apple but as it was an online purchase I knew it could be returned. Not something I make an habit of.
 
Annual mileage time. All my rides are logged both indoor & out.

Last year I logged 4,520 and my target this year was to average 100 miles a week which I exceeded (just) with 5,303 miles.

Roughly a 50/50 split between indoor & out.

I'm sure many will do more miles but as I turn 71 in 10 days I'm happy with this.

i-MLQ5mRq-L.jpg
 
According to strava My stats are along the lines of

Distance 5,305.8 mi
Time 301h 29m
Elev Gain 236,844 ft
Rides 121

Of those 121 rides Strava and Zwift tell me I did 6 indoor rides for 227km (approx 140miles), My end of year goal was for 5000 miles and 225K ft climbing so happy to have just nudged over the line
 
Good effort both of you!
I only got the bike back out in August, but managed a few rides between the work/winter nights:
26 rides, 500 miles, 48h 40 mins, 23,310 feet.
Hoping for at least double that in 2018!
 
v16ben said:
Good effort both of you!
I only got the bike back out in August, but managed a few rides between the work/winter nights:
26 rides, 500 miles, 48h 40 mins, 23,310 feet.
Hoping for at least double that in 2018!
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Every little helps Ben. :)
 
Very true.
I'm a mountain biker, so never do that much mileage.
I'm aiming to just get out more often this year :)
 
v16ben said:
Very true.
I'm a mountain biker, so never do that much mileage.
I'm aiming to just get out more often this year :)
Click to expand...

Ben, my mileage is shared between 1. Road bike. 2. Flat bar hybrid. 3. Mountain bike. 4. Indoor trainer.
 
last year was a bit of a disaster mileage wise for me...

combination of being ill at the end of the year, and getting a "day job" that's a little too far from home, and across some pretty awful roads (all dual carriageway and lots of motorway intersection roundabouts to cross) so cycle commuting was out of the question...

Veloviewer 2017.png

about half the distance I hit before the heart problems 3 years ago, and more of the distance was indoor trainer than I'm truly happy with :(
 
and, on a different note...

if anyone's into cyclocross...

livestream from the National Championships on youtube

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL7yYnPFeRQ


Race times: Sunday 14 January 09:30: Under-23 and junior women 10:45: Under-23 men 12noon: Junior men 13:15: Elite women 14:30: Elite men
 
I did 250 miles last year off road and started a YouTube channel. Visited more places than ever and started Munro bagging on my bike. Will hopefully get out more this year
 
A warning to members who may receive Yorkshire TV.

Had Jonathan Brown from Yorkshire TV news here this morning https://muckrack.com/jonathan-brown interviewing me and filming me on my bike (in the shed !) for a Zwift related cycling article.

Don't let the children watch it may keep them awake at night.

I don't think I dare watch it myself. Eek !

i-xD3Rj4r-L.jpg
 
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Roy's taken over my twitter and facebook group feeds, almost every cycling group ive been on tonight has the clip :D Ride On !
 
digitalfailure said:
Roy's taken over my twitter and facebook group feeds, almost every cycling group ive been on tonight has the clip :D Ride On !
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Oh Dear Brian, :(

Well I’m not and never have been on twitter so you cannot blame me for that.

What a load of fuss about a silly old man on a bike eh ?
 
Enjoy it, you're a cycling star........ right up there along side Pantani and Hinaut :D
 
Sticky grollies...
 
This old man (71) cycled up Alpe D'Huez, the views were not the same (I was in my shed) and they call it Alpe du Zwift on the cycling app but it is modelled on GPS data from the real climb.

The World famous climb, almost a staple of the Tour de France is 8 miles of relentless climbing with an average gradient of 8% 3,400ft/1036 metres.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX1Ddwmamqs



i-h2Qb94D.jpg




i-Gv8sMHq.jpg
 
Well, this has been a long time in the earning on Zwift...

Tron Bike.jpg

(gawd, I wish I looked as skinny as that avatar does...)

The slight irony being that I hit the 50,000m ascent requirements last night in a Group ride on what is probably the flattest course available on Zwift - Greater London Flat Loop.

So, i'm now on Level 29, with nothing but the prospect of "upgrades" of new socks, helmets and the odd shirt... I'm thinking that the level 26-50 "bonuses" were somewhat "meh" - I wonder why they're holding back on adding bikes/wheels etc - after all there's been one or two "specials" that were available on promo's which they could have dropped into the mix.
 
Ooooh! Hubless wheels and fluorescent tyres! AND significant weight loss... All it needs now is a V twin. ;) :p
 
TheBigYin said:
Well, this has been a long time in the earning on Zwift...

View attachment 140213

(gawd, I wish I looked as skinny as that avatar does...)

The slight irony being that I hit the 50,000m ascent requirements last night in a Group ride on what is probably the flattest course available on Zwift - Greater London Flat Loop.

So, i'm now on Level 29, with nothing but the prospect of "upgrades" of new socks, helmets and the odd shirt... I'm thinking that the level 26-50 "bonuses" were somewhat "meh" - I wonder why they're holding back on adding bikes/wheels etc - after all there's been one or two "specials" that were available on promo's which they could have dropped into the mix.
Click to expand...


Well done Mark, level29 means significant mileage and time 'zwifting' I have 'achieved' the doubtful distinction of getting to level 27 this week. I stiil cycle outside when I can (weather dependant)

I cannot get myself excited about level 'bonuses' despite trying :(

Can I ask what is your id on Zwift, and I will look out for you ?

Roy (a Pensioner)
 
I am trying to cycle to work a couple of times a week at the moment, but when we are starting at 0600 it is an even earlier alarm which wakes the rest of the house..
 
Ive been looking at ebikes for the past couple of years but the price for a decent one is too much for something that i may not use very frequently. But recent browsing i see that the conversion kits have become quite well regarded. Indeed some prefer them to expensive Haibikes.
The one i have been recommended is this tsdz2 kit . £685 is a lot more reasonable than the couple of grand a similar specced bike would cost. It has the bonus that i could install the motor on my mountain bike for around £350. so could convert my commuter and mountain bike and have two decent ebikes for grand
 
Rapscallion said:
Ive been looking at ebikes for the past couple of years but the price for a decent one is too much for something that i may not use very frequently. But recent browsing i see that the conversion kits have become quite well regarded. Indeed some prefer them to expensive Haibikes.
The one i have been recommended is this tsdz2 kit . £685 is a lot more reasonable than the couple of grand a similar specced bike would cost. It has the bonus that i could install the motor on my mountain bike for around £350. so could convert my commuter and mountain bike and have two decent ebikes for grand
Click to expand...

Good forum here
https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/
 
Any advice biking peeps!

Borrowed my sons Carrera mountain bike off him and he was complaining the rear wheel rubbed when riding it.

Looking at the hub spindle it was snapped in two - not sure how he’s managed to do it but nevertheless.

Have sourced one which is same diameter and length (top in pic) but it doesn’t appear to fit due to the extended space only one side.

Quick question really - am I trying to fit it wrong or have I bought the wrong type!

Top hub spindle in the photo is the new one and bottom is the broken one.

07925903-6A6C-4F40-8B33-07493269D0F0.jpeg
 
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