I want to buy a road bike

[Lobachevsky]

in the spring im doing tour of the yorkshire dales so will need to do a few long winter rides in the cotswolds.

[Lobachevsky]

it'll be a change from our last 3 tours which were in holland and belgium.

[Mumpo]

Just bought some rollers. Woah. And I thought steering a helicopter was difficult.

[San Bernardhinault]

Rollers? You fucking loon. Why not just a regular trainer?

I just got back from my morning ride. It looked dry when I set out, but by the first corner I realised that there was a huge amount of ambient moisture in the air. Like a fog made out of big particles so you can see but you still get soaked. I now smell like a wet dog.

[ursus arctos]

There's been severe fog down here for the last 24 hours or so

Last night was one of those when the other side of the Hudson "disappears"

[caja-dglh]

My bike is also useless going up steep hills. I was out in Vermont the weekend before last, and rode up a couple of stretches of 14% grade and the bike was really struggling.

I was joking with a Race Director of an event in Vermont that I have moved to live on the Prairie so that even the small hills are appreciated at his event.

I miss hills.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Am on campus one day a week and determined to avoid public transport which means I’ve done some much wetter riding than normal. Got one of those 6-inch laminated mudguards and luckily the radiator is on in the office so the way home isn't involving squelching into wet tights.
My main problem is never cleaning the bike, so once you get to autumn the dirt, grit, mud and leaves really build up in various places.

Still, laziness prevailing, I can wait til the clocks go back when the cyclocross bike (already festooned with lights) comes out the garage.

[Mumpo]

Rollers? You fucking loon. Why not just a regular trainer?

A few reasons:

• I can't afford a good enough turbo. Those cheap-end ones that you have to swap out for your rear wheel are no good to me - too much fuss to do often, and I don't have a dedicated bike I can leave there (or a dedicated space I can leave the set-up). Plus they're noisy and don't have variable resistance. And to be honest even if I could afford a smart trainer I'm not really into Zwifting and that - too boring. I mean, if I could stump up for one of those all-in-one exercise bike type trainers I'd probably do it, but I'm nowhere near that kind of budget.
• Right now I feel like I could benefit more from endurance training than resistance training. I've spent plenty of time over spring/summer doing all kinds of climbing, and we live close enough to hilly rides that I can get decent practice in less than an hour; but when I do even mostly flat rides for more than two or three hours, cramp and exhaustion start to set in. Hopefully some time on the rollers will get my core strength up.
• It's just more fun! Veering around on the rollers is far more tangible than being skewered in place by a turbo. Also it's a definite skill, and it's always good to learn a new skill. Aiming to go hands-free soon...

[Felicity, I guess so]

A few reasons:

• I can't afford a good enough turbo. Those cheap-end ones that you have to swap out for your rear wheel are no good to me - too much fuss to do often, and I don't have a dedicated bike I can leave there (or a dedicated space I can leave the set-up). Plus they're noisy and don't have variable resistance. And to be honest even if I could afford a smart trainer I'm not really into Zwifting and that - too boring. I mean, if I could stump up for one of those all-in-one exercise bike type trainers I'd probably do it, but I'm nowhere near that kind of budget.
• Right now I feel like I could benefit more from endurance training than resistance training. I've spent plenty with it, Mumpoof time over spring/summer doing all kinds of climbing, and we live close enough to hilly rides that I can get decent practice in less than an hour; but when I do even mostly flat rides for more than two or three hours, cramp and exhaustion start to set in. Hopefully some time on the rollers will get my core strength up.
• It's just more fun! Veering around on the rollers is far more tangible than being skewered in place by a turbo. Also it's a definite skill, and it's always good to learn a new skill. Aiming to go hands-free soon...

Good luck with it, Mumpo and do keep us posted on how it handles etc

As an aside ‘cramp and exhaustion after 2-3 hours’ sounds like nutrition unless you really hammer it all the time..? We demand to know your refuelling strategies

[Mumpo]

I wouldn't say I hammer it all the time but it's probably true I don't ride as sustainably as I should. Greater self-restraint would help, plus an awareness of my limitations...

On a long ride I take a mixture of energy gels and bars plus 1 x bidon water and 1 x bidon electrolyte solution but I'm not especially rigorous about when I use them. I can anticipate when my tank is hovering on empty and tend to use the gels to avert that; the bars I just eat whenever I have a rest/direction check stop, and the electrolyte juice I alternate with regular swigs of water.

I think I have a high metabolism and could probably do with taking on fuel more regularly.

[Mumpo]

Going well with the rollers though. Can trundle along happily in the highest gear, albeit while maintaining concentration. Making sure I follow general best principles - focus ahead, not down on your wheel; if you wobble, don't slow down, speed up. Cover your handlebars with a towel.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Well that does all sound rational and sufficient (yer refuelling). Tho I would usually have some solid food as well as gels and carb drink or I get funny tummy issues

[San Bernardhinault]

That's a known issue, the mucked up stomach from just gels. But it usually takes longer than a couple of hours - even hard hours.

My last outdoor ride before a 10 days of shitty weather here was a 70 miler, over around 4 hours or so, and I only drank one black coffee at the 45 mile mark, and a half bidon of electrolytes, and got home (basically) fine. I forgot to take any calories with me at all. So I'm probably not the person who should be giving advice on this. I can't ride fast, but I am a proper mule who can consume his own large internal stores on a long ride.

Since the weather went shitty I've been indoors on the Wahoo-Zwift combo. It's a clear second best to actually riding, but it's pretty good. Up to a point, which seems to be somewhere between 45 minutes or an hour. I crush it much harder on the trainer than I do in real life because I know I don't have to find the energy for the last few miles home.

I really do have to switch the rear cassette on the Wahoo from an 11 to 10 speed because I have to be fucking up my chain.

[Lobachevsky]

have proper christened the new bike by coming off on a wet road and rupturing ligaments that connect collar bone and shoulder. not too painful at the moment but will need operation and six weeks recovery.

not the best.

[Gangster Octopus]

Ouch!

[Hot Orange]

Ow. Get well soon.

In other painful news, I took my winter bike into the LBS for a little start-of-season service and was ?129 poorer after I'd picked it up. Their prices are very reasonable so this is a reflection of how many little things there were to sort out and replace rather than them choosing to fleece me.

[Lobachevsky]

my cycling buddies have shown a touching concern for the Pinarello.

[San Bernardhinault]

Ouch! How is the Pinarello?

I haven't found an LBS round here. Looking at prices it seems that the least I'll pay for a basic service is $100. Looking at my rear tyre halfway through today's ride I will definitely need a new one on the rear as it has squared out. And I fear that I have more expensive stuff to be done, too. The chain might have stretched out a bit. I fear I am probably going to be $2-300 in the hole when it finally goes in for the needed work.

The reason that I was looking at the rear tire is that I had my second-best-timed puncture ever. As I was rolling up to the boardwalk at Salisbury beach, I felt everything go soft and wobbly (yeah, stop tittering at the back). So I sat on a bench looking at the ocean as I fixed it. Could have been worse.

[San Bernardhinault]

Well, I got ready for today's ride (late), and decided I'd better pump up my tires. Took the (stirrup) pump off the rear and sheared off the valve. This is the fifth or sixth time I've done this. Does anyone else do it, or am I doing something stupid?

Anyway, I then spent a miserable twenty minutes really struggling to get the tire back over the rim after replacing the inner tube, only for the fucking thing to not inflate - I guess that I managed to tear the thing apart when trying to put the tire back.

So, instead of going a third time I just resorted to my clonkier ancient aluminium Cannondale. It's slow, it's a little heavy, it's got a very archaic triple on the front, but it's very, very comfortable, particularly with the thick Schwalbe touring tyres. Those tyres also felt so much more comfortable on the damp roads and wet leaves. It might be time to put the road bike away for the season and just ride The Mule for a while.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Does anyone else...? Oh, yes.

I have just reacquired my own Cinelli proxima (electric blue, campag 9 speed)- I gave it to an old friend who was just taking up cycling- it was a medium, I was a small and I got a Bianchi on the bike-to-work scheme.

He has now become a demon insomniac cyclist who rides to Kielder in a day (8 hour trip) and needs something more comfortable and I have been back out on it and realised that 54 is just a saddle adjustment away from 53 (my Bianchi) even tho my Orbea is a 51.

Tho I am now amazed I did the C2c on it with paltry twiddling gears (I was younger, naive) and therefore am now searching for campag compacts, baby

[Levin]

I've never sheared a valve.

I'm after advice. My cannondale is sadly not repairable in any sense of the word. It's served me well though and I miss it. So I'm in the market for a new bike at possibly the worst time in living memory.

Ideally I'd want something that Toro would approve of, European definitely. But, I'm 1.95 tall and not rolling in money. I got my last bike on a ride to work scheme. On top of that, a couple of places I've looked are back ordered something ridiculous. I'm also not helped by finding bent chain stays irredeemably ugly and have no interest in a gravel bike.

[San Bernardhinault]

I'm definitely not able to give you advice, I'm afraid. I think the combination of Toro-approved, affordable, non-gravel and large size makes it a tricky search.

[Mumpo]

You can have two out of three: Toro-approved, affordable, and non-gravel

[Levin]

I was worried that this would be the case.

I'm toying with the idea saving a little while and then buying a steel cinelli frame. Then get the rest through my LBS and have them put it together. But I don't know. Not that I want carbon but I was happy with an alu frame.

I do think it's probably wiser to save and spend more on a bike I like rather than just get what's available now. And going the Nemo route would give me choice of colour.

[San Bernardhinault]

Would building up a road bike but starting from an alu gravel frame make any sense?