The Audio-Talk Cycling thread.

[Ray P]

Secretions!

Sssshhh! If I told you it wouldn't be any more...

[Dave the bass]

Ha!

ISWYDT.

[Ray P]

That's April done:

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[IslandPink]

Nice total Ray - are you thinking of riding a '100' this year ! ?

I went out for an hour & 2 mins earlier, pretty slow. 128bpm average. Just trying to tick over while I get over some fatigue that's been building.

[Ray P]

Nice total Ray - are you thinking of riding a '100' this year ! ?

I went out for an hour & 2 mins earlier, pretty slow. 128bpm average. Just trying to tick over while I get over some fatigue that's been building.

Yes Mark, I'll be doing a 100mile ride four weeks tomorrow (and have a 100Km ride planned for June). I did a steady 52mile (83Km) ride yesterday as part of my preparation.

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[IslandPink]

Very good .
I found a very interesting list of info in an old 1980's notebook yesterday.
All my 100+ mile rides listed.
The first one was Lancaster & back from Croft ( Warrington ) , club reliability trial. 102 miles when I was 15 !
Also did 117 miles to Llangollen & back when I was 17.

[Ray P]

I didn't do my first 100miler until I was 62! 120miles from HMS Victory (Portsmouth) to Taunton.

[IslandPink]

Interesting .... I thought you were a racer in past years though, Ray ?

Just been out for a slightly longer ride.
I took the chance of going North, a bit hillier, and extending to 1 hour 37min (136 bpm avg )
Route went North to Pont y Cambwll, then up the 1 in 6 ( ouch, bottom gear ) to the b-road, then South to Bodfari ( Dave will like that ) , then Aberwhiler and another hill.
Fairly pleased with how that went, but it remains to be seen how I recover.

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[Ray P]

Interesting .... I thought you were a racer in past years though, Ray ?

I was Mark but I never did a race anywhere near that long, In those days we had no bike computers so you could only estimate your distance covered - as a rule of thumb our Sunday morning club runs were 50-70 miles based on estimating from maps.

[Ray P]

It wasn't great down here Sunday and Monday but I did manage to get out yesterday afternoon - felt strong and went well in spite of the damp conditions.

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[IslandPink]

I never raced beyond 25 miles ( properly ... let's not talk about my one attempt at 50 ..,. ) but it did seem that when I was young there was something about those rides of 80 miles and above that really clicked for the aerobic endurance. It was just the way it worked out back then, i never got in to riding much in the week ( other than riding out to races ) and we all wanted to go further up into Lancashire/Bowland or the White Peak as we got fitter.
The best routine I had was at University, didn't last long, but I could do a long ride on the weekend and about 40 miles on a Wednesday afternoon.

[Ray P]

With the recent issue I had with snapped handlebars as a resut of corrosion from my sweat on the static trainer I resolved to get a cheap bike to dedicate to static trainer use to avoid a repeat and keep my bikes in tip top condition.

Yesterday I put in a speculative bid on ebay for a bike and turned out to be the only bidder. For £300 I've landed a little used bike (It's a Halfords own brand and retailed for over £1000) that has a carbon frame and generic Chinese carbon handlebars (so no corrosion issues) and a decent FSA/Shimano (Tiagra) group set. I would be nervous of the handlebars out on the road as you're never quite sure how well made they are but they'll be fine on the trainer. I'll remove the brakes and wheels and sell them on to recoup some of the spend - the bike has rim brakes, which I don't use anymore, not that you need them on a static bike.

Before bidding I looked at some bike mag reviews and they rated the bike as pretty reasonable, fast on good straight roads but a bit average on twists and turns, which won't concern me.

I have to pop over the Severn Bridge to collect it on Sunday.

Remember the rule of thumb for the number of bikes you need, n+1, where n is the number of bikes you already own.

[IslandPink]

Result !

ps. this blew my mind last night - 278 miles at an average of 23.6mph :

[Ray P]

...this blew my mind last night - 278 miles at an average of 23.6mph :

Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago Cycling Weekly's 'From the Archive' feature was a report on the 1965 edition of London to Holyhead, won by Tom Simpson. Barry Hoban was in the mix too.

You're right about that average speed, phenomenal.

[andrew Ivimey]

Phroaaaaar, when men and Beryl Burton were real cyclists; I have Barry Hoban's signature somewhere but I never got to see Tom.