The Fretboard Cycling Club

Jaycee

drofluf said:

My concern on the Trek is that it has quite an old group set (essentially gears). It’s 3x7 whereas the new stuff is 1/2x10/11. You may be better looking for something higher range with at least 9 speeds on the back. Will give you more choice of gears, potentially a better range and better spares availability. 

I agree

I didn't notice it was a 3x7,  having said that, my hybrid bike which I bought from a mate as a go-between after the Claude butler went, has a tourney groupset 3x7  which works pretty well. It would not have been my first choise but I was skint and needed a bike. 

I like to look at the higher specced bikes and see if I can find a used one close to it, but within my budget

drofluf

Also worth a look at the Decathlon bikes, I think they provide value for money.

nothing inherently wrong with 3x7 (except perhaps my inner gear snob talking) but gears are fragile mores on on a mountain bike than a town or hybrid. The one rule of mountain biking is that you will break something and it usually happens a long walk from home. 

Jaycee

drofluf said:

Also worth a look at the Decathlon bikes, I think they provide value for money.

nothing inherently wrong with 3x7 (except perhaps my inner gear snob talking) but gears are fragile mores on on a mountain bike than a town or hybrid. The one rule of mountain biking is that you will break something and it usually happens a long walk from home. 

I must say that when I got into road cycling my granny ring served me well, ( helped with my allergy to hills) it eventually became redundant as my ability improved.

markslade07

Jaycee said:

drofluf said:

Also worth a look at the Decathlon bikes, I think they provide value for money.

nothing inherently wrong with 3x7 (except perhaps my inner gear snob talking) but gears are fragile mores on on a mountain bike than a town or hybrid. The one rule of mountain biking is that you will break something and it usually happens a long walk from home. 

I must say that when I got into road cycling my granny ring served me well

What the heck is a ‘granny ring’ or don’t I want to know!

drofluf

markslade07 said:

Jaycee said:

drofluf said:

Also worth a look at the Decathlon bikes, I think they provide value for money.

nothing inherently wrong with 3x7 (except perhaps my inner gear snob talking) but gears are fragile mores on on a mountain bike than a town or hybrid. The one rule of mountain biking is that you will break something and it usually happens a long walk from home. 

I must say that when I got into road cycling my granny ring served me well

What the heck is a ‘granny ring’ or don’t I want to know!

I’m sooo tempted to let your imagination run wild but it’s the nickname for the smallest chainring so the easiest to pedal uphill. 

markslade07

drofluf said:

markslade07 said:

Jaycee said:

drofluf said:

Also worth a look at the Decathlon bikes, I think they provide value for money.

nothing inherently wrong with 3x7 (except perhaps my inner gear snob talking) but gears are fragile mores on on a mountain bike than a town or hybrid. The one rule of mountain biking is that you will break something and it usually happens a long walk from home. 

I must say that when I got into road cycling my granny ring served me well

What the heck is a ‘granny ring’ or don’t I want to know!

I’m sooo tempted to let your imagination run wild but it’s the nickname for the smallest chainring so the easiest to pedal uphill. 

Ah…I see! Was worried what the hell I was possibly getting myself in to!

littlegreenman

Nice little day out today on the Liverpool Chester Liverpool ride

jimmyd

Totally recommend Decathlon for bike kit, I personally would save some cash to replace the tyres when you get a new bike, not massively into mtb but all the road bikes I've bought have all benefited from replacing the tyres they came with.

It's great to see the fretboard massive enjoying their cycling, Derby Velodrome is still shut as it's being used as a vaccination centre so all my track cycling has gone on hold for over a year. Really noticing the lack of fitness now..

markslade07

Looks like I’ll have a squiz at Decathlon then…

jonnyburgo

Yeah Decathlon are well specced for the price, good for shorts and tops etc unless you want to go full Castelli. 

Jaycee

Just had a Decathlon open up in my local Tesco store, some nice stuff in there

markslade07

I’ve just found the Decathlon refurbished website too. Some decent savings on ex-display bikes, and other stuff

Jaycee

My mate wants us to get 17mph avg spd by the end of the summer, over 35 miles with about 2300 ft of elevation.

I have no doubt he will be able to achieve it, he has a good power to weight ratio and can climb. I on the other hand am just happy doing 30 -50 miles averging about 14 - 15mph.  My speed and ability has increased over the years to where I am now in a nice comfort zone.

However I am putting in a few training rides 19.5 miles, 1,283ft  elevation.

1st ride  1:14:17  168w est avg power 15.8mph

2nd ride 1:12:44 177w           "             16.1 "

I will say that I am barking at the end of the ride, hopefully I will keep it up.

Logie

@Jaycee ;
That's roughly where I'm at at the moment.
I do a 40 mile, 1400ft route and my best  average is 17.2 mph although it can be less depending on the wind obviously.
I scratch my head at the watts thing though. I feel like I work hard on every ride but the highest average watt reading I've ever had on Strava was 168w!
The time on the route I mentioned earlier gave me 137w average so in my head it's telling me I'm a lazy bastard and I should work harder
Wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't so knackered at the end of it.

Jaycee

@Logie I'm not to sure with the watts either, I don't have a power meter so it's just estimated.

I can only assume that it takes your weight into consideration when it calculates. I hover around 14st and my mate is 10st, I can get 150w av and he gets 95w for the same ride, and I burn more calories, so it must be the weight a person is.

drofluf

@Jaycee @Logie Strava is notoriously inaccurate for its power estimates so unless you have a power meter I’d take it with a pinch of salt. 

That said a more important comparison is Watts/kilogram or power to weight ratio. In the example above with a 14st rider pushing 150W and the 10st rider at 95W should be riding at about the same pace. But other factors come into play such as how well the bike rolls and the aerodynamics of the bike and rider. A small slim rider will have less drag than a tall wide rider. 

Logie

@drofluf ;
Well, I'm a 12 stone, short and wide physique so that might explain it

Jaycee

drofluf said:

@Jaycee @Logie Strava is notoriously inaccurate for its power estimates so unless you have a power meter I’d take it with a pinch of salt. 

That said a more important comparison is Watts/kilogram or power to weight ratio. In the example above with a 14st rider pushing 150W and the 10st rider at 95W should be riding at about the same pace. But other factors come into play such as how well the bike rolls and the aerodynamics of the bike and rider. A small slim rider will have less drag than a tall wide rider. 

That's what I thought, ......feels as though i'm hitting 400w 

drofluf

A flat 25 miles at an average of 16.5mph and I’m knackered so kudos to those of you who are going faster on longer hillier rides.

Logie

Should have seen me Friday! My 5th ride in a week and my legs went 20 mile from home. They do say rest is as important as exercise