The Cycling Thread

I’m not sure I’d put much value in any incline/decline feature, I don’t expect it’ll make anything more realistic

I also agree with this, the smart trainers ramp tension up or down to simulate it, so not sure the extra incline/decline is worth the extra cost. 

Atom doesn't tilt, but you definitely feel the difference when going up the virtual ventoux or alpe d'huez.

I'd expect all smart trainers to have ERG. As an aside, in my experience in zwift workouts the atom ERG mode takes a few seconds to settle down as it adjusts it, but if you maintain the required cadence it's fine. Don't try to work it with watts as you'll end up shooting over/under. Keep the cadence as required and the ERG mode adjusts wattage around that.

People seem to complain about it not working on the atom for short burst efforts, but they seem to be fighting against the wattage. So long as you stick to the required cadence you will still get stars for completing 30sec sprint efforts once you get used to it.


Edit: ERG mode is mostly used for workouts or ftp tests only btw.


Zwift controls your smart trainer in controllable mode for free-riding and will adjust tension for incline, that gives you access to gears, which you don't use in ERG mode.  

I think we've got enough for a Zwift meetup over the winter, right? Have they released clubs yet? It seems to have been in testing for 18 months or so…

All of them suffer from a few seconds lag, on the Kickr I’ve got it makes the 15 second sprint workouts near impossible. Nature of the beast.
I quite fancy the climb type products myself, though not enough to buy one to be honest. It makes sense to me to tilt the bike up and workout like that if you’re pinging up a virtual Alp.

I’m on Xert at the moment for workouts, but tempted by Zwift for three or four months this winter as very low on indoor motivation.

I dunno, climbing is about much more than just the angle of the bike, you can’t recreate the feeling of lost momentum or the front end going light. I’d expect the only thing that incline machine to do is press the saddle nose even further into the old perineum than you’d like

Yeah I got caught in some pretty rough rain on Tuesday and it was pretty grim. It's when it's soaks into your feet that I hate. I had some water proof feet cover things last year that I need to hunt out.

Anyway it was back to short sleeve jerseys this afternoon, think I topped the tan up a touch

o/

Late oct will be my last time outside, maybe early nov if it's not too cold. Then hibernate until March.

Some of the best sunrises/views are in winter. Love riding up in the hills around here on a crisp winter morning.

Back from a couple of biking weeks in Spain, which was bloody brilliant fun, and no abuse from car drivers the whole time. Back to pot holed roads, and wankers shouting to ride SiNgLe FiLe now, oh well, time to plan the next trip.

I plan on cycling through this winter. Started actively cycling last summer, like everyone else, on a fixie but I ended up loving it so much I bought a Canyon Ultimate CF SL8 Disc road bike a few months back.

I've just got a regular cycling jersey at the moment which has still been fine but I've started using arm warmers now, my legs are fine for the time being. Will be ordering a ever so slightly thicker short sleeved jersey and also a long sleeved one. I have a gilet that I'm refusing to wear until it gets really cold but as of right now I'm planning to go out on it no matter how cold it is

I will totally be avoiding the rain though.

Yeah the neck warmer is a game changer.

I have a bunch of those neck warmer tube thingies? Snoods or Buffs i think they're called.
I have a couple that are thin material for summer and some that are thicker for the winter. I wear one around my neck and if it's really cold i pull it up to cover my mouth and nose and i put another one on my head to cover my hair as it helps keep my head warm in winter and stops bugs that fly into the holes in my lid getting caught in my hair. It also stops the straps on my helm getting caught in my hair and gives a bit better grip. You also look a bit more adventurey when riding about.

I've been walking to work to get my exercise up but i'll have the bike out from next week. I used to cycle all year round aside from when the roads get too icy and i became a totally lazy slob during WFH over lockdown so i have lard to shift for the first time in my life and i cycled to work for the first time in 18months the other week and it damned near killed me as i just went for the pace i had before doing nothing for nearly 2 years.

Part of the reason i don't mind hybrid working or going back to the office is so i'm actually forced to do some exercise again.