Mark Pattenden 10/3/20 Mark Pattenden 10/3/20

Rapha Canyon Bike Hire

Canyon Ultimate CF SL 8.0 and Endurace CF SL 8.0

I managed to drop my Colnago in Condor cycles. It happened in slow motion as me and the salesman watched the top tube crack against the corner of the wall. He recommended I speak to carbon bike repair. Find them here. I will do a post once I have had the repair done.

I was booked on a club ride with Dulwich Paragon for the weekend and now had no bike so looked to Rapha to hire. The price has gone up recently from £20 to £35 per day. A big jump but the bikes are top end Canyon but there is no real discount from hiring them elsewhere.

The first weekend the rain called off the ride so I had to hire again the following weekend so I got to try out the Ultimate and the Endurance.

The Ultimate was an XS size which was to small for me and felt awkward out of the saddle. It’s a nice light bike and came with Ultreaga Di2. You need to take your own pedals and let them know your saddle height and what computer you use. They also hire out Wahoo’s. Bike came nice and clean all charged up and they let me bring it back on the Monday morning even though I hired only Sat and Sun.

The following weekend I had it only sat but they allowed me to collect Friday afternoon. This means I can get a full days ride in for the hire day. This was the Endurace and in a small size. This was a much better fit and was a really light and quick bike. The two things I took away from this bike which I will add to my next bike were the disk breaks, great in the wet and 28mm tyres. These felt like cushions on the bike and were really comfortable. Alongside the springy seat post I felt like I had suspension. A little bendy for hard a saddle climbs though. It also came with the Sram Force wireless groupset. This looked great and was slick in shifting. It also had a great gear range so less shifting on the front. Cycling weekly review here.

Overall a good service from Rapha if a bit expensive, more details here.

Don’t forget to take your own pedals!!

You also need to be a RCC member!

Mark Pattenden 3/29/20 Mark Pattenden 3/29/20

Wahoo Kickr + Zwift

To ZWIFT or not to ZWIFT?

To start off I hate indoor cycling. It’s boring and it feels nothing like the real thing. You don’t go anywhere. It’s boring. You can’t feel the wind or the sun. It’s boring. You get too sweaty. I hate it.

I tried Zwift and found it dull. I then started to look at the training rides and found this better as I had an aim and target to meet/complete.

Then we were forced to ride inside by COVID19. I started to explore more of what Zwift had to offer and started joining in group rides with Rapha and other random events. I found this to be more entertaining. Something to ride for other than just turning the pedals because it was horrid/dangerous outside.

It will never beat cycling outside and I am not sure if I agree with there being UCI sanctioned races either. But I don’t have to do it and if others enjoy it, fine with me!

I did however really enjoy it when we couldn’t be outside and now find the training regimes very useful for keeping up fitness if you can’t be outside.

Wahoo now offer a whole host of gadgets to replicate cycling outside even a mountain climber?!?!? and wind machine synced in with Zwift. The Vegan Cyclist has done a great video on this stuff here.

When I first got my Wahoo Kickr I was worried about my expensive carbon fibre frame breaking. There are various youtube videos on how to make sure your bike is connected properly (don’t use the Wahoo one!)

In a nutshell as long as everything is fitted correctly and tight you can’t break it unless you're being silly with it. You have to change your sprinting technique which means don’t swing the bike from side to side. I found some really good tips on ZWIFTINSIDER and a good one to note if your keeping the bike on the trainer for extended periods is to move the front wheel around so that the same spokes don’t always take your weight. Have a look here.

The Wahoo Kickr is simple to set up and can be used with road and mountain bikes with either quick release or through axles. I found that my wheel was not sitting in the middle of the roller. This was easily fixed with an extra washer on the quick release to balance this off.

If your new to Zwift Cycling Weekly has done a great introduction here.