Jan and Klodi's Party Bus - part II **off topic discussion**

CramCycle

Zillah wrote: »

I'm looking into getting a new bike from Planet X. Can someone tell me what the relevance of these options are?



They all cost the same and I have no idea what the impact of the different lengths would be.

As the replies here will attest, opinions are like ars*h*les. My opinion would always to get the shortest cranklength you can, regardless of height. I use a 165mm and am 184cm tall.

in your case, I would go for the 170mm.

As for the number of teeth, If you don't know, then the 50-34 is probably the smartest option.

Zillah

ford2600 wrote: »

Welcome to the world of catabolic sports and losing all those hard earned gainz

Oh I've been biking for years! Just moving up a grade. I'll just eat more.

Thanks for all the (contradictory) opinions. At 195cm tall I think I may as well go with the 175 (or maybe 172.5 to split the difference). I'm sick of things made for small people!

Fighting Tao

Zillah wrote: »

Oh I've been biking for years! Just moving up a grade. I'll just eat more.

Thanks for all the (contradictory) opinions. At 195cm tall I think I may as well go with the 175 (or maybe 172.5 to split the difference). I'm sick of things made for small people!

It might be of help....I'm 185cm tall and I got a bike fit recently. I was told that my crank at 172.5 was perfect for me.

ford2600

nilhg wrote: »

Ultra endurance stuff continues to fascinate me, a great comparison of the three biggies in the US from the only man to finish them all.

https://www.bermudezcoaching.com/single-post/2017/07/23/Comparing-RAAM-the-Tour-Divide-and-the-TransAm-Bike-Race

Ian To 130km to control 3
1700km ridden at 22.3km/h moving average
Just under 15hrs stopped in total

Jonas Guy 133km to control 3
1773km ridden at 25.2 moving average
22.5 hrs stopped in total

James Hayden 81.7km to control 3
1866km at 28km/h moving average
26.4h stopped in total

Bjorn Lenhard 70km to next control
1836 at 25.5km/h moving average
20.5h stopped in total

Fairly different strategies with the 4 leading riders; James Hayden moving very fast but resting more with Ian To only 15hrs stopped in 110hrs.

Given the stopped time includes finding food, shelter, navigation, sleep, toilet etc it's pretty incredible stuff. They all seem to be at the magical 400km/day average

Rider 217's lodgings for the night

eeeee

217 has had to pull out of the TCR due to fcuked ankles sadly.
But he lives to pedal another day!

Harrybelafonte

On a more serious note, I'm not sure if it has been metioned yet, but Frank Simons was killed a few days ago and today or yesterday another rider (Cap 49) was taken out by a car and has been hospitalised.

ford2600

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

On a more serious note, I'm not sure if it has been metioned yet, but Frank Simons was killed a few days ago and today or yesterday another rider (Cap 49) was taken out by a car and has been hospitalised.

Given what happened already in Australia and on Transam you would wonder how these events will evolve.

I looked up Mike Halls Twitter and it was pretty tough reading with the references to close passes etc in the days before he died.

The Tour Divide is off road but has its own risks with bears and it's remoteness in event of an accident being the most obvious

OleRodrigo

I think there has to be a greater onus on the Organizers to make local people along the route aware of the riders.

ford2600

OleRodrigo wrote: »

I think there has to be a greater onus on the Organizers to make local people along the route aware of the riders.

Transcontinental doesn't have a route, just 5 controls.

It'd be hard enough doing that for a 200km audax not to mind a 4000km odd event.

Thud

OleRodrigo wrote: »

I think there has to be a greater onus on the Organizers to make local people along the route aware of the riders.

Given the distance and varied routes that's essentially the same job as getting Irish motorists to be more aware of cyclists.

OleRodrigo

ford2600 wrote: »

Transcontinental doesn't have a route, just 5 controls.

It'd be hard enough doing that for a 200km audax not to mind a 4000km odd event.

Thud wrote: »

Given the distance and varied routes that's essentially the same job as getting Irish motorists to be more aware of cyclists.

Its a tall order, but what other options are there? You cant accept that there is a strong chance someone in your event will be killed. ' Everyone knows the risks ' , is not good enough, in my view.

ford2600

OleRodrigo wrote: »

Its a tall order, but what other options are there? You cant accept that there is a strong chance someone in your event will be killed. ' Everyone knows the risks ' , is not good enough, in my view.

How different is the risk to any of the longer audax events here?

What public awareness efforts did you or I make? I know I did nothing on that front. What in reality could you do that would be remotely effective.

Pick a safe a route as possible and control issues like lights which Audax Ireland do in the main anyhow.

All these events hanker back to the romance of the original Tour but the environment has changed beyond recognition.

OleRodrigo

ford2600 wrote: »

How different is the risk to any of the longer audax events here?

What public awareness efforts did you or I make? I know I did nothing on that front. What in reality could you do that would be remotely effective.

Pick a safe a route as possible and control issues like lights which Audax Ireland do in the main anyhow.

All these events hanker back to the romance of the original Tour but the environment has changed beyond recognition.

It seems to be different. I think one difference regarding safety is cycling in groups during the early morning hours, which you cant do on bike packing events. Apart from that I'm not sure.

None, but I did develop a plan to contact local newspapers and radio stations along with placing signs at strategic locations. In the end I didn't go with it, but with careful route planning and mandatory hi viz (we had a gilet made for the event ) and lights, it was a calculated decision.

I agree about it being a completely different environment, especially outside Ireland.

CramCycle

I could be wrong but my understanding in the Frank Simons death was that it happened very early on and IMO, surely 90km into a ride, fatigue or other issues would have played no factor. Either way, a terrible tragedy. He was a well established Audaxer and that distance would not have affected him at all.

buffalo

Should I be worried?

buffalo

buffalo wrote: »

Should I be worried?

hmm... seems like one of my Chrome extensions has been compromised.

eeeee

Riding a bike on an open road always carries the risk of death, ultimately, as you can't control every driver that passes you. You can mitigate the risk as much as possible yourself, with your own equipment and behaviour, but outside of that there's nothing more you can do really.
Frank Simons was an extremely experienced rider, and was tragically killed at a distance that wouldn't have affected him as Cram said. At some of these events, you can have exhausted, unsupported, sleep deprived riders which can be problematic on open roads. However, having seen the amount of training my friend did for the TCR, and being aware of their capabilities on a bike I didn't worry about them safety wise doing the event. They are experienced, trained and sensible about the risks involved in taking part in an event like that, and I'd like to think they're emblematic of the type of person who races these events.
Pro cyclist Michele Scarponi was killed training this year, proving that no matter how much time on the bike, or experienced you are, you cannot account for the behaviour of others. Like it or not we all ride on public roads under the same risk. It's possible that these events put more cyclists on the roads than usual, and the risk is heightened accordingly, but not disproportionately (we don't hear about the non racing/endurance event partaking riders killed in these parts of the world year in year out). These tragic, and high profile deaths sharpen the focus.

Beasty

buffalo wrote: »

hmm... seems like one of my Chrome extensions has been compromised.

Carbon FTW....

Beasty

buffalo wrote: »

Should I be worried?

When I scrolled down the page and saw that it did slightly panic me - 2nd take before I realised it was a screenshot

py

Zillah wrote: »

Oh I've been biking for years! Just moving up a grade. I'll just eat more.

Thanks for all the (contradictory) opinions. At 195cm tall I think I may as well go with the 175 (or maybe 172.5 to split the difference). I'm sick of things made for small people!

I'm the same height as you and have been using 175 since I got a road bike 4 years ago.

buffalo

Beasty wrote: »

When I scrolled down the page and saw that it did slightly panic me - 2nd take before I realised it was a screenshot

I disabled a lot of things, found this story this morning which identified the cause: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/02/chrome_web_developer_extension_hacked/

CramCycle

buffalo wrote: »

I disabled a lot of things, found this story this morning which identified the cause: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/02/chrome_web_developer_extension_hacked/

Its alot more common than google would have you believe. I never install extensions anymore because they all seem to do this.

eeeee

Firefox FTW !

LollipopJimmy

nee wrote: »

Firefox FTW !

Say hi to 2003 for me

magicbastarder

firefox for me too - when chrome allows you to change your proxy settings, i *might* consider it.

tomasrojo

I use Firefox too, and Chromium the odd time (Chrome isn't supported for 32-bit Linux).

Mind you, my two machines are about seven and eleven years old and running Lubuntu because they're too underpowered to run anything else, so I'm not too far removed from 2003 technology. I use a command-line programme to access Twitter because the machine slows down too much using a browser for it.

ThisRegard

nee wrote: »

Firefox FTW !

I loved that warplane and Eastwood's Russian accent.

Weepsie

I use Opera for reasons I can't remember when I started using it

LollipopJimmy

Out of all the browsers I find Chrome the least annoying. Dolphin browser for android used to be tops then it bloated and became terrible.
Browsers are launched then over the years packed full of sh1t features and extensions that nobody uses to the point where they become ridiculously slow. I retired firefox from my machine about 5 years ago after a series of continuous crashing and moved to chrome. I dislike the amount chrome knows about me though but I've learned to live with the fact that if I want to use the internet without a tinfoil hat I must accept that companies will store my data to target advertising at me.

Currently being bombarded with ads for hair restoration across all of my devices after researching one of the companies for work. I do not need hair restoration...

tomasrojo

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

Currently being bombarded with ads for hair restoration across all of my devices after researching one of the companies for work. I do not need hair restoration...

https://twitter.com/theferocity/status/890237909026168832