Transcontinental Race

[Gruffy]

One of the questions in the long application process was "Your bike breaks and you can't repair it. There are no bike repair shops within 10km. What do you do?".

[okgo]

Gruffy said:

One of the questions in the long application process was "Your bike breaks and you can't repair it. There are no bike repair shops within 10km. What do you do?".

Uber?

[Gruffy]

You can take public transport (if you can find it) to a repair location but then you have to ride back to the pickup point and resume the race.

[stripy7]

okgo said:

Gruffy said:

One of the questions in the long application process was "Your bike breaks and you can't repair it. There are no bike repair shops within 10km. What do you do?".

Uber?

Okgo fails his application

[BoRED S2upid]

Gruffy said:

One of the questions in the long application process was "Your bike breaks and you can't repair it. There are no bike repair shops within 10km. What do you do?".

Carry your bike and all the kit on your back like some sort of SAS super athlete?

[Usget]

Gruffy said:

One of the questions in the long application process was "Your bike breaks and you can't repair it. There are no bike repair shops within 10km. What do you do?".

Take your spare from the support car?

[WinstonWolf]

You utter utter bd

[Gruffy]

Fancied getting a double century in to see what lessons I could learn. Virgin Trains sent me an email offer for trains on the East Coast so I ended up going to Hull. Crappy weather, but that was also useful learning (and good training). Lots of useful lessons learnt.

Coolest thing is I feel pretty fresh afterwards. I tried to keep my heart rate to 135-140bpm and it made a huge difference to how much it took out of me. I did allow myself a few extra bpm as I passed through Peterborough, because Mr Wolf ^^^ has a KOM there and I knew it'd annoy him if I stole it.

https://www.strava.com/activities/427633191

[WinstonWolf]

A cracking ride but you've just declared war with an old man with too much time on his hands

[Usget]

WinstonWolf said:

A cracking ride but you've just declared war with an old man with too much time on his hands

16 miles with 23ft of climbing... Jesus! I have to do 23ft of climbing to get to the end of my road!

[WinstonWolf]

Usget said:

WinstonWolf said:

A cracking ride but you've just declared war with an old man with too much time on his hands

16 miles with 23ft of climbing... Jesus! I have to do 23ft of climbing to get to the end of my road!

23 feet is an exaggeration It's billiard ball flat out there but the wind can be something else.

[adamwri]

Gruffy said:

Fancied getting a double century in to see what lessons I could learn. Virgin Trains sent me an email offer for trains on the East Coast so I ended up going to Hull. Crappy weather, but that was also useful learning (and good training). Lots of useful lessons learnt.

Coolest thing is I feel pretty fresh afterwards. I tried to keep my heart rate to 135-140bpm and it made a huge difference to how much it took out of me. I did allow myself a few extra bpm as I passed through Peterborough, because Mr Wolf ^^^ has a KOM there and I knew it'd annoy him if I stole it.

https://www.strava.com/activities/427633191

How was the route up to the Wolds in Lincolnshire? I'm not quite at the level of getting up and covering 200, but aiming for a trip up that way myself as family in one of the towns towards the coast. Training begins December, with a ride there and back planned for April/May.

[Gruffy]

I've just posted a blog entry on the ride that has a bit more detail
https://theadventurecapitalist.wordpress.com/2015/... but I think the Lincoln Wolds would be a great place to ride in better weather. Nice rolling terrain. Reasonable road surfaces. No significant climbs to speak of so it's ideal for challenging yourself to ride further.

[WinstonWolf]

"He's just so slow it doesn't matter"

Good description of the wind

[stripy7]

Carry a mini pump, tubes and patches, forget co2. Wear merino socks (but anything is better than cotton). Next time ride back as well.

[stripy7]

Also for long distances the Garmin 810 isn't great as it doesn't pick up GLONASS so is liable to freeze when it loses reception, this happens a lot in mountainous/ forested areas IME. Personally I find the 64 s better as it is push button and has a decent aerial, it is bulky though.

[adamwri]

Gruffy said:

I've just posted a blog entry on the ride that has a bit more detail
https://theadventurecapitalist.wordpress.com/2015/... but I think the Lincoln Wolds would be a great place to ride in better weather. Nice rolling terrain. Reasonable road surfaces. No significant climbs to speak of so it's ideal for challenging yourself to ride further.

Just checked that before coming here and had a read. All interesting stuff and some good lessons learnt. Looking forward to following the rest.

[Johno]

Are you waiting for new kit/wheels before going tubeless?

[Gruffy]

stripy7 said:

Carry a mini pump, tubes and patches, forget co2. Wear merino socks (but anything is better than cotton). Next time ride back as well.

I wore merino socks for this ride. My socks would've been saturated by the time I reached hull no matter what I did, even with a front guard. I use CO2 at the moment because I'm still geared for 'fast & light' but will switch to a mini pump once I've got my audax bike (with tubeless!) or for any more big adventures.

[Gruffy]

Johno said:

Are you waiting for new kit/wheels before going tubeless?

I'll be building wheels for the new bike. Hopefully ~30mm depth, tubeless, disc-specific and a dynamo hub. Will take advice on spoke count requirements for durability vs aero.