Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

And so it begins. Bosch Gen5 gets bump to 100nm and 750w up from 85nm and 600w. All of those with the 600w battery will be kicking themselves no doubt.

This puts it 1nm behind the new Specialized motor and 84w above and with the new e-bike regs coming in that limit the peak to 750w I think we will only now see refinement rather than evolution. All those DJI motors will be getting a retune down from 850w to 1000w sustained to see a drop to 750w. Ouch.

In other news, rental Revo-f pedals in alugold coming shortly, can’t wait for those and I’m selling the status and stripping it all back to stock. This emtb is getting all of my use and the status is just sat doing nothing losing money. Scout too but I’ll cross that bridge at another time, it’s too light and too easy to just ride to get rid of after some serious thought and consideration.

When are the rest of you going to start with the bike updates and builds again? It’s been rather quiet in here…

 

I haven't really done anything with my bike in a long time in terms of building or upgrading - when I put this bike together in 2020 it was intended to be as much of a forever bike as possible, and I've been really pleased with it so no need to tweak much at all. That said, I really really really need to redo the bar tape because it's utterly minging, and I could also do with bleeding the brakes at some point

 

Wild tape colour inbound? With tape off theres also the potential for a Carbon bar/stem combo eh

 

I think I will go with what I currently have on there again - a touch of colour but it's subtle. Orange bike, of course.

And hard pass on carbon bars or stem However... I wouldn't mind going a touch narrower with the handlebars (using gravel bars that are 42cm at the hoods but flare at the drops, and could go a couple of cm narrower) - but there's no way I'm going to revisit the hassle of threading the Di2 cables through the bars again in a hurry!

 

I've just put carbon Thomson Road drops on my gravel bike.

I didn't like how flared bars changed my hand position so I just stepped up to 460mm from 440mm (you know, coz I'm massive!). Really though, I'm used to about 780mm on my mountain bikes so 440mm felt really narrow.

As for bar tape, black Lizard Skin DSP all day long. Not like the outlandish crap @legoman runs.

I've also added the new black Hope spacers and topcaps to all 3 bikes and I'm an OCD fanboi.

 

Weeeeee

 

Hi folks...looking for some wisdom.

ive always been a bit chunky and i did some years ago love to ride my mountain bike - i was pretty bad at it (no stamina, struggling to get up hills) but i did it , and used to regularly do 20miles at a time....until i got a butt abscess after i thought it was a good idea to get those padded pants and that was the end of that.

i just managed to get hold of something called a carbon fibre bike - a boardman teamCFi (ive no idea what any of this means) and its really really light and seems to go fast.

the advice im needing is - how do i make it more comfortable on my butt to ride it and to reduce chances of another horrible abscess forming.

ive watched loads of videos and am about to book it in to get it serviced from an independant locally, and i really want to get riding lots of distance, but worried about how ill cope...

looking forward to hearing your wisdom!

 

Go to a store with a cycle seat fit tool. Sit on it, it shows distance between sit bones and then get a saddle to match. I bought loads of saddles, wasting my cash and went and got a full fit done. Now I know my seat, my reach and my butt bones for future purchases. Well worth the money spent. (the sit bones is usually something that can be done for free btw).

 

Also don't be afraid to get some bib shorts or other shorts with cycling-specific padding (chamois), especially if you are intending to ride for extended periods.

Don't go for a padded saddle though.

 

@5aboy where do you live?

The sit bone fit can be done at home with corrugated card. Yo fat ass bones will dint the card where they touch.

Also try Chamios cream.

Also, Also, kick anyone in the balls that suggests a padded seat cover, they move.

 

Good quality synthetic chamois is much nicer to wear and, more durable than the real thing. I've had shorts lined with both. Assos used to make excellent shorts with a synthetic lining.

 

Yeah I didn't mean you had to get actual chamois leather, I don't think I have ever seen such a thing in reality - every single pair of bibs I have seen have been synthetic chamois

 

I bought my first cycling shorts in around 1980, they had real chamois. Didn’t make that mistake again…

 

I'm running Black Cinelli Cork, at the moment, not that outlandish

 

You can still buy that? I used that tape in the 80s...

 

Do you guys have any links to some of these cycling shorts so I can get my head around it...some are cheap and others are really expensive..can't work out which are best

 

Do you have a Decathlon near you?

 

Yes I indeed do

 

Their cycling clothing is very good, and very cheap (relative to "premium" cycling brands).

Shorts (with padding): https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/men-s...ential/_/R-p-306701?mc=8542910&c=smoked black
Padded shorts that you can wear underneath normal shorts: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/men-s...357191?mc=8915980&c=smoked black_meleze green
Bib shorts: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/men-s-cycling-bib-shorts-rc100-black/_/R-p-332669?mc=8644156&c=black

 

Swapped out the wheels on the Cube for the originals as the others need a rebuild and completely went to town stripping the Scout down and making a Trail/XC hybrid sort of thing out of it to try and get some use.
Looks nice, rides well, not really my thing though i don’t think, butcher block in bound.

IMG_9066 by andrew8200m posted 8 May 2025 at 16:54

IMG_9064 by andrew8200m posted 8 May 2025 at 16:54

Oh and here’s the trio of joy…

IMG_9144 by andrew8200m posted 12 May 2025 at 00:43

IMG_9143 by andrew8200m posted 12 May 2025 at 00:43