I spend two hours in that room.

Several patients roll through before me. All upbeat. Happy.

For them, waiting list purgatory is over. Finally, a knee replacement. Hand surgery. An end to chronic pain.

Today marks the start of a new life.

I am not upbeat. Or happy. I have not been waiting for this moment.

Until 9.38am yesterday, this moment hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Before 9.38am yesterday I wasn’t aware of this room.

At 9.38am yesterday I was knocked off my bike. By a flying sheep.

Watch The Video

So yeah, I’ve broken my hip.

Not that anyone thought it at the hospital.

By the time my wife got me there, jacked up on paracetamol and ibuprofen – me, not her – I wasn’t in a lot of pain.

The vibes felt good.

The doctor thought it was just bruising. The x-ray would confirm it.

The x-ray did not confirm it.

Instead it showed I’d broken my femur, at the neck just below the ball … of the bone.

Which is a pretty common break.

If you’re 85. Not so much at 46.

Reality rushed in hard.

I’d need surgery to screw the bone back together.

Recovery would be painful. Fitness immediately gone.

And I’d just dropped a toilet full of busy family life shizzle entirely on my wife.

And that’s not to mention the uncertainty.

If the fix didn’t work, I would need a hip replacement. But we wouldn’t know this for months.

The vibes had turned a little darker.

But the operation went well.

The hospital physios had me standing the following day. The next day, with crutches, I could walk and use the stairs.

That evening I went home with a fair amount of metal: a set of crutches, two support frames for toileting, and a titanium enhanced hip.

Which I’d now have to carry up each climb. Assuming I’d be able to ride a bike up hill again.

The initial period of recovery wasn’t too bad.

Medication dulled the pain, at least during the day, and, apart from some exercises, I didn’t have to do anything.

But even as the bruising and swelling subsided – by all accounts hip surgery is brutal on the surrounding muscles – the doubts set in.

Would I regain full mobility? How long til my leg strength returned? Would normal activities – kneeling, putting my socks on, the pelvic thrust – always cause pain?

And was I doing the right things? Was I exercising enough? Should I push more? Or was I doing too much, risking damage?

I needed help.

Luckily we know an excellent sports physio through my daughter’s gym club.

It was a sports injury, I wanted to recover like an athlete. Obviously.

Steady yourself for a non-profound insight. Seeing a specialist physio early in my recovery was a great decision.

The session allayed my immediate fears. He was confident I could regain fitness and mobility.

I could, and I should, be doing exercises to get the muscles working again.

Which he gave me.

He described what else would be damaged, in addition to the bone, which explained why one leg, uncomfortably, felt longer than the other. And why I stood on the wonk.

He also recommended I hire this recovery machine.

Which, despite looking like haptic pants for onanists, in fact pumped ice cold water around my hip whilst simultaneously applying compression.

So to reduce swelling rather than incite it.

And the progress resumed. I focused on doing the exercises. Resting in between. Quality time with the ice pump.

I resumed work work. Luckily I’m largely remote anyway. My daily walks got longer. I dropped from two crutches to one.

But I still wasn’t sleeping well.

No matter my progress through the day, I struggled at night. Despite the strong painkillers consumed, I couldn’t find a comfortable position. As a middle aged man, waking with one muscle below the waist tensed is a triumph. Waking with all of them tensed is a nightmare.

Sleep came in two hour stints. What sleep I had was low quality.

Whilst I doubt the precision of Garmin’s body battery feature, the trend, if we can call flatlining a trend, mirrored how I felt.

Each day I woke up exhausted. I took hours getting out of bed.

I had to crank myself into action with strong coffee and amphetamines (*artistic licence alert).

By lunchtime I could barely string two thoughts together.

I still excelled at my day job though, in case my boss is watching.

Talking of job, or the home office where I mainly do it from, that’s where I also have my indoor trainer.

I would find myself gazing at it, wondering if I’d ever be able to crank my leg to mount it, never mind rest my bionic hip on the narrow saddle or get my flaccid muscles turning the pedals with my former joie de vivre.

For someone at the sanguine end of the level-headedness spectrum, I guess I was at a fairly low ebb.

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Once again it was my physio that came with the answer.

At our second session my strength and range of movement had improved. He was very positive. The exercises and the robo-masturbation machine were working.

He knew I was a cyclist, albeit one unable to avoid sheep.

He suggested we try the Wattbike in his studio.

Immediately it felt great. Well not great. But not the excruciatingly pain I feared from putting weight on the saddle. I could turn the pedals.

A broad grin spread across my face. The route back to riding opened immediately in front of my. My loins glowed warm, but not with agony.

And immediately my progress kicked up to another level.

I could ride on the trainer as much as I felt able, albeit with the saddle raised ludicrously high to get over the top of the stroke.

I was to lengthen my stride, forcing a wider range of motion as I walked.

I got a new set of exercises focused on engaging more muscles in my legs and relieving the pressure in quads. A holiday allowed me to focus on doing them consistently and resting in between.

The aches and pains receded, a bit. I gradually begin to control the discomfort and night and sleep for longer periods.

The man from El Garmin, his body battery finally started to say yes.

On Monday 25th August, 8 weeks exactly after my surgery, I made it back on to my bike.

My two wife-mandated chaperones were no doubt bored with the sedate pace. There’s a definite element of cowboy style to my stroke. But at least I was turning the pedals. I made it onto, and off, the bike. I did not crash

The programme restarts here.

September 4 – Training Diary:

“Manually lowered FTP to a guess—180 watts. Did a Level 1 workout on Zwift—full of inspiring messages for pregnant women.

In retrospect, the name ‘Bumps’ should’ve been a clue. But like women with child, I too felt it was important not to get too hot.

Managed to dismount without needing my step—though I’m pretty sure it wasn’t on my usual side.”

There’s still a long way to go.

If blood flow hasn’t returned to the femur head, and we won’t know for 12–18 months, I’ll be staring down the barrel of a full hip replacement.

Which doesn’t feel like a good thing. But the signs, like the vibes, are positive, and we’ll climb that col if we get to it.

In the meantime, walking can be painful. My gait is that of an arthritic orang-utan. I still can’t put on my left sock.

And my fitness is in the hole.

But weirdly, I’m looking forward to the build. It seems that progress is satisfying, whatever level you start from.

That said, I’ve got a Majorca trip in April next year. Vague platitudes won’t help halfway up Sa Colobra. I need to get actually fit rather than ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ fit.

So for now, I’m rebuilding. Leg strength. Hip movement. Overall flexibility.

I’m not chasing the old version of Mont. I’m building a new one.

A better one.

Forged in the crucible of suffering.

Honed in the pain cave of paracetamol.

Like no Mont you’ve seen before.

End game.

Final boss.

Titanium Mont.

The post I Hit A Sheep And Broke My Hip. Here’s How Long It Took Me To Ride Again… appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

Not all of your problems will be solved by a new bike.

I’ll revise that: not all of your problems need to be solved by a new bike.

Some can be solved by upgrades to your existing steed.

So in this post:

• why you should upgrade instead of buying new
• what’s worth spending the money on and what’s not, and
• which upgrades will most benefit your cycling enjoyment – our key objective.

All told through the cosmic lens of reviewing the changes to my own best bike over the past 12 (count ‘em!) years.

So why upgrade?

Cost

Well, it’s obviously cheaper than changing the whole job lot.

Actually, that might not be true. Ceramic-bearinged griffnuts can cost more than a bike. But at least I’m not dropping £5,000 in one go and there are no bike-shaped delivery boxes to alert my wife.

Laser-guided

Upgrades can focus on what really needs changing. No need to start, and spend, again from scratch, when all the bike needs are some new spokey dokies.

The Principle

For me, there’s also a point of principle. I self-identify as a man… that does light mechanical maintenance on bikes and is from Yorkshire.

Spending carefully on upgrades and fitting them myself aligns with my perception of self. Delusional perception as it happens, when I waste cash on needless changes and fug up the installation.

What else?

Looks

A few focused changes – some deep dish wheels, a reconfigured cockpit, those fugly rear mirrors in the handle bar ends – can transform the look of a bike.

Wear and Tear

Components wear out. You’re spending on replacements anyway. Perhaps you want to spend a bit more on each to eke out some extra performance – or some extra show off points in da clurb.

Fit

Your current bike fits already, right? Or is close enough but would benefit from a few tweaks. Unless it’s right out of whack, upgrading – or fettling – is clearly the more rational option versus starting afresh with a new bike.

Uniqueness

It doesn’t look like everyone else’s bike. Many new bikes, however shiny and high spec, can seem a little off-the-shelf. Even if it’s a diamond shelf. Upgrades, even ham-fisted ones, mean personalisation. Once spotted, they surely must denote you know what you’re doing when it comes to velopeding.

<<Feelings…>>

And finally, whisper it, maybe you’ve got an emotional attachment to your current bike. You’ve done a lot together. The verge-of-vomit climbs. The sketchy descents. That time you shat yourself [record scratch].

Surely you’re not going to set it aside when a newer model comes along?

But wait… I acknowledge that I am a hypo-gruff. I champion upgrading, which in the case of my best bike I’ve done … whilst also buying or building three other bikes in the meantime. Whatevs. Bite me.

A Brief Word on My Trek Domane

…So you have the background.

This is a 2013 Trek Domane 4.3. I bought it new and it cost £1,800. So what’s that? A million pounds in 2025 money.

The 4.3 denotes a mid range spec. It came with a Shimano 105 groupset, which at the time was 10-speed. It still is 10-speed.

The frame is carbon and I think it’s high quality. It’s not the lightest variant or layup available but I’ve always been happy with it – if we ignore Trek’s BB90 bottom bracket abomination. I like the matt grey paint job – I refuse to say colourway – when it’s visible under the Derbyshire roadshizzle.

I got a bike fit both before and after buying it so it’s the right size for me. The endurance geometry suits my MAMIL persuasions.

Oh and it’s rim brake.

I am a committed conscientious objector when it comes to the Culture Wars(TM) so I won’t be shouldering my chain whip and pedal wrench on this one. Take your rimming versus disco debate elsewhere. The rim brakes probably make it lighter but I do sometimes wish for more confident stopping power. I am a dualist, not an onanist.

If you’ve followed my blog or this channel for some time, you’ll see I’ve done loads of work on it, replacing components, full overhauls and upgrading various bitsnbobs.

So let’s look at some of those upgrades in more detail, starting with…

Wheels

Supposedly, and I’m not a science guy, the weight of your wheels is more important than other bits of your bike because … they get even heavier when they spin?

Who knows. Presumably science guys

Anyway, in the Domane’s lifetime, I’ve upgraded the wheels twice.

My first purchase, a pair of Campagnolo Zondas, replaced the original Bontrager pair, after the rear hub gave up the goat.

I chose the Zondas partly for a slight weight saving, but mainly for quality. And the price. At around £350, it felt like the right sort of money I should spend for wheel on a bike like this.

And they’ve been great. The Zondas have given rock solid performance dealing with the UK’s great variety of wartorn roads. I’d still recommend them.

My second upgrade was a pair of Hunts – I said Hunts. They came fairly recently – in 2024. I didn’t need to upgrade but they were on sale at an attractive price. And they are carbon.

At some point in a MAMIL’s life he will strike on the irrational notion that he needs a pair of carbon wheels.

I tried to justify it by pointing to the amazing weight reductions but in my heart I was mainly motivated by the looks.

To be fair I’ve been pleased on both counts.

The bike does feel a lot lighter and the deeper carbon rims do, IMHO ROFL SNAFU, work really well with the Domane’s gun metal livery.

My only caution if you’re considering carbon wheels for rim brake bikes is stopping performance. I’m worried my nervous descending won’t play nice with the carbon braking surface over time. Guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, wheel upgrades get a big thumbs up from the Sportive Cyclist algorithm.

Groupset

Before we stumble down one of my trade mark rabbit holes, the summary advice here is that the groupset on your bike is likely to be excellent in all material ways and not worth the money to upgrade as a big bang exercise.

Buying a groupset standalone, without a new bike attached to it, always seems very expensive.

Di2 fanciers will no doubt dispute this but I’ve always found that replacing ‘serviceable items’ (cables, sometimes the cable housing) gives more groupset upgrade feel than fitting more expensive components.

Modern lower spec group sets – Shimano Tiagra, SRAM Apex – are very close in performance to what the pros used in the Tour de France not that many years ago.

So cool your beans… Monty.

Over the years, because of cross compatibility in the Shimano range, I’ve upgraded bits of my original 105 groupset to Ultegra… and then back again. Because I couldn’t tell the difference when I did it piecemeal, I wasn’t performing Ultegra levels of maintenance and the subsequent cost of replacing bits was more expensive.

So I’ve always come back to 105.

Having said all that… I’m a fraud and a charlatan. A blowhard and a wazzock. I’m upgrading my drivetrain.

My Trek’s 10 speed 105 is about twelvety generations old. I’m struggling to find components, particularly if I want to tweak things like crank length.

So I’m going to ignore my own advice and do a full groupset replacement. Tar me with feathers and chase me up the ginnel.

If you have anything faintly more modern, I’d stick with it and maintain it well (or pay others to do it) rather than throw the derailleur out with the sonic cleaning water.

Or something.

Look out for that groupset upgrade video in due course.

Bottom bracket

This one is curiously Trek specific. Or rather BB90 specific.

The BB90 bottom bracket, which I think Trek has now demised, is a press fit affair. Notorious for creaks and rusty bearings, but that last one might just be my knees. Also they’re a pain for the amateur to replace.

After a couple of goes with press fit bearings, I switched to a third party thread-together jobby, the Token Ninja BB3724. I did a video on it. I’ve since got some weirdly, er, forceful comments for not doing a performance over time follow up.

To avoid boring the masses, I’ll do that in the groupset replacement video.

The headline is that it has worked fine for 3.5 years and is now due a replacement. I’d be fine buying another Token but for novelty YouTube reasons I’ll likely try something else.

I guess the more general point for this video is that bottom brackets are more a serviceable item, to replace if knackered, rather than worth upgrading.

Upgrades tend to involve the word, ‘ceramic’. We can all agree that for most MAMILs, ceramic equals very expensive with minimal improvement which you’ll fug up anyway with poor maintenance.

That said, I reserve the right to ignore that advice for this upcoming replacement. In the interest of scientific experimentation. I’m an enigma wrapped up in a quandary. I’m sure you understand.

A Power Meter

Continuing the theme of expensive upgrades you likely don’t need, my Wahoo Speedplay power pedals. Power in the sense of measuring it, rather than in the sense of outputting extra of it.

I’ll be honest, I only bought them because I get a little cash from these media endeavours and I might make some videos about them. A Yorkshireman does not spend £680 on pedals. He becomes a road and mountain bike phe-nom and gets given them.

Bike-based power meters, whether pedal-, crank- or somewhere else based are a luxury item. Getting a smart trainer, with power built in, means 99% of my power measurement needs are met.

On the bike, the power pedals don’t improve my performance in the moment. Or, in the way I use them, at all.

They provide some interesting data that validates why I might be finding a climb or headwind difficult.

They could be useful for curbing my enthusiasms should I ever do a long, mountainous event where survival relies on staying well below threshold.

One to put at the bottom of your upgrade list, unless money is not object.

My Position

On a whim, and for reasons of ego, not too long ago I ‘slammed’ my stem.

Which is classic masculine shorthand for getting out a hex key, removing your headcap bolt, sliding your stem off the steerer tube, removing a couple of spacers and then putting it all back together again with this so macho little chimney poking out the top.

As upgrades go, there’s a lot going for it. It’s free. It might make you more aero. It makes the bike look better. More so if you have the cojones to cut down the steerer tube and eschew the pooter.

It does risk ruining that carefully honed bike fit you spent all that money on. Luckily for me, my most recent fitter condoned the lowering. She did suggest keeping the ability to revert it, so for now the steering chode remains.

Also, I guess this isn’t an upgrade for everyone. You’ll need to have a more traditional handlebar setup, and some spacers, to begin with. Not one of these new-fangled ‘integrated cockpits’.

But if spacers you have, give it a try you should. There’s no cost and you can always revert if your neck says no.

Talking of which…

Handlebars

Now there’s an upgrade to get excited about.

I guess you could swap out your reasonably-light-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things alloy bars for some wafferweight carbon ones.

But that’s not the subject of my TED talk.

Instead, my ‘upgrade’ has been to swap out the original 44cm Deda bars for … exactly the same model, just 6cm narrower.

The reason? A recommendation from my aforementioned bike fit.

I knew the original ones were too wide. When I bought my Ribble CGR, I went with 38cm bars.

The bike fitter suggested that neck ache on longer rides could be down to the Domane’s wider bars forcing my arms akimbo. Which I took as a medical recommendation – a prescription if you like – to get some new ones.

Also, I know as well as the next bike egotist that narrower bars look cooler.

Slight issue. I haven’t actually fitted them – I’ll do that with the full groupset swap – so I can’t yet vouch for the anticipated ache reduction. But I can safely say they’ll look the business and handling shouldn’t be too affected – I’ve got the same width on my Ribble and those seem fine.

Bike computer/light/camera mount

Is this really an upgrade?

I guess it involved replacing some stem bolts and now it’s semi-permanently attached to the bike, so let’s say yes.

This is a combined GPS, camera and light mount made by Insta360. It has the mount at the end for the X4 or X5 360 degree camera, which not everyone will need.

But the general concept of having a robust multi-purpose mount, firmly attached to your bike, is a good one. Most riders these days have a bike computer, but also want to run a front light or an action camera. A combined mount reduces cockpit clutter.

This one is quite good in that bolting to the front of the stem, it can support a lot of weight nae bother. I’m sure there a plenty of other good options.

Functional. On the face of it, a little boring. But it’ll probably improve your cycling enjoyment, so I’ll give a good mount a Monty thumbs up.

Now, a quick canter through some …

Upgrades I haven’t done

The frame. Well, it’s a bit Trigger’s broom innit. A new frame is a new bike.

The saddle. I could go lighter or for a larger pressure release channel. But the original Bontrager affair, from my gooch’s POV, taint nothing wrong with it.

Electronic gears. There are more options for disc brake bikes but Chinese brand Wheeltop do a rim brake variant. They’re well covered on the Inter-Tubes. Perhaps worth a look if you’re changing group set anyway.

Now, let’s bring things in to land with…

Which upgrades are worth doing?

Wheels probably make the biggest difference. They’re generally the compromise on a new bike so there’s plenty to go at, even with a reasonably priced aftermarket pair.

I haven’t spoken about tyres – mainly because they’re boring.

If you have heavy all weather tyres, or knobbly gravel ones, and you’re happy to up the puncture risk, marginally, switching gets you more speed for not that much money. (I’m a Continental GP5000 fanboy, for what it’s worth).

If you’re struggling on the steeper slopes, and your rear derailleur can handle it, a cassette with a more-toothed large cog could be worth all the wealth in Christendom.

And that’s probably about it. Everything else is personal preference and the stories we tell ourselves to justify another bike purchase.

But to be clear, nothing justifies a product that contains the word, ‘ceramic’.

Monty. Out.

The post These Upgrades Made My Bike Faster, Lighter and Reduced Neck Ache (Now It Looks Like an Absolute Weapon) appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

I’ve had a set of Park Tool plastic levers – the TL-1.2s – for yonks.

They’re plastic, blue – kwell surprise – and clip together so that they don’t rattle around in your saddle bag or jersey pocket.

A recent epiphany, brought about by having more than one of my many bike shape objects functional at the same time, was that I should have a set of levers, as well as a spare inner tube, with each one, rather than having to remember to switch them over each time I ride.

So I bought another couple of lever sets. Again from Park Tool. This time the TL-4.2s.

Like my original set, the TL-4.2s work – a good start! – and seem to be made of the same high quality plastic that Fisher Price used for all my childhood toys rather than the brittle modern stuff that kiddie tat is made of these days.

So, strong enough to perform the subtle art of being a tyre lever, but not so hard as to damage my rim…s in clumsy hands.

The main difference between the 1.2s and the 4.2s is that despite the larger number in the name, there are fewer tyre levers in the box. Packet.

The 4.2s come as a brace; the 1.2s are a thrice.

Park Tool TL-4.2 Tire Lever Set

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And two is probably enough for my tyre removal needs. Generally I use one to make the initial incision, which I then hook into place. And number two goes round the rim to prize off the tyre.

The 4.2s are wider, with hooks on both sides to allow you the most flexibility to lock the first lever in place whilst you work the second around the rim to unseat the tyre.

Whilst each individual lever is slightly larger, it’s marginally easier to store two of them about your person or bike, rather than three. You don’t have the backup if you lose one though.

The 4.2s also save an important 5g of weight. This could make all the difference in me successfully summiting Alpe Du Zwift or not.

I should observe at this point that I am rubbish at tyre removal. I frequently bruise knuckles and shear off skin. It’s all in my poor technique.

But despite that, the Park Tool levers work well for me. They help me to remove tyres with the least pain possible. Which I suppose is a Sportive Cyclist thumbs up.

That’s it.

A review of two pieces of plastic.

At some point you’ll need to buy tyre levers.

You may as well get these ones.

Park Tool TL-4.2 Tire Lever Set

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Park Tool TL-1.2 Tire Levers

$6.95

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04/12/2026 05:01 pm GMT

The post I wrote a very short post about tire levers (my Park Tool TL-4.2 ‘review’) appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

Here is my very short review.

Quick question

Would you like to watch the video version of this post?

Good news, I’ve ‘got you covered’ (i.e. I have made that video.

Please to enjoy…

What Makes A Good Road Tyre?

My criteria for a good road tyre: they should be fast rolling, resistant to punctures and not an absolute ball ache to remove and put back on the wheel.

I’ve found that the GP5000s teeter along the speed versus puncture-resistance tightrope extremely well.

Clearly I’ve not done any sort of scientific test, and don’t have much experience riding other tyres.

But of all the elements of the Montgomery speed equation, I don’t think the GP5000s are slowing me down. I’ve done fast – for me – rides on them.

The general vibe – we’re in the age of vibes – in the market is that they’re a quick tyre.

Continental Grand Prix 5000

My tippet-top tyre (or tire) recommendation for road cycling.

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Gripping The Road

The GP5000s seem to grip the road well. I feel confident in the corners. I’ve not had a slide out since using them. Which I guess is an endorsement.

Again, I’ve not tried a lot of tyres. Until recently I’d assumed there wasn’t much difference in grip and corner-ability between brands.

Then I rented a bike on holiday in Spain and found the tyres – I don’t remember the make – skittish and not-at-all confidence inspiring. Which isn’t ideal on a fast descent.

I’ve not once had that feeling when riding the GP5000s.

Puncture Resistance

Puncture-wise, I can’t remember the last one. Which statement probably guarantees me a flat on my next ride.

Dunt matter. The point is that the GP5000s are sufficiently robust to withstand the war torn roads of Derbyshire without puncturing on every other mission.

I should say at this point I ride with inner tubes. I’ve not yet embraced the tubeless revolution.

I don’t think I’ve said anything that would be incorrect if you’re riding the GP5000 tubeless ready varient but you might want to check my work with more authoritative bike rubber experts.

Nor have I used the time trial or all season versions of the GP5000s. When it comes to rubber, I’m what you might call a basic bitch.

On the other hand, I have ridden both the 28mm and 25mm variants of the GP5000s but I can’t tell any difference in performance.

The 28s are possibly a touch more comfortable but that would be due to the size only, rather than some other aspect of the tyre performance.

Again – a guess.

Ease of Removal and Installation

Finally, as someone who has a weak grip and is manually inept, I can confirm that the GP5000s are straightforward to fit and remove from a wheel rim.

Unearthing from my memory palace certain PTSD-inducing experiences trying to fit hard compound all-condition tyres, and the panic of not getting the final couple of inches onto the rim, I’d say the GP5000s are a lot easier to install.

So to summarise, the Continental GP5000s tick all my boxes. I know they work so I just keep buying them as new tyre needs arise. A solid choice. Well, a flexible solid choice.

Continental Grand Prix 5000

My tippet-top tyre (or tire) recommendation for road cycling.

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The post Who Knew I Could Get So Excited About Rubber…? appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

The more riders on the road, the safer we all are. The more velo-infrastructure that gets built. The bigger the market for fresh bikes and whizzbang kit.

So if you’re new to cycling, or returning after a long break, you are a very important person. Come on in, the water’s lovely.

Here are 10 things I wish I knew when I got into road cycling, with an over 40s twist. Because I am over 40s. I am MAMIL.

Feel free to share your own best tips in the comments below.

It’s all about the enjoyment

Let’s say it together folks, cycling is fun.

We do it for chats and giggles, to bathe in nature’s glory, to titivate our fitness. An enjoyable alternative to the crushing mundanity of human existence. And because it’s in that small subset of exercise activities that involve cake.

If, as a beginner, you encounter someone that takes cycling so seriously that they suck joy from the room, you have my permission to smile mysteriously and drift serenely away from the interaction.

Most riders, experienced and new, do exhibit the symptoms of happiness when on and around their bikes. We are the majority. It won’t take you long to find us.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

There’s A VIDEO Version of This Post

Please to enjoy…

It’s not about performance

Well, it might be eventually, but, at the start, don’t overthink it.

IMHO ROFL TLDR, as an unqualified non-coach, ‘just ride more’ is my top advice for new cyclists. And, as I think about it, er, me.

You get 90%* [unsubstantiated claim alert] of the basic fitness benefit by doing greater volume. Which means riding more.

You’ll also boost your bike handling skills, your confidence on the road, your level of attractiveness to the opposite sex.

So just ride more. Worry about more specific training further down the line. Or not at all.

Get a bike fit – ideally before you buy a bike

This post is aimed at the older rider. And YouTube will likely show it mainly to men. So I’ll be more hardline on this.

If you’re taking up cycling over 40, it’s likely you are overweight, have a knee that keeps hurting, or suffer from persistent back pain. Perhaps you’re switching from a higher impact activity cos the writing is on the wall.

Keep reading that writing, the bit in brackets. It says to get a bike fit.

Riding a bike, in the right size, nipple-tweaked to suit your physiology, can sort all of these ailments right out.

An ill-fitting bike can make things worse and put you off cycling from the start.

It’s not just about injury prevention. A good bike fit gives you free power. Often you’ll go faster and further, with less effort and more comfort.

Yes they’re expensive. A professional fit with mobility assessment and all the analysis might set you back £250 or more.

But it’s an investment in your cycling future. Spread out for the rest of your bici-life, it works out at just £1 per year. Martin Lewis says ‘Simples!’

Find a group to ride with

Ride with other people as soon as you can. That might be a small gaggle of mates or by joining an established group or club ride.

You’ll get support, encouragement, advice. And you can share the lycr-embarrassment of clip clopping into the coffee shop in full cycling garb.

The velo-habit is more likely to stick if you have a regular cyclo-social.

For chaps over 40 in particular, where opportunities for real talk are increasingly rare, group bike rides are an amazing way to disconnect from a screen and lube up with like-minded gentlemen.

Amongst us handsome brooding types, prone to quiet erection, cycling can unlock deeper conversations. Riding side by side makes talking easier. Pretty sure there’s some science about that.

Anyway, riding as a group is good fun. Group etiquette – the hand signals, the shouts, riding as a bunch – doesn’t take long to learn. Most club rides not described as an A ride or a chain gang will go at the pace of the slowest rider.

So no excuses, go build some cyclo-social relationships.

You’re not eating enough (and missing the signs)

Totally running out of energy during a long hard ride is easy to recognise. Bonking, the hunger knock, the curate’s trouser press. You feel light-headed, nauseous, legs turned to noodles.

A stop is required to avoid total disaster. Possibly an evacuation request to your directeur sportif (wife/partner/favourite child). Possibly an evacuation demand from your waste disposal unit.

But there are other earlier, more subtle low fuel indicators. You’re a bit less chatty. Unexpected muscles start to cramp. You wonder if illness is brewing. You feel aches and pains that wouldn’t otherwise register on your emotional lidar. You’ve greater than normal trepidation for that upcoming climb.

Any of the above, and many more, are triggers to eat. Eating might not address them directly, but it will help you cope. And you’re likely under-fuelled anyway.

Getting some calories in at this point is the next best thing to having eaten an hour ago. When you didn’t because you were Remco Evanopoeling down a UK A road, impressing all those lazy motorists.

And on a related note…

You don’t lose weight by eating less on a ride

You fuel to do the exercise that gets the fitness, that allows you to recover, to go again, to get the fitness, and recover, and not get injured.

And you worry about losing the weight later. Or not.

Because now you are fit, with exercise-enhanced mental joie-de-vivre. And maybe the soft-around-the-edges dad-bod is a feature not a bug, particularly now you’re developing a magnificent set of thunder-buttocks.

You’re not drinking enough

For any ride under an hour, you just need to drink on the bike. And – guys, guys – hear me out, I suggest that drink is water.

For anything longer, you need to be sipping regularly, and something more than water.

My current preference is to keep two bottles on the go, one with the pure stuff and one with an electrolyte tablet. I’m a bit of a Thomas cramper, and the salts seem to help.

Others will add energy sachets containing carbs for additional fuel. Whatever tickles your downtube and doesn’t mess up your bowels.

The headline message though: don’t skimp on drinking for fear of needing a wee. Better that way than a full system meltdown through lack of hydration. And ride recovery will be quicker as well.

That high risk al fresco piss vista was worth it after all.

Get a bike computer sooner rather than later

As an absolute beginner, you don’t need a bike computer. But this website and my YouTube channel is founded on twelvety throusand reviews on the things so I’m going to recommend you get one. I predict a riot in the comments.

Certainly a top of the range Garmin is not mandatory. A basic GPS will suffice.

Even if you’re not wanting to get hung up on stats, it’s helpful to see a little bit of data on your handlebars: how far you’ve ridden, a general idea of speed. These will help inform the next ride and your sense of progress over time.

You can use your phone, but an always-on screen soon runs down the battery, plus who wants to expose their iPhone 23 to a rain-soaking and potential rough and tumble (coincidentally my perfect Friday night).

Also, you’ve reached a certain age. No one knows what to buy you for Christmas. Do them a favour by adding an ELEMNT BOLT, other computers are available, to your list.

We’re all scared of something

Whatever the aspect of cycling that you’re nervous about, riding in a group, getting a puncture, feeling self conscious in lycra, we’re all in the same boat.

Everyone has a ride or a distance or a climb that they’re shitting themselves about.

If they don’t, and they’re not a pro, then they might be a dickhead and should largely be ignored.

So don’t worry about worrying. Most concerns go away as you ride more. The rest you can solve by asking one of the nice cycling majority for help or advice.

Quick Fire Mega Bundle of Tips

Let’s up the hot tip count, machine gun stylee:

• Wear bib shorts – your gooch will thank you.
• If you buy a gravel bike with knobbly tires there’ll be more rolling resistance so you’ll go slower for the same effort.
• Progress to clipless pedals as soon as you can – you’ll use them eventually, everyone does, so bite the bullet.

• Drafting is great – get comfortable riding close to a rider in front – ideally someone in your group – and experience getting the same speed for 30% less effort. Remember, in time, to take your turn at the front.
• Own your space on the road – no need to be a dickhead, but be assertive. Use eye contact to ensure other road users see you.
• Carry tyre levers, an inner tube and a multi-tool on each ride. Practise fixing a flat tyre at home. Just-in-time learning on a damp, cold roadside is thoroughly unpleasant.

• And finally, when you go on a family holiday somewhere warm, rent a higher-end road bike with electronic gears. Actually, that last one’s just aimed at me. Feel free to steal it. The tip, not the bike.

Now, having blown right through my ten tip promise, let’s bring things into land with a slightly more philosophical…

Bonus tip

There is no higher level of cycling self-actualisation. Kung Fu Panda this ain’t.

There is no moral superiority to be afforded because someone rides for freedom and exploration rather than to rack up the stats on Strava. Or because they ride in farce–10 gales rather than besmirch themselves on Zwift.

So if someone suggests there is, normally in a comment with the form, ‘I do [this] rather than [that]’, where ‘that’ is normally some strawman cycling caricature, you have my permission to send said claim straight to your mental recycling bin.

A polite nod and a smile, whilst you think of nice things, like a chicken biryani and a backscratch, will suffice.

Hear me now, not that these main characters will.

We are not on a noble quest. Our cycling escapades, whilst important to us, do not matter to others.

We are not even the stormtrooper that hits his head on the door frame, never mind Luke Skywalker. We’re all just specks of dust on a tiny bit of grit in the interstellar slipper.

To leave on a positive mental note, talking of nice things to think about whilst we smile and nod, let’s all consider Princess Leia on Jabba’s boat.

The post Ten Things I WISH I Knew As An Older Beginner Cyclist appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

So, what’s good, what’s a bit meh and do I recommend you buy it?

Er, let’s find out.

Forerunner 245: The Basic Specs

The Forerunner 245 is a fitness watch. It tracks various metrics, both during training sessions and throughout the rest of the day. The GPS tracking records where you’ve been and how far you’ve gone.

The watch calculates advanced metrics like training load and estimates your VO2 max, so you can monitor your fitness improvement – ahem – over time.

You can see all of this in the Garmin Connect app on your phone. The Forerunner links via Bluetooth, and I’ve had no trouble with connections and syncing and all that jazz.

And so we’re clear, the Forerunner is not touchscreen. It’s a buttons only watch.

Watch The Video!

…On my new dedicated reviews YouTube channel (oooh, exciting…)

How is the Forerunner to wear?

Well, I’ve found it comfortable. The rubber strap is soft but seems durable – it’s still going strong, two years in. It has loads of holes for the buckle, so is easy to get a good fit on my wrist.

After daily use and abuse the white strap is a bit, er, not white. A good clean would sort it. There’s a black option for those that can’t be harrised.

In terms of appearance, to these wizened ol’ MAMIL eyes, the 245 looks good. The white does stand out in a way, but the watch is otherwise fairly small and discreet.

I’ve worn a Fitbit Charge in the past and the Forerunner, despite being larger, is less obtrusive and feels better. Also it doesn’t just die and need replacing under warranty. Story for another time.

That said, there is a slight issue and it relates to …

The screen

Which to be fair I’ve been happy with.

I find the Foreunner 245 readable, both in normal and backlit modes.

You can pick from an assortment of watch faces.

The slight issue is a line that’s appeared on the left side of the screen in recent weeks.

The watch is two years old, so maybe that’s something that happens with these things. And it doesn’t, for now, annoy me too much.

You of course may take a different view.

Charging and battery life

Charging time seems reasonable. The Forerunner takes about an hour to go from under 10% up to fully charged. Which is good enough for me.

The Garmin-specific charging port, with a dedicated cable shared by none of my other devices, including numerous Garmin bike computers.

One more cable to remember is a pain but I assume it’s down to size constraints and the need to be waterproof. Whatever, I deal with it.

On the flip side, battery life is excellent. I probably go a week between charges but I’m a fairly infrequent GPS user – a lot of my outdoor sessions are on a bike, which I track with a bike computer.

Using the watch

Confession time: I haven’t found the buttons generally *that* intuitive. It’s likely a failing on my part – I’ve not taken the time to learn the principles of what each of them does. Five minutes of reading the instructions would probably solve it.

I bought the ‘Music’ version of the 245 but (another admission), I don’t use it often. I didn’t find it particularly easy to install a music app or convenient moving content, in my case podcasts, onto the watch. I got there in the end but for now I still use my phone for my ‘in-exercise entertainment’.

The optical heart rate sensor on the back seems to work well. I’ve not done a controlled experiment but I don’t see unexplainable spikes or dropouts. When I’ve also worn a heart rate monitor strap, the Garmin measurement has been consistently similar.

I’ve just discovered, after forgetting my heart rate strap on a recent cycling trip, that the 245 can also broadcast your heart rate, to be picked up by another device. Again, useful for bike computerists that don’t get on with the strap.

Tracking fitness metrics

And over the last 2 years – count ’em – of use, the 245 has performed its core fitness tracking functions well.

I mainly keep an eye on my steps per day and my resting heart rate, as an indicator of being overly tired or starting to be poorly.

I also track training load, but since I’m not following a programme (I’m just pottering along), this is more for interest than something I’m actively working on.

Whilst I don’t check it every day, I find the sleep tracking and body battery metrics useful, particularly to explain those days when I’m feeling sluggish.

For the steps, I tend to check the watch display over the course of the day. The 245 also vibrates when I hit the daily target.

For the more sophisticated metrics that are better viewed over time or with pretty charts, I’ll use the Garmin Connect app, which, whilst feature-packed, is generally easy to use once you know where you’re going.

Sum up

That’s my quick assessment of the Garmin Forerunner 245.

Obviously it isn’t Garmin’s top of the range fitness watch and there are newer variants, even at this level of the range.

But it has worked very well for my needs as a general health tracker and all-purpose fitness watch.

If you can find one at a good price, definitely worth a look.

Garmin Forerunner 245 Music Smartwatch

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The post Garmin Forerunner 245: My long term review (about 2 years…) appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

It’s pretty standard in terms of design. Two long legs splay akimbo to provide stability.

The arm at the top has an adjustable clamp to grip whichever part of your bike needs gripping.

It has a handy tray, halfway up, to keep track of tools, components, nuts and bolts as you work on the bike.

I bought it off the back of excellent reviews combined with a visceral desire not to spend the sorts of money charged by brands of a more blue and red persuasion. Not that I’m against a bit of blue for the mums.

And I’ve not been disappointed.

Watch The Video!

If you want. This is on my new dedicated YouTube reviews channel. Exciting times…

Back To The Post…

The CXWXC stand was easy to assemble. It’s light enough to move around but stable with a bike in traction, as no-one says.

I don’t have an e-bike so I can’t comment on heavier weights, but it’s been comfortable holding all my bikes including my clydesdale hybrid. For completeness, the stated max weight is 60lbs, or 27 kilos, which even my heaviest bike ain’t troubling.

The clamp has a neat design that allows it to rotate to whatever angle you need and then lock into place. The clamp itself, with protective rubbery inserts tightens and loosens as required, with a quick release handle.

My previous work stand, made by Elite, had the bike attach by the drop outs with the bottom bracket rest in this plastic gusset thing on the horizontal bar.

There are pros of that approach – stability and you can spin it around – but I prefer the CXWXC – still easy for you to say. It’s easier to get in, around and under the bottom bracket and generally less in the way.

Talking of which, nice and easy to fold away if space is at a premium.

In terms of accessories, the CXWXC – quicksy? – has the aforementioned tool ‘n’ bits tray, which is magnetised to avoid your nuts popping out. Very useful.

And also a handy rod that attaches to your handlebars to keep them from flapping around.

No nuts, no flaps. The motto of this channel.

Wrap Up

And that’s it, my review of the CXWXC – still easy for you to say – work stand.

A very good stand at a very reasonable price point. Recommended!

CXWXC Bike Repair Stand

You'll see this in almost all my videos. It's brilliant and competitively priced. I have no hesitation in recommending it.

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The post This CXWXC Bike Repair Stand Takes Some Beating… (my review) appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

Perhaps you express it slightly differently: your main concern (dare I say it, fear?) about your next sportive or other hard ride is getting up the hills (or doing so quickly).

C’est normal. We all feel that way. So let’s do summit about it…. (Oh, Monty…)

In this post I offer up my 7 HOT TIPS  for getting better at climbing. As always, I don’t profess to have all the answers. I certainly don’t profess to have any particular ability*.

I invite anyone that would like to share a good tip or piece of advice (ideally on climbing), to do so in the comments.

Ride on Macduff.

Want To See This Post In Video Format

I’ve got you covered. I popped some sort of ‘performance enhancer’ and, well, here’s the result.

If you enjoy it or find any of the tips useful, please do hit the ‘LIKE’ button as it really helps with the YouTube algorithm (and costs you nuffink).

Let’s Separate The Mental From The Actual

Most hills seem to occupy a larger place in my riding psyche than they deserve.

Many times have I built up a climb in my mind (so long, so steep, so high…) and then been pleasantly surprised to find that it’s not half as dread-inducing as I expected.

This was certainly the case with my first ascent of Leith Hill (one of the ‘killer climbs’ on the original RideLondon 100 Surrey route). And when I tackled Sa Calobra, way back in the mists of time (or July 2013 as it was known at the time).

It even happens on climbs that I tackle frequently. Many’s the local côte that, during the ‘do I go for a ride/which route’ thought process, grows in stature and severity, only to turn out to be exactly the same short gentle incline that it’s always been.

What’s to learn from this?

Well, for one I need to control my overactive imagination. And two, er, actually, let’s all control our overactive imaginations.

As long as we haven’t set ourselves some ludicrous challenge far beyond our current fitness levels, then no climb should prompt abject fear.

Concern perhaps. A catalyst to think in advance about how we might prepare. But not terror.

Okay, just a little terror.

Swallow The Frog

The best way to deal with fear is to eat the fear.

What?

[Monty shuffles papers; looks confused]

Ahem.

For what it’s worth, if you’re concerned about a particular climb in a particular event, take the next opportunity to ride (or drive) to the bottom of that climb and have a go at cycling up it.

Take the pressure off. Acknowledge to yourself that you’re going to take things really easy. Perhaps you’ll spin up in your lowest gear (or grind up, gasping for air, in your lowest gear). Perhaps you’ll stop halfway for a breather.

Who cares? At least you’ll know more about that climb at the end of the day than when you woke up: what you need to be concerned about and what you need to improve your ability to get up it.

If you can’t get to the specific daemon-climb (you don’t live near the sportive route, fr’instance) then try to find a local climb with approximately the same length and steepness.

If your nemesis climb is an Alpine one with 1,000 metres of ascent and you live somewhere flat…. well, you’ll have to work that one out for yourself…. (Zwift maybe?)

Now, [sings]…

Let’s Get Physical… PHYSICAL!

Let me hear your body talk, body talk….

(I’m still singing)

[Stops singing]

We dealt with the mental. (We did! Dealt it good.)

Now for some tips and tidbits that I’ve accumulated over the years and stored in my journal (Monty’s Cycling Almanac) under the title ‘Climbing’.

In no particular order…

1. Lose Weight

Ha ha ha. Only kidding.

No. I’m not.

It’s a double win. Not only will you have less kgs to haul up that hill, but the act of losing weight (with the aid of a bike) must have had some positive impact on your fitness levels… (Surely!)

2. Get The Right Gear

(Not a clothing tip).

Experienced cyclist: “You just need to choose a low gear and spin up the climb. Don’t just grind it out.”

You: “There is no gear low enough for me both to spin up the climb and ride with sufficient speed to stay upright on the bike.”

E.C.: “Ah.”

We’ve all been there. Sometimes the gears just run out.

But at least give yourself the best chance you can in your choice of gears (specifically the lowest ones).

If you have any say in the matter, go for a compact chainset (the front set of cogs) and a cassette (the rear set of cogs) that goes up to 30 or 32 teeth on the largest cog. The easiest gearing combination is to have the chain on a small ring at the front and a large one on the back.

Having a really easy gear (ok, a tolerably terrible one) gives you the confidence that you stand at least some chance of getting up the climb. Then, over time, you can work on tackling the climb in progressively higher gears.

3. Riding Position

The more efficient your riding position, the better your climbing.

I’m a big proponent of getting a professional bike fit. I might have mentioned this before (like here and here).

Not only does a well-fitting bike protect you from injury (or, in my case, cure one), it will make you go faster (FACT). The right position will allow to recruit all the bestest muscles. Those same muscles will help you get up your target climb at speed…

Or at least without vomiting.

Whoa. Quick Hill Workout For You

Interlude!

I think I got this workout from an old copy of Cycling Weekly.

Enjoy. Which isn’t the right word.

Step 1: Find a climb that takes about 6–8 minutes (so that’s about 50 metres of ascent for me…)

Step 2: Do the first two thirds of the climb in a low (lowest?) gear – so chain on your smaller front ring and on the largest or second largest cog at the back.

Step 3: For the final third of the climb, change up to a slightly higher gear at the back – somewhere in the middle of the cassette and sprint for the top.

Step 4 (not in the article): Vomit

…and repeat…

Back to the tips…

4. Breathe

Helpful.

Make a conscious effort to push out each breath. The carbon dioxide that you’re breathing out is a waste product – the quicker you get rid of it, the more efficient your aerobic system will perform.

Clearly we’re not aiming to hyperventilate. Deep, measured outward thrusts of pelvis air are the order of the day.

5. Relax

Again, helpful.

HOW CAN I FUGGING RELAX WHEN IT HURTS SO MUCH.

Deal with it. Be stoic and heroic.

If you’re manically gripping the bars, you’re wasting energy on something that is not helping (and is potentially hindering) your climbing.

6. High Cadence

I’ve sort of mentioned this already (when I tried to persuade you to fit sensible gears, or buy a bike that already has them).

Assuming you have some choice over whether you spin up a climb in an easy gear or elect to travel at the same speed in a higher gear (with a lower cadence), you will tend to do better choosing the former.

I accept that everyone is different – some people are natural spinners; some are gear grinders. But watch the Tour de France and note that the riders who are comfortable on the long climbs tend to have a fluid, ‘spinny’ style.

Only when a rider blows do we suddenly see him grinding laboriously up the incline, prompting veteran commentator Phil Liggett to roll out one of his trademark cycling cliches (‘pedalling squares’, etc).

The danger with grinding up repeated climbs (for you, rather than a TdF rider – they can look after themselves) is that you exhaust your leg muscles to such a degree that it seriously impairs your ability to ride comfortably for the rest of the ride. And riding the last 20km of a sportive with your legs on the verge of a cramp (or actually cramping) is no fun (this is bitter experience talking).

7. It’s Not All About The Legs

Core and upper body strength is important for climbing.

Maybe as important as leg strength, who knows? (Someone probably does…)

Pro cyclists, when they’re not stage racing can be in the gym 2 to 3 times a week, even during the competitive season.

A bit of strength work is really important if you’re at the ‘experienced’ end of the maturity spectrum (generally speaking, muscle mass tends to reduce in humans after age of 40 (eek!)) or if you know that you lack good upper body strength.

We’re talking low weight / high repetition exercises all around your upper body (chest, arms, back) along with sensible core exercises (planks, crunches). Do your research to find information sources you can trust (such as here and here) and start gradually.

Further Reading For Hill Climb Aspirants

If you want to find out how gears work (and thus be able to select the right one), you can check out this post (learn what terms like ’53/19′ mean).

I also took a punt at writing (and alliterating) about ‘perfect pedalling technique‘.

Ever wondered how Strava classifies your local climbs? Wonder no more, for I wrote about it here.

Do you have any climbing horror stories you’d like to share? Or perhaps some advice that helped you to become a super-climber? Let us know in the comments below…

The post Struggling On The Climbs? Here’s What I’d Do… appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

If you’re reading this blog (literary titan that it is), I’m sure you like to read cycling books as well.

On this page I give you a selection of my favourite books about bikes.

Note: The links to Amazon below are affiliate links. If you click and buy something, I will get a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Best Cycling Training Books

The Cyclist’s Training Bible

Joe Friel

‘Bible’ is a grand claim to throw into a book title, but Friel carries it off. This book contains all the information you need to build an effective, structured training programme.

Not one for beginners (it’s aimed at the performance / racing road cyclist) but put the advice into practice and you’ll get fitter… faster!

Here is a long post I wrote on the subject of cycling fitness training, which draws heavily on the content in The Cyclist’s Training Bible.

Buy the paperback rather than Kindle version due to the large, detailed tables used in the book.

The Cyclist's Training Bible

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Fast After 50

Joe Friel

A really interesting read for the more mature MAMIL (or WILMA).

Written by the same guy that wrote the ‘Bible’ (see above), Fast After 50 helps riders of ‘a certain age’ build fitness, improve performance and reverse (or at least hold back) some of the effects of ageing.

Click here to read my full review

Fast After 50: How to Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life

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Racing Weight: How To Get Lean For Peak Performance

Matt Fitzgerald

I have waxed lyrical about how great this book is in a number of blog posts about losing weight (or more correctly, getting lean). After I first read it,  I lost 4kg and my body fat dropped from 18.9% to 15.9%. That was ten years ago. Things have slipped. I need to read it again…

The book contains sensible, pragmatic advice based on how top performing endurance athletes eat. There are no fads or gimmicks.

Highly recommended.

Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance

My favourite book on how to get lean (and look good-ish) *and* perform strongly on the bike. Full of clear, actionable advice.

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Best Cycling Books For Beginners

Sportiveur: A Beginner’s Guide To Training For, Completing and Enjoying Your First Sportive

Andrew Montgomery

Yes, this is my book. By me. On Amazon!

Worth clicking through just to read some of the reviews…

Sportiveur: A Beginner's Guide To Training For Your First Sportive

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Best Road Bike Maintenance Books

Road Bike Maintenance

Lennard Zinn

Even though I am not averse to using YouTube videos to guide my road bike maintenance endeavours, I find this book even more useful.

In addition to containing information on pretty much every maintenance job you might like to attempt on your trusty steed, it contains handy reference materials including torque tables for every bolt and screw and a comprehensive glossary.

A worthy (nay, vital) addition to every amateur (and semi-pro) workshop.

Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance

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Best Books About Cycling

How I Won The Yellow Jumper

Ned Boulting

An account of ITV sports Ned Boulting’s experiences reporting from his first few Tours de France, including gaffes, cultural confusion and transportational discomfort.

A light-hearted but loving look at the Tour. A great book if you want to get up to speed on ‘how the Tour works’ or if you simply enjoy well-written, humorous prose (I know you do!)…

How I Won the Yellow Jumper: Dispatches from the Tour de France

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On The Road Bike

Ned Boulting

The follow up to How I Won The Yellow Jumper (in that it’s a second book about bikes, written by Ned Boulting). This book investigates the ongoing re-blossoming of Britain’s love affair with road cycling.

On the Road Bike: The Search For a Nation s Cycling Soul

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It’s All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness On Two Wheels

Robert Penn

A lovely book recounting the author’s experience travelling around the world to source each of the individual components needed to build his perfect road bike. His trip takes him to Italy for gears and handlebars, to the US for the wheels and to Stoke-on-Trent for the frame…

It's All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels

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French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France

Tim Moore

I first read this book almost 10 years ago (so before the most recent resurgence in British cycling interest) and I’m pretty sure I’ve read it since (a good sign). The tale of a writer from London simply deciding to ride the route of the Tour de France one summer, without much training and without much clue.

French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France

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The Rider

Tim Krabbe

I’m not sure whether this book falls under light relief. It almost deserves a category of its own: cycling literary fiction. Don’t let that put you off though. It’s a must read, and not at all hard to get through.

It’s the fictional first-person account of a local cycling race in France and it captures everything you need to know about bike racing.

Anything I say will undersell this book. Just read it.

The Rider

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Faster

Michael Hutchinson

A book on the science of cycling performance, written by the well-known (at least in velo circles) high level time trialist turned cycling journalist.

Although not an autobiography (the book is organised thematically rather than chronologically), ‘Faster’ draws on Hutchinson’s experiences trying optimise every aspect of his riding in order to achieve his best possible performance. No stone is left unturned.

I thoroughly enjoyed enjoyed the book, and you can find my review here.

Faster: The Obsession, Science and Luck Behind the World's Fastest Cyclists

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Best Books About Cycling Routes And Climbs

100 Greatest Cycling Climbs – A Road Cyclist’s Guide to Britain’s Hills

Simon Warren

A nice little book detailing the author’s top 100 climbs to ride in Britain. Some are famous (in the UK at least); some less so. Each climb has a photo, description, key statistics and a difficulty rating.

Some will complain about the omission of their favourite climb. Complainers should write their own book. It’s nice to have a list of climbs to tick off and compare experiences of.

Here are my posts on two of the climbs that feature in the South-East chapter of the book: Leith Hill and Box Hill.

Although its a small book (i.e. in height), being a guide book, you probably want to own it in paperback rather than ebook format.

100 Greatest Cycling Climbs

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Another 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs: A Road Cyclist’s Guide to Britain’s Hills

Simon Warren

What’s this? Another 100 British climbs, described, documented and diagrammed for your delectation?

Why, yes it is.

I’ve bought both books. If you’re interested in becoming a hill-bagger (is that a term?), I suggest you do the same.

Get the paperback, for the same reason as mentioned above.

Another 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs

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Best Books About Professional Cycling

Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France

Richard Moore

Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France

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Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar

David Millar

Racing Through the Dark

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The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs

Tyler Hamilton & Daniel Coyle

The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France

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Project Rainbow: How British Cycling Reached the Top of the World

Rod Ellingworth

Project Rainbow: How British Cycling Reached the Top of the World

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At Speed

Mark Cavendish

At Speed: My Life in the Fast Lane

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My Time

Bradley Wiggins

My Time

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Put Me Back On My Bike: In Search of Tom Simpson

William Fotheringham

Put Me Back on My Bike: In Search of Tom Simpson

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Easy Rider: My Life on a Bike

Rob Hayles

Easy Rider: My Life on a Bike

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The post Best Cycling Books: The Sportive Cyclist Guide appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.

I bought a cheap titanium road bike frame, site unseen from AliExpress.

I gambled on the sizing.

It cost more than I thought.

It has some fairly fatal defects.

…

But I built it up anyway and here’s the story.

Oh, and it turned out not to be cheap after all.

So stick around for my:

“Top 5 fatal flaws in my mysteriously-cheap-not-cheap titanium bike bought off of China”.

But first…

How Did We Get Into This Mess?

The rationale for buying, building, birthing this bike is convoluted, confusing, illogical. Which coincidentally is the mission statement of this website.

It’s something to do with:

1. needing to get my ‘best bike’ off the indoor trainer;
2. my trusty Dawes advancing towards the great scrapheap in the sky; and
3. needing ‘content’.

You’re welcome.

Dealing with those priorities in order, briefly.

Freeing The Domane

I am a weak man, physically and mentally. I need my lightest, best fitting bike – the Trek Domane – available to do any distance, speed or amount of climbing that is not embarrassing. Also I’ve got some upgrades I want to make.

I can’t really do any of that if I have to remove it from the trainer – and my pain cave – each time I need it. Hassle does not promote regular use.

But I also need a bike permanently attached to the trainer.

A full time job, doggy childcare responsibilities and skyrocketing intolerance for inclement riding conditions requires the KICKR at full pecker 24/7, 52, 365, 5318008. I perhaps see a Zwift RIDE bike in my future. In the meantime we need a not-Domane.

Other Options For A Trainer Bike

I’m not putting my newish Ribble CGR on there. It’s the most all-condition bike I have. I need it for the winter and the Derbyshire shitroads.

I dalianced briefly with putting the trusty Dawes into indoor semi-retirement. The incompatible drivetrain and my inability to extract the bottom bracket put paid to that one.

Which made buying a titanium frame bike from China the only rational option.

Want To ‘Watch’ This Post?

Good news! It’s on YouTube (and it’s doing well for views!)

Buying A Titanium Road Bike Frame From AliExpress

Choosing the correct sized frame is fraught at the best of times. Transplant it to the internet and drag it through the hedge of cross-lingual confusion and we have a recipe for ‘much hilarity’.

Presumably I typed ‘road bike frame’ into the Aliexpress search box, saw the word ‘titanium’ in the results and my chimp brain creamed itself. Which I believe Steve Peters will cover in his next book.

So it would be ‘55 Ride’ from whom I’d be purchasing my next frame.

We can assume I wasn’t put off by the underwhelming claim that one unit had been sold before.

Having identified a frame at a price that whispered, ‘too good to be true, question mark?’ I attempted to interpret the sizing chart.

This involved an unscientific comparison with my known-good Ribble CGR frame – both cross-referencing Ribble’s own chart and wrangling the tape measure on the real life article. And good old British guesswork.

Disconcertingly, my pseudo-scientific rando-analysis determined that I needed both the extra large, extra small and somewhere in the middle size. All at the same time.

My big regret with the Trek Domane was going for the larger of the two suitable frames based on my bike fit. I look like a child on their dad’s bike.

Smaller is pro-er, as no one quite puts it.

Anyway, ruing the fact that stack and reach were both marked on the diagram but not mentioned in the accompanying dimension grid, I held my nose and clicked the buy button on the size 50.

A maybe-titanium monkey bike was on the way.

A Run In With The (Import) Tax Man

Delivery followed the usual AliExpress pattern: monitoring a variety of logistics websites, trying to decipher the updates, wondering if the store I’d purchased it from actually existed.

The frame was eventually dispatched and wendled its way around the globe. Then, with the global trade equivalent of a screech of disc brake, it stopped. And remained stopped for a long time.

Finally I discovered why the delivery was held up. I needed to pay customs duties before the frame could be released and delivered.

And – plot twist – the amount was, how you say, massive.

How massive? £171.71 massive.

I’ll give the total costs of the fully built up bike at the end of the video.

In the meantime, safe to say that my import export prowess has moved the project from the ‘worth a gamble’ bucket into the ‘expensive white elephant’ kennel.

Because I assume elephants live in kennels.

The Frame Arrives

The good thing about paying for this stuff with the proceeds of this channel is that it feels like play money and I can hide it from my wife. So the customs cock punch was largely forgotten when the frame turned up. In a remarkably small box.

My initial inspection was satisfactory. It felt light and there were no obvious defects. With ‘obvious’ doing a large job of work in that last sentence.

I was concerned that the featherlight feel was because I really had gone overboard in speccing a smaller frame.

But there was no going back. Someone was going to get a nice titanium road bike, even if it was one of my children.

Building Up The Bike

With the frame potentially being a bit pony, I wasn’t going to shower it with expensive new components.

I’d re-use and re-cycle where I could, harvesting the Dawes seatpost, stem, fork and handlebars.

I had to get a replacement saddle cos the Dawes one looked dreadful. A £36.61 gamble on a 3D printed one happened.

The wheels would be my existing Campagnolo Zondas, demoted from my best bike by a couple of Hunts. I said Hunts.

The groupset also came from AliExpress and was mainly maybe-Shimano Tiagra 10-speed. The idea being that I can share parts with the 10-speed 105 on my Trek – at least until that gets an upgrade.

The only ring-stinging bling came in the form of a shiny blue Hope headset. Because it seems I’m addicted to expensive blue Hope headsets.

The build, which I won’t cover start to finish, was without drama, other than it uncovered basically everything wrong with the frame.

So let’s get into my…

Top 5 Things Wrong With My Cheap But Also Expensive Titanium Bike Frame Bought From AliExpress With Little Or No Thought And More Than a Little Haste

The Head Tube

…is er, cock off.

Well, you can see it. The bottom opening isn’t straight. And no, this isn’t a result of my ham fisted headset installation.

I don’t think it will cause me a problem functionally. The steerer tube isn’t impinged. It looks a bit naff though.

Of more functional concern is issue number…

Downtube Cable Guides

I am 99% sure the cable guide on the underside of the downtube has been welded on the wrong way round.

The incoming cable ends from the shifters have nowhere to seat into. Instead they sit wedged against the back side of the guide. I’ve siliconed in some housing end caps to guide the bare cable coming out the other side and basically keep the drivetrain from exiting the chat.

Hopefully someone in the comments will tell me the guides are in fact correct and that I’m doing something wrong. In the meantime, I’d classify the shifting performance of the bike as ‘precarious with a side of order of impending cable snap’.

Tyre Clearance

There’s very little clearance for the rear tyre against the seat tube.

I think these are 25 or 28 inch tyres and the gap is the diameter of a gnat’s pube. It’s made even more dicey by the chunky front derailleur hanger protruding out to the back. So now it’s a toss up between a tyre blow out and a snapped gear cable as to what will cause the first breakdown.

And if it does puncture, removing the rear wheel is slightly more cumbersome than usual. Due to issue number 4.

The Quick Release

Unless I am in the midst of a months-long brainfart, I can’t seem to extract the wheel without taking out the quick release skewer entirely.

The nubnub – yes, that’s what it’s called – on the quick release can’t get around the rear derailleur, no matter how I massage it.

Maybe I can get a mini nubnub. Until then it’s an average speed release skewer.

Finally, in this rogue’s gallery of defects and confusions, number 5.

Brake Cable Guides

The guides for the rear brake cable, which occupies cable housing all the way along (okay…), require zip ties.

Which seems a bit naff. Maybe there are dedicated clips that look tidier but I’ve never heard of. But then neither have the people taking the promotional shots on the listing.

It’s functional but – how you say – a bit shit.

AliExpress Titanium Bike Build Costs

So how much has this white, kennel-dwelling elephant cost me?

I’ll whistle through the math…s. This isn’t Good Will Hunting.

Excluding the wheels and the fork, which I already had, but including my taxual pleasuring of His Majesty’s Govt, the cost of this project was £908.49.

If we call it £150 for those existing parts – mainly the wheels – we’re talking £1,060.

Which is … quite a lot for a shitbucket.

Let’s see. If the frame issues don’t turn out to be fatal, and it’s still riding in a couple of years, maybe I’ll upgrade it to bargain status.

But talking of riding…

How Does The Titanium AliExpress Bike Perform?

Answer: surprisingly well.

I’m no bike reviewer. I’ve not ridden a lot of different models. Or bikes.

But I like it. It feels nimble and responsive. And fast, although that might be my quadri-cannons on full chat.

I’m sure this performance is partly down to weight.

Without trying to save grams on the groupset and other components, the Ti Little Pony comes in at 8.98 kg. Which compares favourably to my carbon-framed Trek Domane (8.75kg), although less so since I upgraded to carbon wheels.

Incredibly, despite subverting the laws of physics and morality, the gear changes are precise, the indexing is ‘lob-on’ and it all sounds disconcertingly quiet.

Obviously I’m concerned about longevity. The cable guide bodge is a broken cable in waiting. The proximity of the front derailleur band bolt surely risks rubbing, and blowing, the tyre.

Goddamnit it though, I like the way it looks.

To the untrained eye, preferably without their glasses… standing 10 yards away… facing the opposite direction, it looks like a very smart bike.

What’s next for this mighty steed?

I’d consider switching to a one-by setup. Losing the front derailleur reduces cable snap risk by 50% and negates the need for the band from which to hang it.

With unlimited funds I could look to a fully electronic drivetrain and eschew use of the downtube guides entirely. But even using internet funny money and with the promise of ‘great content’, it feels weird to spend a lot more money on this Cleveland steamer.

So maybe, whilst I onanate, I’ll moor the bike to my KICKR indoor trainer, where ERG mode reduces the need to change gear and catastrophic cable failures won’t be quite so catastrophic.

And you can consider signing up to the Sportive Cyclist Newsletter. A surprising number have.

The post I Bought a Cheap Titanium Road Bike Frame Online… It Didn’t Go Well… appeared first on Sportive Cyclist.