HatesWinterTraining

I’m trying to fit some Shimano R8050 shifters to a set of Prime carbon handlebars but the bands seem impossibly tight to position correctly. I’ve fully undone the bolts and the bands slide over the bar ends fine but get very snug at the bend where the grippy coating is. One side I can get to an almost acceptable position but the other is way off.

I assume the bands are a standard size for road. Am I missing a tubeless style trick here like using soap to make the surfaces more slippy? Or is this set of bars out of tolerance?

One of the threads on my shoes appears to have stripped/deformed and the bolt won't torque up. The thread plate looks like it just slots into the sole and should be replaceable but I can't find any spares for my specific shoe.

Are shoe inserts shoe-specific or can I use any 2 bolt insert? These are to fit Eggbeater cleats to.

Feels a bit alien as it's the first time I've ridden SRAM, eggbeaters, or dealt with disc brakes, but I love it. I went out for an "easy" ride the other day which ended up with me hitting the highest 10 minute average HR I've seen all year and having to walk a mile home with two flats.

Questions:

• The eggbeater instructions said to use the front pair of holes on my shoes but my foot feels weirdly far behind the pedal axle compared to my road setup. Should I move the cleats back to the other pair of holes or is there a reason for having them forward?

• What's the best solution for dealing with thorns? The tyres are Challenge Grifo clinchers and I was running at 60 psi. Are slime tubes eff

To mix up my winter riding I'm venturing into CX this year. Nothing too serious or muddy and no plans to race at the moment. I've got some knobbly tyres and an ass saver for my road bike but otherwise just running my standard road gear.

So far it's going ok but my shoes are summer shoes so it's only a matter of time before I step in a deep puddle and get wet, cold feet - no fun! Cleaning the mud out of the cleats before I can use them on the indoor trainer is also a pain.

So I think the next purchase is some appropriate shoes. What would you recommend? The Northwave Farenheit style boots look like they'd do a good job of keeping me dry although are a bit pricey. Thoughts? Any good budget o

So I'm getting towards the end of my second proper season of racing and failed to achieve either of my (racing) goals for the year: 3rd cat upgrade and, maybe a bit too ambitious, win a race. I need a 5th place or better finish to get my upgrade but it's proving difficult.

Most of my circuit races seem to come down to a sprint finish and my sprint is fairly feeble even when fresh. The thing I really struggle with is staying near the front without wasting a huge amount of energy or just getting swamped/boxed in.

Currently sitting at ~4W/kg or 295W FTP and averaging about 6 hours of training a week. Obviously "more training, more power" is one answer but any more advice?

For a variety of reasons I'm thinking of moving my interval sessions off the road and onto the trainer.

Over the winter I got by reasonably well with a single 1000m3/h fan at about 12-15C ambient. However now it's summer and about 22-27C ambient this feels woefully inadequate.

Is more airflow the answer or do I need to look into some sort of air conditioner to lower the ambient temperature?

I bought a helmet cam a month or two ago after a similar (but slightly worse) incident with a bus. So I have it all on video, clearly identifying the company and registration plate.

I was riding home from work down a fairly quiet country road early this evening. The initial pass was a little close, but then it's not a terribly wide road and the driver was using most of the other lane, so no big deal. I also ride a bit out from the verge so I have a buffer in this sort of situation, which I fell back on. However, the driver then started moving in again pretty quickly while I was still well alongside the vehicle and the rear overhang swiped pretty close to me. I'm fairly sure that I'd have be

A while ago a few friends and I formed a team. We used to race together quite often but in the last couple of seasons the others have been pretty inactive so I've mostly been racing unattached. I'm thinking about joining a local race team for this season but it'd been nice to be able to ride with the old team occasionally.

What's the etiquette here? It's unlikely to be a frequent occurrence or that both teams would end up in the same event.

So I had my first go at gluing a set of tubulars and predictably I made a bit of a mess of it. The glue stuck well in the centre but not on the shoulders, leaving a load of dry spots, and I was told it would need re-gluing. Managed to get the tyres off the rim in one piece, but the base tape is still covered in glue.

I've decided to use tape this time because glue was a real hassle, but that means getting everything clean first before mounting tyres again.

Any advice? Do I stand any chance of getting these tyres clean enough to re-use them successfully? With < 50km on them it'd be a shame to bin them.

An indoor velodrome finally opened near me, so I'm planning on taking up track racing this winter. I'm quite data-driven and curious about the differences between road and track.

So, my first question is what data do you guys collect and analyse from track sessions? Presumably GPS doesn't work too well indoors? Is power data as valuable on the track, or can you infer it more accurately from speed?

Secondly, I'm looking to buy a new power meter and considering future compatibility. I currently have a PowerTap, which I bought because it was cheap and competent, but now that I have more than one set of wheels I'm looking to replace it with something more versatile. I'm almost decided on

I've been training with power properly for a few months now, using TSS to gauge how hard I've been working. Normally I aim for around 500 TSS a week at a reasonably high intensity (>80% by Strava's reckoning).

This weekend I did an audax with a friend for a change, which weighed in at ~340 TSS. This seemed quite a decent number, but the intensity was quite low. Looking at the zone distribution made me question my understanding of TSS.

Is TSS comparable between rides of different intensities in terms of adaptation and ultimately performance (ignoring anaerobic/neuromuscular)? For example, will 100 TSS at Z2 have the same effect on FTP, etc. as 100 TSS

So, I actually have two right-hand shifters with this problem. One is Xenon 10sp (spare, used pair), and the other is Veloce 10sp (currently on my bike).

Basically, when clicking up through the gears the ratchet lets out 3-4 clicks around the 5th click. This doesn't always happen, but it happens often enough to be annoying.

Tonight I took apart the back half of the Xenon shifter out of curiosity and inspected it for wear. The gear teeth and pawls don't seem to have any noticeable signs of wear. I gave the bits (especially the gear teeth) a good clean up, and put it back together but the problem persists.

Any ideas what the problem could be and how to fix it?