Ditching road cleats completely – marginal losses. Views & Opinion by MuddyGoose - December 29, 2021January 18, 20220 There are times when you do something because 'that's the way it should be' or because 'that's what everyone else does'. And because it seems to be right or best you never bother to question it. Then maybe you have one of those moments of realisation and decide that actually, 'there's a better way'. That's what happened for me when I questioned why I was riding single sided road pedals, road specific shoes and LOOK Keo cleats. When I bought a road bike back in 2012 to have alongside my mountain bike, I actually started off with mountain bike pedals and cleats on it but for the reasons mentioned I changed to 'proper' road shoes, cleats and pedals. I guess it
Added a SRAM AXS power meter to my Force groupset Maintenance Product Reviews Views & Opinion by MuddyGoose - June 1, 2021June 1, 20210 Should I buy a power meter? It's one of those questions that has been discussed amongst friends, within clubs and across internet forums for decades. The experts will tell you that you'll see bigger gains if you train by power. All the pros use power meters, at least in training if not also in races. You can more easily regulate your efforts with the use of power data, to ensure that you don't blow up before the top of that long climb or before the final run in of your race. Of course all of this just explains the usefulness of power meters but doesn't answer the question of 'should I buy one?' as that question surely boils down to
Cycling plans for 2021 Views & Opinion by MuddyGoose - April 1, 2021April 1, 20210 So it's April already. That's 3 months gone and into the 2nd quarter of the year. But in terms of the plans of a cycling enthusiast, it's been 3 months of lockdown and there have been no cycling events going ahead at all. Even club rides and local group rides have been none existent, not to mention organised events such as Sportives, Races etc. Usually on a normal year, by this time I would have ridden the Yaxley Riders Reliability Ride and have been planning ahead to other organised events. And maybe managed to squeeze in a couple of rides in different parts of the UK as my day job allowed. But not this year. Things
2020 Cycling Year in Review Views & Opinion by MuddyGoose - March 5, 2021March 5, 20214 OK, I know. It's now March. I'm a bit late on this post, it should really be completed by the end of January I suppose. To be honest I did think about leaving it out this time around and starting my year on the blog with something different but 2020 was definitely a year with plenty to talk about! So 2020 will be remembered for the year of the COVID19 pandemic. The virus outbreak began in 2019 in East Asia but it was March 2020 before it hit the UK and the affects were felt worldwide. For me, I began 2020 with quite a lot of work trips. Once up to Aberdeen in Scotland, across to the company
Hills in Halifax, Climbs in Calderdale & the Peaks of Pendle Calderdale Yorkshire by MuddyGoose - September 24, 2020September 24, 20201 In my continued quest to ride the 100 climbs as found in the book by Simon Warren - 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs: A Road Cyclist's Guide to Britain's Hills - I found myself travelling up to Calderdale this week. There are some climbs that get recognition because of their elevation gain, some because of their steepness and some due to the beautiful national park surroundings. The first two climbs of my day in Calderdale get recognition due to a combination of their steepness and their jarring cobbled surface. If you're wanting to test yourself on cobbled climbs without needing to go over to Belgium or Northern France then Halifax is a fine place to start, as I soon found out. Like
Park Rash and other Yorkshire Hills Yorkshire Yorkshire Dales by MuddyGoose - March 28, 2020March 28, 20201 A few weeks ago I went up to Scotland for work. Yes, back in the days of being able to leave the house! For anyone reading this in years to come - that's a reference to the restrictions currently in place for the CovID19 pandemic! And as I always try to do, I went for a ride as a break to the driving on my way up. On this occasion it saw me stopping in Grassington with the aim of riding up Park Rash - Hill #45. Park Rash is a hill climb north of Kettlewell. So I chose Grassington as the target for my start point in order to give myself a little bit of a warm up prior to
Review: My new Garmin Venu Smartwatch Product Reviews by MuddyGoose - March 19, 2020May 10, 20204 Anyone who knows me will also know that I don't conform to the norm just because everyone else does. I also don't conform because it's the trendy option or it's written in 'the rules'. Hence why I've never chosen to invest in a Garmin computer for my bike. I've never understood why I'd want to spend more money for less functionality; so I bought an android smartphone instead. It does the same job only better. So, a Garmin smartwatch; have I had a change of heart? 1864
Vittoria Bottle Cage Case/Bag Review Product Reviews by MuddyGoose - October 25, 2019October 25, 20190 I was glancing through my blog pages the other day and I realised that my focus has been very tyre based. New tyres, tubeless tyres and so on. OK so I broke that pattern by including a new bike build but there's a definite tyre heavy balance on the blog! Well, I've just bought some more tyres, so expect a 'gravel tyre review and opinions' post soon but in the meantime enjoy something a little different! This is my first ever review of a bottle cage case! Bottle Cage Case? I hear you say. What's a bottle cage case! Well, it's not a case to pack away your bottle cages in when their not in use. You can't get them yet
New Road Bike – Kinesis RTD Self Build Product Reviews by MuddyGoose - June 10, 2019July 6, 20199 So it all began with a new pair of tyres. Seems a bit extreme to buy a new bike when all you need is tyres! But that of course is not the whole story. For a while I've been considering a new frameset, I bought cheap carbon originally and in general I've not been impressed with the quality. The geometry is good and the frame is a really decent weight, especially for the £650 I paid for the bike originally. It was the right choice at the time. But a couple of the cable routing covers no longer stay in place, I've taken to taping them in place with black electrical tape, fortunately the frame is black so the colour match
New Tyres for the road bike – Hutchinson Fusion 5 Performance 11storm. Product Reviews by MuddyGoose - May 28, 2019May 29, 20190 There are only so many miles you can eek out of tyres and I think with my recent set of Hutchinson Fusion 5 All Seasons I had pretty much reached that limit. A long time after they lose their peak performance, run out of tread and square off you start to spot patches of the tyre where there's no longer any rubber and the carcass beneath shows through. This is when you've definitely got your money's worth, for sure! These had a good few miles This tyre was on my front wheel, so it completed significantly more miles than the rear one did. When the rear needed replacing last year I chose to try out a Hutchinson Sector tyre. Just the one