Cycling on a budget

Let’s face it our simple sport of cycling has become a little expensive in the last few years. The downturn of the cycling industry shows that maybe it’s getting just deserts for trying to persuade us to part with thousands of pounds for the latest fad. One prime example is dropping a clubman’s favourite mechanical groupset in favour of electronic only versions. To my mind it’s a mistake. We’d all like a pro level road bike but at £12,000+ few can afford to buy and often you are just paying for a brand name. With a little research and legwork, equal and sometimes better can be purchased at a fraction of the cost.

A classic example of this is the recently released Chinese made EDS TX electronic gearset available as both rim brake and disc versions. Its aimed initially as an upgrade so it’s not a complete groupset but it can deal with all gear configurations up to 14 speeds both Campag, and Shimano/SRAM. It also comes at a price point few of the leading brands can match.

Carbon frames is another area where you can save pennies. You have to accept that you mostly get what you pay for. Quite simply lower price points will contain more resin that carbon so cheaper will be heavier. Take for example two extremes a Colnago V3rs and Planet X E101 both carbon aero frames and highly regarded. The Colnago will cost you somewhere north of £4000, the Planet X £700. Ironically both are made in the Far East. I’m fortunate enough to own both and I can honestly say the Planet X is faster and handles better. However, there are downsides. You can ride the Colnago all day in comfort, it seems to glide over Britain’s poor road surfaces, the Planet X by comparison will shake fillings out of your teeth!

Further money can be saved by using the second-hand market. Frames don’t seem to sell for huge amounts. Buyer beware, do your homework, ensure any brand is genuine, the item isn’t stolen or crash damaged. Any doubt, walk away. The latest model isn’t necessary the best borne out by Jonathan Shubert using a 2009 Giant Trinity TT frame in November 2020 to smash the RRA 100-mile record.

Ok how about other things such as energy drinks? A few years ago I looked at the ingredients of my branded energy drink and guess what? 98% is maltodextrin. Now I buy just maltodextrin powder, and mix as instructed, flavour with orange squash and add a pinch of salt. You can also use same as a simple recovery drink by substituting low fat milk to add protein and milk shake flavouring instead of orange squash. Maltodextrin powder is freely available and a fraction of the cost of your branded drink – try it, you’ve nothing to lose.

I have a few personal preferences with my cycling kit, one is misguided but I prefer white shoes. Horrible out of the box and look better once they have a few miles/km on them but occasionally they require a good clean this is where a thing called a Kitchen Eraser comes in. You can get them from the housewares section at the supermarket and they look like a small white rectangular sponge. Use with a little water and detergent. Great for cleaning white shoes and they double up to get your pots and pans sparkling.

Tools; if you only buy one tool, make it a chain measurer. Check your chain regularly and once it gets past the .75 mark, buy a new chain. This will preserve the life of your gear cassette and save you having to change that as well – look at the cost of a top flight 11 or 12 speed cassette and compare with around £10 for the tool and this will make sense.

TP Virtual - Zwift killer or just another turbo training app?

News reaches us that TrainingPeaks have acquired IndieVelo and changed its name to TP Virtual. This joins an already crowded market of indoor cycling apps of Zwift, Trainer Road, Rouvy, My Whoosh and Wattbike Hub to name a few.

I’ll admit straight away I’m not a fan of these apps with the exception of Wattbike Hub which is purely numbers and performance driven. It’s a personal preference and probably swayed by the brand of indoor bike I ride. Those I coach are also split 50/50 with some worshiping at the altar of Zwift, whilst others would rather stick pins in their eyes than actually have something come between them and a meaningful training session.

But…. as quite a lot of coaches use TP scheduling this new offering is enticing a few down ‘off the fence’. Cost has a bit to do with it. Zwift has become yet another monthly cost to your cycling enjoyment and at £12.99 pm doesn’t come cheap. There are obviously no free lunches in this world unless you’re a member of the new UK government. MyWhoosh is currently free but is being underwritten by UAE - that’s the country, not the team. The new TP Virtual has good DNA being developed from IndieVelo, a free Zwift clone with over 40k users and developed by the genius that is Dr Gilbert the man behind Zwift’s anti-cheating program. No we’re not talking about your mate who rides at under 70kg on Zwift but can’t get his huge carcass up hills on club rides, we’re talking about the pro side of the sport where he’s hung quite a few out to dry. I believe he also had a hand in the now defunct RGT.

The clever business model behind TP Virtual must be worrying for a few. While still under development its free till Spring 2025 then its included with your TP Premium subscription, which if you buy through your coach can be as little as £7 pm – OK you have to pay your coach as well but trust me that’s always money well spent.

Already there’s a app for Apple devices and the main thing for me is to get it to work seamlessly with TP training accounts as do the other established apps.

We’ll see, but in the next 18 months the world of online cycling could be a very different place and a few might have finally escaped Watopia.

Numbers

I overheard a recent conversation between two cyclists, one was explaining to another that the reason why he doesn’t compete is his FTP is lower than his mate who does.

This led me to think that perhaps people don’t understand what FTP actually is and its relationship to cycling performance ……let’s start at the beginning.

 As a cycling coach I regularly test people to find their true personal performance numbers so I can extrapolate training zones – simple.

Amongst these metrics is FTP or to give it its full title Functional Threshold Power which is quite simply the maximum average power you can produce for 1 hour on a bike and is quite handy for training and racing an athlete to their potential.

Some seem to ‘wear’ FTP as a badge of honour but, and this is a big but, your weight also is a huge factor because power to weight is just one of the things that determine how good you are as a cyclist.

The best example of this is I coach some riders who weigh under 60kg with an FTP in the low 200’s and riders over 90kg with an FTP of just over 300w – who’s going to be better? The answer is probably much the same. OK there are a few other variables but you get my point.

Which brings us back to power to weight ratio, hereafter referred to as watts per kilo [w/kg].

There are two ways of expressing it, either maximum or FTP.

Your maximum power is usually decided by a ramp test and is the average power you can produce in the final minute before you decide it was a bad idea and want to go home. This is referred to as MAP – Maximum Aerobic Power or MMP Maximum Minute Power

The classic ‘Threshold or FTP test’ to give it its commercial name, was ‘invented’ by Messrs Allen and Coggan who also own and run an organisation you may have heard of called TrainingPeaks. The test involves a specific warm up protocol followed by a controlled flat out 20-minute effort. We then take 95% of the average power from the 20-minute test to determine Threshold Power [FTP]. This is simply because no one wants to test for the full hour.  With me so far? Good.

For both tests simple maths is applied to divide the rider’s power either MAP/MMP or FTP by the rider’s weight. The figure you end up with is w/kg. For a club level male rider, the max test aim is around 5w/kg and 3.7 w/kg on the FTP scale.  

Most serious cyclists ride around with a GPS attached to the front of their bikes these days – many don’t have a clue what it’s telling them so long as the ride looks good on Strava. With many set up with incorrect zones - heart rate, power and weight, those results can be misleading.

So…if you want a reputable cycling coach to take you on, your question should be ‘I have this goal I’m struggling with and want to improve’ not ‘I want to improve my FTP’ you’ll then have a good conversation and usually a long and fruitful relationship.

Motivation

I’m regularly asked about this in relation to cycle training these are some of my thoughts….

As with all things one simple question is always top; ‘Why am I doing this?’

There are many possible answers but primary to these can be summed up with one word ‘goals’. Spend time thinking about these and it helps to make your goals short, medium and long term.  

Everyone is different, in my case goals were always competition based. Your goals might also be an event or race, keeping fit, enjoying the countryside, being able to tackle certain terrain or simply setting a few personal best’s. Focus on these and now hopefully you have the answer to the question.

Next, set timescales to achieve your goals, it helps to write them down, refer to them regularly or keep a diary to see how you are doing. Think of this as your ‘road map’ – unless you know where you’re going, you’ll flounder round in circles and never reach your destination.

Be careful though, business guru Zig Ziglar once wrote ‘If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time’. Who do you know like that? Be imaginative, stretch yourself. We’re all capable of more than we think – much more!

Everyone has their own level, not all of us are as naturally gifted as others but being active elevates you above the average couch potato. Life wouldn’t be fun if we could do everything perfect first time, so expect to make mistakes and have failures, learn from these and find a way forward.

Go for it!  

Can I coach anyone?

I suppose the answer to this is yes and no which I admit is a complete cop-out. This answer is because some people believe they are un-coachable, then by entering into the process and changing a few habits suddenly find they are. I also coach people at all levels not just elite athletes. As far as I’m concerned, the biggest reward comes from the ordinary doing the extraordinary.

I read with interest coach Joe Friel’s take on this. Joe has written many coaching books and is co-founder of online coaching platform TrainingPeaks. He admits early in his coaching career he ‘fired’ two athletes. Put simply both were pursuing lifestyle straits that were at odds with physiological training. He has since learned to filter potential clients by asking a few often-uncomfortable questions before taking them on.

Like most coaches I have an online presence and spend a little cash to promote my coaching business. The website has a contact form which comes into my email inbox. Most enquiries are genuine and I always reply outlining services or expand on similar areas of expertise that I have coached riders in. I always suggest an initial consultation either by phone or using one of the video conferencing platforms. In about 30% of cases the contact goes ‘cold’ and I never get a reply, others seem to suddenly become unavailable or demanding which is a very good reason for never taking people like this on. It’s vital to have a one-to-one conversation and initially I’ll ask about goals, equipment and time to train. Now I’m also inclined to ask about diet, whether they’d had a coach previously, and expand on what they would do to achieve their major goal. Answers to the latter vary but I’m afraid ‘anything’ doesn’t cut it with me. By the end of the conversation, I usually have a fair idea whether we are suited and if I have space offer them a place on one of my coaching platforms or pop them on the waiting list if they have medium or long-term goals.  

Quite a few people have said to me, ‘if you have their money why should you care who you coach’? It doesn’t quite work like that for a two main reasons:

1.       Quite quickly you’ll find you get a bad reputation and word gets around. Not only amongst fellow coaches but also in your given sport. Remember, whatever you spend on advertising and promoting your business nothing is more valuable than a personal recommendation.

2.       An unresponsive or lazy athlete is much harder work, someone requiring constant chasing and motivation to actually do some training is a drain on your resources.

To sum up, I will coach anyone but not those with preconceived ideals and lifestyle choices or those who simply don’t communicate – coaching is a two-way street and while I don’t need ‘War and Peace’ each week it’s good to know what has worked, and conversely what hasn’t, it’s also good to know what they’ve enjoyed, which indicates a feel-good factor.  Frankly if you don’t train towards a goal or find it a chore its best to do something else.

Since improving my vetting process my coaching business has not only expanded  I have more time to give all my riders a first class service.

Bike servicing myth or reality?

This subject came up at a recent café stop on our regular weekly ride – another club’s members were getting very excited because a local bike shop was offering special deals on bike servicing.

Bike servicing seems a fairly recent phenomenon possibly born out of a few of things. Lack of knowledge, the will to get your hands dirty and greater disposable income.  Plus, bikes in recent times have become more technically complicated – or have they?

I’ll take the last point first. I’m lucky enough to own a pro level road bike. Its Italian, cost a small fortune and was factory built – badly as it turns out. After a few weeks of suffering various creaks and knocks I decided to find out what was going on. Delving further I found that several items needed attention so stripped the whole thing and torque wrench in hand started again.

Needless to say, the bike now runs and rides as it should. Yes, along the way there were bits I didn’t know like programming the electronic gear system but we’ll come to that.

I suppose the point here is despite this particular model having won the Tour de France twice recently, its still just a bike and mechanically very simple. It works on the same principals as the bike I built and raced when I was 16.

Some bike shops today are very different places, part boutique, part coffee shop. I know after the boom years during the recent pandemic lockdowns  there’s been a slowing of trade so many have looked at additional revenue streams and possibly a few have literally woken up and smelt the coffee!

My concern has always been that on a bike I occasionally ride very fast., how confident can I be that a bike shop mechanic who bolted it together has done the job properly? There are various qualifications for shop mechanics, probably the best known is Cytech, but I ask - has anyone ever actually ever failed this? Generally, most bike mechanics start as retail assistants – nothing wrong in that, start at the bottom, learn your trade and work your way up. But, a good mechanic needs the right aptitude and an eye for detail.

Surely bikes just require maintenance, you can’t just ride, lock away and expect them to last. With a few simple tools it’s a quick and easy job to keep on top of. Do it regularly and you’ll be surprised how much longer things last and how your riding enjoyment is enhanced.

A few paragraphs ago I mentioned adjusting an electronic gear set – your first port of call when wanting to find out how to do anything bike maintenance wise is YouTube. In my case the manufacturer SRAM had put up a very good series for installing and adjusting the gear system as well as bleeding disc brakes- really simple stuff once you know how.

Over the years I’ve developed a professional standard workshop. I’ve educated friends and cycling colleagues how to maintain their own bikes. Everything from cables, bottom bracket bearing replacement, wheel truing and spoke replacement to brake pads. I’ve seen some bike shop mechanic workmanship that is cause for concern from lost locking circlips on disc pads to incorrectly fitted chains. I’m first to admin I still make mistakes but they are usually cosmetic and  I always ensure none are life threatening.

Like most things in this world if you don’t have the aptitude to work on your bike find a good individual mechanic and follow them where ever they work rather than just rely on one shop.

Don’t let any bike shop make you believe that they won’t guarantee the part if you fit it yourself, complete nonsense and verging on fraud.

So…..bike servicing or regular home maintenance?

Up to you and how deep your pockets are but as an owner of 8 bikes, I know what I choose.

If you do go down the route of home maintenance here is list of basic tools to work on modern bikes like anything buy the best you can afford, generally the Park Tool brand is a good place to start:

Chain Measurer

Chain Link Remover

Puncture Kit

LM Grease

3-1 oil

GT85 spray lube

10mm spanner

15mm spanner

Cassette lockring tool [SRAM and Shimano are same Campag is different]

Chain whip

Cable Cutters

Tyre levers

Set of Allen keys

Torque Wrench – a must if you have carbon components or frame

….and YouTube!

Other items such as Bottom Bracket tools can be added as you require them. Gone are the days where these were either English or Italian. You can also ask your cycling friends or clubmates to lend you one they’ll probably even show you how to do it – I do!          

Baggage

It struck me the other day that we as cyclists all gather metaphorical baggage as we go through our athletic career. No I’m not talking saddlebags or panniers but clothing, equipment, and pre-conceived ideas.

After all the Velominati ‘keepers of the cog’ https://www.velominati.com state in rule 6 ‘Free your mind and your legs will follow - Your mind is your worst enemy. Do all your thinking before you start riding your bike. Once the pedals start to turn, wrap yourself in the sensations of the ride – the smell of the air, the sound of the tyres, the feeling of flight as the bicycle rolls over the road’.

Rule 5 states …..Well never mind all that, but you should!

We all start baggage free, some have ‘hand luggage’ but they are soon relieved of that by the more experienced ‘baggage handlers’ or influencers as we call them.

Let’s start with clothing.

When younger we used our bikes simply as transport and didn’t care what we looked like the only necessity was something to keep you warm and dry, helmets and lights were an option and the bike was fixed when it stopped working or had a puncture and even then it often limped on a while. Now take a look at yourself! Lycra, helmets, fancy shoes etc. I’m even aware of some groups of riders and clubs that look desperate bunch of outlaws in a hotchpotch of clothing mainly black doing their best to blend with the shadows.

Next is equipment.

I’ll be first to admit that some stuff or baggage does make you go a little quicker, I remember in the first racing season when tri bars were used in domestic time trials all the competition records fell but just by having something doesn’t always make it so and said accessory needs to be applied properly otherwise you’re just carrying around more dead weight.

Equipment baggage is something visited on us by our peers and the media for example my first real racing bike had just 5 sprockets at the rear, this has grown recently to 12. Question is, does it make you better or are you simply carrying more baggage?

Stuart Dangerfield one of our top domestic time trial champions a few years ago used just 3 sprockets maintaining that was all he needed in a TT so why carry more. Graeme Obree rode a fixed gear winning almost every event and setting an hour and course records along the way, some still stand today.

Others seem to get lost outside their front door without a GPS or have a melt down if a ride isn’t recorded so they can upload to Strava. The simple joy of just cycling seems lost somehow.

A local cycling legend that clocks some serious mileage puts it thus; ‘All the gear and no idea’ He’s right and is often seen out just enjoying a ride. No GPS often just a simple old school cycling computer – trust me, he knows all the lanes and most go uphill …a lot! Try and stay with him though and you’re in for a serious pasting.

Last but my no means least is pre-conceived ideas. Things like ‘the roads are dangerous and full of potholes’ Some riders I haven’t seen for a while because they only ride indoors. Of course its complete nonsense, the roads are poor in places you just need to pay attention and our fellow road users are generally OK – I started riding seriously back in the 70’s and encountered the odd nut job even then. Yes, the roads were a little quieter but we had no protective equipment and learned to ride defensively. Frankly if you don’t cycle on the road what is the point? Might as well sit on the sofa and play a video game instead.

So baggage - Take a good hard look at yourself and ask should I be charged excess luggage?

An hour is more than enough.

News has reached me of someone who has just spent over 6 hours riding a smart turbo trainer.

Apparently some people have far too much time on their hands and frankly I’d rather be out in the fresh air enjoying the lanes and our wonderful countryside. Admittedly on the day in question we did have the worst storm in years with winds recorded at 122mph on the Isle of Wight, it also partially ripped the roof off the Millennium Dome or 02 as its currently known with a rare ‘red’ weather warning, maybe not a day to be out on a bike!

If you absolutely had to train that day then an indoor session was probably a wise choice – but six hours? The same training adaptation can be made in an hour or just over for the average club cyclist. A professional athlete may be a different matter, these guys and gals are a different breed with power outputs and power to weight figures the rest of us can only dream about therefore adaptation required for them is far greater.

So where do you start?

As with all effective training you need to know your numbers – by this I mean an accurate set of training zones. Without these any training session is meaningless and just a series of ‘junk miles’. This initially requires a bit of hard work but testing regularly will save you a lot of wasted time and energy. It’s best to update your zones every 3-6 months. There are various ways to do it, a threshold or ramp test for experienced riders or a sub max test if less experienced. You can do these yourself but it may be preferable to employ professional help. I’m sure myself or one of my coaching colleagues with the right kit will always be delighted to assist for a small fee and you will also learn a lot from the report.

So what should you do? – thought you’d never ask!

It depends on what you are trying to achieve and turbo training sessions generally fall into three categories, endurance, strength and speed.

Lets deal with endurance first or ‘building your engine’ warm up to mid zone 3 and ride a series of intervals at upper zone 3/ lower zone 4 this can be by heart rate or power based measurement but its good to have both as an additional check. Start with five minute intervals, 4 or 5 repeats with 2 minutes recovery between. Build up week by week adding more time to the interval till you are able to do 4 x 12 minutes.

Strength sessions usually employ bigger gears/more resistance and lower cadence. Again a good warm is crucial then start with a 2 or 3 minute interval and aim to hit a HR upper zone 4 heart rate by the end. Take a 1 minute easy spin then go again. Start with 6 repeats and increase number of intervals week by week.

Last but by no means least is the speed session you’ll need to know your threshold power sometimes called FTP or its heart rate alternative FTHR this is the pace that you can ride flat out for 1 hour or if you were riding a 25 mile time trial. Do a good warm up over 20 minutes with a couple of 1 minute race pace efforts to finish then ride at 105% of your threshold. Start at 5 minutes and do 4 intervals with 90 seconds to 2 minutes between. Gradually increase interval time then reduce the rest period.

As with all turbo training always progress the sessions, never do the same workout otherwise your body won’t adapt and your fitness will plateau.

The above sessions are just the basics and are done at your own risk and if you are new to training please get yourself checked out by a doctor before you start. All are adaptable and can be programmed to run in conjunction with one of the popular video distraction apps, I’d count Zwift as the market leader but others such as Rouvy, Trainer Road or RGT being just as good with the latter even having a free option. You might prefer to train without and find distraction apps just that - a distraction and just get on with the business of the day, you can train without despite what TV adverts and marketers would have you believe.

However you train do it properly, do it well, but don’t spend 6 hours on a turbo trainer!

Happy cycling.

Phew what a scorcher!

I’ve had a few people ask me what precautions they can take when riding bike with the mercury over 30 deg C on the thermometer. Some are common sense but thought I’d share these.

Firstly fluids. Ensure you are fully hydrated before you start. Generally, the last thing I’ll do is ‘neck’ a large glass of squash before going out.

Take two bottles [obviously!] – one for drinking, one for pouring. So, in other words one with your favorite brand of energy fuel or flavouring and one plain water. The latter can either be used to drink or pour over the overheated bits – neck -shoes- legs whatever, the breeze flowing over you will do the rest. Don’t get them mixed up!

Drink little and often

You may also like to place bottles in the freezer overnight, don’t forget them, and once out riding you’ll find they thaw amazingly quickly!

Replenish when you can – most cycling friendly cafés have an outside tap or will fill up bottles from the kitchen.

Apply sunblock to exposed bits of skin, tan lines good, red bits bad!

Pick a flatter ride, you generate more heat with more effort and ride slower uphill – simple!  

A good pair of sunglasses won’t help with the heat but you’ll look cool!

Choose your thinnest socks your feet will a tendency to swell in the heat - if you’re lucky enough to have more than one pair of cycling shoes choose the older ones, chances are they will have stretched to your feet more.

On returning drink again immediately to start the rehydration process. If you have an unquenchable thirst try mixing a large pinch of salt in a pint glass of squash this will help get the fluids into your system – try it, works every time.

Resist the alcoholic drinks – a cold beer might seem tempting but might dehydrate you further.

Have a lukewarm shower rather than a cold one, its more pleasant and will cool you quicker.

…..finally, enjoy,  you’ll soon be back putting on gloves, overshoes and winter jackets remembering the halcyon days of summer!

So…. what did you do during lockdown to improve your cycling performance?

As a coach I'm lucky enough to own a Wattbike Pro - fantastic piece of kit but I'm unable to have my clients and other athletes over to Merlin HQ for testing at the moment and rather than let it gather dust in the corner its been put to good use not only testing new indoor 'Turbo' sessions on myself but also using the Wattbike's vast array of measurement functions to find optimal position and improve my woefully poor pedalling technique.

I also wanted to try different saddle heights as quite by accident a few weeks ago while doing a workout I accidentally forgot to reset saddle height on the Wattbike after testing a client - it was only 15mm but nevertheless data showed a much better leg balance and I was pedalling in a more rounded style, with a much better FMax score - more on that later!

So to the test.

With my initial seat height calculation* I allowed for the Wattbike's non-interchangeable cranks which are shorter than my usual preference. I'd already seen the leg imbalance at that measurement so started 5mm lower with a plan to test a 2nd measurement, a further reduction of 5mm.

After a 10 minute warm up I rode each configuration for 5 minutes each in two different pairs of shoes to take out any variance at my natural cadence. Its then just a simple matter to compile results into a spreadsheet. The Wattbike also has a polar view feature that shows how you pedal visually so I took screen shots of each segment.

Overall results appeared similar at first glance but then a pattern emerged and one combination of saddle height produced better leg balance, power and lower average heart rate. The polar view segment also confirmed a more rounded stroke.

The FMax score I mentioned is the angle on the downward pedal stoke where you apply most power and is usually around 120 deg give or take on an experienced cyclist. This is another area, which should be quite even.

Apart from 'free watts' which equate to a faster and more efficient riding style the even power stroke will hopefully prevent injury. I can take this further and work on the 'low spot' at the top and bottom of my pedal stroke.

Question to ask about your pedal stroke; are you a peanut, a chipolata or a sausage? - only one way to find out and hopefully in the next few weeks my testing studio will be open for business as usual!

* To calculate saddle height take an accurate inside leg measurement standing with your back to the wall, bare feet approx 20cm apart use an old LP Record or hard back book in 'saddle position' between legs and measure to the floor. You then multiply this measurement by 0.9 to get a starting point for saddle height measured centre bottom bracket to top of saddle.