Thread to tell everyone what bike gear you've just bought !

daniel_b

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21106943#Comment_21106943

That's good to know, thanks 🤘

I did have a look at reviews, and it seemed pretty favourable.

Presuming it was an lbs that got taken over/absorbed/saved by Trek?

Think the same thing happened to Royles if anyone remembers them.

daniel_b

Impressed so far, the item is with DPD, and is due for delivery tomorrow, as I'll be out I have requested it be delivered to a nearby collection point.

I felt I had to post about the TCB situation. Those of you who use it will know that sometimes it takes a day or more for items to show up as tracked, and then it often takes 4-12 weeks to change to Confirmed, and then finally to Payable.

I placed the order on Saturday late afternoon, so that is Nov 31st.

As I mentioned I used a voucher, so if the T's and C's were adhered to it should have been rejected.

It tracked immediately, and at the full value, a lot of retailers state a % figure, but it ends up being off the amount less VAT - this is clearly off the total basket price.

At some point yesterday (Sunday 1st) it went straight through Confirmed, and is already at Payable - never seen a retailers cashback amount go to Payable within a day, and on a weekend.

I don't keep a super close eye on it, but I'd wager the quickest time previously is something like 4 weeks, but it can often be 4-6 months until it becomes payable.

Anyway, I digress, I'll confirm when it arrives, and also the Lordgun order is on it's way too, hopeful that will arrive midweek, but again will update once it does.

daniel_b

Garmin 1040 arrived yesterday from Team Cycles, fast despatch for sure.

Only slight issue for me, was that they packed it in a box that was the right depth, but wider and longer if that makes sense, than the actual Garmin box.

I prefer it when they send expensive items such as this, when they put a small amount of packing in the box to fill the void, so it can't rattle about, I do the same when send any items I have sold.

Minor I know :-)

mrb123

Ordered a pair of the new Galibier winter gloves to try. They have discount code following the release that gets £8 off them. My pair of their older winter gloves has been great so have high hopes for these.

https://www.galibier.cc/product/extreme-winter-gloves/

daniel_b

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21106748#Comment_21106748

Never updated this thread with how long the delivery took.

Ordered on Friday morning, despatched on the Saturday (According to the tracking), landed in the UK on Wednesday, and arrived at my house on Thursday.

6 days with a weekend thrown in is pretty good I would say.

* I think there might have been faster more pricey shipping options should you need something sooner.

prawny

I’m back and spending!

Over the last 3 weeks I have bought

Used sora shifters, some used bars, cables, and associated bits to convert my old hybrid into a gravel bike.

Followed by a Raveman PR2000 front light another set of more gravelly bars, some pinnacle waterproof panniers and a rotted rack from tweeks.

Skint now, but hopefully back to reasonably regular commuting for the foreseeable future.

daniel_b

Those Ravemen lights are mighty fine pieces of kit, nice little powerbank option as well.

I have recently bought a Tiagra 52/36 crankset for the turbo bike - £75.

This Perfetto ltd edition print jacket - finally reduced to something approaching reasonable, £159:

Today on a Rouvy race it would appear my ancient old rock solid garmin hr strap died - you know the type?

Random pic off ebay:

I'm potentially the only person who still uses one, and mine must be at least 10 years old, potentially even 15, can't recall which head unit or watch it would have come with even - might even have been a FR305 watch, if anyone remembers them.

I thought it might just be battery, as that hasn't been changed for an age, so changed that out for a new one, but Rouvy would still not pick it up.

Popped on my Wahoo TickrX, and that got picked up immediately on both Ant+ and BLE - so unless I have a dud new battery, the strap has finally given up.

Wanting to keep my Wahoo for outdoor rides, I decided to purchase a new one for the turbo - did notice a very cheap offering at Halfords that had middling reviews, but then somehow recalled a few people on here, ItBoffin being one, giving rave reviews of CooSpoo monitors.

This was £29, but had a 20% off thingy:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D4J5VDK/ref%3Dox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3FNFU5JZFDCZT&psc=1

Coincidentally my partner had asked if I knew where her equally ancient HR strap was, as she will be getting onto Rouvy soon and does some spin classes, but even though I did locate it, it is devoid of a strap, so I though given the identical age, it would be wise to order her one as well - £46 for two I didn't think was too bad, hopefully they will be up to the job. Also ordered some more CR2032s as my stock is running now, and want to prove that the old strap is definitely dead.

I was sorely tempted to get this one, purely as I found the name entertaining, but it was no cheaper and had worse reviews :-(

prawny

The ravemen light is indeed fantastic

I've just received a gopro mount for it that I didn't clock was from China when I ordered it so it took weeks to come. Plus an outfront style mount for it, because I was getting a bit dazzled when riding out of the saddle, hoping this sorts that as well as giving me a bit of extra hand room on the tops.

Also got some 69mm Bluemels for £25 which are all fitted now, but lead to me needed another set of bolt croppers because trimming the stays snapped the end of my old ones off. I bought a 3 pack of croppers so I had the 8" ones and some (I think) 14" ones which made the job a lot easier.

Just realised I'd not mentioned the gravel ratio chainset, a tourney one I think it was less than £20 anyway.

Commuter is looking slick now, although it does weigh as much as a decent sized moon. I see another road bike in my future.

daniel_b

I've traded in my now unused but quite upgraded 2015 Cannondale Synapse Adventure for a 2024 Cannondale Optimo.

It's the same 54cm frame size, but a more aggressive geometry (I think it is the same geometry as a CAAD) that much closer matches that of my other road bikes.

It has a few scratches on the top tube, and the tyres are a bit cracked, and just the factory originals, but aside from that is looking to be a decent bike.

Tiagra 10spd, 50/34 up front currently, though have a new 52/36 I may well put on it.

In theory it is destined for the turbo, and some other light duties, but we'll see.

Colour is boring as hell, but at least there is no red present.

I let the guy keep the pedals and saddle.

daniel_b

I've after a 5 week Rouvy trial, and paying one months sub at £12.99 I think it was, I have changed it to a yearly sub for both myself and my partner - I just need to get her turbo setup now!

In the realms of everything going up in price, this to me seems very good value, and to be incredibly flexible.

They sent me a 10% discount code which errored, so I logged a support ticket, and over the weekend they replied and have me a 20% code instead, which did work - £135 for 12 months for the 2 of us, but you can pause it at any point, and come back when you want to.

I don't anticipate using it during the summer months, but will probably want it active for 8 months, especially as I am really enjoying the races - although always getting my head kicked in.

£5.63 each a month if we use it for 12 months of the year - with everyone seemingly cranking up prices, that seems like incredible vfm as things stand.

I'm even considering cancelling my TR sub, but we'll see - I'm locked in to the old rate, which is pretty damned cheap, around £80 a year I think, and it's not due to renew until July, but I'll see how I get on.

Rouvy has some fairly decent workouts on there, and I think you can build your own, but it doesn't have the multi week indepth plans like TR, and no AI FTP detection, so the jury is out there currently ;-)

mrb123

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21114811#Comment_21114811

I've been a subscriber for years and it auto-renews every January. The price they charge me never seems to go up - depending on the exchange rate it's always about 100 quid a year. In the current climate that seems really good value, especially considering how much it has improved over the years.

daniel_b

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21114814#Comment_21114814

You did well getting on early, I've seen some mention of 'lifetime' membership, which I think is guaranteed to stay at x amount as long as you carry on renewing - I'm in a similar boat with TR.

I have seen mentioned on the facebook page about them giving loyalty discounts, but that you have to seek them out and apply them - guess yours will just have renewed though.

Do you ever pause yours or just let it run every month?

mrb123

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21114816#Comment_21114816

I just let it run even though I barely use it in the summer months. I easily get my value out of it during the darker months, plus there's always the possibility I might want to use it here and there on wet days.

super_davo

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21114816#Comment_21114816

I have a $75 a year legacy Rouvy plan (i.e about £60). Best value thing I have in cycling, I'll keep it running as long as they let me. I can't pause in the summer because I have an annual plan, but I use it year round anyway.

daniel_b

Still not setup my partners bike on the wahoo kickr core - was going to put the cassette on, having removed it from the wheel of course, and realised it was pretty filthy - degreased it, and gave it a good clean, and was all ready to refit it.

Then on the Rouvy FB page realised that the Zwift cog and click thing is an option, so ordered one from start fitness yesterday afternoon for £78 delivered, and it's arrived at my local post office already today!

Thought that would be for the best, as she's not always the most aware of mechanical sympathy with regards to cross chaining, and it's not unknown for the bike to be left in a horribly high gear when she finishes etc etc.

The other BIG bonus, and this is what won me over, is that it can be an easy backup for any of my bikes now, and I can also put my daughters bike on easily as well - the cog apparently covers chain widths from 8-12 spd, though no idea of longevity or how serviceable the part is, and or whether you can just change the cog.

In theory it's not compatible as such with my Neo, certainly not straight into Rouvy, but I have been made aware of a dev app called QZ which costs £5.49 I think, which connects to your phone/tablet via bluetooth, and this then acts as a bridge to the app (Rouvy or otherwise) to give you virtual gears. You can then either use that device to change the gears, which I can't see ending well if you are going full gas, or I think (I'm not 100% clear on this) you might be able to purchase a bluetooth volume adjusting type button, which would then give you something akin to the zwift clicker above.

I can try this without ever needing the zwift cog of course, I could just pick a gear on the rear with a nice straight chainline, and leave it at that.

Mad_Malx

I don't really understand this stuff, but the last Rouvy update was trumpeting support for virtual shifting.

daniel_b

https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/comment/21116406#Comment_21116406

Yes indeed, although only officially on 'approved' trainers, which I believe is only technically fairly modern wahoo units, or things like the actual zwift trainer - additionally if you have the 'click' you don't actually need to put the hub on, as you could in theory pick a cog on the rear cassette and leave it there.

The QZ app is apparently a way to get this virtual shifting for any trainer that has bluetooth, though I think you'd need some kind of remote switch, but I could try it with the app on the phone initially to see how useful it is, or not.