LEL 2017 / London - Edinburgh - London Audax

Have you been stretching muscles in wrist / arm?

Any reasonably priced flip-up aero bars anyone can recommend? Figure the extra positions might help a bit...

Trying not to #bantz right now...

flip-up aero bars

Do you mean triantelope/TT extensions?

Zipp Vuka Alumina are good: lots of adjustment in the arm rests and they can be stacked.

Cheaper sets have less adjustment, so could well be a false economy.

Thanks. I mean ones where the pads flip up out of the way so that they don't hit your knees when climbing. Will take a look at the Zipp ones...

Profile do some cheaper ones.

I have the cheapo 'Century' ones that don't have flip up pads on my long distance bike. I don't mind losing the hand position by the stem. In fact I often ended up riding along holding the elbow pads, this does make you sit up slightly more but at least your hands (and elbows/shoulders) and pulled in slightly, so it's not overly un-aero.

Aero-bar positioning for long distance riding is going to be different from the position you use for TT-ing (even a 24). Too aggressive a position and you'll struggle to use it for sufficient periods to outweigh the extra weight penalty. Slapping aero bars on top of existing drop bars (or bullhorns) isn't actually as bad as it sounds.

There are plenty of bits on LEL when you can slump into the aerobars and eat up the miles for a bit. I remember doing most of the Yad Moss climb on the aerobars.

This was my setup in 2009: http://www.greenbank.org/misc/IMG_0228.JPG http://www.greenbank.org/bikes/tempo/tempo7.jpg

Oh, I didn't realise that was a problem or that flip-up pads existed!

I suppose it's the shorter top tube of a road bike.

How was it fixed? What gear is that?

Great fun (the Audax MIB have long since been around to erase any bad memories).

There's nothing too steep on it (even with tired legs). I think it was 67" (which is the gear I used for everything from pan-flat London commute to hilly as fuck Audaxes).

The worst bit is probably the last 300km most of which was flat. No respite from the saddle although I remembered a trick from someone (fwn?) to double up on shorts and mitts on the final day. The route has changed since 2009 though and its a little more undulating on the return leg. 2009 had some interesting weather up North (the afternoon starters got it a lot worse than the morning starters) but it's all sunshine and tailwind in my memories now.

I have some cheap 3T aero bars fitted to my audax bike.

They don't flip up, but I can use the tops no problem and my knees don't get anywhere near them when riding.

It's more of a gravel bike than a race bike though, so even though I've only got 1cm of spacers the bars are still fairly high.

I went for a bike fit with Tony Corke a couple of weeks ago to make sure my Fratello was set up as best as possible for LEL, and we looked at how best to set up aerobars on it. It was hard to find a position where I'd get the benefit for endurance riding and they didn't interfere with my knees when I was standing out of the saddle - hence asking if anyone knows about ones with flip-up pads (which he said he'd specced for Laura Trott's road time trial bike at some point).

I've got two sets with flip up pads, on different bikes: 3T Clip-Ons and some older Profile ones. The 3T ones are not spring loaded which is better, the Profile ones are.

These are the 3T ones.
http://www.tweekscycles.com/components/road-handlebar-accessories/3t-clip-on-team-aerobar

Thanks much, very helpful.

Managed to damage my heel doing DD and back. Was a minor annoyance on the way out, half way back became really bad, bad enough to consider bailing. Next day (today) and it is bruised and swollen. Anyone got any tips and tricks or advise? Very aware its 3 weeks to go....

Are you walking on it? Is it painful? In the immediate term, ibuprofen reduces swelling and helps with pain. Elevation will help too.

How swollen are we talking? Might want to get professional help considering that you need to make sure you're not aggravating it. I considered last week as my last long ride training to avoid risk of injury.

Ask @hippy for advice?

I considered last week as my last long ride training to avoid risk of injury.

I've my last long ride this weekend. But it's mostly in Essex so I can bail home relatively easily. Fingers crossed etc.

Damage how?

That's an odd one to me since you would normally be lifting the heal during pedal stroke.

How's your Achilles?

How tight is back of shoe?

Do you use orthotics?

Also whilst watching yet another time the LEL "trailer" I noticed that the guy on a fixed gear is sporting a forum jersey at around the 1"16 mark. Who's that?

https://vimeo.com/111599371

Also me at 00:18 on the floor.

Excuse the poor photo, I can't move it around much and wife refuses 'to take photo of your foot for the internet you perv'. Circled bit is bruised and swollen, I'm pretty sure its related to my Achilles, walking around today has been pretty awful (especially when @ad441 forced me to drive to pick up a super king size bed).

I haven't taken any ibuprofen since yesterday when riding as @moth put the fear of death into me about stomach lining damage related death, but also as I sort of wanted to see what would happen rather than mask it for it to only turn up another day.

Shoes are giro empire so lace up, dont think I did them up too tight, but tbh this started when I tried to keep up with @JB 2 weekends ago, so possibly over exertion?

I have the insoles supplied with the giros, chosen by Scherrit. Am going to have a chat with him tomorrow hopefully...

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Hoping no-one discovers any reflecto porn in the photo...

Unless anyone is in to that sort of thing....

Watched the whole film a couple of weekends ago as a reminder of 2013 - I met the makers when they were looking for people to follow and, having seen it, can see why they picked the people they did.

It's well worth a purchase; whilst they don't go into as much detail as I was expecting (there's no ramped-up Ice Road Trucker-style 'Dave's got three hours until the control closes' tension), the tales that are told and the scenery itself make it a good watch.

I think there was three or four of them that were out on the roads filming. It'd be amazing to see what sort of documentary they could produce if they had the funding/manpower to support a full-blown recording.

I did buy it and watch it in full a few month ago and you're right it's a good watch. I was just watching again the trailer at work today because I'm can't get LEL out of my mind these days (and also being just back from one week of light/audax touring didn't make it easy to focus on work!) and noticed the jersey :)