Using Bluetooth or an Ant + Dongle on Zwift should be pretty straight forward. But with me as luck would have it I've been having all sorts of problems.
For 5 months my laptop and Zwift had been working in harmony via bluetooth with absolutely no issues.Then as sometimes happens my laptop decided to throw a wobbly and crashed big time. Basically it broke, wiping out everything, suffice to say I had to get another laptop.
So buying a new laptop is never easy and I made the mistake of buying cheap (at the time I like to think bargain) but obviously this proved to be wrong! It worked, but very slowly and dropouts occurred with regularity, what was I to do? My wife came up with the suggestion of me taking her laptop, a far superior one to the one I had just bought and she taking the inferior for just her emails and bits and bobs.
Trying my wife's laptop seemed to work reasonably well, certainly better than the last attempt and so we swapped. After about 2 attempts on Zwift, the bluetooth started to play up. it kept dropping out until finally the laptop refused to pick up the Suito smart trainer. It could see it, but refused to add it to the laptop devices.
Reading up on Zwift forums, I went through my smart phone, picking up via bluetooth on the phone and then via wireless from the phone to the laptop. This seemed to work for a while, but I always felt it was edgy and on the border of crashing. Finally I decided it was time to go for a trial with an ant/dongle connection and duly ordered off eBay.
I had also ordered an extension USB cable so the ant could lay directly under the smart trainer. All this duly arrived and when set up it worked beautifully for about 3 rides. Then one morning on a Watopia mountain ride it failed after 5 minutes, then it crashed the next day on the same mountain ride just as I was finishing, very annoying to say the least.
Now I am at the stage of making sure I don't sweat on the ant, have good connections, (buying a new and better USB extension). Hopefully this will sort out the issues, but I wouldn't hold my breath!
Monday, March 2, 2020
Thursday, January 23, 2020
The Cube Attain on Zwift
Using my standard 8 speed training bike on Zwift it was never quite right, the 8 speed gear change was always clunky, the changes were never clean or quick, I found myself having to adjust all the time. Switching over to the Ribble Sportive, I found the same clumsiness and was getting disappointed with the Elite. Then I tried the cube which is 11 speed, the gear changing was much smoother, not perfect but definitely better.
when using the Elite Muin b+ I realised I was missing the resistances, don't get me wrong, it's a good smart training, but it does lack the resistance settings and as I get fitter, it becomes too easy to pedal.
So with that thought bothering me, I decided to buy the Elite Suito smart trainer which has the usual cadence and speed measurements but also gives you your heart rate and more importantly, resistance!
The Muin b+ is now sitting in my shed as a spare trainer and I'm regularly using the Suito. I have fitted the cube to the Suito it's still not the smoothest with gear changing, but it will do. On top of that and probably as a result of the clumsiness, my front changer on the Cube is playing up and has decided that it is not prepared to change up! So for the next few days I shall be trying to re-adjust my front derailleur. ...This is now fixed and was just a simple bit of front derailleur adjustment.
Looking at the Cube overall I think it probably needs a good service. I bought last year for around a thousand pounds and because of that I don't want to mess about with it too much. But I can do the basics on it and if it requires more serious work, I'm quite happy to pay for a professional to work on it should it be required.
when using the Elite Muin b+ I realised I was missing the resistances, don't get me wrong, it's a good smart training, but it does lack the resistance settings and as I get fitter, it becomes too easy to pedal.
So with that thought bothering me, I decided to buy the Elite Suito smart trainer which has the usual cadence and speed measurements but also gives you your heart rate and more importantly, resistance!
The Muin b+ is now sitting in my shed as a spare trainer and I'm regularly using the Suito. I have fitted the cube to the Suito it's still not the smoothest with gear changing, but it will do. On top of that and probably as a result of the clumsiness, my front changer on the Cube is playing up and has decided that it is not prepared to change up! So for the next few days I shall be trying to re-adjust my front derailleur. ...This is now fixed and was just a simple bit of front derailleur adjustment.
Looking at the Cube overall I think it probably needs a good service. I bought last year for around a thousand pounds and because of that I don't want to mess about with it too much. But I can do the basics on it and if it requires more serious work, I'm quite happy to pay for a professional to work on it should it be required.
The new Ribble Sportive
Although I had a Ribble Audax for winter training, I wanted another bike to build over the winter which would cover both winter and summer rides. So I felt a carbon frame would be no good and I settled for an aluminium frame being sturdier and cheaper cost wise.
Ribble were selling off the last of their 2018 sportive aluminium frames cheaply and I managed to pick up the very last at a reasonable £60.
Via eBay I managed to get most of the components at a reasonable price and even managed 105 gearing, although it was 10 speed, but in all honesty that really didn't matter to me.
I decided I would take most of the 2019 winter to slowly build up the bike and perhaps use it with my Elite smart trainer. Getting the front derailleur to work efficiently proved a bit of an issue and also fitting the headset, something I hadn't done for a while. But eventually after much swearing and moaning, it all fitted in to place!
Finally, once the bike was built I first put it on a mount and then the Elite to see that all components were working correctly. It was a bit clunky with changes and before I made any alterations I decided to use the mount to just tune up a wee bit and took it out for a proper ride. As I suspected it was more to do with the Elite rather than the Ribble and everything worked nice and smooth, Suffice to say it was a very nice ride!
Change of plan, think this summer along with the Cube because the Ribble is so smooth, I shall use it as my spare!
Ribble were selling off the last of their 2018 sportive aluminium frames cheaply and I managed to pick up the very last at a reasonable £60.
Via eBay I managed to get most of the components at a reasonable price and even managed 105 gearing, although it was 10 speed, but in all honesty that really didn't matter to me.
I decided I would take most of the 2019 winter to slowly build up the bike and perhaps use it with my Elite smart trainer. Getting the front derailleur to work efficiently proved a bit of an issue and also fitting the headset, something I hadn't done for a while. But eventually after much swearing and moaning, it all fitted in to place!
The Ribble in the process of being built with my Zwift training setup in the background.
Finally, once the bike was built I first put it on a mount and then the Elite to see that all components were working correctly. It was a bit clunky with changes and before I made any alterations I decided to use the mount to just tune up a wee bit and took it out for a proper ride. As I suspected it was more to do with the Elite rather than the Ribble and everything worked nice and smooth, Suffice to say it was a very nice ride!
Change of plan, think this summer along with the Cube because the Ribble is so smooth, I shall use it as my spare!
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Zwift for All
I have to admit I do like Zwift in the winter months, I can't bothered to get there in the dark and wet, feeling freezing cold and miserable. Maybe it's an age thing but give me the heat anytime and any place!
The marvellous thing about Zwift is you can do your training rides indoors, in the warmth and comfort of your own home and get just as much out of it as if your riding outside. Don't get me wrong indoor training is great, but it doesn't beat the feeling of a hot summers days, out and about on the bike. But I get the same buzz from Zwift as I do from the outdoors.
I tend to do about 20 miles per session, 4 sessions per week and one 30 miler cycle outside over each weekend, weather permitting. I'll be honest, I haven't tried the workouts or the club rides as I'm a bit of a loner when it comes to cycling. However in saying that I'm about to take part in a club ride around London, so I'll let you know how I get on.
In saying my last statement, I love the hill climbing of Zwift and enjoy the completion of riding against or with other riders from all over the world. There is some satisfaction in your 60s when you know your ahead of some youngster and your piling on the power at 400 watts up a nice 15% gradient!
From the training I've very much got in to the cadence and rpm together with my heart rate and wattage, something which before Zwift I had no knowledge about.
I'm not a full blown trainee addict, because at 61 I feel I've seen and done it, but I do like to keep a reasonable pace and wattage and am in interested in improving my FTP which at the moment is around 260, but then I am 89 kilos and need to lose some weight!
I used to do my indoor cycling training on a simple Tacx, I can't believe that I used to sit on a bike for an hour or so listening to music happily pedalling away. Then I went on standard rollers, same thing just listening to the music. Now I can happily go for a couple of hours watching my large TV setup in front of me, seeing me pedal away with others in the UK, Austria, Canada or even Yorkshire and the fictitious land of Watopia!
The marvellous thing about Zwift is you can do your training rides indoors, in the warmth and comfort of your own home and get just as much out of it as if your riding outside. Don't get me wrong indoor training is great, but it doesn't beat the feeling of a hot summers days, out and about on the bike. But I get the same buzz from Zwift as I do from the outdoors.
I tend to do about 20 miles per session, 4 sessions per week and one 30 miler cycle outside over each weekend, weather permitting. I'll be honest, I haven't tried the workouts or the club rides as I'm a bit of a loner when it comes to cycling. However in saying that I'm about to take part in a club ride around London, so I'll let you know how I get on.
In saying my last statement, I love the hill climbing of Zwift and enjoy the completion of riding against or with other riders from all over the world. There is some satisfaction in your 60s when you know your ahead of some youngster and your piling on the power at 400 watts up a nice 15% gradient!
From the training I've very much got in to the cadence and rpm together with my heart rate and wattage, something which before Zwift I had no knowledge about.
I'm not a full blown trainee addict, because at 61 I feel I've seen and done it, but I do like to keep a reasonable pace and wattage and am in interested in improving my FTP which at the moment is around 260, but then I am 89 kilos and need to lose some weight!
I used to do my indoor cycling training on a simple Tacx, I can't believe that I used to sit on a bike for an hour or so listening to music happily pedalling away. Then I went on standard rollers, same thing just listening to the music. Now I can happily go for a couple of hours watching my large TV setup in front of me, seeing me pedal away with others in the UK, Austria, Canada or even Yorkshire and the fictitious land of Watopia!
The other marvellous thing about Zwift is the app called Companion which lets you chat with your fellow cyclists. You can give them "ride ons" and encourage them, or just follow and chat, all good fun. Believe me, when your pedalling away on a 20% gradient, it helps when you get some thumbs up from a fellow rider!
Thursday, October 10, 2019
My Bikes
I have literally owned many bikes and built quite a few, too many to remember them all. Up until I was about twenty something they were pretty much run of the mill stuff, cheap and cheerful.
My first real bike or what I consider serious was after I had started having a go at building my first mountain bike back in the early eighties or late seventies. I bought a red Saracen MTB with a double chain set as triples were still yet to come in for mountain bikes. I used it for a while round town and for local rides, but then sold it for another Saracen but with a triple chain set so I could go proper off road. Sadly that got stolen and I went through a stage of building my first mountain bikes and some road bikes.
My next big buy was a Dawes Edge mountain bike that cost me £600 back in the late eighties. The main picture on the blog title is of the Dawes Edge. I used this for some off road work longer local rides about twenty miles or so and getting to and from work. I became reasonably fit and on weekends I got a flavour of doing sponsored lengthy bikes around the county. This was the early version of Audax ride we have today and was good fun to be involved in.
I had the Dawes for many years and at the same time I built quite a few racing and touring road bikes which I rode for a short time and then sold on. Below are a few of the bikes I have built over the years.
The Orbit Tourer
This was built around the late 80s, I always find it interesting that now in the 21st century the bike marketing companies are advertising the gravel bike, does the Orbit remind you of anything? LOL.
My first real bike or what I consider serious was after I had started having a go at building my first mountain bike back in the early eighties or late seventies. I bought a red Saracen MTB with a double chain set as triples were still yet to come in for mountain bikes. I used it for a while round town and for local rides, but then sold it for another Saracen but with a triple chain set so I could go proper off road. Sadly that got stolen and I went through a stage of building my first mountain bikes and some road bikes.
My next big buy was a Dawes Edge mountain bike that cost me £600 back in the late eighties. The main picture on the blog title is of the Dawes Edge. I used this for some off road work longer local rides about twenty miles or so and getting to and from work. I became reasonably fit and on weekends I got a flavour of doing sponsored lengthy bikes around the county. This was the early version of Audax ride we have today and was good fun to be involved in.
I had the Dawes for many years and at the same time I built quite a few racing and touring road bikes which I rode for a short time and then sold on. Below are a few of the bikes I have built over the years.
The Handsomedog MTB!
The Sab 4.0 with a 105 groupset
This was built around the late 80s, I always find it interesting that now in the 21st century the bike marketing companies are advertising the gravel bike, does the Orbit remind you of anything? LOL.
Currently I'm riding my Ribble Audax winter training bike, that I built last year. The frame was bought from Ribble and then I've added the components as I go. It's currently fitted with Shimano a Sora groupset. Pretty standard but ideal for winter training.
I have a large shed that I store and do all my bike building in. I'm very lucky as it's so big and I can keep everything safe and dry, it also acts as my training area for when I'm using the indoor trainer.
You can see my Ribble Audax and my Ribble sportive that I'm in the process of building with my training bike in the foreground. The picture below is of the reverse angle so you can get an idea of the size.
The Sportive is a winter project so I'm taking my time on the build, which is good, as I'm awaiting for all the parts and tools to put it together!
You have to remember this has taken a while to put together and it comes from been dedicated to cycling. The average keen cyclist can quite happily exist with just one good bike!
I have a large shed that I store and do all my bike building in. I'm very lucky as it's so big and I can keep everything safe and dry, it also acts as my training area for when I'm using the indoor trainer.
You can see my Ribble Audax and my Ribble sportive that I'm in the process of building with my training bike in the foreground. The picture below is of the reverse angle so you can get an idea of the size.
The Sportive is a winter project so I'm taking my time on the build, which is good, as I'm awaiting for all the parts and tools to put it together!
You have to remember this has taken a while to put together and it comes from been dedicated to cycling. The average keen cyclist can quite happily exist with just one good bike!
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
The Stroke
On April 30th in 2015 my life changed. I hadn't been feeling well for roughly two weeks before, having suffered from dizzy spells and headaches. I seen my doctor and had a scan at the local hospital but they had passed me as OK. Then finally on the morning of the 30th I started having major dizzy spells that got worse and worse, to the point of feeling absolutely plastered and when you're so drunk you can't stand up because of loss of balance.
Precisely at the point of losing my balance my wife returned from walking our dogs and quickly realised something was not right and immediately rang the emergency services. By the time they had arrived at my house I was completely immobile, I could not move apart from my eyes, I had what I found out to be locked in syndrome from having had a brain stem stroke.
Basically I was completely paralysed for two days and then gradually began to have some movement with my arms. I could not talk, but managed to communicate by a letter board although half the time I could not focus on the letters! I remember thinking that I would soon be out and about with no thoughts of fear of permanent paralysis, but it wasn't going to be that easy.
After 5 weeks of being in hospital and basically learning to walk again besides many other things I came out of hospital. But my recovery was really only just starting. When I say walk I could manage a few yards, it took at least another three months to be able to say I was back to walking about half a mile. It's a very weird feeling having to learn to walk again believe me, just putting one leg in front of the other was hard work!
Finally after about five months I came to the decision that it was about time I tried out a little bicycle ride. Attempting to ride a bike round the garden was a bit of joke to start with. I had very little energy and my balance was shot, but I persevered, determined not to give up and finally on about the tenth attempt I managed a short ride the length of the garden, I had succeeded!
I then attempted a short trip down to my local village and back, which was only about a Kilometre but felt like miles. I succeeded but, any car passing me made me wobble and I was extremely tired. I was trying to cycle once a week and by the third week I was getting past the village and round a few local roads, a reasonable five miles or so. After about the fifth week I attempted a 10 miler and couldn't believe I actually succeeded, it was a major milestone in my recovery and I was over the moon!
Before too long I was soon attempting a twenty mile ride and although it seemed to take forever as I wasn't exactly going at speed, I managed to get round the route and I was then confident that my cycling was not over due to the stroke. However sadly some things did suffer, for the life of me I could not balance on training rollers and my motor biking days were over due to loss of balance when rounding corners.
But without doubt the biggest difference post stroke was my mental ability, I lost confidence in myself and the frustration of recovery was very difficult, I think looking back now I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but the one person who stuck by me through it all was my wife. But when these things happen I think of others who have had similar disabilities and not got away with it like myself. I count myself very very lucky indeed.
Precisely at the point of losing my balance my wife returned from walking our dogs and quickly realised something was not right and immediately rang the emergency services. By the time they had arrived at my house I was completely immobile, I could not move apart from my eyes, I had what I found out to be locked in syndrome from having had a brain stem stroke.
Basically I was completely paralysed for two days and then gradually began to have some movement with my arms. I could not talk, but managed to communicate by a letter board although half the time I could not focus on the letters! I remember thinking that I would soon be out and about with no thoughts of fear of permanent paralysis, but it wasn't going to be that easy.
After 5 weeks of being in hospital and basically learning to walk again besides many other things I came out of hospital. But my recovery was really only just starting. When I say walk I could manage a few yards, it took at least another three months to be able to say I was back to walking about half a mile. It's a very weird feeling having to learn to walk again believe me, just putting one leg in front of the other was hard work!
Finally after about five months I came to the decision that it was about time I tried out a little bicycle ride. Attempting to ride a bike round the garden was a bit of joke to start with. I had very little energy and my balance was shot, but I persevered, determined not to give up and finally on about the tenth attempt I managed a short ride the length of the garden, I had succeeded!
I then attempted a short trip down to my local village and back, which was only about a Kilometre but felt like miles. I succeeded but, any car passing me made me wobble and I was extremely tired. I was trying to cycle once a week and by the third week I was getting past the village and round a few local roads, a reasonable five miles or so. After about the fifth week I attempted a 10 miler and couldn't believe I actually succeeded, it was a major milestone in my recovery and I was over the moon!
Before too long I was soon attempting a twenty mile ride and although it seemed to take forever as I wasn't exactly going at speed, I managed to get round the route and I was then confident that my cycling was not over due to the stroke. However sadly some things did suffer, for the life of me I could not balance on training rollers and my motor biking days were over due to loss of balance when rounding corners.
But without doubt the biggest difference post stroke was my mental ability, I lost confidence in myself and the frustration of recovery was very difficult, I think looking back now I was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but the one person who stuck by me through it all was my wife. But when these things happen I think of others who have had similar disabilities and not got away with it like myself. I count myself very very lucky indeed.
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Getting Started
Well the first thing is of course to have a bike, be it road bike, mountain bike , any bike! When starting out bikes can be expensive, they can range from a few to thousands of pounds/dollars etc. My only advice would be get a reasonable alloy frame, don't bother carbon at this stage, just a good strong alloy frame that's reasonably light weight. Components etc you can change, but a new frame will cost, so get a good one to start with.
Get out enjoy the bike ride experience, go your own pace and get the feel of cycling, it's fun, so enjoy it! Once your happy riding about try and get in routine of riding every day or every other day so your body gets used to a bit of exercise. Getting to do regular exercise to start with, is better than trying to exert yourself too much in an unorganised pattern. You will probably end up injuring yourself if you do this. Just take it easy for the first few weeks and get yourself in to the stride and you should begin to start felling a little healthier.
Remember some common sense here, if you have a medical condition or are overweight check with a medical professional first before exercising.
My personal experience as I said before was that I have been riding a bike since my early teens. However, back in 2015 I suffered a Brain Stem Stroke which naturally caused somewhat of a setback in my exercise regime! Suffice to say, I was paralysed for roughly five weeks and it took me around six months to be up and walking and thinking about cycling again. So I will start from 2015, because as you can imagine riding a bike was now completely alien to me, as I had just learn't to walk again!
Get out enjoy the bike ride experience, go your own pace and get the feel of cycling, it's fun, so enjoy it! Once your happy riding about try and get in routine of riding every day or every other day so your body gets used to a bit of exercise. Getting to do regular exercise to start with, is better than trying to exert yourself too much in an unorganised pattern. You will probably end up injuring yourself if you do this. Just take it easy for the first few weeks and get yourself in to the stride and you should begin to start felling a little healthier.
Remember some common sense here, if you have a medical condition or are overweight check with a medical professional first before exercising.
My personal experience as I said before was that I have been riding a bike since my early teens. However, back in 2015 I suffered a Brain Stem Stroke which naturally caused somewhat of a setback in my exercise regime! Suffice to say, I was paralysed for roughly five weeks and it took me around six months to be up and walking and thinking about cycling again. So I will start from 2015, because as you can imagine riding a bike was now completely alien to me, as I had just learn't to walk again!
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