Getting old sucks, might as well have a nice bike
We all knew that Shimano was bringing 12 speed to the road, and it’s finally here… What comes as a surprise to me, is that they updated both the Ultegra (R8100) and Dura-Ace (R9200) groupsets at the same time. Wireless receiver is now in the rear derailleur. One one hand, this means you don’t need a separate D-Fly to integrate with the bike computer, but on the other, it means that Shimano…
A massive jump in major version since the last “stable” release of the Garmin fēnix 6 firmware. Annoyingly, they haven’t released the binaries for the adventurous, and I haven’t been able to make Garmin Express deliver the goods, so I’m still running the 18.80 beta. The major version change sort of makes sense given how many new features were added, although, I’m a bit confused by the number of jumps. The change…
There’s a lot to like about the Ribble Ultra SLR / SL, and one niggle. Looking at the frame, you can guess, in an educated way, that it’s going to be fast. The shapes are right, and the tire gaps are tiny. Big claims are made around the cockpit, and they’re probably right. It will be very interesting to see how those play out in independent testing. Normally, this is where I…
I’m not questioning that the Allied Echo is neat. Being able to change from road geometry to gravel geometry in under ten minutes is a slick idea, but why? It’s always going to be compromised, mostly here on the gravel side of things with a 40c tire limit and no fender mounts. The other massive hit is to your pocket book. Seems to me that for what they are charging, you could…
Price. Price, is the big problem. It’s crazy money for a nice-to-have feature; or set of features. But, radiant simulation is cool, and steering is necessary (if you’re Zwift racing), so it is a two birds kind of thing. Still, $1099 is CRAZY, BONKERS, WACK (I could go on) expensive for what you get in practical terms. And, the worst thing is, which Elite is totally acknowledging, it’s going to cost less…
If you have a modern Garmin Edge cycling computer you should see a firmware update available soon. As usual, rollout is measured, so you might be able to jump early with Garmin Express, or you might get stuck at the back of the line. The main problem is that they don’t seem to have paid any attention to the sensor dropout issues that have been plaguing many users (including myself) ever since…
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that Garmin devices can now process workouts from other platforms (well, a limited set anyway) to determine load. But, the devil is in the details, because they aren’t processing the activities completely; I’ll still be double recording whenever I get on the trainer. That might seem a bit off, so let me explain a bit. I’ve complained before about Garmin’s metrics, but that doesn’t…
I generally like Jame Huang’s bike reviews, he’s very thorough, and has a no-BS style which is appreciated. But, I really don’t get the bias towards MTB geometry on gravel bikes that he’s been pushing. I suspect that this is an artifact of background, and where he tends to ride (IIRC, he’s based in Boulder, CO); if you ride MTB trails on a gravel bike, I can see where MTB geometry would…
Unfortunately, there don’t appear to be binaries available this time around, so you’ll have to wait or try to force it with Garmin Express. Changes made from 7.10 to 8.00: Course Routing – Improved course routing speed. – Added automatic course route caching. Map – Improved map visibility and contrast with new map themes. – Added a popularity layer to highlight roads that Garmin users have ridden the most. – Added directional…
OK, that’s a lie, but it’s functionally indistinguishable from what they have done; ban blood glucose and lactate monitoring devices. Maybe I’m missing something, but this seems crushingly myopic. Sure it’s an advantage to know when your building unsustainable levels of lactate, or your blood sugar is about to crash, but that’s just data about your body; much like what a heart rate sensor, body temperature, or sweat rate sensors provide. If…