Using a Power Meter took the fun out of cycling ! [Cycle Sunday Q&A - Episode 8]
**Exploring Cycling: Insights from Paul and Krytsium Cycles**
---
### Introduction
Welcome to an in-depth exploration of cycling, brought to you by Paul and Krytsium Cycles. Nestled in the heart of Edinburgh, their new bike shop, known as "The Wonder Room," is a haven for cycling enthusiasts, showcasing an array of incredible bikes. This article delves into the wealth of knowledge shared by Paul and his team, addressing various cycling queries and offering insights that will engage both newcomers and seasoned cyclists.
---
### 1. Choosing Your First Road Bike: Guidance from Tris Bird
Tris Bird's quest to find the perfect first road bike sparked a series of informative discussions. Paul emphasizes the importance of considering how one intends to use their bike, suggesting that it should cater to at least 80% of their cycling needs. The team has created comprehensive buyer guides covering various budgets and types, from entry-level to high-end bikes, ensuring there's something for every rider.
---
### 2. Bianchi: A Legacy in Cycling
Colton Cleveringer's admiration for Bianchi highlights the brand's rich heritage and Italian craftsmanship. Bianchi's history and the quality of their frames, such as the XR4, are celebrated. Paul shares insights into the differences between models like the XR3 and XR4, emphasizing how each caters to different needs and budgets.
---
### 3. Winter Bikes: More Than Just an Excuse
Paul humorously describes a winter bike as an "excuse to buy a new summer bike," but it's more practically seen as an older bike equipped with mudguards. Ideal for wet conditions, it offers a way to protect your prized road bikes from the elements.
---
### 4. Mountain vs. Gravel Biking: Colton’s Dilemma
Colton’s situation—85% off-road and 15% on-road—leads Paul to recommend gravel bikes for less challenging terrains but advises mountain bikes for more rugged trails. The discussion underscores the importance of tire width and terrain type in choosing the right bike.
---
### 5. Maintenance Tips: Keeping Your Bike Reliable
Paul stresses proactive maintenance to prevent breakdowns. This includes cleaning your bike after every ride, lubricating chains, checking tire pressures, and regular servicing at a shop. His advice is reminiscent of caring for a fine automobile, ensuring longevity and performance.
---
### 6. Power Meters: Tools for Serious Riders
Reflecting on his experience with power meters during the grueling Marmot Pass ride, Paul acknowledges their value but cautions against over-reliance on data. While they aid in structured training, he finds joy in simply enjoying rides without metrics, especially on bikes like gravel bikes.
---
### 7. Oval Chainrings: Pros and Cons
Paul advises caution with oval chainrings, noting potential shifting issues unless paired correctly with the bike's system. He advocates sticking to original equipment unless one is confident in their setup.
---
### 8. Bike Fitting for Severe Back Conditions
Mike JF’s query about fused vertebrae highlights the importance of tailored bike fitting. Paul shares a customer story, emphasizing collaboration between medical professionals and fitters to ensure comfort and safety on the road.
---
### 9. Disc vs. Rim Brakes: Performance Considerations
Nick Fry’s question leads to a detailed discussion on braking systems. Paul finds both rim and disc brakes effective but notes rim brakes' sensitivity in wet conditions. He suggests disc brakes for new bikes, reflecting current industry trends.
---
### 10. Cycling as a Lifestyle
The article concludes with reflections on cycling as more than just a sport—it's about enjoyment, exploration, and connecting with others. Paul’s anecdotes, like riding gravel bikes without power meters, illustrate the pure joy of cycling.
---
### Final Thoughts
Paul’s journey into cycling, blending his passion for motorsports with his love for bikes, is an inspiration. His depth of knowledge and customer-oriented approach make him a valuable resource for cyclists everywhere. Whether you're new to cycling or a seasoned rider, Paul’s insights offer something for everyone.
Engage with Krytsium Cycles through their podcast, videos, and website for more updates and to submit your own questions. Happy riding!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys and welcome to petroped and welcome to cycle sunday now then we are here in edinburgh in your wonderful new bike shop yes we are in the wonder room the wonder room surrounded by the most incredible bikes now the two behind me over my left shoulder this madone is just special delicious it's normally properly special anyway over the last few months since we've been starting cycle sunday we have been overwhelmed with questions and more importantly phenomenal questions really really good questions really good ones and we tried to put as much stuff as we could into the videos and then into the podcast and hopefully you've been tuning in to both of those if you haven't listened to any of the podcasts then then please take your time they're available on itunes on google on spotify on youtube all you need to do is search for cycle sunday podcasts on any platform and you will find them somewhere so have a listen to those but even with that extra hour on top of each video episode we still weren't able to kind of answer anything and also some of the questions that you've asked we haven't even thought of so no and more importantly they've inspired more videos than they have and more content they have indeed so we thought we would just spend 20 minutes going through a few of your questions yes okay while i'm up here filming lots of other cycle sunday content more to come more to come so i'm gonna go through it now we've had questions across instagram facebook um and uh youtube so i kind of i'll give you a shout out so we're gonna start with tris bird um so first one um basically looking to buy the first road bike and wondering what you would recommend keep up the incredible work on your videos thank you so this is one of the inspiring ones is it not very much so and what you've basically inspired us to do is not just what you're looking for in your first road bike but also we've done a buyer's guide for different types of bikes from entry-level to mid-range to high-end covering road covering mountain bike covering hybrid we've gone into e-bike specific ones and we've even gone into a full gravel bike one as well so there's loads of stuff coming so stay tuned for that so it's probably i i guess watch those videos and we will hopefully answer that question basically we cover bikes that go from like 600 pounds to 13 000 pounds yes so so we have covered and i don't think it's an easy question to because paul's stock answer having spent a lot of time around you now would be what are you going to want to use the bike for yes and what's the kind of 80 percent of the time we're gonna use the bike for so watch those videos tris bird and hopefully we will answer that question indeed and also we're gonna put it's even inspired us to put those videos in shorter chunks on your website yes uh as a buying guide on criterium cycles website because it was such a good question yes okay now uh colton cleveringer my number one u.s fan and buyer of my merch what makes the bianchi brand special to me and you i just love bianchi i think it's it's heritage and it's it's kind of history it's a very special brand and i think there's something about an italian bike yeah that is very very special but yes couple of questions that were really interesting from colton he loves mountain biking and before the family came along ain't that always the case surrounded by off-road trails and dirt roads in america sounds dreamy yes um so um stuck with what kind of bike uh 85 will be off-road and 15 of his riding on road what do you think yeah great question it's the type of off-road that you have so we would always say if you've got 85 off-road 15 on-road then the latest generation of gravel bikes watch our gravel bike video when that comes out hopefully that'll help answer your questions but gravel bike sounds pretty good however don't forget the gravel bikes only have a limited tire width and tire volume which means if the off road that you're doing tends to have um you know quite deep uh gravelly rocky type terrain then what can happen is that the tyre width can start tram lining and digging into that terrain that's where a mountain bike with a bigger volume tyre that floats on the surface of it really comes into its own so the the question back to you is if it's quite hard pack with sort of little stones on the top of it then a gravel bite should roll over that lovely if it's gnarly if it's slightly more gnarly with sort of deeper stones that a gravel pike tyre could tramline into mountain bikes cool and then we did use the term this is the final question from colton what is a winter bike now we were i live in scotland colton somebody to ask what a winter bike is i thought a simple answer yes a winter bike is an excuse to buy a new summer bike it absolutely is it's basically your old summer bike with mudguards on it yeah n plus typically that is it's it's an older bike that you would you don't want to take your lovely new bike out when it's wet and there's salt and grit on the roads and you have an older bike with maybe more kind of you know grippy tyres you've got some mud guards on there that's a winter bike indeed but i think that's his point really what's winter yeah i'm seeing we live on the south coast yeah yeah i've been up here two days and it's never stopped raining uh brilliant so thank you for those cold great moving on uh chris whelan um so first of all he's loving all the videos and says hi which is great um and he's enjoying the podcast as well now a simple question absolutely adores the xr4 frame so that's the frame that we've been building bianchi xr4 and simple question um can you tell me the real difference between an xr4 and an xr3 yes one sorry chris see what he did there one's an escort one's a sierra yeah yeah no um the difference between an xr3 and an xr4 is the xr4 has basically is it's the factory frame and our buyers guide um actually starts going through the differences uh between uh all these different types of models and price points so what basically happens is an xr4 is the full factory beans bike and it's got the best materials it's got the best aerodynamics the xr3 has got exceptional electrodynamics and exceptional materials but built to a price point that suits a slightly more mass market good answer i like your answer very tactful the speed machine 35 what a great name also known as francois g for uh youtube petrol pen subscribers question for paul what can bike component do you see see fail most often and how did you get into the cycling industry i'll answer the second question first how do i get into the cycle industry i took an absolutely wonderful career and threw it all away no we absolutely love it i've been a avid cyclist for over 30 years yes i know you can put in the comments i don't look that old to be riding bike for 30 years but yeah i've been a big rider for over 30 years i have worked in multiple industries namely in the motor trade as well and just brought the two together my love for the motor industry and sales in general with a product that i have been following for nearly 30 years and is massively passionate about so that's that's how we got inside i need to jump in here as well and i think i said this at the beginning of the cycle sunday series you know getting to know paul and getting to talk about bikes with paul every day is a school day i i learn something every time i talk to you about bikes your depth of knowledge in terms of the technology and and all the different types of bikes and the different things you need to look out for but what i love about it is that it's the customer oriented way you approach stuff yeah you you are one of the best sales people i've ever met but you don't try and sell me stuff that's not right for me so so yeah anyway so what was the next bit yeah but that's sorry just one final bit on that you're absolutely right it's all about the customer and a lot of the stuff that i learn is through things like these questions yeah yeah so customers fire questions at me and have done for years and years and years yeah i then go and find and research the answer to be able to answer them that i then have the knowledge to be able to answer the same question in the future so it's a total two-way your life needs like a big knowledge sponge um oh yeah bike component that fails most often wow what a what a great question um it's not necessarily components that fail the most but what tends to fail the most is a bike that just hasn't been well maintained yeah so it's more a you what we've got to do with modern bikes and this is what we're trying to instill across all of our customers is move away from the fix it when broken mentality and start doing a lot more proactive servicing and maintenance so that would be what i say and whenever we have and if you look on the criterium cycles website and you go on to our video library you'll see how for all of our customer database we've got a lot of basic maintenance guides on there a detailed tutorial on how to properly clean and lubricate your chain how to wash your bike properly these all sound really patronizing and easy knowledge stuff but yeah do more proactive maintenance and stop having failures on your bike don't let paul know you use wd-40 on your bike anyway link to that i'm going to jump a question so robert patrick lacy said what kind of service can i do on my bike every six months with basic tools because that's quite a linked thing fabulous question so think about what you are asked to do by your car dealership when you pick up your new car you need to in between servicing maintain your car what does that mean you've got to wash it you've got to hoover it you've got to check your tire pressures you've got to check your oil you've got to top up your scooters you've got to do all those basic maintenance when you hear a noise you don't just keep driving it until something blows up you take it in and you get a professional to have a look at it let's do that with our bikes guys you pick up your brand new bike from day one clean it yeah go out for a ride don't go in for a cup of tea clean your bike clean and lubricate your chain make sure that if it's a suspension bike mounting bike that you actually clean the shock shaft properly make sure that you're topping up your tire pressures before every ride that you go out chain lubricated clean jockey wheels on the derailleur clean and then every four to six months take it back to the bike shop get it assessed and start doing little bits and pieces all the time yeah you'll then never get that big bill brilliant now the next one's really interesting um so this is from um uh roger williams 1781 hopefully that was not your birthday are you thinking about fitting a power meter and do you think they are a bonus or a distraction for me a really interesting question i've never ridden a bike with a power meter but often considered it normally put off by the fact that to get a decent one they're quite expensive but you've got a really good answer to this yes it is a fabulous question i have been riding as we've already said for in excess of 30 years and to go and do the marmot which is a was a big bucket list road ride for me in the alps wonderful basically lots of mountains in the day oh it's just lovely deliberate and yeah glibia yeah cold telegraphed absolutely lovely the top and bottom of it was that i did take that very very seriously because i didn't want to hurt myself i've got a business to run so i did a structured training program on trainer road using my turbo trainer and i even built a bike for my turbo trainer that was the same frame as the ride bike that i was going to ride the marmot on so i was absolutely in the same riding position for my training as i was to do the ride itself the turbo trainer was clearly a smart trainer so it had a power meter built into it and then i fitted power meters to my road bike which meant that i could take that structured training i knew what my ftp was which is my functional threshold performance so then i had the data to be able to ride the marmot on my power numbers yeah and it enabled me to ride adjusted for acclimatization as a sea level trained rider to riding up to virtually 9000 feet to the top of the glibier so i adjusted my ftp percentages to ensure that i didn't ride in the red and i got around the marmot and i had a lovely lovely day on my bike however all of that training and all that training on numbers and riding that seriously i did forget to enjoy riding my bike wow so my only advice would be yes take it seriously because it's a great sport with lots of data and lots of lots of numbers to play with but always remember we love riding our bikes because we love being with people and we love riding and getting fresher yeah yeah there's a really interesting look i love the numbers and yeah you know most people i'm on strava and i check my numbers when you finish and get really disheartened because i'm nowhere near king of the mountains and all that kind of stuff but yeah you're right just get bogged down what i loved about you you said something yesterday off camera you were talking about your gravel bike yeah and he said you don't ride your gravel bike even with a garmin you just go out and enjoy yourself yeah no strawberry no garmin um i i just ride uh with rosie my wife on her gravel bike and we both feel like kids again yeah we just take our bikes and we just go and make up a route we don't know where we're going we go make up a roux we get home and we're just giggling all the time so that's what riding a bike's about yeah yeah now we've got only got about five minutes left so let's let's rattle through a few um um gas man keith what are your thoughts on the pros and cons of oval chainrings i'll be honest with you i'm not going to get involved in a debate between performance differences with oval versus round chain rings there's people a downside cleverer than me to be able to do that the only thing i would say is that i rarely advise anybody moving outside of original equipment yeah so you know you've got to bear in mind if you've got a cam pack or a shimano or a sram setup that all of those components the chain the chain rings the cassette the derailleurs everything has been designed as a unit as a system so the moment that you start moving away particularly on something as fundamental as shifting from inner to outer chainring through its front derailleur that was never designed for that chainring you know you will have lots of people in the comments turning around and saying i fitted overall chainrings and never had a problem and we'll probably have the equal amount of people who will say i fitted oval chain rings and my shifting was absolutely horrendous one thing that you'll never have is a properly set up oe system well maintained you will never have a problem shifting good okay excellent um next one let's try and do this quickly so mike jf how many people have you done a fit for that have uh l3 to l5 fused or i guess we could say just quite quite severe back yeah yeah so so basically for fuse vertebrae yeah um we actually have a customer who is on oh flip number he's had quite a few bikes from us mainly hybrids and he's now on an e-buck and he's actually got four fused vertebrae and he's also um a consultant at um at a hospital as well so so he's really great to talk to and you know he he he manages to ride his bike and and what have you when it comes to bike fitting we are not doctors we are not physios there are there are fitters out there who who are more medically trained than i am um so you know that's absolutely fine but when it comes to people with either chronic issues or severe issues that they give me a i've got this issue and can you please be careful i will be careful but i'd also recommend that there is also a conversation between physio and doctor and what have you so something isn't exacerbated good shower excellent uh chris gam photography will i be taking the ultra xl r4 out in the wet no it's a simple answer to that if it rains when i'm out you can't do much about it but i won't take it out if it's raining you know it's it's like a ask a a hyper car owner do they take their you know mclaren center out in the rain or in the cold no they don't they leave it for a nice sunny day i've got my venge for a horrible day yeah um simple as really good now then next question from nick fry hi nick i know this is gonna ignite the comments um just a quick question that strangely never got covered we kind of did but kind of didn't which breaks actually stop you better rim or disc um he said in his experience rim breaks albeit some years ago were frightening especially in the wet if the rims were wet whereas discs work great because we're cleaning we put discs onto the onto the xr4 yes uh great question and yeah and one that is going to ignite the comments so hey just fill your boots from my experience i run uh my trachea monda with a rim brake on a carbon wheel and i've always found it absolutely fine and ample really good and i've also run a disc brake on my gravel bike that i find really ample and great both give a lovely modulation yep um neither feel on off yeah neither feel scary however i would say that and i covered and this is what we did cover in the um in in the video was the fact that every time i pull my brakes on my road bike i know that i'm wearing the rim yeah of a thousand pound wheel at each end yeah and i know a few people have commented and said well i've been running carbon rims and for five or ten years and that's why i think it really depends on how how much of a breaker you are and so you are and we said that in the podcast yeah the more you're on your breaks and stuff yeah yeah so i'm a pretty confident defender but when i need to anchor on i've got 90 odd kilos to stop so um so united in your dream yeah indeed yeah okay in my right leg um but but the top and bottom of it is is that ultimately a good quality braking system weather rim or um disc the chances are probably overwhelm the tyre yeah before you run out of brakes yeah yeah yeah so you sometimes you tire is the limiting factor with with the friction between the tyre and the road but also it's slightly academic yeah because both braking systems are really really good yeah but 99 of bikes that are being produced for the mass market and also boutique brands yeah because that is the way the industry is going uh it's not a fad it's here to stay um is the dissolution quick question how many bikes are in this bike shop how many bikes at the moment bike show oh flip um lots and lots and lots i mean 150 okay 160. and how many of them have rim brakes um we've got three kids bikes with rim brakes there you go there you go i guess that very quickly in the wet it may will be that a disc dries up and starts to perform better a bit quicker than a rim but yep potentially because the rim is closer to the road surface yeah whereas the road the disc rotor is further away from the road surface so yeah that's but ultimately both brake systems work really well but guys if you're looking for a brand new bike start jumping on the disc bandwagon because you kind of struggle getting a bike yeah yeah yeah you know yeah cool okay right we are slightly over time but there's one more question which will kind of lead us to a nice open out yes and i like it very much greg 321 davis uh apparently i just need an alfa romeo stelvio quadrifoglio a bike rack and to take it to the stelvio pass watch this space watch this space anyway on that bombshell make sure you like share and subscribe to this video i'll put all the details of paul and krytium cycles in the um in the description below keep tuning in to the cycle sunday podcast and keep tuning in to cycle sunday we've got loads of cool stuff coming your way um and we've still got the build of the bike i know we've had to delay that but hopefully you all understand but in the meantime we've got lots of cool stuff coming your way and keep those questions coming yeah keep them coming and we'll do another one of these and if you enjoyed the q a format let us know and we can always do another one yeah um anyway guys it's that time right right youhey guys and welcome to petroped and welcome to cycle sunday now then we are here in edinburgh in your wonderful new bike shop yes we are in the wonder room the wonder room surrounded by the most incredible bikes now the two behind me over my left shoulder this madone is just special delicious it's normally properly special anyway over the last few months since we've been starting cycle sunday we have been overwhelmed with questions and more importantly phenomenal questions really really good questions really good ones and we tried to put as much stuff as we could into the videos and then into the podcast and hopefully you've been tuning in to both of those if you haven't listened to any of the podcasts then then please take your time they're available on itunes on google on spotify on youtube all you need to do is search for cycle sunday podcasts on any platform and you will find them somewhere so have a listen to those but even with that extra hour on top of each video episode we still weren't able to kind of answer anything and also some of the questions that you've asked we haven't even thought of so no and more importantly they've inspired more videos than they have and more content they have indeed so we thought we would just spend 20 minutes going through a few of your questions yes okay while i'm up here filming lots of other cycle sunday content more to come more to come so i'm gonna go through it now we've had questions across instagram facebook um and uh youtube so i kind of i'll give you a shout out so we're gonna start with tris bird um so first one um basically looking to buy the first road bike and wondering what you would recommend keep up the incredible work on your videos thank you so this is one of the inspiring ones is it not very much so and what you've basically inspired us to do is not just what you're looking for in your first road bike but also we've done a buyer's guide for different types of bikes from entry-level to mid-range to high-end covering road covering mountain bike covering hybrid we've gone into e-bike specific ones and we've even gone into a full gravel bike one as well so there's loads of stuff coming so stay tuned for that so it's probably i i guess watch those videos and we will hopefully answer that question basically we cover bikes that go from like 600 pounds to 13 000 pounds yes so so we have covered and i don't think it's an easy question to because paul's stock answer having spent a lot of time around you now would be what are you going to want to use the bike for yes and what's the kind of 80 percent of the time we're gonna use the bike for so watch those videos tris bird and hopefully we will answer that question indeed and also we're gonna put it's even inspired us to put those videos in shorter chunks on your website yes uh as a buying guide on criterium cycles website because it was such a good question yes okay now uh colton cleveringer my number one u.s fan and buyer of my merch what makes the bianchi brand special to me and you i just love bianchi i think it's it's heritage and it's it's kind of history it's a very special brand and i think there's something about an italian bike yeah that is very very special but yes couple of questions that were really interesting from colton he loves mountain biking and before the family came along ain't that always the case surrounded by off-road trails and dirt roads in america sounds dreamy yes um so um stuck with what kind of bike uh 85 will be off-road and 15 of his riding on road what do you think yeah great question it's the type of off-road that you have so we would always say if you've got 85 off-road 15 on-road then the latest generation of gravel bikes watch our gravel bike video when that comes out hopefully that'll help answer your questions but gravel bike sounds pretty good however don't forget the gravel bikes only have a limited tire width and tire volume which means if the off road that you're doing tends to have um you know quite deep uh gravelly rocky type terrain then what can happen is that the tyre width can start tram lining and digging into that terrain that's where a mountain bike with a bigger volume tyre that floats on the surface of it really comes into its own so the the question back to you is if it's quite hard pack with sort of little stones on the top of it then a gravel bite should roll over that lovely if it's gnarly if it's slightly more gnarly with sort of deeper stones that a gravel pike tyre could tramline into mountain bikes cool and then we did use the term this is the final question from colton what is a winter bike now we were i live in scotland colton somebody to ask what a winter bike is i thought a simple answer yes a winter bike is an excuse to buy a new summer bike it absolutely is it's basically your old summer bike with mudguards on it yeah n plus typically that is it's it's an older bike that you would you don't want to take your lovely new bike out when it's wet and there's salt and grit on the roads and you have an older bike with maybe more kind of you know grippy tyres you've got some mud guards on there that's a winter bike indeed but i think that's his point really what's winter yeah i'm seeing we live on the south coast yeah yeah i've been up here two days and it's never stopped raining uh brilliant so thank you for those cold great moving on uh chris whelan um so first of all he's loving all the videos and says hi which is great um and he's enjoying the podcast as well now a simple question absolutely adores the xr4 frame so that's the frame that we've been building bianchi xr4 and simple question um can you tell me the real difference between an xr4 and an xr3 yes one sorry chris see what he did there one's an escort one's a sierra yeah yeah no um the difference between an xr3 and an xr4 is the xr4 has basically is it's the factory frame and our buyers guide um actually starts going through the differences uh between uh all these different types of models and price points so what basically happens is an xr4 is the full factory beans bike and it's got the best materials it's got the best aerodynamics the xr3 has got exceptional electrodynamics and exceptional materials but built to a price point that suits a slightly more mass market good answer i like your answer very tactful the speed machine 35 what a great name also known as francois g for uh youtube petrol pen subscribers question for paul what can bike component do you see see fail most often and how did you get into the cycling industry i'll answer the second question first how do i get into the cycle industry i took an absolutely wonderful career and threw it all away no we absolutely love it i've been a avid cyclist for over 30 years yes i know you can put in the comments i don't look that old to be riding bike for 30 years but yeah i've been a big rider for over 30 years i have worked in multiple industries namely in the motor trade as well and just brought the two together my love for the motor industry and sales in general with a product that i have been following for nearly 30 years and is massively passionate about so that's that's how we got inside i need to jump in here as well and i think i said this at the beginning of the cycle sunday series you know getting to know paul and getting to talk about bikes with paul every day is a school day i i learn something every time i talk to you about bikes your depth of knowledge in terms of the technology and and all the different types of bikes and the different things you need to look out for but what i love about it is that it's the customer oriented way you approach stuff yeah you you are one of the best sales people i've ever met but you don't try and sell me stuff that's not right for me so so yeah anyway so what was the next bit yeah but that's sorry just one final bit on that you're absolutely right it's all about the customer and a lot of the stuff that i learn is through things like these questions yeah yeah so customers fire questions at me and have done for years and years and years yeah i then go and find and research the answer to be able to answer them that i then have the knowledge to be able to answer the same question in the future so it's a total two-way your life needs like a big knowledge sponge um oh yeah bike component that fails most often wow what a what a great question um it's not necessarily components that fail the most but what tends to fail the most is a bike that just hasn't been well maintained yeah so it's more a you what we've got to do with modern bikes and this is what we're trying to instill across all of our customers is move away from the fix it when broken mentality and start doing a lot more proactive servicing and maintenance so that would be what i say and whenever we have and if you look on the criterium cycles website and you go on to our video library you'll see how for all of our customer database we've got a lot of basic maintenance guides on there a detailed tutorial on how to properly clean and lubricate your chain how to wash your bike properly these all sound really patronizing and easy knowledge stuff but yeah do more proactive maintenance and stop having failures on your bike don't let paul know you use wd-40 on your bike anyway link to that i'm going to jump a question so robert patrick lacy said what kind of service can i do on my bike every six months with basic tools because that's quite a linked thing fabulous question so think about what you are asked to do by your car dealership when you pick up your new car you need to in between servicing maintain your car what does that mean you've got to wash it you've got to hoover it you've got to check your tire pressures you've got to check your oil you've got to top up your scooters you've got to do all those basic maintenance when you hear a noise you don't just keep driving it until something blows up you take it in and you get a professional to have a look at it let's do that with our bikes guys you pick up your brand new bike from day one clean it yeah go out for a ride don't go in for a cup of tea clean your bike clean and lubricate your chain make sure that if it's a suspension bike mounting bike that you actually clean the shock shaft properly make sure that you're topping up your tire pressures before every ride that you go out chain lubricated clean jockey wheels on the derailleur clean and then every four to six months take it back to the bike shop get it assessed and start doing little bits and pieces all the time yeah you'll then never get that big bill brilliant now the next one's really interesting um so this is from um uh roger williams 1781 hopefully that was not your birthday are you thinking about fitting a power meter and do you think they are a bonus or a distraction for me a really interesting question i've never ridden a bike with a power meter but often considered it normally put off by the fact that to get a decent one they're quite expensive but you've got a really good answer to this yes it is a fabulous question i have been riding as we've already said for in excess of 30 years and to go and do the marmot which is a was a big bucket list road ride for me in the alps wonderful basically lots of mountains in the day oh it's just lovely deliberate and yeah glibia yeah cold telegraphed absolutely lovely the top and bottom of it was that i did take that very very seriously because i didn't want to hurt myself i've got a business to run so i did a structured training program on trainer road using my turbo trainer and i even built a bike for my turbo trainer that was the same frame as the ride bike that i was going to ride the marmot on so i was absolutely in the same riding position for my training as i was to do the ride itself the turbo trainer was clearly a smart trainer so it had a power meter built into it and then i fitted power meters to my road bike which meant that i could take that structured training i knew what my ftp was which is my functional threshold performance so then i had the data to be able to ride the marmot on my power numbers yeah and it enabled me to ride adjusted for acclimatization as a sea level trained rider to riding up to virtually 9000 feet to the top of the glibier so i adjusted my ftp percentages to ensure that i didn't ride in the red and i got around the marmot and i had a lovely lovely day on my bike however all of that training and all that training on numbers and riding that seriously i did forget to enjoy riding my bike wow so my only advice would be yes take it seriously because it's a great sport with lots of data and lots of lots of numbers to play with but always remember we love riding our bikes because we love being with people and we love riding and getting fresher yeah yeah there's a really interesting look i love the numbers and yeah you know most people i'm on strava and i check my numbers when you finish and get really disheartened because i'm nowhere near king of the mountains and all that kind of stuff but yeah you're right just get bogged down what i loved about you you said something yesterday off camera you were talking about your gravel bike yeah and he said you don't ride your gravel bike even with a garmin you just go out and enjoy yourself yeah no strawberry no garmin um i i just ride uh with rosie my wife on her gravel bike and we both feel like kids again yeah we just take our bikes and we just go and make up a route we don't know where we're going we go make up a roux we get home and we're just giggling all the time so that's what riding a bike's about yeah yeah now we've got only got about five minutes left so let's let's rattle through a few um um gas man keith what are your thoughts on the pros and cons of oval chainrings i'll be honest with you i'm not going to get involved in a debate between performance differences with oval versus round chain rings there's people a downside cleverer than me to be able to do that the only thing i would say is that i rarely advise anybody moving outside of original equipment yeah so you know you've got to bear in mind if you've got a cam pack or a shimano or a sram setup that all of those components the chain the chain rings the cassette the derailleurs everything has been designed as a unit as a system so the moment that you start moving away particularly on something as fundamental as shifting from inner to outer chainring through its front derailleur that was never designed for that chainring you know you will have lots of people in the comments turning around and saying i fitted overall chainrings and never had a problem and we'll probably have the equal amount of people who will say i fitted oval chain rings and my shifting was absolutely horrendous one thing that you'll never have is a properly set up oe system well maintained you will never have a problem shifting good okay excellent um next one let's try and do this quickly so mike jf how many people have you done a fit for that have uh l3 to l5 fused or i guess we could say just quite quite severe back yeah yeah so so basically for fuse vertebrae yeah um we actually have a customer who is on oh flip number he's had quite a few bikes from us mainly hybrids and he's now on an e-buck and he's actually got four fused vertebrae and he's also um a consultant at um at a hospital as well so so he's really great to talk to and you know he he he manages to ride his bike and and what have you when it comes to bike fitting we are not doctors we are not physios there are there are fitters out there who who are more medically trained than i am um so you know that's absolutely fine but when it comes to people with either chronic issues or severe issues that they give me a i've got this issue and can you please be careful i will be careful but i'd also recommend that there is also a conversation between physio and doctor and what have you so something isn't exacerbated good shower excellent uh chris gam photography will i be taking the ultra xl r4 out in the wet no it's a simple answer to that if it rains when i'm out you can't do much about it but i won't take it out if it's raining you know it's it's like a ask a a hyper car owner do they take their you know mclaren center out in the rain or in the cold no they don't they leave it for a nice sunny day i've got my venge for a horrible day yeah um simple as really good now then next question from nick fry hi nick i know this is gonna ignite the comments um just a quick question that strangely never got covered we kind of did but kind of didn't which breaks actually stop you better rim or disc um he said in his experience rim breaks albeit some years ago were frightening especially in the wet if the rims were wet whereas discs work great because we're cleaning we put discs onto the onto the xr4 yes uh great question and yeah and one that is going to ignite the comments so hey just fill your boots from my experience i run uh my trachea monda with a rim brake on a carbon wheel and i've always found it absolutely fine and ample really good and i've also run a disc brake on my gravel bike that i find really ample and great both give a lovely modulation yep um neither feel on off yeah neither feel scary however i would say that and i covered and this is what we did cover in the um in in the video was the fact that every time i pull my brakes on my road bike i know that i'm wearing the rim yeah of a thousand pound wheel at each end yeah and i know a few people have commented and said well i've been running carbon rims and for five or ten years and that's why i think it really depends on how how much of a breaker you are and so you are and we said that in the podcast yeah the more you're on your breaks and stuff yeah yeah so i'm a pretty confident defender but when i need to anchor on i've got 90 odd kilos to stop so um so united in your dream yeah indeed yeah okay in my right leg um but but the top and bottom of it is is that ultimately a good quality braking system weather rim or um disc the chances are probably overwhelm the tyre yeah before you run out of brakes yeah yeah yeah so you sometimes you tire is the limiting factor with with the friction between the tyre and the road but also it's slightly academic yeah because both braking systems are really really good yeah but 99 of bikes that are being produced for the mass market and also boutique brands yeah because that is the way the industry is going uh it's not a fad it's here to stay um is the dissolution quick question how many bikes are in this bike shop how many bikes at the moment bike show oh flip um lots and lots and lots i mean 150 okay 160. and how many of them have rim brakes um we've got three kids bikes with rim brakes there you go there you go i guess that very quickly in the wet it may will be that a disc dries up and starts to perform better a bit quicker than a rim but yep potentially because the rim is closer to the road surface yeah whereas the road the disc rotor is further away from the road surface so yeah that's but ultimately both brake systems work really well but guys if you're looking for a brand new bike start jumping on the disc bandwagon because you kind of struggle getting a bike yeah yeah yeah you know yeah cool okay right we are slightly over time but there's one more question which will kind of lead us to a nice open out yes and i like it very much greg 321 davis uh apparently i just need an alfa romeo stelvio quadrifoglio a bike rack and to take it to the stelvio pass watch this space watch this space anyway on that bombshell make sure you like share and subscribe to this video i'll put all the details of paul and krytium cycles in the um in the description below keep tuning in to the cycle sunday podcast and keep tuning in to cycle sunday we've got loads of cool stuff coming your way um and we've still got the build of the bike i know we've had to delay that but hopefully you all understand but in the meantime we've got lots of cool stuff coming your way and keep those questions coming yeah keep them coming and we'll do another one of these and if you enjoyed the q a format let us know and we can always do another one yeah um anyway guys it's that time right right you\n"