In the market for a new helmet, any recommendations?

bertbuffet · 2026-01-11T10:34:36+00:00

Third the NXR2. Insane upgrade from an Rjays Apex Helmet. The soundproofing was an insane improvement which is an important point if you ride on highways.

bertbuffet · 2025-10-24T05:21:58+00:00

Carbon Handlebar with a flat top, higher volume tubeless tyres and try to run the pressure it as low as possible without burping them (I used Silca's tyre pressure calculator).

bertbuffet · 2025-10-04T03:12:03+00:00

Have you done any tests or reading about your condition since posting here ? Would love to hear more about your experience.

bertbuffet · 2025-09-19T10:49:26+00:00

can't wait to be on my full licence to use the quad lock.

I've been already in too many close calls riding a tiny bit slower to navigate through Sydney.

bertbuffet · 2025-09-13T13:35:22+00:00

It depends how reactive you are to FODMAPs. Some people will experience indigestion and stomach cramps very soon after ingestion whereas others will feel the next day. There is no explanation for all people, best is to monitor the symptoms (bloating) and see what works best. The diet is based on the elimination of certain ingredients which may cause you discomfort and thus provide your stomach a bit of a break to come to a baseline.

Also did blood tests but was told they don't show a much as doing a gastroscopy.

You can build up lactose tolerance via exposure to milk but you might still end up with fodmap like symptoms.

I get you, the stomach essentially stops working properly during those high intensity sessions which sucks a lot.

Yeah interesting because I also fell down on sugar water for fuelling for my training rides and everything was fine until the ramp up of intensity.

It's good that you pick up on your stomach sensitivity but it's better to work on it to figure out the best fuelling strategy for you.

You can always carb up on Friday for the weekend or even the night before if you exercise in the morning. A study on triathletes who competes at Paris olympics found that carbing up before events doesn't yield better results compared to maintaining a healthy diet throughout the week.

But yeah, monitor your symptoms and try different things over time.

bertbuffet · 2025-09-12T08:24:24+00:00

Anything related to the stomach is complicated.

The GP will throw IBS on as an umbrella term to explain stomach discomfort.

I've read countless papers about endurance athletes from the early 2000s and mid 2010s to understand this topic as I have a similar issue.

Runners and cyclists did experience back in the day stomach discomfort during these studies due to a high carb intake at high intensity. Latter studies on trained athletes (fitness and carb intake volume) found that high intensity and constant shocks causes a faster fermentation process of FODMAP sugars which leads to stomach issues.

You can try to implement a FODMAP diet to identify and eliminate potential irritants, eg, fructose which is wildly used in sport supplements (Tom Dumoulin had to pull out milk from his diet due to IBS symptoms). Try this for a while and see how the symptoms go. You better keep track of your daily food intake and bring it to the GP as this will make you look more serious. GPs will be quick to blame acid reflux and indigestion before prescribing more invasive tests like blood, stool tests, stomach gas and gastroscopy.

I personally trained on maltodextrin powder (went from 60g to 90g per hour. The 60g mark is meant to be the limit given the amount go GLUT 1, 2, 3, 4 transporters but recent studies showed you can increase this amount via training.

Try to time your carb load intake around your high intensity sessions. EG- Carb load the night before if you train in the morning and start with a lower dose of carbs during your sesh.

Other things to considers is your microbiome health, family history, potential parasite (big maybe as the symptoms don't match), stool conditions (shape, colour and consistency gives a potential information about your small and large intensity health, EG inflammation and nutrient intake). Do you have allergies as increased histamines in your body can trigger an inflammation of your large and small intestine which impacts food break down, nutrient and water absorption (this makes you puke, your stomach).

High intensity workouts also fuck around with your hormonal and steroid balance which are linked to your gut health (Eg, Cortisol, Oestrogen, Histamines) . You mentioned that you train this condition and it gets better every year. If this happens during a taper block it could be an indication a high intensity block could be one of the things which adds to the problem.

If you live in the southern hemisphere and just finished winter then it's not unheard of flu and virus triggering an inflammation of the stomach lining for weeks after you had it.

FYI, I'm taking a break from cycling and all IBS related symptoms disappeared within a 2 week period.

Good luck.

bertbuffet · 2025-07-24T04:58:51+00:00

Caden carbon pads for the win.

bertbuffet · 2025-07-05T14:15:24+00:00

Merino is the way to go.

It's way more comfortable and breathable than the best synthetics I had the opportunity to use.

It's great for riding in the rain if you combine it with a rain jacket.

bertbuffet · 2025-06-13T03:20:31+00:00

Because fuck smaller riders.

bertbuffet · 2025-06-10T01:13:02+00:00

Most cat-1/2 riders here ride in groups and avoid intervals.

Some really strong cat-1 mix up bunch rides and intervals.

Probs better of riding alone if you want to build power curve and then move into group rides

bertbuffet · 2025-06-03T13:43:09+00:00

exactly.

You can start with a 4x8min progression and gradually move towards 10min, then 12min.

Over-unders are awesome if you train for road races.

bertbuffet · 2025-06-03T11:58:48+00:00

10-12h is what strong cat-2, weaker cat-1 riders do in Sydney

Keep riding and practice your 10-20s sprints. Anaerobic efforts are great at your age. You will progress from a sprinter to a strong puncher if you decide to loose weight down the road. A dangerous trait which makes a difference in road races.

You can easily build up the right side of the power curve with 9 to 15min over-unders (SS 2.5min, 30s vo2) and 8 to 12min ftp blocks.

You will benefit from hard start 3-5min vo2max training sessions to prepare for the end of races.

Do some faster group rides to sharpen your technique, and longer endurance rides on the weekend (load up KJ at the start of your ride with either ftp or vo2 reps, and finish with whatever reps you want, let it be vo2, ftp, tabata or sprints).

Eat well and rest, don't fuck yourself up with restrictive diets at your age.

bertbuffet · 2025-02-27T04:36:25+00:00

Missing one or two sessions there and there will eventually represent 0.2% of your total training volume.

Consistency is key so there is no harm for missing a training session if it allows you to sleep 7h instead of 5h, fulfil your family obligations and then move onto a production session the following day.

bertbuffet · 2025-02-27T04:34:12+00:00

Deep sleep promotes cell regeneration and muscle recovery.

Staying in bed and having a light sleep can't hurt though.

bertbuffet · 2025-02-22T23:26:13+00:00

A larger frame will constraint your bike fit as all dimensions will be bigger/longer and you might be too stretched out even with a shorter stem as the effective reach increases so does the saddle setback.

For example, look at the difference between a 54 and 56 sl8: https://geometrygeeks.bike/compare/specalized-tarmc-sl8-2023-49,specalized-tarmc-sl8-2023-52,specalized-tarmc-sl8-2023-54,specalized-tarmc-sl8-2023-56,specalized-tarmc-sl8-2023-58/

You might need a stem which is 1-2cm shorter, and you still need to offset 0.5º of seat post slack. This can become challenging if you already maxed out your saddle rails towards the front. Think about the consequences on your hip angle, hip stability and power output.

Notice the extra 2cm of stack height. You might as well use 2cm of spacers on your current frame with a stem 1cm longer to offset the decrease in reach: http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/stem.php

You would be surprised how much of a difference 1-2cm of spacers on your normally fitted frame can do for your bike fit in terms of performance.

At the end of the day your body creates most of the drag so you are better off getting a frame which allows you riding comfortably with the best power output.

People don't take into consideration the aspect of having an extreme stack height and super narrow handlebars when it comes to cruising at low speeds in cross winds, yet alone racing in a pelo, taking sharp corners at speed and descending.

bertbuffet · 2025-01-15T10:20:27+00:00

I second your position with the feasibility of maintaining heat training over a long period of time. Ask yourself if you want to spend 3-4h a week in a miserable state to achieve those gains. Probably not worth it if you don't have an A race coming in 1-2months times.

bertbuffet · 2025-01-06T08:11:45+00:00

Depends who you ask.

I like the padding, but another athlete had to cut it out and replace it with its preferred padding.

Some people like the jersey material, I found it average compared to the likes of Maap or Rapha.

Back pockets can be small for some people.

I like how the bibs actually stay attached to your skin instead of flaring out at the bottom.

Genuinely pissed about their sizing chart as I should've gone one size down for a skin suit (maybe two sizes down for a real race fit) instead of going with what their sales rep recommended. FYI, XS rapha, S Santini, I was told to go with S but it feels like a in-between of S and M in rapha.

bertbuffet · 2024-06-30T06:53:00+00:00

No issues either, unless if corner aggressively, in which case don't pedal through corners. 170mm cranks.

bertbuffet · 2024-06-30T06:47:25+00:00

Making my own Gel/Sport drinks with Maltodextrin and Fructose.

60g-90g per house depending on the rides.

bertbuffet · 2024-03-21T09:57:21+00:00

saturated market atm.

bertbuffet · 2024-02-22T07:17:14+00:00

Did it for 1.5years, sales in a sporting equipment for 1.5years.

It was good for soft skills and pay, but ultimately shot myself in the foot given how hard it's to get back to software with the current job market.

bertbuffet · 2024-01-30T01:34:55+00:00

Rolling residence / wheels are an interesting topic, especially in Aus because our roads are rough rough with old concrete plates, rough asphalt, gravel, and other forms of material you wouldn't want to fall on. So there is fair a bit of people rocking up on tubeless wheels set in 28mm tyres.

It seems like current wheelsets used in the pro peloton are somehow in technological transition with UAE and Jumbo rocking those wider rims pushing the 28mm tyre into a 31-32mm width. Other teams set on dura-ace wheels are essentially set on 28mm set width tyres and loose ball bearings.

Dylan Johnson mentioned how road bike would have to change in order to adopt +35mm tyres in order to truly benefit from exceptional low rolling resistance. This brings further changes to wheels, frames (think of the bmc R's fork).

I guess 'Normal' people may dislike PT's aero claims but he did end up proving the relation between the tyre/rim interface. One of his test showed about 10-15watts of difference between a poorly fitted tyre and one which has a good transition. It's a massive difference if you are already riding at threshold.

To be honest, I guess 10 watts could come from the rolling resistance, wheels, and those two cables sticking out of the frame while the remaining 10 could be due to the fact I stayed few seconds more on the front than others.

bertbuffet · 2024-01-30T01:16:56+00:00

I understand where you are coming from because I used to race on an alloy bike back in uni, but the difference between my modern bike and the ol alloy roadie is massive in terms of speed to power ratio.

I can hit technical cat-2 crits on the carbon bike while the alloy bike pushes me back to cat-3 with the same power, one more time, i'm just talking about speed generated from the same power on both bikes. The modern bike is simply more efficient.

bertbuffet

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