Cycling myths or common-knowledge you'd like to see dispelled

[mustang1]

Massive bottom bracket shells and down tubes.

Have we forgotten about stiffness and gone for sleek/aero.

Edit: fixed grammar

 

[Notafettler]

Never whistle while your pissing’ is I think how the Illuminatus’ trilogy put it; the risk being wet shoes!

Terrible example as that's one thing women can do without any risk of wetting there shoes.

 

[Blue Hills]

Terrible example as that's one thing women can do without any risk of wetting there shoes.

I don't think that is a given - rather depends.
might be an idea for you to do a bing search with safesearch off.

 

[Notafettler]

I don't think that is a given - rather depends.
might be an idea for you to do a bing search with safesearch off.

I don't watch that type of porn!

 

[Blue Hills]

I don't watch that type of porn!

Ask some women then.

 

[simongt]

But there is not a cycling-press review that doesn't have something to say about the relative compliance of one frame versus another. Unless they tested them on the same tyres, at the same pressure with the same saddles and seatpost then it's comparatively meaningless to me.

But then those who worship at the altar of 'efficiency' don't realise that. Seems that if it's expensive and light, it MUST be efficient - !
My take is that as long as the rider is happy with their mount, how it's equipped, how old it is and what it looks like are completely irrelevant.

 

[Notafettler]

Ask some women then.

Like they would admit to peeing on there Jimmy choo

 

[freiston]

"If it's not on Strava, it didn't happen".

I see plenty of posts on fb by people who forgot to record their ride on Strava or a technical issue messed up/prevented their data from being uploaded - and they seem genuinely upset by it - some even saying that the ride was for nothing/a waste of effort. Of course, the realisation is always after the ride - so the Strava failure did not in reality change anything about the ride. I might be being unfair, but I feel that Strava for some is like holiday selfies and food pics on social media for others.

 

[Notafettler]

some even saying that the ride was for nothing/a waste of effort.

Sad, so sad!

, but I feel that Strava for some is like holiday selfies and food pics on social media for others.

Good point.

 

[ianrauk]

"If it's not on Strava, it didn't happen".

I see plenty of posts on fb by people who forgot to record their ride on Strava or a technical issue messed up/prevented their data from being uploaded - and they seem genuinely upset by it - some even saying that the ride was for nothing/a waste of effort. Of course, the realisation is always after the ride - so the Strava failure did not in reality change anything about the ride. I might be being unfair, but I feel that Strava for some is like holiday selfies and food pics on social media for others.

I had a conversation with another cyclist, that as far as I can see is not a forum member anymore, or at least has not posted for a long while. We were talking about my 100 mile challenge rides and he asked if I put them on Strava. I said no. He said in all seriousness, how did we know I actually did them then.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I too am genuinely annoyed if my recording fails for any reason, as it's nice to have a complete record. Now that doesn't mean it's a waste of effort or anything like that, but it is annoying.

Must admit I do very much the same, I've had the Garmin crash on me twice mid ride (storage issue I think) I found it quite annoying

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Saying that having it on Strava mean that you did it is daft - I haven't tried it (yet) but from what I've seen it could easily be fiddled - after all the gpx files are just text
but then I was a programmer for many years - so maybe I look at these thing differently
and it also probably explains why I will try to fiddle a ride sooner or later - just to see how easy it is - so if anyone finds my account and finds a ride suddenly appear that Roglic would be proud of - then it is just me fiddling

 

[matticus]

I believe people with time on their hands have put a lot of time into this - both on the faking side, and the detection side.
So; yes you can fake them. But it's quite time-consuming to beat Strava's checks, and even slower to beat an expert who already smells a rat.

 

[newfhouse]

Saying that having it on Strava mean that you did it is daft - I haven't tried it (yet) but from what I've seen it could easily be fiddled - after all the gpx files are just text
but then I was a programmer for many years - so maybe I look at these thing differently
and it also probably explains why I will try to fiddle a ride sooner or later - just to see how easy it is - so if anyone finds my account and finds a ride suddenly appear that Roglic would be proud of - then it is just me fiddling

I think the website referred to in this article has expired, but yes, it’s trivial to rewrite .gpx or .tcx files before uploading.

 

[newfhouse]

It is indeed trivial, and I've done it once or twice to fill in sections where I was riding but my GPS batteries had died, thus avoiding a big ugly straight line mid ride.

But what may be non-trivial would be to fake a ride going at a particular speed, with realistic accelerations and decelerations and stops. You'd need to take into account things like the sampling rate of your GPS and I imagine (but I don't know) that a faked ride could be distinguished from a real ride by various tell tale signs so I expect it would get a bit tricky and really, life's too short to care about such things. I guess that's why sites like Digital Epo came into being, because it's actually not trivial if you want to do it well.

I think the original method used was to remove one fix in twenty (or however many were required to provide a given apparent boost) and adjust subsequent fix times to suit. It was possible to see a repeating sudden jump in speed when zoomed in. I’m sure better coding, perhaps modifying lats and longs as well as times, would be able to smooth out such obvious fakery. As you say, all a bit pointless as anything other than a programming challenge. So much easier to use a moped...