You'll be getting a PM soon

Hokay. I haven't asked any dumb questions that have been answered 1 zamillion times for the last couple of weeks so here goes. I have crazy problems sleeping the night before races/events where I have to get up early. Purely a case of freaking out about not being able to sleep but I can't fix it. So, what I'm wondering is, is there any downside to taking a sleeping tablet the night before a race? Will my muscles still be asleep the next day so I end up getting passed by 5 year old girls with streamers on their bikes?

I've tried sleeping pills once or twice. They make me feel really groggy/hung over in the morning.
They say that you don't get a deep sleep either.

Ack. Whether or not that's better than only getting 2 hours sleep...

Let's hope that day never comes. Of course, we'd have to ride it to break it. On that note, Ex and his very own SWMBO (AKA Princess) will be the proud owners of a nice 4 bed 2 bath home on June 1. It's about time!

Are you racing against Jock's kid?

I get all those TCRs and OCRs mixed up, but if it's one of the alu OCRs that are complete anvils, then I wouldn't even commute on it. I'm no weight weenie -- my lightest bike is about 8.6kg, and I still use 'old' 32-hole silver Shimano hubs -- but some of those alu Giants are complete bricks!! The alu TCRs on the other hand are quite light; I had one for a short time a couple of years ago which was about 1390g without the fork, but it was too big for me.

I reckon the fact that Shimano have ditched those wheels and returned to a more 'normal' design says that they weren't really a success, whereas designs such as Ksyrium have lasted ages.

I always suffer from nerves the night before and morning of an event. Stupid really as I can crank out similar rides in training with monotonous regularity. But add in a race number and a bunch of amped up strangers and I go to pieces. A decent warm up ride seems to help somewhat.

As long as you are getting plenty of sleep most nights, it won't affect your cycling performance too much to only sleep lightly the night before an event.

oops! wtf? I meant 2004
It doesn't seem that heavy to me.



Gotta go out and get some brake cables today... might see if anyone does finance on bikes.

Lucky he's got an aversion to filth or there'd be a good chance she'd be out on the trail trundling around waiting for dad to finish and pass my slow ass.

Thanks vette. Are you one of those dudes where 4 hours is a good nights sleep though? Even if I've been sleepign well previously, less than 7 hours and you might as well club me to put me out of my misery the next day. Then again, I guess if the legs still work it don't matter how my head feels. Until I miss the next corner and go off a cliff I guess.

Na, I need 7 - 8 hours regularly or I'm falling asleep by lunch time.

It's always best to have your wits in some sort of working order, and a quiet warm up ride helps with that. I mostly do road rides, so cliffs are generally not an issue, just the hundreds of other eejits around me

Man. 100km on the mtb? I'm thinking about paying people to carry me and my bike to the start line to save as much energy as I can to try and make it that far.

Yeah it was a serrotta and it looks like its been taken down because I cant find it. Sorry about the link I must have copied the wrong address. :S

saccy, ferget sleeping pills. work on your preparation instead.

have dinner an hour earlier
after dinner, forget the TV: do the race visualisation that's keeping you up at night.
have a shower to relax
when you go to bed, try to recall all the posts from the aussie thread: brain numbingly effective
load a tape of big brother up late into the vcr as a backup plan: that crapola will put anyone to sleep.

and ease up on the caffeine during the arvo/evening

Ah, sorry Bri, I forgot your tandem was XACD. I only mentioned snappages because every XACD product I sold in the early days snapped (ti forks are a bad idea, somtimes it's a good idea not to pander to the market).

Odin, if you're having issues with a 105 equipped Giant, I reckon you've probably outgrown it as a racer. Nothin' wrong with that. You're probably at a stage where you should keep the Giant as a training bike and start shopping for a solid race-day/group ride pose machine.

Mmmm...Scandium frame....Chorus.....Kozak/DT/DT wheels.....mmmmmm

so what's the story bloke? where've you been? who's sister have you been shaggin? got a mega-dollar sponsorship yet? etc..

Hey Thylo - there's a Ti thread you may like to dump a load of scorn on https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/192684-ode-ti.html

They actually offered me Ti forks - for the tandem! Gee, wouldn't it save money to just go to the pub and ask someone to kick my teeth out? Their QC has improved though. Aerolite of Canada is bold enough to offer a warranty on the frames, so I'm not worried. Again, getting the missus to go for a ride has been an issue. She has her full suspension bike, plus her beach cruiser.

cmon, youve been repatriated for how long now? its a bar!

Sorry, I just exceeded my scorn quota this week. Still got sacrasm in reserve though so it should be okay.

Patty, glad you didn't get the forks! It's not so much as the weld quality is questionable, it's just that XACD can't design for crap. I mean, don't get me wrong, they can't come close to the US guys and probably never will in terms of outright quality, and who knows what QC there is on the tubing, but they have no idea of the mechanical properties of Titanium as it pertains to bike design. THAT'S the scary part.

It's Utah, ok? There's no bars here. But it's about 5 hours to Vegas. I miss the days of the $39 flights. Oh, I was talking about when we ordered our tandem too.

oh; different story

Still bendy though

Just got back from Omara cycles... they're saying I should be looking at the 3-4K bracket for a new race bike.

I love how they can 'bracket' you into a price range Odin.

There are guys out there still killing it on old crates from 20 years ago. And my crappy sub-$2k bikes get me to the line OK. Ticker and legspeed count for more than bucks spent on yer ride in my book.

Bollocks! You need to spend at least 5k.