Category Archives: Gear and Tools

Garmin Edge 1050

Posted on November 10, 2025 by alchemyrider

I started using a Garmin Edge cycling computer in 2010. My Edge 705 served me well until 2016, when I upgraded to an Edge 1000. A design fault with the power button made me retire the Edge 1000 and start using an Edge 1030 in February 2018. A crash in July 2024 snapped one of the tabs on the quarter-turn mount interface on the underside of my Edge 1030. You can read about that adventure by clicking here.

I continued to use the 1030 despite it popping off the out-front mount whenever I hit a bump. The screen damage incurred during the same crash worsened progressively over the next two months. My son got me a good deal on an Edge 1050 in September 2024.

I very much like the Edge 1050.

Each generation has progressively gotten larger and heavier. Interestingly, each generation is thinner than the previous one, which illustrates the increasing miniaturisation of components. The ever-larger width and height are due to the display size nearly doubling from the Edge 705 to the Edge 1030/1050.

The key improvements of the Edge 1050 over the Edge 1030 are the increased screen resolution and the switch from a transflective LCD to a transmissive LCD with a screen brightness of 1,000 nits. The Edge 1050 has a bright, high-resolution touch screen with more vivid colours.

Specification	Edge 705	Edge 1000	Edge 1030	Edge 1050
Physical Dimensions (W × H × D)	51mm × 109mm × 25mm	58mm × 112mm × 20mm	58mm × 114mm × 19mm	60.2mm × 118.5mm × 16.3mm
Display Size (Diagonal)	5.6 cm	7.6 cm	8.9 cm	8.9 cm
Display Resolution (Pixels)	176 × 220	240 × 400	282 × 470	480 × 800
Weight	104g	114.5g	124g	161g

There are also improvements inside the Edge 1050. Hardware changes include a much faster processor that delivers a smoother, more smartphone-like experience when scrolling, zooming maps, and navigating menus. The inclusion of Multi-band GNSS offers more precise tracking and positional accuracy. The basic beeper in previous devices has been replaced by a built-in speaker with an electronic bell and audio prompts.

Software improvements let you download and update maps via WiFi on the device and make contactless payments. There are hazard alerts and improved group-ride features. Lastly, the User Interface has been redesigned and is more responsive.

I progress through these three screens at the start of every ride. On the left is the Home screen that usually displays after the device has booted up.

In the centre is the Status widget screen. Widgets provide at-a-glance information like weather and notifications. Swiping down from the Home screen reveals the Widget screen. I usually turn on my Edge 1050 inside a car park. I use the Widget screen to confirm that my Edge 1050 has acquired a GPS satellite signal.

Touching the light icon at the bottom of the Widget screen reveals the Light screen. I control my Garmin Varia UT800 front light from the Light screen.

Swiping up from any Widget screen returns the display to the Home screen. From the Home screen, I can start a ride by touching the large ROAD activity profile button, start navigating by touching the NAVIGATION button, or access the system settings by touching the MENU button.

Touching the ROAD activity profile button goes to the data screen on the left below. Data screens, widget screens and activity profiles are all easily customisable. I have customised this screen to show the data fields I use the most.

I swipe left from my preferred data screen to reveal the Music screen. I ride with Shokz bone conduction headphones. The open-ear design lets me listen to music and navigation prompts without drowning out or masking the sounds around me. I can still hear a vehicle approaching me from behind and be in conversations while using the headohones.

I use the Music screen to control which track is playing and to adjust the playback volume.

I swipe right from the data screen to access the Map screen when I want to see the layout of the roads around me.

I often follow pre-loaded routes or courses that I created using the Route Planner on ridewithgps.com. I upload these custom courses wirelessly to my Edge 1050. The Map screen below is in navigation mode. The course is highlighted and a directional arrow is displayed.

If the navigation screen is not already displayed while following a course, it will pop up automatically about 100 metres before an upcoming turn.

The other two data screens display data fields that I occasionally refer to. I most often want to know the current temperature and how much climbing I have done.

I mentioned that the data screens are customisable. You can create up to 10 custom data screens for each activity profile on an Edge 1050. Each of these screens can be customised to display up to 10 data fields by default. While 100 data fields per activity profile sounds like a lot, Garmin provides 151 data fields to choose from, across the following categories, in alphabetical order:

Data Type	Number of Fields	Examples
Cadence	3	Average cadence, Lap cadence
Cycling Dynamics	19	Time seated, Time standing
eBike	5	Assist mode, Travel range
Elevation	12	Average ascent velocity, Grade
Gears	8	Di2 shift mode, Gear ratio
Graphical	13	Graphs showing Current Power Zone, Current Cadence Range
Heart Rate	17	% of Heart Rate Reserve, Heart Rate Zone
Lights	4	Light mode, Battery status
MTB Performance	6	Grit, Lap flow
Navigation	14	Next waypoint, Time to destination
Other	11	Temperature, Number of laps completed
Power	32	current power output, Average left/right power balance
Smart Trainer	1	Trainer controls
Speed	5	Average speed, Lap speed
Stamina	4	Current remaining stamina, Remaining potential stamina
Timer	7	Elapsed Time, Lap Time
1	12	Distance to go, Step Distance

The Edge 1050 is capable of much more than I use it for. I don’t use features like Event Adaptive Training, Livetrack, Cycling Dynamics, and Garmin Group Ride Radio.

The features I do use work very well. Heart rate tracking, turn-by-turn navigation, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ANT+ connectivity, and the built-in speaker.

The bell, which can be rung from the Timer overlay screen, is an appealing new feature. The initial implementation of this feature was a bit clunky. It required tapping the screen to view the timer overlay, and then tapping the Bell icon in the bottom right corner of the main menu. It often took a few pokes to accurately hit the Bell icon.

The latest software update simplifies ringing the bell. Now, double-tapping on any data screen rings the bell. Oddly, double-tapping does not work on widget screens. Nevertheless, a welcome improvement that fixes the only niggle I had with my Edge 1050.

The thing everyone wants to read about in a cycling computer review is battery life. The Edge 1050 has a claimed 20-hour battery life when used with sensors connected, navigation running, etc. This stretches out to 30 hours with the screen brightness lowered to about 20-30%.

Enabling Battery Saver Mode, which lets you reduce backlighting, hide the map screen and allow the device to enter sleep mode during an activity, extends the claimed battery life to about 70 hours.

I highly recommend the Edge 1050. Some may quibble over the size and weight of this device. I want a large, bright and high-resolution screen on my cycling computer. The Edge 1050 gives me that display in a package that weighs less than a McDonald’s Big Mac.

In closing, one feature of the Edge 1050 that I hope to never use is the replaceable quarter-turn mount interface. I would rather not hit another wild boar.

AI-generated image courtesy of gemini.google.com

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Posted in Cycling in Malaysia, Gear and Tools and tagged Edge 100, Edge 1030, Edge 1050, Edge 705, Garmin. Bookmark the permalink.

Chasing Aerodynamic Gains

Posted on May 7, 2025 by alchemyrider

Slicing through the air like a speeding bullet. If only it were that easy for cyclists. Bullets are streamlined and aerodynamic, minimising their frontal area to reduce air resistance. A cyclist in a typical riding position has a much larger frontal area due to their body’s shape and size.

The power required to overcome aerodynamic drag on a bicycle increases with the cube of the speed. Doubling your speed requires eight times more power to overcome drag. This doesn’t account for other factors like friction and rolling resistance.

It is no wonder that reducing aerodynamic drag is such a big selling point for bicycle equipment designers and manufacturers. Many advertisements for bicycles and related gear claim wind tunnel testing shows power savings, measured in watts.

These advertisements sometimes do not tell you that the speeds commonly used in wind tunnel testing range between 40 and 48 kph (25 and 30 mph). The average reported ride speed on Strava for non-experienced cyclists is around 19.2 kph (11.9 mph). Experienced cyclists average 24.5 kph (15.2 mph). Recreational cyclists must temper their expectations of the number of watts they can save in real life.

What gains can you expect from various aero upgrades? Absolute numbers vary from one source to another. The figures in the table below from BikeRadar are generally in line with others I have seen. The products in the table were tested in the wind tunnel at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub, a leading test facility for cycling in the UK. Testing was done at a range of yaw angles (0, +5 and +10 degrees) to get a more realistic picture of how these upgrades perform in the real world.

The bike used in the tests was a Specialized S-Works Aethos on 28c Continental GP5000 TL tires. The aero upgrades tested are identified below the product category.

The power savings at 35kph are minimal for most items. I would save even fewer watts on my rides, which rarely touch 35kph.

The rider contributes a large portion of the total aerodynamic drag on a bicycle, typically around 75-80%. So it is no surprise that the biggest aero gains come from changing body position. Moving the hands from the hoods to an ‘aero hoods’ position or using clip-on aero bars saves the most watts.

Many recreational cyclists struggle to hold either of these positions for long. Nevertheless, optimising body position is the most cost-effective aero upgrade.

The easier but more expensive route is to buy a set of aero wheels or even an aero bike. Just remember that the marketing around aero wheels and aero bikes is often a little over the top. By all means, spend money on a fancy new aero bike. But for many recreational cyclists to ride faster, losing weight and becoming more flexible to improve their body position will be more beneficial.

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Posted in Gear and Tools and tagged Aero, Aerodynamic, Drag, Gains, Power, Wind tunnel. Bookmark the permalink.

Be Wary of the Integrated Cockpit

Posted on May 2, 2025 by alchemyrider

In my previous post, I discussed why professional-level road bikes may not be the best bicycles for recreational cyclists.

High-end road bikes are designed for maximum aerodynamic efficiency. Thus, their low frame stack and long frame reach.

The pursuit of aerodynamic benefits has seen the increasing popularity of integrated cockpits. These systems combine the handlebars and stem into a single piece and are designed to reduce drag by minimising frontal area. These are the integrated cockpits used on the bikes above.

In this post I wrote about one of the downsides of integrated cockpits. They use internal cable routing, which improves aerodynamics but complicates cable replacement.

Another downside is the high cost of replacing an integrated cockpit if the bike fit (such as the handlebar width or stem length) isn’t right for you. You may well get the right stem length and bar width when you buy a bike with an integrated cockpit. Manufacturers like Specialized and Pinarello have several stem length and bar width combinations to choose from.

If you later decide you want a differently shaped bar, your flexibility lessens, or you want a shorter stem, you must replace the entire integrated cockpit.

You can avoid the pain of installing a new integrated cockpit by paying your bike mechanic to do it. You will also have to foot the more considerable cost to buy a new integrated cockpit. This will be especially painful if you need a new Talon Ultra fast cockpit from Pinarello.

While integrated cockpits may look clean and modern, they come with trade-offs in adjustability and customisation. Not to mention the associated cost. If you’re considering a bike with this feature, understand the limitations and explore whether alternative setups are available.

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Posted in Gear and Tools and tagged Aerodynamic, Integrated Cockpit, Reach, Stack, Stem. Bookmark the permalink.

The Bike You Can Buy and the Bike You Should Buy

Posted on April 29, 2025 by alchemyrider

Participants in almost any sport can buy the equipment that the professionals use.

A Sunday league player can wear the same football boots as his or her top goal-scoring idol.

A duffer can tee off with the same club a PGA Major tournament winner uses to drive a golf ball 300 yards.

Photographs courtesy of PGAClubTracker.com

A recreational tennis player can serve double faults with the same tennis racquet an ATP Grand Slam winner uses to serve aces.

Apart from sizing considerations, there is little to stop amateurs from using the same equipment that the professionals in most sports use. No physical adaptation is needed to use such sports equipment.

This is not true of road bicycles. People often buy bicycles that they need to fit their bodies to, rather than bikes that fit their bodies.

There are lots of reasons why cyclists buy pro-level bicycles. Owning a high-end road bike can be a way to express personal identity or status, particularly within cycling communities, or to signal passion for cycling and commitment to performance. Some individuals may be drawn to the technical aspects of pro-level road bikes, including the components and frame materials. Others are attracted to these bikes because they are often beautifully designed and crafted.

Unfortunately, riding a professional-level road bike is generally not recommended for amateurs. These bikes are designed for speed and efficiency, with a frame geometry that encourages an aggressive riding position. The handlebar and stem measurements of professional-level racing bicycles let the professional cyclist adopt an aggressive position that few recreational cyclists could endure for long.

The average male professional cyclist is 27.4 years old and weighs between 66 and 68 kilos. He has a high level of flexibility. He prioritises flexibility in hamstrings, hip flexors, and lower back, alongside areas like shoulders and chest, to counteract the typical low and long cycling posture essential to bike racing success.

The average recreational cyclist is older, has a belly which gets in the way of achieving an aggressive riding position, and is not very flexible. The result is that many amateur cyclists on high-end road bikes end their rides with one or more of these complaints: upper back pain, lower back pain, neck pain, aching shoulders and sore hands.

The main difference between the bicycles the professionals ride and the bicycles most of us mere mortals should be riding is in two frame measurements. These measurements are frame stack and frame reach.

Frame stack refers to the vertical distance between the centre of the bottom bracket and the top of the head tube, while frame reach refers to the horizontal distance between the same points.

A taller frame stack equals a higher handlebar. Bar height can be increased using headset spacers and a positive-angle stem, but it is always better to get a frame that fits you rather than adding headset spacers to a too-low frame.

The longer the frame reach, the further forward the handlebars will be. You can swap the 110 mm or 100 mm stem that road bikes typically ship with for a shorter stem to bring the handlebars closer to you, but this will compromise how the bike handles. Again, it is better to start with a frame that fits you.

The table below shows the frame stack and frame reach for professional-level race bikes and frames with more relaxed geometry from the same manufacturers. The more relaxed geometry frames are usually marketed as Endurance bikes.

The measurements are millimetres for frames that fit a 180 cm tall rider.

Frame Reach and Stack measurements courtesy of the manufacturers’ websites

All the professional-level bicycles have a lower frame stack and/or a longer frame reach than the endurance bikes from the same manufacturer. The biggest differences are in the frame stack.

Despite the appeals of pro-level bicycles, the recreational rider would be wise to prioritise comfort over speed. That means foregoing the admittedly sexy pro-level race bikes in favour of a more forgiving endurance geometry.

Most recreational cyclists need a bicycle that allows them to adopt a more upright back angle than professional cyclists exhibit. In many cases, at least double the back angle. A taller frame stack and a shorter frame reach allow for a more upright position.

The main benefit for most recreational cyclists of owning a bicycle with a relaxed geometry instead of a race bicycle is greatly increased comfort. A secondary benefit is that an endurance bike is likely cheaper than a high-end race bike.

For happier cycling: Make your bicycle fit your body; don’t make your body fit your bicycle.

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Posted in Gear and Tools and tagged Endurance, Frame Reach, Frame Stack, High-End, Reach, Stack. Bookmark the permalink.

I Wouldn’t Want to Service a Modern Road Bike

Posted on April 15, 2025 by alchemyrider

Photograph courtesy of Getty Images on unsplash.com

I took a Bike Maintenance course in 2012 to learn how to service my bikes myself. On the final day of the course, we had to completely strip a bike down, including removing the fork, disassembling the chain rings etc., cleaning and lubricating all the parts, replacing cables as required, reassembling the bike and adjusting the shifting and brakes.

I still own a bicycle from that time, a 2010 Alchemy with mechanical shifting and brakes. I can still service that bike if I had to, although I gladly depend on my local bike shop to service my bikes for me now.

Bikes today are increasingly more difficult to service. I do not have the expertise or the tools to service a modern bicycle.

Advancements in modern road bikes make them more complex. Let us start from the top to compare my fifteen year-old bicycle with a modern one.

My bike uses externally routed cables to operate the brakes and gears.

Modern bikes use either partially or completely internally routed cables.

Moving down the head tube to the brakes. My bike has rim brakes. Brakes on new bikes are exclusively disc. Often hydraulically operated.

Let’s now look at how these two advances make servicing more complicated.

When it comes to replacing cables on my bike, everything is visible so you can see what you are doing. The challenge with internal cables is that you have to thread them inside the frame blind, so to speak. Threading cables internally can be hindered by a tight curve around the bottom bracket.

A magnetic internal cable router is often needed.

Replacing internally routed cables is more complicated when they are fully hidden. The headset often needs to be disassembled because the headset components can obstruct access to the cable path.

Then there are the brakes. Apart from infrequent cable replacement, all I need to do to service my rim brakes is to replace worn brake pads. Rim brake pads for road bikes are a standard shape. To replace them, undo the screw that holds each pad in its holder, slide the old pad out and slide a new pad into the holder and tighten the screw.

How difficult it is to replace mechanically operated disc brake cables depends on whether they are externally or internally routed.

Replacing disc brake pads is a more involved process. First, you must choose the type of brake pad: sintered, organic and semi-metal. Your choice depends on the type of riding you do. You also need the right shape pads for the disc brake caliper you have on your bike.

Then you to use a tool to push and hold the brake caliper pistons apart. Woe betide you if the pistons close without brake pads in place. You must also ensure that you do not touch the pad surfaces or the disc rotor. Getting oils on the pads or rotor will adversely affect braking performance.

Lastly, you need to bed in the new pads. The bedding in process heats up the pads and rotor, transferring an even layer of material from the disc pad onto the disc rotor. Failing to bed in your disc brakes will almost guarantee to result in vibration, noise, poor modulation, and loss of power.

The brake servicing process is much more complicated if you need to replace your hydraulic brake hoses or bleed your hydraulic brakes. Bleeding requires the correct type of fluid for the disc brakes on your bicycle: mineral oil or DOT fluid. The bleeding process is too long to describe here, but you get a sense of the steps involved from the number of parts in the Disc Brake Bleed kit pictured below.

Further down the bicycle are tyres. My bike has clincher tyres and inner tubes. Many new road bicycles, particularly higher-end models, ship with tubeless-ready tyres and wheelsets. Some bikes may ship with tubes in the tyres to simplify showroom setup, but the wheels and tyres are often tubeless-ready.

You can argue that tyres do not need service. However, a tubeless setup requires semi-regular maintenance to keep it performing at its best, as brakes do.

Tubeless tyre sealant gradually dries out. Manufacturer recommendations for sealant top-off intervals range between three and six months. It is also suggested that you take your tyre completely off the rim every twelve to eighteen months to scrape out the dried sealant.

The need to regularly top off the sealant, scrape out dried sealant and the fact some tubeless tyres are tricky to mount and/or need a dedicated tubeless inflator or air compressor to seat makes tubeless setup and maintenance inherently more onerous than using clincher tyres and inner tubes.

Photographs courtesy of bike radar.com & bicycling.com.

Last year, I wrote a post titled Tubed or Tubeless Tyres? The photographs below from that post illustrate how much more stuff you need to run tubeless tyres versus clincher tyres.

I’ll stick with my fifteen-year-old bicycle. My bike mechanic and I prefer the simplicity.

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Posted in Gear and Tools and tagged Cable, Clincher, Complex, Disc brakes, External, Headset, Internal, Rim brakes, Routed, Sealant, Service, Tubeless, Tyre. Bookmark the permalink.

What Size Jersey Do I Buy?

Posted on April 11, 2025 by alchemyrider

Illustration courtesy of WordPress AI

An article titled We need to talk about why jersey sizes are getting smaller by Wade Wallace appeared on the Escape Collective website on 1 April 2025. It is a Member Exclusive article, so you need to sign up to Escape Collective to read it. Articles like this one, Member Podcasts and a Member Purchase Program that offers 25% off products from Cane Creek, and 20% off products from Ritchey, Silca, Mavic, Velocio and others make the annual USD99 subscription well worth it.

Back to Wade’s article. Despite the publication date, this is not an April Fool’s gag. Wade asks why fifteen-year-old size M cycling jerseys fit him the same as new size XL jerseys? Wade uses these photographs to prove his point.

Photograph courtesy of escape collective.com

He discusses several reasons for this size inflation. Modern fabric technology and fashion are two culprits.

The article generated 175 comments. Some of these touched on how jersey sizes are inconsistent from one manufacturer to another. I was intrigued and did some research.

I looked at the online size guides for men’s cycling jerseys from twenty-six brands. Some brands have different size guides for the various types of jerseys in their catalogues: short-sleeved, long-sleeved etc. Some brands even have size guides for each of the fits they offer for a particular jersey type: relaxed, enthusiast, pro and so on.

I tried to compare like with like. The figures below are for men’s tight-fitting short-sleeved jerseys. There are indeed inconsistencies between manufacturers.

To start with not all brands offer sizes 2XS, XS, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL and 6XL. All twenty-six offer sizes S to XL.

Attaquer offers the jersey in the smallest chest size of 74-79 cm. Decathlon offers the largest of 147-159 cm. Santini is the only brand with a size 6XL. Interestingly, Santini’s size 6XL is roughly equivalent to Decathlon’s size 3XL. You are starting to see the sizing inconsistencies between brands.