Cycling Thread

[itchyfingers]

I don't think I have seen a thread dedicated to cycling, so I figured I'd start one.

I'm just getting into the sport and realizing - holy crap this is an expensive hobby! I looked at a $15,000 bicycle the other day and thought "damn, you could buy a nice used car for that coin!" Anyway, I borrowed a friend's mountain bike last week and rode to/from work. It was a full suspension bike, which seemed to sap the energy out of every turn of the crank. I did appreciate the wide tires and ability to ride over pretty much anything, but the love stopped there. So after doing a bit of research I ended up picking up a cyclocross bike, which is sorta in the middle of the road bike and mountain bike extremes. It's not as fast as a true road bike, but I can take it through grass, gravel and dirt. Looking forward to commuting to work a few times a week, and maybe doing some trails and greenbelts on weekends. Today's ride to work was 13 miles, and I got it up to 33mph coming down a big hill. It was nice to ride a bike that was fit especially for me and I was digging the multiple hand positions too. So here is my new Trek Crossrip Elite, fresh from the bike store. I've since removed the reflectors and some of the stickers from the factory. Going to ride it like I stole it for a few weeks and determine what I'll need to upgrade, but so far, so fun!



So how about you, GABrothers? What do you ride and where do you ride? Any tips for a noob like me?

[Ruiner]

Nice bike! Congrats!

I have a road bike and mountain bike. I highly prefer mountain biking because it's just more fun to me. For your purposes of riding on mostly pavement 13 miles to work you did the right thing if you also want to take it on smoother off road trails. I just love extremely hard off road with huge rocks and hills and all around messy terrain.

Also keep in mind you can adjust the suspension on a full suspension mountain bike. When you're on the road you can set it so there's almost no give at all which is what you want for a smooth surface. That sag is needed when doing heavy off roading

[Tortuga]

Awesome, Greg! Is it running 105s or Ultegra?

I've got a pretty nice road bike, but I gotta get my fat ass in shape to go riding. Maybe I'll get there before next summer and we can do some miles!

[itchyfingers]

Thanks guys.

Ruiner - yeah, I was just borrowing the MTN bike, and I had a vision of me messing with the suspension, not having a clue as to what I was doing, and oil pouring out and me being like "uh, sorry" to the guy I borrowed it from. I thought Austin was relatively flat, no? Still cool that you are into the heavy off road stuff. I used to ride dirt bikes with my pops when I was a kid, so I totally can see how that stuff would be fun on a MTN bike!

Grimey - nothing that high end man, I was trying to get the most bike I could get for a grand, ended up dropping about $1200 on this. Its got Shimano Sora components, which are a step or two below 105's apparently. The compact crank set is perfect for what I wanna do and we'll see how the Sora parts hold up. Time to get back on that bike, dude. Lets drop a few lbs. together!

[Ruiner]

Thanks guys.

Ruiner - yeah, I was just borrowing the MTN bike, and I had a vision of me messing with the suspension, not having a clue as to what I was doing, and oil pouring out and me being like "uh, sorry" to the guy I borrowed it from. I thought Austin was relatively flat, no? Still cool that you are into the heavy off road stuff. I used to ride dirt bikes with my pops when I was a kid, so I totally can see how that stuff would be fun on a MTN bike!

no no, usually it's just a switch under the seat area that you can turn for soft, medium or hard.

Here's my mountain bike:



and my road bike

[Tortuga]

I was very seriously into road biking between '99 and '03 or so. Wound up having a custom bike built - titanium frame (sized to me) and Campy Record. Spent way too much, and got out of cycling too soon to get value from the purchase - at least so far. I swear I will get back on that bike. I need to get some pics up, too.

When I was active in our local bike club, I used to tell people not to stress out too much on the first bike they bought. It's always the 'wrong' thing - once you get on it and start figuring more about what you like and don't like, you'll wind up buying bikes 2 or 3 times before you're remotely 'done'. It's just par for the course. And, hell yeah they're expensive. Kinda like the gear we're constantly drooling over here

#1 thing you can do is get the bike fitted by someone who knows what they're doing. Minute adjustments make all the difference in the world. When I first started, I could only go 28 miles before my knee would start to scream in agony. After fitting, did my first century comfortably only a few weeks later.

Other thing - if you decide to get into clips, make sure you give Speedplay a look. That's the only pedal I've had that absolutely would not let me break free in a high-power sprint. And I've got scars to prove that Look-style pedals are utter shite. When you do make the move to 'em, you'll fall 3 times - it's just a law - before you'll instinctively pull free before coming to a stop.

[Loop Bizkit]

There actually is a cycling thread. I haven't seen it in a while though. I ride wayyyyyy more than I guitaramp these days.

Are any of you guys on Strava? I am. Find me.

My road bike, Cannondale Synapse:

Just upgraded to the Pro4SC 700x23s in the pic....man are these tires fast. I actually love the Look pedals, unlike Steve, and have had the Keo Easys or Classics on every road bike so far. To each his own, I guess!



My mountain bike, Giant Trance:

The Kendas are gone now, went to a Specialized Captain, and a Fast Track:

[ovid9]

There is one, but a new one isn't bad since the old one is buried.

I'm a (currently fat) roadie here. Got started "seriously" cycling when I was 14 and been hooked since. Don't ride like I used too, but I am trying to get more miles in. Failing right now, but trying. I truly do love it. Got my wife into riding and she just did RAGBRAI a couple weeks ago. Crazy woman.

I ride an early 90s Waterford I've had since 98. I got it with a mix of campy & 105 parts and when they wore out I had it redone with full 105. I love campy stuff, just too rich for my peaverty blood. Steel is still my favorite frame material as I'm not a racer at all.

Assuming my stupid garage build doesn't bankrupt me I was planning on getting a touring bike in a year or two. I have been eyeing the Surly Long Haul Trucker or possibly seeing if can score one of the Specialized AWOLs used.

I also have a neglected mountain bike. Its a 1998 Alpha Omega (or Omega Alpha, I don't know the company is long defunct and you can find literally nothing about the bike or company online.) It was a really nice ride back in '98. Bought it at the Crested Butte Fat Tire Festival and raced it the next day. That was an experience.

That Trek looks sweet! Cyclocross has always seemed really cool, but I'm a shitty bike handler. Long straight roads for me. Welcome to the cyclists club!


edit: Oh, and everything Grimespace said about proper fitting is 100% true. I've never had his issues with Look pedals and been riding them forever, but if you do go clipless, he's spot on about falling 3 times before its habit.

[Loop Bizkit]

Also, yeah, nice bike OP!!!!

One of my regular roadriding buddies rides a cross bike, with road tires. He has a BMC Gran Fondo in green. Super cool bike.

I love BMCs. Almost bought a fourstroke

[itchyfingers]

Thanks GABbros!

I hear what you guys are saying about the fitting. I went into the first shop and the employee was like "meh, you're probably a Large" and that was the extent of my fitting. At the Trek Superstore, I got fitted on the Guru. It takes a photo of you and superimposes a stick figure on the screen. Within seconds the machine knew all my measurements, super cool. The employee was toggling between a 58 cm frame and a 61 cm frame every couple of seconds while I was pedaling to see which size I liked best. After some more fine tuning, I ended up with a 58 cm frame with a longer than stock 110 mm stem. Like a glove! Here's a video...

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y6bXyI_E8g[/video]

[Loop Bizkit]

That machine looks cool.

Our LBS has a kinesiologist-type guy that does fittings. Well worth the couple hundred bucks. They take measurements of everything.

When I got my MTB fitted, I'd already had it for a season...made it feel like a brand new, better bike.

[Telephant]

My fatass needs to buy a bike ASAP.

[ovid9]

That is freaking cool!

[ovid9]

My fatass needs to buy a bike ASAP.

I think your mustache requires you to buy a fixie. Doesn't matter if that's what you want, the 'stache says you must.

[Tortuga]

I got fitted on a similar, fully-adjustable frame gizmo, for my Serotta frame. Pretty fucking cool. When it's all set up correctly, you get to ride it trainer-style, just like what your ordering.

[Loop Bizkit]

My fatass needs to buy a bike ASAP.

I think your mustache requires you to buy a fixie. Doesn't matter if that's what you want, the 'stache says you must.

Bike Snob NYC blog has a great chapter on fixie hipsters, their moustaches, messenger bags, tattoos, etc. It's hilarious. I wish I could find it online. I have his book.

[ovid9]

bwahahahahahaha!!!! that's awesome!

[Telephant]

My fatass needs to buy a bike ASAP.

I think your mustache requires you to buy a a horse and buggy.

[SuperFlyinMonke]

Sweet. New thread. I've been riding a fair bit since I got my roadie a few weeks ago. I've taken to beating my ass regularly and lifting less and less at the gym.

I went for a ride with a colleague at work today and ended up getting lots of climbing practice in and got up to 73.8 km/hr (45.8 mi/hr) so that was interesting. It was about 57 km and my wife wanted to go for a ride when she was off work, so I went for another 17. A decent 74 km day...

Mind you, I'm not exactly built like an endurance athlete at about 190 lbs, but going fast sure is fun as hell. The distances to kill me though. I did 82 km solo a couple weeks ago and that was pretty brutal. I have yet to break a century though. Maybe a proper bike fitting would do the trick, but I have it really close. I need to pull my hoods back and maybe get a shorter stem. I already went from 110 to 90, so I'll be on the lookout, but I don't want to hit my bars on a sprint, which is getting to be a little close, so that might be just right. I have a feeling that a lot of what needs to be adjusted is my flexibility. My lower back doesn't like it much when I go for too long. Maybe I need to flip the stem up to sit a little taller... Ramble, ramble... Oh look, a bike!

There actually is a cycling thread. I haven't seen it in a while though. I ride wayyyyyy more than I guitaramp these days.

Are any of you guys on Strava? I am. Find me.

That new creep is me.

[Tortuga]

Group rides with a bunch of riders that know how to keep it together are where its at for speed. Line up (better yet, 2 lines), take 20-30 second pull at front, float back, and you'll cruise @ 25+mph. Massive endorphin rush.

I did a century around Lake Tahoe once. A group of over 30 riders was hanging on for dear life behind a couple on a tandem that should have been in the fucking olympics. Took everything my buddy and I had to grab hold and hang with that group for about 20 minutes or so. I shit you not, the tandem was doing 30mph and wouldn't let ANYONE get out in front. It was like being on the smoothest train you ever felt, as long as you could keep inside the draft. As soon as we started loosing the back, we were fucked.

[PurpleTrails]

I got the cycling bug bad about a decade ago. I was putting in a couple hundred miles a week, mostly solo, for a couple of years there. I gradually fell off the bandwagon a few years ago.

I built my own bike up from a Pedal Force frame (Fondriest knockoff in this case), with a SRAM Force gruppo and Williams cycling wheels. Weighed in at 15.5 lbs. Sort of the cycling equivalent of putting together a warmoth build.

I cracked the steerer tube on the fork on that bike about a year and a half ago and haven't gotten around to cutting and installing the replacement yet, as I've gotten into trail running almost to the complete exclusion of cycling. I also have a mid-'80s Peugeot and a Specialized Allez Expert with an E5 frame, plus an old mountain bike that has about 25000 miles on it...most of which was put on by the guy who owned it originally. The specialized is stiff as hell, great for descents and sprints.

Personally I like the Keo pedals with 4.5 degrees of float. I have sprints on one bike, carbons on another. Never had a problem with pulling out in a sprint, and I was able to get up to 40 mph unassisted when I was 50. Don't know how you pull out of them if your form is good, at least if you up the tension some from the default. In contrast, I found speedplays to be kind of squirrelly; they had too much float.

Oh, and I was riding clipless for nearly a year before I had a brainfart and fell over at a stop sign. I did spend an afternoon practicing getting in and out of them at slow speed in my driveway before I attempted riding on the street with them. Of course, I initially rode clip-ins back in the day, which were an order of magnitude harder to get and out of at a stop.

[ovid9]

My fatass needs to buy a bike ASAP.

I think your mustache requires you to buy a a horse and buggy.

lol Shea!

[nightflameauto]

YAY, BIKES!



Mine pretty much still looks like that. As for the whole fitting thing.

My previous bike, the dude literally popped me on the first frame he thought might be right, adjusted seat height and went, "you're all set." It took me months to get that fucker comfortable.

This one? Dude took a bunch of measurements, stood me up against a wall with a little machine of some type that takes an image. Asks a few questions about how I like my setups. Grabs an appropriate frame, and spent a few minutes adjusting everything on it from stems to seat height and forward/backward. I hopped on and it was like riding a silky smooth fitted suit or something. Just perfection. They built me wheels before I took it home. Only change I've made was swapping saddles to a Brooks and setting it up as close as I could to the way the previous saddle was. Ridden tons of miles on it and not had to adjust anything else.

Fucking that bike.

[ovid9]

That Bianchi is so sexy NFA.

[Diddlybo]

I'm leaving this right here:

http://www.webmd.com/men/features/bikin ... -real-risk