Do You Road Bike?

[Roadstergal]

My new work is a rather pretty ride, partially on the Bay Trail, so I've ridden in a few times. I got an ISM Adamo for very cheap because it's ugly and yellow, and that makes me happy (not to mention my cooch).

 

[kelsodeez]

i love the bay trail. my friends live right on that front street after the bridge. beware of kite boarders and the wind coming from the north after 3pm, especially in november. ive almost ate shit a few times because of that wind

 

[drewcandraw]

^^dubs what size is that Giant that you picked up? I'm hoping to start riding my bike again to help with my knee rehab

 

[Dubbington]

^^dubs what size is that Giant that you picked up? I'm hoping to start riding my bike again to help with my knee rehab

Small 52. Fits perfect. I'm gonna sell a fuji roubaix RC that's a 52 but it's not a compact 52 and I was never able to get into the drops.

 

[bootsy]

GoRide Bike in Redwood City, great deals! I drove from the east bay to get it. Got semi fitted too. Nothing comprehensive like measure arms and etc but enough........

Bob and his guys at Go Ride are awesome ....have always been treated great. Bought my wife's Cannondale SuperSix DA there. A few weeks later, they built-up a similar bike for me for the same great deal. I bought (and still have) a Cannondale SixSix there a of couple years before these.

 

[UDRider]

Remembered yesterday why I hate riding on the weekends in the summer. Was just doing a steady pace ride to get back in to race shape. These two dudes passed me starting from red light hammering for all they worth, with third one trailing behind. Whatever continue riding my pace, caught up, and passed them. From next light they sprint and ride "really hard" again. I catch up and get pass them. This happened few times. From body language I can see they are riding on the edge. I just want to do my own thing.

I am getting close to my turn out, and stop at red light at T-Intersection. So technically you can ride straight through on a shoulder without entering street. They go past me through red. Light turns green I boogy to catch a green light on next intersection and blow past them like they are standing still. Alas it turns red.

On green one of the guys sprints, as usual, followed by that third random guy. I take of at my normal pace, pass the third guy, pass the sprinter. As I start to pass him he picks up pace. At this point I am riding partially on a street because I want to give him plenty of room and not to spook him. I pick up speed to pass him, he does the same. Now I am annoyed. To drive the point home I start riding seating up without using handle bars, as he is trying to hammer for all he is worth. Next thing I know he starts to sprint. I, a tad competitive person, put my hands on the hoods, not even drops, and stretch my legs a tad and pull ahead as he blows up. All of this seated because of the shoulder, while he is sprinting for all his worth out of the saddle.

At a light he tries to fist bump me, and shit. I was like "Did you tried to race me or something?" Confused? Him: "Oh no I was just playing, having fun." Wanted to tell him if he wanted to race go get USAC one day license, pin the number, and do it against people who are actually trying. Instead of someone who hasn't ridden in 3 weeks and has a fractured shoulder blade with soft tissue damage in left shoulder.

I can't wait to start racing again, only 6 more points to CAT3 upgrade.

 

[Kim]

Question for you roadies. I have been recently riding to and from work which is 17miles one way to sort of stay in shape for up coming rides I'm doing this summer.

This past weekend a few of us rode from Santa Cruz to Monterey. Now it was a beautiful ride and I wasnt too bad as far as fatigue and leg muscles go. BUT my back was an absolute WRECK especially the last 15 or so miles. Everything from my shoulder blades down to my lower back was just throbbing with pain and discomfort. The other issue I have is my feet hurt on the outside. I sort of think that is just bad positioning on my part as i think i put too much weight on the outside of my foot and also ride with my toes pointing down which also causes my toes to go numb. But back to my back and shoulders. I have ridden long distances like that before and i never experienced that amount of achey pain like i did on this ride. Could it be because of bad bumpy roads? I will also note that my husband who was tuning my bike for me said that my handle bars seemed a bit "low" so he raised them just before our ride. Could that cause the amount of discomfort I was feeling?

It pretty much made the last bit of the ride really unpleasant and even after i got off the bike i had to lay on a flat surface for a while while my back was having spasms. any advice suggestions tips ect? Did my husband do more harm then good by raising my handle bars? Could my seat position be off too? The main pain points were my shoulder and underneath my shoulder blades then my lower back. Could it also just be a lack of strength and i was putting too much weight on my hands and not enough using my core?

 

[kelsodeez]

try moving your seat forward or backwards. most of the time, being hunched over with your arms extended too much or crunched up under your body will make your back hold the weight of your upper body rather than distributing it evenly between your lower back and your arms.

move the seat around and if that doesnt help, you may need a shorter/longer handlebar stem. if all else fails, go spend the couple hundered bucks on a pro fit. then you will never have to play the guessing game of trying to get a bike to fit you ever again.

 

[UDRider]

Question for you roadies. I have been recently riding to and from work which is 17miles one way to sort of stay in shape for up coming rides I'm doing this summer.

This past weekend a few of us rode from Santa Cruz to Monterey. Now it was a beautiful ride and I wasnt too bad as far as fatigue and leg muscles go. BUT my back was an absolute WRECK especially the last 15 or so miles. Everything from my shoulder blades down to my lower back was just throbbing with pain and discomfort. The other issue I have is my feet hurt on the outside. I sort of think that is just bad positioning on my part as i think i put too much weight on the outside of my foot and also ride with my toes pointing down which also causes my toes to go numb. But back to my back and shoulders. I have ridden long distances like that before and i never experienced that amount of achey pain like i did on this ride. Could it be because of bad bumpy roads? I will also note that my husband who was tuning my bike for me said that my handle bars seemed a bit "low" so he raised them just before our ride. Could that cause the amount of discomfort I was feeling?

It pretty much made the last bit of the ride really unpleasant and even after i got off the bike i had to lay on a flat surface for a while while my back was having spasms. any advice suggestions tips ect? Did my husband do more harm then good by raising my handle bars? Could my seat position be off too? The main pain points were my shoulder and underneath my shoulder blades then my lower back. Could it also just be a lack of strength and i was putting too much weight on my hands and not enough using my core?

try moving your seat forward or backwards. most of the time, being hunched over with your arms extended too much or crunched up under your body will make your back hold the weight of your upper body rather than distributing it evenly between your lower back and your arms.

move the seat around and if that doesnt help, you may need a shorter/longer handlebar stem. if all else fails, go spend the couple hundered bucks on a pro fit. then you will never have to play the guessing game of trying to get a bike to fit you ever again.

Core is always good to work on. You shouldn't be putting a lot of pressure on the arms. With weaker core the back muscles are used to held the body up, along with arms and shoulders, which leads to issues.

How was the handle bar raised? Stem flipped, a different one added with steeper angle? That might have shortened the affective length, which caused your shoulders to bunch up.

The cardinal rule is to never change anything, or fix, before big event. Every time I violate this rule I get bitten back in one form or the other.

Be careful moving seat back and forth as it affects the angle of your hip and knees. This might cause extra pressure in the knee area which can lead to knee pain.

+1 on pro fit, but choose carefully. There are a lot of people who do it and don't know what a hell they are doing. Just go by "Oh well that looks good". I do all my fitting at WholeAthlete with Dario. They are not cheap, but I have messed up knees and with 10k miles a year on a bike it is worth it. The good news is, once you have a base fit setup it's easier to transfer to another bike or do adjustments.

P.S. For reference my handle bar is below my seat. There is no "it's too low, or too high" per say, but only as it applies to a person and how much flexibility they have, and their core strength.

 

[Dubbington]

Pay the $$ for a fitting. I think I road too long not fitted and messed my hip up, not sure that's the cause but it's makes to me. The repetitive motion for an hour+ multiple times a week can lead to injury. Once I was fitted I felt more powerful.

I just changed the seat on my bike and might have to go back for a fitting to play it safe.

Livermore cyclery in Dublin was $80 I think and he took many measurements and put them in a computer. Moved my levers, changed stem, adjusted seat and even tweaked my cleats after seeing a knew fly outward.

 

[aram]

Remembered yesterday why I hate riding on the weekends in the summer. Was just doing a steady pace ride to get back in to race shape. These two dudes passed me starting from red light hammering for all they worth, with third one trailing behind. Whatever continue riding my pace, caught up, and passed them. From next light they sprint and ride "really hard" again. I catch up and get pass them. This happened few times. From body language I can see they are riding on the edge. I just want to do my own thing.

I am getting close to my turn out, and stop at red light at T-Intersection. So technically you can ride straight through on a shoulder without entering street. They go past me through red. Light turns green I boogy to catch a green light on next intersection and blow past them like they are standing still. Alas it turns red.

On green one of the guys sprints, as usual, followed by that third random guy. I take of at my normal pace, pass the third guy, pass the sprinter. As I start to pass him he picks up pace. At this point I am riding partially on a street because I want to give him plenty of room and not to spook him. I pick up speed to pass him, he does the same. Now I am annoyed. To drive the point home I start riding seating up without using handle bars, as he is trying to hammer for all he is worth. Next thing I know he starts to sprint. I, a tad competitive person, put my hands on the hoods, not even drops, and stretch my legs a tad and pull ahead as he blows up. All of this seated because of the shoulder, while he is sprinting for all his worth out of the saddle.

At a light he tries to fist bump me, and shit. I was like "Did you tried to race me or something?" Confused? Him: "Oh no I was just playing, having fun." Wanted to tell him if he wanted to race go get USAC one day license, pin the number, and do it against people who are actually trying. Instead of someone who hasn't ridden in 3 weeks and has a fractured shoulder blade with soft tissue damage in left shoulder.

I can't wait to start racing again, only 6 more points to CAT3 upgrade.

That's one reason I don't like riding in the south bay.. too many CAT6 racers. Well.. too many riders.. out here on the roads I use I don't see that many people, if I see someone- and about 50% of the time I know them.

 

[UDRider]

That's one reason I don't like riding in the south bay.. too many CAT6 racers. Well.. too many riders.. out here on the roads I use I don't see that many people, if I see someone- and about 50% of the time I know them.

We all can't be that fortunate. I a hoping, with coaches blessing, to race next weekend. If not shooting for 4th of July, then it's back to racing each weekend. arty

 

[Kim]

Thanks guys. rode to work today and started to feel discomfort. I think I need to move my handles bars back down where it was. I am constantly trying to move back on my seat and I feel like my shoulders blades are being pushed together and im riding sort of hunched back. Before I had a spacer the bars and a spacer on top. My husband move my handle bars above both spacers which i think its too high up for me.

Still might look into getting a professional fitting. There is a place in santa cruz that my husband went too. It was like a 3hr long test. They hook him up to a bunch of machines has him ride in different positions then they change things around and show him the difference. If I remember correctly I think it was like 300-400$ not sure im willing to spend THAT much. But any other suggested shops you guys know of? We live in So. San Jose.

 

[Hooli]

Still might look into getting a professional fitting.

If you find a fitting shop that's more local (and cheaper, lol) here in the Bay Area, can you let me know? I really want an aero road bike but I can wait until year's end if that means getting ahold of a left-over from the dealer.

Of course, I have no qualms about buying a used bike if the seller is reputable.

 

[JN396]

I also vouch for goride bicycles! Be sure to checkout their closeout page for any deals...

http://www.goridebicycles.com/goride/?page_id=412
http://www.yelp.com/biz/goride-bicycles-redwood-city

I originally bought my road bike from bikesdirect.com & went to goride to perform a safety check / tuneup as well as got myself fitted to the bike. They spent about an hour on the fitting which costed $60. (Safety check was $40) I was even considering spending $$$ & upgrading my crap spd pedals that came with the bike; but they just told me to get used to the bike first & I could always upgrade later.

I haven't ridden lately due to my hectic schedule, but immediately after getting the bike, I rode a 40-50 miler with no pain. When I'm ready to upgrade, my next bike will be from goride as I had such a pleasant experience with them.

 

[bootsy]

Sports Basement has bike fitters on staff. Their cost is very reasonable, so you may want to give them a try.

 

[KCCO]

Thanks guys. rode to work today and started to feel discomfort. I think I need to move my handles bars back down where it was. I am constantly trying to move back on my seat and I feel like my shoulders blades are being pushed together and im riding sort of hunched back. Before I had a spacer the bars and a spacer on top. My husband move my handle bars above both spacers which i think its too high up for me.

Still might look into getting a professional fitting. There is a place in santa cruz that my husband went too. It was like a 3hr long test. They hook him up to a bunch of machines has him ride in different positions then they change things around and show him the difference. If I remember correctly I think it was like 300-400$ not sure im willing to spend THAT much. But any other suggested shops you guys know of? We live in So. San Jose.

I am just getting into the sport and have a 06 Roubaix comp triple that was painful after 30 mi. I did a bike fit at Mikes Bikes and it is great now (50 mi+). Its 250 or the first 2.5 hour fitting, and then you get unlimited followup 45min fittings for a year, regardless of the bike you bring in. I was unsure if it was worth the cost but I would do it again in a heart beat. http://mikesbikes.com/articles/body-geometry-fit-by-mikes-bikes-pg711.htm

 

[DannoXYZ]

Kim, before making any further changes, make sure your seat is made for women. Those are extra wide at the back (compared to men's seats) to match up to the wider pelvis' "sit-bones". Your wanting to scoot back all the time is a clue that the seat may be too narrow. There is actually a ruler used to measure sit-bone separation in the FitKit used by some shops.

Once the seat is verified wide enough for you, check the following:

FORE-AFT SEAT POSITION. As UD mentioned, this can greatly impact knee health. In my 10-years of racing, I've seen numerous new riders quit with permanent knee injuries before they ever started their 1st race due to improper bike fit. My own brother (who raced for Cal) ended up needing IT-band ligament grafts. Imagine a 2-foot incision down the outside of each leg so they can slice your ligament in half to graft onto the other side. BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR KNEES. Position your seat so the front of your knee is roughly directly over the pedal spindle/axle when the crankarm is straight forward. Make sure to measure and mark your seat's position by using a coloured Sharpie on the seat rails. Write down all the before & after settings in a notebook. It's safer for the knees to be a little too far forward, rather than too far back.

SADDLE HEIGHT is also very important to knee health. Force is best transmitted through a straight knee so that the loads go through a bone-to-bone path rather than ligaments. The more bent the knee is, the more the loads go through ligaments and injuries are more common. Set crankarm parallel to seat tube (pedal down and slightly forward for maximum distance between seat and pedal). The minimum distance for top-of-saddle to pedal-surface should equal your inseam. Easy way to set this is to put your heels on the pedals and slowly spin backwards. Stop when the pedal is furthest away from seat (crankarm parallel to seattube). Your leg should be fully extended with knee straight. Raise/lower your seatpost until your leg is straight when in this position. Write down your changes. For racers, saddle-height is about inseam+ 5-10mm. For track-racers, it's inseam+ 10-20mm. They will have a gap between the bottom of their heel and the pedal when doing this test. Being too low is far more damaging to your knees than being too high.

HANDLEBAR REACH is counter-intuitive. The closer your bars are to your stomach, the more weight will be on your hands & wrists. Imagine a foot-long stem so that you're completely stretched out with your arms straight forward like Superman; there'd be zero weight on your hands at all. With handlebars too close, it's also more difficult to keep your elbows bent and hands relaxed for road-shock absorption. With locked elbows and death-grip on the bars, your shoulders take a lot of force from road bumps and gets sore and tired. Same with your back. The 1st rider in this pic will have sore arm, shoulders & back before the ride's even over:

HANDLEBAR HEIGHT shouldn't make that much of a difference. You have a wide range of upper-body height based upon whether you're on the bar-tops, brake-hoods or bar-drops. And the amount of bend in your elbows. Only bad setting would be too low causing you to have your arms straight with elbows locked all the time.

HAND POSITIONING Your hands should be positioned so that all the weight is balanced on the meaty outside heel parts. No need to grip tightly with your fingers. You should be able to wiggle all your fingers easily, including the thumb. Here's a link to my Numb Hands post on BikeForums with more detailed info and pictures.

STRAIGHT BACK will reduce a LOT of soreness and pain. Rather than sitting with your butt flat on the seat and bending forward at the waist, keep your midsection straight and rotate/rock your hips forward. Imaging trying to place your bellybutton on the top-tube of the bike. This lets you expand your chest & diaphragm more to "breathe into your belly" for deeper breaths and more oxygen. This rolling/rocking forward on the seat can put pressure on tender parts in front, thus the need for a seat of correct width in the rear to carry the weight. may also help to tip the nose of the saddle down slightly 1-3 degrees. The 2nd rider in these pics will go home without back pain:

More straight-back for no pain:

BACK STRENGTH - We've all done tonnes of stomach exercises, but most have ignored the other half of core support; the back. Best way to strengthen lower-back muscles is with roman-chair back lifts. When I started racing, I sprained my back due to its imbalance of strength; especially compared to my powerful legs from decades of soccer (pulling on bars to counteract sideways motion caused by legs pushing uses the back, arm & shoulder muscles). After months of chiropractic treatment, physio-therapy and back-strengthening exercises in the gym, I never had issues with my back again. I went from barely being able to do one of these, to sets of 30 with a 25-lb weight held behind my neck.

BTW, implicit in the above, is that ALL seat adjustments are for optimum positioning of the legs. DO NOT adjust the seat to make changes for your torso and reach to bars. That is all done though the stem length & angle, handlebar width, depth and drop dimensions. And all these settings are best done with bike firmly clamped into a trainer. Have assistant take pictures and measure you from the side. It's best to get your body-positioning and riding technique worked out in the beginning because it's a lot more difficult later if you've gotten used to the incorrect fit or are injured.

 

[DannoXYZ]

...
On green one of the guys sprints, as usual, followed by that third random guy. I take of at my normal pace, pass the third guy, pass the sprinter. As I start to pass him he picks up pace. At this point I am riding partially on a street because I want to give him plenty of room and not to spook him. I pick up speed to pass him, he does the same. Now I am annoyed. To drive the point home I start riding seating up without using handle bars, as he is trying to hammer for all he is worth. Next thing I know he starts to sprint. I, a tad competitive person, put my hands on the hoods, not even drops, and stretch my legs a tad and pull ahead as he blows up. All of this seated because of the shoulder, while he is sprinting for all his worth out of the saddle.

I also like to unclip one foot and beat them across the line one-legged to really show them I wasn't even trying.

I can't wait to start racing again, only 6 more points to CAT3 upgrade.

Sandbagger!!!!

 

[Sidewalk]

I don't know about TT racing, but in tri you try to get your elbows/back at 90° angles to weight the bones as well.