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Do You Road Bike?

^ Thanks for the recommendation. I've also hear really good things about Roaring Mouse. This is something I will look into as my knee hurt after Saturday's ride. If I can't get comfy I'm riding my Public all the way to LA. :x
 
Thanks!

I'm a newb with all the terminology. I just found the specs for my bike and its:

Front: 39/53 teeth
Rear: 10-speed, 11 - 25 teeth

I guess i just need to gain some leg strength =p
 
Akira-R said:
Thanks!

I'm a newb with all the terminology. I just found the specs for my bike and its:

Front: 39/53 teeth
Rear: 10-speed, 11 - 25 teeth

I guess i just need to gain some leg strength =p
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If you have difficulty with climbs, for cheap upgrade might consider 12-27 cassette. If climbs are still difficult 34/50 in the front.

My knees hurt when I see people grind gears up Kings, with what looks like 23/25 cassette with standard front 53/39.
 
sfcootz said:
^ Thanks for the recommendation. I've also hear really good things about Roaring Mouse. This is something I will look into as my knee hurt after Saturday's ride. If I can't get comfy I'm riding my Public all the way to LA. :x
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Sent ya a pm.
Fittings most important but its not black magic. Once you know what to look for you can fine tune yourself after every ride. Ladies bajooja's shouldn't hurt but they do lotsa times. Skin problems happen from using cushy seats, low end bibs/ bibs with thick soft padding. FYI lots "begginers" will fight tooth and nail for many years avoiding hard correct saddles and firm quality bibs. They think a hard saddle will hurt (even though their soft saddle brings them to tears every ride).
A good rule of thumb. Look at the type of stuff pro dude's use on TV. Yeah they're sponsered and use what they're told to but all the stuff is about the same. Type of bike, how they sit, saddles, shoes, pedals, clothing.
They've figured out a very long time ago how to combfortably ride for a hundred miles/day over and over and over and over.
You're not gonna find huge Aggghhnnooollld legs or triple cranks or cushy seats or some strange bar/saddle height ratio or any of that junk.
 
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Okay - got your PM TAKS, thank you.

soo... regarding a seat I have a small lady Selle Italia seat, NOT super padded. I think the padding in my shorts is making me cranky. Honestly, my favorite thing to ride in are running tights which have no seams in the "bajooja" area and NO padding. However, like a meathead I wore my padded shorts last year only to have major "bajooja" sads.

I need to work on spinning instead of mashing. :nchantr

I'll make a fitting appointment soon. The frame of my bike is a good fit. Hopefully with a new pair of handle bars and perhaps a new seat post I'll be okay. TAKS, we'll probably be going back and forth over this for a bit.
 
I just test rode a long haul trucker. Very nice. I also had the stem reversed on my bike which brought me up 1.5 inches. Much, much better. I'll see how I feel post butterlap tonight.

Post butterlap report:

I feel much better with the new position!
 
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Fantastic!
I assume it took the weight off your hands, but did the new position help your saddle area too?

Spinning is important so you don't kill your knees, but some people are more efficiant mashing, it just depends on your body and how you've trained. Change it up on certain days during your training so you still have the ability to mash (it goes away if you stop doing it)

Good luck training for the AIDS ride, I toured down the coast several years ago and it was a blast! I'd totally do it again if I wasn't broken.
 
^ It did take weight off my arms and helped with my "bajooja" because there was less friction and weight on it.

I'm practicing higher rev pedaling on my cruiser, which has only three gears. That bike just has pedals, no clips. I have what my friends call quads of steel, i.e. big, bunchy muscles, not long lean ones. On my road bike I have a doohickey that measures my cadence. I tend to be between 70-80 rpm. I really need to work on my spinning and generally get back into the sport after months off.
 
70-80 is on the low side if you're riding at a good tempo, but it's fine for just cruising around. See if you can train your body to be efficient at spinning, you'll use more of you're hamstrings and hip flexors if you can pedal smoothly at higher rpm's

You should be able to cruise at 90-100 effortlessly, and if you were a trackie, you could ride all day at 120 no sweat.

But like I said, if you've always trained that way, it might be what your body has developed for, and would take some time to become a spinner.
 
my cousin just moved here from New York, and apparently he's a roadie, does crits and is a pretty competitive fortysomething guy.

Can you guys suggest where i should tell him where to go? I already told him to get sense and a mountain bike. But you know how roadies are.
 
Butch said:
my cousin just moved here from New York, and apparently he's a roadie, does crits and is a pretty competitive fortysomething guy.

Can you guys suggest where i should tell him where to go? I already told him to get sense and a mountain bike. But you know how roadies are.
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There are so many roads to ride around here it's crazy. The santa cruz mountains is full of road cyclists and there are good places to ride in Saratoga and I'm sure everywhere else in the bay area. I live in Soquel and there are a ton of places I can ride to from my house (corralitos/mt madonna/etc). I went and road alpine rd, to 35 to 84 loop the other day and it was really nice. I think a lot of people ride on teh 9 like all the sprotbiles do on the weekends too.
 
If he likes hills Highway 9 is popular, Mt Hamilton is my favorite ride, Sierra road, Quimby, old la honda, page mill, and my favorite workout bohlman-on orbit (hits 22%)

For flatter riding Uvas reservoir is fantastic, foothill expressway can be taken out to sand hill? Out to highway 92

For group rides San Jose Bicycle Club has a good Saturday ride that goes out to Uvas.
There's a couple alto velo rides that are good.
Or if he likes big fast rides, the spectrum ride is a great ride effort wise... But I've vowed never to ride on it again because if the cocky assholes who go on it and make it dangerous. And if I ever have to deal with them fucking with me again I'll put them in the hospital.

If he's still in winter shape and not much of a climber he can head out to any actc (almaden cycling and touring club) it's basically geriatrics cycling, they are slow, but they have at least two rides a day 365 days a year.

For racing, our season starts in January, and runs all the way to September. And cross is popular enough to race all year! We also have a velodrome, I use to mainly race track. In a couple months they'll have races on Tuesday's and Wednesday's. And if he's never ridden on one, the beginner session is on Saturday at 8:30ish

Ncnca.org will have the road races, and the site to the track.
 
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I don't like the big roads - 9, 35, 84, etc. - except as far as they get you to the fun goatier side roads. Too much car and moto traffic. Let us know where he'll be, and we can make more region-specific recs...
 
Maurice said:
70-80 is on the low side if you're riding at a good tempo, but it's fine for just cruising around. See if you can train your body to be efficient at spinning, you'll use more of you're hamstrings and hip flexors if you can pedal smoothly at higher rpm's

You should be able to cruise at 90-100 effortlessly, and if you were a trackie, you could ride all day at 120 no sweat.

But like I said, if you've always trained that way, it might be what your body has developed for, and would take some time to become a spinner.
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I think my three speed is helping me learn to rely on increased rpm vs mashing the hell out of my bike. I don't have the ability to measure cadence on that bike, though.

I get the feeling I should be working to increase my flexibility because I'm stiff. That might als help with spinning.

I've appreciated all the advice and recommendations. I rode over 100 miles this week just having fun and commuting. I'll be cranking up that number in coming month as i train for the aids lifecycle.
 
Butch said:
my cousin just moved here from New York, and apparently he's a roadie, does crits and is a pretty competitive fortysomething guy.

Can you guys suggest where i should tell him where to go? I already told him to get sense and a mountain bike. But you know how roadies are.
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For racing NorCal racing calendar: http://ncnca.org/road/
 
Maurice said:
Or if he likes big fast rides, the spectrum ride is a great ride effort wise... But I've vowed never to ride on it again because if the cocky assholes who go on it and make it dangerous. And if I ever have to deal with them fucking with me again I'll put them in the hospital.

.
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:laughing:laughing:laughing It's gotten a lot better. Totally agree with you though. The shit some of those dudes pull on a sunny Sunday around old ladies and kids and horses does call for an ass whoopin.
 
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