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Time To Get Fit - 2024
- Thread starter stangmx13
- Start date
Climber
Well-known member
Somebody has a nice new toy!
two wheel tramp
Budman's Favorite
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2010
- Location
- your mom’s house
- Moto(s)
- DR650, X2!, TTR250, 790 ADV S, 950 SM-R, 89 Transalp, TTR2Fiddy
- Name
- Triple R
- BARF perks
- AMA #2771957
Well call me silly. I just found "Team Body Project" on YouTube while searching for a 30 minute indoor work out since it's too smoky to be outside. I have two left feet and all the movements in the workout were straight forward and didn't require me learning choreography to do it. The host was rad, too. Very encouraging and kept me in the mindset the whole time.
Yay! It's always nice to have another option when it's nasty out.
Yay! It's always nice to have another option when it's nasty out.
Tally Whacker
Not another Mike
Well, my wrist is healing. It still hurts and my grip strength is not great, but I went with a couple of friends to a ski area and did downhill runs all day today, so things are definitely improving. I was very tentative about hitting the jumps at first, but by the end of the day I was getting decent air. Not big air, but still…
My racing season is toast, but at least I can enjoy riding again.
My racing season is toast, but at least I can enjoy riding again.
two wheel tramp
Budman's Favorite
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2010
- Location
- your mom’s house
- Moto(s)
- DR650, X2!, TTR250, 790 ADV S, 950 SM-R, 89 Transalp, TTR2Fiddy
- Name
- Triple R
- BARF perks
- AMA #2771957
Congrats on getting back in the saddle.
stangmx13
not Stan
This thread making it to the 3rd page is just unacceptable 
Alright, story time.
Many of you already know that I got into the Leadville 100 MTB race in CO this year and set some lofty goals to get it done. I'm back and holy crap, that was an adventure. I have never worked so hard for anything in my life.
I left on my trip on July 16th and drove to Stockton, CA. That's nowhere near CO you must be thinking. Well, the thing about Leadville is that it's a HUGE race. The field is roughly 1500 riders and starting at the back is not the best way to a good finishing time. So I also signed up for the Tahoe Trail 100, a 100km MTB race around the Northstar resort. Any finish there would improve my starting corral for Leadville. Both my parents live in Stockton, so this part of the trip was also a good excuse to visit them. I hung out with my mom for 2 nights and drove to Tahoe on the 18th.
On the 18th and 19th, I managed to recon the start and end of the race. I also tried to learn some pacing and hydration strategies for the medium altitude (yes, medium altitude) at Tahoe. You really need to drink a lot more in that dry mountain air. I picked up my number and schwag. I did some parking lot maintenance on the MTB. I tried to sleep in the shitty ski-in-out AirBnb that I rented. And on the 20th, I gridded up for my first ever XCM (cross country marathon) MTB race.
Tahoe Trail went OK. The course was two 30mi laps. Goal time was <5:30, ~11.5mph avg. Some of the climbs were quite steep and straight singletrack. So on the first lap, I did get stuck in a large group of riders head to tail doing 3mph. The part that I screwed up was my hydration and fueling. I had my 2L pack and 2 bottles. The pack had 300g of carbs and 6g of salt. Each bottle was 100g and 1g of salt. Unfortunately, that was both too much sugar and too much salt for the conditions. By the end of the first lap I was fucking thirsty, my mouth was coated, and just couldn't drink more from my pack. At the high point of the 2nd lap, I dumped the bottles and got water at an aid station. I then switched to gels and brought it home. I charged the last climb, did well on the final descent, and came in at 5:28:46. First goal ACHIEVED! I finished mid-pack, 169th / 397. (pic of results below was taken before everyone had finished)
My dad was actually at the start of the race which was very cool. He and his wife played in Reno the day before, won $2000 on slots (!!!), then made the 7am start. Unfortunately his wife got altitude sickness (at 6300ft), so they had to drive home right away. That night I drove to his place and hung out there for 2 nights. I rode again at sea level around the Delta (oh the sweet oxygen), we went fishing, I did more bike maintenance, and I left for CO on the 22nd.
The drive to Colorado Springs took me 2 days, with a stay near Salt Lake. Then I checked into my barndominium Airbnb in Black Forest CO, just outside of Colorado Springs. Why Black Forest you are wondering? My AirBnb was at 7600ft, which is supposedly the near perfect altitude for acclimation. It’s low enough to still be able to sleep, recover, and train a little. And it’s high enough to gain the effects of altitude. On top of the that, the rural dirt roads of Black Forest were mostly champagne gravel (smooooth) with almost no traffic - which made for some great training rides.
Colorado Springs also has easy access to plenty of taller peaks and amazing MTBing. Every single ride that went higher made my Garmin watch tell me funny things… like this:
It was a little disheartening to see this as I worked sooooo hard to peak at 64 before I left. But see that small rise on the right (before the plummet to 52). That was the first glimmer of hope. My coach said I’d start to feel improvement after day 5. And I started taking iron supplements with advice from my SIL doctor. The acclimation was working! Just slowly.
CO Springs had some great riding on the west side of the city. I rode around the Air Force Academy on Falcon trail - 5 stars, literally the best most-fun MTB trail I have ever done. I rode through and past Garden of the Gods - tourist trap, avoid, go to RedRocks NV instead. I rode Gold Camp Rd, a cool hiking/MTBing area that almost goes to 10k feet - fun, cool tunnels. And I rode to the top of Pikes Peak (the final plummet on my watch data). Pikes is my 2nd 14ner after hiking Whitney in 2018. I parked around 9500ft and really enjoyed the 2hr climb to the top. Avg HR was only 142bpm cuz it was supposed to be an easy-ride day.
After 2 weeks in Black Forest, my SO Luca flew in and we drove to Dillon, CO on the 4th to start the final leg of the trip. Dillon is an amazing area right on Dillon Lake and 15min from Breckenridge. If anyone wants a chill lake/hike/MTB summer vacation spot - look into staying there. Rent a bike and go around the lake or up to Keystone. I did a 53mi 3-lap TT around the lake in 3hrs15min and was feeling great!
Dillon is 45min from Leadville. That final week was mostly driving to Leadville for recon rides and taper, the rider’s meeting, number pickup and the expo, and scoping the aid stations. Everyone says that Leadville is a whole experience, but I never really believed that until now. The 80-something-year-old founder of the race explaining how they started this race to save their town really gets you choked up. And their foundation saying how they’ve given away $1.4 MILLION in scholarship to local high school graduates makes me really happy to pay $500 for a race. Leadville really celebrates all their participants, placing a lot of emphasis on the accomplishment of finishing. I mean cmon, the race starts at 10200ft! The Leadville moto is “Leadville, Leadville, Leadville! Anything more is not necessary, anything less is not enough”.
Oh, remember that whole starting corral business. Leadville has 10 corrals this year - Gold, Silver, Red, Green, Purple, Orange, Blue, White, Brown 1, Brown 2 from Pro to slowest & unseeded. Had I finished Tahoe Trail in 2023 under 5:30, I would have made the Green corral. Apparently Leadville (and Tahoe) are more competitive this year, so my 5:28 only placed me in the Orange corral.
Oh wells, I’ll just need to pass 100 more people to have a better shot at a good time. Each corral starts at 2.5min increments, which spreads the field out and prevents choke points.
So how’d my race go? Goal time was <9hrs to win the bigger belt buckle and have bragging rights of having done sub9 on my first attempt. At 105miles, that’s 11.6mph avg. I woke up at 4am, smashed my bowl of rice for breakfast, ate pop-tarts in the truck, and got out there for a 5:45am warmup. I did my warm-up, stayed bundled up until the last few minutes, and started at 6:40am.
Leadville is an out-and-back that is effectively 3 peaks and a bunch of rollers… x2. Here’s the insanity:
On the way out, you climb St Kevins (5mi, 30min), Sugarloaf (5mi, 35min), and Columbine (7mi, 1hr20min). On the way back, you climb Powerline (3.3mi, 42min), Turquoise Lake Rd (4mi, 20min) and The Boulevard (3mi, 20min). In the flat-ish area, you have the major aid stations at Outward Bound (mile 25), Twin Lakes (mile 40), & Lost Canyon (mile 45). All these landmarks made for a good schedule. I found a stronger friend’s result from last year and wrote down how long it took him to get to each landmark. He went 8:35, so if i could almost match that time, I could go sub9.
My race started well. The front of my corral went out at exactly the pace I wanted, so the legs warmed up properly. Over St Kevins and Sugarloaf I passed plenty and drank 1.5 bottles or so. I met Luca at Outward bound and picked up my 2L pack. Remember the schedule - only 5min down!
Between there and Twin Lakes, I just wasn’t feeling the pack. I mixed the pack with less sugar and salt than Tahoe, but it was kinda the same problem - I just needed water and gels. So I called an audible and used Siri to text Luca with the new plans - no packs, we are switching to bottles. I gave Luca my vest and pack at Twin Lakes and got 2 bottles for Columbine. Only 8min down on the schedule here.
Columbine was insane. Once you get past the tree-line, the nice dirt road becomes rocky and unrelenting. And because it’s an out-and-back, the downhill riders have right-of-way. You stay to the right, even if that means you are going over an unrideable section. I was unable to ride Columbine clean, having to walk maybe 1000ft because it was too rocky on the right. But I still think I smashed that climb. It was kinda nice passing riders with packs on Columbine thinking how I was 4lbs lighter sans pack. And boy did I pass people. I made up 90 spots going up that 7mile climb according to the timing. At the very top, I was still only 8min down on the schedule. My hopes, my certainty of finishing fast was growing.
The support at the top of Columbine (at 12400ft) really liked the selfies. These are the only pics I took on course.
I made it back to Twin Lakes with dry bottles. I grabbed two and managed to find a solid fast group of 5+ other riders. We drafted well into the wind and blasted back to Outward Bound for the last crewed aid station. Remember the schedule… 12min UP here. Holy crap, can I do this?!?!
There was still one more obstacle that can make or break this race - Powerline. Powerline is the steepest and arguably most difficult climb of the day especially because it comes after mile 80. That thing peaked at 25% gradient and took ~300w just to stay moving in some spots. So I walked a little more to not cramp. My group dissolved there. I rode with others over Turquoise Lake and made it to that aid station dry. I got one quick bottle fill up for the final descent. But the schedule was not positive anymore - 12min down. FAAACK!!! It’s time to go!
Thankfully I had recon’d the final descent and final climb. I pushed the descent HARD. For the first time the whole day, I wasn’t getting passed by more experienced MTBers on a descent. I pushed hard at the bottom to catch a pair of other riders. I wheel-sucked for the flat part until the final climb to recover some. One of those guys cramped on the climb, so I hammered past. For the final 3.3mi, I did 195w NP (3w/kg) for 17min. I crossed the line in 8:48:26 and won that fucking belt buckle! I rode the race of my life (so far) and took my best-ever finishing photo
Final result was 320th / 1468.
One last thing - the crewed aid stations were an experience. Remember how the race was 1500 riders. All those riders bring support friends and family who are all super stoked that you are riding a MTB through the Rockies. Each of the three large aid stations was made up of ~1000ft of EZ-ups side-by-side on BOTH sides of the road. Everyone is cheering. Everyone has signs or cowbells or anything. Everyone is stoked to be there. Thankfully we had scoped spots the day before so finding Luca in the sea of positivity wasn’t hard. This alone made the race so much fun.
Here’s some youtube highlights from the organizer.
It’s been just over a week and I still haven’t recovered fully. My legs and back are still stiff and my rides have been short. Next race is in October!
Alright, story time.
Many of you already know that I got into the Leadville 100 MTB race in CO this year and set some lofty goals to get it done. I'm back and holy crap, that was an adventure. I have never worked so hard for anything in my life.
I left on my trip on July 16th and drove to Stockton, CA. That's nowhere near CO you must be thinking. Well, the thing about Leadville is that it's a HUGE race. The field is roughly 1500 riders and starting at the back is not the best way to a good finishing time. So I also signed up for the Tahoe Trail 100, a 100km MTB race around the Northstar resort. Any finish there would improve my starting corral for Leadville. Both my parents live in Stockton, so this part of the trip was also a good excuse to visit them. I hung out with my mom for 2 nights and drove to Tahoe on the 18th.
On the 18th and 19th, I managed to recon the start and end of the race. I also tried to learn some pacing and hydration strategies for the medium altitude (yes, medium altitude
) at Tahoe. You really need to drink a lot more in that dry mountain air. I picked up my number and schwag. I did some parking lot maintenance on the MTB. I tried to sleep in the shitty ski-in-out AirBnb that I rented. And on the 20th, I gridded up for my first ever XCM (cross country marathon) MTB race.Tahoe Trail went OK. The course was two 30mi laps. Goal time was <5:30, ~11.5mph avg. Some of the climbs were quite steep and straight singletrack. So on the first lap, I did get stuck in a large group of riders head to tail doing 3mph. The part that I screwed up was my hydration and fueling. I had my 2L pack and 2 bottles. The pack had 300g of carbs and 6g of salt. Each bottle was 100g and 1g of salt. Unfortunately, that was both too much sugar and too much salt for the conditions. By the end of the first lap I was fucking thirsty, my mouth was coated, and just couldn't drink more from my pack. At the high point of the 2nd lap, I dumped the bottles and got water at an aid station. I then switched to gels and brought it home. I charged the last climb, did well on the final descent, and came in at 5:28:46. First goal ACHIEVED! I finished mid-pack, 169th / 397. (pic of results below was taken before everyone had finished)
My dad was actually at the start of the race which was very cool. He and his wife played in Reno the day before, won $2000 on slots (!!!), then made the 7am start. Unfortunately his wife got altitude sickness (at 6300ft), so they had to drive home right away. That night I drove to his place and hung out there for 2 nights. I rode again at sea level around the Delta (oh the sweet oxygen), we went fishing, I did more bike maintenance, and I left for CO on the 22nd.
The drive to Colorado Springs took me 2 days, with a stay near Salt Lake. Then I checked into my barndominium Airbnb in Black Forest CO, just outside of Colorado Springs. Why Black Forest you are wondering? My AirBnb was at 7600ft, which is supposedly the near perfect altitude for acclimation. It’s low enough to still be able to sleep, recover, and train a little. And it’s high enough to gain the effects of altitude. On top of the that, the rural dirt roads of Black Forest were mostly champagne gravel (smooooth) with almost no traffic - which made for some great training rides.
Colorado Springs also has easy access to plenty of taller peaks and amazing MTBing. Every single ride that went higher made my Garmin watch tell me funny things… like this:
It was a little disheartening to see this as I worked sooooo hard to peak at 64 before I left. But see that small rise on the right (before the plummet to 52). That was the first glimmer of hope. My coach said I’d start to feel improvement after day 5. And I started taking iron supplements with advice from my SIL doctor. The acclimation was working! Just slowly.
CO Springs had some great riding on the west side of the city. I rode around the Air Force Academy on Falcon trail - 5 stars, literally the best most-fun MTB trail I have ever done. I rode through and past Garden of the Gods - tourist trap, avoid, go to RedRocks NV instead. I rode Gold Camp Rd, a cool hiking/MTBing area that almost goes to 10k feet - fun, cool tunnels. And I rode to the top of Pikes Peak (the final plummet on my watch data). Pikes is my 2nd 14ner after hiking Whitney in 2018. I parked around 9500ft and really enjoyed the 2hr climb to the top. Avg HR was only 142bpm cuz it was supposed to be an easy-ride day.
After 2 weeks in Black Forest, my SO Luca flew in and we drove to Dillon, CO on the 4th to start the final leg of the trip. Dillon is an amazing area right on Dillon Lake and 15min from Breckenridge. If anyone wants a chill lake/hike/MTB summer vacation spot - look into staying there. Rent a bike and go around the lake or up to Keystone. I did a 53mi 3-lap TT around the lake in 3hrs15min and was feeling great!
Dillon is 45min from Leadville. That final week was mostly driving to Leadville for recon rides and taper, the rider’s meeting, number pickup and the expo, and scoping the aid stations. Everyone says that Leadville is a whole experience, but I never really believed that until now. The 80-something-year-old founder of the race explaining how they started this race to save their town really gets you choked up. And their foundation saying how they’ve given away $1.4 MILLION in scholarship to local high school graduates makes me really happy to pay $500 for a race. Leadville really celebrates all their participants, placing a lot of emphasis on the accomplishment of finishing. I mean cmon, the race starts at 10200ft! The Leadville moto is “Leadville, Leadville, Leadville! Anything more is not necessary, anything less is not enough”.
Oh, remember that whole starting corral business. Leadville has 10 corrals this year - Gold, Silver, Red, Green, Purple, Orange, Blue, White, Brown 1, Brown 2 from Pro to slowest & unseeded. Had I finished Tahoe Trail in 2023 under 5:30, I would have made the Green corral. Apparently Leadville (and Tahoe) are more competitive this year, so my 5:28 only placed me in the Orange corral.
Oh wells, I’ll just need to pass 100 more people to have a better shot at a good time. Each corral starts at 2.5min increments, which spreads the field out and prevents choke points.So how’d my race go? Goal time was <9hrs to win the bigger belt buckle and have bragging rights of having done sub9 on my first attempt. At 105miles, that’s 11.6mph avg. I woke up at 4am, smashed my bowl of rice for breakfast, ate pop-tarts in the truck, and got out there for a 5:45am warmup. I did my warm-up, stayed bundled up until the last few minutes, and started at 6:40am.
Leadville is an out-and-back that is effectively 3 peaks and a bunch of rollers… x2. Here’s the insanity:
On the way out, you climb St Kevins (5mi, 30min), Sugarloaf (5mi, 35min), and Columbine (7mi, 1hr20min). On the way back, you climb Powerline (3.3mi, 42min), Turquoise Lake Rd (4mi, 20min) and The Boulevard (3mi, 20min). In the flat-ish area, you have the major aid stations at Outward Bound (mile 25), Twin Lakes (mile 40), & Lost Canyon (mile 45). All these landmarks made for a good schedule. I found a stronger friend’s result from last year and wrote down how long it took him to get to each landmark. He went 8:35, so if i could almost match that time, I could go sub9.
My race started well. The front of my corral went out at exactly the pace I wanted, so the legs warmed up properly. Over St Kevins and Sugarloaf I passed plenty and drank 1.5 bottles or so. I met Luca at Outward bound and picked up my 2L pack. Remember the schedule - only 5min down!
Between there and Twin Lakes, I just wasn’t feeling the pack. I mixed the pack with less sugar and salt than Tahoe, but it was kinda the same problem - I just needed water and gels. So I called an audible and used Siri to text Luca with the new plans - no packs, we are switching to bottles. I gave Luca my vest and pack at Twin Lakes and got 2 bottles for Columbine. Only 8min down on the schedule here.
Columbine was insane. Once you get past the tree-line, the nice dirt road becomes rocky and unrelenting. And because it’s an out-and-back, the downhill riders have right-of-way. You stay to the right, even if that means you are going over an unrideable section. I was unable to ride Columbine clean, having to walk maybe 1000ft because it was too rocky on the right. But I still think I smashed that climb. It was kinda nice passing riders with packs on Columbine thinking how I was 4lbs lighter sans pack. And boy did I pass people. I made up 90 spots going up that 7mile climb according to the timing. At the very top, I was still only 8min down on the schedule. My hopes, my certainty of finishing fast was growing.
The support at the top of Columbine (at 12400ft) really liked the selfies. These are the only pics I took on course.
I made it back to Twin Lakes with dry bottles. I grabbed two and managed to find a solid fast group of 5+ other riders. We drafted well into the wind and blasted back to Outward Bound for the last crewed aid station. Remember the schedule… 12min UP here. Holy crap, can I do this?!?!
There was still one more obstacle that can make or break this race - Powerline. Powerline is the steepest and arguably most difficult climb of the day especially because it comes after mile 80. That thing peaked at 25% gradient and took ~300w just to stay moving in some spots. So I walked a little more to not cramp. My group dissolved there. I rode with others over Turquoise Lake and made it to that aid station dry. I got one quick bottle fill up for the final descent. But the schedule was not positive anymore - 12min down. FAAACK!!! It’s time to go!
Thankfully I had recon’d the final descent and final climb. I pushed the descent HARD. For the first time the whole day, I wasn’t getting passed by more experienced MTBers on a descent. I pushed hard at the bottom to catch a pair of other riders. I wheel-sucked for the flat part until the final climb to recover some. One of those guys cramped on the climb, so I hammered past. For the final 3.3mi, I did 195w NP (3w/kg) for 17min. I crossed the line in 8:48:26 and won that fucking belt buckle! I rode the race of my life (so far) and took my best-ever finishing photo
Final result was 320th / 1468.
One last thing - the crewed aid stations were an experience. Remember how the race was 1500 riders. All those riders bring support friends and family who are all super stoked that you are riding a MTB through the Rockies. Each of the three large aid stations was made up of ~1000ft of EZ-ups side-by-side on BOTH sides of the road. Everyone is cheering. Everyone has signs or cowbells or anything. Everyone is stoked to be there. Thankfully we had scoped spots the day before so finding Luca in the sea of positivity wasn’t hard. This alone made the race so much fun.
Here’s some youtube highlights from the organizer.
It’s been just over a week and I still haven’t recovered fully. My legs and back are still stiff and my rides have been short. Next race is in October!
Mike95060
Work In Progress
OUTSTANDING!! (I have been waiting for this! ) It's been fun keeping tabs on you via Strava. Hell of a race Robert!!!
I might kill for your depressed VO2 Max numbers. I feel you on how much those dips hurt though
) It's been fun keeping tabs on you via Strava. Hell of a race Robert!!! I might kill for your depressed VO2 Max numbers. I feel you on how much those dips hurt though
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stangmx13
not Stan
Thanks. I've noticed your kudos.OUTSTANDING!! (I have been waiting for this!
I might kill for your depressed VO2 Max numbers. I feel you on how much those dips hurt though
If that's Cycling VO2Max, I wouldn't worry too much about the small blips. Without a powermeter, Garmin is guessing a lot. Doing an effort into a headwind would probably lower their estimate by a point or two. Garmin will wonder why your HR was so high for a lower speed and will assume you got weaker. Silly Garmin.
Climber
Well-known member
Outstanding job, Robert!
You've been very busy and doing really well!
You've been very busy and doing really well!
Mike95060
Work In Progress
A Leadville Belt Buckle is quite the feather in your cap! Impressive as fuck man.
Ridley
Active member
I’ve mentioned that I run a couple days a week and lift weights at least 5 days. A couple months ago I took my old Santa Cruz Chameleon to the shop, got it tuned up and had it converted to a single chainring (don’t know the terminology sorry) and some more road worthy tires with the intention of riding around home. So about 3 weeks ago I set a goal for myself to run two days a week and ride two days a week. I think I like riding more than running. Then I started running with a group in Auburn and have done runs from Auburn down to the American River and back up to Auburn, it’s +/- 1,000 vertical feet depending on which trail we take. Truly an ass whooping but I am enjoying the suck a lot. Anyway I I am debating on upgrading my bike and am wondering about a gravel bike. Anyone’s have any experience with gravel bikes and if so any suggestions. I’ve been looking at about the $2k price range.
Mike95060
Work In Progress
I have an old chameleon too! Mine has 26” wheels its so old. Lol
Bikes are on sale right now! You are in luck. First off, get at least a basic bike fit. Fit is more important than anything! Once you know your size range, it could be a little different from manufacture to manufacture, shop around and try to do some demos if you can. Imho, being comfortable is more important than being fancy. If you’re comfortable you will enjoy riding and ride more. Lightweight or “Aero” can come later.
If you let us know your basic proportions we could probably narrow down your choices a bit. Leg, torso and arm lengths vary a lot and that matters for a good bike fit.
This is a little out of your price range but, the shimano GRX groupset is what I would be looking for if i were you. This is quite a bit of bike for the money in my opinion. No idea if you could fit on a 56
https://www.jensonusa.com/Marin-Headlands-1-Bike-2024
Bikes are on sale right now! You are in luck. First off, get at least a basic bike fit. Fit is more important than anything! Once you know your size range, it could be a little different from manufacture to manufacture, shop around and try to do some demos if you can. Imho, being comfortable is more important than being fancy. If you’re comfortable you will enjoy riding and ride more. Lightweight or “Aero” can come later.
If you let us know your basic proportions we could probably narrow down your choices a bit. Leg, torso and arm lengths vary a lot and that matters for a good bike fit.
This is a little out of your price range but, the shimano GRX groupset is what I would be looking for if i were you. This is quite a bit of bike for the money in my opinion. No idea if you could fit on a 56
https://www.jensonusa.com/Marin-Headlands-1-Bike-2024
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Tally Whacker
Not another Mike
I don't think you can go wrong with the Intense 951 gravel bike sold at Costco (!). It'll need a professional to make sure the assembly is good, but it is a decent bike at an amazing price.
Tally Whacker
Not another Mike
This is my current gravel setup, since my healing wrist won't allow me to ride skinny tires and a rigid bike:
Ridley
Active member
Mike, my SC has 26 inch wheels too.
I don’t know what you mean by fitting on a 56 means but I certainly understand trying a variety of bikes to see what actually fits vs what the manufacturer says is good for my body. BTW I’m pretty typical in that I’m 5’9” 180lbs with a 32”inseam. I don’t know how that translates to my reach but I feel like I’m smack dab in the average for my height on that.
With that said do you think a gravel bike would be a good idea or would a strict road bike be better since I am planning to only ride pavement?
I don’t know what you mean by fitting on a 56 means but I certainly understand trying a variety of bikes to see what actually fits vs what the manufacturer says is good for my body. BTW I’m pretty typical in that I’m 5’9” 180lbs with a 32”inseam. I don’t know how that translates to my reach but I feel like I’m smack dab in the average for my height on that.
With that said do you think a gravel bike would be a good idea or would a strict road bike be better since I am planning to only ride pavement?
Tally Whacker
Not another Mike
A road bike will be faster. It's that simple.
In Moto terms, it's a sprotbile vs an ADV bike. Can you have fun riding a GS on the road? Sure, and you can be pretty fast, but you'll work harder than the guy on the RR will for the same speed.
In Moto terms, it's a sprotbile vs an ADV bike. Can you have fun riding a GS on the road? Sure, and you can be pretty fast, but you'll work harder than the guy on the RR will for the same speed.
Mike95060
Work In Progress
In my opinion, for older, non competitive cyclists who want to get fitter, a good gravel set up is hard to beat for an all around fun bike to put anywhere from 10-40+ miles a day on. Roads, fire road, the occasional mellow single track, whatever, a nice gravel set up will probably be the most enjoyable for most people.
Running wider rims and tires with lower pressure is pretty nice on the street. I like a 1X11 setup for most situations. I would get the biggest rear cassette and smallest front chainring I could find. SRAM snd Shimamo both make good, cable actuated 1x set ups with hydraulic brakes. I prefer Shimano GRX but, really just because Im familiar with Shimano stuff and like it. Plenty of my friends run SRAM on their gravel bikes and they are great.
Tldr: fuck yeah gravel set are great on the street in my opinion
Running wider rims and tires with lower pressure is pretty nice on the street. I like a 1X11 setup for most situations. I would get the biggest rear cassette and smallest front chainring I could find. SRAM snd Shimamo both make good, cable actuated 1x set ups with hydraulic brakes. I prefer Shimano GRX but, really just because Im familiar with Shimano stuff and like it. Plenty of my friends run SRAM on their gravel bikes and they are great.
Tldr: fuck yeah gravel set are great on the street in my opinion
Mike95060
Work In Progress
I think you gotta factor comfort in too. If you can’t ride very much because the ergonomics of your full aero setup wipes you out for a week after one ride, you aren’t going to get very fast. I think people new to cycling need volume. How long are you riding in the drops in the tightest tuck you can? If you can do that all day on your gravel bike and your spun out on your 1x gearing, yeah its time for a fast aero roadbike if your chasing PR’s. Most newbies can grow with a good medium gravel set up.
Its just like how most guys can never get everything out of a 600 before buying a liter bike
Ridley
Active member
Thanks Mike and Tally. We have a few great bike shops here in Auburn so i need to go and kick some tires. Now, time to convince the wife that I need a new gravel bike…even though she just agreed to me getting a new motorcycle.