Getting into cycling

ewal

I ride a road bike with compact double 18 spd, a 11 spd off-road bike and a single speed. The one I least like for gear range is the 11 spd - wish I'd gone for an old fashioned triple.

The road bike ratios are very similar to the ones on your 16 speed. I never find the gaps between gears problematic and I ride over a wide variety of different terrains and in different wind conditions. But I'm just a recreational rider - it would be different if I was racing where being able to react to breakaways etc is crucial. I would imagine that having more intermediate gears would be an advantage in this scenario.

ETA: I suppose the single speed has helped me grow accustomed to spinning and grinding where necessary...

crunchman

Just went out and did 8 miles on an heavy hybrid with 38mm tyres.  The good news is that I don't seem quite as unfit as I though I was.

My knees were grumbling a bit on the stairs afterwards though.  Got to get the road bike out.  Having decent pedals that you clip into is a lot easier on the knees.

strtdv

crunchman said:

Just went out and did 8 miles on an heavy hybrid with 38mm tyres.  The good news is that I don't seem quite as unfit as I though I was.

My knees were grumbling a bit on the stairs afterwards though.  Got to get the road bike out.  Having decent pedals that you clip into is a lot easier on the knees.

Knee pain is usually down to bike fit, either saddle too low (front of knee pain), too high (back of knee pain), or Q factor too wide (medial pain) or too narrow (lateral knee pain)

crunchman

strtdv said:

crunchman said:

Just went out and did 8 miles on an heavy hybrid with 38mm tyres.  The good news is that I don't seem quite as unfit as I though I was.

My knees were grumbling a bit on the stairs afterwards though.  Got to get the road bike out.  Having decent pedals that you clip into is a lot easier on the knees.

Knee pain is usually down to bike fit, either saddle too low (front of knee pain), too high (back of knee pain), or Q factor too wide (medial pain) or too narrow (lateral knee pain)

Thanks. Pain is front of knee.

Just been googling how you are supposed to set it up.  The saddle may have been fractionally low.  I think it may have been a bit too far forward as well.  I've put it up a little and moved it back a few mm.  I normally only use that bike for pootling 2 miles to work, or going out with my daughters.  I will get the road bike out at the weekend.

I do have quite long legs and a relatively short body.  My Dad is 5" shorter than me (or was when he was younger) but his body is the same length as mine.  The extra height is basically all in my legs.  It does mean I need the saddle quite high, and possibly a bit further back than the default position that it came from the shop with.

joneve

If you can find someone locally that does a bike fit and doesn’t charge the Earth, I’d recommend it to anyone. I used to be cynical about them but I was lucky enough to find a local guy who’s a British triathlon cycle coach who does bike fits in the side for £35. Best £35 I ever spent; made such a massive difference. 

ewal

Knee pain is also likely if you push big gears . As is back pain. Try sticking to spinning until you've built up your fitness.

crunchman

ewal said:

Knee pain is also likely if you push big gears . As is back pain. Try sticking to spinning until you've built up your fitness.

I know that.  I kept in lower gears.

I've tweaked the saddle position a bit now.

LIke I said, I will get the road bike out at the weekend.  I know I'm ok on that one.  I used to do about 80 miles a week on it commuting to my previous workplace without this kind of thing happening.

crunchman

Got the cobwebs off the road bike (literally) and just did 16 miles.  Feel quite good afterwards - could have carried on for another half hour at the same speed.  Knees are fine as well.

5 weeks to build up to 46 miles.

mcsdan

11 miles today MTB off road. I've tweaked my knee running and have a big race end of August so cycling for the next week to give some impact relief without dropping fitness. Will go out tomorrow for a 25-30 mile off road ride with lots of steep hills. Looking forward to it!

littlegreenman

Easy-ish day today.

Need to get some more climbing done in the next 3 weeks before I head to the Pyrenees. Did I mention I'm going riding with Andy Schleck?  

littlegreenman

crunchman said:

Got the cobwebs off the road bike (literally) and just did 16 miles.  Feel quite good afterwards - could have carried on for another half hour at the same speed.  Knees are fine as well.

5 weeks to build up to 46 miles.

You'll be fine, if you can do 16m you can do 46m. First time I did 100Km last year I'd never riden longer than about 30Km in one go since I was in my 20's and it was nowhere near as hard as I expected (6 months away from 50 now!). All about the food and liquids, get that right and you'll smash it.

m_c

ewal said:

I ride a road bike with compact double 18 spd, a 11 spd off-road bike and a single speed. The one I least like for gear range is the 11 spd - wish I'd gone for an old fashioned triple.

The road bike ratios are very similar to the ones on your 16 speed. I never find the gaps between gears problematic and I ride over a wide variety of different terrains and in different wind conditions. But I'm just a recreational rider - it would be different if I was racing where being able to react to breakaways etc is crucial. I would imagine that having more intermediate gears would be an advantage in this scenario.

ETA: I suppose the single speed has helped me grow accustomed to spinning and grinding where necessary...

Steps between gears can be quite strange.
My old downhill bike came with a 10 speed road cassette on it (10-28 IIRC), and I was really sceptical at first, but it always seemed to allow me to find the ideal gear, with no major leaps between gears. Also being a DH bike, it meant most of the cassette got used, not just the smaller side.

Both my current pedally full bouncers are 1x11. I often find steps between gears are far from ideal, however as I'm more of a grinder than spinner, I just get on with it, especially as running a single thick-thin chainring is so reliable and trouble free compared with the old twin and roller guide on my previous hardtail prior to swapping it to 1x10. Plus both the full bouncers are carbon with no option to fit a front mech.

On my road bike, I've got a compact double 34/50 with a 11/30 cassette, and the close ratio is good for finding that nice cadence, but I seem to find there is too much overlap between 34/50. I'd quite happily sacrifice a couple teeth of the 34, and go to a 10 at the back.
I went out yesterday after work for a quickish 30 mile loop, and I know my legs were still a bit tired from previous rides in the week, but there were a couple climbs into a modest head wind where I would of quite happily had a smaller gear, and a couple descents where I spun out :-/


On a side note, I am tempted to take the road bike with me to France next week, and have a crack at Alpe d'Huez, but I'm not sure how much that'll kill my legs for riding the big full bouncer. I'm in Les deux alpes for 4 days, before heading to A d'H for a week for the Megavalanche, and the Mega qualifier and main courses require quite a bit of pedalling..

joneve

Cycled 115km (72 miles) today. 

It was hot. 

Ive been dehydrated since, despite knocking back 3 litres on the ride and much more since.

mostly enjoyable though

TTBZ

Far too hot for riding yesterday! Hoping to get out on my MTB just round some bridleways today, make the most of rare dusty trails

Danny1969

Did 20 miles yesterday going to beach and back. Loving my Boardman CX Pro, just effortless to ride

tony99

Nikc said:

Decent bib short are a must there are loads of makes available - personally I like Planet X's 365 range I've ridden plenty of miles over quite a few years in them - Often on offer at around 25 quid. The key to cycling is cycling you need to just get out and ride - your butt, arms, shoulders, neck and hands will all ache and hurt as you adapt - but you will adapt and it becomes second nature. Enjoy it don't go to war with every other road user it really isn't worth it. If you want some training tips just ask I've done my coaching qualifications and I'm happy to give pointers but the truth is there are no short cuts just hours in the saddle

What do you do if there's a bit of road you come to, only wide enough for one vehicle, and you have right of way, but the double decker bus coming towards you decides not to wait and comes straight down at you?

cj73

tony99 said:

Nikc said:

Decent bib short are a must there are loads of makes available - personally I like Planet X's 365 range I've ridden plenty of miles over quite a few years in them - Often on offer at around 25 quid. The key to cycling is cycling you need to just get out and ride - your butt, arms, shoulders, neck and hands will all ache and hurt as you adapt - but you will adapt and it becomes second nature. Enjoy it don't go to war with every other road user it really isn't worth it. If you want some training tips just ask I've done my coaching qualifications and I'm happy to give pointers but the truth is there are no short cuts just hours in the saddle

What do you do if there's a bit of road you come to, only wide enough for one vehicle, and you have right of way, but the double decker bus coming towards you decides not to wait and comes straight down at you?

Yield or squish, your choice

joneve

Danny1969 said:

Did 20 miles yesterday going to beach and back. Loving my Boardman CX Pro, just effortless to ride

Small bike or large swing chair?? 

joneve

Oh and finally commuted to work today for the first time since moving house (about 1 mile down the road ) 

Went a different route to normal (there's about 5 different routes I can take)...my usual route is 12.5 miles, flat as a pancake (pretty much).

New route (only new for commute, have ridden it loads), takes me up over Painswick with a nice long climb right at the start of the ride. Should do me good for IM training over the next 6 weeks! 

strtdv

Even when I was fairly fit (~3.5w/kg FTP), I'm a woefully slow swimmer and runner, so triathlon is definitely out.

After a couple of weeks back at it I'm beginning to shift a bit of weight again which is nice, I'm on track for about 120 miles this week. Zwift has been very good for motivation.