Thread: Cyclists Anonymous

Originally Posted by monkeypuzzlebeefeater

Chris, I'm curious, do you have any tips? I ride at least 20 miles per day on road with total climbs of about 2000ft plus as many miles as I can get off road, my bike is a fairly heavy mountain bike with trail tyres, all adding up to some pretty hard miles!

Next year I'm really stepping things up and going in for some pretty grueling events. I'm good with motivation so can push myself far longer and harder than I can really take, but I do suffer for it to the point where even the commute to work each day can leave me in a heap, averaging 18 mph with my equipment and route is a massive effort.

Any suggestions on ways I can improve would be great!

You'll probably see the most difference switching to smooth road tires as opposed to trail tires. The lesser the rolling resistance the better for a sustained effort.

Also, for long distance, aero is everything. The more you can streamline your bike, helmet, clothing, position, the less effort your body will need to put out to maintain the same effort.

Food for thought, a baggy jacket will slow you down by about 45 min over a 75-100 mile ride.

As for weight weenies counting every gram, it's easier and cheaper to lose body weight than bike weight. Maintaining a good power to weight ratio is huge. A $12,000 13lb colnago with an out of shape rider will always be slower than a 25lb bike with a fit rider.

Weight is a massive issue for me. A lot of the miles I do are commuting, I need to carry clothes and laptop as a minimum. I have lost about 30 lbs this year and will aim for another 15 over the winter.

I also hope to get a road bike soon. I am looking for something old and rusted that I can rebuild

Originally Posted by monkeypuzzlebeefeater

Weight is a massive issue for me. A lot of the miles I do are commuting, I need to carry clothes and laptop as a minimum. I have lost about 30 lbs this year and will aim for another 15 over the winter.

I also hope to get a road bike soon. I am looking for something old and rusted that I can rebuild

Look at the old British bikes, Raleigh/Norton/Triumph etc. they can be had pretty inexpensively and have bombproof lugged steel frames.

I would definitely start with putting smooth tires on for commuting. The speed would be easier to maintain than with "knobbies".

So did anyone get any nice bike related goodies for Christmas?

Nothing actually for Christmas but I am fixing up an old mountain bike to take camping. So will treat myself to the parts. I put new gear shifters on last week but the indexing is still not right so I might have to get the alignment of the hanger checked and maybe replace the chain, cassette and jockey wheels or even the whole derailieur.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Nothing actually for Christmas but I am fixing up an old mountain bike to take camping. So will treat myself to the parts. I put new gear shifters on last week but the indexing is still not right so I might have to get the alignment of the hanger checked and maybe replace the chain, cassette and jockey wheels or even the whole derailieur.

I had an index problem recently. Tried everything before finally replacing the chain and solving the issue.

I wanted to fit friction shifters but they don't seem readily available. That would probably have solved it too. However I am stuck with what I have. I found the bike at the tip so even if I throw $100 at it it will still only be the same as a new crappy bike but I should have better components. I am at work until the 6th of Jan so nothing will happen until then. I will have a couple of days to sort it out before I come back to work, then I will be using it on my camping trip so it better be an easy fix.

Good luck ��

Originally Posted by monkeypuzzlebeefeater

I had an index problem recently. Tried everything before finally replacing the chain and solving the issue.

I had to find out the hard way SRAM sometimes manufactures brand specific groupsets. That if you break or have to replace any one part—you'll be stuck with having to get a higher end part. Now I have a super high end front shifter putting in work on an average ho-hum derailleur that only works half the time.

The irony, I'm thinking about replacing the whole groupset to a single crank. It just doesn't get any more painful.

The race is called "Race 2 Rhodes" which is the first 6 stages of the Race Across South Africa (RASA) which is held concurrently.

Riders start in batches over a 2 week period from a town called Pietermaritzburg and must finish the RASA within 26 days in a town called Wellington, some 2300km away.

The R2R is 500km and riders are given a maximum of 8 days to complete.

Both races are self-supporting and no GPS's are allowed. One navigates with a 1:50 000 map, compass and narratives.