Fitness

Welcome to all who have an interest in anything cycling of any kind.( road, mountain, commuting, stationary, whatever).

This is the place to come to ask that question you have been wanting to ask,

or tell that story about your latest adventure riding your bike,

find out how to use cycling to get in better shape, or anything else you can think of.

So, to start, tell us, what you ride, where you ride and what type of riding you enjoy.

Come back often too check out what's going on and see what's on everyones mind or add your knowledge to the group. 

 

Hey, long time, no post! Family vacation intervened (Cook Forest, in PA), but we all had our bikes, and for the first time in a long time, I got to do some mountain biking. I actually got 163 miles in this week, even while on vacation! I'm up over 2000 for the year already!

My son and I did the Father's Day Ride and Stride today (a fundraiser for prostate cancer). He's NINE, and he rode the half-metric with me (50 km, actually 34 miles as it turned out), including some rather steep hills at the end (he only had to stop once on those hills, and once between them). I am SO f00gin' proud of him! Yeah, it was a 9.5mph ride, but he did the whole thing, and climbed almost 2400 feet in the process! I tell ya, it's great riding with your kid(s) like this! I was grinning just about the whole time.

Thanks to REI, I was able to get the boy some shorts that actually fit him, and a cool jersey. He's able to get to the pockets and fish out a kleenex without stopping. :-)

On to other topics:

HILLS: As I told my son today, over and over, while encouraging him, the best strategy is to find a comfortable pace that keeps you "out of trouble" and take it easy beginning the hill (unless you have a downhill before it, so you can build up some momentum on the approach to the hill and gradually slow up as gravity slows you down). If you get yourself into "feel the burn" mode at the bottom of the hill, you will have to REALLY slow down to recover, and it's going to be a real slog. Just find yourself a comfortable rhythm, stay aerobic if you can, and if the hill is too steep to spin up, alternate standing and sitting, keeping your standing cadence low to let your heart and lungs recover from the seated stints. Say, 40-50rpm standing, and 70-90rpm sitting. It's no sin to carry a slower cadence uphill if you do not have the cardiovascular development to carry a more typical cadence. If you redline yourself, it's going to be a f00gin' slog. If you stay within yourself, it still might be a slog, but it'll be a triumphant one. :-)

LIGHTS: The best answer here is to get a wheel built around the Schmidt Nabendynamo (aka the SON hub), and get the lights to match. This is an expensive option, but you have no batteries to go flat and you always have light. I haven't yet gone this route, but if I get into hardcore commuting (30 miles each way) outside of summer, that'll be the way to go. See Peter White Cycles for reference. You're looking at dropping five bills for a good wheel built around the hub, a pair of lights, and mounting hardware. Short of that, there are things like the CygoLite, but you sacrifice a bottle cage for the battery, and during warm weather, I can't do that. You also get limited run time. A self-contained, battery-operated light for mountain bikes will be the next best option, as mountain bikers need serious light to ride the trails at night.

THREATENING DRIVERS: The best thing I ever read on this suggested that you treat a road-raging idiot with the "empty boat" philosophy: if you're canoeing or rowing, and an empty boat gets in your way, it makes little sense to get angry with the empty boat. You deal with it and move on. Same thing with the idiot in the car: just shrug and say to yourself "empty boat," and move on. This beats the heck out of provoking an escalating situation with an unstable individual behind the wheel. There's no shame in de-escalating the situation and making it home in one piece.

People who deliberately swerve at you or otherwise threaten you are another matter. That's a threat with deadly force, and it's a pretty serious crime. If you're up for it, memorize their plate numbers and file charges. Even if you don't want to file charges, nothing takes the wind out of these jerks' sails like the appearance of a cell phone and the appearance that you're dialing the police to turn in their plate numbers.

behanna, thanks so much for the advice. I will be using the "empty boat" thing over and over again.

Please give your son a big pat on the back from me - that is an awesome accomplishment and you should be very proud of him.

I will definitely check out the lights although it may be a little too expensive for me. Then again, it is a matter of safety and one can't really put a price tag on staying alive.

Tonight I took a different road home because I wanted to see if it was faster. It is NOT! Lots of hills and I got just a little spooked riding through a graveyard (forgot about that part when I decided to go that way). Lol, there was smoke coming from the pedals on my bike.

Happy father's day to all you Dads out there!

Jane

LIGHTS:

IMO the best option for the person on a serious budget are FLASHLIGHTS.   There are some inexpensive... yet high police/military grade & small flashlights out there.   Dang cool stuff and some really cool mounting type strips of rubber you can use to put em on your bike or helmet.   The extra beauty of the flashlight?  First you can usually get some that take AA batteries and AA batteries are both super light but the rechargables are super cheap.   The second beauty is in the event of a brakedown it's easy to take the flashlight out to work on your bike.  You can't use a hub generator too well to give you that extra light for changing a tube in the dark of night... or to tighten a bolt that's come loose... or whatever.   A lot of regular bike lights do come off their pedestals but most don't refocus the light really well for close up use... they are meant to spread the light around to the whole road.   A flashlight you can usually refocus if it's one of these high grade deals.

Anyway if I end up night riding a lot, I'll be investing in one or two of these flashlights.  One for helmet mounting, the other for bike mounting.  And the way they mount with the rubber strip things lets you easily re-aim it or tap it to flash it to oncoming traffic.  Pretty nice stuff.


The Mountain Road:

It's about 1.4 miles of serous climbing for about 800ft.  The beginning has some 10%+ grading... the end is actually a lot kinder probably hitting or just below 10% grade.   I still will be aiming to complete it without stopping at all.  But it was nice to make it only having to put my feet down once.

There are pics in my profile... just keep in mind the smoke from the FL/SouthGA fires kills much of the view.

Forgot to post earlier that I scouted a new option for bike commuting to work.  It's more pure country roads.  I ended up logging the trip at 27 or so miles which is 8 miles more than the other route I had planned.   I don't think I'm going to try to push nearly 60 miles round trip.   I could do that once a week... however the new route has hills like mad.  some with some seriously banked curves too.  I think it would be quiet enough for a commute (even spoted a "Share the Road" sign) but the hills and all that would make it probably 2.5 hour ride... and the way home would be just as bad since there were as many steep uphills as downhills.

I may be able to augment my other route with a few more side streets.  But it'll take some serious work and me getting up seriously early.  Still in a couple more weeks i may be ready to try commuting again.  Just to say i did it more than to save money, the earth, or whatever other excuses people use for bicycle commuting.

Glad to see so many people putting in the miles and challenging themselves.

As far as lights go I am using this one

http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3025.html

I know it is on the pricey side but I ride half of my commute home in the dark all year.

That Alias SC System is on the pricy side, but that's gotta be one BRIGHT light.

The flashlights I'm looking at are here:
http://www.paulsfinest.com/Fenix-L2D-CE-Cree- Edition-LED-Flashlight-Black-p-540.html

135 lumens (2.4hrs) is the highest it goes... and that's on 2 AA batteries.

One in the helmet or on the bike or both.

nightc1: After reading your post about the mountain road ride, it occurred that although much has been written here about the learning curve when using clipless pedals for the first time, very little has been written about why it is that they are used by most cyclists.  When you ride with clipless pedals you gain a great deal of pedaling efficiency.  I have read that the increase in power output is 20% but I would have to think that it is even higher than that.  Instead of pushing down on the pedals you are applying power throughout the pedal stroke.  When I am riding up hill I am actually pulling up on the pedals more than I am pushing down on them.  So although you are glad now that your not using them so it is easier to put your foot down, it is possible that the power gain from using them would be enough that you wouldn't need to put a foot down.  And once the release motion becomes a reflex, putting a foot down is as easy as taking your foot off the pedal and putting it on the ground.  You may not be ready to try them yet but once you do I think you wonder how you were ever able to ride without them.  Just my opinion.

trhawley  you realy shouldn't be pulling up that hard. Riding with clipless is about applying force to the pedals at all points in one smooth motion.  During uneven, unsmooth pedaling, you mostly push down. That is, you apply force only in the downstroke. This means that  you push forward and down with the legs, and let the pedals carry the legs back and up to the top of the stroke. At higher cadences, this kind of unsmooth pedaling can be seen and felt. The body may rock from side to side, the torso bob back and forth, or the butt bounce up and down on the saddle. You want to transmit equal force to the pedal throughout its motion. The smooth motion is what gives you the greater overall efficiency.


 

gmule and trh, I'd like to put in my two cents worth.  gmule, it's hard to argue with the principle of smoothness during climbing but, I have to agree with trh about the power of pulling through the up stroke.  I do this, especially on steep climbs and can actually feel the pressure on the  cleat as I pull the pedal up, and to be honest, and not braggy, I am regarded as one of the best climbers in this area!

In truth I think it's always going to come down to what works best for each person and you can always improve on what you do!

DAN

I have been riding with clipless pedals on one bike and platforms on the other for several months.  I haven't noticed much of a difference.  This may be due to the fact that I developed my motion when platform pedals were all I had.  I am more conscious of driving my heel down at the bottom of the stroke.  But I have been working on the "perfect pedalling" motion described in Bicycling a month or so ago.  When I get it going, I can feel the pull on the upstroke.  But ideally this is torque.  The advantage comes from the combined push-pull on each stroke and that comes from the smooth circular motion of both feet.

My question is: Have any of you spent any time practicing one-foot pedalling to develop a smooth, circular motion?

I understand that everyone is different. When I am climbing   I barely even feel the pedals under my feet just a smooth spinning motion. 

jc343, yes, I do one-legged pedaling drills on the trainer from time to time. I believe that they really help. I should do more of them during the winter.

Contrary to what people think they're doing, most riders (even professionals) do NOT pull up on the pedals on the back of the stroke (this is based upon what has been measured in the lab with pressure sensors). What they are able to do, however, is lift their legs so that the foot isn't dead weight on the back of the stroke, thus the other foot (which is pushing down) doesn't have to do the work of lifting the back leg. This results in a lot more power going to moving the bike. The other big advantage is that when you're going hard, you can do as Greg Lemond recommended: push forward over the top of the stroke, and pull backward at the bottom like you're scraping mud off your shoe. You can't keep this up for very long (at least, I can't), but while you're doing it, you can motor right along. The rest of the time, you just concentrate on pedaling circles, now that you no longer have to worry about keeping your feet on the pedals. Blow a shift? No problem--you're feet are still on the pedals, and you can recover quickly.

One might pull up for a few pedal strokes when starting a hard climb, but very few people can maintain that for an entire time. The truly sick and demented will install Power Cranks (cranks connected by a one-way clutch, so that you HAVE to pedal circles on both sides--it's like a one-legged drill on both sides at once) on their bikes, so that they HAVE to pull up, but I've never gotten that extreme.

behanna you are right, by concentrating on the up side of the the spin you are off-weighting the the pedal which helps keep the cadence high with less effort and yes I feel it pull at the cleat.  I do this when the hills get too steep, I prefer it to standing when possible.  And gmule the point of pulling up is to keep the stroke smooth as opposed to the jerkiness of only pushing down which is what you have to do with platforms and I wish I could always glide up the hills effortlessly but sometimes they are too steep for my 39 x 23 and 180+ lbs.  And jc343, yes I do one-legged drills from time to time.

Bottom line, have ridden without cleats and in the flats I was able to spin better than I thought I would but on the hills or in sprints you just can't get the same power without them, my $0.02.

gmule and nightc3, those are both awesome choices on lights. I have my big 4-0 birthday coming up and biking gear is on the top of the list (together with a laptop).

Dan, could you email me? I am serious about doing that bike fundraiser and I am going to talk to  them at the Medina bike shop on Wednesday. If you still don't mind helping with mapping the routes I would greatly appreciate it. It looks like September 15th is going to be the date if I can get it all together by then. My email address is autismjtm@yahoo.com

My son starts summer school on Wednesday. That means 4 hours of serious biking every single day from 8am to noon. I can't wait!!!

Question for all you pros out there. Is it possible for me to tighten up my gears by myself or will I need the people at the bike shop to do that for me? They are making all kinds of noises and I figure it is time since I have had the bike for 3 weeks now.

I am bike crazy...between my boyfriend and I we have 7 bikes LOL.  The most riding I do is pretty much daily commuting, to school from Sept-April, then to work the other 4 months of the year.  I have a Norco Mountaineer with a few modifications for commuting (kevlar slick tires, fenders, a shockless fork) with great panniers for my stuff.  (They cost big bucks but it came out of the student loan and I figured I'd rather get good bike bags than replace thousands of dollars worth of text books, especially since i live on the west coast where it rains a LOT!!!) 

My mountain bike, my most favourite bike of all, is a custom built Banshee Morphine.  It will be perfect soon...I'm upgrading from 6" up to 9" rotors on my discs this year, and maybe putting a new rear derailler on it.  Then it just needs a Marzocchi Jr T fork and it'll be fabulous...right now it has a dirt Jam fork on it, which is okay but not quite right!

We turned my old cross country bike, a Brodie Fury, into a trials bike now so it's super light and fun to do tricks on, not that I can really do much but my boyfriend is really good on it and it's fun to play with.

BMX for playing around and cruising in town.

Ahhhh, bikes....

I don't have a road bike (afraid of clipless pedals!!) but he does.  We love our bikes.  Glad to see so many riders!

reanne, Welcome to the club,

I think you will find that we are all a little bike crazy here, so you will fit right in.

Your comment about rain, are you in Oregon by any chance?

Jane, Where did you buy the bike, they should do all the adjustments for the first year for free!  Personelly I'd have a bike shop do the work unless you are very mechanical, it seems like everytime I do my own work I end up taking the bike in to have what I did repaired (LOL).  Can't tell you how many times i've screwed up the cable on my front derailer trying to fine tune it.

DAN

Jane, i'll second Dan's comment - the shop should include a tune up (or a year of free service) with the bike. all new cables stretch and need an adjustment after the first couple hundred miles.  you're probably due for that tune up. i too usually end up needing to take it to the shop if i mess with my gears or brakes myself.

Jane, I'll third that.  There are certain things I will do myself but messing with the derailleurs is not one of them.  The more i adjust them, the worse they get.  But they do need adjusting.  I recently had my rear cable replaced and it needed readjustment after just one week of riding.

Thank you, DAN.  I am in British Columbia...lots of rain...but man is it sunny and beautiful today.  It will be a fantastic ride to work!

trhawley, on clipless/toeclips & so on with the power for the uphill climb... in the spinning class I'm taking they only push on the way down and slightly back.  I lift my feet to go with the motion on the upstroke but don't "Pull"  the pedal up... so it's not jerky at all even standing up.  This translates well to platform pedals.  My platforms have teeth so there's no real slipping or anything.   But on the mountain road when snaking (or not) if you make one mistake and you need to put a foot down there's usually barely a split second to make the decision and execute it.   This isn't some small short hill I'm climbing but a serious mountain with some killer high grading.  I think clipless could keep me off that road for a long time while getting used to em just for the fear of needing to put a foot down and screwing it up totally and the potential results which would be painful and possibly leave me hurt in a place where maybe no one would find me.

I think for bike path riding and regular road riding, short hills and stuff where there's more time to make a decision I could do fine with clipless or toe clips or something.   I enjoy em in the spinning class... but can see where I definitely wouldn't feel confortable with em.

Just my opinion though, i could change my view sometime in the future.  I'm not completely set in my views at all.


The flashlight, that I linked to is something a lot of the commuters on the bikeforums.net use.   That's where I found out about it.  Many rave reviews... expecially for that price to get those kind of lumens... and to be able to power it off of standard rechargable AA's which it's easy to carry a couple extra's.  There are links as well to the tons of options for mounting flashlights to bikes as well.  Pretty cool stuff IMO.


TODAY:

My bike is over at my inlaws.  We spent the night there last night so (pending the weather) when I get back there after work the wife and I will take a nice ride around the area.   It should be good fun.  Hopefully we'll get a good 10 miles in.