Road Cycling Essentials

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Soldato
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The discomfort is more in the forearms than the hands, after a while I begin to feel some strain there, at first i figured it was due to not being used to having my hands that way around coming from a flat bar.

I'll try rotating the bars back a bit and see how that helps and take it from there with regards to other adjustments.

Thanks very much for your advice guys, really appreciate it :)
 
Soldato
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I aim to train 2-3 times a week, and look for a 30kmh average speed inc hills. Using Strava to help monitor any improvement.

Had a shocker of a week due to terrible weather, broke down and ordered myself a set of rollers, gone for the Elite Arion AL13 Rollers as they have variable resistance if I think I need it. I went for rollers over a turbo as I read they help you practice a smooth even stroke and should be less setup time.

They fold up too, so thinking when I work away if I have the dual cab vehicle I can squeeze my bike and rollers in the back and use them at night. That's the plan anyway to help me avoid not training!
 
Man of Honour
Man of Honour
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Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
Looks fine. I know people with those Cateye lights and I think they're good value, contrary to what's been said on here.

You MUST try a helmet on before you buy it. A cheap helmet that fits well is better than an expensive one that doesn't.

I can't see a problem with front suspension on the street if it makes your ride more bearable. Most of us put up with the bumps, but it's not for everyone. I've ridden a few full suspension bikes and I found it's the rear suspension that saps most of your energy, not the front, and it looks like yours can lock off if you need it to. You will do well to change the tyres to something around 35mm wide and a slicker road tread - knobbly tyres make a lot of drag and will be unnecessary hard work.

Not sure if I should create a new thread, but here goes ..

What do you guys do to train? I mean, who was it Damien? did a double century Ride ? not too long ago

how do you guys do it
I ride to work most days, so I clock up 70-110 miles per week without actually having to dedicate any time to exercising. I know you hate the idea of it, but stealth exercise is best exercise :D

Anyone have any experience tips for switching drop bars out to a flat bar?
Yep, you need a set of flat or moustache bars and a set of integrated brakes and shifters - either ratchet shifters, twist grips or whatever you like. Stick with the same brand (e.g. Shimano - Shimano) for simplicity's sake and pick the shifters with the same number of gears and the spacings should be the same. I'm not sure if all the brake levers do this, but the Shimano ones have two ratio points built-in so you can use them with either mountain bike style brakes or road calipers.

If you want to re-use your stem, make sure the new bars are the same diameter as your current ones!
 
Soldato
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Yep, my friend just done that for his first step into clipless


Talking of clipless, i was speaking to the guy in Evans about aligning cleats, and he was saying that you should sit on a surface and see which way your feet naturally point out/in and then try to get your cleats aligned similar.

Is this correct? ever since i bolted mine on i just had them done up dead straight. What he says kind of makes sense because i have had knee problems before and maybe its my cleats?
 
Associate
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Kind of got disheartened with cycling about a year ago, so sold my bike and gear. Now I've recently just moved over to Bispham in Blackpool, and started seeing all the cyclists and the great roads ive decided I'm gonna give it another go, so I've just purchased a bike to see how I get on :)

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It does feel good to be back on the road :)


Think ill be replacing the big chainring with a Stronglight one, its the ugliest chainring I've ever seen.
 
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Caporegime
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Yep, my friend just done that for his first step into clipless


Talking of clipless, i was speaking to the guy in Evans about aligning cleats, and he was saying that you should sit on a surface and see which way your feet naturally point out/in and then try to get your cleats aligned similar.

Is this correct? ever since i bolted mine on i just had them done up dead straight. What he says kind of makes sense because i have had knee problems before and maybe its my cleats?

Yep, you need to get your cleats in the right place. I had mine done when I had my bike fit the other week. He had a look at how I stand, how I walk, and he felt around my feet to get the cleats properly under the ball of my foot.

In terms of doing all that on your own at home... There's guides online which talk about standing on a piece of paper and drawing round your feet, then drawing a line through the ball of your foot and parallel to the edge of the paper, and setting your cleats along that line. If that makes any sense.
 
Soldato
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Talking of clipless, i was speaking to the guy in Evans about aligning cleats, and he was saying that you should sit on a surface and see which way your feet naturally point out/in and then try to get your cleats aligned similar.

Is this correct? ever since i bolted mine on i just had them done up dead straight. What he says kind of makes sense because i have had knee problems before and maybe its my cleats?

Yep, you should try to set your cleats to the natural angle of your feet.
When i got my bike fit, i had to jump up and down on the spot a few times to see how my feet naturally land. I already knew the angles of my feet anyway from setting up my snowboard.
 
Soldato
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Cube make some good looking bikes. :)

For training booking something to work towards helps, as does riding in a quicker group.

Two hours since placing my order its been dispatched, I know CRC sometimes get slated but that's one of the fastest dispatches ever! Ribble wouldn't ship outside the UK for some reason, and CRC were slightly cheaper than wiggle, Merlin didn't stock the model I wanted. Fingers crossed its here in a week.

I bought a Blackburn flea light to go with my exposure flare. Only problem is when it rains it breaks. The water runs down the seat post and gets into the back of the unit causing it to malfunction. Bit of an oversight I think, but it was very cheap. My flare has been fine.
 
Caporegime
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Does anybody TT? It looks like fun.

Do you have to join a club and take part in "official" TTs or do many people just do it for their own enjoyment?

I'd like to try other aspects of cycling such as TTing and track cycling at some point.

A couple of guys I know do TTs. They do it with clubs, but I think it's a fairly relaxed affair really.
 
Soldato
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Do you have to join a club and take part in "official" TTs or do many people just do it for their own enjoyment?

I think most official TTs in england are run by CTT you need to be a member of an affilated club to ride in those.
Most clubs will run also their own unofficial time trials and you'll need to be a member of the to do those but often you'll be allowed to do 1 before joining to see if you like it.
 
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Soldato
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Join a club that does a weekly TT for club members.
Internal club TTs generally get a lot of people doing it for fun on their road bikes, it's not just for racers with TT bikes and pointy helmets.
 
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