What Should I Expect?

MarkInNC

This is my first post to this forum. And, I am a brand new rider, just bought my bike yesterday.

I was interested in a cross-over bike and looked at a lot of bikes that were billed as between road bikes and mountain bikes. I plan to ride on the road most of my time, but I will ride on local dirt roads and trails also. I don't expect to ever race on or off road but would like to think that I could go on a few group rides.

I test rode several Trek FX bikes and similar Cannondale bikes. I came very close to buying a FX7.5. But in the end I decided I was not comfortable on that bike. I bought yesterday and wound up with a mountain bike, sort of. I bought a Trek hardtail 6500 with a modified front fork. I changed out the tires to narrower slick center and side grippers, and added some other stuff like a computer, higher handle bar riser, small rack, ...

I am older, mid fifties, and in fairly good shape. I went on two short rides yesterday, my first in 30+ years. I rode 3 miles around the immediate neighborhood and 11 miles around the area. I noted several things:
1. I live on the coast and discovered that we really do have hills here.
2. My peddaling speed seemed to be between 9 and 15 mph. I just read the local for fun club trip calandar. The trips have three groups related to avg pedal speed. My speed of 9-15 is below, well below, the slow folk. Should I expect to be able to go on for fun rides with the road folk and keep up with the slower road folk?
3. Riding down a grade I have found that in the highest speed my pedal cadence can not keep up after about 16mph. I know I am geared for offroad as this is a mountain bike, but does this sound correct?
4. I had the dealer change out the handlebar riser to one that allowed me to sit up a bit more. I still seem to be leaned too far forward for my wants. While riding my hands get sore from supporting all of my torso weight on the bars. What is going on here?
5. Got saddle sore and will give it more time but the little thing on top that they call a seat sure was not comfortable.

thanks for any feedback,

Mark

ride4him

Keep riding then ride some more. the soreness in the rear will go away with time as you ride more and get used to it. HOWEVER if you havent invested in a good pair of cycling shorts BUY SOME skin tight lycra or baggy's with a chamois this is one of the most important investments after your bike, you should get at least 2 pair so you always have a clean pair ready. As for you arm/wrist comfort a mountain bike will have you lean forward quit a bit more than a "comfort" or hybrid bike you will find this very nice on off road or on road climbing hills or keeping up a good pace on longer rides, but if you are to uncomfotable to enjoy the ride you should take your bike to a bike shop who will spend the time with you and get everything "dialed in" also invest in some padded gel cycling gloves. Dont worry about speed that will come with time and no matter how fast you get you always want to be faster- that helps to keep you going-. One last thing you ARE wearing a helmet right? Even at 9 mph the ground is harder than your head and a $40 helmet is cheaper than a E.R. repair of a skull fracture.

LJS

Am a similar age (59) and ride a mountain bike on both pavement and trails. My speed is genarally about what you are doing. 15 mph on the level without a tail wind. One thing about the mountain bike gearing is it makes it easy to keep a steady cadence over a variety of terrain. Go for a high cadence, say above 60, with low pedal pressure. Once the legs get used to it, it gives better endurance. Finding the best seat is a challenge, it is one of the first things I changed on my bike, along with a shorter stem to help riding position. I am using an 80 mm stem.There are a lot of seats designed for comfort. I have been happy with a Serfas performance RX serfas.com/rx_saddles/MH-RX.shtml. I had used a Serfas Men's RX saddle before this one. It was wider, which I thought would be more comfortable but it wasn't. The wider seat dug into the back of the legs while riding. The narrower saddle is more comfortable. But this is a personal preference. Seat height, seat angle, and forward/back position can also be played with to find the best position. Sometimes a small change makes a big difference. The advice on the padded gloves is good. The fingerless type are nice because you don't have to take them off to do stuff with your hands. Also work on keeping the wrist fairly straight, not bent back. Reposition the brake/shift levers to point more downward if needed to help this position. Since the mountain bike bar has only one hand position, take a hand off the bars regularly and work some circulation back into it. Since you've got the mountain bike, take it on the trails as often as you can. Off road riding can be a lot more fun than the street. Happy riding !

MarkInNC

Thanks for the pointers and perspective. I am riding daily after work attempting to build up my endurance and to play with some of the fit adjustments. I think I am begining to make a little progress in both areas. I rode a 16 mile road loop last night and a 12 mile loop the evening before. I think I have seat height about where I need it now. I am continuing to play with the seat fore aft and tilt settings.

I am finding that the bike is really geared too low for the road. The dealer said that my cadence should be about 80 before thinking about changing the gears. I have found that I never use the two lower, (smaller), front gears at all and that I essentually have a top speed down a grade of about 17-19. Beyond that speed I can't peddle fast enough to keep up with the bike, if that makes sense.

I have talked with a couple of people about local trails and Ill try one out in the next week or so. I really got the mountain bike because Ill be ridding on some dirt roads and I liked the heavier build and larger tires. All compromises I know with speed.

Mark

LJS

Sounds like your getting in some good rides. One can make a spreadsheet using the Trek's gear ratios to see how the gearing and cadence work out to MPH. To set it up, take the number of teeth on the front chainring divided by teeth on the rear sprocket. In the Trek 6500's case 44/11 (according to their web site). This gives a 4 to 1 ratio, four revs of the rear wheel to 1 of the crank. Multiply by the tire circumference, about 6.79 feet traveled per revolution of the rear tire, multiply by the cadence, say 60 crank revs per minute, gives the feet traveled per minute. Multiply by 60 minutes in an hour, gives feet per hour, divide by 5280 feet per mile, gives about 18.5 mph. At a cadence of 80, speed would be 24.7 mph. I had a ten speed road bike with a 48 tooth large ring and 13 on the smallest cassette ring with a 7.09 ft. circumference tire (27 x 1 1/4 in.) . The geared speed works out to 17.85 mph at a 60 cadence, a little lower than the Trek 6500. My wife had a Gitane road bike geared 48/14, even lower. My current mountain bike is geared 44/12. So, the Trek's top gearing is not that low compared to other bikes out there. A road bike with a 48/11 (20.4 mph) or 53/11 (22.6 mph) tooth front ring and 700 tires would be geared higher.

MarkInNC

LJS,

Thank you for taking the time to explain the gear ratios and translating them to speed for me. I have played around with the numbers as a result of reading your information.

I took a string and measured my tires and the circumference is shorter as I changed from the standard moutain bike tire to a hybrid tire. This has lowered my expected speed across the range of gears a bit. The other thing is that my computer may be incorrect as it was set up using a standard wheel size. I have a gps and I will take it with me and cross check.

I think that for now I will leave things as they are. But, I am finding that I almost never use the middle gear up front and never the small gear up front. I feel like I would like a higher gear when going down hill. But for now I am just going to continue to try and build on my endurance and comfort.

I got my rear carrier/reflector/tire pump/wedge repositioned yesterday so that they all look like they are supposed to be where they are. I rode to the beach and back which is a 14 mile loop for me. I want to work up to 25 miles with no ill effects. At that point I could consider ridding to work which is 17 miles one way.

Mark