My Experience -> NYC to Baltimore with Adventure Cycling Maps

[jsirabella]

hey philso,

I just noticed that your location is Japan...I leave for Tokyo tomorrow for a couple weeks on business...

Do you know Tokyo and surrounding areas? Do you know where I could rent a bike and some good parks or routes to ride?? I am also looking for some local gyms. I will be staying in Shinagawa area.

Also since you are the mechanic here, given the stock one that comes with the Trek 5000 which other rear clusters or chainrings I should get if I plan on doing some racing and touring...also what tools do I need to change them...my mechincal skills are showing for sure...

-js

js - centuries can go either way: real b_ll-busters or great fun. i used to do a century when i lived in northern california many years ago. i used my touring bike; just pulled off the fenders, rack and generator light. i usually came in at about the top 85% mark, at least the first 2 or 3 years. if i had trained and had a 2 or 3 pound lighter bike, who knows? i wasn't taking it that seriously. about 5 miles or so before the finish, the race went down the main street of a very small town with a lot of people out clapping and cheering you on. the last several years i did them, i'd hop off my bike, run into a couple of bars and let people buy me beers. dropped down to around the 80% level but what great fun!

gearing can be a science i guess, but i never paid much attention to it. basically, it's good to have some very high gears for any king of riding; racing or touring. what kind of gear ratio you want with your small chainring and large cog on the rear will be determined by what kind of climbing you'll have to do and how much weight you'll be moving. since i tend to do a lot of touring and there are a lot of mountains around here, i tend to stick with a pretty wide spread. however, if you think you'll be both racing and touring, it's easy enough to swap rear clusters and chainrings a day or two before. keep one tight cluster for racing, one with a big spread up to about 32 teeth or so for touring, and maybe even a 3rd mid-range one for everyday riding.

if you get a "sport" or "light" tourer with and adaptable gearing system, you can do well enough in both worlds.