A hello to the new people and some advice from us.



Dave Pace

Member
Aug 3, 2012
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To that new person that just signed up and is looking at this, let me just say welcome. We here cyclingforums.com understand that you may have questions on starting out road biking. We will try to help you out as much as we can, but this just like cycling will take some effort on your part. You should use the search option to search for answers on your questions. If it has to do with Tires, what bike to buy etc it has been talked about to length and can be found VIA the search. But enough of that. Lets get to this.

A little background on me. I have not been road cycling long at all maybe 1 year. Prior to that I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years, and I was extremely overweight. Thankfully I saw the Olympics in London and I decided to change my life and get healthy. Here I thought I was the only 1 that saw the Road cycling in the Olympics and thought I can do that, that’s easy. (Apparently it is a common thing that is seen on these forums) Well I quit smoking that day, By the end of the Olympics I still wanted a cigarette, but I did not smoke for that whole time. Now that I could at lease breathe going up the stairs, it was time for me to get my 298lb **** in shape. I started out by going to Toys-r-us with some extra money that I earned and bought a $200.00 45lbs mountain bike and a helmet. Anxious I got home and took my new bike out for a spin. 1 mile out I was out of breath and my legs were wobbly.

I started to set myself goals. Around the block, 2 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles, etc.I was getting in to this whole bike riding thing. But I was not losing the weight like I wanted to as fast as I wanted to. In fact I gained weight. I actually surpassed 300lbs at 1 point. What I did not know/forgot was that my leg muscles were rebuilding and muscles weight twice as much as fat. Well needless to say my body weight started to come down. I remember how happy I felt when I reached 280lbs. at that time I was doing 30 mile runs on either Sat or Sunday. I always pushed myself to try and go 15mph on these runs as that is the regular riding limit of this mountain bike that I had.

Well 1 thing led to another and I met up with a person that rides a lot and asked if they wanted to go on a 50 mile ride (My next Goal) So we did it. I got this done in 3 hours 30 Mins 46 seconds. It was when I got home that I finally figured out a few things. 1. I have a heavy bike and need a new 1 that is made for Road riding. 2 I need to get some bike shorts as my **** hurts. 3 I really like bike riding. 4 I need to take a shower because I stunk.
Well needless to say winter came to Buffalo, NY and I was trapped inside. It was then that I noticed that most of the new people that joined these forums to start cycling, and lose weight vanished without a trace. But here I was with sore legs reading the forums. No my legs were not sore because I was working out. They were sore because I was not working out. So I got an indoor trainer, and also put a real road bike on layaway. Well on 2/21/13 I got my Specialized Allez C2. Now I ride with a bike club, I am down to 258 lbs and I am still going strong at well over 120 miles a week.
Now that that is out of the way, I would just like to go through some of the most general questions that we see on the forums a lot.

1. Is road biking dangerous?: The simple answer is yes. The long answer can be found here. http://www.cyclingforums.com/t/492546/is-road-cycling-dangerous
2. What kind of bike should I get? : This is up to you. Steel, Aluminum, titanium, carbon. It all depends on you, your weight, your determination, and what you want to do with the bike. Your best bet is to go to http://www.cyclingforums.com/f/211/bike-buying-advice, and see if any of the topics fit.
3. ALWAYS buy your bike from a bike shop. Do not trust your money, and bones to a bike on ebay or craigs list. A reputable bike shop will sell you the bike. Service it, and also fit you to your bike. Yes just like other things bikes are fitted to you. Ebay and craigs list cannot do this. IF you already bought the bike. Take it to your local bike shop and ask them to fit it to you. You will see a difference in the way you ride, and you will soon find out that the fit makes you more efficient to power this bike.
4. Buy a good floor pump. (Personal experience here) The 1’s that mount on to your bike are for emergency only, and you can actually rip the tubs with these little pumps. Not only that but you will never know if you have the right pressure in them. This can cause you to work harder, have less control, and can also cause more flats. Get a good pump.
5. Get biking shorts. (Personal experience here) I don’t care if you are too fat or skinny, get the shorts. They sell baggy 1s for the big guys out there. Just get them. They have padding in them for a reason. Trust me on this. THEY MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
6. Yes you do want an indoor trainer for those days that you can’t or don’t want to go out. There are 2 kinds. Resistance, and fluid. Fluid mimic real life road feel as far as on a nice flat surface, but resistance has a dial that you can turn to simulate going up or down hill. This 1 is up to you. Your local bike shop should have some on display and I know mine actually let me test the 2 before buying 1 to see the 1 that I felt best with.
7. Clip less peddles and shoes. While not 100% a necessity I would put this as 1 of the things to get last. They are very nice to have, and they can help out by keeping your feet in a single position all the time you ride so that way you are always using the exact same muscles in the exact same position.
8. Tires and tubes. Here is 1 of those things that everyone has a say on as to what is best. Tubes vs tubeless tires (Clinchers). The type of tubes Butyl or latex. Pretty much at this point a lot of people tend to agree that the setup of Continental 4 season tires with Latex tubes are the way to go at 700x25. Here is 1 good discussion. http://www.cyclingforums.com/t/483644/how-much-do-tires-affect-speed
9. Changing gears while riding. This is 1 of those topics that escalates quickly, and for some odd reason tends to set people off because it sounds so ridiculous I guess. Bottom line for this topic is this. We can tell you that the shifter on the left controls the gear by your feet (The Crank) and the 1 on the right controls the gears in the rear. We cannot tell you what gear to start in as that is a personal comfort. But we can tell you don’t start out in the hardest gear (The Highest gear. Big ring on the front, small ring on the back). As far as shifting the gears, down shift to a lower gear when getting ready to go up hill, up shift to a higher gear when going downhill. You tube is the best place to learn how and when to shift. There is like 1000s of videos on how and when to shift your bike.
10. No we do not peddle in full circles. Another thing going around is that you are supposed to always have force on the peddles, and peddle in full circles with the crank. We humans cannot physically do this for the long rides that we do. Now we can do this in short distances to give some of our muscles a breather, but while it sounds correct we just really cannot do it.
11. GET A HELMET. Most states do not require you to have a helmet after such an age, but we really recommend it. ANTHING can happen out there and you can choose to look cool and get brain damage. Or you can choose to wear the helmet and then just ignore what others say.
12. Join a bike club. If you are that new to cycling, you will want to ride around all the time, but then you will find out that all that me time that you have is just not doing it for you. Then you will get discouraged. Joining a cycling club will do a few things. It will allow you to ride with people in your club who will take their time and also teach you the proper way to ride. It will also allow you to go on your own when you want to. Also some clubs will have deals with the Local bike shops that will give you discounts when you buy stuff.
13. A very good piece of advice. If a member named Alienator starts to rip in to you and lets you have it on the forum. Just say thank you sir may I have another. He is named Alienator for a reason, but he does have great advice when asked for.
14. Don’t be an **** on the road. We are constantly fighting with cars, and other people to share the road. Don’t be that guy that does not follow the rules of the road, and then come on here to get your sympathies. Riding on the sidewalk. Riding against traffic, yelling and screaming at kids that are being kids is just idiotic and we don’t want to hear about it.
15. Finally, if you have good beer recipes we are always willing to listen to them. At least I am.
 
Summer Sunset Sage Ale
5.5 gallon batch
1lb flaked maize
3lb wheat malt
3lb extra light barley malt
1oz ground coriander
2-3 orange peels
1oz sage
1oz cascade hops
some type of ale yeast, blegian works great for a beer similar to blue moon

warm water steep the corn and strain
bring to a boil and add wheat and barley malt
boil for 45min in the last 10min add coriande orange peels and sage
once cooled add to bucket and dry hop with cascade hops and yeast and let ferment
 
I think you left out the part about not weaing underwear with cycling shorts and shave or not to shave. So don't wear underwear with cycling shorts or bibs , I don't wanna know if you shave or not but if you decide to wear underwear and shave, take the underwear off first.
I would also recommend not mooing at cattle on your rides since they will post comments on Bovine Facebook about how stupid cyclists are.
 
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Reactions: Isaias Mondar
Originally Posted by jhuskey .

I think you left out the part about not weaing underwear with cycling shorts and shave or not to shave. So don't wear underwear with cycling shorts or bibs , I don't wanna know if you shave or not but if you decide to wear underwear and shave, take the underwear off first.
I would also recommend not mooing at cattle on your rides since they will post comments on Bovine Facebook about how stupid cyclists are.
Wait, are we suppose to shave the cows or ourselves or does it matter because


 
Oh. Relax when you ride. When you are in that seat, pumping your legs up and down relax them. It sounds counter productive and counter active I know, but when you are riding you want to be as relaxed as possible. this will allow you to restore your energy faster, and you will also notice that your speed and cadence will pick up when your legs are relaxed as you peddle. Heck I Know when I am not able to get over 17mph on my bike that I am not relaxed, once I relax I will see my speed increase to 19.5. just by relaxing.
 
Hello Dave Pace! Im fairly new to cycling, it's been almost three months, and I would love some advice on nutrition, climbing and rest days? Im at 140lbs, 5'1", avg speed is 19.5ish mph. I starting doing 30 mile rides this week and it takes me about 1hr and 50min to do it. Thanks!
 
Originally Posted by Isaias Mondar .

Hello Dave Pace! Im fairly new to cycling, it's been almost three months, and I would love some advice on nutrition, climbing and rest days? Im at 140lbs, 5'1", avg speed is 19.5ish mph. I starting doing 30 mile rides this week and it takes me about 1hr and 50min to do it. Thanks!
Nutrition I am no expert at all. I will not give anyone any advice there. Sorry.

as for climbing look at http://www.cyclingforums.com/t/492852/hill-climb-training-help-needed

For rest days http://www.cyclingforums.com/t/714/rest-days

Just do a search for what you are looking for and you will see that it has been answered for the most part.
 
Originally Posted by Isaias Mondar .

Hello Dave Pace! Im fairly new to cycling, it's been almost three months, and I would love some advice on nutrition, climbing and rest days? Im at 140lbs, 5'1", avg speed is 19.5ish mph. I starting doing 30 mile rides this week and it takes me about 1hr and 50min to do it. Thanks!
Not to be the math police but if you are doing 19.5 mph you should cover about 36 miles in 1 hr 50 mins by my count but I was never good at math. 19.5 is going pretty good in hilly terrain but less impressive on the flats but still not bad.
 
Originally Posted by jhuskey .

Not to be the math police but if you are doing 19.5 mph you should cover about 36 miles in 1 hr 50 mins by my count but I was never good at math. 19.5 is going pretty good in hilly terrain but less impressive on the flats but still not bad.
I was wondering about that. 30 miles in 1:50 is more like 15 to 16 mph average. not 19.5
 
"Not to be the math police but if you are doing 19.5 mph you should cover about 36 miles in 1 hr 50 mins by my count but I was never good at math. 19.5 is going pretty good in hilly terrain but less impressive on the flats but still not bad."

Allowing for a stop to brew a few beers, that's about right.

I can count to potato!