J
Jim
Guest
Hi,
the bike I use at the moment is an old Peugeot, pale green effort with
Reynolds 531 tubing, and is probably at least 20 years old. I use it mainly
for commuting to work - generally that's a 45 mile round trip twice a week,
from Middlewich to Chester and back...
It has mudguards, and a pannier rack, and a big far pannier with tools,
coats, pump, etc. in it. It's not really very light at all when the pannier
is loaded on.
In the summer, when I was in shape (for me) I was averaging about 16 to 17
mph on the 22ish mile trip to work, and the same back. At the moment, with
cold legs, my average has dropped to about 14 or 15 mph.
My bike is really out of date, still has the old screw-thread freewheel, old
fashioned frame mounted gear changers, side-pull old brakes, clunky
handlebars etc. I've been really into cycling since about 1989, and have
always used pretty basic bikes.
I'd really be intruiged to see how much of a difference to my average speeds
it'd make to use a really decent, light, modern bike.
Does anyone have any experience of whether moving to a better bike can make
much of an impact on performance?
Thanks!
Jim
--------------
http://jimpix.co.uk/words/cycling.asp
If you have any more suggestions about what's so good about cycling, feel
free to contact me via the site to improve this article...
the bike I use at the moment is an old Peugeot, pale green effort with
Reynolds 531 tubing, and is probably at least 20 years old. I use it mainly
for commuting to work - generally that's a 45 mile round trip twice a week,
from Middlewich to Chester and back...
It has mudguards, and a pannier rack, and a big far pannier with tools,
coats, pump, etc. in it. It's not really very light at all when the pannier
is loaded on.
In the summer, when I was in shape (for me) I was averaging about 16 to 17
mph on the 22ish mile trip to work, and the same back. At the moment, with
cold legs, my average has dropped to about 14 or 15 mph.
My bike is really out of date, still has the old screw-thread freewheel, old
fashioned frame mounted gear changers, side-pull old brakes, clunky
handlebars etc. I've been really into cycling since about 1989, and have
always used pretty basic bikes.
I'd really be intruiged to see how much of a difference to my average speeds
it'd make to use a really decent, light, modern bike.
Does anyone have any experience of whether moving to a better bike can make
much of an impact on performance?
Thanks!
Jim
--------------
http://jimpix.co.uk/words/cycling.asp
If you have any more suggestions about what's so good about cycling, feel
free to contact me via the site to improve this article...