New here, Newer cyclist



Brian Wilson

New Member
Sep 9, 2012
5
0
0
Just joined today, been road cycling for a bit over three months first six weeks I was only riding 14miles a trip because of training for a local triathlon I entered, I have now been going for distance and not speed over a set distance. I am a night shifter so I don't have the option to do any of the weeknight rides with our local bike store and with the weekend rides my ride times and the group ride times through the store/club don't mesh so I am on my own for riding which is ok but I do wish that I had someone to ride with sometimes.

I just picked up a 2012 Trek 1.5 compact. I have the Bontrager composite waterbottle cages with the Bontrager pump and co2 combo, Trek Insite 9i computer, Polar Bottles, a small seat bag with a spare tube and tire lever in it and I am using some Crank Bros egg beater pedals with mountian shoes that I had. I am going on country roads anywhere from 14 - 41 miles so far, some weekends I go out one day and others all three days, over Labor Day I went out all four days and did 25,25,25,41 for a total of 116 on the weekend but usually I am in the 50 - 60 mile range for the weekend. I am in no way looking to race with this bike unless I choose to do our local Tri again but that would be it. My main goal is to have fun and would like to do a 100+ mile ride some day.

What would be good to add to my setup? take away? change?
I have been looking a the Garmin Edge 500, also looking at road shoes and pedals, would a carbon seatpost be a good investment?

$500 budget and I know if I went with the Edge that would take up half of the budget and I don't really know if I would get that much bang for the buck with that choice. Would going from mountian shoes and pedals to road make a huge impact? My shoes and pedals are practicly new got them with my new mountian bike I had for a year and then parted with. Does a carbon seatpost really do anything for you? Is it worth the money?
Or would I be better off spending the money on apparel as I have a pair of shorts (actually tri shorts) and two jerseys?
Taking into account my current setup and relative newness to road cycling where could I get the most bang for my buck, what would I benefit from the most?

I would appreciate any and all input. I would like to thank you in advance for reading all of this and for responding, If this was put in the wrong spot I am sorry.

Thank You
Brian
 
Brian, I'm new like you and probable a lot older. But here are my suggestions. The edge500 is good but you need to add the HR strap and/or candance monitor to make it more useful than the edge 200. That's close to 300-350 with everything. I got the edge 200 with a10%discount and a basic timex HR monitor all for around150. Not as good as the edge 500 but good enough for me. I think your bike set up is fine and I would only change shoes if you find them uncomfortable. I think you need a couple of good quality biking shorts for those very long rides. Good luck.
 
Hey Brian - Welcome - I new on this forum but have a number of years of road riding in my legs. If you've just started i wouldn't be concerned about what your seat post is made of.
I'd look at two things - road riding does differ in many respects to mountain biking - In fact there's sometimes I think it's only the fact that there's two wheels involved that makes them similar - so if you can swing some road shoes I think thats a good idea. The other is a bike computer ( even a simple one) so you can measure and calibrate on how far, how fast - this will keep you motivated. A computer with a cadence monitor is key as spinning is an important part of road riding so having some feedback helps.

Cheers - have fun