Hello. I have recently gotten very interested in cycling. My question is, I have a VERY cheap mountain bike(it was my brothers and it's about 10 years old and ONLY has 2 working gears). I am currently saving up for a road bike, hopefully I will have one at the end of the summer. Anyway, what I was wondering is, am I able to get in good shape on a mountain bike? I would like to start racing next year and I was just wondering if riding on the mountain bike is actually helping or if I should just wait to train until I get a road bike. Also, How far should I expect to ride? I know that many of the races are 100 miles or just over, well I cannot ride that far on a mountain bike. I haven't really ridden as far as I can, but I would say that I could ride about 20 miles.(I live in a VERY hilly area(I would say about 30 or 35 miles on fairly flat terrain)) Will getting a road bike increase that distance? Also, how fast should I expect to improve. I started biking about 3 weeks ago and could only ride about 5 miles max in low gear(I have the 3 gears in the front and 7 in the back, 2 of the back ones work and in the front I have to move them by hand, so I really have 4 working gears(the 3rd in the front wont work)) After about a week I moved my front gears to the second set which makes it twice as hard to peddle, I dont even notice now. I can now ride pretty far, how long should I expect to improve like this.
P.S. I have asthma. It's not as bad as it used to be, infact, I don't even really notice it, but I was wondering if anyone else has asthma and could give me any advice.
Sorry if this is stupid but I just started so I dont really know anything about cycling.
P.S. I have asthma. It's not as bad as it used to be, infact, I don't even really notice it, but I was wondering if anyone else has asthma and could give me any advice.
Sorry if this is stupid but I just started so I dont really know anything about cycling.