Bikes!

[breakingnews]

Hard to believe that I finally rode my first race of the season tonight. I really was not in shape to do the pre-season events - and tonight made me realize that I'm not even ready for these races.

Rode in the cat 5 race at the Floyd Bennett Airfield in Brooklyn. It's a 2.3-mile rectangle (old runway strip), completely flat with LOTS of wind coming off turn 3 and especially so into turn 4. I was astonished - we averaged 26 mph, which is pretty damn fast for that level. I made a huge mistake of jumping too early and I got stuck in the front for 3/4 of a lap. Then I got squeezed off the inside and touched the brakes a little too hard trying to avoid a few potholes - by the time I recovered and started pedaling, I was already 25 feet off the lead group. I looked back to see where the other half of the pack was ... and they were hardly in sight. Had to slog through the last 4 miles completely solo, but I kept the lead group in sight and only finished 8 or 10 seconds back.

Oh well. Next Tuesday night!

[Griff]

26!!!!!

You're in much better shape than me anyway. Keep spinning.

[breakingnews]

Pretty frickin fast, eh. I was really surprised - and my legs got zapped a lot faster than expected. Next time, though, I know exactly what to do: Ignore all the attacking and sit in the middle of the lead group until 1.5 miles to go - then jump and sprint through the finish. I think people wasted a lot of energy waiting to see what would happen with 1 km to go. Better to get out ahead and try to give yourself a comfortable distance.

[LabRat]

I have never even considered a bike race, there aren't that many around here. 26mph??? How many laps was the race? Yikes. I saw some bike races last year, and was totally intimidated, but intregued (sp??). I'm looking forward to a PB in a 5K foot race this Sat, have to look into bike races a little closer. Haven't had the road bike out of the basement yet, been too focused on running. Did get the mountaing bikes cleaned up and greased tho. Good luck in the next one breakingnews!

[BigV]

Toured the local pawnshops and found several cool looking mountain bikes. I think I can overcome my distaste for profiting from another's misery and shop at these stores, because the price seems reallly right. So, I know you've previously recommended Giant and Trek, but I found a couple of other makes that seemed to have cool components like front and rear suspension, disc brakes, gel padded seats, handlebar winglets (grablets? right angle add-ons, 3 inches long at the end of the bars pointing forward like horns...) etc. The other two makes were Gary Fischer and K2. Both these bikes were a little more expensive, but also "on sale". The Gary Fischer model came to $200 and the K2 was $150.

Whatcha think?

I was in a rush looking for other equipment*, not bike shopping, but they really caught my eye. I will probably go back this weekend for a ride. More info to follow.


* Turns out I was looking for a "splined wrench, 8 mm" I am in the process of replacing the clutch in DaughterofV's new VW Golf. They didn't have one though. More info in another post in another thread.

[glatt]

I have a question for you bike folks. When I ride my 10 speed, which is admittedly not so often these days, I have never been able to go through the gears, 1-10, in that order. There are 5 gears in back, and 2 up front. It's easy to switch between gears 1 through 5 on the rear wheel, and then use the front gears to jump up to 10. But how do you go from 5th gear into 6th gear? In order to make that switch on any bike I've seen, you have to downshift from 5 to 1 on the rear wheel, and then jump directly from 1 to 6 with the pedal mounted gears. It's always been such a complicated maneuver for me, that I often loose all my steam, and have trouble once I get it in gear. I end up going 1-2-3-4-5-10, and feel like I'm being cheated out of using 6-9.

Am I missing something? Do all 10 speeds perform like this? My bike is an old Schwinn Varsity, which cost $200 25 years ago. A decent bike, but no racer.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by glatt

Am I missing something? Do all 10 speeds perform like this? My bike is an old Schwinn Varsity, which cost $200 25 years ago. A decent bike, but no racer.

If you really want to know and understand all of your gears, you need to work out the ratio of front to rear sprockets. Once you know the various ratios, you can put the ratios in order and you will know what sprockets to set to move smoothly from gear 1 to 10.

Here's a web page to help.

I never did that though. With every bike I've owned, I've eventually found about a half dozen gears for various situations and use those.

[breakingnews]

Originally Posted by BigV

cool components like front and rear suspension, disc brakes, gel padded seats, handlebar winglets (grablets? right angle add-ons, 3 inches long at the end of the bars pointing forward like horns...) etc.

Gary Fischer will be alright. Dunno if I've ever seen a K2 bike, to be honest.

Just based on what I know - I've only worked on suspension and disc brakes once or twice - be careful buying that stuff second hand. If you do, make sure they're better quality parts because they're tough (and $$$) to replace if something does go wrong.

But front shox would be pretty cool. Keep in mind that it's really exhausting to ride on pavement with suspension, especially rear shox, so you should consider how much trail vs road riding you'll be doing. Otherwise, at those prices, you should be good to go!

Oh, the aero bars are very helpful on mountain bikes. They're there to let you change your hand positions (which you should be doing every few minutes) to avoid problems.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by BigV

The other two makes were Gary Fischer and K2. Both these bikes were a little more expensive, but also "on sale". The Gary Fischer model came to $200 and the K2 was $150.

The K2 is probably a legit bike as well. You do have to be careful about cheap suspension. You're probably alright with either bike but you may want to write down the model name of each bike and look at the manufacturers web site... or let one of us do it for you just to be sure you're not paying more than its worth. It's prolly cool though. Have fun!

I rode home from work tonight. It was pretty sweet got a thumbs up from a Toyota pickup while I climbed the brutal West Hill (Vestal) nice to get positive input from the fossil fuel set. Got nice waves from a couple kids. One little guy in a pedal car who I've seen before really admired the speed. I must bring him to the good side of the force. The boys at school were pretty mellow today so I didn't NEED the ride but it sure was nice to have the ride along with a couple Negra Modelos when I got home.

[LCanal]

K2 is cool. Is that the one with the trick rear suspension where the spring is in tension and the rear shock is inside the frame. Thinking outside the box.

[breakingnews]

Um, yeah, you don't really need to shift gears in order (just like you don't really have to in a car). You should accelerate, then soft-pedal while shifting into the big chainring and then downshifting in the rear.

Try going to 4th gear and giving yourself four or five extra-hard cranks ... then, while lightly pedaling (to keep the chain moving) shift the front derailleur to the big ring ... then downshift to 2nd or 3rd cog in the back. Start pedaling - if it's too much or too little, up or downshift to compensate. This is a lot easier with STI levers (the brake levers double as shifters) - you probably have the traditional levers mounted on the forward downtube, which are a pain to use.

I rarely use my 9th cog. Since I'm heavier and carry a lot of momentum, I'll usually go to the 5th cog, then shift to big ring in the front. That's a good "medium" gear for me - some people will ride longer using small chainring and a small gear before shifting to big chainring, and vice versa. Whatever works for you.

[breakingnews]

Wow, that page is pretty neat.

My brother has a computer with downloadable data - he really knows how to analyze all the different factors (wattage, output, cadence, etc.). I understand the basics, but maybe I need to sit down and read closely.

[glatt]

I guess I just figured it out for myself, using just the rear five and then jumping up to the highest gear by switching front sprockets.

So does anyone use all their gears? Seems like a 5 speed with properly spaced gears would be enough for most situations. A real low gear for starting off, a real high gear for racing, and three intermediate gears for getting between the two extremes should be all you need. Seems crazy to have ten gears and never use most of 'em. Mountain bikes have even more gears. I don't get it. Maybe it makes a difference when you are racing/riding long distances to have 12 speeds so you can find the one "sweet" gear for a particular situation, but it seems to me 5 or 6 gears would probably be enough for 99% of the situations you might find yourself in.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by glatt

it seems to me 5 or 6 gears would probably be enough for 99% of the situations you might find yourself in.

That's certainly been true in my case (even now when I have 21 gears ). But we live in more-is-better land.

On the other hand, I think the racers really do use all those gears. As I understand it, they try very hard to keep their cadence at one exact speed and vary the gears to the terrain.

I suspect that those of us who don't race would do fine with six. The kids and I have 21 gears on our hybrid bikes. My wife never has any trouble keeping up with us -- and she rides the same 3-speed Raleigh that she rode growing up.

[breakingnews]

Well why limit yourself when Shimano/Campy can build more gears into the gearset at even less weight than before?

Racing bikes now sport 20 gears (10 cogs in back), and I believe mountain bike standard is still 21 (7x3).

Have all the gears you could possibly need. I have Shimano Flight Deck components, which if I bought the actual computer would tell me what gears I use and how long. Really, I only use the middle 6 cogs (of 9) - seems to cover all the bases in racing situations.