If you ride outdoors regularly and use Zwift during the week, you probably know the routine: take the bike off the trainer, get ready for an outdoor ride, then set everything up again when the weather turns bad.
For those of you who ride both indoors and outdoors, how do you handle this? Keep your regular bike on the trainer, switch back and forth, or use a dedicated indoor setup?
I've never used chamois cream and unless the ride is 4 hours plus never use bibs. Most of my saddles are aliexpress specials with no padding. Am I alone in this?
I'm mainly posting this to get advice.
I was driving on my college campus on a two-way street. I was going to turn left into a parking lot, so l turned on my signal and stopped while waiting for oncoming cars to pass. Once they were gone, I began to start turning. At the same time, a person on their bicycle was riding on the left side of me and I accidentally hit him. He was going straight and was probably trying to drive past me.
He fell on the floor. I parked in a safe spot and asked if he was ok. He said he was fine and said as long as his bike wasn't damaged everything was ok. I kept insisting we exchange information but he continued to say it was fine. I was apologizing profusely.
Eventually he left and I just sat in the parking lot in shock. Usually I'm pretty cautious of pedestrians and cyclists, but I didn't expect to have one driving to the left of me and so close to the center line. I feel so guilty about the whole thing.
Do cyclists usually ride in the middle of the road? Is this common and something I should keep in mind for the future?
Well, I now have a new bike with SRAM Rival AXS and a 10 year old bike with Ultegra Di2. I can NOT decide which system I like better.
I love the intuitiveness of the SRAM - right is down, left is up, both is front. It’s really genius. And it works.
But the Di2 - even 10 years old - just shifts so nice. Fast and smooth.
So far I find I make more “mistakes” with the Di2 since there are 4 buttons instead of 2.
Have you had both? Which did you stick with?
Today is green weekend for the Irish but I wore a Strava shirt. A guy singled me out to introduce himself as the first ever user of Strava, David Belden, MTB rider. His number is #8 after the 2 founders and 6 developers. I'm never star struck but it we talked about his interaction with the company and Garmin. strava.com/athletes/8
I’ve been cycling consistently for about five months (4–6 rides/week), progressing from short neighborhood rides to 15–30 miles with some decent climbs. I’m 48F, 120 lbs, riding a Liv Rove 2 hybrid (700x42 tires, suspension fork).
Recently joined my first group ride, mostly road bikes, averaging 13–16 mph on flats. I was the only one on a hybrid and the slowest 😂 I struggled to keep up despite pushing hard. My cardio was fine, but my legs were exhausted. Everyone seemed to be pedaling slower while going faster!
My solo rides average around 10–12 mph, depending on terrain and stops.
For those who switched from a hybrid to a road bike, how significant was the difference in speed and effort? I’m not expecting miracles, but I’m genuinely curious how much is my fitness versus the bike holding me back.
Hey guys! I’m very new to this community but I’m struggling with a dilemma.
I’m a salesman in a bike shop shop and I can exchange extra hours I’ve made + unspent holiday hours into stuff for my bikes
And at this point I’m not sure on what to do
My current bike is a Giant Propel Advanced 2 with Shimano 105 (mechanical) groupset + pedals, and I’ve already upgraded it with a proper set of carbon wheels + proper racing tyres and I’m quite fond of the bike.
But I’m thinking about upgrading this one with powermeter pedals from Garmin + an indoor trainer to keep me busy in the winter when I’m not riding my Mountainbike.
I’ve only ridden this bike for about 1500km btw. Got it late on the season lol
Or I’m thinking about upgrading my bike altogether. Our shop has a brand deal with Ridley (a Belgian brand) and they make custom bikes. And they make a mean Aero bike, thinking about the Noah 3.0. Not the Noah fast 3.0 that one is a little out of my budget 😅
Either of these options I can do without spending a single dime because of the hours I’ve accumulated over the last few years (I quite dislike taking holidays lol)
Any thoughts?
Appreciate it :)
Completed a century today and cut an hour from my century seven weeks ago. Today’s course was significantly hotter, more ascent (but still pretty flat), supported (but I carried all my nutrition but for some electrolytes) and all paved. Start time was 0730. Averaged 14.5 mph.
Previous century (not counting the longer rides 120+ miles between today and seven weeks ago) was flatter, included some rail to trails and about eight miles of gravel road, crossed the Mississippi River twice on different bridges, and included almost half on the super wide shoulder of 65 mph highway. Start time was 05:30, so about an hour of dark. Averaged 12.8 mph. Unsupported but water refill at highway rest area and a local small business.
Same bicycle—a second gen Trek Duosport 2. Same basin nutrition, but the ride today included more electrolytes due to the heat 90F.
Finally bought a road bicycle yesterday, so future century paved rides should be faster. Question is how much faster? New bicycle is about half the weight of the Duosport. It has wireless electronic shifting. Designed to be an endurance bicycle.
Is the shimano bicycle museum worth it?
I got this older gen bike as my first road bike. As a relatively new cyclist (started 10 months ago), I didn't pay much attention to the components of my bike until I joined a casual cycling club and started noticing that my bike is a bit different. My bike has rim breaks, has 25C tires, and an 11-28T cassette. This is how I knew that my bike is from an older generation of bikes.
During our group rides, I can keep up most of the time especially on flats but I'm getting dropped on rolling hills with steep (15-20%) climbs. I am painstakingly grinding with my lightest gear ratio (34:28) when ascending these hills.
I wonder whether if my older just bike can't keep up with modern bikes or if my legs are just not strong enough.
Edit: Thanks for the responses. I think I will get a bigger cassette when I get a new bike in a few years. For now, I think my legs are just not strong enough and I need to upgrade it through training.
Title more or less says it all, but what the fuck. I've been running for a couple decades, mostly marathons and halfs, but it turns out my bones say "uncle" at 85mpw, so I've been on a bike since July working towards a century. Heat, I can deal with. Cold? Fine. Rain, snow, etc whatever. But wind will ruin a good run faster than anything. Especially if it's super gusty.
The wind has been picking up here lately and it was 15 gusting to 20 this morning when I headed out. I can usually hold a steady 20-21mph on flat ground in calm wind without much trouble, but I was grinding away just trying to manage double digits this morning. I know you're supposed to just ride to your power numbers, but those gusts hit different on a bike and it's absolutely demoralizing in a way that I rarely experienced running.
Do you guys just suffer through it or is there something I can be working on? I thought I hated wind before, but I hadn't even scratched the surface lol.
I’m trying to step my game up and alleviate some chronic pain so a bike fitting might be in my future.
Ive been doing a fair few 20 min FTP tests since I started cycling more or less seriously earlier this summer, and while they are tough, I kinda enjoy them and Ive have gotten good at pacing them. I have also been doing short duration (~5s and ~30s) sprints, which I think no one will hate.
But my power curve started looking a bit odd, with my 5 min power being basically equal to my 20 min power, so today I tried a 5 min max effort test. I asked chatgpt to give me a power target to aim for, given my other results ( ~130% of FTP), and gave it try
UGH.
OUCH
F*
Never again lol. Man thats brutal! Heart rate kept climbing until it was off the charts. I was gasping for air. Legs burned like there is no tomorrow, while simultaneously seizing up with lactate. Took me 30 minutes to recover lol. Didnt expect a 5min max effort to somehow be so much harder than a 20 min one!
But the curve looks okay now 😄
Just as the title says, I'm new to cycling, and unfortunately, it led to me being sick in public. For a little information, I am not exactly the healthiest. I'm a woman in my early adult years, 90kg, and everyone I know has told me that cycling is a good way to get active. Usually, I just walk at least 20 minutes a day, so I want to get more active. I bought a Dimondback bike (cheep and second hand in very good condition), and thought it'd be a breeze. Yeah. I threw up after a 2km ride and had to do a 20-30 minute walk of shame home. Can I get a few pointers in the right direction for what to do next time? As to not throw up.
Edit: I often have a Vit D deficiency (every damn year), and for everyone saying to not give up I won't! I know giving up won't get me anywhere, I'm stubborn. I'll definitely be taking a slower pace, and getting a smart watch to pace myself.
I mean I guess I can, but is that dumb? I really want to ride some paved or gravel roads but I just can’t afford to buy another bike. My mountain bike has been collecting dust for a while and I was wondering if this is something I can do. I’ve got Alex MD35 rims with tubeless 27.5x2.6 on them. Could I do something like 2.25 or 2.1, a little less tread? Is this reasonable or will I regret doing it? I was looking at Mezcal XC Sport tires for this. Thanks for any advice!
As luck would have it, I became sick with the flu and have been on the outs for the past week.
Today is the first day I’ve felt slightly normal. I’m signed up for a century ride tomorrow at 7 am. I think I’m going to send it and just try my best.
There’s a metric century as well so if I’m feeling gassed at the 50 mile mark, I might just make the turn for the 62.
Has anyone else done a ride like this while recovering from illness? Am I being stupid by even trying? I’ve been training for six months and it would be such a let down to miss it.
I'm curious about any stories other than a bike was stolen out of the front yard. Or accessories stolen while it was parked.
I have tried muc off chamois and elite ozone chamois. Both are water based.
I am looking for something lanolin based, and nice with allergy friendly/ no perfumes.
I get bad chafings when riding
It's my first time cycling outside of the UK and as much as I was excited for it, the whole experience has been pretty stressful. The first time around was in Tokyo and Komoot had a meltdown so our route was ruined, and then the second time was near Fuji. Don't get me wrong, it was still enjoyable at points but I think the combination of unfamiliar hire bikes and gear plus unfamiliar roads was quite a lot. Is this just my inexperience of cycling abroad? Do I just need to get used to it? Has anyone else had this?
Hi everyone,there is a thought within me,circling around for years, if not just months at this point, and I think I would need advice and guidance from the people. I come from a lower middle class family, I think this is necessary to tell so that we can have a practical understanding on what can be done. So, the thought which is eating me up daily is that I should cycle from my city to Marseille, "why?", if you may wonder then honestly I don't even know, however let's call it personal goals at this moment. Now its a very ambitious, somewhat silly or even dumb of a thought to have, but I need to stress on the fact that I've had sleepless nights because of this. Marseille is somewhat around 6500+ kilometers away from my city and my mind has been specifically focusing on getting there via cycling only. So I need help to understand what can I do upon this (apart from going to therapy if you may suggest lol) and how practical is it? And should I do it? Though I am unemployed and am lower middle class