Got my bike at last!

[FOAD]

My Cube Agree finally turned up on Friday and picked it up late afternoon, then stupidly used it to commute 13 miles to work at 5.30pm through the rush hour traffic whilst a parade was on in town, using speedplay pedals and cleats for the first time on my first road bike. Not the best idea I have had but it was an adventure.

Creamed my best MTB commute to work by about 5 minutes, but this was whilst wrestling horrendous footpain and hand pain, due to not being used to the massive wedge of the cleat I think (I suffer from plantarfasciitus), and the slightly lower bar meaning even more pressure on my ulners than usual. Also the first time I have ever worn a helmet. My first ride on my new bike was utter shite

After a twelve hours at work I cycled home at 7 am, at 7.05 am it started to piss down on my new bike .

Anyway, I got absolutely soaked, as did the bike but managed to eradicate the foot pain by adjusting my foot angle on the down stroke slightly and the hand pain by getting my hands slightly differently set when using the hubs (most of the time).

Despite being almost always into a head wind for the whole journey back plus the rain, I chopped 11 minutes off my best MTB time on the homeward trip and despite almost forgetting to unclip as I arrived home, I have never enjoyed a bike ride so much in my life!!!

Wheeling the wet bike into the kitchen took a little explaining to the Mrs, but my 5 yr old and I had a great time drying the bike off and my brand new shoes (I left the overshoes that arrived that day at home...duh!) and I slept in complete happiness until 5pm......

A good day after an horrendous kick-off to my road biking adventure.

 

[betty swollocks]

Why do you want to go faster and thus reduce your journey time and the amount of time you spend on your bike?
You know you'll have to find a more 'scenic' route now don't you?

 

[FOAD]

When I am getting up at 5am to go to work I just want to get there, same in the evening when the later I leave the more time I can spend with the family.

On the way home is another kettle of fish all together...

 

[col]

How long have you suffered with the fasciitus? I have this and wondered how long it takes to go? Some times the burning pain can be pretty bad, do you take anything to help?

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Well congratulations on getting the bike. I have a Cube Acid MTB as a loan bike at the mo and even with Knobbly tyres it is very good on the road.I can old imagine what a Cube Road bike feels like

I take it that you did not have a clipless moment either (even under stressful circumstances)

 

[MacB]

Wow, I thought I had a tendency to jump in at the deep end, awesome FOAD, if you're ever looking for work I'm sure there are opening for crash test dummies

If you don't mind can you let us know all the things you do to try and improve comfort, and especially what works. Would be really useful to hear changes and the impact they make. I know there's lots of info around this already but you may just stumble upon the magic fix for someone.

 

[FOAD]

How long have you suffered with the fasciitus? I have this and wondered how long it takes to go? Some times the burning pain can be pretty bad, do you take anything to help?

Have had it for about 4 years. Physio made a lot of difference but I know it will never be fully gone. I know generally exactly how to aggravate it, the best one being to crouch on the balls on my feet while cleaning the alloys on my car. It stretches the tendons in the feet and hurts like hell until I have finished.

I found as soon as I got on the new bike they were hurting, and a figured that I must be stretching the tendons while pedalling (in a similar manner to when cleaning alloys), so the answer was quite simple - getting my heals down on the down stroke so that the tendon was not over stretched seems to be the solution, though my companion on the rid home who was a cat2 racer back in his day tells me my pedal action is now very flat, whatever that means.

I can only assume that the reason the fasciitus was more pronounced on the road bike was not the cleats but the fact that the handlebars are that much lower than the seat compared to on my MTB, meaning I was perhaps tiptoeing a bit more and quite possible not extending my leg to its best position either (which I guess dropping the heel conciously will help with leg extension).

I wear orthotics in my shoes, but I cannot see the benefit of doing so in cycling shoes really as I can't quite figure out that if all my weight goes through the balls of my feet, how arch support is going to make any difference to the fasciitus.