Have you joined because you want to lose weight and get fit in the New Year?

[RCITGuy]

OK so its not New Year, but I pretty much did this too.

Nov 2013, a friend of mine was asking why don't I get a bike, and I knew things were not heading in the right direction as I was starting to lose sight of my toes over the obese middle area, so I grabbed a cheap £50 mountain bike from Gumtree one afternoon and started riding around the block a few times a week...

Holy cow, the first ride, totally flat, a good friend came with me for encouragement and support, bit of back slapping and shouting at me, just to the end of my road and back!
28 Minutes of that and I was a total train wreck. It was actually quite alarming and somewhat worrying that the "I'm alright geezer" was actually a 999 call just waiting to happen..

Took me best part of 3 days to get over that 28 minutes of riding and left me with jelly legs for at least 24hrs... Went out several more times with my friend over the next 8 weeks, road and some off-road too, all completely knackering..

Mid Dec 2013 I decided to quit the fags and by new year 2014, was free from what I can only describe as a never ending slog of filth...

Spent most of Jan 2014 wondering if I actually could and wanted to get back into cycling, and looking at all the bikes online, trying to figure out what was what, then found myself heading down to Evans Gatwick to try out a "Modern" road bike (CAAD10)..

20 minutes riding it about in the dark and I was once again hooked like the teenage cyclist I once was..

I have also found that cycling itself is not really loosing me much weight, its the self control with the diet that really makes a huge difference..
I have been using FitBit activity tracker and the Fitbit wifi scales to keep track of weight, and in 20 months now, I'm down about 8kg, to 102kg, as I was 110kg+

Having read things here and learned how to manage food intake, I do feel a lot more in control of things and I do find myself actually thinking carefully about what I will eat and when..

I managed to get down to 95kg by Dec 2014, but the wife took me to an all you can eat spa for 3 days, in Winter, in the middle of nowhere, so came home 6kg heavier and I still haven't got back under the 100kg mark yet...

Once thing I wish I had done is take more time to try out different bikes and set aside 1 whole day to do it, instead of just buying the first bike I tried that I liked the look of..

Anyway, Sorry to rave on...
Rich

 

[RCITGuy]

What differences do you find between riding a hybrid and a road bike? I'm a novice, so I don't really know the difference between how each type ride.

Hiya Pope

I have a Road bike and a Hybrid, both weight the same, but really its down to what you want from the bike..
The road bike is built for speed and distance whereas the hybrid is built for comfort.

You can easily do an all day sportive on a hybrid, but you may well be sacrificing some speed for comfort.

My hybrid for example has a shock absorber built into the top of the forks called a headshock to make it more comfortable, but it still has skinny 28mm tyres and the same gearing as my road bike only with flat handlebars and almost identical gearing to my road bike.

The road bike is somewhat faster, although this could be a combo of riding position, aerodynamics and what I wear when riding each bike, so it will boil down to the intended use and desired level of comfort.

I've done a few all day sportives where hybrid riders have left me for dust, so fitness is a huge part too I'd say.

 

[Total Longo]

I've done a few all day sportives where hybrid riders have left me for dust, so fitness is a huge part too I'd say.

100% correct.

 

[radekone]

I'm down from 82 to 77 within a year, despite my attempts to keep the weight. I do count calories - I try to eat as much of them as I can

 

[CliffEcc]

Not really joined to lose weight(although i do need to drop a stone)

Looking for rides and possibley some virtual turbo trainer (BKool) rides through the poor winter

Cliff

 

[Jduffy]

Haha must be lots more people with the new years resolution to cycle more in 2016!

 

[Jaykun85]

My recent addiction to cycling wasnt a new years resolution mor the fact i was scared into it.
Been doing a experiment with mate for his dissertation on the effect of Vitamin D and it it will help increase muscle mass with exercise. So i have to get my body mass measuered.. turns out i was 29% Fat .. one more percent away from technically Obese even though i looked nothing like that.
Since then been the Gym and cycling lost 2 stone but decide to keep up the cycling and the gym.. feel alot better for it to