Show us your.......newbie progress! [4 Sep 2012 - 4 Oct 2014]

[Nigelnaturist]

I got a couple of hours in today. It was sunshine but a little windy on my main route so I decided to do a little exploring on the country roads. There is a park not far off my main route but I have not been there since I was a kid. I remember there were some hills there but didn't remember that much. I wonder why most things seem smaller now than when I was a kid, except hills.

The hills were not that bad, I started with basically no momentum from the bottom and made it up fine just staying seated. The park is much closer to my route than I realized. The roads are two lane with hardly any paved shoulder outside the white outside line and are not finished as smooth as I like but I will not hesitate to ride them. The traffic is very light and the drivers I did encounter gave plenty of room when they went by. This area leads out into a very large similar rural environment. I am glad I went there, I think I am going to enjoy riding out there. I only saw a few dogs too. At one house four pretty good size dogs came running out to the road barking and I was going slow up the hill. Fortunately, they stayed off the road and backed off before they made me too uncomfortable.

I think I am going to ride more of these rural areas this weekend for the challenge. I am making some spaghetti right now for some fuel.

Nice to see you liking the hills Rocky,
I am still struggling a little getting the cleats in place. though the bike is running quite well, I am thinking of changing the 26 inner ring to a 28 and put a link back in, as the travel on the rear mech is a little stretched, it is only on the extremes i.e. 26/11 and 48/24 (neither gets used) though the 48/24 does if i forget i am in the 48/21 and go down one. (odd that you up to go down, and down to go up a gear)

 

[RWright]

Nice to see you liking the hills Rocky,
I am still struggling a little getting the cleats in place. though the bike is running quite well, I am thinking of changing the 26 inner ring to a 28 and put a link back in, as the travel on the rear mech is a little stretched, it is only on the extremes i.e. 26/11 and 48/24 (neither gets used) though the 48/24 does if i forget i am in the 48/21 and go down one. (odd that you up to go down, and down to go up a gear)

I started with my cleats moved all the way toward the back of my shoe and kept them straight, it has been working ok for me so far, by working ok I mean no knee pain, which was my objective, having a bad knee. I kept them straight because I bought some running shoes and the store guy had me do some running and walking so he could observe my pronation (roll of the foot while you walk or something like that). He said mine was abnormally straight , whatever that means. He told me to walk normal, I said I AM walking normal,but I believe him so I set my cleats straight and so far so good. I know it is not very scientific but it was all I had to work with. Just keep tweaking them, I think you will get it worked out, if your feet are even slightly higher off the pedals you may want to do a very minor seat height adjustment up also.

I am liking the bigger cassette cog on the back, I am not out looking for huge hills but I will be going down into many more river valleys so that means I have to get out of them. Plus the older country roads have more grade than the newer highway type roads I have been riding and the surface is not finished as smooth.
I am hoping that 34/28 can handle most anything around my area, although there is one or two more that I am going to go do that are the steepest I can think of. I want to get better before I head off to the Chapel HILL - HILLsboro area to do any riding. In my immediate area the most hills are not too far from where I live.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I am liking the bigger cassette cog on the back, I am not out looking for huge hills but I will be going down into many more river valleys so that means I have to get out of them. Plus the older country roads have more grade than the newer highway type roads I have been riding and the surface is not finished as smooth.
I am hoping that 34/28 can handle most anything around my area, although there is one or two more that I am going to go do that are the steepest I can think of. I want to get better before I head off to the Chapel HILL - HILLsboro area to do any riding. In my immediate area the most hills are not too far from where I live.

34/28 is 31.94" my 26/24 is 28.5 26/21 (usually as low as I go) 32.6" so you should be fine.
I dropped the seat a little on Thursday, it's mainly connecting, unclipping is no problem, apart from maybe to much force.

 

[RWright]

34/28 is 31.94" my 26/24 is 28.5 26/21 (usually as low as I go) 32.6" so you should be fine.
I dropped the seat a little on Thursday, it's mainly connecting, unclipping is no problem, apart from maybe to much force.

Clipping in was much more trouble for me than clipping out, still is. Just keep spinning the pedals with the clipped in foot. It will get easier.

 

[RWright]

I just noticed there was a Strava segment on my ride today. I didn't know it was there, I got smoked!
I will have to go back sometime and tidy that time up a little, I was just cruising and listening to some classical music. I wont get close to those times posted I doubt but I can do a little better, I stopped at the bottom to read some signs at the park entrance. That was the steep hill that I did. I get the road names confused out in the sticks.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I just noticed there was a Strava segment on my ride today. I didn't know it was there, I got smoked!
I will have to go back sometime and tidy that time up a little, I was just cruising and listening to some classical music. I wont get close to those times posted I doubt but I can do a little better, I stopped at the bottom to read some signs at the park entrance. That was the steep hill that I did. I get the road names confused out in the sticks.

Thats what it's really about at our level, I have one KOM that is going to take some beating, but really all my segments I made are to see how I improve over time, just recently I have had some good times on some.

 

[Mo1959]

Thats what it's really about at our level, I have one KOM that is going to take some beating, but really all my segments I made are to see how I improve over time, just recently I have had some good times on some.

That's how I look at it as well Nigel. There are several obviously high class riders around here that put in amazing times. It wouldn't matter how much training I did I could barely reach half the speed they do. Mind you, I think most of them are club riders half my age!

 

[Creakyknee]

Thats what it's really about at our level, I have one KOM that is going to take some beating, but really all my segments I made are to see how I improve over time, just recently I have had some good times on some.

Yep, that's how I look at it, as long as i'm gradually improving over time i'm happy
Although I did get one KOM when I had a massive tailwind one day . Which will probably befuddle the local club racers : )

 

[Snarf]

Did my 12.02 miles in 53.50 today which is a whole one minute and thirty seconds off my best time.

I write this on oxygen from my hospital bed.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Did my 12.02 miles in 53.50 today which is a whole one minute and thirty seconds off my best time.

I write this on oxygen from my hospital bed.

It' gets better.
I got two broken spokes today, though one could have been last night.
I think I got a p.b on the way to the hospital, but not put it on strava yet, but apart from that nothing special, just couldn't get going today, but then it is the most difficult ride this week though not in terms of elevation of ft/mile
Well thats a surprise i though i didn't do too well on this http://app.strava.com/activities/43607442#738103560 but I cut 8's off my previous time. I got a bunch of 2nd's but as most of them it's only the 2nd time i guess that doesn't really count.
This I was surprised with too, http://app.strava.com/activities/43607436#738103536 but it is very traffic dependent towards the end of it.
This is the one I thought I got http://app.strava.com/activities/43607436#738103533 from 14 to 16.1mph.

 

[C Wood]

I got a minor puncture a couple of weeks ago, fixed it no problem at all. A few days after that I hit a huge pothole which blew the seal around the repair, so I again tried to repair it. However I must have pinched the tube when re-fitting the tyre, because I got another hole in the inner tube. Fixed that, only for the exact same thing to happen again but this time the hole was much bigger. So I ordered another tube from the internet which I received today, only to find that the valve shaft isn't long enough to allow me to pump the tyre up when it's fitted...

 

[boybiker]

Yep, that's how I look at it, as long as i'm gradually improving over time i'm happy
Although I did get one KOM when I had a massive tailwind one day . Which will probably befuddle the local club racers : )

That's how I look at strava segments too, I'm happy just getting PB's. Some of the sections round here people are averaging 27 mph+!!

 

[Mo1959]

I got a minor puncture a couple of weeks ago, fixed it no problem at all. A few days after that I hit a huge pothole which blew the seal around the repair, so I again tried to repair it. However I must have pinched the tube when re-fitting the tyre, because I got another hole in the inner tube. Fixed that, only for the exact same thing to happen again but this time the hole was much bigger. So I ordered another tube from the internet which I received today, only to find that the valve shaft isn't long enough to allow me to pump the tyre up when it's fitted...

That's a pain. You must have deep section rims and probably need tubes with a longer valve stem.

 

[kerndog]

Ah the dreaded pp word! I 've only had one (touch wood) so far... probably have one tomorrow now I said that...

I managed a lovely 20 miles today - went from sunshine to misty and back into sunshine. Lovely day down here, nearly too warm for a jacket. I realised just now that in the last 6 days I've covered 90 miles! Hoping to get another long one in over the weekend before we go back to 1 degree again!

http://app.strava.com/activities/43598257

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I got a minor puncture a couple of weeks ago, fixed it no problem at all. A few days after that I hit a huge pothole which blew the seal around the repair, so I again tried to repair it. However I must have pinched the tube when re-fitting the tyre, because I got another hole in the inner tube. Fixed that, only for the exact same thing to happen again but this time the hole was much bigger. So I ordered another tube from the internet which I received today, only to find that the valve shaft isn't long enough to allow me to pump the tyre up when it's fitted...

As Mo says thats a pain, i have had a few, mainly when the tyres were a bit thin, it's spokes with me. something like 10 now.