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

[Supersuperleeds]

Greetings from a Southern Glasgow newbie. Having now owned my new bike for a week after a 30 year gap to help with back injury rehab, have now completed my first three short rides this week and discovered Strava, am really enjoying it.

This was one my my first gentle rides, a wee nearly 6 miler
http://www.strava.com/activities/98247013

And this was probably a bit over ambitious elevation-wise yesterday, hit my first 7.7%, oooffftt...
http://www.strava.com/activities/98617218

Think it's going to be a lot of fun. Now what not to buy....?

Welcome aboard

 

[Mo1959]

Snowing!

 

[Goonerobes]

Snowing!

I've got to "like" that.....I love snow!

 

[SWSteve]

@MattMM Welcome!

 

[stevey]

@MattMM Hello and welcome

 

[Stonechat]

Greetings from a Southern Glasgow newbie. Having now owned my new bike for a week after a 30 year gap to help with back injury rehab, have now completed my first three short rides this week and discovered Strava, am really enjoying it.

This was one my my first gentle rides, a wee nearly 6 miler
http://www.strava.com/activities/98247013

And this was probably a bit over ambitious elevation-wise yesterday, hit my first 7.7%, oooffftt...
http://www.strava.com/activities/98617218

Think it's going to be a lot of fun. Now what not to buy....?

Welcome - took me over 6 months to discover Strava and Cycle Chat

Like you Started cycling after about 30 years away.
Have now done up to 40 miles and doing near 40 miles rides at more than 14 mph

Made one mistake, my bike is a hybrid and think I would've been better with a road bike
(my 1980's Claud Butler is still in the garage!)

 

[Exile]

Won't get out today, the weather looks rubbish right now. Made up for it yesterday though.

Took the O/H to get a new bike from Decathlon. He'd seen one there when we were getting mine, but couldn't afford it at the time. So I decided to treat him to an early Christmas present (and earn myself some 'Good Boyfriend' points in the process ). So he now has a B'TWIN Original 5 Night & Day to pootle around on.

We had been planning on getting the train back into Manchester City Centre, then riding back from there, but as the weather was so nice (totally different to today!) we decided to go the whole hog and see how Google would get us home on the bikes. Turned out to be via a route we'd used most of before, and rather enjoyed, so off we went, covering the eight and a half miles to home in a very leisurely hour forty-odd, although this did include a ten minute stop at Asda. Darkness settled properly on us whilst we were there (it goes from that lovely dusky time to pitch black ruddy quick!), and we realised his dynamo lights weren't working (I think I might have pulled on something when hauling it up a flight of stairs to bypass the blocked bit of the canal towpath. Something to try and fix later ) so stuck my Cree Q5 torch on his bars, and slapped my backup rear light on his belt. Perfect it wasn't, but it would keep PC Grimaldi happy, and I rode behind as I had more than a cheap flasher to let passing traffic know we existed. Luckily, we weren't too far from home.

http://www.strava.com/activities/98631436

All in all, a good ride, if a little slower than I've been going as of late, but I happily give up those extra 4mph in exchange for the company on the ride .

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Definitely no cycling this morning. Travel news has nothing but flooding, fallen trees everywhere, accidents and lorries overturned and bridges either closed completely or to high sided vehicles

My new GPS will be on one of these no doubt the way my luck is running at the moment, battery on my light ran out last night (thought it was fully charged, as the green light was on, someone must have unplugged it at some point) so ended up walking 4 1/2 miles home, I charged the battery over night put it on to test this morning on full then it started to cycle through the modes after about an hour, so I guess I have over cooked the electrics because of the lack of air flow over the unit, so a word of warning dont test the cree lights on full to see if the batter is holding charge. Ordered a new one, looking for a positive out of this and that is i will at least have a spare battery and two chargers.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Greetings from a Southern Glasgow newbie. Having now owned my new bike for a week after a 30 year gap to help with back injury rehab, have now completed my first three short rides this week and discovered Strava, am really enjoying it.

This was one my my first gentle rides, a wee nearly 6 miler
http://www.strava.com/activities/98247013

And this was probably a bit over ambitious elevation-wise yesterday, hit my first 7.7%, oooffftt...
http://www.strava.com/activities/98617218

Think it's going to be a lot of fun. Now what not to buy....?

find a cheaper hobby quick.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Welcome - took me over 6 months to discover Strava and Cycle Chat

Like you Started cycling after about 30 years away.
Have now done up to 40 miles and doing near 40 miles rides at more than 14 mph

Made one mistake, my bike is a hybrid and think I would've been better with a road bike
(my 1980's Claud Butler is still in the garage!)

Get it out and do it up, still working on the Carleton I got, finaly got the seat stem out (our rather the guy at the garage did), now to get the chain set off I need on old crank set tool, but after the costs of this week it will have to wait till the new year, and what was set as a winter project is looking like a summer one.

 

[Stonechat]

Get it out and do it up, still working on the Carleton I got, finaly got the seat stem out (our rather the guy at the garage did), now to get the chain set off I need on old crank set tool, but after the costs of this week it will have to wait till the new year, and what was set as a winter project is looking like a summer one.

Hmmm have mulled this over a lot and not sure. Think the gearing is probably chainrings of 48 and 34 = something like that and the back (think this is a freewheel not the modern cassette) is not as broad as some modern bikes. Would want different gearing - better brake levers and need to move away from shifters on the down tube. I know so little about modern bike parts and not sure I want to take it on.

Mainly the other issue is time. Now got to clear out parents house and get it sold, they are in a nursing home.

I was thinking that to get a more modern bike secondhand if need be would be easier, can still change chainrings etc.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Hmmm have mulled this over a lot and not sure. Think the gearing is probably chainrings of 48 and 34 = something like that and the back (think this is a freewheel not the modern cassette) is not as broad as some modern bikes. Would want different gearing - better brake levers and need to move away from shifters on the down tube. I know so little about modern bike parts and not sure I want to take it on.

Mainly the other issue is time. Now got to clear out parents house and get it sold, they are in a nursing home.

I was thinking that to get a more modern bike secondhand if need be would be easier, can still change chainrings etc.

Its likely to be a 52/42 or 40 on the front if its a road bike, and probably 14-28 (5sp) on the rear or lower. I get most places on 52/40 and 13-28 on my 8sp rear though I do have the 30th should I need.

 

[SWSteve]

Made one mistake, my bike is a hybrid and think I would've been better with a road bike
(my 1980's Claud Butler is still in the garage!)

get it out! What will need doing to it! wd40 and you'll be well away

 

[SWSteve]

@Stonechat much like Nigel I was using a 53/42/30 and 25-11 on the back. I rarely used the 30 and the 25 still looks brand new on the cassette. It isn't as tough as you think (IMHO)


I may be on a compact soon, I'll wait and see how insurance make up their mind. If any of you have ever claimed on you HI for a bike, please drop me a PM

 

[PhilDawson8270]

I looked outside after dinner, saw the wind, then saw a bit of rain, then looked at the bike and thought screw it, lets go!

http://www.strava.com/activities/98799762

Same route as my first ever ride, completed it with an increase in average speed of +0.5mph (12.5mph) which I am more than happy with considering the last mile or so was into a head wind, and rain, and had left my cycling glasses at home so had the rain in my face, but I still thoroughly had fun, this time I also didn't stop to catch my breath like I did twice the first time, I also only drank while moving , and only consumed about 100ml of water compared to over 300ml the first time out.