It's terrible when they won't let you take turns on the front, especially on really nasty wet windy days...sat social ride
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Hmmm tracksuit bottoms will flap in the wind though? So will slow me down?Helen wrote:Will
We have some long sleeve cycling tops if you would like to have a look.
They are not waterproof but that bit thicker than normal long sleeve tops and will be fine for rainy spells in the kind of weather forcast for Saturday.If you don't manage to get the leg warmers and your legs suffer in the cold you could just wear tracksuit bottoms or running leggings over your cycling shorts this week.If you have an old pair of tracksuit bttoms cut them of at mid calve length and you won't have to worry about them getting caught in your chain.
As Arthur says don't worry about mudguards for now.
Helen
I would not mind having a look at the long sleeve cycling tops, could get down tomorrow If possible to look, I'm really greatful getting all this stuff so far from various people in the club its helped me alot and I appreciate it, do you want any money for them? I've got alot of stuff for free dont want anyone to think I'm leeching off people for freebies or anything!
Also surely after a while even if its cold it wont bother me anymore with just the cycling shorts as I warm up maybe?
Well just want to post in here about howards ride today.
It was abit of an odd one and I found it harder than I thought it was going to be, was 106miles for me all together and that big hill begenning with a b I think that was 25% gradient was super hard, hard to walk abit of it, tried to get back up but I was just weaving all over the road and had trouble clipping in on a slope and kept doing front wheelies by accident, was shorter than I thought though hopefully in a couple more month I will be able to do something like that but I really do feel like my gears where slowing me.
Also, last week on Helens ride it was 114 miles all together with temps hitting 28 degrees, today was around 15 degrees max and went down to about 12, I think I coped better on the sunday ride last week even though they where 17% gradient hills and also alot of hills really. Today there was one guy in my group, on the hills at the start I am pretty sure I was able to overtake him and get quite in front, well at about 60-70 miles it was the oposite and I started to lag behind quite abit and going up hills, any hills really took it out of me and was struggling, took me about a minute or two on the streights to get my speed back up to about 17 or so mph what we was crusing at I think.
So I think today for some reason I did worse than last week yet today at care stop I had chicken toastie with salad, drink and custard cream and I took 5 of these snack bars with me so had more food than last time so dont know whats going on my legs seemed to ache so quick going up hills around 60-70mile mark, that weird feeling with the lactic acid or something?
Got back ache today too, usually its only mild and nothing I am not able to forget about but today was a problem, need to do something about that damn bag I use to college, all I use it for is bike locks.
It was abit of an odd one and I found it harder than I thought it was going to be, was 106miles for me all together and that big hill begenning with a b I think that was 25% gradient was super hard, hard to walk abit of it, tried to get back up but I was just weaving all over the road and had trouble clipping in on a slope and kept doing front wheelies by accident, was shorter than I thought though hopefully in a couple more month I will be able to do something like that but I really do feel like my gears where slowing me.
Also, last week on Helens ride it was 114 miles all together with temps hitting 28 degrees, today was around 15 degrees max and went down to about 12, I think I coped better on the sunday ride last week even though they where 17% gradient hills and also alot of hills really. Today there was one guy in my group, on the hills at the start I am pretty sure I was able to overtake him and get quite in front, well at about 60-70 miles it was the oposite and I started to lag behind quite abit and going up hills, any hills really took it out of me and was struggling, took me about a minute or two on the streights to get my speed back up to about 17 or so mph what we was crusing at I think.
So I think today for some reason I did worse than last week yet today at care stop I had chicken toastie with salad, drink and custard cream and I took 5 of these snack bars with me so had more food than last time so dont know whats going on my legs seemed to ache so quick going up hills around 60-70mile mark, that weird feeling with the lactic acid or something?
Got back ache today too, usually its only mild and nothing I am not able to forget about but today was a problem, need to do something about that damn bag I use to college, all I use it for is bike locks.
Will
The climb you did today was Boltby Bank and it is a very hard one,much harder than anything we did last week much harder than White Horse Bank.It takes a while to develope climbing legs to get up a hill like that and continue with a lumpy ride.Some riders will have ridden up the hills at a steady pace to ensure they could keep riding strongly.Stamina takes a while to build up.Have a good meal tonight and do a recovery 40 minute spin tomorrow.If your legs/back still feel sore or ache on Monday have another rest day and you should be ready to do a steady 2 hour ride on Tuesday.
Helen
The climb you did today was Boltby Bank and it is a very hard one,much harder than anything we did last week much harder than White Horse Bank.It takes a while to develope climbing legs to get up a hill like that and continue with a lumpy ride.Some riders will have ridden up the hills at a steady pace to ensure they could keep riding strongly.Stamina takes a while to build up.Have a good meal tonight and do a recovery 40 minute spin tomorrow.If your legs/back still feel sore or ache on Monday have another rest day and you should be ready to do a steady 2 hour ride on Tuesday.
Helen
I was thinking of taking tomorrow off from cycling all together and doing 40min rest day on monday spinning and doing fairly slow around 16mph, as I want to go up to bishopwood on tuesday and watch em race and go oposite way on there route to see the route and have a quick thrash around, then have slow rides to college rest of week.
Is the Boltby Bank steeper than anything next week? I am pretty sure I will be able to do Boltby Bank eventually, coming down the steep bit of hill just before it made it look extreamly big but was not so bad really, was only a short bit I had to walk up.
Is the Boltby Bank steeper than anything next week? I am pretty sure I will be able to do Boltby Bank eventually, coming down the steep bit of hill just before it made it look extreamly big but was not so bad really, was only a short bit I had to walk up.
Don't get too concerned about how you feel you go on individual rides Will, but do listen to your body. If you're knackered, take a day off the bike. As I said in a posting ages ago, pushing yourself hard damages your body - this is what training is about - but by giving yourself recovery time the damage gets repaired in a way that makes you stronger next time out. But ONLY if you give yourself recovery time.
Helen's right about pacing too. I was riding Yearsley Bank glancing at me heart rate monitor; most of the riders will have been keeping enough in reserve to know they'd still have something left for the return leg. It's something you just develop as you get more experience and know what you can and can't do.
That back ache of yours:- I think it would be wise to get someone to take a look at your bike fit. That frame looks small for you, as a consequence you're sitting right back on the saddle and curving your lower back. It may be a case of looking at a longer stem, or a seatpost with more layback, or something. But I'd definitely get some advice - either by getting someone in the club to take a look at it with you or by taking yourself and the bike into one of the more knowledgeable local bike shops and seeing what could be done for minimum cost. Meantime *definitely* ditch the rucksack!
Helen's right about pacing too. I was riding Yearsley Bank glancing at me heart rate monitor; most of the riders will have been keeping enough in reserve to know they'd still have something left for the return leg. It's something you just develop as you get more experience and know what you can and can't do.
That back ache of yours:- I think it would be wise to get someone to take a look at your bike fit. That frame looks small for you, as a consequence you're sitting right back on the saddle and curving your lower back. It may be a case of looking at a longer stem, or a seatpost with more layback, or something. But I'd definitely get some advice - either by getting someone in the club to take a look at it with you or by taking yourself and the bike into one of the more knowledgeable local bike shops and seeing what could be done for minimum cost. Meantime *definitely* ditch the rucksack!
If I take me and the bike to cycle heaven will they be able to tell me what I could do to to help get rid of the back ache without charging me anything?PhilBixby wrote:Don't get too concerned about how you feel you go on individual rides Will, but do listen to your body. If you're knackered, take a day off the bike. As I said in a posting ages ago, pushing yourself hard damages your body - this is what training is about - but by giving yourself recovery time the damage gets repaired in a way that makes you stronger next time out. But ONLY if you give yourself recovery time.
Helen's right about pacing too. I was riding Yearsley Bank glancing at me heart rate monitor; most of the riders will have been keeping enough in reserve to know they'd still have something left for the return leg. It's something you just develop as you get more experience and know what you can and can't do.
That back ache of yours:- I think it would be wise to get someone to take a look at your bike fit. That frame looks small for you, as a consequence you're sitting right back on the saddle and curving your lower back. It may be a case of looking at a longer stem, or a seatpost with more layback, or something. But I'd definitely get some advice - either by getting someone in the club to take a look at it with you or by taking yourself and the bike into one of the more knowledgeable local bike shops and seeing what could be done for minimum cost. Meantime *definitely* ditch the rucksack!
Also yea I REALLY want to ditch the rucksack for going to college but I dont know where I would put my D lock and cable lock?? I thought about using my saddle bag to hang the D lock on and then sort of tape the bottom bit to the seatpost but might get in way of my legs.
My speedo has a heart rate monitor, I need to put this belt thing around my chest though and I dont know if its accurate.
Also, found out yesterday on the ride that some of my spoked are really loose and if I pick my bike up and tap the wheel on the floor it sounds like banging shopping trolleys together, also the wheel needs trueing up, if I went to say Cycle Heaven would I get discount on them servicing the bike and doing things like trueing it?
I use a rucksack/courier bag for commuting and it's fine, but be careful not to put too much weight in it. A change of clothes + lock + food is fine but some heavy textbooks/laptop will soon give you back ache.
For fit, you have a short stem on, so that might be a cheaper way of getting more streched out.
There's also Rob's page on bike setup
http://www.cliftoncc.org/static.php?con ... bike_setup
For fit, you have a short stem on, so that might be a cheaper way of getting more streched out.
There's also Rob's page on bike setup
http://www.cliftoncc.org/static.php?con ... bike_setup
So I would need a longer stem? I would of thought that would give me more back pain as I would be stretched further?Arthur wrote:I use a rucksack/courier bag for commuting and it's fine, but be careful not to put too much weight in it. A change of clothes + lock + food is fine but some heavy textbooks/laptop will soon give you back ache.
For fit, you have a short stem on, so that might be a cheaper way of getting more streched out.
There's also Rob's page on bike setup
http://www.cliftoncc.org/static.php?con ... bike_setup
Not necessarily. If the frame's a bit small and the stem's short and the bars are (relatively) high, it forces your back to curve in order to stop your backside ending up off the back of the saddle. Ideally your back should be pretty straight when riding, with pretty much all the bending happening at your hip joint.
This is why bike fit's about more than keeping your k****ers above the top tube when you stand over it; in many ways the length of the top tube (plus the length of the stem) is the critical bit of sizing to get right as it really affects comfort and relies on getting the frame size right. Saddle height is easy to get right even if the frame's a size or two out.
As Arthur says, a longer stem may help - but let's see what help you can get with sizing before trying any changes.
This is why bike fit's about more than keeping your k****ers above the top tube when you stand over it; in many ways the length of the top tube (plus the length of the stem) is the critical bit of sizing to get right as it really affects comfort and relies on getting the frame size right. Saddle height is easy to get right even if the frame's a size or two out.
As Arthur says, a longer stem may help - but let's see what help you can get with sizing before trying any changes.
So the fact the handle bars are high could be causing problems? I have a stem extender on it if thats what it is called to raise the handle bars up, before it was lower and I thought that was causing me back pain and the stem extender cost me a tennerPhilBixby wrote:Not necessarily. If the frame's a bit small and the stem's short and the bars are (relatively) high, it forces your back to curve in order to stop your backside ending up off the back of the saddle. Ideally your back should be pretty straight when riding, with pretty much all the bending happening at your hip joint.
This is why bike fit's about more than keeping your k****ers above the top tube when you stand over it; in many ways the length of the top tube (plus the length of the stem) is the critical bit of sizing to get right as it really affects comfort and relies on getting the frame size right. Saddle height is easy to get right even if the frame's a size or two out.
As Arthur says, a longer stem may help - but let's see what help you can get with sizing before trying any changes.
Hmmm, now thats confusing, I will just get down to cycle heaven tomorrow and hope they can help me with position and can get it sorted.Arthur wrote:Bars too high = pain, bars too low = pain
To complicate matters the right height also depends on your reach (saddle to bar length), fitness and flexibility (and also personal preference/riding style to some degree)
Also, think any bike shop would be able to take my bike in tomorrow and true the wheel and tighten the spoked and have it done tomorrow? Need it doing as I depend on it at this time of year for college and riding it might damage it even more I would of though.