Adding a Road Bike
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The S-1 rule is probably more apt!
For many, perhaps. I'm lucky, my wife is an n+1 follower as well!0 -
Something to think about....as your fitness improves. Are you commuting daily? What about a fixed gear bike (brakes, yes). Fixed gear, after you've become "bike fit", can definitely one-up your daily commute and give you a better challenge. There's that intense challenge within yourself that you will find that you crave, and the fact that you are in an elite status of riders with special bragging rights doesn't hurt either!
Are you riding for pleasure, for distance/speed? Then a road bike. Streamlined, sleek, fast. They whizz along. But they get flats all the time and they suck on crappy, bumpy roads. But if you ride smooth-as--glass pavement, then why not. Aggressive stance can hurt the neck/back/shoulders. Make sure to pay the big bucks and get your LBS to custom fit the bike.
Although, I do have to say a hybrid crossover is really much more comfy sitting on for 4-4.5 hrs at a time. You can still get the distance in on a hybrid without a tired butt. Hybrid is good for that pavement and occasional gravel when the city can't be bothered to maintain the road.0 -
One of the most amazing (and at the time a bit depressing) things I ever saw was a bloke on a fixie zooming past me on the ascent of Mont Ventoux. I chatted to him briefly when I stopped for a café at Chalet Renard (he was already on his way down and was grabbing a bite). He said he was on a local race team and did this a couple of times a month as a training ride to force a high continuous cadence. His setup was cool. The rear wheel had a flip flop hub so he ascended in fixed gear mode and at the summit flipped the wheel over so that he had freewheel capability on the descent. He also had shorter length crank arms
The gearing was 28T on the front and a 19T on the fixed gear side and 15T on the freewheel side.
It's easily the hardest climb I've ever done 21.5km @ 7.5% avg. The last 16km are @ 8.9% avg!! I reckon there must be something to fixie's making you a stronger rider!!0 -
One of the most amazing (and at the time a bit depressing) things I ever saw was a bloke on a fixie zooming past me on the ascent of Mont Ventoux.
That IS depressing
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One of the most amazing (and at the time a bit depressing) things I ever saw was a bloke on a fixie zooming past me on the ascent of Mont Ventoux. I chatted to him briefly when I stopped for a café at Chalet Renard (he was already on his way down and was grabbing a bite). He said he was on a local race team and did this a couple of times a month as a training ride to force a high continuous cadence. His setup was cool. The rear wheel had a flip flop hub so he ascended in fixed gear mode and at the summit flipped the wheel over so that he had freewheel capability on the descent. He also had shorter length crank arms
The gearing was 28T on the front and a 19T on the fixed gear side and 15T on the freewheel side.
It's easily the hardest climb I've ever done 21.5km @ 7.5% avg. The last 16km are @ 8.9% avg!! I reckon there must be something to fixie's making you a stronger rider!!
Wow, that guy must have been quite fit!
Hey, the story leaves me with a question though. Why was being in fixed gear mode important on the ride up. Since the climb was so steep, it isn't like there is much opportunity for much freewheeling? Maybe he could coast for maybe a second or two here and there. Guess he wanted to rule that out completely I suppose.0 -
Wow, that guy must have been quite fit!
Hey, the story leaves me with a question though. Why was being in fixed gear mode important on the ride up. Since the climb was so steep, it isn't like there is much opportunity for much freewheeling? Maybe he could coast for maybe a second or two here and there. Guess he wanted to rule that out completely I suppose.
I think it was more that he rides that bike as a fixie most of the time but when you have a 21km descent, a fixie is a bad idea, hence the the flip to the freewheel side.0 -
Fixed gear isn't just about not being able to freewheel, the momentum of the bike in motion moves the cranks over smoothly, so you develop a much smoother pedalling style ... What the French refer to as souplesse....
And as for descending, well, that'd definitely be a nightmare with fixed so a freewheeli on the other side of the flip makes perfect sense.0 -
TBY, ah, so you have taught me a new word, this souplesse.
I dutifully looked it up, and found a great description here: http://www.velominati.com/tradition/look-pro-souplesse/
That noted, I must say, as an American, the first image that came to mind when seeing the word was something like:
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I'll be honest, the only times I've rode fixed gear bikes (other than the occasional foray onto the velodrome of course) has been as the winter training bike - pair of 165mm cranks on (where I'd normally ride 172.5) for added ground clearance and ease of fast spinning, and generally something like a 48/19 - so I could keep up with the typical clubrun pace of around 19/20mph without spinning like a hamster in a wheel. Even then however, this bike was dragged out for the flatter runs - say a ride with no more than 700m in 130km - for anything hillier, stuff it, I need gears.
Certainly helped me keep warm - 4-5 hours of spinning 90-110rpm cadence in a bunch would allow me to stay warm in 0°C +/- 3°.0 -
I think many people start off this way. I initially got a Trek Hybrid bike as it was fairly inexpensive and not as intimidating as a proper road bike. I was very overweight at the time so core strength, gearing flexibility were also an issue. I quickly progressed and found that the hybrid was really unsuitable for riding with friends who all had road bikes and also the flat bar did not provide the hand position flexibility that drop bars do.
So I bought an alloy Trek 2.1 road bike. I was 240lbs at the time and a bit afraid of buying a carbon bike due to my weight. The Trek was great, very comfortable and with it I was able to keep up with my friends. I lost a good bit more weight and promised myself a carbon bike if I got my weight down below 220. I managed that a bought a Cervelo R3 which I really like. Very light and a comfortable ride.
I did buy a mountain bike too but I don't seem to ride it very much, perhaps I will this winter.
As you can see when it comes to bikes, the n+1 rule almost always applies
I also went from a Trek hybrid to a Trek 2.1. It was the best thing that ever happened for my riding.0 -
There is a reason they are referred to as track bikes; they are intended to be used in a velodromes. I got one to work on my sprints/pedaling back in my racing days and only used it on back roads with little or no traffic. I find it crazy for folks that use it riding them in traffic. If you look closely, the gear are mostly not fixed and have brakes. To me it just for show. Incidentally it great someone can climb with it but what's the point? Maintaining a said cadence is dependent on your engine and mental ability. You can handy cap yourself just as well with a normal cluster without being a danger to anyone one else, especially coming down the hill. There are too many riders that can't decent as is.
Each bike type has its intended purpose and although you can use it to suit any, you can only get so far without compromising (think SUVs verse 911). If you lack upper body strength, a road bike is going to give you hell. It'll take a few rides for the adjustment but it's worth it - a new horizon awaits. Personally I have a mountain bike, two road bikes (road and criterium setup), a track bike, and at one time a modified cross bike. (A touring bike turned to cross with flat bars used to go between classes in college and around the town until it was stolen.)0 -
my Fixie was far from being a "track bike" - it was a old second hand Carlton Clubman 531 Frame, with Mudguard Clearances and front and rear Brakes, which I basically had the rear dropouts removed and track ends brazed in (they're the rear-facing slotted "dropouts" for those who don't know)
So it was pretty much just a standard "clubman training frame" but with a single fixed gear, just so I could a) work on my spinning technique b) keep warm in winter and c) not ruin my expensive Campag Record gears by riding the bike in all the *kitten*, salt, sleet and snow of a typical british autumn - spring.
If anything, it most strongly resembled the classic british "road path" type machines of the 40s/50s - where clubman racers had one bike that had to do everything from riding to work and back through the week, club time trial on a Tuesday night, grasstrack racing on a Thursday evening, Roadrace on a Saturday afternoon and the clubrun on a Sunday... At most, they may well have a spare set of "race wheels" - which you'd take with you on wheel-carriers that attached to the front fork dropouts - ride to the race on the heavy wheels, swap to the sprints/tubs for the race, then switch to the normal wheels and ride back home after the race.0
