Cycling, bikes, indoor, outdoor etc.

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Replies

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
    edited May 2018
    I'm one for doing my biking on a stationary bike - fair weather gal here! got myself a great wee indoor bike a year ago and it has been the best thing :smiley: I love how my daily exercise can be so efficient now, 30 mins on my bike burns close to 400 cals when I do HIIT.

    I have to say hats off to those who cycle on the roads/mountain bike, you guys and gals rock! :smiley: but I'm happy with my indoor bike and that's what its all about isn't it, finding something we enjoy doing and keeping on doing it :smile:


    Edited to add, having read through you guys posts I feel a tad embarrassed that I only bike indoors :blush:

    I'm an indoor cyclist too - absolutely love spin classes (RPM is my absolute FAVE).

    I would like to get more involved with outdoor cycling but where I'm from it's far too dangerous to ride on roads - motorists here have a really poor attitude towards cyclists - is that common everywhere?
    Yes that's common here in Ireland - our roads are narrow and motorists don't give enough care around cyclists - my son cycles and has had several near misses with vehicles as well as being knocked off his bike twice! I worry for his safety but he loves it. Its not so bad when hes out with his cycle club, safety in numbers but as a lone cyclist it's just not particularly safe.
  • awinner_au
    awinner_au Posts: 249 Member
    Got a flat on the first hill, didnt have a flat for six months, two weeks ago i tried to go on this ride and got a flat in the first five minutes, was a piece of glass, this time pulled out a shiny brass tack. Im going tubeless. Try again next week weather permitting.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,706 Member
    aokoye wrote: »
    So I think my hatred of hills is because most of the hills in my immediate area are well over 6% so when I think "hill" my brain immediately jumps to 15-30% as opposed to like, 5%. This afternoon was another short hill training day. 853 feet of climbing in 6.47 miles.

    I'm right there with you.

    I live halfway up a 14% grade hill. I have two choices ...

    1. start my ride by going up to the top of the 14% grade hill. Actually to be fair, it does flatten a bit just past my place to about 10%, so that's not so bad. And I do that about half the time. Nothing like making your HR go from about 75 to 175 in 60 seconds flat.
    2. start my ride by going down the hill ... and then proceeding to climb the 10% grade hills all around to get out of the 'valley' I've found myself in.

    My motivation to ride from home is low.
    My route choice is also low because a lot of the side roads are up around the 16-18% grade range.

    I use a calculation to determine whether or not I'll be able to handle a ride around here.

    (Metres of climbing / kilometres * 1000) * 100

    If the ride is a 1 or less, that's a flat ride. I can do that. And if the ride is a really long ride, I prefer it to be a 0.8 or less.

    If the ride is about 1 to about 1.2, that's a bit more of an effort and I'd prefer not do a long ride within that range.

    If the ride is about 1.2 to 1.7 ... those are shorter, hill-training rides.

    There was a time I couldn't do anything over 1.5, but now my "shorter, hill-training rides might include something just a bit over that.

    Anything over 1.7, and I'm really struggling. There will be stops and walks and it would have to be a short ride.


    Three of my recent local rides from home have been:
    11.28 km with 186 metres of climbing. In other words: (186/11280)*100 = 1.65.
    20.17 km with 313 metres of climbing = 1.55
    13.63 km with 208 metres of climbing = 1.53

    I don't think I can find a flatter route than those in this immediate area.


  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Yeah I have to drive to find roads that are both flat and don't have sections that are more or less death traps. The flat death traps being two very narrow bike bridges along a 4 lane not quite highway with a speed limit of 45mph. The bridges are at sections where there is no bike lane and I've been seeing more and more homeless people walking on them which scares the crap out of me as both a driver and a cyclist. If a cyclist were to one of the pedestrians at least one person would fall into traffic and die. When traffic is light most people just ride in the road because it's just such a mess. Note, by narrow I mean, these are probably the width of my rollers. I I've been on said bridges twice and even with light traffic and no pedestrians I'm afraid that I'll fall into the road.

    Today one of my friends was teasing me about not taking the bus or riding my bike to school and I had to explain just how out of the question both of those options were. All of my friends who commute by bike get it because they both understand how hilly it is and how dangerous the route that I would need to take that has the least amount of climbing is. The hillier route would be ok if it didn't involve a series of very blind corners that people drive rather quickly around.

    I like your method of figuring out if you can handle a ride. I might have to figure out something similar.
  • awinner_au
    awinner_au Posts: 249 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    (Metres of climbing / kilometres * 1000) * 100

    Interesting way of doing it, btw that simplifies to: meters of climbing/(Km*10)

    @aokoye Unfortunately there are very few countries in the world where the motor car has not pushed aside the bicycle. Im looking forward to driver less cars, at least they wont be pre programmed to be reckless as some drivers are.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    @awinner_au Unfortunately in the instances I'm talking about driverless cars wouldn't be much of a help because they have to be able to see the cyclist/pedestrian in front of them. The dangerous bike bridge thing is more an issue of really horrible infrastructure than anything else. If it were wide enough for two cyclists, two pedestrians, or a cyclist and a pedestrian to be two abreast then it wouldn't be nearly as dangerous.

    The blind corner thing - I don't think driverless cars would be of much help. Sure they could be programed to go the prescribed speed limit of that section which is 15mph, but I almost hit a cyclist while going around that same corner and I was going 10 mph. It was dark, there were no lights other than my car's headlights, and the cyclist didn't have any lights.
  • awinner_au
    awinner_au Posts: 249 Member
    Yes that's common here in Ireland - our roads are narrow and motorists don't give enough care around cyclists - my son cycles and has had several near misses with vehicles as well as being knocked off his bike twice! I worry for his safety but he loves it. Its not so bad when hes out with his cycle club, safety in numbers but as a lone cyclist it's just not particularly safe.

    Seems to be the same everywhere except in few European countries. My son cycles and i worry when i know he is riding even though i ride myself. Definitely a lot better when Im riding with my club, if there is a club around definitely worth a joining.
  • awinner_au
    awinner_au Posts: 249 Member
    aokoye wrote: »
    The blind corner thing - I don't think driverless cars would be of much help. Sure they could be programed to go the prescribed speed limit of that section which is 15mph, but I almost hit a cyclist while going around that same corner and I was going 10 mph. It was dark, there were no lights other than my car's headlights, and the cyclist didn't have any lights.

    Driver less cars have radar, the cyclist not having lights shouldn't make a difference to them.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Ok so
    awinner_au wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    The blind corner thing - I don't think driverless cars would be of much help. Sure they could be programed to go the prescribed speed limit of that section which is 15mph, but I almost hit a cyclist while going around that same corner and I was going 10 mph. It was dark, there were no lights other than my car's headlights, and the cyclist didn't have any lights.

    Driver less cars have radar, the cyclist not having lights shouldn't make a difference to them.

    Two things - 1. there have been numerous people who have gotten hit by driverless cars and 2. the issue isn't only that there are no lights but that even on a sunny day you wouldn't see a cyclist until right after you've rounded the bend. I don't see how a driverless car would help in this case unless I just don't understand how that radar works (which is a possibility.
  • awinner_au
    awinner_au Posts: 249 Member
    aokoye wrote: »
    Two things - 1. there have been numerous people who have gotten hit by driverless cars and 2. the issue isn't only that there are no lights but that even on a sunny day you wouldn't see a cyclist until right after you've rounded the bend. I don't see how a driverless car would help in this case unless I just don't understand how that radar works (which is a possibility.

    Wouldn't trust driverless cars just as yet, its early days still. I don't think driverless cars will eliminate all road deaths, just greatly reduce them.
  • sijomial wrote: »
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    @sijomial - what app/utility is that that overlays the grade, speed, etc over the video?

    @jjpptt2
    No idea I'm afraid, not my video. The soundtrack would have been gasping for air and swearing if it had been me!!
    :smiley:

    Probably Garmin VIRB editor?
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Yeah - I
    awinner_au wrote: »
    aokoye wrote: »
    Two things - 1. there have been numerous people who have gotten hit by driverless cars and 2. the issue isn't only that there are no lights but that even on a sunny day you wouldn't see a cyclist until right after you've rounded the bend. I don't see how a driverless car would help in this case unless I just don't understand how that radar works (which is a possibility.

    Wouldn't trust driverless cars just as yet, its early days still. I don't think driverless cars will eliminate all road deaths, just greatly reduce them.

    Yeah - now that I have the fitness to actually bike the hills that I would need to in order to get to school I'm realizing that it's just not safe enough. My route options either involve the narrow bridges that I'm afraid of falling off of, blind corners, or roads with no shoulders and rather steep drop offs. There's a single route that would be okayish during the middle of the day (as opposed to rush hour) so I might take it to school when I have to be there in the summer but honestly it's just so much safer to drive.
  • blobby10
    blobby10 Posts: 357 Member
    As an amateur cyclist who started longer rides in Jan 17, I am often shocked by the lack of hi-viz that cyclists wear. I always have either hi viz yellow vest or hi viz pink on when cycling but the number of riders who zip around wearing black or red or blue outfits and they really can't be seen clearly especially against hedges along country roads.

    As a cyclist (or horse rider), there is nothing that you can wear which will 100% prevent you from having an accident be it v car or lorry or motorbike or horse or pedestrian. But you CAN take responsibility to take away every possible excuse for other roadusers not seeing you! And no, the flashing red light isn't going to help in bright sunlight!
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    Yeah I mean I live in a city where a lot of people commute by bike (for the US). I've done so as well when I lived elsewhere within the city. Heck it's even bike month right now! It's really where with in the city I live that is the issue. I mean even my friends who use their bikes as their sole or nearly their sole method of transportation realize how unrealistic it would be to commute from my house.
  • awinner_au
    awinner_au Posts: 249 Member
    2nd day of winter in sydney. Cold and windy. Going to be my first winter of riding, rain will keep me in bed. :)xogxombgptt9.png
  • Ardael
    Ardael Posts: 245 Member
    Same I use my Garmin with a HR belt to calculate and when I get different readings like when Garmin sync with MFP or Strava I validate the one with the fewer calories because I'm here to lose weight so if I want more calories I'll just have to work harder ^^

    I have 3 bikes. A road racer, a track bike ( as in Velodrome ) and my husband is building me a TT one as a reward for winning my local TT League. And my club owns a wattbike which I use to do my Zwifting.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    I did a metric century today in preparation for the not metric century I'm riding on the 23rd. The longest ride since my tibial tubercle osteotomy last November. I got through it but I did a horrible job in terms of bringing enough food which is a bit out of the ordinary for me. I'm normally pretty good about that but I'm glad I caught myself before century. Next week's long ride will involve a much better eating plan (some sort of food every half an hour).
  • awinner_au
    awinner_au Posts: 249 Member
    Id like to try Zwift, but not knowing whether id stick with it makes me reluctant to stump up for a smart trainer. Haven't found a studio nearby that lets you try Zwift.
  • Ardael
    Ardael Posts: 245 Member
    All you need is a trainer with Bluetooth at first. First week is free. Download the app on your phone and you can sync with the trainer from there.
    You need an ant+ dongle for iOS devices though
  • garystrickland357
    garystrickland357 Posts: 598 Member
    I pretty excited about my new ride. Picked it up today. mcdhfko83xm3.jpeg