sifu vin_ann told me about this thread in LYN and after trying to go through most of it to gather some insight to the world of cylcing, I've finally decided to do a post. There's some awesome information here with a good balance of BS, videos, memes, images and photos of chicks

I recently got myself a road bike and boy road bikes has improved so much since the last time I rode one. The last time I rode one the gear levers were still on the down tube and it was a hand-me down.

Imagine my astonishment when changing the gears involves moving the whole brake lever (shimano) hahahaha jakun
Was rather wobbly on the bike at first and took me a while to get accustomed to riding on the hoods instead of the drops but I feel like I have better control over the brakes on the drop compared to the hoods.

After 1/2 hour on the bike my ass hurts like hell. Was wearing normal shorts. Is that suppose to be happening or it's just my ass not used to the harder seat ? Will getting a bike shorts with padding help ?

Despite that I managed to do 10-12 km on Saturday and 12 km on Sunday. One thing for sure is i'm wayyyyy out of shape and had to stop often coz my calves were cramping up but more so my ass was hurting like hell... plus not confident on drinking water and riding at the same time ... LOL

Died on a couple of hills and had to do the walk of shame ... hahahaha going downhill was fun though ...

Overall I guess body has to get used to the position and the ass has to break in ?? if there's such a thing LOL

Hope don't get poisoned too much here

Must go Batu caves sembahyang first la if wanna sit on that

Nah ended up with ridley. They had it in my size and was on promo

still reading the benefits of chia seed .. how do you usually consume it ?? in a shake ??

Didn't ride the bike for two days and did some minor adjustments to the seat position. This morning rode it around 5km to the train station and it doesn't hurt as much as before even with just normal slacks. Will have to try a longer ride this weeekend and see how it goes. Hope my bike is still there when I get back home from work

Was funny riding bike with office attire and shoe but the 14-16 deg in the morning certainly helped and didn't really sweat much coz was taking it easy. Tried spinning more than mashing and can notice the difference despite it only being a short ride. Will definitely need to work on finding my cadence and maintaining it, eventually trying to increase it over time.

My extra luggage this morning in my sling bag



This post has been edited by yolk: Nov 28 2012, 06:26 AM

Planning to get some bike shorts over the weekend. How do I know which padding is good and which isn't ? Also i've been doing some research and it's recommended that riders lube the padding and nether region before putting on the shorts to reduce/eliminate chaffing especially when doing long rides .. ermm what kind of lubes to use and is there other generic brand/makes that can be used that cheaper compared to getting it at the bike shop ??

Thanks

ok thanks. Will have to compare those really expensive ones with cheaper ones to see the difference in the padding. Might just end up with whatever that's on sale first

DAMNNNNNNNNNN ... those trek looks sweet

went to a custom bike show over the weekend and despite not being able to differentiate what makes a good frame .. it was still nice to see all the bikes




















Attached thumbnail(s)

yup yup I'm currently in Australia and yes that's the bike. Really awesome up, close and personal

hhaahah no worries .. at the moment it's for only .. rider need to upgrade first before the bike


i'm in melbourne .. how bout yourself ?

yo man .. welcome !!

This post has been edited by yolk: Dec 4 2012, 05:45 AM

over here was freaking cold .. 11 deg with 25 km/h crosswind/headwind feels like i'm barely moving at times ... but the tailwind was fun

saw my first fat bike the other day ..

is there a list of strava users here ? Would love to connect

Even using normal GPS or Google maps there are people who got killed .. is it the app fault ?

True that

that's a really awesome kickstarter project

A friend just showed me this video about Mt Baw Baw in Melbourne. It's apparently one of the harder mountains to climb and is classified as a Hors Category




http://youtu.be/QpC95lCsPjY

how to embed youtube video ??



This post has been edited by yolk: Dec 14 2012, 07:10 AM

ok here goes the youtube video



here's more details on the ride

Rise – 718m
Grade Average – 13%
Grade Max – 20%

Just an update on my cycling attempts Some time back I was looking around for a pair of cycling shorts and asked for advice here but because of the many brands and choices it was hard to narrow down to a single choice. In the end I just went to my LBS and got something that was on sale, which was a Limar bike shorts.

It was a huge difference cycling with a proper bike shorts compared to just normal shorts and I managed to do a 20+km ride, which was a big deal considering it was pretty difficult to hit 10km without feeling loads of pain where the sun don't shine. That was two weekends ago.

Last weekend took the bike for a commute more than a proper ride and managed to be on the saddle for 2-3 hours off and on and travelled almost 40km . 2 bottles of water was definitely not enough and had to refill a number of times along the way Met a few hills that killed me but had fun.

Also dropped by another LBS and got another pair of cycling shorts, this time it was Netti and after owning and wearing one I can totally see the difference in the chamois as the Netti had much better chamois which had different thickness on certain parts of the chamois. Wore it yesterday and managed to clock in another 20+ km. My ass was thanking me for the new shorts



I'm definitely enjoying my ride more and more as time goes by. Still working on distance and endurance and increasing the distance on one long ride

Question : How does one keep hydrated over a long distance ride ? I don't think I can survive on two bottles on water

This post has been edited by yolk: Dec 17 2012, 11:50 AM

yeah that's what I'm doing now. It's fine if it's riding in the city or familiar places but some rides out of the city or rural areas no place to refill la .. something will have to learn and manage by listening to the body more and drinking more frequent instead of when feeling thirsty

thanks for the tips. Definitely taking time to enjoy the view especially after a climb.

boss, you ultra runner la used to hard core distance already

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Added on December 21, 2012, 9:32 amare you a cyclist ?



This post has been edited by yolk: Dec 21 2012, 09:32 AM

Lovely morning everyone. Had an awesome ride over the weekend and managed to complete a 35km ride. Definitely getting more used to being on the saddle for longer periods of time. Also manage to survive on two bidons and was left with less than 1/4 after the ride. Drank lotsa water the night before and in the morning before heading out for the ride. I guess that helped ensure that I wasn't dehydrated during the ride.

Now I have even more questions after the ride. Forgive me if it's very basic but I've only had the bike for a month now and each day I ride I learn and find out something new.

Q1. Is there such a thing as brake fade on road bikes ? The last thing I want happening while descending is to find out that there's no bite in the brake

Q2. Bike wobble, how and why does it happen ? How to recover from one especially when descending at high speeds ?

Q3. When you're in high gear descending and approaching a hill .. the proper thing to do is drop a few gears to be in the correct gear for the climb. Now my question is the cadence up hill is definitely most of the time lower than on the straight .. what if you're in a high gear and climbing it out of the seat and realise you're in too high of a gear .. how do you drop gear in such situations ? sit down .. release tension on pedals .. drop gear .. get out of seat and continue climbing ?

These are just some of the questions I had while riding yesterday especially when descending some of the hills. Million things were running through my mind and was busy trying to keep an eye out for pebbles, uneven road, potholes etc .. was kinda scary going down at such fast speeds but the adrenaline was definitely pumping

butthead,

thanks you very much for the explanation. Good to know that brake fade is not really an issue when descending except if it's wet. At least I know I can stop if I really had to.

As for the wobble, yes I was talking about speed wobble. Was watching a few video on youtube and one of it was about speed wobble and this was while descending. I'm obviously not going anywhere near as fast yet but wanted to just know the technicality and cause of it. At least I'm mentally prepared even though real life situations might be totally different.



as for shifting .. I guess I definitely need to anticipate the hill and my own capabilities before trying to attack it. At the moment I'm still doing all my climbing seated and wanted to know the correct way to shift. Don't want to prematurely wear out the drive train.