The biking thread

You should stretch before any strenuous activity.

And thanks for the sponge grips!
 
I find it best to warm up the muscles a bit, then stretch. When I run, I usually take a quick 1/4 mi jog down the street and back...then I stretch...then I run. On the bike, I usually take a few laps around the parking lot or I ride up and back a short section of the trail, then I do some stretches before heading out on an extended ride.

You should also stretch when you are finished. Otherwise you'll cramp up and feel very stiff the next day.
 
Lack of water can cause just as much (if not more) soreness than not stretching. Lactic acid can build up in the legs and leave you pretty sore for days. Just keep drinking water, you can't have too much.
 
Mike Rotch
Silly question, but I'll chip it in anyway:

Is it adviseable to warm up before a ride? Like stretches...💡
Click to expand...

I've got a busted knee joint and haven't ridden for over a week due to not warming up. This happened after riding more than 25k!

I took a rest for a few beers, assumed that the previous journey was enough of a warm up and then raced a taxi for 3/4k. Silly me. :(

slowman
Lactic acid can build up in the legs and leave you pretty sore for days.
Click to expand...

True, and very painful that stuff can be but the more it's experienced the easier it is to block out that pain.
 
TB
And thanks for the sponge grips!
Click to expand...

Bad man!

I should really get into the habit of warming up, or at least having a leisuring first km or so. This body isn't getting any younger! Good tip on drinking water - I am really bad at doing such a simple thing every day, really :guilty:.
 
Regarding Warming up, yes I agree it is important.

I generally take it easy for the first 4-5miles, when you are warmed up you will feel your legs "open up", the stiffness goes, the cramping goes, and you will find the rest of the ride much easier...you can definately tell when your warmed up, and I find without stretching it takes longer to "open up"
 
I don't stretch but I understand what you mean by 'opening up' after the few few miles of easy riding. There becomes that point when your body just seems more ready for the task and legs muscles become more like rubber bands than stiff springs.
 
Mike Rotch
Silly question, but I'll chip it in anyway:

Is it adviseable to warm up before a ride? Like stretches...💡

Oh and Neil, those sponge grips haven't arrived from the US yet :grumpy:
Click to expand...

I started getting cramps in my calves a while ago so took that as a cue to start stretching before rides although I always forget to do it afterwards, will have to be more disiplined. chuyler1's method sounds good but I guarantee I'll never make time to do that.

Still no grips, even though you ordered them like Tommy Cooper?!
 
Thats's rough but made me :lol: Only because he's fine!

I had a good ride tonight, went out with my cousin again for a night ride, was great although it rained alot, done about 6miles round the forest, would of gone longer but I had a rather annoying off that bent my Mech Hanger....I managed to bend it back enough to be able to use the middle of the cassete but that's it. It was and still is extremely irritating but hey-ho.
All in all a good night, and my now finished Light rig is mental 👍
 
You guy are lucky to have access to trails and such for riding. There's not one blooming cycle lane in this whole city. :(

When I lived in London (outskirts [Harold Hill]) I was 5 minutes from a great set of unofficial trails which the local kids rode on their stolen DTs. I always rode road but would often go and watch then on the jumps, some of them were pretty good.
 
Another 10km ride done today - a bit gassed from the same yesterday, I need to avoid overdoing it.

Still struggling with cornering though - the leaning part, which means I end up understeering off like a noob. I adopted a "Rossi" leg-out technique which helped, but surely that's just poor technique..:grumpy:
 
I tend to swing my weight over the back wheel while cornering so that the front is manageable and can turn quite easily.

10k should be easy everyday if it's just a casual ride although if you are doing some stamina training and gunning it I suppose it might leave you a bit out of puff.
 
I am trying to build stamina and gunning it at the moment for about 8km of that; there is a +-3.5km loop of the park (with a cycle lane) which has a mixture of long, gradient and flat bits. The first 1km out the door being downhill and flat bits on the route I found. No point in coasting around for km on end and claiming its a workout :D

The leaning part comes on the road to the park and shortcuts through throughfares.

Next stage is to add an extra loop of the park!
 
Over time stamina will improve. I use interval training up mountains to build my stamina.

After spending 1 day a week doing nothing steaming up a mountain for 2k and them coming back down and repeating for hours I found cruising at decent road speeds on the flats was a piece of pie.
 
Mike Rotch
Another 10km ride done today - a bit gassed from the same yesterday, I need to avoid overdoing it.

Still struggling with cornering though - the leaning part, which means I end up understeering off like a noob. I adopted a "Rossi" leg-out technique which helped, but surely that's just poor technique..:grumpy:
Click to expand...

Get yourself set up on Endomondo, if you've got a GPS phone there are apps that track your rides but if not you can enter the workouts manually when you've finished. The website has lots of swish charts and graphs and even tells you how many burgers you've burned off...which is nice.

You'll get used to leaning the bike the more you ride, watch some road racing vids to see how far they lean their bikes over without crashing...just don't searches for crashes :scared:
 
Mike Rotch
Another 10km ride done today - a bit gassed from the same yesterday, I need to avoid overdoing it.

Still struggling with cornering though - the leaning part, which means I end up understeering off like a noob. I adopted a "Rossi" leg-out technique which helped, but surely that's just poor technique..:grumpy:
Click to expand...
The best technique is to lean your bike, and not your body.

Watch this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IoNOvtwxpxo#t=222s

The technique works well at any speed and once you try it, it will start to click and you'll build confidence.
 
Thanks for the vid. 👍 Neil sent me a link describing that which was a great piece of info, and now seeing it in action might just connect the dots. I definitely have to try that out.
 
Thanks Neal! Fun and rush is what it's all about!

And at what Floats said ALWAYS WHERE YOUR HELMETS haha.

P2010092.jpg

Picture of me from over a year ago. Took an 8ft fall to the head at the skatepark, with my helmet on. Temple took initial impact. Luckily the only thing that happened was chipped tooth, split chin/lip, and a black eye haha. Going to school the next day was great :crazy:
 
I'm going to Coed Llandegla on sunday, should be fun as I've not been since it was covered in snow. Although it's been reasonable weather all week I always remember Llandegla as a rather muddy place so I popped the Panaracers back on. They'll stay on until spring now. I'm also looking around for new frames, after I sort out a new camera I'm going to be replacing the Pace RC303 with a full suss.
 
You'll have fun but the climb up will be even more of a bitch because they've felled loads more trees so it's exposed to pretty much all the way to the top, obviously it's the same climb but it just felt longer.

I'm off for a ride around Billinge hill on Sunday with my mate from work, not done it before but it looks quite good judging by YouTube vids from a local bike club. Also upon investigating my bottom bracket it's not just on its way out but completely knackered. Hopefully it won't seize up before the replacement arrives through the week!
 
So I don't think I'm going to Llandegla tomorrow, my dad's come down with man flu. We'll either go for a short local loop or I'll go road riding for a bit on my own.
 
I ended up going for a short XC loop today and felt much better than my previous trip to Cannock. I rode on my own with some music in my ears and a warm afternoon glow on my skin, it was blissful. I've discovered why I love riding all over again.
 
That's cool, can't beat riding on a crisp sunny day! 👍

I'm having a nightmare sourcing a Mech Hanger from Halfords, man I hate those cowboys!
 
Nice one Floats, good to hear you've got the bug again 👍 My ride around Billinge Hill yesterday was good fun and nicely muddy, my mate is a lucky sod having routes like that on his doorstep but it's only a half hour drive for me to get there so I can still do it of a weekend.


I share your loathing for Halfords Mike. I emailed them to ask what bottom bracket size my bike has and it took them a week to reply with "The best one to use would be a 118mm version which should be fine to use as the original is 122mm." WTF :confused: If it's 122mm then a 118mm BB is wrong :dunce: Once the BB tool arrived in the post and I took it out myself I discovered it is in fact a 113mm BB :dunce: :dunce: It's no wonder they have such a poor reputation.

If you can't get your local Halfords to get this hanger in stock just get this one for £2 more. Check to make sure it's definitely the right one and buy 2 so you've got a spare. 👍


EDIT:

I've just emailed Halfords with the below, probably wasting my time but it's good to rant :P

"I’m not very impressed with the reply taking a week and being wrong!

Stating the best one is 118mm because the original is 122mm is nonsense, if it’s 122mm then the correct one would be 122mm. When I took the bottom bracket out I discovered it is actually 113mm so neither of the sizes you stated were right and I now have to return the bottom bracket I had ordered and wait for another one to arrive in the correct size!

Is it any wonder Halfords has such a poor reputation as a bike shop but at least it means proper local bike shops get plenty of business sorting out your errors."
 
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I had a mate from college work for Halfords in the car audio section and even he took his bike to a bike shop because the mechanics there weren't any more qualified to fix bikes than my sister. He did use his staff discount to get us all cheap snap-ons though. :sly:

Today, after weeks of waiting for my knee to feel better I had a steady ride into the city centre, a round trip of 30ish km. I stopped off for a Pizza Hut in the city to stock up on fats and sugars and then took the long route back over the mountains.

I was pleasantly surprised that my fitness level hadn't dropped much and my knee held out with no issues. Saying that, I only used the top crank gear going down hill and didn't break any speed limits today. Popped the chain off once with a shift a bit too fast for the poor thing, it still needs replacing.

While in town I had a butchers at a lid to shut up Mrs Shem about me breaking my nut if I hit the hard stuff. £35!!!! For something that is made up the road! They had cheaper ones but there's not much point having a helmet if it's not going to do the job. I'm going to have a look online where I'm sure to get a better deal. For a Chinese retailer my local bike shop is rather expensive due to cycling, in this city any way, being a leisure activity for the wealthy.

So, a nice outing to summarise. Getting back to speed limits fitness is going to take a few more hard rides but that shouldn't take more than two weeks providing me knee keeps well.
 

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