The biking thread

[daft biker]

I was gunning it on the way home from work a couple of nights back and ripped past two bike cops at like 20mph on the pavement... I was bitterly disappointed when they didn't start chasing me.

Prolly 'cos their bikes are weighed down with so many accessories they don't stand a chance! I think whoever spec'd the cop bikes had shares in Halfords or something

I did once manage to get a cop to stop a car and roll down the window to give me a telling off for running a red light but I'm not complaining as if they had got out the car they might have noticed I'd had a few beers

 

[mp10]

Weekend was fun, me and a few friends went to Wainbody Woods, a small trail in Kenilworth. Its my first time on a trail and wasn't too bad. Although the weather was awesome, some sections were pretty boggy. All in all a good day out.

After looking around on Google Maps, it seems that there are actually quite a few small trails scattered around Coventry, Next up is Binley Woods, which will be more challenging

Here's a few pics:

 

[Sttrobe]

I don't know if this is off topic, but i'm buying my first BMX Bike soon, and planning on making it a 2012 United RN3 BMX bike so just asking in general, is that a good starter bike?

 

[Neal]

Stupid shoes didn't come with the attachments that actually clip into the pedal. Off to the bike shop tomorrow to buy them. Another £3 to splash out, oh the damage to my wallet.



Na, I kid, biking in China is a relatively cheap thing.

The cleats never come with the shoes as there are different types so they usually come with the pedals. Have fun setting them up and wondering why your knees hurt until your get them right.

I was gunning it on the way home from work a couple of nights back and ripped past two bike cops at like 20mph on the pavement... I was bitterly disappointed when they didn't start chasing me.

Stoppie or big skid next time dude 👍

I don't know if this is off topic, but i'm buying my first BMX Bike soon, and planning on making it a 2012 United RN3 BMX bike so just asking in general, is that a good starter bike?

Dunno much about BMX's but this thread may be of use 👍

 

[Aldo]

I thought bunnyhopping over a wee flowerbed in front of them might have done it but apparently they've got better things to do.

 

[W3H5]

The cleats never come with the shoes as there are different types so they usually come with the pedals. Have fun setting them up and wondering why your knees hurt until your get them right.

Will do. The pedals are the same fit as the Shimano SPDs so I'm hoping my local shop keeps them in stock. There was a guy there a few weeks ago getting some fitted so I'm feeling lucky.

I was gunning it on the way home from work a couple of nights back and ripped past two bike cops at like 20mph on the pavement... I was bitterly disappointed when they didn't start chasing me.

I've passed pold here doing 70kph in a 60 zone (down mountain) and all I got were some jaws on the floor followed by the thumbs up and big grins.

 

[Bram Turismo]

5 inner tires later and my bicycle works again!

Appears the rim protection around it had gotten too old, and died off. I spotted a little hole in it, and when I picked the rim up the whole thing fell apart. Not surprising bearing in mind this bike is now at least 4 years old.

Replaced the rim protection, and everything's well now 👍

 

[Submerged]

A question that might invite confusion.

Is there a way to take the stickers off a road bike without leaving glue residue behind? I kinda want more of a cleaner look on the road bike without masses of stickers proclaiming it to be this particular model and how supposedly fast it can go.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Heatgun/Hairdryer and then using masking tape to pull the last of the glue off.

 

[Submerged]

Ah. Going to be slightly tedious then. Cheers!

 

[Neal]

Get it sand blasted and powder coated or resprayed. A local business will probably do it for £40ish although stripping and rebuilding the bike will be time consuming.


I'm off to ride The Beast this Saturday at Coed y Brenin 38km and 1,000m climbing on some of the best trails in the UK, can't wait.

 

[daft biker]

Ah. Going to be slightly tedious then. Cheers!

Could try this stuff once you've peeled the sticker off.....CLICKY.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Ah. Going to be slightly tedious then. Cheers!

It's branding, they wouldn't make it easy to remove, would they!

 

[W3H5]

I have to agree with a hair-dryer. I used to use one for the same thing, only with motorcycle branding sticker. Be careful not to apply too much heat as it can take of the paint itself.

 

[W3H5]

Have fun setting them up and wondering why your knees hurt until your get them right.

Any advice on how to adjust them to stop my knee joint feeling like they'll bust? Or should I just give it a while and hope I get use to it?

I can't say they cause too much grief and they certainly made me faster without realising it. I did 30 minutes to work without even pushing hard.

 

[Neal]

Any advice on how to adjust them to stop my knee joint feeling like they'll bust? Or should I just give it a while and hope I get use to it?

I can't say they cause too much grief and they certainly made me faster without realising it. I did 30 minutes to work without even pushing hard.

They will make your knees, legs and feet feel a bit weird at first but you still need to get the set up about right to begin with. I found the below article quite good and moving the cleat back in the shoes is better IMO. I didn't get too technical working out how far back and just moved it to a position that felt right and seemed more or less equal for each foot which due to difference in the size of each foot means it won't be the same distance back on each shoe.

The cleat angle is what will cause the knee pain if it's wrong. Your feet will naturally point out so you need to angle the cleats in towards your big toe to have the shoes sit right on the pedals. A good way to get a rough idea how much is to sit on the edge of a table with your lower legs and feet hanging down and look how much each foot points out which will be different for each side. Make a mental note or mark with a pen where the straight ahead position is at the point in-line with the cleat on the front of the shoe then point the cleat at this. Go for a ride and pedal hard for a short distance which will settle your shoe in the natural position on the pedal then stop pedalling with your foot forward whilst keeping it in that position on the pedal. Rotate your foot on the pedal to work out if you are in the middle of the SPD cleat float position then adjust and repeat until you're happy and do the same for the other foot to reduce the amount the cleat marks the sole of the shoe making small adjustments easier.

Also put grease on the cleat bolts to make future removal easier and don't fully tighten them until you're happy with the position.

http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/04/power-to-the-pedal-cleat-position/

 

[ExigeEvan]

What Neal said. I found finding my adjustment quite easy, at the forward limit (so toe bias) and only a slight turn. It's my hamstrings that took the biggest battering first time out!

 

[Bram Turismo]

I think I never had any issues at all when I started to ride with click-in shoes. I must've been really lucky when the shop fitted the cleats onto my new shoes that I bought last summer.

I'll agree it feels weird in the start, but right now I wouldn't want to ride without those shoes! When I cycle to school in my regular shoes, it isn't always easy pedaling on those small click-in pedals!

 

[W3H5]

I've found that I have an amount of springy twist before the shoe unclips. It's weird having my feet so parallel to the bike which forces my to bring my knees in but I've heard that's how road cyclists should be positioned any way.

The only other thing I will need to adjust is the position of the cleat as it's on the foremost rung which has my pedalling with my toes! If I bring it back a bit I can set it onto the ball of my foot where it will be more comfortable.

 

[ExigeEvan]

I think I never had any issues at all when I started to ride with click-in shoes. I must've been really lucky when the shop fitted the cleats onto my new shoes that I bought last summer.

I'll agree it feels weird in the start, but right now I wouldn't want to ride without those shoes! When I cycle to school in my regular shoes, it isn't always easy pedaling on those small click-in pedals!

I went for a casual ride with my girlfriend while wearing my clip ins and it was just terrible unclipping/clipping all the time. Certainly couldn't wear them around town, I'd take straps any day.

I've found that I have an amount of springy twist before the shoe unclips. It's weird having my feet so parallel to the bike which forces my to bring my knees in but I've heard that's how road cyclists should be positioned any way.

The only other thing I will need to adjust is the position of the cleat as it's on the foremost rung which has my pedalling with my toes! If I bring it back a bit I can set it onto the ball of my foot where it will be more comfortable.

Toes allow you to utilitise your calf muscles fully!

 

[W3H5]

When I cycle to school in my regular shoes, it isn't always easy pedaling on those small click-in pedals!

This is part of the reason I bought normal pedals with the clip bit in the middle so that one side I can use with normal shoes and the other has the clips.

 

[Neal]

I've found that I have an amount of springy twist before the shoe unclips. It's weird having my feet so parallel to the bike which forces my to bring my knees in but I've heard that's how road cyclists should be positioned any way.

The only other thing I will need to adjust is the position of the cleat as it's on the foremost rung which has my pedalling with my toes! If I bring it back a bit I can set it onto the ball of my foot where it will be more comfortable.

Don't have your feet parallel to your bike, you will properly bugger your knees up. Have them in your natural toe pointing out position they would be in without clips.

When you push hard on the pedals you drop your heel which effectively moves the pedal pivot forward toward your toes therefore to keep it under the ball of your foot you need to start with the cleat positioned further back.

Toes allow you to utilitise your calf muscles fully!

Calf muscles are small and fatigue quickly when pedalling with your toes so the theory of the mid sole cleat position is to reduce the leverage of your foot making it easier for your calf to stabilise your foot therefore letting your big leg and arse muscle do the work.


I'm well hacked off this morning. I was due to go to Coed y Brenin tomorrow for a big ride but my brothers car has broken down which he needs to fix before Monday. If he gets it fixed tomorrow we will still go on Sunday but it's not looking promising and it wouldn't be safe to ride on my own without someone to phone the ambulance when I do something stupid

 

[ExigeEvan]

Calf muscles are small and fatigue quickly when pedalling with your toes so the theory of the mid sole cleat position is to reduce the leverage of your foot making it easier for your calf to stabilise your foot therefore letting your big leg and arse muscle do the work.

Disagree x100000.

Calf muscles are relatively small but they are optimised for endurance. You're using almost their full range of motion just walking, far more RoM than your quads or hamstrings.

The easiest way to demonstrate this is in the gym. Powerlifters and bodybuilders will always train their calf muscles with far, far more volume than they would any other muscle. Heavy-weight and low-rep does little for their development.

So calf muscles are ideal for endurance in my experience.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Cycling on your toes? That must be a horrible experience if you're riding for 3 hours !

 

[Neal]

Disagree x100000.

Calf muscles are relatively small but they are optimised for endurance. You're using almost their full range of motion just walking, far more RoM than your quads or hamstrings.

The easiest way to demonstrate this is in the gym. Powerlifters and bodybuilders will always train their calf muscles with far, far more volume than they would any other muscle. Heavy-weight and low-rep does little for their development.

So calf muscles are ideal for endurance in my experience.

And that's why the mid sole cleat position is a point of contention, I haven't heard that before 👍 I think the important thing with cleat/pedal position is to listen to your body and do what is comfortable. I started with mine further forward and it felt weird then moved it too far back which also felt weird so settled on an in between position. Also stability over rough ground is important on a mountain bike which is helped by the mid sole cleat position regardless of the pedaling efficiency theory.

 

[Submerged]

I would support ExigeEvan about calf muscles needing to be trained extremely hard to see ANY form of gains or improvement.

I had found that hamstrings, quads and hips were easier to train as you just work with a power orientated workout and you see improvements pretty quickly. But to improve the calves, that required you to actually hit the pain barrier and keep it in the pain threshold to see it either grow or get better muscle fatigue in that muscle. It was a right bitch to train and I hated it at first.

Also, when you cycle on the road, you kinda want to use most of the legs as efficiently as possible and effectively for the distance you want to go. So if you weren't really using your calf muscles, you could be said to be not as efficient as you could be, to take the strain of cycling off the hamstrings and quads. Although they'll still be burning anyway.

 

[W3H5]

Before the clips, before my calves began to get a proper workout all the development in muscle was in my upper legs. Hulk Strength! They looked odd because they were so much larger than the rest of me.

Now after just 30km I can feel the improvement in my calf muscles but will definitely have to set the clips back a bit, my toes went numb, but I don't know if that's because the shoes were over tight.

Anyhow, right leg fine, left worse for wear. The left knee joint feels strained which hopefully will be sorted with some cleat manipulation.

 

[daft biker]

Try pushing your bike up a big steep hill to train your calf muscles. I end up with burning calf muscles most weeks

 

[W3H5]

I live in a mountain city! There be no pushing for me, only riding, besides, my bike weighs less than my hair!

 

[ExigeEvan]

Cycling on your toes? That must be a horrible experience if you're riding for 3 hours !

Not really.


I admit it's very much down to personal preference, but the idea that calf muscles are small and so fatigue fast just doesn't hold water with me.