Join in the fun; The Calorie-Count Cycling Club...

Welcome to all who have an interest in anything cycling of any kind.( road, mountain, commuting, stationary, whatever).

This is the place to come to ask that question you have been wanting to ask,

or tell that story about your latest adventure riding your bike,

find out how to use cycling to get in better shape, or anything else you can think of.

So, to start, tell us, what you ride, where you ride and what type of riding you enjoy.

Come back often too check out what's going on and see what's on everyones mind or add your knowledge to the group. 

 

carrihound to the rescue!!!! I only have flat bars so I may have to get bar ends installed. I will try the other suggestions first although I am not happy about moving the bar since I just got the computer to work right. Oh well, I can always mess some more with it. I suspect the pain is because I lean my entire upper body weight on my arms (probably locking in my elbows without thinking about it). It's only my left elbow though. When we moved from Florida I had to paint ceilings and walls in a 4 bedroom house by myself and I developed a tennis elbow. This feels exactly like it.

Oh man, to be 16 again and not have to deal with this stuff, lol.

surprising how much abuse the upper body takes in cycling. i bet it does relate to your posture if you're locking your elbows or leaning too much on your arms. i hope some of these tips work out & relieve that elbow.

My cheap mtb has bar ends.  I never used em for anything.

Try riding keeping a slight bend in your arms.  If you can't do that then something on the bike needs adjusted.  Maybe it's the height of the bars at the stem... maybe it's the seat is too far back.. but whatever it is I think you can figure it out by trying to purposefully change how you ride.  The deficiency should end up obvious.   If you are reaching too far, raising the bars even an inch or two can make a lot of difference.

I'm no bike pro though.  Just another bicyclist :)

Jane,

You may want to check the angle of your seat. If it is pointing down too much in the front you will put more strain on your arms to keep you from sliding forward.

i'll chime in that bar ends aren't for everyone. as nightc1 points out, using them isn't necessarily a comfy thing and you might not like them at all. for me personally, it's not easy to control the bike from that far out on the bars & it makes my reach too wide (causing pain in my upper back & shoulders). you don't want to trade one pain for another!   

leaning too much on the front might mean your seat is too high or sloped forward at the wrong angle.   the seat, bar & posture adjustments are free and should do the trick if you can follow through on the changes.

one thing that helped me is to look at a photo of my position on the bike. have someone take a few pictures of you in profile as you ride and you might be surprised at your positioning. it makes it easy to see where your position differs from the standard, recommended bike posture.

and to be clear, i'm definitely no pro or expert!!

Hi everyone!

Hey Jane, You'll enjoy this!  Well it's a beutiful day here in Ohio and I wanted to do a long ride, so I desided to ride to Medina and see if i could find you.  Well I went to the resturant I thought you worked at on route 42, only to find out you work out by 71.  Well it was 32 miles to the first place and I figured another 10 to the other so I guess I'll have to try it again sometime, Nice 65 mile ride though, sorry to have missed you!!

Well me and the family are off to the North Carolina mountains for vacation and while I'm there I'm doing abike ride called the BLood Sweat and Gears ride 13,150 ft of climbing in 106 miles, I guess I'll find out just how good my climbing abilty really is.  I'll tell you guys all about it when we get back.

In the mean time enjoy yourselves and ride on!!

DAN

I really need to keep an eye on the weather forcast. On my commute today it was 97* when I rode in. No wonder I was a little slower today. 

I also mapped my commute on Bikely.com and posted a profile picture in my pictures page here.  I am not so sure I should have looked at my commute profile. I knew I had a couple of hills but I wasn't aware that I had a 845ft climb on my way to work. Now I know why it takes me less time to get home. More downhill on the way home.

Thank you guys for all the help with my posture and the elbow problem. Tonight on my way to work I kept my mind on the elbow and made sure both arms were bent a little. It really did help but I am going to have to take a look at the position of the seat and all.

Note to self: When someone here gives advice, pay attention! A while back you guys told me to check my tire pressure. Well, as usual I didn't do it and I couldn't understand why I was having such a hard time. I blamed it on being so out of shape. Until today! I checked my tires and discovered that they were way under inflated (or what ever you want to call it). So I learned my lesson: right amount of air = smooth fast ride. Duh, I could kick myself.

Dan, I can't believe you rode all the way to Medina! I live right behind the Target store (across from the Arby's on 42) and ride to the Arby's by I-71 every day. I am bummed that I missed you. Very impressed with the 65 mile trip though. One of these days I want to be able to do that. "Blood, sweat and gears" - just the name makes me want to give up, lol. Hope you have a great vacation and yes, we definitely want to hear all about the ride when you get back.

gmule, I am in the same boat with taking longer going to work than coming home. I wish it was the other way around because going home I am not on a schedule.

Well, I better get to bed. Tomorrow morning when my son goes to summer school, I am shooting for at least 3 hours on the bike plus my commute to and from work.

Jane

Jane if I don't have to get up to early in the morning I will add an extra 10 or 20 miles to my ride home. This is the time of year I love comming home at midnight. There is usually nobody out  and the city is pretty when it is sleeping. Now if I could figure out what to do about those rabbits that jump out at my front tire everything would be perfect.

hi there, i m chaitra or CD..i've jus started cycling..its a stationary one..m doing it for 20 mins daily..earlier i used to walk..but i feel cycling helps reduce wt much faster isnt it?

Dan,

Do you get to ride back down that 13,000+ feet at the end?   I think that's the only way I'd do a ride like that because it's such a fun reward to get to ride without having to really do anything but tuck in and be ready to hit the brakes.

Enjoy your vacation!

______________

No riding for me today.  I thought I was going to get to do my regular thursday thing but I have some financial stuff in a town a few cities over to take care of after work and so I gotta cancel this weeks ride.  I probably won't be back in time for even going to the gym for the spinning class.  Oh well, can't win em all.

I've been reading a lot over at the parktools website.  I had found that before but didn't get to far into it.   I think this will help me with that creak sound I hear when pedaling hard.   I'll go over the bike this weekend with some of the other tips since it looks like I may have to online order the crank tool.   IMO, and i'm no bike expert, I think the crank just needs an extra little turn of tightening.   But I want to break the whole thing down to learn anyway, re-lube it all, then re-assemble.   In the next several months i should know just about everything possible to service on a bike and how to replace just about anything as well.   I did this to my huffy and my bro's huffy back when I was a young teen (he never rode his bike so it was like a learning bike for me).  But that tech is a lot lower end than what's in my roadbike even if it's older tech as well... it is pretty well tried and true stuff.

Hi there CD. I have no idea about the difference in weight loss when it comes to bicycle vs walking. Personally I have found biking to really do the trick for me. When it comes to weight loss I am a believer in doing it slow and steady to keep it off for a long time.

gmule, that is a great idea about adding the extra miles at night. I may have to do that. According to my father-in-law those rabbits makes a "killer" stew, lol.

Figured out my problem with the elbow. The seat is too high compared to the handlebar so I will be doing some adjusting today.

Just came home from riding 20 miles. One slight problem though; I forgot the sunscreen so now I look like a giant tomato in my face!

Jane

jane, if the handlebars will raise up at the stem, then that's the best place to make the adjustment.  You don't want to compromise the seat height for your arms only for your legs or knees to start hurting.

Hopefully your stem allows the handlebars to be raised up.   Mine gave me a few very helpful inches.  Plus it gave me one more normal sized spot to mount something on the bike.

nightc3 that is exactly what I am going to look at. I have the seat height just perfect and I am not going to mess with that. I am waiting for my husband to come home so that he can help me - tight bolts and stuff has never been my strong point.

Hi CD,

Just thought I would post a little testimonial for cycling.  My wife and I started a healthy eating, calorie counting and exercise new way of life in Jan 07. We decided we wanted to add cycling as a regular part of our exercise plan. We had always biked some, and so committed and got new bikes.

Today I hit my orginal goal of losing 30# down to 160# in less than 6 months. My wife is down to 121# from 159#.  We bike at least 3 times a week and are now up to around 20 miles per session with some serious hill climbing. So for us cycling was a great way to drop some weight in addition to the 5-6 miles we walk most days. We have also added weight training 2 days a week. And we swim in the lake 3 times a week.

We like to ride out in the country, find it very relaxing and interesting too. I would highly recommend it as a good exercise for your weight loss and to tone and condition your body. If you like the exercise bike indoors, you will love to ride outside.

I am 64 and my wife is 59 and if we can do it I know you will have no problem. Good luck.

Regards, Norman

Jane, Sunscreen is a must, don't ever go without it, one of my club buddy's just had surgery to remove skin cancer!!!

night, as I recall, the profile is 53 miles of climbing, which is 53 miles of decenting.  One of the climbs is like 1800 ft in 5 miles or something like that with a final pitch at 22% for the last 1/2 mile, OUCH!!!  The profile is at their website,  just put in a search:  "Blood sweat and gears" and it will come up. look for "god's country century challenge", look under maps.

norman, me and my wife have been very successful with the weight loss, I was down too 139 at one point which was a bit too low, I'm now at 145 which feels good. You left out the part about how nice it is to ride together, fact is Tina has gotten so good she's starting to scare me, she has done some personel TT's of 36 miles with her best being 18.8 mph ave and she did a ride with me pulling for 40 miles with a 19.6 mph ave, Tina is taking her bike this week and is going to try the mountains with me.  The girl is driven!!

DAN

Good grief Dan. I just checked out the blood sweat and gears site. That looks absolutely horrific! I wish you all the luck and can't wait to hear how it went.

Hey Dan,

I know exactly what your mean. Judie goes past me on the climbs like I am stopped.  All I ever hear is "passing left", lol. I think she looks around for routes with all hills. 

We do really enjoy biking together, not quite at your level, but we have lots of fun. I am going to try to get down to 155 and see how that feels, probably the lowest I would want to go.

Have fun with your mountain test, I can only imagine how tough that will be.

Regards, Norman 

hey norman,
its really great that u have lost so much wt.its inspiring.combining diff modes of exercises is a great idea.thanks.i guess i will continue with my walks and also keep up cycling.

I'm not sure on the distance that I ride to work every day, but most days I make it around 20 min or so, sometimes 25min, but I noticed since I've been trying to up my fitness and lose weight that now when I push I can make it in 15 which was impossible for me before!!  Yay!