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. 

 

Hey there!  I completed the 28-mile course today and felt great!  Hungry, but great at the end.  My legs are a little tired, but not bad, though I'm sure they will be much worse since I have to fly from NC to CA tomorrow (sitting in a coach plane seat for that long is not fun anyway).  The course was mostly rollers, though there were a few long, steep hills in there, and NO flat spaces at all.  Most of the rollers weren't big enough to coast much, so I pedalled almost the entire time.  I ended up riding alone the whole time since I got dropped by the front pack and dropped the guys behind me.  Great fun, and my average came up by .5 mph this ride.  Yay!

Wow, I am surprised to see this thread is still on the first page. Congrats to those of you who are still riding. Last week I clicked off my 4,000th commuter mile. It is starting to get chilly for the night ride home. Temps are down into the low 40's and I don't expect it to get any warmer any time soon. Winter here I come.

Hi everyone,

Well I made it!!!  10,000 miles!!!!

It took 290 days, 34.5 miles/day. conservative estimate(using 17 mph as average speed) is 580 hours of riding, that's 24.2 days on a bike.

I will never do it again, at least not on purpose!  That is way too much time on a bike.

Well I wonder how far I will get by the end of the year. DAN

Let me be the first to congratulate you on your achievment. How many calories did you burn?

Does anyone here live in the Bay Area (CA)?  The reason I ask is that I'm moving here, and now I feel like it might be a huge mistake, mostly for my cycling goals.  I'm sort of locked in now.  Maybe I'm just spoiled by NC, maybe I don't know where to look for the right rides, I don't know.  But right now, I can just hop on my bike and ride in my neighborhood.  San Jose is fairly urban, so road riding for training will require me to drive my bike someplace, I think.  But maybe I'm wrong?  Maybe I'm hyper-ventilating over nothing?

Awesome job Dan, well done..

That is a long time on a bike, but congrats on your achievement..

To answer gmule's question, if you take the conservative figure of 800 calories an hour then Dan burnt 464,000 calories..

Or in a denomination we all understand:

828 Big Macs.

Congratulations Dan!

mlbtracy: I have never lived in the Bay Area but I have always thought it to be bike friendly.  I know that there are lots of wonderful places to ride in CA.  Just look at some of the scenery from the Tour of California.  FWIW I used to live in the suburbs of New York City.  I did all my week day training rides on the streets of Bronxville, Scarsdale, and White Planes.  It wasn't at all bad so don't worry.  And on the weekends I could ride from home to some great roads in NJ or upper Westchester.  I even rode in the City sometimes, Central Park, Prospect Park, or all the way out to Coney Island.  You'll find lots of good rides in your new area.

WAY TO GO DAN!!!!! [and don't any of you mods dare eliminate my all caps ;-) ]

that's unbelievable mileage. major props to you!!

MLBTracy

Try this link

http://www.ebbc.org/maps/map.html

MLB: "There is nothing to fear but fear itself" (FDR?).  I spent some time in that area last year and I saw a lot more bicycle than I see around here.  I was in Santa Clara (I think).  Actually, my business was at Stanford.  Anyway, there were pretty good bike lanes marked off on the streets and a lot of bike shops.  Once you get on the campus, there are thousands of bikes.  Go out there.  Hook up and have fun.  By the way, the hills in that area might make you wish you were back in North Carolina.

Congratulations to Dan. What a great thing to say you've gone 10,000 miles! Very inspiriing!

mlbtracy--I'm sure there are plenty of places to ride up there. I'm in So. Cal. and I love riding around my local towns even though there is traffic. Of course it will be different from NC but you'll adjust. The winter weather is great for one thing.

I hate my tires and my pump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a nice day planned, the weather is perfect for the first timein awhile and next week will be raining.  Was visiting a friend up north and taking my bike on a nice paved route, am dressed, packed a snack........went to air my tires which always gives me trouble...........why didn't I do this yesterday?

On the front tire which is the easier, I couldn't get the pump head off and got frustrated and braced my foot and pulled for all I was worth.............only to hear a big WOOSH of air, as I pulled the valve out.  and the d*mn valve was STILL in the pump.  guess i won't do THAT again

It's Sunday, the bike shops are closed.  And no I haven't bought tools or another intertube yet.  But will this week.

Ohio45,  when you go to the bike shop look on the counter (or ask), to see a small brass adaptor that you put on top of your presta valve.  It will make the valve act like a shafer valve and you won't have the problem of pulling the valve out again. It costs about 2 dollars and is very small. 

I use it all the time when I fill my tires, it's an extra step to screw it on and off but well worth the effort. 

here's how it works,  You remove the plastic cap on your presta valve, open the top of your presta and then screw the adaptor on, now use the big hole on your pump and fill the tire.  It stops a lot of head aches.

DAN

Dan:  thank you so much.  I went anyway and my GF and I just walked, so got to enjoy the beautiful day.

Definately I will get one of the brass adaptors.

I was worried that my $35 pump (with gauge) from Nashbar.com may not have been good enough.  The ones at the bike store were $60 and I was wishing today I'd bought that................but sure don't want to have $95 wrapped up in pumps.

If the brass adaptor works it will be worth more than $2 to me.

The Bay Area is a fabulous place to bike. 

You can get a bike map at local bike shops.  That will tell you how to safely cycle from where you live to nice places to ride.  Bay Area Bike Rides (Hosler) is a book that describes a lot of good rides in the area.

Welcome to the area.

Thanks, guys!  Yeah, the Bay Area is just a very big change from the places I used to live.  Even when I lived in Indy, it was really, really easy to get out to some open expanses, and the Triangle is just very suburban.  I spent all of last week pretty much downtown San Jose and saw a lot of the bike lanes, etc., but couldn't imagine doing much distance riding.  I will take a look around for bike shops, and a friend is putting me in touch with a friend who owns a shop there, too.  And I'll look for the book.  I think I was just having a panic attack.  I found a local club that has a lot of grizzly bear rides (yeah, the hill rides are intense in Bay Area), so I think I just need to connect with some local cyclists when we get moved.

On a side note, my first half metric century is this weekend!  Woot!

Today was my first cool weather commute of the fall. We had 3-4" of snow yesterday and the temp was 28 when I left my house.

I loved the looks and comments about how  crazy i must be to ride to work when it is that cold out. Hehe wait until I come in when it is 0 degrees out side

hello, fellow cyclists.  I edited the original post as I realized I haven't updated it in a long time and a lot of the posters are not even active any more. plus this puts it back on the front page, tee hee!

As for cycling, the weather has been less than perfect lately so not much riding going on. hope the rest of you are getting some in.

BTW hope anyone out in the south CA area is OK and that the fires are leaving you and your loved ones alone.

DAN 

I completed my first half metric century today!  My average is slowly climbing -- I'm at 12.6 mph now, though I had some flats where I went up to my big chainring and cruised at about 19 for awhile.  Still slow, but we had some real whoppers for hills today.  I also practiced climbing out of the saddle some.  It's still disconcerting how the bike tips from side to side, but I'm getting there.  Great event, very well organized and supported with SAG wagons, police and motorcycle escort, good rest stops, great food options, and a nice turnout. 

I am a Downhill mountain bike racer and after talking to several seasoned pros I have put together a workout for my off season (october-april) as well as a 40/40/20 diet.  The only thing I am lacking is a really good plyometric/explosion technique workout something around 1-1.5 hours.  The only thing I have for my workout so far is BMX track runs, those who are not familiar a track is usually a 40 second all out sprint  http://www.uci.ch/imgArchive/Bmx/Organisers/A igle1024.jpg