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. 

 

Thanks hkd_bear!

I'll look into the cycling clubs.  And I probably could ride during the year, but I use my mom's bike during the summer and I live in a different city during school.  Hopefully this summer I'll be able to get a bike to ride next year.

It's so exciting now that the weather's nice again!

Hi, if you guys have the patience for a real newb, I would like to join.  I have never been a serious cyclist, but I need to find some kind of cardio exercise and cycling is more enjoyable than any of the others.  Plus my husband really likes it, so he will drag me out.

I am not quit sure what kind of bike I have, (now you guys are going to kick me out for sure), it is some kind of mountain bike like thing that I got at a cycling shop for $300 or so.  Probably not very good, but I am not sure that I am a serious enough cyclist to get much benefit from something fancier.

We ride on the roads and in parks around our house.  Lots of good bicycle paths in the area.  I want to join one of the local cycling clubs and do Saturday rides with them.  Most of the really local clubs sound waay too hardcore for me, but there is one in Irvine that sounds like it could be my speed.  I want to show up for their newbie ride next month.

Hello, hello!

Fairly "newby" to CC. I think that this is a great thread. Yeah for me, yeah for us!  Been cycling for almost 3 years (2 good seasons without injury).  My hubby and I took it up as a "common thread" we wanted to develop.  We ride a lot together, until he goes "turbo" on me and then.............. well we don't ride together, until I catch up.  Serious athlete in other arenas before our great friends pulled us into this sport and here I am.  Fought the weather here in Vegas with killer wind and bitter cold (for us desert rats, all relative right?). Stayed on for most of the winter but loving the warmer weather coming on.  Did my first EVER TT recently, scared myself by putting my butt on the line. I try and teach my little ones something that I just keep telling myself also: "we do hard things".  IT FEELS GREAT! Will probably do it again.  Oh yeah, my BIG race is LOTOJA a 206 mile, one day race. Got my work cut out for me!  Took 2nd place on a relay team last year.  If all goes well, doing the whole thing this year.

Hi there!

I was just wondering if anyone could tell me the difference between Shimano 105s and Ultegras.  I'm looking at getting a new triathlon bike and I'm not sure what the difference is.  All three of the bikes I'm looking at have Dura Ace bar end control shifters. 

Also, anyone have any comments on bontrager wheels/tires/cranks? 

I have been cycling for a year on a bike I bought on Ebay.  I'm looking at purchasing a new one after I graduate from College [in three weeks!!!] but I won't have time to go to a bike shop (all ~30mins away) to get some help until I get home. 

Sorry if this has been posted already, I looked back a few posts and didn't see it but I didn't have the time/motivation to look back 1124 more posts : )

Yay sunshine and taking the bikes off the trainers! : )

Lot's of good stuff going on.  The D.C. weather has been tolerable so I have generally been outside at least a couple of day per week all year.  That together with trainer workouts comes to over 1600 miles for the year.  I am shooting for 3 bike commute days per week but so far I have only averaged a little over 1 because of weather and meeting schedules.

I got in a 68 mile tour of PG county yesterday afternoon.  Makes me feel kind of sorry for the weight lifting crowd.  I mean why would imprison your self in a dank, smelly gym, when you could be outside in the sun and fresh air for 6 hours checking out what everyone else is doing, chugging up hills and flying down the other side, slugging down Gatorade and energy bars and counting the miles til you can put your bike away and rest your weary body.

ilovewater: As far as I can tell the Ultegra components are more expensive than the 105 components.  I have 105 components on my road bike and Dura-Ace on my touring bike.  I haven't noticed any difference.  The big differences between the bikes are 5 pounds and  a 9 speed cassette versus a 10 speed cassette.  The 9 speed cassette has looser tolerance and  as a result more tolerance for abuse.  I think the three factors that should influence your choices are a) which bike strikes your fancy b) what kind of riding will you be doing (in my case the touring bike is about the best match) and c) which component set comes stock on the bike you select.

So I still have my bike at my summer home in Iowa and I've taken it out twice so far, once on Easter Sunday, had to return when it started snowing (!) but after it had finished snowing, the sun was shining and I was able to take it out on the 10 mile MRT trail (one branch of it anyway). The other time was a couple weeks ago, I took the other branch of the MRT which has a really forbidding hill to start with. The road eventually becomes a gravel road (actually it looks like it was once surfaced then whoever became tired of maintaining it and just started dumping gravel on it). I rode for a good 8 miles before turning around and heading back. The Schwinn bike handled amazingly well on the gravel given it is a recreational bike and not a mountain or trail bike or anything. It was a neat (if tough) ride and I saw a huge deer (that baby must've been 200 lb at least!) as well as several cows and horses.

In Chicagoland where I live I had to buy a new bike because mine was stolen last year. So I got another Schwinn Midtown. It's good enough for my usage. Today I took it to the grocers and back (@2.5 mile), which is the first time ever that I have used a bike for transportation vs. just for recreation. Can't beat the gas mileage!

aovermy: That's too bad about your Chicago bike.  But the Schwinn is a good bike and it sounds like it fits your riding style.  Mountain bikes have two adaptations for who spend a lot of time in rough conditions.  They have shock absorbers and tires designed to grip in loose dirt and mud.  A "comfort" bike with big, low pressure tires has plenty of shock absorbing capability and the big tires work well on poorly maintained roads because they role over stuff like gravel.  By the way, I have seen pictures of everyday people riding bikes in the Mid East and Africa.  They are all riding bikes like the ones I had when I was growing up -- what we call "comfort" bikes today.  They make great, economical all around transportation machines.

Took my bike out for a spin today, about 35 minutes and *mumble* miles - 5.8 to be precise. Not exactly a speed run and I'm never going to win any distance awards, but it was nevertheless fun ;)

I had the joy yesterday of once again being bitten by an unfamilier dog but to make the ride even more interesting my seatpost broke a couples of miles from home.  If you want a new kind of workout ride a few miles standing up!  I got a new post this evening and installed it so I should be back on the road tomorrow.

tr, hope you're ok. It's so scary when you're cruising along and a big dog comes barreling out of nowhere.

The weather is beautiful today. It would be a great day to take off and go for a ride.  Let's all hope for sunshine and warm temps.

I rode in the rain for the first time this weekend, it was my first attempt at a triathlon.  It I chose the mini (not quite up to snuff on swimming sprint distance, but maybe this summer).  It was kind of scary.  Someone crashed pretty badly on a corner, although he did get up and complete the course. I have a newfound respect for you hardcore riders.

I read a book about triathlon.  It is probably as close as I am ever going to get to one.  Man those things are killer!  I have great respect for triathletes now.

 "It's so scary when you're cruising along and a big dog comes barreling out of nowhere." 

It is scary when that happens but that's not what happened this time.  I was almost at a complete standstill because the road was blocked by some people unloading some stuff from a pick-up.  The little dog came out of nowhere and bit my leg before I even knew she (her name is Daisy) was there.  She belonged to the folks with the truck and they were more upset than I was.  They provided antiseptic and bandages and gave me their number in case I have any problems with it.

I did a very short triathlon a few years ago. It was a lot of fun even though I'm not much of a runner.  I've been thinking about doing it again this summer.

The weather here has been great the last couple of days.   I actually road twice yesterday.

Sunday and Monday were rain days -- serious rain days.  Unfortunately, I had scheduled maintenance on my car and had to commute by bike between the dealership and the metro.  It rained pretty hard on my trip to pick up the car.

Yesterday and today were great riding days.  I settled for an evening ride mostly through parks yesterday.  Today I commuted -- in shorts and a shortsleeve jersey.  I even added an extra 6 miles to my route home.  It looks like I will have to hit the road early on Saturday to get my endurance ride in.

I was out of the house by 06:30 this morning and back a little after noon. 72 miles on mostly country roads.  The scenery is great.  Very little traffic until 10 or 11 a.m..  There were a couple of drivers who thrilled me.  One elderly lady came into the bike lane and got close enough that the paint molecules were jumping the gap to my arm.  Apparently she was focusing on turning into a parking lot a block away and started her move a bit early.  Lots of other riders out there.  A lot of people were out cleaning the woods along the roads and bike paths.  That made me feel guilty.

Hi all, I have been "hybernating" but finally the weather is good and I got the Trek out from the basement. All it needed was air in the tires and the chain oiled and it was ready to go. I figured I had lost all my strength over the winter but I made it up to work and back (12 miles) without any problems. Hopefully this summer I won't get attacked by any groundhogs or ride straight into a ditch, lol.

Good news about my son. His birthday is May 7th and we got him a new bike with adult training wheels. I can't wait to ride with him!

Hope everyone is doing great.

Jane

I've actually got a question...My 10 year old daughter wants to start bicycling and asked me to do it with her and I agreed, so now we've got to get bikes and I need suggestions.  We have a some local trails and courses for mountain biking and some parks for regular biking.  I need some ideas on versatile and affordable (I am a single parent and I teach...so not exactly rolling in the money), but that will last.  For my daughter I would prefer something that she can use as she grows...any suggestions?  I am actually really excited about the prospect of not only bicycling, but finding a healthy activity I can share with my daughter:).

juliebean1078, I started out with an inexpensive Schwinn bike from Target about a year ago. Even though it is not the best bike if you are considering Tour de France, it got me hooked on riding and I suffered from severe "seperation anxiety" when I got rid of it. It all depends on what you want to do. My autistic 12-year old son is going to start riding with me but there is no way he can come with me on my daily 30 mile ride so we are starting out with riding down to the gas station and back (probably no more than 1 mile all together). I will say that I love my Trek. It really impressed me that I could pull it out from the basement after having sat there all winter and all it needed was air in the tires and the chain oiled.

A coworker bought my Schwinn and she is very upset because her husband keeps stealing it, lol.

Jane

Jane...thanks for the reply.  I guess I've always had the impression that you need some fancy expensive bike to be a "real" bicycler...I'm hitting Target with my daughter Sunday :)!  She's on a swim team and plays soccer, so she might be able to out-bike me in the beginning :).

Julie

Hi all!

This is my first post in this thread, and I am really new to this site, so hope to get motivated and make friends with a few people here.

It has been a while since I did any serious riding, but will be looking to do a lot more in the months ahead.

Juliebean, I would say that a simple cheapish mountain bike from Target is probably the way to go.  Basically the cheaper bikes will be heavier than the more expensive ones, and it may sound odd, but the cheaper one will give you more exercise benefit for any given distance than a more expensive one as you have to work your body a little harder to move the heavier bike around (not so much heavier that you will really notice it much, but the benefit is there all the same)

Minor update: With about 6 weeks to go until Bike Virginia, I putting in 170+ miles a week.  Yesteday I rode 81 miles up from 72 miles a week ago.  Next Saturday, I should hit 90 miles.  The two challenges are figuring out the routes Friday night and trying to finish the rides early enough to do my Saturday chores.