just a minor point. Bikes cost less than $100/yr to maintain when your team pays for most of it as well, just like running. Also, you don't buy your own bike every year if you're riding well.
SserPrun95 wrote:
I never said I was "nearly a pro". I said I dabbled in it for about 4 months back when I was 19 and while it was a lot of fun and that there was a pretty apparent lack of depth. I know CA and CO are the hotbeds of cycling and that my experience against riders from elsewhere isn't the greatest comparison but thats not my fault. The one workout I referenced was one of the only workouts I ever did and it occurred when I borrowed a buddy's bike who had a powertap. It's actually about 5.3 Watts/kg and it was ~14minx4 with about 3 min of recovery riding back downhill. If you did that as a CAT 5 you didn't stay there for very long even in CO. It's not an outrageous performance, but for 3 months at 19 with no formal training it's decent and if I had been willing to devote myself I think I MIGHT have been able to do something with it.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?313809-power-output-chart/page2&highlight=power+outputI'm not saying every runner could hop over at will and dominate cycling, I was simply responding anecdotally to the guy that said this dude was a 1:1000 shot. Also, I know there aren't 2000 14:48 guys in the country but I drastically inflated to number just be safe and to highlight how ridiculous the claim of 1:1000 was. I'm simply asserting that there is more overlap than some here might think because not every runner is an emaciated dweeb who can't do a push up. It may not happen instantly, but a fair number of runners (tho certainly not all) have the POTENTIAL aka a CHANCE to be a pretty good cyclist if you tossed them into it and gave them a couple years to develop.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?313809-power-output-chart/page2&highlight=power+outputA bike costs waaaaaaay more than $100 a year to maintain. I suppose if you never take it into a shop to be worked on and if you have absolutely no problems with any of your components you might be able to get by with $100 worth of tubes, lube, tires, and cables in a year. However most cyclists I know flip their bike every year or 2, before upgrading components. Additionally chamois wear out, racks are expensive, so are jersey's, cold weather gear ($$$), helmets, shoes, pumps, tools to maintain a bike, hell my buddies powertap alone was something like $700 and that was a cheap one, not to mention ppl with multiple bikes.
Also, shoes don't cost you $800/year when you get them for free from your school.
I stopped riding because I got into a stupid wreck when some idiots jostling right in front of me went down and I ran over one of them which knocked me off mine. It would have been a fairly minor wreck but my top tube came down just right on a curb and cracked it which is why I switched back... an expensive setback coupled with the fact that I'm a cold weather pansy and I really do like to run.