Cycling

What are the tradeoffs on getting a cyclocross bike vs a regular road bike. I was in a shop recently, and the guy wasn't very helpful. He seemed like he really wanted me to buy a road bike.

As I understand it, cyclocross bikes are heavier (and therefore more robust) and have beefier tires. If I buy narrower tires, how much am I giving away on speed compared to a road bike? How much will it affect climbing?

Most of the bases have already been covered.

Do not allow yourself to be suckered into thinking the only way to be fast is with a modern carbon bike. I still have two bikes, a Cervelo SLC (all carbon, dura ace), and a 1980s Colnago Master (steel), and there was really no difference between them. I would do fast "A group" rides in a club and with either bike I'd have no trouble doing my share of work.

I'm not saying that the top 1% of cyclists don't benefit from technology, just not the 99% that we make up. If you just have to spend a ton of money, wheels would be better than an expensive frame. Again, when I was more serious, a set of Zipp 606 did seem to make a difference in TT situations (606 being an 808 rear and 404 front). My SLC frame not so much.

Absolute weight, of which you make up the greatest percent and not the bike matters, as well as your position on the bike.

He's referring to crashing on the bike. Crashing at high speeds = broken bones. Anything from a scaphoid fracture or broken ribs to a femur or skull fracture. I've crashed several times but have thankfully never broken anything (they were all at fairly low speeds)

Usually a Troll wrote:

I understand my bone density may lower if I get into cycling hardcore, but.....Why? It's a low ( no? ) impact exercise.

This thread confirms why I'll never be a cyclist. Too expensive and time consuming, and way too much gear. I like simplicity - it's one of the things I love about running. If I ever am unable to run due to injury, I'll join a gym. Cycling is too expensive and too much of a hassle.

not for me wrote:

This thread confirms why I'll never be a cyclist. Too expensive and time consuming, and way too much gear. I like simplicity - it's one of the things I love about running. If I ever am unable to run due to injury, I'll join a gym. Cycling is too expensive and too much of a hassle.

Well, that is good to hear. They are breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Based on your predilection for overtraining,bad nutrition, and/or lack of rest, I would say no sport is good for you until you resolve your compulsive exercise tendencies.Runners who have no experience with cycling always assume it's injury free or at least, less injurious than running.

Usually a Troll wrote:

Long story short 6 stress fractures in 2 years going to get into cycling. Any advice?

Do NOT get Co2 cartridges! They are worthless to anyone who knows how to change a bicycle tire. The reason you need a hand-pump and not cartridges is because when mounting a new tire, you'll need to carefully adjust the seating of it along the rim, and if the tire and bead is not set perfectly on the rim (which is rare to do), when you put that CO2 on it, it will fully inflate the tire tube in one shot, giving you no opportunity to make adjustments to the tire. If you get it wrong, you still have a tire that's not correctly set in the rim.

Please talk to experienced riders or at a good bike shop to understand what you need to get.

Mate you gotta listen to Durian Rider!

https://youtu.be/BlbveG2Qrhg

psalty dog wrote:

Downhills are so much more fun biking than running. And uphills suck so much more.

Very true. But your forget to mention that downhills and riding flat stretches (unless you're really pushing it) do little or nothing for you aerobically. A good long uphill Cat 4 + climb can make you cry.

Oh, and I ride a 1989 Trek 1200 and refuse do dress up in costume. Yeah I know I should think about a new ride and bright colors are fine for safety, but the silly costumes these weekend warriors wear. Wow.

After so many injuries myself I turned to triathlon. Cycling is by far my favorite leg of the race. I remember I borrowed my friend's road bike and went to a local time trial. I thought that I was going to be awesome since I was a 4:10 miler in my prime - or before a series of injuries came. I was one of the worst times that day.That 21 min and 33 sec of pain at that time trial immediately got me hooked though. I went as hard as I can go that day and wanted to give up so many times - I'll never forget the experience. Now that I've taken cycling to a high level, on that same course I am sub 16 min easy. I workout very hard 3-4 times a week on my indoor trainer, I swim about 4-5 days a week and I run only a couple days a week. Right now doing lactate threshold, vo2 max, and long tempos with my trainer with one easy day of just spinning. If you buy a road bike and you find that you like it. Next step would be buying a trainer. There are smart trainers out there that are pretty reasonable in price. Once you get a trainer, that's when you really learn how to push yourself. First step would be an FTP test (look it up - you could do 20 min or do an hour of death) and then you'd just go from there.

I think it was the second post on this thread, the guy telling you to buy clipless pedals is a stupid idea. Unless you're a hobby jogger or just one of those people that ride on the bike path/side walk rather than on the road, then I'd follow his advice. You'll have a hard time clipping in and out at first. Before you know it, you won't even need to look down to clip back in. Just becomes second nature.

I hurt myself running 100 miles weeks years ago and never seemed to recover, so I switched to cycling.

The first thing I'll say is that it took me probably two years before I could the kind of aerobic workout on a bike that I got on a run. Others may have adapted more quickly, but I remember being constantly frustrated that my legs would burn on a hill and I couldn't go faster, while my heart rate was around 155bpm.

I'm glad I put in the work, though, because once my legs adapted, I realized cycling was a great substitute for days I couldn't run. It's not the same, obviously, but when I can't do long runs, I can keep my heart rate between 140-165 for four hours and my legs will recover by the next day.

As for cost, I happen to have a very expensive bike now, but I rode 15,000 miles on a $600 POS. Don't worry about all the stuff that makes bikes expensive (carbon frame, stiffness, etc). Just get something that feels comfortable and get components that aren't total crap. I went the total crap route at first and was constantly annoyed that my gears wouldn't shift right, that my brakes would squeak, etc. Had I spent $200 more on components, I'd have been fine.

Anyway, my two cents is that you should get something comfortable and don't be discouraged if it feels like it's not that aerobic at first. The muscles adapt and cycling becomes a great way to put in aerobic work without the joint pounding.

DC Wonk wrote:

Do NOT get Co2 cartridges! They are worthless to anyone who knows how to change a bicycle tire. The reason you need a hand-pump and not cartridges is because when mounting a new tire, you'll need to carefully adjust the seating of it along the rim, and if the tire and bead is not set perfectly on the rim (which is rare to do), when you put that CO2 on it, it will fully inflate the tire tube in one shot, giving you no opportunity to make adjustments to the tire. If you get it wrong, you still have a tire that's not correctly set in the rim.

Please talk to experienced riders or at a good bike shop to understand what you need to get.

lol how dense are you that you can't properly seat a tube and tire?

my wife can do it and she barely rides

I have badly fractured my hand/wrist and am still recovering (1 yr later). Be careful if you ever decide to get into racing. Got pinched going into a corner and my front wheel clipped the guys back wheel in a criterium. Crits can be scary even if you have very good bike handling skills. Went down really bad and had to have surgery to fix my hand/wrist. Got more into running now because of that. Cycling is tons of fun though. You can cover 100+ miles in a day and see so much. I still ride occasionally, but devote way more of my time to running now.

I was a big cyclist when I was younger, but it just takes so much f-ing time!!

I can run a marathon in the time it takes to do a semi-decent training ride on a bike. Even then, calories burned aint shit compared to running and I wanna eat like a fiend.

Gear is wicked expensive, spent thousands on a carbon fiber bike, the wheels (you get hooked of course), racks for your car, ect, ect...

Im only 28 now, but in my "old age", I much prefer the simplicity of running to cycling. Traveling? Take a pair of sneakers and done. A bike is a pain the ass to travel with...

ctc802 wrote:

Im only 28 now, but in my "old age", I much prefer the simplicity of running to cycling. Traveling? Take a pair of sneakers and done. A bike is a pain the ass to travel with...

What 28 y/o calls running shoes sneakers?

A bike can be expensive. It is not too bad to bad to travel with unless you drive a small prius like ctc802 surely does.

A cross bike has a more laid back geometry that is great for riding over small obstacles like curbing or little dips and rocks on a cyclocross course. It will not climb as well, especially if you enjoy getting on a 20 plus minute long climb and hitting it.

If you ride a lot of mixed surfaces, dirt roads, bumpy roads, the cross bike will handle better and be a bit more forgiving, but not as efficient on the smooth pavement as a road bike - and not as light or stiff (for sprinting) either.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

noninonono wrote: instead of upgraded crap that won't actually make you better.

Like a power meter.

Otherwise, yeah, no need for carbon and more 100% carbon. Get a bike that's a few years old off of Craigslist, Ultegra, and aluminum frame, carbon fork. Plenty of them available very lightly used as people leave the sport quite frequently.

Coming from a running background and using a HRM, i've found the HRM to be very useful in the bike if you don't want to spend thousands on a power meter.

my other piece of advice is to suffer through some indoor cycling classes. it wasn't until i did the really hard workouts indoors that i saw huge improvements in my time trialing and climbing. it's too hard to get that kind of sustained efforts outside given traffic and road conditions.

Libtard 2.0 wrote:

The first thing I'll say is that it took me probably two years before I could the kind of aerobic workout on a bike that I got on a run. Others may have adapted more quickly, but I remember being constantly frustrated that my legs would burn on a hill and I couldn't go faster, while my heart rate was around 155bpm.

I'm glad I put in the work, though, because once my legs adapted, I realized cycling was a great substitute for days I couldn't run. It's not the same, obviously, but when I can't do long runs, I can keep my heart rate between 140-165 for four hours and my legs will recover by the next day.

.

+1..my exact experience on the bike. it took about that long to have the power to ride "easy running pace". now when i look at the HRM and see that my HR is the same as it would be on a long run, i don't miss running quite as much. but as i said in my other post, it was the indoor hard cycling with intervals that really got me there along with a long hilly ride on the weekends.

I'm in the same boat, got sick of stress related injuries and figured I'd give cycling a try as just something new after running for a couple years. At this point, I've got a good bit of advice that I hope can be useful.

As far as a bike, realize that not all carbon frames are made the same. You can buy some carbon Fuji for 750 or around there which is definitely not comparable to a carbon frame 10x the price.

Aluminum can be a very smart way to go, especially models of the last 3 years or so, particularly Cannondale's CAAD line or Specialized's Allez line. Both have really remarkable performance for the price point, compared to carbon.

As far as components, anything new at this point for road bikes are 2x11 speed, but honestly, 2x10 speed has become so cheap without really being outdated that it's the best way to go, in my opinion. If you're looking to put in some training miles on this though, do what you can to not go below a bike spec'd with Shimano 105 or Sram Apex, and it's okay if it's a couple years old. At that level, the components hold their shape pretty well over a couple years.

Riding in a group is definitely one of, if not the best part of cycling. You can go so fast and go so far unlike any other sport. A 60 mile ride in a group will feel like it takes the same energy as doing a 35 mile solo ride. Group ettiquette is very important to learn and the group will take every chance it can to be elitist and tell you to get out of the way in a group. If you can find a group ride in the area, just sit on the back and get comfortable following wheels for a couple rides and watch the movement in the bunch. Whatever you do, don't get discouraged because it literally takes everybody a while to get used to it, it's not a natural thing at all.

Last thing I can tell you about the sport is that compared to my experience with running, things are so much more tangible. I ran XC and Track, and between mileage runs, the workouts and the races, everything felt... arbitrary in a way. In a race, you win if youre leading at the end of four laps. You run around a golf course in some stupid loops until you run exactly 5000 meters. But in cycling, you climb up the mountain, and you don't get to just jog it in, you have to climb the whole thing, and you stop when the mountain stops. It's not something easy to explain on a letsrun forum, but it's very refreshing compared to running, and it's not something I ever realized that bothered me about running. I love both sports, but for now I've been cycling.

Hope that everything goes well getting into it. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you somehow have any more after reading this novel. Good luck.