Triathletes - can someone please tell me why I suck so much on the bike?

4 - I also need to add that the pedaling motion on a bike is vastly different from a running motion. Force is applied over a much longer duration of the pedal stroke compared to the very brief instant of a foot strike when running. This means you have to really learn how to pedal properly and his to smoothly apply force where needed and also just as importantly how to relax your legs in the phase of the pedal stroke where it needs to rest.

I highly recommend you ride handsfree rollers indoors on your bike. You will fall everytime at first because you won't have the balance of a trained cyclist and you will feel every pedal stroke is not smooth. Learning to ride rollers is the fastest way for a beginner cyclist to master the bike because it teaches you balance, smooth pedal strokes, and most importantly how to relax. It will also give you a lot of bike handling skills tryathletes don't have that will let you hold a straight line and not crash.

Rollers are not expensive, you can buy new ones for $100. It is the cheapest and most effective way for you to get better. You will hate them and curse my name the first 50 times you fall off them but it is totally worth it. Most tryathletes don't even know what rollers are let alone how to ride them.

amkelley wrote:

My husband is a bike racer, and he has done everything he can to get me a good bike that fits me properly, and he gives me lots of tips about form and cadence, but nothing seems to work. I feel that the only way I can generate any power on a bike is by standing up and getting my center of mass over the pedals rather than behind them as when sitting in the saddle. He keeps telling me to gear down and spin faster. But when I gear down, I don't spin any faster--I just move more slowly at the lower gear.

I know you're not the OP, but I think you should see if you can borrow a power meter for a ride. It'll help you judge things like whether the gearing actually helps -- separate the mental from the physical.

The usual advice hereabouts is "run more". In this case it's "ride more".

David S wrote:

I know you're not the OP, but I think you should see if you can borrow a power meter for a ride. It'll help you judge things like whether the gearing actually helps -- separate the mental from the physical.

Can you do that? I thought a power meter was integrated into the pedals or crank. How can you borrow one?

Finding it easier to put power down while standing is normal - watch sprinters at the end of a race and they're all standing - but it's a sprint position and isn't sustainable over an endurance ride.

It sounds like you have good endurance and fitness so, while riding more will always help, it's probably not holding you back too much. Your bike is probably not holding you back much either, as long as it fits and works effectively. At speeds

It takes several years to get a powerful pedalling action on the bike. Just like it takes several years running to reach anywhere near your potential.

You need to be doing short fast effort without pushing too hard to develop a smooth and powerful pedalling action.

a foreigner wrote:

Finding it easier to put power down while standing is normal - watch sprinters at the end of a race and they're all standing - but it's a sprint position and isn't sustainable over an endurance ride.

It sounds like you have good endurance and fitness so, while riding more will always help, it's probably not holding you back too much. Your bike is probably not holding you back much either, as long as it fits and works effectively. At speeds

Half my post disappeared! ffs

Summary:

- Ride more, yes, but it's probably not just that

- Bike looks fine, as long as it works well - tyres 100psi, gears work, it fits you. Probably not that.

- Lightweight can make it harder, but look at the women's peloton and you'll see all shapes and sizes, so probably not that

- Probably not aerodynamics - makes little difference below 15mph

- Last remaining thing is how you get power from your body to the wheels. Can be 2 things here:

1) Position - seat height and position, bar reach, crank length

2) Technique - get your feet clipped in (Shimano m520 are a great place to start) and work on pedaling round, not up and down

> Watch some youtube videos on bike fit and pedaling technique, then maybe join a club with a coach?

good luck!

zzzz wrote:

The tires at the top of this less have less than half the rolling resistance of most common road tires.

https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/road-bike-reviews

Aerodynamics will have a larger effect, but I wouldn't leave tires for last.

Aerodynamics from body position.

Not aerodynamics from the actual bicycle.

CRR is always super important if performance is the goal, but probably not for the OP.

Stop standing up. That's about the slowest way possible to ride a bike for any extended time. Stay in the saddle, work on getting your head and shoulders low. This is how you ride fast. You stand to sprint/accelerate or power up a riser or steep section for a few seconds

Tri as I might wrote:

Light weight is very good for cycling. The main measure cyclists use is watts per kilogram.

For climbing mountains.

The OP is not climbing mountains. Watts per CdA is what's important, and at 100 lbs and no watts, there's simply not going to be a lot of speed, period.

This can be mitigated with training and attention to CdA, of course.

Or you simply put rollers inside a doorway so you don't fall off 50 times. Falling off rollers is dumb as well. Why on earth would you recommend anything like that?

The OP is not going to get rollers. This is about as far away from what new triathletes do as possible.

Besides, everyone training indoors is on smart trainers and Zwift anyway.

Powa wrote:

David S wrote:

I know you're not the OP, but I think you should see if you can borrow a power meter for a ride. It'll help you judge things like whether the gearing actually helps -- separate the mental from the physical.

Powertap.

OP has zero use for a powermeter. At 100 lbs and 12 mph, watts aren't even in the triple digits.

Completely useless information.

Can you do that? I thought a power meter was integrated into the pedals or crank. How can you borrow one?

a foreigner wrote:

- Ride more, yes, but it's probably not just that

- Bike looks fine, as long as it works well - tyres 100psi, gears work, it fits you. Probably not that.

- Lightweight can make it harder, but look at the women's peloton and you'll see all shapes and sizes, so probably not that

- Probably not aerodynamics - makes little difference below 15mph

!

100 psi for a 100lb rider is utter absurdity. 60-70 is much closer to reality.

Aerodymanics always matter, especially if she's sitting bolt upright.

1. The Boardman 8.6 is a commuter bike. That bike is putting you in an upright riding position which creates a lot of drag. You should get a bike that gets you in a more aero riding position.

2. You are not riding enough.

3. You haven't been training long enough yet and haven't built up sufficient bike fitness.

(1) make sure you have SPD, Look, or speed play pedal systems that connect your shoe to the pedal

(2) the reason you prefer standing is that you're more familiar with applying force down onto the pedal, but you should be applying force in all directions during the pedal stroke. That helps engage your hamstrings which are strong from running.

(3) IMHO, you don't need to ride for hours and hours, but riding with high frequency (4x a week or more) will dramatically.improve your pedaling form and increase your speed quickly.

Don't worry about your gear, just focus on becoming a cyclist.

Don't give up, you will improve quite a bit once you're riding more often.

Sometimes I Tri wrote:

1. The Boardman 8.6 is a commuter bike. That bike is putting you in an upright riding position which creates a lot of drag. You should get a bike that gets you in a more aero riding position.

There's a Boardman 8.6 hybrid and a Boardman 8.6 road bike. Not sure which one she has.

As has already been said, you will improve just by riding more. You won't approach your potential as a cyclist until after 2-3 YEARS of serious training.

One thing that I don't think has been said on this thread is that genetics matters. You may simply be more suited to running. I was a competitive age group triathlete for 15 years (8X Hawaiian IM finisher). At my peak, I would place top ~30% in my age group in the swim, ~10% on the bike, and ~5% in the run. No matter how much training and effort I put it in, I could not get above ~top 30% on the swim or ~10% on the bike. Different people have different genetic potential for different sports. Simple as that.

I would also add that in cycling, more so than with running, there is a greater disparity in ability with respect to sprinting, hill climbing, and flat riding. There were guys I could drop on a long hill climb that would destroy me on a flat time trial. Also, I had a half decent kick at the end of a distance race in running. I couldn't sprint for crap on a bike.

innohurry wrote:

(2) the reason you prefer standing is that you're more familiar with applying force down onto the pedal, but you should be applying force in all directions during the pedal stroke. That helps engage your hamstrings which are strong from running.

The details of the pedal stroke don't really matter, but she does need to develop it by staying in the saddle and going hard.

I didn’t take time to read most of the posts, but will give my thoughts. I am a small female, 110 pounds, I was a runner and professional cyclist. You don’t have to be big to be strong and fast on the bike. You do, however, have to have strong power output with your cycling motion. Some people are naturally built for biking, and others running. You can become a good cyclist, but it will take time.

-You need to log much more time on the bike. At least 150 miles a week. I’d recommend more, but that is probably not realistic for you to attain.

-Ride once a week with an experienced group that will motivate you and give you riding tips.

-you should have at least one long tempo ride a week, along with one or two rides with 1-3 minute intervals mixed in. You can do much more intensity on the bike, than in the run. When competing, I usually had four “hard days”. Two were tempos( one long, one short) and two interval days.

- you can’t just easily spin and expect to get good. Each ride needs a purpose.