What is a good starter road bicycle

Don't beat yourself up too hard this early in the season. Concentrate on putting in the mileage and keeping good high cadence (around 90 rpm or more) but don't go to high heartrates or you'll screw up your season.

I usually do the first two weeks of the season on the granny gears and keeping low BPMs.

 

Another serious question. Why don't these bikes have kickstands!?!
It's annoying as hell.

 

Makes 'em go faster.

 

Look up Enzo's Button Hole Cream. Rides over 3 hours in the heat get me. That stuff works.

Best deals on parts I've seen are at www.treefortbikes.com. Always been very happy with them.

Eggbeaters are great but pedal strikes are easier with them. I switched from Speedplay to Looks a few years ago and love em.

Now join Strava, it's free. Last week's WERA max mile rider put in over 200.

https://www.strava.com/clubs/wera

 

All this means is you didn't manage to eff yourself up properly falling off motorcycles! Hell; clavicles were among my "small" motorcycle crashes... LOL

 

What? This makes no sense. I have a max in the mid 180's, and from November through September I am hitting at least 180 multiple times per week.

 

Well obviously, you're not starting from zero, so of course you can reach your max when you're already in good shape. But for someone new to pedalling, you need to start slowly and build up your endurance.

 

There are many misconceptions out there and a lot of old school information that has been proven wrong by more recent science.

What is known today is that starting "full bore" with maximum aerobic efforts, in addition to being potentially risky for anyone completely new to physical activity (i.e., completely untested) or having known heart or pulmonary conditions, is not the way to go because without some kind of aerobic base, there is simply "no top end" to develop this way. In other words, it would be a lot of pain for not much gain.

Common wisdom, therefore, is to "build your aerobic base" first, then work on top end after.

Where the misconceptions (still) lay, is in the myth of mandatory "LSD" (or Long Slow Distance) that is still perpetuated today, as if this were the only way to build your aerobic base. It's not the only way, and for those who don't have 25 hours per week to ride, it's not even the best way.

In short, what is needed is any effort that work to improve your aerobic endurance, i.e., your ability to work for sustained periods at a certain % of your max heart rate, and also your ability to metabolize the by-products of hard efforts (lactic acid, CO2, etc.).

Long slow distance will do, if you have the time, patience (and butt endurance...). For normal people with some kind of normal life commitments, you can eliminate a lot of the "long and slow" by going slightly harder (i.e., tempo) during your early season rides, while also not neglecting to ride at a deliberately slow pace between your harder efforts.

Even top-end work can be beneficial, even in the early stages, if accompanied by proper recovery. Just don't spend all of your time doing V02 max intervals in the beginning, as it will only be useless suffering, since there basically no base to develop.

Just ride at a pace you feel you can sustain for several hours, and incorporate some harder efforts in there to challenge your aerobic system and muscles, and the go back to your comfortable pace. Start with 30-45 minute rides initially, then 1 to 1.5 hours after a week or two, and then go as long as you enjoy!

After a month or so of this, you can incorporate harder (more intense) intervals into your work, and you will reap a much greater benefit from them.

 

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/ and http://www.velopress.com/books/training-and-racing-with-a-power-meter-2nd-ed/

But we're getting on a whole other level than just riding for fitness.

Long Steady Distance for endurance. Long Slow Distance to go slow.

Throw in some tabata intervals 2x week for 6 weeks and 1 x weekly 5 x 5mins at 110% FTP with 1 minute rest at 80% FTP.

Rinse and repeat.

 

If you have a ton of hours to contribute, say 15+ per week, then yea do JRA's and you'll get fast. If you want to get fast on shorter sessions, you need intensity. No way around it

 

The mileage I can understand... but the elevation. Some dudes are going a over mile high on climbs. If I do 20 miles of bridge loops Ill get about 800' of climbing in.

 

If your FTP is anywhere close to accurate, I want to see you do 5mins at 110% repeats with only 1-minute rest, at 80%! 3 minutes at 110-120% with equal rest between sets is already excrutiating after a few sets...

 

Agreed. doing 5x5 at 110 is super hard with 5 on 5 off. 1' rest I could likely do 2 and die on the third.

 

You don't know what your real ftp is. It's impossible to to 5min @ 110% ftp.

Stop sand bagging your longer intervals. You've got more power than you think.

 

Kyle doesn't count, he's trying to make Cat 2, 200 miles is nothing for a week. He probably did nearly that for the three stage race over two days a couple weeks ago

 

Well if you are in Calif most of the rides have climbing and it looks like a lot of them are bay area or so cal based.

 

Not sure if this is a troll of not. I have probably close to 1000 hours of power data from the last 2 years. My coach and I have a decent handle on my ftp. Plenty of people can do 110% for 5. I've seen riders that can do 120%+

 

There is a lot of FTPing going on in here!?!?

I'm only really doing it as a different type of working out because I can't workout. It's new and different for me and isn't boring boring. Especially if I have a rabbit to chase as I did yesterday. He is the second fastest guy locally on my strava, dude was a fuckin machine.

Anyways, I'm just trying to focus on keeping my average up and picking that up in small increments.

I did however manage to let all the air out my tire last night, 1. I didn't know that they use those tiny ass valve stems. 2. now I found out why some bike pumps have two spots nozzle things. 3.. I managed to fuck it up with my $20 cheap Bell pump and it goes stuck on there, I had to pull it off and now air just flows out of it. Looks like I will be bringing my rim to a shop today.

Also another question. How do you guys clean the gearing compressed air? I know WD40 isn't what should be used for lube either. And I damn sure ain't gonna put on my chain wax for my bike. Them suckers are covered in sand and shit.

 

Just added myself to it. Now if I could only put names with user names lol

 

WD40 is ok to clean your drivetrain a first time (i.e., take off all of the existing gunk). You could also use Simple Green (which I believe is available to you in the US in its original "degreaser" form; shame it isn't here North of the border!).

Once you have stripped the chain, chainrings and cassette of all existing gunk, I tend to favor using a very lightweight oil and cleaning it / re-lubing often, as opposed to using some of the thicker products out there. I use the same approach for motorcycle chains: the thick stuff just tends to attract dirt and grime, forms an abrasive black paste that ultimately causes more wear and dirties the sh!t out of everything. I'd rather use lighter oil, clean it thoroughly when I clean the bike and re-apply, which keeps things tidier, cleaner and, in my experience, prolongs the life of components (both on the bicycle and the motorcycle).

YMMV