Official Road Cycling Thread

[M_Six]

Manage to squeak a 16 miler in between the rain storms today.

[M5Rick]

No chance today busy earlier then when I have time for a 10 miler the heavens open up so some static peddling, then on with the gloves and a work out with the punch bag.

[M_Six]

When we got back from our evening walk, I jumped on the FX3 and cruised around the neighborhood for 20 minutes just to log some exercise time. Shorts and sandals (and a helmet).

[M5Rick]

Hoping to put some miles in tomorrow with the proper cycling gear in place, will try a more comfy saddle and see if I can go further with it; Got some new pants with extra padding can't wait to try them out and I'll try an energy bar on the way to boost my pace.

[M_Six]

The wind and humidity sapped my stamina today. Had planned on 24 or 25 miles. Only got in 18. I was drenched at the end of it. Just too hot and humid.

[M5Rick]

Not quite up up and away but the next best thing is a good ride, about 12 miles just now and much better with the wider comfy seat.

[M_Six]

Nice. What brand of saddle is that?

[M5Rick]

It's from a IC300 PRO indoor bike from Amazon,partner found that uncomfortable and replaced it for another one handing the original to me. It has CA stamped on the bottom that's all.

[M_Six]

Rain all day. Had to settle for an hour on the trainer.

[M5Rick]

Got the bit between the teeth so going out for another 12.

[M_Six]

Decent weather today, so I got in 20 miles and that put me at 3,000 so far this year.

[Lady Jane]

50K this morning. Hot. sweaty and probably not smelling so good either...





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[M_Six]

Just an easy 12 miler for me today. Cruising on the FX3.

[M_Six]

20 miles in just over an hour today. Felt really good. Weather was great.

[M_Six]

Similar ride today as yesterday. Just a tad slower due to traffic.

[M_Six]

Backroad ride with a friend around a local lake. It was good to ride somewhere other than the usual bike trail.

[vreihen16]

Can I ask a dumb question? In the 21st century, is it common for people to carry just their wheels into a local bike shop for new tubes, tires, and maybe a spoke tensioning or wheel truing?

I have a Trek bike that someone gifted me as a motorsports paddock ride about 10 years ago sitting in my race car hauler thanks to my forced medical retirement from competition, and the tires are now dry-rotted and won't hold air. There's no Trek dealers nearby, and I feel strange carrying the whole bike into a LBS that sells other brands. I'd like to try and ride it around our neighborhood, if for no other reason than to see if my internal gyroscope isn't so far gone from my ticker being hotwired that I'd face-plant before getting it out of first gear.

I'm not a stranger to changing motorcycle/bicycle tires and tubes or even truing wheels, but K-Mart is long out of business in our region for bicycle parts and I don't know if I can pry a tire off of a rim any more with two screwdrivers to do it myself.....

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Can I ask a dumb question? In the 21st century, is it common for people to carry just their wheels into a local bike shop for new tubes, tires, and maybe a spoke tensioning or wheel truing?

I have a Trek bike that someone gifted me as a motorsports paddock ride about 10 years ago sitting in my race car hauler thanks to my forced medical retirement from competition, and the tires are now dry-rotted and won't hold air. There's no Trek dealers nearby, and I feel strange carrying the whole bike into a LBS that sells other brands. I'd like to try and ride it around our neighborhood, if for no other reason than to see if my internal gyroscope isn't so far gone from my ticker being hotwired that I'd face-plant before getting it out of first gear.

I'm not a stranger to changing motorcycle/bicycle tires and tubes or even truing wheels, but K-Mart is long out of business in our region for bicycle parts and I don't know if I can pry a tire off of a rim any more with two screwdrivers to do it myself.....

Perfectly normal if you don't feel up to doing it yourself. The first thing I did when I got my Carrera was to replace the off road deep tread tyres for road tyres which I purchased from e'bay called 'Bronx'.
If you do try yourself use proper mini bike tyre levers not screwdrivers.

[3798j]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

...is it common for people to carry just their wheels into a local bike shop for new tubes, tires, and maybe a spoke tensioning or wheel truing?....

Yep, it's common...A full service shop will be happy to work on your wheels regardless of where you got them or what make they're from...and in season, a set of wheels will most likely have a faster turn-around than if they had to deal with the whole bike.

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Can I ask a dumb question? In the 21st century, is it common for people to carry just their wheels into a local bike shop for new tubes, tires, and maybe a spoke tensioning or wheel truing?

I have a Trek bike that someone gifted me as a motorsports paddock ride about 10 years ago sitting in my race car hauler thanks to my forced medical retirement from competition, and the tires are now dry-rotted and won't hold air. There's no Trek dealers nearby, and I feel strange carrying the whole bike into a LBS that sells other brands. I'd like to try and ride it around our neighborhood, if for no other reason than to see if my internal gyroscope isn't so far gone from my ticker being hotwired that I'd face-plant before getting it out of first gear.

I'm not a stranger to changing motorcycle/bicycle tires and tubes or even truing wheels, but K-Mart is long out of business in our region for bicycle parts and I don't know if I can pry a tire off of a rim any more with two screwdrivers to do it myself.....

Sure-- it's a common sight in bike shops to just see wheels brought in.

I just brought in a set of wheels to my LBS to have them taped for conversion to tubeless-- no reason to bring the bike in, get the frame scratched, etc. for a job like that.

R.

[M_Six]

^^^What they said. I have my LBS do virtually all the wrench turning on my bikes. It supports them and keeps me from screwing things up.

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by M_Six

^^^What they said. I have my LBS do virtually all the wrench turning on my bikes. It supports them and keeps me from screwing things up.

As a kid, I grew up taking bikes apart (occasionally to the ire of my father) and putting them back together (usually successfully). As I got older, I started building bikes up from scratch for friends and family-- to the point where I actually thought about doing it for a living-- Lord knows I spent enough time hanging out in bike shops, and my mother despaired of ever getting me (or my clothes) clean from bike grease.

As I got older, I was the mechanic for my friend's bikes-- I'd get a bike brought over the night before a race by a panic-stricken buddy to fix whatever was wrong, and I'd be the guy with the bike mount, truing stand and tools in my truck whenever we went on a ride or went on a road trip.

But, as I've gotten older, I've found that my time has compressed more than I ever thought it would-- and the newer bikes are just a hassle to tune and trim (yes, SRAM-- I'm talking about your 1X setup-- an amazing piece of kit, but an utter bastard to set up properly). I've found that it's easier for me to establish and keep a good relationship with my LBS (beer is a good starting point) than to do the work myself. I've got one shop I go to for my mountain bikes and one I go to for my road bikes. They're all Good People, and if it's something I don't want to deal with (like taping up a tubeless conversion or properly aligning the rear derailleur on a 1X with that weird tool), they'll do an excellent job for a fair price-- and will occasionally scoot me to the front of the line if it's important (i.e. my wife's headed out for a 300 mile race or something like that).

So, I'm an enthusiastic supporter of my mountain and road LBS's-- Yes, things might cost a little bit more, but that's worth it to keep the local pro's in business and our bikes running in top form without me having to spend one of my rare days off tinkering on the bike.

In fact, I went out on a MTB ride with a buddy yesterday and spent about 40 minutes of ride time re-trimming his rear derailleur (because the bozo had "forgotten" to tell me that he'd bent the hanger and had then ham-fisted it back). I got it running enough to do the ride, but then told him to take it to my MTB LBS as I didn't have the time to fix it properly myself until at least September.

R.