General Cycling Discussion

Hey guys,

Just wondering if any other duders were into cycling? I've been riding pretty consistently over the last few years and listening to bombcasts on a lot of my trips.

Here's my current set up

Any tips for riding in the winter? Gloves? Shoes?

I ride all the time during the summer, anywhere from 10 to 30 miles. Got a college track across the street, and some good forest preserve trails a few minutes away. But I did so much this year that my knee started to hurt. Think I've had my seat too low all this time.

And nope, as soon as it's cold I'm done! 4 or 5 months out of the year is usually good enough to get my fill. Makes it exciting when the Chicago cold season eventually passes.

Got a Trek mountain bike I received back in '07 for graduation, and it's been reliable ever since.

I'm not personally, but my Dad super, super is. He's just bought a new Cervelo and he's tried to hand down both an old Kestrel and a Seven. Sadly, I'm just not as into it as he is. I find that in order to get a decent workout in I need to ride for well over an hour, and I just don't have that kind of time in my life on a regular basis given my job. Not to mention cars trying to actively run you off the road.

As far a riding in the winter goes, I suppose that depends on where you live. I'm up in the Great White North, so generally you don't ride outside. Not only does it get dark early and cars can't see you, the roads get way too slick for road tires and with the weather you'll be bouncing between way too cold and way too hot depending on your getup.

My dad either takes his bike to the gym for spinning class and uses their fly wheel or he uses a set of old rollers he has. You can just plop them down in front of the TV and go. Ironically, the winter is when I'm most likely to ride, since I can't run outside and I'm less apt to get bored if I can bike while watching a football game or something.

I work for a cycling charity so yes. Also I ride a recumbent trike which is the most fun thing ever. You can hit 30mph pretty easily. Also for winter invest in overshoes. Nothing sucks more than wet shoes.

Heck yeah, I actually toured across the US this summer and made a pit stop at PAX Prime before going back down to California. Nobody I talked to believed me when I told them the reason I was making such a big detour was for a video game conference haha. Bombcast was such a great time sink on the bike.

I live in the mountains and normally bike to work even when it's snowing, but granted it's like a mile away with no traffic. It's cold obviously but not as bad as you'd think. I thought rain was worse than snow just because if you're not watertight you get drenched. Snow tends to bounce off you and you don't get tire spray unless it's half melted slush.

Anyone else tour?

I'm not super invested or anything, but I've cycled my whole life whenever I just need to go a short distance (15km or less). Living in the countryside like I do, there's a lot of room to get around on a bike, and you can mostly avoid traffic if you really want to. So I get that it's more friendly to habits like this than a lot of people can get away with.

For as much time as I spend locked up in the gamer cave, there isn't much that beats cycling on a nice spring day. I should really get around to it more often.

@icecoldfreezie said:

Heck yeah, I actually toured across the US this summer and made a pit stop at PAX Prime before going back down to California. Nobody I talked to believed me when I told them the reason I was making such a big detour was for a video game conference haha. Bombcast was such a great time sink on the bike.

I live in the mountains and normally bike to work even when it's snowing, but granted it's like a mile away with no traffic. It's cold obviously but not as bad as you'd think. I thought rain was worse than snow just because if you're not watertight you get drenched. Snow tends to bounce off you and you don't get tire spray unless it's half melted slush.

Anyone else tour?

I'd love to eventually get around to touring! I live in South Korea and there's excellent paths here. Next year I'm going to take on the 600ish km trip from Seoul to Busan. Any tips for a first timer?

I've seen these bikes and they look like a ton of fun. I've always wondered how those guys start up though.. Just lean against a wall or pole and go?

Wow your dad does sound like he's right into it, that's awesome. How noisy are his rollers?

I've started commuting to work by bike about 2 years ago (about 3.5 miles either way) and generally going anywhere close enough by bike. It's great! I ride a good quality hybrid with front suspension (for the eventual pothole), but I'm looking into getting a proper road bike soon. Downside: I recently had a bike crash and broke my left elbow and wrist :(

for anyone interested here is what it is like to ride a recumbent trike

@cramsy its a three wheel, on two wheel ones yeah i have no idea how they stay up they look like magic.

@cramsy: The rollers get pretty loud if he isn't in a closed off room. They're ancient though. Something like 25+ years old. Tech might have improved since then to make them less noisy. He started to try a CycleOps fly wheel stand a few years ago that was much quieter, but I gather it was kind of fiddly to get the bike on and calibrate correctly so he mostly just sticks with the rollers.

I try to ride daily as weather allows (I'm in Canada), but luckily this year that meant a riding season from the beginning of April to the beginning of November (just got our first real snowfall on Sunday night). Unfortunately I damaged my bike in August and did not get a new one until October so I had some downtime where I was stuck riding my recumbent exercise bike indoors during the best weather of the year. The good news was that my bike was lousy and I was ready to get a decent one that could keep up with daily riding anyway.

I got this bike in late October and it's done me well so far - it's my first "decent" (read: sort-of expensive and made from actual quality parts) bike. I'm not a great cyclist but I like to ride around my city and some nice parks that offer a bit of single-track stuff, which lets me get some exercise and enjoy nice views of the Canadian Rocky mountains.

I bike to work four or five days a week. The winter is when it gets fun - when it dips below 50 degrees or so, most of the summer soldiers fade back onto the buses and the paths get a bit freer. Of course the drawback is that it gets effin' cold when you're riding at that weather. A good balaclava is nice if you're in the deep freeze; otherwise they make little headwraps that go around the ears as a kind of headband, which is nice. Ears are generally the thing that get coldest in winter biking.

I kind of love to bike below 40 degrees. With the right clothing, dry streets/tracks and low wind speeds it's all fun. I'll usually won't go as far as in the other seasons though. After some time it's just hard to not get cold.

Biking around here in the city is really stressful and frustrating sometimes. Half of the time Berlin traffic is just not friendly at all and you kind of have to look out for yourself all the time. I still bike anywhere and anywhen. You can hardly be any faster than bikes in this city. Everything is in reach and we don't have altitude differences. That's why my 8 gear shift is all I need to be fast with the ability to go long routes. It's not very sporty and more of a looker but I get good speeds since it's really light. Managed to easily do longer tours through the landscape around here too. Got it for 2 years now and wouldn't want to exchange it. Although a nice racing bike would be awesome too. But hey who wouldn't want to have multiple awesome bikes.

/edit: Today was the first day below 30 degrees where I could drive. Wet, windy, but still a lot of fun. I totally forgot how good my winter biking clothes are.

Yeah I love how the paths open up in winter! I'm looking into going clipless soon but I'm worried about wet shoes...I guess overshoe covers are the way to go

After a couple years of pondering about bought a Bianchi road bike this summer and its been pretty fun. There's nice roads near my town with cycling paths so its easy to do proper training sessions. Don't care much about cycling in rain though just because its annoying to clean the bike as I live in a apartment building..

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good product for keeping your shoes dry. I usually just cover mine in plastic wrap, which works great but looks ridiculous and is hard to get on and off.

Hello,

I have been cycling for a numbers of years now, 5 days a week all year round.... with some longer trips on the weekends every now and again.

For the past 2 years now I have been riding the busy streets of London, which as you can imagine is pretty tasty at the best of times.

The bike of choice I have is a Giant cyclocross bike, which is good for some offroad trails and quick on road.

My recommendation for keeping dry shoes is to get some walking boots/shoes. I cycle in them and keeps my toes nice and dry but also warm. They also have very good grip, so no slippage in wet weather from the peddles. These have done me well and last a long time.

I read this as 'General Crying Discussion'.

I am left disappointed.

You guys need manlier bikes. This is what I mainly ride now, mine has some custom part swaps though.

I also have a fixie, touring bike, but everything pales in comparison to this bad boy. Cycling in the winter, in the mountains is the best.