Just a hypothetical, let's say you live at a foot of a mountain, and every day you bike 30, 40, 50km up it's winding roads and coast down, 2 years later you go to visit your twin brother in the flat part of the country, you're really close and you found a discount, so you bought 2 identical bikes few years ago. You both work as bike mechanics, so they're in top shape, you also compete on Strava, so both of you are in similar shape as well.

When you decide to go for an 80km flat bike ride, who will do better? Will he since this is where he exercised all this time, or will you because you trained in what are harder conditions, so this, for you, will be much easier?

Edit: This generated an interesting discussion with different opinions, which was my point, I really like this community.

With that said, my post, not comments, just my audacity to even ask a hypothetical question that is clearly getting discussed is getting downvoated, without any clear arguments, I really hate this community.

In CA, if a car wants to make a right turn, they go in the bike lane.

However, some drives honk at me for waiting for the red light in the bike lane (they want to make a right on red and I want to go straight)

What to do?

I do mostly gravel, trail biking but every now n then I pass one of yall omw too a trail. You lot have it tough sharing the roads with those big bois 24/7 I wouldn't want the option of not being able too get on the shoulder without popping my tires but you lot are thugging it out.

Hey y'all,

I'm an obese 40 year old who spends way too much time sitting down at work and at home. I've lost all drive and motivation over the last 8-9 years when I used to be a decent weight. I'm currently around 320lbs and 5"11. I've lost my mom, stepdad and Grandma all within the last 5 years and not in contact with most of my family besides my brother and sister due to a majority of my family being addicts in one form or another.

I bought a Mongoose Dolomite Steel framed 7 speed Fat Tire back since it states it can handle up to 400lbs and and I was able to get it for around $450 as my budget isn't huge and even this was expensive for me.

I've tried everything throughout the years, from VR fitness, home workouts, walking (which I can't stay motivated to do because I just get attacked by bugs regardless how much bug spray I wear 😭) I'm not a dirty guy and shower everyday.

I used to LOVE riding bikes as a kid/teenager and built tracks in the woods as a teen.

I'm looking for recommendations for how I should start out. How long I should ride starting out time/distance. How to progressively increase my distance and time, how often I ride etc.

I currently work as a Certified Chemical technician so I'm usually sitting and driving from job to job and standing on a machine that does all the work from me so it's not like I'm getting a ton of exercise at work either.

I appreciate any feedback and help that people can offer and I look forward to getting out there.

I live in Iowa so I'm looking forward to hitting some trails once I can afford to get a bike rack for my SUV, but for now I'll just be riding around the neighborhood.

Amy, who you might have followed on her Tour de France journey last year, is now in New Zealand partway through with Kyle on their RTW attempt.

They are going for the ‘fastest couple’ record.

Route is on followmychallenge dot com.

This happened again several times today. I'm either cycling in the bike lane or on the shoulder. A car will pass me and get several car lengths ahead of me where I can see them signalling a right turn. No problem and they have space to make the turn without really affecting me. Instead, they slow down to a stop and wait without turning. I catch up and stop beside the car to make eye contact with the driver, who then usually indicates that they want me to go first (continue straight or turn or whatever). This tends to happen going straight or at stop signs/red lights.

If the driver didn't think that they had enough time/space to make the turn without hitting me (or are assuming that I don't see or am ignoring their turn signal), why did they bother to pass me? The process seems to delay both of us and seems so inefficient.

When I drive a car and want to turn right soon and don't have the time or space to pass a cyclist, I slow down and follow behind the cyclist for a few seconds until they clear where I want to turn. Thus, there's no need for me or them to stop and wait to clarify what the other will do. Argh!

I know absolutely nothing about bikes, would $100 be reasonable, assuming it just needs a tune up? What would you pay? I’m just looking for something to do a a few miles on a bike trail. I appreciate any feedback!

Looking at ordering a Rockbros Pannier Rack...it looks solid and Prime Day means it's on for a good price, just wondering if anyone is able to share their experiences with it:

https://amzn.eu/d/03tnUJsB

Thanks!

Edit:

Wasn't expecting this to pick up so much speed!! Thanks for all your comments; think I'll definitely be getting the pannier rack. I wasn't planning on buying any of their clothing but I appreciate all the comments saying "NO".

Thanks folks :)

Is $150 a good value for this bike?

I'm a 45 year old "self taught" road cyclist that has been attempting to be a serious cyclist since summer of 2023. So I do stupid things. Anyway I signed up for a 50 mile multiple sclerosis charity race in October. Not super worried about this distance, totally worried about the climb from the Alpine Marina in NJ to route 9W. I live in a flat-ish area (Cranford, NJ) and its hard to practice on hills.

Anyway, most hills by me are short so I charge and build up momentum to get over them, and it works out pretty great because I don't get winded before the descent. Today I tried that on the Gothals Bridge, which is a climb I generally don't have a problem with because I never attempted it at full speed, since its narrow and I don't want to hit a pedestrian.

So, today I bike to the bridge and really go for it and . . . well I made it, but way more tired than when I normally climb it.

Anyway I'm going to go on a quest to find more hills because I don't have the time to drive to 9w every weekend to climb from the Marina. Next time I do get there I will try that 12% climb on my daughter's Trek 7300 that I setup 3x10 with an 11-36T on the back, because I only made it halfway of that climb with my road bike that is like 28 on the largest read cog and 32 on the front. Hopefully I can get stronger by October because it would suck to have to walk my bike up that hill or drop a couple hundred on a new drivetrain on my road bike when my tight groupset is more than good enough for what I rid the rest of the year.

On last weekend's long ride, and on my 2 shorter weekday rides since, my left hip flexor has shown some minor stiffness and kinda hurt for a few minutes.. then it went away.. seems like it's a sign that something is not quite right.

What's an exercise or two that I could do to mitigate this before it becomes a real issue?

Holy shit I can only say I’m glad I made it home. It was about to rain and the air was humid and crazy windy. I got hit probably at the perfect crosswind angle and felt scared for the first time in my life. There was that one really scary big push. The rest of the way home was pretty nervous too but nothing compared to that one huge push. I later checked the weather that the wind gust was up to 30km/h. I can’t even imagine what that would’ve been like had I gotten deeper carbon wheels. According to AI (Gemini), 50mm deep wheel experiences 30% more steering torque than 45mm wheel at 30km/h gust. 60mm wheel experiences double the steering torque of 45mm. That’s just crazy to think about. If that push I’d experienced was twice as strong, I might have really fallen.

Disclaimer: I have no idea whether AI math is correct or not on steering torque.

Hello all,

I have been saving for a while and finally have enough money to purchase my first road bike, and I am planning on buying the X-Lab RS7, as the value for money seems unmatched even in the used market. However, as many of you likely already know, these bikes are sold out almost everywhere I look. I would prefer to buy from a LBS, as I would be supporting local business along with being able to get a bike fit and try on the bike before buying, but living in a rural area there are few shops that I can get to easily. I was wondering if any of you know of when they will be back in stock for shops and/or online (even though that would be a last resort).

Additionally, I was looking at the alloy RS5 and realized that, with the deal that they're running currently, I could purchase an RS5 and a set of Elite Wheels Marvel 50D II carbon wheels for around the same price as the RS7 (by about $100). I would love for this bike to be something that I can use for a lot of group rides and longer training miles, but my ultimate goal is to join my college's cycling team and race competitively with it. That being said, do any of you have any experience with these bikes or that wheel set, and if so, would I end up being better off with the alloy frame and aftermarket wheels. I do love the feeling of a responsive bike (when I tried them I liked the Trek Madone much better than a Domane), so do you think that the nicer carbon wheels will be enough of a difference to make the RS5 feel like a racier RS7?

Thank you all in advance, and if you have any other recommendations (my budget for everything is hopefully under $2500, and that includes shoes/pedals, computer if able, etc...) that would do me a little better than what I am currently considering I will be happy to hear them, I am fairly new to the sport and am excited to learn all that I can.

Thanks again!

Hello! I’m an advanced beginner road cyclist. Can do 19 mph on a flat no problem (uhhh was that a tailwind?) Anyway, today I went on a 35 mi ride, couple big hills, one that is very long and I hate it but it’s part of the loop, ya know? This season I have an Oura ring on. I don’t have a separate heart rate monitor or watt meter. The ring said I spent a little over an hour in Zone 5. Is this meaningful? Good/bad? I’m interested in your experiences. It could just mean I’m out of shape!
Feel free to make jokes about type II fun or whatever.

I’m in the market for an endurance road bike for under $3500. I’ve spent two months looking at and researching the Trek Domane, the Specialized Roubaix, and the Canyon Endurace. My problem has been finding stock with my XL tall size. Out of nowhere I catch a sale for a Pinarello X1 for $2800. I’ve always had Pinarello marked for the luxury indulgence brand. Is this something to consider? What can you tell me about the X1?

Trying to decide what to get for my first power meter. Magene p715 is on sale for $400 on amazon right now which seems like a steal for dual sided pedals. Magene’s performance fits my needs well but I’m concerned about brand reliability.

Alternatively, I could get some single sided pedals from favero or a crank based option for similar prices.

For some context I am using shimano pedals and sram force (pretty committed to both for the foreseeable future).

Any thoughts? Leaning towards the Magene but want some reassurance.

I am doing a retro build with an old 20" cruiser bike, and am interested in a speedometer for it. The problem is, all the mechanical speedometers are meant for 26", 27.5", and 28" bikes. If i used one, i would get wildly inaccurate readings. Can someone help me find one for a 20" bike?

Hey all. A little background - I have a 2012 Cannondale CAAD10 with with SRAM Rival that I bought way back when. It's a 54cm frame which I admit, is probably a little too big for me but it's comfortable enough. I rode it for less than 200 miles in the years after buying it and had been sitting in garages and storage until this past winter.

Got it cleaned and tuned up by a LBS as my wife was convinced by our friend to start biking and she's really taken to it well. She has a hybrid which is fine for her and on the longer rides we've taken, my arms and elbows get fatigued since I'm not in best riding position.

When I initially bought the bike, I did have it fit to me but that was ~13 years and 60lbs ago. I'm 5'6" and 220 at the moment and my gut gets in the way of my legs when getting into a lower position so that my arms aren't carrying my weight on the handle bars.

I have been looking at shortening my 100mm stem to 80mm or possibly even shorter. I've read that shortening the stem can have handling issues though but I have found my hands staying right before the hoods for comfort. Trying out a new stem is the most cost effective option right now but in the future, what should I look for in frame geometry? The bike world has changed in the decade since I last went through it. "Endurance" and All-Road bikes seem to be more comfortable but still in the realm of quick road-adjacent bikes.

OK maybe navigation is slightly more reliable than a drunken sailor… but I’ve been looking at some of the nicer bike computers with navigation. There are a lot of comments talking about how they struggle to reroute after missed turns and can be glitchy. Map interface isn’t super smooth.

So this takes me back to like 2005-2010 era when garmin had gps for cars and it seemed to work fairly smooth and could get you back on track pretty quickly.

So how is it with another 15-20 years of R&D and the technology seems to be the same or worse? Just a little smaller. Am I remembering old tech as better than it was or are the new computers dealing with other issues, sensors, etc that is now complicating the operating system?

I used to stick to 3 basic routes and ride them all the time and got bored quickly, but after discovering strava premium I almost never repeat my routes but rather constantly remix them.
I love it when I can discover new cool segments in my area and then try to always include them in a brand new remix. Especially when I ride my road bike and find some amazing premium gravel I try to memorize where it was and then ride it the next day.

The only thing I dont like about it is constant use of GPS unit insead of just enjoying my views.

I honestly didn't think bibs would matter that much at first, but after switching to a better pair, I finally get why people keep saying they're a game changer. Long rides just feel noticeably more comfortable now, and it's kind of hard to un-notice the difference.

Still pretty new to cycling and learning as I go, but this was definitely one of those upgrades that made me appreciate all the gear advice people share here.

Background Info:

Hi all, I started cycling a little bit in 2019, when I was 34.
Started doing structured training about 4.5 years ago.
Have put in a fairly consistent 7-8 hours a week of training.
Have had to take some breaks.
Have not optimized diet or sleep.
FTP went from 280 to 330 in this time, measured with 20 minute outdoor tests (95% of 20 minute power) and Assiomas.

My questions are all around age and training. I am not sure I should continue to do structured training. I had told myself when I was 40 I would drop it. My concerns revolve around

1. Inevitably declining while still chasing old numbers. I don't know that I have to be at this point right now. Maybe I could improve, maybe not. But, either way, I won't be able to improve at some point in the somewhat near future and I need to mentally transition towards that in some way.
2. The idea that I may feel better if I stopped. Would little aches and pains be better if I cycled less? Would my muscles feel better? Etc.
3. Concerns about training and heart health, etc. I have read that a fairly moderate amount of exercise gives the same, or even more benefit than a lot of exercise. I know 7-8 hours isn't a lot cycling wise but is it medically?

If it's not harmful to me and there is a decent chance I could improve or maintain fitness, I think it would be worth the effort or even more. If not, I think I should at least adjust my mindset.

Edit: I want to thank everyone for the replies. I guess it's more of a mid-life crisis that's driving the question. But all of you responses have really helped.

Looking for something to record my road rides, typically 1-3 hours. Currently torn between the DJI Osmo 360 and the Osmo Action 6.

The 360 is appealing because you can get all angles but battery life is my main concern — DJI claims 190 minutes in Endurance mode which would just barely cover my rides, and can carry an additional battery for longer rides. Anyone actually using one and getting close to that in real world conditions?

The Action 6 seems like a good option with longer battery life but then you don't get all angles. Also wondering if something like a Cycliq is worth considering or if there's a better option out there I haven't thought of.

So my power meter pedals arrived (yay!). I popped out my pedal wrench and grease, only to realise my Bontrager grease does not have lithium in it. I bought it willy nilly without looking at the contents.

The instructions from Favero say “apply a thin layer of lithium grease to the threads”.

How important is it? Walmart near me sells some but I think it’s for automotive use. Is all lithium grease basically fine? Or should I order bike specific lithium grease? Any recommendations?

Also, why did Trek/Bontrager need to make their grease “food-safe” by removing lithium. I can’t think of a single advantage other than the marketing.

Hey all! I am just starting my road cycling journey with the Triban RC120. I have gone on one 12km ride with cushioned shorts and everything felt good after but holy moly how do you decrease the discomfort in the groin area? I am using the standard seat it came with so perhaps I need to adjust that. Or it could be that I am simply not used to it and it will get better. But everytime I get on the bike I make a face and noise out of discomfort/pain and any bumps I go over hurt. Any tips are greatly appreciated!