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Road Bikers Unite!
- Thread starter Cowpokey
- Start date
The state won't allow approaches on corners or hills, specifically for that reason.
If you hit a cow, it's the ranchers fault for not having adequate fences. The cows owner can actually be charged in fatal wrecks, although they're generally not unless they have a history of cows being out. There's ranchers who have been found guilty of manslaughter because their black Angus weren't fenced in and on the road regularly.
It just baffles me that bikers think they need to be in the driving lane where they know they can't be seen. The fact that they don't get run over more often is quite the miracle.
All true, but when my friend hit a cow we made sure to let him know he was a fucking retard.
Not on a farm to market road in Texas.
The driver will be paying the rancher for the cow.
No reason to slam the the stem.
You will be faster AND more comfortable, if you are more comfortable, if you catch my drift.
Years ago, when Greg LeMond was still racing, many in the bike media would mention that his bikes sere spec'd with somwhat slacker angles etc..., he found it more comforatble on those long stages, hence faster.
Very similar to the Endurance bikes on the market now.
Want to increase speed? Go to a CF medium depth wheelset and TPU innertubes, that'll buy you more speed than slamming your stem.
Even much of the pro peloton has moved away from the slammed stems for most of the stages.
Nice bike, I went with the Canyon CF8 disc mechanical 600 groupset.
I see road bikers in the city, on 25 mph speed limit streets, mostly with shoulders and\or with bike lanes, no country road blind curves or hills, and if the pedal bikers are following traffic rules they are not creating a problem on these sorts of roads.
Pedal bikes are usually fine on 25 mph roads with shoulders and bike lanes.
I lived in two separate geographic places in my life where there have been miles and miles of winding country roads, no shoulder, with lots of blind curves, and blind hills, and a 45 mph speed limit. You see deer splattered by cars on these roads almost daily.
People that have no common sense whatsoever think it is a good idea to ride a pedal power bike on these roads. I see it a lot.
There are many situations where it would be impossible for a car driver doing 45 mph to avoid hitting the person on the bike, blind hill at 45 mph, bike in the middle of the road on said hill doing 5-7 mph (evidence by many dead deer and other roadkill).
This is as obvious a problem as putting your hand into a running blender, yet road bikers want to argue that this sort of road isn't a problem
ok (switches on blender) come here
Darwin will win this one, think before you ride on certain roads.
I don't care if it is legal to have your pedal bike on a 45mph country road, it is STUPID AS FUCK! There are some roads pedal bikes should never be on.
Only pedal bikers disagree everyone else sees it.
Pedal bikes are usually fine on 25 mph roads with shoulders and bike lanes.
I lived in two separate geographic places in my life where there have been miles and miles of winding country roads, no shoulder, with lots of blind curves, and blind hills, and a 45 mph speed limit. You see deer splattered by cars on these roads almost daily.
People that have no common sense whatsoever think it is a good idea to ride a pedal power bike on these roads. I see it a lot.
There are many situations where it would be impossible for a car driver doing 45 mph to avoid hitting the person on the bike, blind hill at 45 mph, bike in the middle of the road on said hill doing 5-7 mph (evidence by many dead deer and other roadkill).
This is as obvious a problem as putting your hand into a running blender, yet road bikers want to argue that this sort of road isn't a problem
ok (switches on blender) come hereDarwin will win this one, think before you ride on certain roads.
I don't care if it is legal to have your pedal bike on a 45mph country road, it is STUPID AS FUCK! There are some roads pedal bikes should never be on.
Only pedal bikers disagree
everyone else sees it.
Bike fit first. Then an aero helmet, then 'snug to tight' fitting clothing, then a flat top bar, then maybe wheels. Course to go fast on a bicycle, you need to be able to pedal the bike fast to start with so maybe start with 4 on/4 off efforts.
I caught a case of the screw it's this AM after yesterday's ride. Shoulda packed the bike to work and ridden before I drove home. Aah well...Tempo intervals tomorrow.
M
You keep proving instances of bad driving and then blaming it on the cyclists. Amazing how no car driver EVER admits to outdriving their sight distances.I see road bikers in the city, on 25 mph speed limit streets, mostly with shoulders and\or with bike lanes, no country road blind curves or hills, and if the pedal bikers are following traffic rules they are not creating a problem on these sorts of roads.
Pedal bikes are usually fine on 25 mph roads with shoulders and bike lanes.
I lived in two separate geographic places in my life where there have been miles and miles of winding country roads, no shoulder, with lots of blind curves, and blind hills, and a 45 mph speed limit. You see deer splattered by cars on these roads almost daily.
People that have no common sense whatsoever think it is a good idea to ride a pedal power bike on these roads. I see it a lot.
There are many situations where it would be impossible for a car driver doing 45 mph to avoid hitting the person on the bike, blind hill at 45 mph, bike in the middle of the road on said hill doing 5-7 mph (evidence by many dead deer and other roadkill).
This is as obvious a problem as putting your hand into a running blender, yet road bikers want to argue that this sort of road isn't a problem
Darwin will win this one, think before you ride on certain roads.
I don't care if it is legal to have your pedal bike on a 45mph country road, it is STUPID AS FUCK! There are some roads pedal bikes should never be on.
Only pedal bikers disagree
It's easy: 1. Look past the hood of your car. 2. Put the phone down and 3. concentrate on your primary responsibility: driving the multi-ton killing machine you're currently occupying.
I'm constantly amazed at the lack of situational awareness drivers display. I can watch it when I'm riding a moto or a push bike. It's especially visible on a moto because I'm passing them instead of the other way round
M
Same here if it's a free range area.
However, you're responsible to not let your animals be a road hazard on the highways, and there's zero free range next to a highway.
Then again, we don't have much for paved roads. If they're county roads they're generally gravel. State highways and interstate are where the idiot bikers think it's fun too mix it up when the speed limits are 70-80mph.
No. Cyclists just want to get down the road safely without being run over by mouth breathing morons. ...and the more I see mouth breathing morons, the wider I ride.
I'll say it again: 1. Look past the hood of your car. 2. Put the phone down and 3. concentrate on your primary responsibility: driving the multi-ton killing machine you're currently occupying. It isn't like I'm suggesting you to do something complicated like adding 2 +2, I'm asking that you to pay attention and not be a mouth breathing moron.
M
The bars are too high, I'm plenty comfortable in the drops the way it is. It's a 61cm bike, I'm 6' 3" with an ape index of +3". I would have had them slam the bars when I bought it; but after being off a bicycle for a dozen years I wanted to get back in shape a little first and make sure I could bend over while pedaling and not feel like I was doing the last sit up in a PT test. Upgrading the wheels is on the list for the roadie...but it may wait a bit, I'm shopping for a MTB first.
Not in Texas. You hit cattle and you’re at fault. Texas is an open range state. You put up fences to keep them out.
Is that about a 60cm/XL frame? How do you like the "compact" chainring design as opposed to conventional chainring sizing? Old crit racers like me hated compact drive cranksets. I'd run an 11-21 or 11-23 cassette for most crits. As a rule I avoided any race that required small ring use- I'm a sprinter. I quit bike racing before 11 speed came along.
It's a 61cm, my previous road bike was a 60. I wish this one was too, but they don't make the Super Six gen4 in a 60; so it was either 58 or 61. Being 6' 3" I figured a little bigger was better than 2cm smaller. I like it a lot. The compact crankset is good with an 11 little ring on the back. I had a 52 before with a 12 tooth little ring on the other bike, the 50:11 is actually a tick bigger gear than a 52:12.
At this moment in time the 11-34 cassette is a welcome option for climbing hills....hard to believe I used to do it with 12-25, gravity must have increased over the years.
Actually, when I stopped racing I think Cramp-N-Go-Slow had just released their 11spd, and the 11spd "Durace" was about to hit.
53T was the most common big ring choice in my region, but I had a Cat2 buddy who ran a 55T- he also ran long crank arms because he had long thick legs that could turn it over.
For the ten seasons I raced I didn't know anyone who was paralyzed or killed while riding. After I left the sport, in about a ten year period we had two killed and three paralyzed- all from bike crashes. Two more died from ALS.
Even on the highways and interstate?
It's common to have open range here, but only on county roads. They still have to be kept off the highways for obvious reasons.
The sheriff will usually comes out and push them back to where they came and call the owner. They suck at it so bad it is worthy of beer and a cigar to watch if I happen to be in that pasture at the time. But the sheriff does have his patience run out if the owner is a moron, as he should. I have had several cows run into my pasture for that very reason. Next thing I know I wake up with some super rangy, wild-assed cow that gets everything stirred up. One dude left it in my herd for almost a year. I hated that thing and the owner never came and got it. He owns the salebarn so he has plenty of extras. Somehow it just disappeared one day.... And he never asked about it.
Has happened more than once. But that is tons better than some teenager dying because a cow is on the road at night. I'll glady deal with a wild bovine to prevent that, no problem. The cows aren't nearly as entitled as bikers think they need to be on a narrow two lane county road - at least for the MOST part they stay in the ditch eating grass and can be dealt with.
Back when triathlon didn't suck. Half-Ironman at Hanford Nuclear Site. Later became a Superfund clean-up site, one of the most polluted spots on earth. Hanford accounts for two-thirds of all the high-level radioactive waste in the entire country (by volume)
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Blasted last four months. First, my left eye goes bonkers (reason name change to "Dead Eye." Go to an experimental treatment rather than life long shots in the eye which from at least two people I know, may prevent worse symptoms, but never make anything any better. So, I go with the experimental treatment. That works ok, but during the treatment, NO exercise. No cycling. Just as I was able to get with the program, my knee and shoulder go on the fritz. Riding but not training. Just taking it easy. So, yesterday, I go to see my med professional, who also was a cyclist, until he came down with cancer, (which now is in submission)
So, here is the crud. First, he sees a video of my PRS practice stage. He notes that I am putting max stress on my now bad left knee and bad left shoulder. He's not at all happy with that, nor is he happy with the weight of my main rifle, only 18lbs 11oz. And it gets worse, He Strongly Implies that my days at Senior Olympic Cycling competition are over. Ok for causal cycling, but No Competition. I do love going fast on that time trial bike. And the more technical, the better. Bike handling is my strong suit.
What next?
So, here is the crud. First, he sees a video of my PRS practice stage. He notes that I am putting max stress on my now bad left knee and bad left shoulder. He's not at all happy with that, nor is he happy with the weight of my main rifle, only 18lbs 11oz. And it gets worse, He Strongly Implies that my days at Senior Olympic Cycling competition are over. Ok for causal cycling, but No Competition. I do love going fast on that time trial bike. And the more technical, the better. Bike handling is my strong suit.
What next?
If it's about your knee and shoulder, a couple of solutions might be to learn to spin the cranks at a higher cadence to reduce the strain on your knee, and to change your position on the bars so there's less weight on your shoulder. Moving your TT bars closer together or farther apart may reduce the shoulder strain, and closer to you so you're a hair more upright.
My surgeon told me to stay off my bike for 4-6 weeks after my emergency appendectomy- I rode the weekly training race about a week and a half later and didn't pop any of the staples.
Spinning is just out of the question. My strength has always been my leg strength. I have the aerobic ability of an asthmatic caterpillar. In my early years of time trialing, I always spun. I kept seeing these ladies pedaling a much lower cadence and setting times that made me really look bad. So, I changed tactics. I moved from spinning to working on a slower cadence that met my strength. My times improved drematically. Like a minute better in a 5K time trial. Two to three minutes better in a 10K. That training included ; I worked on hill climbs, using as low a cadence as I could pedal rather than spinning up, as well as continuing to do intervals, practice TT’s, long rides in the country and taking Wednesday’s off to mow the hayfield we casually refer to as a lawn. Soon, my times got to the point where I was winning more than not and getting on the podium in Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi was a given.If it's about your knee and shoulder, a couple of solutions might be to learn to spin the cranks at a higher cadence to reduce the strain on your knee, and to change your position on the bars so there's less weight on your shoulder. Moving your TT bars closer together or farther apart may reduce the shoulder strain, and closer to you so you're a hair more upright.
My surgeon told me to stay off my bike for 4-6 weeks after my emergency appendectomy- I rode the weekly training race about a week and a half later and didn't pop any of the staples.
So, in races, my cadence reached 90 or more, but never in the hundreds. I could pull a much higher gear at that cadence.
As far as seat height, since the pain is int he front of the knee on my road bike i am going to raise that seat. The TT bike has me sitting so high now, not sure what I am going to do.
The shoulder is not a problem when riding, it’s when reaching behind me and sleeping. The shoulder was not keeping me from riding, it was the knees that went from numb to hurting.
Thanks for the advice. Anything can help. But I do have a story about an injury that nearly cost me total mobility, but that’s a story for another time.
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