Anyone else an avid cyclist? I got started riding mountain bikes, but now am a roadie through and through!!! I can ride 100 mile marathon rides, burn 4000+ calories, and somehow still be fat :(
Added bonus: YOU HAVE AN EXCUSE TO SHAVE!!!
Avid recreational and competitive road cyclist here too! Started my racing career last year, sadly side lined at the moment while a recover from a brain injury from getting hit by a car while training :(
I have been cleared to do some riding on trails, but right now can only go 20ish miles and dreadfully slow before symptoms start popping up. Can't wait to get back on the road though!
Love riding. Been doing it for over 30 years on the road.
Even been to the world championships.
Used to ride up to 600k per week and was super lean and super fast.
Descending on a quiet twisty road at good speed is hard to beat.
Have a rocket at the moment that I built up in 2013. Love it.
Felt AR1 with Dura Ace DI2 and Zipp wheels. Fast.
Still, can't have to many bikes. Have 3 road including a TT bike.
Already planning on a new one. Can't hurt. :)
Quote from: Jenny07 on October 17, 2015, 03:54:43 AM
Love riding. Been doing it for over 30 years on the road.
Even been to the world championships.
Used to ride up to 600k per week and was super lean and super fast.
Descending on a quiet twisty road at good speed is hard to beat.
Have a rocket at the moment that I built up in 2013. Love it.
Felt AR1 with Dura Ace DI2 and Zipp wheels. Fast.
Still, can't have to many bikes. Have 3 road including a TT bike.
Already planning on a new one. Can't hurt. :)
Went to the world championships as a racer or spectator?
Your bike sure sounds fast ;)
I use to race on a Cannondale SuperSix, but then joined a team sponsored by Specialized, so got an S-Works Tarmac DI2 Disc. Got a few raised eyebrows racing with disc brakes, but I like them and feel way more confidant when needing to stop suddenly.
My old Cannondale got totaled from the accident, so been shopping around for a replacement. Thinking about getting a Venge, but might cheap out and buy an Allez or Crux for Fall/Winter training, something I don't have to think about keeping nice and clean. Can't have dirt/wet/mud on my nice S-Works :P
- Kaylee
Avid urban cyclist here! I love single speed freewheel road bikes. I have a thing for late '70's Peugeots and mid '80's Fujis. Although at the moment I have been on a contemporary Mongoose hybrid frame. All the gears, front and rear brakes etc.
I used to ride in a semi-suicidal fashion though. I hoped to be taken out doing what I love. So I am in the process of trying to undo that. Trouble is I am a risk taker and adrenaline junky. I really do love trying to go fast in heavy traffic. Trying to follow the line forward. I was/am the rider people hate.
But I am learning to be safe and go slower. I stop at lights now and don't even notice other riders passing me. My trouble is when there are no lights to stop at. I do not go slowly, even when I was a bike messenger, riding all day, I pushed myself every second.
Trying to reconfigure my relationship to bicycles, but undoing things that my subconscious does automatically is much harder than I thought.
I just love to ride...it feels so much like flying!
Kellam, your middle name should be Dangerous, if it's not already :) Luckily you can still be safe and ride fast, might be a good compromise for you. The way you describe your riding screams bike messenger. I always thought about doing that, but I follow traffic laws ;), which kind of gets in the way of that line of work.
I tend to ride on roads less traveled, but I'm generally out there to train. Heavy traffic, and roads with a lot of stop lights, and stop signs go against what I need to accomplish to improve my skills and fitness.
- Kaylee
I did got to school, work and other errands on the bike before getting a vehicle at age 39 in all weather. Never competed. Sidelined by a nasty form of neuropathy until just lately. I had my Specialized hybrid bike overhauled last month and took it to an event and rode it on the field and on a 1/2 mile long incline outside of the camp. It felt good after 15+ years! I never forgot how to ride the thing. Alas, in my neighborhood, an adult on a bike is fair game.
Joelene
I've always loved bicycles and was an avid recreational cyclist for several years, unfortunately spinal and cerebral injuries have slowed me down a bit
I currently have a Mongoose 29" that I've put road tires on to get about town with 8)
I used to do a lot of road cycling. I want to get back into it next summer. We are now in an area that has quite a few paved rural roads with little traffic, so it ought to be ideal.
A few years ago, I customized my touring bike with a new set of gears specifically for mountain roads. My goal at the time was to be able to tackle the highest paved mountain pass in Canada: Highwood Pass in Alberta. I gave it an ultra-low "granny" gear for going up, and a very tall high gear for taking advantage of the downhill. I managed to do the pass several times, always in spring before the road was opened to traffic.
The downhill was worth the slog up: with a tailwind, I got up to 82km/h one time. And nearly crapped when I came around a bend at that speed and saw my cycling partner swerving to avoid a herd of mountain sheep! No injuries, fortunately!
I love cycling. I never competed, but I've still got some nice New Zealand made bikes from the 70s & 80s hanging up in the garage. These days I prefer English bikes from the 1950s and earlier if I can find them. A particular treasure is a rare 1950s 'Wearwell' path racer that was thrown in a skip by idiots who were cleaning out their grandad's old shed and didn't know what it was. I don't ride so much now due to illness, but when I can it's wonderful to get out on one of my trusty old bikes. They are truly freedom machines and I love them.
I love to cycle too. I have done two centuries on my road bike.
I Have ridden en femme a number of times on shorter rides on my hybrid.
A fun thing about cycling is you can wear female clothing top to bottom whether you are presenting female or not. All my biking clothes are women's. 😍
Hi all.
I find cycling helps enormously with both weight control and anxiety/depression. I guess it's the endorphins. I have a Canyon Ultimate that I use all the time here and even tried racing this year (on a motor racing circuit).
I thought I was reasonably bike fit until I holidays in Vermont last August. Hills, tracks and a cycle X machine was certainly a novel experience. Roll on!
Well it's that time of year, had to switch out tires for the snow the other week ago
"Love riding. Been doing it for over 30 years on the road.
Even been to the world championships.
Used to ride up to 600k per week and was super lean and super fast.
Descending on a quiet twisty road at good speed is hard to beat.!
Jenny - 600k a WEEK! most I ever managed was 100 miles. Where do you find the time? Were you (Gosh) a pro? ! I agree though, that there is little if anything to compare to that sense of freedom you get from descending at speed. Skiing comes close, but there it is largely gravity doing the work. Where I live at least, it is usually down to your own motor!
Roll on
Julia
Quote from: V M on December 29, 2015, 01:46:10 PM
Well it's that time of year, had to switch out tires for the snow the other week ago
Haha, indeed! That time of the year where the bike goes into the trainer inside. SO boring to ride on a trainer :(
I've done a couple 200 mile days... but RAMROD (~150mi, ~10kft elevation gain) is what I'm proudest of. Pulled my dad across the finish line. That was back in my testosterone-soaked youth... I think I rode about 400 miles that year. I liked to tell my dad that "training is for sissies." Yikes.
These days, my legs are just as strong and they want to go go go, but I've had a few lower back injuries, and I can't get on my bike without putting myself out of commission for a month. I can ride slowly for a few miles at a time... but I'll see a bus or another cyclist or a bird or... and I'm suddenly on the chase... everything feels amazing until my back cools down and I'm in tremendous pain for a month.
Hopefully now that I'm out of college I'll be able to afford a physical therapist to get my lower back into shape so that I can ride without killing myself or feeling like a grandma on training wheels.
Okay, see... I have a problem. I just thought "oh I know, I can just pull a trailer full of bricks! That will slow me down!" Uh... torque is the problem, dummy. :eusa_wall:
I know this is a long dead thread buuuut... I too love riding my bikes. I'm not a competitive cyclist, I'm a daily cycle commuter. That means year round. The closest I've come to competitive distance riding is a metric century (100k; or about 62.2 mi.), and that was a noncompetetive thing just to see if I could do it.
I've also done a small bit of touring, and boy s that a great way to spend a vacation!
No worries, we like bicycles 8) Keep on a riden' and a rollin'
I love cycling, but I have so little spare time that it is mostly restricted to sticking my bike onto a trainer and doing Sufferfest or riding along with some other video. It keeps my legs in shape and fit.
On the rare occasion, like once a year, I go on a leisurely bike ride along one of our rivers that have bike paths, or through rural areas on low traffic roads. I don't feel safe riding on roads. If it was up to me, I'd rebuild all roads with separate bicycle paths.
Once self-driving cars become the norm, I'll feel safe riding on roads again. Bring on self-driving cars!
Wow,
I can't imagine trying to do any cycling while tucked!
I ride 3 to 4 times a week. Tucking hell no! Maybe one day I won't have to!
Quote from: Steph Eigen on June 25, 2017, 03:41:55 PM
Wow,
I can't imagine trying to do any cycling while tucked!
:icon_yikes: Wow, yeah! Even in my HRT-shrunken state,, that would be "uncomfortable".
Avid, for the past few years I've been down to just commuting but as recently as 2011 I was still doing 140+ mile rides on back-back weekends.
I'm really hankering to be back in the saddle, if wary of difficulty expected in acclimating to riding post op. Any tips on how to make that easier would be appreciated!
I'm *really* looking for to no longer presenting masculine hardware when wearing bike shorts. Ugh, that was the only thing about riding I consistently disliked.