Cycling UK Forum

My Continental Grand Prix tyres say "handmade in Germany" and cost £45 each. I wouldn't countenance cheap car tyres. For my current car, tyres are about £180.

I'm 62 and trying to follow the advice for my age in mixing cardio and resistance. I'm 107 kg and climb quite aggressively. This I do most days as I have a 15% hill on the way home.

Will that do for leg resistance, or should I be doing squats in the gym ?

I'm reading this, and being relieved that it's not just me. I'm still struggling with the idea that doing 155bpm for an hour on our local track doesn't make you fitter.

My FTP on an erg is 260, but I'm a heavy rider, so only doing about 2.5 per kg. I started using a bike for exercise (as opposed to commuting) in 2020 when there was nothing else to do.

To be fair to Halfords, they are at least as good as our LBS's.

We've three LBS's and aside from the sociopathic staff I've had

1) E-bikes start at £2k
2) That noise is nothing to do with the BB, its the pedals (it wasn't), and the worst wheelbuild I've ever encountered
3) Completely incompatible handlebar extensions (the bike was there), that creak is not in the BB and a poor service

It's a really interesting debate and of course what we are all doing is exploring the boundary between pedal cycles and motor vehicles. My brother in law has a chinese e-bike with fat tyres and I think it does 15mph. It is so heavy that I can barely lift the thing. I'm 107kg and in my 60s and left him standing on a hire shop hybrid on a 40 mile run. His vehicle reminds me of the old 1970s mopeds which were supposed to be capable of being pedal powered. There weren't many who could pedal a 65mph Yamaha any distance.

Going back on topic, I think that the person who said "you can't keep up with traffic at 15 mph" is absolutely right, but the ideal cycling infrastructure should be suitable for people who can't do 15mph at all. We don't really want to be sharing our cycle paths with Harley Davidson Livewires which can get to 100mph in 5s !

What this little ramble is really saying is that you have to draw the line somewhere, and in my opinion 15 mph is not a bad place to do it. As other correspondents have said, 30mph either gives you no battery life or a bike so heavy it's really an electric moped.

Boring black with minimal branding. Marginal gains in the bike theft avoidance game. I'm a cyclist, not an advertising hording.

Lol - any speed gains from new tyres where eliminated by the time I spent in hospital after forgetting I had changed my tyres. I got Panracer 32c s, didn't want to buy to the 28 limit of my rims. They are definitely faster, I reckoned they were good for about 1kmh, but very skittish on poor surfaces, say no more. Still not sure how they will feel above 50kph on a descent. However, nothing is making as much difference as gym work, you can push yourself so much harder, more safely, on a gym bike with an erg.

Please flame me, but what is wrong with Aluminium?

I'm loving all the advice, progess to date is that I've just bought some 32 mm tyres, they feel better. My rims are dc19 s so 28mm is pushing it. I've done a PB of 25.4kmh on my reference run, but the gains were on the hills, which is more likely to be fitness related. I think I've got enough speed and endurance to do local social club rides, especially as I did a fpt test the day before on an erg bike, and could feel it . I use my bike for shopping and commuting, so the racks will stay

Hi

Thank you you for all the responses.

Variously - completely accept the wheel recommendation. I did the Spa wheel upgrade as I wrecked the 36h wheels that came with the bike. Would do that again.

I ride in East Anglia, its actually Colchester so the local countryside rolls a bit. I'm looking at 22kmh on such a ride. In think for a 61yo I have quite a high power output, but obviously let down by the ratio.

I'm running marathon pluses, and there is a bit of me that is tempted to remove the rack, stand put marathon supremes on and see what happens.

The unused gears are 1-11 on a 24 gear bike. I have only ever used the small chainring by accident.

I currently have an aluminium Dawes Galaxy AL Cross. I'm 61 and 106 kg. It was bought for load carrying commuting and is 16kg unladen. It has 11 unused gears. My cycling buddies assure me that ride outs would be completely different if I got something sportier. I'm also wondering about longer rides.

Should I go for an Audax bike and if so any recommendations under £2k ?

I own a modern era Dawes Galaxy AL Cross - it is a flat barred aluminiun light tourer. I'm 61 and 107 kg (about 17stone). The bike has become a bit of a money pit and in practice all I need to carry is a multi-tool, inner tube and pump as I don't think I will ever "tour". 27 gears and 27th feels a bit undergeared and I have never used 1-9 in anger.

Having decided I'll never tour, I do enjoy knocking out 40/50km after work and would like to make this more enjoyable, but on a bike that isn't going to disintegrate with a fat B***** on it. I appreciate that I can always upgrade wheels to decent handbuilt 36h wheels (indeed I already have a pair of those). I also can see an electric hub upgrade within 5 years.

Any ideas ?

I have a polar chest HR monitor and see strange peaks and troughs, not of that magniture.. I've done workouts on a static exercise bikes with built in HR monitors and see the spikes not replicated there.

This is something I think about a lot, I do have a health condition and my heart rate is always high during exercise. When not cycling I do long cardio workouts. According to the standard formula, my max HR is now 159, but I can maintain 97% almost indefinitely. I think that this actually means that the standard max HR calculation is wrong.

nez wrote: ↑25 Apr 2022, 9:45am

mail@nickavery.com wrote: ↑25 Apr 2022, 8:14am Just in case anybody is interested, the Spa wheels turned up trumps. Still as true as the day they were born.

Now I have a clanking under heavy climbing from the BB

Everyone is interested. Once you go over 80 kilos modern bikes are more breakable. Unless of course you get one made of scaffolding poles from Halfords

I was looking forward to debating this further with nez, sadly yesterday, he mounted the great Dawes Galaxy in the sky.