Gearing is a personal choice - what suits one won't suit another.
34x34 is too high for me - As a lowest gear I don't usually have anythig higher than 28x34 and that will go down to 24x34 or 24x36 when I'm touring.
Gearing is a personal choice - what suits one won't suit another.
I've just had my 82nd birthday.borisface wrote: ↑30 Apr 2023, 9:03am I'm a sprightly, soon to be, 56 year old who after shedding 20kgs (down 10kgs from when I was racing 15 years ago) is now pushing 4 w/kg at FTP (280w @ 72kgs). I don't race anymore just ride for fun and fitness which is a bit of a shame as my FTP w/kg is better now than then. The question I have for you chaps over 60 is what sort of decline have you experienced in your performance?
What -- finding a better riding buddy?ANTONISH wrote: ↑5 Nov 2022, 11:59amThat's more good adviceJdsk wrote: ↑5 Nov 2022, 10:43am Lots of good advice above.
Do you think that having some lower gears would make a difference? (There are some very helpful experts in this forum who could suggest modifications for your specific bike.)
How would you feel about riding for a while without measuring your heart rate? You haven't suggested any medical reason for measuring it and it might help with enjoying the ride.
Would it be worth finding a better riding buddy?
Jonathan
TheLastMan wrote: ↑4 Nov 2022, 12:02pm As an older person (62) I took up cycling casually once a week at the weekend at the start of lockdown and have continued since - although with a break in the winter between the end of November and the start of April.
I have been using a heart rate monitor, to make sure I don't overdo it, but recently acquired a power meter (left crank) as I was curious why my fitness and hill climbing (dis)ability seems so poor!
A standard ride for me is 50km mainly on the flat. My average heart rate is generally around 130, starting at about 120 and drifting up to 140 by the end. My average power on those rides is usually about 135 watts. I did a recent FTP test over 20 minutes flat out and it was 175 watts at an average heart rate of 155.
At 168cm tall and 80kg heavy (5'6" / 12st 8lbs) I could definitely lose some weight - 2.2 watts per kilo makes hills nearly impossible!
Comparing my performance with a 40 year old friend who is a similar "weekend warrior", his FTP is 250. He does similar rides with an average heart rate at 130 and average power 180 - 200. Like me he is overweight, but still manages hills that I would never attempt.
I have just acquired an indoor turbo trainer and was wondering what, at my age, I could reasonably hope to achieve if I train, say, three days a week for an hour or two on top of my weekend ride?
My bike is an aluminium Trek Domane AL4 which weighs 10.5kg (with pedals, bottle cages etc).
Surely depends on health, more relevant than age. I can just about manage short, modest, inclines on 22/34. Worse, if I can't ride it, I can't walk it without stopping every 5 yards or so. But then I have extreme COPD - and the cancer treatment doesn't help either!
Most definately, I have three score years behind me and routinely climb on a bottom gear of 34x28, i can get up 25% plus on that albeit slowly, if its that steep the 26 up front will usually get used! (on the cf bike i climb in higher gears as it weighs half that of the usual steed) A more steady 10% climb might see me on 34x18.djnotts wrote: ↑20 Jun 2023, 2:46pmSurely depends on health, more relevant than age. I can just about manage short, modest, inclines on 22/34. Worse, if I can't ride it, I can't walk it without stopping every 5 yards or so. But then I have extreme COPD - and the cancer treatment doesn't help either!
That, with the nuance that I never raced. The only FTP's I know anything about are File Transfer Protocol and a rude Norn Iron proposal concerning the Pope, and I'd never heard of FTP as applied to cycling before I joined a cycling forum.