being comfortable or being uncomfortable - discuss.

[DCT]

im thinking about someone who wants to get better at cycling and takes it somewhat seriously....

although there are no mountains or big hills, do you run a compact and a 28 because its easier?
why not get stronger and suffer a bit more? if you're used to everything being easy, what do you do when something gets difficult?

we're always concerned about being comfortable, but isn't cycling an athletic endeavor? flip that stem up and put it way above the bars so its comfy and make the bike unstable?

[JeffS]

Everyone wants to be "better". At everything.

Training to be better for me is so many steps beyond wanting that they're barely related at all. Suffering for suffering's sake is a hard case to make to a person without a defined goal.

[Dorman]

Good one. At what point do we differentiate between people that have a clue about equipment and those that don't? I would assume that everyone on here has a pretty good idea about what is going on, but being completely obsessed with bicycles is a pretty small segment of the market.

Anyway, for me I run a 53/39 and an 11-23 cassette (Campagnolo drive) for virtually everything and I'm still pissed they won't make a 20 so I can have an 11-21 11 speed cassette. If you ride it enough the fitness will come and it will be normal. I am a little off my peak fitness this summer and had a 65 mile ride with 6,000 feet going up. I doubted myself and put on a 12-25 for that. I did the same ride with the 11-23 last year no problem.

Of course, we could also add weight into this pain equation. My Crumpton is 13 lb. 6 oz., my Bianchi is 14 lb. 5 oz. and even my aluminum Cervelo S1 is only 15 lb. 10 oz. Put me on an 18 lb. bike and I'm gonna start whining like a baby.

I suppose we should all train on 20 lb bikes with hard gears to maximize training and use the light stuff when it counts, but I love the way my Crumpton rides. Oh, and always ride into a hard headwind.

Take it from there.

[WadePatton]

Of course, we could also add weight into this pain equation. My Crumpton is 13 lb. 6 oz., my Bianchi is 14 lb. 5 oz. and even my aluminum Cervelo S1 is only 15 lb. 10 oz. Put me on an 18 lb. bike and I'm gonna start whining like a baby.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

i don't have any clue what my complete bicycle and bag and bottles weighs*, BUT i hurt me EVERY time i swing my leg over it...if it weighed fukking zero pounds i'd crank enough watts into it to hurt myself. that's just what i do.

*okay i lied. it weighs precisely something between 16 and 28 united states pounds approximately.

now i'll continue with the threadmo.

[WFSTEKL]

Sound biomechanical fit on a bicycle is one thing, and it is usually the only thing when it comes to finding Zen on a bicycle. However I've always said, if you want comfort, buy a couch. Now, here is an observation. I just mounted some Grand Bois tires on my machine in preperation for D2R2. They are the green lable ones in size 29c. I did not purchase them looking for a comfort solution. It was simply a performance pursuit. I ride a steel Zank and have had all kinds of rubber mounted on it, including 27c Evo Pave tubs. However absolutely no tire I've used before has allowed me to roll over broken, missing, hole riddled pavement like these tires. They just brush it off like it doesn't exist. I was not expecting this result. As far as performance goes, these Grand Bois tires have allowed me to ride faster over shit pavement and gravel roads. So, performance is improved with the added benefit of a little extra "comfort". If you are riding a shopping cart as a solution to improve your comfort on the machine, I can't help you.

[classtimesailer]

Going slower is more comfortable. If the group slows down some after a hard effort, I'm more comfortable. On the other hand, if I get dropped, I am not comfortable.

[pdxmech13]

My take is that cycling became the new golf for a while because to most people it is easy. They don't push themselves enough to make it truely hard. We are still seeing the cause and effect in the industry form this. Handlbars are still getting higher, gears are becoming lower. Hell I just got an internal memo saying the new standard weight for americans accoridng to a recent survey is now considered 275lbs and we will be accomodating this with newer internals on our suspension forks. America is fat and lazy!

[Badonkadonk]

My take is that cycling became the new golf for a while because to most people it is easy.

btw, the same people who started cycling b/c "it's the new golf" also suck at golf. i've been out on the course with a lot of them, and they talk exactly about golf while sucking the way they talk about riding while sucking. it's a disease.

[pdxmech13]

btw, the same people who started cycling b/c "it's the new golf" also suck at golf. i've been out on the course with a lot of them, and they talk exactly about golf while sucking the way they talk about riding while sucking. it's a disease.

I'm not the golfer I once was but stepped out on the course not to long ago and couldn't believe the swings people had. I'm lucky I picked it up at the age of 6.

[Badonkadonk]

I'm not the golfer I once was but stepped out on the course not to long ago and couldn't believe the swings people had. I'm lucky I picked it up at the age of 6.

agreed. same people buying madones for 5 mile bad form spins with crazy stems and carbon wheels are buying taylor made weighting-adjustable oversized drivers and then blasting three different titleist v1xs off of each tee as provisionals so they can look for one in the woods, play one off an adjacent fairway, and pick one up off the ladies tee on the way to the adjacent fairway.

salonistas would play with blades, score, and actually spend time practicing with the putter

[jsmillerjr]

btw, the same people who started cycling b/c "it's the new golf" also suck at golf. i've been out on the course with a lot of them, and they talk exactly about golf while sucking the way they talk about riding while sucking. it's a disease.

I'll never understand why people have to act like an expert at something when anyone with a shred of common sense can see that they are just full of s**t! Makes me laugh but seems all too common in this day and time....probably is a disease

[DCT]

My take is that cycling became the new golf for a while because to most people it is easy. They don't push themselves enough to make it truely hard. We are still seeing the cause and effect in the industry form this. Handlbars are still getting higher, gears are becoming lower. Hell I just got an internal memo saying the new standard weight for americans accoridng to a recent survey is now considered 275lbs and we will be accomodating this with newer internals on our suspension forks. America is fat and lazy!

hey good points here.

the hills around here are pretty good. nothing like d2r2 or vermont or litchfield, but descent. what if i run a compact with a 28 and get used to that gearing and then go to vermont where the hills and way longer or d2r2 where the hills are way steeper? im pretty much screwed.

hopefully this makes sense after having a pint of ipa.

[brucew]

what if i run a compact with a 28 and get used to that gearing and then go to vermont where the hills and way longer or d2r2 where the hills are way steeper? im pretty much screwed.

That's it in a nutshell right there.

I didn't start cycling until age 49. It was hard for me, right from the start. I learned pretty quickly that without doing the hard stuff, nothing would ever be easy. After a while I figured out which parts of riding I wanted to be easy, then worked hard on those parts. For example, if I wanted my commute to be easy, I had to work hard on non-commuting rides. If I wanted a 2% grade to be easy, (and trust me on this, 2% was really effing hard at the time) I had to train at 4% to 6%. And so on...

Put another way, I had to build excess capacity. Only when you have excess capacity does doing something seem easy. Since I couldn't drop another motor on the bike, I had to work at building excess capacity on the one I have.

I thought I was getting pretty good on hills, until I switched to a standard double. In my second year of riding the standard, now I'm getting good at hills. When the old guy on the standard double with an 11-21 drops the entire group on a climb, well, man, that's worth every night of sore legs.

[Bob Ross]

what if i run a compact with a 28 and get used to that gearing and then go to vermont where the hills and way longer or d2r2 where the hills are way steeper? im pretty much screwed.

I don't get this. What if you ran a standard double with a 39/21 as your lowest gear and got used to that gearing, and then go to Vermont where the hills are way longer or d2r2 where the hills are way steeper? You're still screwed!


[edit: ...unless you meant that when you got to Vermont you'd switch to a compact?]

[DCT]

I don't get this. What if you ran a standard double with a 39/21 as your lowest gear and get used to that gearing and then go to vermont where the hills and way longer or d2r2 where the hills are way steeper? You're still screwed!
[edit: ...unless you meant that when you got to Vermont you'd switch to a compact?]

ya exactly. at least if i do 6gap and put on a compact i'll have a few extra gears to play with

[Badonkadonk]

ya exactly. at least if i do 6gap and put on a compact i'll have a few extra gears to play with

Another thread in which you threaten to do the 6 gap ride. Interesting. Now that you have the equipmemt planned, is this on the calendar?

[WayneJ]

I'm not comfortable

[Badonkadonk]

pounding away on pedals, sitting on a tiny contact patch, and risking your health with cars on public roads while dressed like a circus performer is uncomfortable. the only way you make it worth it is thrashing yourself like a motherfucker until you can't go anymore. i don't get to do that as much as i'd like, but it sure is fun.

all of this biking stuff is very uncomfortable if you're doing it right is my opinion.

you wanna add to the pain, ride with people who are much fitter than you. torture, and awesome.

[Too Tall]

D., you took the words right out of my head. I've been thinking about starting an similar thread for days and you beat me to it.
Apologies for making this about me here goes.
I make a small change on my Spectrum recently, the saddle is clapped out ;) That with changing to an setback seatpost put me into an slightly more aggressive position. When I'm riding easy and warming up the bike is not super comfortable to sit on, it bothers me some. Once I am warmed up and training hard the bike does not matter, the top tube could be an 61 or an 68 and who cares what length stem I have as long as everything is not hateful and I can turn corners!!! OK ok ok I'm being dramatic to make a point.

Bikes fit very differently when you sit on them and just pedal vs hard peddaling. In order of importance my fitness is a huge factor on how well the bike fits me for pedaling hard OR easy.

Go figure?

The above non-brilliance is just one reason I've got an quiver of bikes.

I'll replace the clapped out Arione saddle this week and retract all the above ;)

Infact "it" is an sum of all the little things unless you are hammering than that is all that matters.

[Justin Spinelli]

I'm most comfortable being uncomfortable.