28
votes
Accepted
Preparation/tips for 50 mile ride
50 miles is feasible but it will be hard work. Think about how tired you felt after cycling 20 miles. Then cycle 20 miles again from that tired start and think about how tired you'll feel then. Then, ...
- 17k
24
votes
Is 17 miles (27km) each way a lot for a newbie cyclist?
As a one-off, that should be completely doable. Your fitness from running and the gym should be plenty enough, especially as the route is pretty flat. Bear in mind that it will be tiring, since ...
- 17k
19
votes
Accepted
How practical are clipless pedal shoes on a long bike tour?
They are nice to walk
Proper fitted MTB shoes with SPD cleats are quite comfortable to walk in, at least for non-marathon distances (say, less than 10 km a day). They are still less ideal when ...
- 14.4k
18
votes
Accepted
Training for 150 km race in 2 months practicality and plan
The OP needs to cover 150km on flat surface within 12 hours. It's the average speed of 12.5 km/h.
Even if we are more realistic and allow for one hour break every 2h15', we end up with four stages of ...
- 4,281
17
votes
Recurring flats on new bike
I see three possibilities:
Your tire pressure is too low and you are getting pinch flats. As a reference point, with 25mm wide tires and your 74kg weight I’d use at least 6bars (600 kPa) of pressure, ...
- 26k
16
votes
How do I prepare to ride 60 miles (100 km) a day for 8 days?
Preparation
One thing to consider is how hilly the ride is compared to what you're used to. If that average pace includes a lot of climbing, it's fairly quick, but if that's a flat pace it's gentle.
...
- 57.3k
15
votes
Accepted
How come pairs are slower than solo riders at the Transcontinental Race?
I expect that the three main contributors are:
The solo riders are just stronger. There's more glory in the solo win so, if you are strong enough to, say, come in the top five on your own, it's ...
- 17k
15
votes
Accepted
When to change quick release springs
Those springs help center the quick-release skewer on the hub. They're a convenience--they make it faster to re-insert the wheel on the frame--but they are not necessary at all.
Which means that ...
- 29.2k
14
votes
Is 17 miles (27km) each way a lot for a newbie cyclist?
Man, just do it! There isn't much that can go wrong. If you feel tired, turn around midway. Take a mobile phone with you in case something happens, look up the weather forecast, take something to eat ...
13
votes
Safely Switch Bicycles before a Century?
I would strongly advise against that. Your legs are not going to be the problem, and neither is your overall conditioning/strength.
If you are going to be around other riders, you need to be able to ...
- 501
13
votes
Dangers of commuting outside town to work
I live in a rural area, and I am always looking for new roads. Most of the roads here have no shoulder, and there are some cliffs.
The first thing that I do when I'm deciding whether a new road is ...
- 2,661
11
votes
Map of water taps to fill bottles
Openstreetmap with the cycle layer certainly shows some. Here's one
I was very grateful for in the French Alps. OSM is not complete but it's open source so you can improve it (I haven't added any ...
- 57.3k
11
votes
Recurring flats on new bike
there are a few things to check:
make sure the rim tape is in good condition (no tears/holes, make sure it's properly aligned in the rim)
remove rim tape and check if any spokes protrude more than ...
10
votes
Accepted
Would Tri-Bars be advantageous for a 260 mile 2 day event
I would suggest attaching the bars and doing some test rides.
Is your bike, with it's aggressive geometry, stable when using them?
Are you comfortable using them?
Does this new position provide some ...
- 1,512
10
votes
Is a long distance ride by an Amateur possible?
Is it very ambitious? Yes! Can it be done? Yes!
To make it work, you are going to have to invest practically all your free time preparing, as you have a lot to do.
Bike Maintenance
You are going ...
- 18.3k
10
votes
How come pairs are slower than solo riders at the Transcontinental Race?
Consider two quite strong riders. One is an amazing climber and the other descends at ludicrous speeds. They ride over a col together. They go up at the pace of the slower climber, and come down the ...
- 57.3k
9
votes
Preparation/tips for 50 mile ride
It's doable if you are young and fit and don't mind some pain.
If you have ridden up to 20 miles, but regularly only ride a few miles, you may find 50 miles is a struggle, just because you are not ...
- 75.5k
9
votes
Accepted
How quickly can the body restore energy reserves mid-ride/post-bonk, and how do we optimise this?
I'm interested in how we can maximise restoring energy stores (mainly glycogen, but I'm deliberately being vague) either between closely spaced rides or on long rides.
On a ride
Here your ability to ...
- 30.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Can I do brevets (long distance rides) on my hybrid bike? If yes, how to start?
This question gets asked quite often. The short answer is that you can do long distance rides on basically any bicycle as long as it’s comfortable for you.
There are a few things you can do to your ...
- 26k
9
votes
Accepted
What’s the MTB equivalent of road bike mileage for training rides?
To compare anything, try and convert it to the same unit of measurement.
Time is convenient, but doesn't denote the effort. So consider your input effort - a 2 hour ride in zone 3 (tempo) has the ...
- 121k
8
votes
Safely Switch Bicycles before a Century?
No - that'd be like putting a Toyota rally driver into a F1 car, on race day. You'll be able to ride, but you won't be used to the nuances, as david1024 says, BUMSTEER.
Road bikes need at least a ...
- 121k
8
votes
Is 17 miles (27km) each way a lot for a newbie cyclist?
Nope - go for it. Here are two suggested routes from Strava, which were generated at https://www.strava.com/routes/new and then clicking a start and end point, and changing some options.
This first ...
- 121k
8
votes
Training for 150 km race in 2 months practicality and plan
2 months is not a lot of time to prepare, but with a goal of finishing within the time limit that should be easily possible.
The main thing you can do is to build up your endurance with some longer ...
- 18.3k
8
votes
Is 25 km/h average speed good? What speed should I aim for?
There is no such thing as an ideal speed you should be aiming for. It doesn't matter how fast you ride, there will always be faster riders, and there will also be slower riders. The main thing is ...
- 18.3k
8
votes
4L of water and 2 max protein bars. Is it sufficient for a four hour ride?
I'll concentrate first on the carbs side, because the water depends on so many factors.
Gels are around 30% non-sugar carbs with the rest water, according to the SIS ones I have here. They're ...
- 57.3k
8
votes
Can I do brevets (long distance rides) on my hybrid bike? If yes, how to start?
You can certainly do Brevet Populaires (100 km). Plenty of people do them on all sorts of bikes. I've seen a few people on flat bars on Brevets de Randonneurs 200 in the UK, including an MTB ...
- 57.3k
8
votes
How do I prepare to ride 60 miles (100 km) a day for 8 days?
Not sure if this is the best advice, but it is what I did in preparation for a cycling vacation of 10+ days, with similar distances planned.
coming from cycling once in the weekend if the weather was ...
- 7,081
7
votes
Preparation/tips for 50 mile ride
I regularly ride quite long distances in the UK (SW England, Wales). For 50 miles one large bottle of water is enough for most people even in hot weather (even me and I get thirsty). However you'll ...
- 57.3k
7
votes
Preparation/tips for 50 mile ride
Consider clothing as well. I commute a short distance daily and rarely do long rides, so proper shorts are not something I bother with.
When I've done longer rides, I quickly noticed that as the ...
- 171
7
votes
Accepted
Best setup for long distance?
We don't give specific product recommendations here on Bicycles.SE. I will mention that because they are produced in smaller volumes, recumbents usually will be more expensive than conventional bikes ...
- 29.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible