help me catch the bug

Wildly Boaring

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

You obviously found from youtube how your gears work. Practice this and braking.

Oh and practice bring in the right gear. You should be able to sit in the saddle all the time and just spin the pedals. So you should be in a low enough gear on every hill that you are not forcing down your pedal strokes.

Rechuchote

A bit about setting up your bike - but the shop should help too:

magicbastarder

you're going to get some soreness at the start anyway, you're introducing a part of your body to furniture it's not used to...

sham58107

Good luck with the bike, mostly just enjoy ! and please be friendly to other cyclists, some " newer" cyclists I meet think they are in TDF, jeez even pros have time to lift a finger.

Also get a bottle cage and bring a drink and I always carry phone and 5 euro ( jersey pockets handy )and I would recommend a pair of sunglasses, not for posing( Although !!) seriously if a fly or dirt hits your eye, you will know and maybe fall off.

All other advice is spot on but, just enjoy the countryside and your new bike , rest will come in time. Great hobby and very good for clearing the head. Your are not in race ! enjoy.

Rechuchote

Also carry cards - credit/debit and if you have a free travel card, deffo that. My brake cable snapped in the wilds of Booterstown yesterday and I ended up having to borrow €50 from the brother-in-law to have enough to get both sets of brakes fixed. (Yeah, I know, I should be a mechanic. #BiteMe)

OffalyMedic

Out for my second cycle tonight. Again really enjoyable 15km in 40mins averaging 22km/h. Don't know if that is good bad or indifferent but it's a start.

What should i be aiming for time, distance wise over next few weeks?

Nothing wrong with that effort.

Lumen

OffalyMedic wrote: »

What should i be aiming for time, distance wise over next few weeks?

Just time. Don't aim for speed or distance. It's all neuromuscular adaptation so the only thing that counts is number of pedal strokes and developing smoothness.

Wildly Boaring

OffalyMedic wrote: »

Out for my second cycle tonight. Again really enjoyable 15km in 40mins averaging 22km/h. Don't know if that is good bad or indifferent but it's a start.

What should i be aiming for time, distance wise over next few weeks?

Nice one.
You're flying. That's a nice average speed

There's a rule of thumb of increasing mileage by a max of 10% per week for running. Working well for me right now. That'd put you up near 30k in 7 weeks.

Then see how you're going and reassess where you want to head. Hills? Aim for 100k? Find a club?.........

magicbastarder

you'll find you'll adapt your loops so they get longer as you get fitter. i deleted a load of old loops i'd set up on strava a few years ago; most of them i've not cycled in a couple of years precisely because they'd have me home too soon.

you'll probably find that as you get fitter, you won't be aiming to do as much as you can in one hour, but simply going out for as long as you can.

Rechuchote

OffalyMedic wrote: »

Out for my second cycle tonight. Again really enjoyable 15km in 40mins averaging 22km/h. Don't know if that is good bad or indifferent but it's a start.

What should i be aiming for time, distance wise over next few weeks?

You should be aiming to enjoy your cycle, look around, breathe in that good are, watch the cattle and sheep and horses in the fields, listen to the song of the birds, move through your countryside at a speed that makes you happy, stop for the odd chat.

OffalyMedic

Back from 3rd cycle. 22km in an hour and 5mins so average 20km/h. Felt shoulders, lower back and ass very sore for last 3-4km...could it be that my bike is set up wrong ? Or just getting used to position in saddle etc?

sham58107

Would think you are just getting used to bike, shoulders and arms are always sore ( with me anyway ) you can do some stretching exercises before .

But as others say just enjoy the pastime don't worry about times or distance.

You do not want to get into state where you are trying to better your efforts, that is one way to loose interest quickly.

Just enjoy and improvement will come, there is a 6 week course somewhere on internet by Lance Armstrong Yeah I know !! but very good suggests a few very easy days, just out spinning pedals, I used it to climb in the alps including Alpe de Hauz years ago.

Also try CTS training, but again just enjoy, or if you really want to do something aim for a goal, say 50k leisure cycle later in summer and you have something to aim at.

all the best and enjoy.

Fian

OffalyMedic wrote: »

Back from 3rd cycle. 22km in an hour and 5mins so average 20km/h. Felt shoulders, lower back and ass very sore for last 3-4km...could it be that my bike is set up wrong ? Or just getting used to position in saddle etc?

Ass pain is inevitable until you build up tolerance.

Shoulders and lower back could be a bike fit issue, especially if you are stretching to reach the handlebars. And I don't mean at the limit of your reach, you should not need to stretch at all.

Probably a good idea to check the frame size and ensure it is appropriate to you.

Honestly very unimpressed with the shop sending you out with a bike without knowing even how to change gears and the shoe/pedal combination, consequently I am not sure that they would have been careful to sell you the correct fitting bike. Hopefully I am doing them an injustice. Did they talk to you about sizes?

If you were to post your height and the lenght of your inseam there are posters on here much more knowledgeable than I who could tell you what size frame you should be using. I am 5'9" and use a 53cm frame, which is a huge difference in comfort from the 56cm frame i bought when i bought my first road bike.

OffalyMedic

Fian wrote:

Honestly very unimpressed with the shop sending you out with a bike without knowing even how to change gears and the shoe/pedal combination, consequently I am not sure that they would have been careful to sell you the correct fitting bike. Hopefully I am doing them an injustice. Did they talk to you about sizes?

Not really, worker asked the boss if the bike I bought was for sale (2nd hand) boss said yeah it is and it'll fit.

Im just shy of 5'6 and inseam is about 32"

OffalyMedic

Tough cycle tonight. Decided to do a quick one (12k ) as I was a little caught for time. Went a new route and regretted it very quick. Felt like all I did for first 9km was climb. Absolutely exhausted now. Gain was only 108m over the 12k how do people cycle mountain ranges???

OffalyMedic

So i've cyceld a bit now prob 20 odd spins in 4 months so for christmas i asked himself to get be pedals and cleats for my shoes. So he duly obliged but after setting them up i cant for the life of me clip in no matter how many youtube videos i watch or how many tips i read. it feels like the springs in the pedals are too stiff to open to let the clip in if that makes sense? Maybe i have the wrong shoe/ pedal/ cleat combo i dont know so heres some photos hopefully one of ye experts can help me!
https://imgur.com/a/S4pqLAA

Wishbone Ash

OffalyMedic wrote: »

So i've cyceld a bit now prob 20 odd spins in 4 months so for christmas i asked himself to get be pedals and cleats for my shoes. So he duly obliged but after setting them up i cant for the life of me clip in no matter how many youtube videos i watch or how many tips i read. it feels like the springs in the pedals are too stiff to open to let the clip in if that makes sense? Maybe i have the wrong shoe/ pedal/ cleat combo i dont know so heres some photos hopefully one of ye experts can help me!
https://imgur.com/a/S4pqLAA

The pedal clamp spring can be adjusted using a hex/allen key. It may be too tight. Loosen it until they clip in very easily and then tighten it a bit.

You may also need to adjust the angle of the cleats slightly until they are lined up to suit you.Everyone has a different preference.

OffalyMedic

Wishbone Ash wrote:

The pedal clamp spring can be adjusted using a hex/allen key. It may be too tight. Loosen it until they clip in very easily and then tighten it a bit.

Wishbone Ash wrote:

You may also need to adjust the angle of the cleats slightly until they are lined up to suit you.Everyone has a different preference.

Tried both of these with zero luck but maybe needs more trial and error

Wishbone Ash

Have you put the pedals on the correct side? They usually have a 'L' and 'R' on them.

OffalyMedic

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Have you put the pedals on the correct side? They usually have a 'L' and 'R' on them.

I would like to say yes but I'll double check in daylight tomorrow

ED E

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Have you put the pedals on the correct side? They usually have a 'L' and 'R' on them.

The image says yes, adjuster is on the rear.


It should work. When you get it, be careful. Spend a few hours practicing at lights so you don't forget it 2hrs into a ride and hit the deck.

They look to be on the correct way around to me based on the pictures, and I assume you used the SH51 cleats that came with the pedals.

They are the dual sided ones right? You can ride with normal shoes on one side and cycling shoes on the other? Look to be very similar to one I used starting out if not the same.

Trying to think of how to describe the motion , you need to catch the pedal with the cleat and drop your heel.

Good advice from Ed E re: about practice, for me it was in the kitchen holding on to the counter and practising getting in and out and making adjustments to how easy it was to unclip before I headed out in them

I'll see if I can find the GCN video that helped me , it did a good job at explaining things. This isn't the one I have in mind but it's a start.

It's likely just the spring and angle you need to work on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLHA9CzlNe4