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Archives for October 2009

Prepare at least a little bit for your long ride

10.11.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

On Saturday, my wife Pat and I were out in rural Texas, volunteering at the first Mamma Jamma ride for breast cancer research. The ride featured routes of 10, 27, 46, 70 and 100 miles. I was part of the route safety crew for the 46-mile route. I teamed up with another volunteer and sat at two intersections, directing riders to the correct route, and warning of any safety hazards up ahead.

So I was able to get a good look at a large number of riders. About an hour went by from the time the first group passed us until the last rider showed up. And I was once again perplexed that otherwise intelligent people seem to think they can ride a challenging distance like 46 miles without putting in the training miles beforehand.

Our first post was at 17 miles. As might be expected, those passing us for the first half hour or so looked almost fresh. The day was overcast, the temperature was stuck at 54 degrees, and there was almost no wind. But the forecast called for a high of around 70, and many of the riders were underdressed.

The fresh riders made the turn, and accelerated toward a nice downhill. But then, some slower riders started coming by. They labored up the slight rise to our location. Most were relieved to hear that the next rest stop was only six miles away. A few stopped, took a drink from their water bottles, or chewed on an energy bar.

Many of these slower riders were on hybrid or mountain bikes. They were pushing more weight than the road bike riders, which tired them faster. Some were on the chunky side. It was clear most of them didn’t realize what they were getting into when they signed up for the 46 miles.

I thought of an email from a reader that I received on Friday. She had signed up for a metric century, but had just learned through a Google search that she would be riding 62 miles.

“I am now officially nervous as I am not a regular rider,” she wrote.  “When I have ridden I think the most I have gone is like 10 miles.  I am not in cycle shape.  My bike is 18 years old.  I maybe get on the thing once every six months or so.”

Back at the Mamma Jamma, the last rider struggled up to our post. He rode an old non-suspended mountain bike, and several layers of cotton shirts. He was done. A SAG vehicle just happened to pull up at the same time. He asked for a ride back to the start. They told him they could take him to the next rest stop, but because he was less than halfway through the route, they couldn’t take him all the way back.

SAGRider tries to convince a SAG truck to take him back, just 17 miles into a 46-mile ride.

“We have to keep moving forward,” the driver said. “We could call for medical. They could bring you back.”

He wound up riding with them to the next rest stop, and called medical for a ride back from there.

Entered in the 46-miler, but unable to finish half that. What’s missing here? And my email correspondent? It turned out that her ride was Saturday, too — and she hadn’t prepared for it at all. I don’t know whether she finished — or even rode.

Evidently, biking just don’t get no respect. We all rode when we were kids; we know it’s a simple thing to pedal a bike along a road. Forty-six miles might be a more challenging distance than we have done in the past, but heck, just keep turning the pedals and you’ll be done in no time.

Folks, for any kind of physical challenge, you have to put in the time. I wonder how many of those ill-prepared riders won’t be back, because they’ve decided that biking is too tough. The rest of us know that they’ll be missing out on a fun and rewarding activity.

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Categories // training Tags // training

Reviewing the bike review sites

10.08.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

A new web site came to my attention this week. It’s a bike review site, called, appropriately, Bike Reviews.com.

This site takes its place next to an older, established site, Roadbike Review.com.

Each site has its strengths and weaknesses, and I thought it would be worthwhile to review the review sites.

BRBike Reviews.com

Apparently this site is new enough that it is still building content. It reviews road, mountain, BMX, and fixed gear bikes. However, bikes are all it reviews. No accessories or parts.

When you pull down the Bikes menu, and select Road, a page displays that features Trek, Bianchi, Raleigh, and Felt (not Specialized or Giant?). That’s not to imply that those are the only brands they review right now. You can search for others, and probably find some, like this Masi road bike.  But if you click on the Raleigh or Felt bikes, you will get links for only their 2010 models. The pages have dead links for model years 2003-2009. I assume reviews for those bikes are still in the works.

The site encourages reader reviews. Readers can award star ratings to bikes on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the best). At this point, few bikes seem to have more than three reader ratings.

But new or not, the site still has some glaring vacancies. A search for Specialized bikes turned up all of their mountain bikes, but none of their road bikes. When I further refined the search to my bike, a Specialized Allez Elite, I got a blank page.

What about the reviews themselves? Frankly, they’re not really reviews. They’re  one-paragraph synopses of the bikes’ specifications. The Masi review linked to above is a good example. It reads like a sales brochure the Masi company might have issued. If you want to know whether the bike performs the way you’d expect, you won’t find that here.

Why, then, would anyone want to visit the site? If you’re in the market for a bike, and want to get an idea of what you have to choose from, this could be a good place to start. It should be fun to watch this site grow, and if we’re lucky, to start adding its own original reviews based on real road testing. Whether that will happen is anybody’s guess.

RBRRoad Bike Review.com

This is a site you may already be familiar with. It’s been around for awhile. Road Bike Review does just what its name says — it provides reviews of a wide variety of bikes, and not just road bikes. Cruisers, hybrids, cyclocross, recumbents, tandems and more — but no mountain bikes — are featured in reviews, as well as accessories.

Because the site is so big, you have to drill down several levels to get to the review you want. Let’s say you want that review of the Specialized Allez Elite.  Click the “Road bikes” link, then “S” for Specialized, then click through two pages before hitting the review you want. Even then, you find links to reviews of 19 different Allez models.

These reviews are written by visitors to the site, not by staffers, so the quality of the reviews varies widely. Some are succinct and informative. Others ramble, and still others offer nothing of use (“Dude, buy this bike. It’s rad!”).

To help you narrow your choices, the top of each page features three bikes that have received the highest ratings from the site’s visitors — 4s or 5s on the same 1 – 5 scale used by Bike Reviews.

It’s also worth checking if you want to buy a certain component or accessory. Handlebars, saddles, shifters and stems — bottom brackets, cassettes, cranksets and derailleurs — tires, wheels, hubs and rims — locks, lights, bike racks and trainers — shoes, shorts, socks and jerseys — you get the idea.

I spent a lot of time on Road Bike Review before I bought my bike — and the comments I found here helped me make my decision.

So Bike Reviews is new, and prettier, but has a way to go. Road Bike Review is huge, minimalist in design, but potentially helpful. Each is another arrow in the quiver of a bike consumer.

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Categories // Review Tags // Review

Numb toe update — the new shoes worked

10.06.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 1 Comment

Long-time readers will remember about a year ago I used to regularly carp about a problem with my feet. Specifically, my left foot. More specifically, the little toe on my left foot. It would go numb after riding much more than an hour, and bother me for the rest of my ride.

I tried a number of ways to deal with it, including fastening my shoe straps as loose as possible, adding arches of various sizes and shapes, and even cutting a gash along the side of the shoe. Nothing worked.

I finally concluded the problem was not with my foot, but with the shoe. They were cheap Chinese-made shoes that I bought when I first took up biking. Fine for rides of an hour or less, I just couldn’t keep wearing them on the distances I wanted to ride.

My wife came to rescue, when she bought me some new shoes for Christmas. They’re by Specialized, and are one of their premium models with a rock-hard carbon sole. I exchanged them for a larger size, figuring that since feet swell with exercise, a larger shoe would minimize the toe numbness.

Well, after nine months of experience in the new shoes, I can report that they work. I haven’t had a numb toe since I first put them on.

Wouldn’t a larger pair of the old brand have done the same thing? I can’t say for sure, but I know those shoes don’t come with carbon soles — just nylon. So there’s going to be some flex in the sole, and that could lead to the same problem. More likely, it would lead to a hot spot on the foot. Either way, the old adage rings true once again: You get what you pay for. When it comes to my feet, I’ll pay the price to keep them comfortable.

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Categories // Equipment Tags // numb, shoes, toes

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