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Archives for November 2011

“I Need a New Bike”

11.22.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

A little scene happened on our Sunday club ride that I think lots of riders can relate to. (Names have been changed to protect the writer of this blog).

I sat down at one of the tables outside the Starbucks where we begin our rides. Two women came over to me.

“Hi,” said one. “I’m Lanie, and I’m going on the B ride today. This is my friend, Melanie.”

Melanie wore a jersey from a well-known bicycle training studio.

Lanie turned out to be the wife of one of our club’s A riders, Milt. But she hadn’t ridden much on her own. Melanie was there to lend moral support. The ride would be on a rural road with rolling hills. I welcomed them both, and promised that the ride would not be too fast for them.

As usual, the pack held together for the first few miles, and Lanie and Melanie did a nice job of hanging with it. Both were well ahead of me. But I caught up to them at a stoplight that everyone else had managed to miss. From there on out, we made a compact group, along with Brad, another B rider.

We reached the rollers. Lanie dropped off the pace. She had trouble climbing the hills. At one point, a sheriff’s patrol car caught up to us, passed me, and sat behind Lanie as she struggled up another hill. We were barely traveling at walking speed. I shifted down to my easiest gear to maintain my position behind the squad car. The deputy was very patient behind Lanie, and finally turned off on the first side road that we reached.

“I thought he was going to ticket you for riding too slow,” I joked.

“I know,” she exclaimed. “These hills are killing me.”

The rest of our ride — about a 30-mile round trip — went smoothly. Melanie showed she could leave us behind whenever she wanted, but mostly stayed back with Lanie. With only three miles to go, we had to negotiate two tough hills in a semi-suburban neighborhood. When I told Lanie we had just climbed the last hill, she didn’t believe me.

Back at Starbuck’s, Lanie talked about her riding.

“That was a hills route,” she said. “Milt told me it was mostly flat, with some easy rollers. If I’m going to keep riding routes like that, I need a new bike.”

“What kind do you have?” I asked. I hadn’t paid close attention to what she was riding. She did a double take.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

“What kind of drivetrain do you have?” I continued.

She stared at me. Melanie jumped up and went over to the bike. Lanie followed. In a minute, they were back.

“It’s a Specialized Dolce with a triple chainring, Shimano 105,” Melanie said.

“It’s got a carbon fork, and a carbon seatpost,” Lanie added.

“Well, that’s a decent bike,” I responded. “Your drivetrain is one level up from mine.”

“I’ve got about 250 miles on it,” said Lanie. “Milt says when I reach 1,000 miles, we can talk about a new bike.”

“You don’t need a new bike,” Melanie chimed in. “Just ride more. And ride more hills.”

“Ugh. I’m too old for that,” said Lanie. “This getting old is for the birds.” (She later admitted to mid-50s.)

The A riders started to arrive. When Milt pulled in and sat down, we told him about Lanie’s new bike strategy.

“That’s fine,” he said. “When you get 5,000 miles on it, we’ll talk about a new one.”

We all laughed, and Lanie grimaced. Melanie mentioned riding hills more again. I sipped my egg nog latte and mused about the common desire cyclists get after they’ve ridden awhile. A new bike will solve everything.

I don’t need a new bike. I’d like one, of course, but I don’t need one. We have better things to spend our money on now anyway. But I remembered that I’ve been in Lanie’s shoes before. Almost as soon as I started riding, I decided that with the “right” equipment, I could become pretty good. I pored through catalogs and bike company websites, drooling over carbon fiber wonder bikes that weighed a feather and sped like rockets. But I learned that it’s not the bike, it’s the engine.

I’m sure Lanie will get a new bike one of these days. She’ll take it out and ride the rollers with us again. And she’ll find that regardless of the level of equipment she has, the rollers are still hard.

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Categories // Bikes, Equipment Tags // Bikes

A Secret (Drink Mix) Worth Sharing?

11.20.2011 by Jeff Hemmel // 8 Comments

Have trouble staying hydrated on rides? Guest poster Jeff Hemmel may have a solution.

Like I suspect most of you, I rely a lot on sports drinks. I may start my ride with a bottle of water but ultimately, especially in my Florida climate, I’m reaching for something more potent. And I don’t like any of them. The tablet-style mixes may be convenient but their fizzy “texture” makes me gag. I find other mixes weak and watery, with a strange artificial flavor. I’ve settled on cheap, Gatorade powder, although I find its syrupy sweetness gets old fast on anything but a short ride. It’s also packed with sugar and calories.

That’s why my curiosity was piqued last summer when the rumors started swirling about pros using a new, not-for-sale drink mix. Like many of us, pro riders were getting sick — literally — of their sports drinks, resulting in upset stomachs and dehydration. The riders in question happened to be working with Dr. Allen Lim, the renowned sports physiologist who worked with Garmin and later Radio Shack. Lim tried just about every drink on the market; none proved a winner. Cut a syrupy drink with water? It doesn’t work. The sugar might be right, but the electrolyte content gets too diminished. Lim called in a friend, Stanford professor Dr. Stacy Sims, and the two began to develop their own home-brew that had less calories, more salt, and featured absolutely no artificial colors or flavors.

All this wasn’t for resale — this was to hydrate pro riders, many of whom had drink-related sponsors. That’s how the drink ultimately got its tongue-in-cheek name: Secret Drink Mix. Only after more and more people heard of the mix and wanted to buy it did the pair ultimately offer it up for sale through a website so low-key you almost had to be a cycling insider to find it.

Apparently there are no anti-caking agents or preservatives, so they sell these tins to keep the stuff dry and from turning into concrete.

Interesting story, but what matters to the recreational rider is how it tastes…and works. The first thing I noticed about SDM was that it actually has a clean, almost refreshing taste. It’s not watered down, but light, with no syrupy sweetness that will haunt you after the first bottle. It tastes like fruit because, well, that’s what it is. Flavoring is provided by freeze-dried fruit powder. While the weather was still hot, I noticed a drank a lot more of SDM simply because I wanted refreshment, not because I knew I had to force myself to hydrate.

I also noticed I felt a little fresher after my longest rides. At first I chalked it up to my imagination, but then I noted those empty bottles. I think I was simply staying more hydrated. As Lim recommends, I was using my drink for hydration. Serious calories came from Clif Bars or the like. (There’s some interesting science to back up that assertion if you want to do a little searching on the Internet.)

The ultimate test is what happened after I used up my free sample. As it’s not cranked out by a sports drink behemoth, SDM is expensive, about $1 per bottle. I went back to Gatorade, but now knew what I was missing. So yup, I actually bought a pound of mix. As a family man with other things to pay for, I plan to ration it for bigger rides or the occasional race. It’s that good. The only other minor downside is the mix’s ratio. It’s 500ml per 16 ounces of water. Most water bottles hold 21-24.

SDM also comes in these single-serve packs. They’re pretty generous…threw in a handful of other flavors with my order.

For those of you not satisfied by your drinks, I’d suggest you give it a shot. There are codes on the Internet (SDMFACEBOOK) good for about 15% off. Reviews have been quite positive.

 

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Categories // food Tags // hydration

Aerobars on Group Rides = Bad Idea

11.17.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

It seems that whenever I show up for an organized ride, the pre-ride announcements always include a caution not to use aerobars in a group. And then, a few miles into the ride, I usually get passed by riders down on their aerobars. That’s not a great idea, as this video illustrates:

In the slow-motion replay, it’s pretty clear that the rider who crashed was on his aerobars. They gave him a little edge in speed, and he was about to pass the second rider in line when the second rider moved slightly left, to pass the lead rider. Aerobar man couldn’t control his bike and grabbed the drops, but his momentum caused his front wheel to overlap the second rider’s rear wheel, and they touched. The rider behind always comes out worse in these situations than the rider in front.

In this case, Mr. Aerobars almost saved himself. It looks like he got things back under control until he veered off onto the gravel shoulder and did an endo. But that’s not the whole story.

In the slow-mo, we see that the two bikes touched wheels not once, not twice, but three times before the rider slowed enough to separate himself from the other bike. And the force of those touches — especially the third — was enough to do serious damage to the front wheel. Half the spokes on one side of the wheel had broken. In a blowup of the video, we can see how the third touch knocked the wheel askew. The rim is clearly out of line with the hub.

So, two no-nos are apparent after watching this incident:

1. Don’t use aerobars on group rides (or in a paceline).

2. Don’t overlap the rear wheel of the bike in front.

A couple of my biking friends also noted that riders should consider sturdier wheels, too. One suggested 36 spokes on the rear and a minimum of 32 on the front. I don’t know how many fast roadies would go for that, but after seeing the video, I’ll continue to be happy with my relatively heavy rims.

It looks like the rider was not seriously hurt, I’m glad to see.

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Categories // Safety, Technique Tags // aero bars, endo, overlap

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