cycling

[Cadmus]

Assuming he's made it back safely I know some people who can give good UK-centric advice on touring and kit at outdoorsmagic.com forums. It's focussed more on hiking but there are some cycle tourers and a good stove is a fairly universal thing regardless of transport.

[Paranoid__Android]

Yeah, I made it back safely although to be honest I very nearly died a couple of times, onece I actually thought "I AM GOING TO DIE!!!! RIGHT NOW" I didn't, but it was prety close.

thats a pretty cool site, thanks for that

[Paranoid__Android]

My next bike trip just got planned, I actually can't wait till the summer.

The route as it stands here will start 230 miles inside the Arctic circle.

I think I can make it, but I will have to push myself to the limit with dozens of tunnels to face, strict deadlines to catch ferries, unbelievable amounts of rain/wind, endless wild camping and cycling in possible sub-zero temperatures. 1500 miles of hell
It's gonna be awesome

[joeframbach]

You are absolutely ridiculous.

I wish I could join.

[Paranoid__Android]

haha, everyone says that when they hear about it/see the map

Well....at least the first thing you said.

[Calloutman]

wow, that's awesome. How long is that going to take you?

[Paranoid__Android]

Why thank you,
I'm not really sure how long it will take as timing cycling to catch ferries could be hard, also we are going against the prevailing wind which tends to be fairly strong in Norway.
We've left ourselves four weeks between flights, which should be ample time to do it.

[Calloutman]

Four weeks on a bike? that's awesome I wish I could do something like that.

[roflwaffle]

Cycling ~20+ miles/day was by far the easiest way for me to get fit.

[joeframbach]

On Saturday, the local Trek store had their annual warehouse sale, clearing out last year's inventory. I spent my tax refund on a Kona Jake for $750, with panniers.
So now I'm daydreaming, thinking about what to do with it. Every month I put $250 into a vacation savings account. I want to ride from Pittsburgh to the west coast, visiting my grandma in Colorado, my cousins in Sacramento, former roommates in Santa Cruz, then head south to Mexico and hike the 2600-mile PCT to Canada. Of course this is all daydreaming. I have college loans to take care of, and I'm in the middle of a Master's program. I'd say three more years and I'll be free to do this. But by then who knows! I could be settled down raising kids! I just want to wander!

[Paranoid__Android]

You should definitely do that, and I know how you feel. I have a dream to someday cycle home to the UK from the middle east (6000ish miles),
I know it's a massive undertaking, and with the area being so dangerous I don't know if I'll be able to convince anyone to come with me. It'll be worth it just to claim that I've been through Afghanistan.

I'm worried that I might compromise and settle for less due to money issues/other commitments. Life is for living and not for compromises.

[joeframbach]

The difficulty I would have on that ride is the language barriers. You're traveling through at least 5 different languages, are you at least a little comfortable with them?

[Paranoid__Android]

I don't know a word of any of them, but I would make an effort before departing to get down some essentials, at least for the Arabic countries. I know of people who wrote introduction letters for themselves and then got the first local they found who could speak English to translate it.
I don't think it will be too much of a problem so long as I have a companion, I reckon I'd get lonely pretty quickly on my own.

Anyway I need to focus on my Norway trip first.

[akashra]

On a little cycling related matter, last weekend we ran the second round of the Victorian Enduro Series at Mt Beauty. Mt Beauty is the home to 3 time and 2010 Under 23 Australian champion Paul van der Ploeg, so we asked him to take a helmet cam with him on a lap or two. The results were incredible - here's a video of the descent.

This should be interpreted as 'this is how you ride a bike'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qAVMcrL8N8

[kernelpanic]

I really like speed cycling. Near my house there is a long, straight, wide, downhill street with not much traffic. I like to go with some friends and go as fast as we can - a friend has a speedometer on the bike and we go past 60 kph.

[TheKrikkitWars]

After a painful six month period in which my bike had the back break partially engaged full time, had a front mech which was stuck on the middle ratio; my dad agreed to get it fIxed (as I didn't have money to spare on my bike, eating and repaying my overdraft took priority) so I can go cycling again, just in time for the warm weather coming too, and my housemate next year is an avid mountainbiker, I'll just have to get me some dry conditions tyres.

[dubsola]

On a little cycling related matter, last weekend we ran the second round of the Victorian Enduro Series at Mt Beauty. Mt Beauty is the home to 3 time and 2010 Under 23 Australian champion Paul van der Ploeg, so we asked him to take a helmet cam with him on a lap or two. The results were incredible - here's a video of the descent.

Yeah, that's amazing.

The route as it stands here will start 230 miles inside the Arctic circle.

As is that. Wow.

Lately, I've been riding to work every day - when it rains things get a little uncomfortable: wet clothes are an inconvenience, but reduced visibility and increased braking distance has me vaguely worried. Any tips?

[Paranoid__Android]

To fix the breaking distance problem you could invest in better brakes, maybe disk brakes if your bike can take them, or maybe just better/new brake pads.
To improve visability I'm not really sure to be honest, you could potentially wear glasses to keep water out of your eyes but beyond that you'll just have to be more atentive on the roads.

Also if it's raining heavily make sure you have lights on just so cars can see you better.

[TheKrikkitWars]

With breaking distance, if all else fails you can put a foot down and let the bike skid out on purpose, or if you absolutely have to, ditch the bike and throw yourself towards safety.... Its a major advantave of being on a light, easily dismountable, moderate speed vehicle.

[dubsola]

I wear glasses, they're half the probem. A light rain makes for reduced vis. It's annoying.

However, it's stopped raining, everything is lovely, so I'll pretend this problem happens in other countries which I don't live in.

[akashra]

Sunday for me: The 2010 MTBA Australian Marathon Championships. 90km, 3,300 meters of climbing.

This is going to be hard.

[Paranoid__Android]

Holy christmas that sounds tough, well good luck to you on that one

[dubsola]

Worth a gander: Motion Induced Blindness.

What to see
Below you see a rotating array of blue crosses and 3 yellow dots. Now fixate on the centre (watch the flashing green spot). Note that the yellow spots disappear once in a while: singly, in pairs or all three simultaneously. In reality, the 3 yellow spots are continuously present, honest!
...
According to Michael Bach, "Steady fixation favours disappearance, blinks or gaze shifts induce reappearance. All in all reminiscent of the Troxler effect, but stronger and more resistant to residual eye movements."

[TheKrikkitWars]

Sunday for me: The 2010 MTBA Australian Marathon Championships. 90km, 3,300 meters of climbing.

This is going to be hard.

Sounds fun in a very masochistic, this is going to hurt my body kind of way. (I <3 hill climbs).

I've just got back into proper riding now that I have someone to go with today we did a nice short bouldery doubletrack which climbs about 600 m over 3k it destroyed my partner, but I just about made it to the top unscathed (no thanks to my housemates distincly foul-tasting camelbak).

[joeframbach]

I'm going to cross-post to another thread here.

viewtopic.php?p=2190481#p2190481

This weekend I'm riding in the MS150, a 2-day 150-mile ride to benefit the national MS society. The minimum fundraising goal is $250, but I increased it to the 23rd fibonacci number, 286(.)57. I'm leaving tomorrow to bike the 50 miles to the starting line, camping out, then the official start is Saturday morning. They're offering an optional century on day 1, which I plan to do. So, I'm dragging out this 2-day 150-mile ride into a 3-day, 220-mile ride. Awesome.

I could use some money, though. :/

[TheKrikkitWars]

A question for the technically minded amongst you: Is the ingrained habit in the industry* of having multiple sizes of frames built around a small set range of BB heights and a related small range of crank lengths (typicaly 170-185mm (i.e. a 1¹/₂cm range) significantly depriving cyclists who are significantly smaller or larger than average of significant advantages?

There are definately good examples of world leading cyclists of a large build using longer than normal cranks to some sucess; and Zinn Cycles (who specialise in amongst other things 29'er MTB's and nonstandard cranks) seem to experience enough success to remain afloat, and with a very loyal customer base too boot.

* I'm lead to believe that this wasn't seen as desirable originally, but that at the time of the safety bike being devised, the technology to produce cranks was so expensive to tool for that standardising on one length was seen as important to commercial viablity; and has since become ingrained.

[Paranoid__Android]

Well I'm heading out tomorrow, Norway here I come

back in a month

xx

[petercroker]

Someone posted 20+ miles per day cycling was the easiest way they used to get fit.

How long would it take a beginner to ride 20 miles (32 km)?

Would you be doing it every day or every 2nd day?

Would you break it down so you started at smaller distances first?

Any suggestions please?

[the_stabbage]

When I started out, I went from my suburb to the downtown core - a trip of 25 km. This was on a shitty department-store mountain bike. It took me 1 1/2 hours, including breaks for water, rest, and to admire the view. Eventually I got used to it and rode downtown and back for a round trip of 50 km. I did these trips 2x/week.

I'd say now on my "new" bike (ancient tuned-up ten-speed), I can go 25 km/h, and I haven't gone on trips that long all summer.

[roflwaffle]

Yup, just take it easy. I started doing ~12 miles/day every other day or so, and taking breaks when I needed to, usually on the long uphills. and I wouldn't go every day. After a month I moved it up to ~12 miles/day five days a week, and after a few months I started doing errands and taking a longer/hillier route that was about 20 miles, and was doing this ~5 days a week, w/ ~10 miles/day on the weekends. What I liked was commuting on a decent mountain bike so that I could spin up a couple of hills very slowly. Helped me avoid getting burnt out.

[Paranoid__Android]

Well I'm back from an epic four week, 1500 mile(ish) trip through Norway, I can confirm that it was the hardest thing I've ever done.
Endless hills, temperatures down to 5 degrees, rain constantly and plenty of headwinds. to cap it off we couldn't find the right gas cannister for our stove so we were without hot food.
Got some pretty nice pictures though.
Also when we got to our destination six days before our flight this totally random family picked us up outside a supermarket, gave us beds to sleep in and delicious hot food, for like, the whole six days. The last two days they took us to their summer holiday house with them, spent the days fishing and driving their boat. mental times . then they drove us to the airport with our bikes to catch our flight. talk about hospitality

P__A

by the way, norway is flippin expensive

[the_stabbage]

Expensive compared to what? I wanna go to Norway some time, so I can climb a mountain and blast some Black Metal at the summit.

How did you deal with your bikes on the airplane?

[Paranoid__Android]

Expensive compared to pretty much everywhere, definitely much more than England. Forget eating out and any alcohol. Looking for the deals in the cheap supermarkets was the only way I made it through.

We took the bikes apart and put them in cardboard bike boxes, got them free from a bike shop in Norway.

[the_stabbage]

Heh, I'm used to expensive booze (I live in Ontario, which has the world's largest alcohol monopoly).

I might have to save up a bit more than I thought to make it to Scandinavia then. England is bloody expensive to the rest of the world, you know.

So if you averaged 53 miles a day (like what you did), how many towns did you pass through on a day? I imagine Norway, mountainous as it is, is not as sparsely populated as my home can sometimes be.

[Paranoid__Android]

It depends on how far north you are, the further north you go the less civilisation you'll find. I think I passed through maybe four towns every day. although many towns wont have shops cos even though they're marked on the map its nothing more than a few houses. There are times when you can cycle for 50km and not find anything. It's well worth asking people where the next shop will be.
Beware of sundays too, ALL the shops will be closed, even petrol stations. it's well worth buying food for two days on a saturday.

[jendral_hxr]

Pardon me, I am new here.

Anyone goes for night-riding?

[TheSkyMovesSideways]

Pardon me, I am new here.

Anyone goes for night-riding?

Yes. I'd recommend having lots of lights. (For me, I have a steady-beam headlight, flashing white helmet light, flashing rear red light and steady rear red light.) Anything specific that you wanted to know?

[jendral_hxr]

Acctually, I do it with less light. not even a single reflector pad exists on my bike.

It feels just better that you could pull "faster" sprint in night, no?

[TheSkyMovesSideways]

I hope you're joking.

[nfine]

I recently got into cycling. I'm currently studying abroad in Perth, Australia which is an amazing city for cycling paths. Hoping to ride across the United States in Summer 2011 raising awareness for affordable housing issues with the program Bike and Build. The idea is to ride 5-6 days straight and then stop to work on a habitat for humanity project (or similar affordable housing project).

I'm very excited