The Cycling Thread

[maviczap]

What are them old fangled things you've got on your pedals

Get some clipless

Waterproofs are overrated - you will get sweaty and wet (but slightly more unpleasant than rain wet).

Get some overshoes (as wet feet isn't nice) and get on with it. Provided it's not absolutely hammering it down it's not much of a problem!

Binned the toe straps in favour of some Shimano 105 pedals + DNB shoes.

I'm odd with rain - Happy running in it, happy chucking motorbikes about in it, just don't get on with cycling in in. Maybe I should man up and go do some serious miles on a rainy day and see if that sorts me. Any recomendations on the overshoes?

[maviczap]

H'mm don't mind getting caught out in the rain, but no motivation to start out in the rain.

Overshoes, neoprene are warm, but your feet will still get wet if its really heavy rain.

Some folk cut a hole in a pair of Sealskinz socks to use as a oversock, although you could wear a pair of the thin Sealskinz socks if you want to keep your feet dry

I have some waterproof shoes (Northweave winter boots) which are outstanding at keeping you dry but just so damn warm for the summer.

Overshoes I have Altura ones from Wiggle that were about £20ish. They are a bit warmer but not too much.

You will get wet in heavy rain regardless of what you are wearing.

Since buying my bike Ive tried to get out as often as possible in between work, family, decorating etc.. anyway I seem to have picked up a bit of a wierd injury, it seems like ive got tennis elbow !, it only started after my first ride in mar and has got steadily worse, I dont know if its cos of me moving around the bars when I first started riding or what, gas anyone else experienced the same thing through riding or is it just me ?

[maviczap]

Don't know Stewie, its a bit weird

Possible causes, are your bars the right width? They'll have stuck on a generic size, but that might not suit you?

If you've got wide shoulders, then you'll need wider bars, I'm quite narrow, so I only use 40cm wide bars.

Best way to check is go to your local good bike shop and get them to see which size bar fits, across your shoulders.

plus looking at your bike, the saddle to handlebar height is quite wide, that may be putting extra strain on your elbow joints, so getting a stem that raises the height a bit might help.

are you stretching a long way to the bars, another possible cause of extra strain?

Difficult to know, without seeing you on your bike.

See if there's a LBS who does proper bike fitting if this carries on. There is a network of Specialized dealers who do bike sizing/fitting

Going to be taking the bike back to have a service done pretty soon so going to have him fit the correcelty, felt ok at first but now thinking its worth checking over, think the seat may be a bit low as well, oh well,need to get some clips sorted out as well

[maviczap]

Bikes always feel right first of all. But then you body says I don't like this one bit after riding it in the wrong position for a while.

Having ridden in my current position over many years, I can tell almost instantly if the saddle height has slipped and if I've built a new bike up, if I've got any thing wrong, because the frame dimensions are different.

I don't know what I've done, because I'm having a lot of problems getting my right foot cleat in a position that my outside knee joint likes. I haven't changed the cleat, and it was perfect last year, but these are my summer shoes, which I've swapped back to after riding in my winter boots

But its not right, as I don't feel I can get full power onto the pedal

[Luckypants]

Jeez! Totally knackerd after a 30 miler in the wind yesterday... That's what I find fascinating (in a masochistic kind of way) about cycling, sometimes you are flying along feeling great and the next time out you feel like a wet dishcloth! However, I've been waiting for a good day for a while now