Hi guys, thnx for the advice once again and thnx Ferrous Bueller for the encouragement... I'm actually pretty new to road biking... I'm currently using platform pedals, not clipless ones as I'm still not confident of using it and traffic around the area where I live can be quite harrowing... I'm currently using shimano 105s, where the big ring says 53-B...
Hi Sixty Fiver, I actually live on the mainland, just across the island (but not too far off), so there aren't many hills to practice on. But earlier i tried njkayaker's advice and rode along the flat roads around my area (not round island). I tried bending down in the hoods and managed to average 31km/h using the small front chain ring and the 4th smallest gear (from the right). It felt great, but a few things bothered me 1) my back was really sore... 2) I could only keep it up for a few minutes, then it was 25km/h for the most part home (taking traffic into account). My final average speed for the practice run was a mere 22.3km/h...
Guys, the "bumps" u mentioned is like a mental barrier for me actually... But I'll try to make it a point to practice every weekend until the event. My LBS actually organizes weekly rides (MTB one wk and road another), so I'll take the advice to ride with a group and see how it goes...
Btw, my LBS guy keeps pushing me to get the SRAM Force groupset, but I think it's too early for me...
I'll keep u guys updated on my next round island practice run.
Cheers!