Originally Posted by steve2k
Thanks all. I took the back wheel to the LBS and he said "where's the rest of it?". I knew I was in trouble at this point. I showed him a bit I found in the car (I had assumed it was part of the car) and he said "yeah that's one bit, but there's more missing".
When he took the wheel to bits he could see that the casing for the bearings had cracked which prevented them from going round. He said "it's as though someones taken off the back wheel, lost a bit and then overtightened it". I felt my face go red as I vagely remembered having to do something up pretty tight to stop it wobbling.
Anyway, he put a new wheel together for me there and then and I rode in to work this morning. It's only 5 miles each way, but there are 3 killer (to me at least) hills that I have to get over. It took me 30 minutes to get here (I got it down to 22 minutes in the summer)
It took me about an hour sitting at my desk before I could breathe well enough to say hello to people.
Still, that's another 5 miles on the clock.
Catching up on the questions:
Tyres - I've got some road tyres (I think 1.5) which are better than the nobblies.
Weight - 124kg (my peak, I'm very proud
)
computer - I have a cycle computer, I'll check if it has cadence (I'm pretty sure it doesn't)
Hambone, I'm pretty sure I mash up the hills, with the little gears I don't seem to make much progress, so I pop it in a higher gear and just force my way up the hill. This didn't seem to hard 8 months ago, but is killing me at the moment.
Thanks again all for the encouragement/advice.
Cheers, Steve
as has been said, it gets easier.
You can get a good idea of cadence just by doing some basic math. (Don't make yourself nuts on this but figure out a couple of speeds and gear combos and what the cadence is there and you can make yourself aware...)
In order to measure real cadence a computer needs a sensor at the crank arm. You can also get "virtual" cadence on computers which interface with your shifters by inputting the gears, and the size of your tyre. Virtual because it then figures if you are going a certain speed in a certain gear, your cadence must be X rpm. But if you coast it still says this.
It is a discipline thing but an easier gear and spinning up the hill is a much better option in the long run. As I said, better for the knees, etc. And you'll find that once you ride a little bit more, you are acutally faster over the long haul this way. It seems counterintuitive but it works.
I might also suggest my (non clipless) favorite:
Power Grips
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...All%20Products