Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.Hill-Pumper
07-27-09, 09:16 PM
As most of you know, I bought a cross bike a few weeks ago. (For those who didn't know, you do now:lol:) Anyway, all my rides to date have been mostly slow paced with no real goal other then having fun. Well yesterday I planned a 50 mile ride in preparation of my next century ride in a couple of weeks. What I planned as normal training ride, turned into a 3 hour hammer fest. I have not ridden on knobby tires for over a year and forgot how much more energy they take to keep them going. I found that I really had to keep my cadence up or my bike would lose momentum quickly. Also, I really could not coast or it would lose speed and I had to work harder getting it back up. It was sort of like a cheap fixed gear effect, but much more forgiving. My average cadence was 100 for the whole 50 miles with next to little coasting, which killed my already hammered legs. They were not this weak after my century ride. :twitchy: Still, it was a great work out, and I think will help with my stamina. Next week I plan on doing a 30-35 mile loop on the cross bike, then switching over to my road bike and doing the same loop again.