Hey guys, as some of you may know, i am a RoadNewbie and just bought a very nice Scattante CFR as a graduation present to myself!
I have kitted it out with some nice gear - crankbrother quattros, sidi shoes, all weather road tires, nice cyclometer etc. The saddle as i posted in another thread is stock.
Again on my ride today (13.8 miles with the last mile being a VERY steep climb, which i will talk about later) i had pain in my butt, the same place as last time, largely around the perenium (sp?). Now this got me thinking - the saddle is not angled at all, so what would be the result if i angled it down slightly (facing the road)? Will this make sure the pressure is going to the bone rather than elsewhere? What would be the effect if i angled it upwards? Comments please!
2. more things - i noticed that the plastic adjuster on the bottom of my sidi shoes was swivelling quite a bit, i fgured it needed tightening, but as i finished my ride today, i turned my right foot to the required angle to remove the shoe from the peddle and voila, nothing happened - it kept turning! Anyway, i am too tired to look now, but how am i gonna get the shoe off the bike?! Will i be able to tighten it from underneath the peddle? I guess that is a difficult one to answer.
3. As i left my gf's house, the climb which i had to go back up at the end, it is very steep and i was going down very cautiously, with one foot clipped in, and one just resting. As it is bumpy i didn't dare to pedal. I found that my fron t brake was not slowing me down enough and was crapping myself, even though i was onjly going 8 mph or so. I got to the bottom to see wtf was wrong and low and behold i realised i made a ROADNEWBIE mistake!! When taking the front wheel off as you know, you are meant to flip the little switch above the front brake to provide some clearance, silly me forgot to close it after i put my wheel back on the other day... Oh well, at least i now know where i went wrong! This is all about being a learning experience
4. I got a couple of hot spots in my right foot today like last time. When pushing, do you think i may be pushing my right foot at a slight angle i.e. my knee veering off to the right, which is giving me this? or do you think it could be because of my new shoes that need breaking in? Mind that the left foot has almost no problems.
4. The final climb - it only took 15 mins, but was extremely steep and after going up half of it i realised why i couldn't go any further - i had the bike in the big ring. I swiftly moved it into the small ring and soon got tired and had to stop again. So now i was in the small ring and on the LOWEST gear possible. The chain was rattling and i recalled my buddy telling me not to put it in that gear as it is not good for the drive-train.
So, what should i have done?? Put it in a lower gear? Or did i do the right thing?
Sorry for the rather long winded post, on a more positive side, i did complete my first climb and i hit 34 mph today and stayed at an average of 25 on the flats
Josh.
p.s. don't berate me too much, i am trying to learn!