Originally Posted by
ALC_4_me
I'm nearly 300lbs and 5'8" and I spent the first half of last year biking >100 miles a week. Then I took a week off from work and biked from San Francisco to LA as part of the AIDS/Lifecycle. I have the muscles of a weightlifter and endurance exercise has always been somewhere between a struggle and excruciating. It still is. During training I lost 5lbs and gained bigger chest and back muscles as well as enormous legs.
I mostly trained on a Cannondale Bad Boy with the lefty fork but shortly before the ride I got a Specialized Roubaix, heavily modified, of course. We swapped out the drive components for mountain biking ones (triple chain ring, etc), giving me a true granny gear for getting up mountains. I also got rid of the dropped handlebars and went with a carbon fiber straight bar and V-pull break levers.
I've climbed mountains with the Roubaix and bombed back down them at over 40mph. At first I was terrified for my safety, but it not only held together, its performance was near magical.
For bopping around town, I'm getting a Budnitz Bikes Model 2. It should be here in a couple of weeks.
Man my mind hurts... Why would you take a killer road frame and do that to it ... You could had gotten the compact crank and had a killer small chain ring i am surprised 1 a bike shop would do that and 2 the components would actually fit.. You should had just gotten a cycle cross rig... also why put a flat bar on it You have a lot more hand positions on drop bars... I am 6ft 8in tall and 300 pounds i can climb with the best except those really light guys on carbon bikes i use a 54 42 chain ring my cluster is 9 speed 13-23...