I am not sure if this is the right place to post but I though i would start here.
my goal is to a)get fit b)get back into riding. so for all the noobs please consider me one.

I would appreciate any and all comments and encouragement as long as you don't call me stupid

Iin the long term i will be buying a flat bar road bike i think so this seems like the best place to post.

oh I live north of Boston. i sued to ride a univega sportour, but I am old and fat now 42/210/5'10"
here goes.

I'm only just barely taller than you and was around 215 lbs. for many years, 32 y.o. I started running last fall, and got back into cycling this spring, and am now almost down to 190 lbs. It's been great so far.

Congratulations on deciding to take control and get fit.

What kind of bike do you have now?

the current bike

I also have a seat post mount rack that I use when I am with the kids. not in picture
painful 42 lbs jeep comanche. I promised myself I would ride it 100 miles before buying something nicer so I can make riding an habit again.

the first ride was awful even after trying to get the bike shifting right. 2.5 miles I was killing myself, winded out of shape

the second ride was better. tire psi up to 80, but still had to play with the dr. didi 1.5 miles felt better

bought a wireless bell velocomputer so I could know when I could be done with the tank. doesn't count as money on the bike because I can move it to another bike with the extra zip ties in the package. bought a small wedge bag to hold phone and multi tool so I can keep fiddling with adjustments

the third ride was with the kids and I spent time working on the shifter and brakes as they rode round in circles.at the park. 2 miles. (4 times around the park.) lets just call it shake down time.

next I cranked on the preload on the rear suspension, a lot. and guess what it doesn't settle when I get on the bike. I also lowered the bars and stem from whats in the picture.

did 5 miles, felt ok afterwards had to toe the front dr out and heel it in but now I can use all 3 rings, the rear shifts just great as well. especially for the craptastic components. brakes work well now that they have been used after sitting for 10 yrs. average speed 10ph. pretty slow. very hard to get up the hills even with the low low gear.

uh oh hands numb. can I spend on bar ends. justification they can be moved to new bike helps climbing to. hmm for free shipping on amazon i need to add $12. how about a bottle cage and toe clips with straps. I can move them to another bike as well, AND it will make reaching my 100 mile goal easier.



riding to wrenching ratio is 1:1 hmm not good total mile 15 average speed around 10 (includes park at 2 miles an hour)

wow 2 posts before I finished my second.

Your in the right place and there's nothing stupid about getting back into cycling. I think buying a flat bar roadbike is a good choice for the more upright riding position and it'll be fast, then later it's going to be easy to convert to dropbars anytime in the future as you get fitter and more into it "if you like"

i didn't mean stupid about back into cycling, i meant stupid decisions rationalizations ideas, thoughts that pop into my head and ont the screen unfiltered etc.

Careful about that tire pressure. Larger, knobby tires usually call for pressure in the 45-55 PSI range. My 26x1.5 smooth-tread road tires call for a max of 65 PSI.

I will bring them down a bit then. the preload on the suspension (craptastic) made a bigger difference than the tires. On the road is that likely to be a problem (as opposed to a trail)

Old and fat? Same as me, almost same "specs". Welcome to biking, you'll have loads of fun.

got my parts from m amazon today. try to get them on tonight and go for a quick ride. I will post back tomorrow.

Cool bar ends. Looks like mine but I like the color of yours better. May I recommend mounting them inboard of your handlebar grips. I find them MUCH more useful in that location vs. out at the very ends of the handlebars.

I've seen that. Ian going took try them the standard way first but that has intrigued me

ok first I put the bar ends on. it was really easy
hit the end of the bar with a hammer to 'punch through' the end of the grip. this minimized the amount of grip i would cut.
shoved a thin metal rod around the grip until it came out the other side.
put a splash of rubbing alcohol on the bar/ grip and gave twist. I was worried they would stick but they didn't.
loosened the break and the grip shifters and moved everything in.
put the end on and lightly clamped it.
moved the break and shifter back out.
then clammed it hard


the next morning the grips were tight. bar ends were tight,
but the bar wasn't tight enough. I felt both bar ends move at the same time. oops

rode 5 miles well it made a significant difference. I could now get out of the saddle and I had the extra positions.

next.
I went to put the toe clips on the pedals for the next ride and found that they were solid plastic. So I drilled holes in the pedals and mounted them up. it took 10 minutes longer than I expected because I had to find my drill.

even loose the toe clips made a huge improvement because I had been positioning my foot too far forward. Now the ball of my foot was over the spindle (pedal axel) rode 6.5 miles and noe I didn't have to use my small front and my 34t rear to get up the stupid hills.

i didn't like that because i was going so slow that I was afraid i would fall over (4mph yuck) also I don't expect I will buy a mtb so it wont be geared so low. I am trying to stay completely out of the small front ring. any new bike will have a small front ring and I want to 'save' those gears for when I really need them.

42 IS really old. I'm 60 and starting to fossilize.

I thought they were way too far apart at the ends of my bar, but my bar may be wider than yours (over 2 feet wide). I found I was never using them way out there. By having them inboard of my grips, they're about shoulder-width apart, and when my hands are on them (palms vertical) I can drop my elbows down to get more aero if needed. Plus it's just a lot more comfortable that way. I have trigger shifters and can still hit the lever to go to smaller gears and also the brake levers with my ring and pinky fingers when my hands are on the bar ends.

because we all love gear and data i downloaded my tracks. I also wanted to verify that i was always either climbing or coasting. no flats near my house.



https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=...863c502aea7a81
Total distance: 10.56 km (6.6 mi)
Total time: 41:56
Moving time: 36:27
Average speed: 15.10 km/h (9.4 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 17.38 km/h (10.8 mi/h)
Max speed: 38.25 km/h (23.8 mi/h) this matches what I saw
Average pace: 3.97 min/km (6.4 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 3.45 min/km (5.6 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 1.57 min/km (2.5 min/mi)
Max elevation: 30 m (98 ft)
Min elevation: -32 m (-106 ft)
Elevation gain: 296 m (972 ft)
Max grade: 34 %
Min grade: -22 %
Recorded: 08/06/2012 6:08am

i don't think the grades are right but the heights may be. i looked a the track on google maps and sometimes I am i the road, sometimes off as much are 30 ft (off the road) and then right back on. the speed and distances match my bell bike computer. my phone was in my bag not out in the open.

questions
also any way to plot the speed and elevation on Google maps.
or understand why my tracks breaks up the trip into 3 parts that are not where I stopped.

is elevation gain how much UP i went with no down.

can someone help me understand the elevation and grade, or should I assume that they are wrong due to gps issues.

i find self deprecation makes it easier to deal with my suck

Usually those types of maps/plots will indicate total climbing, and total descent. That's like all the uphills added together in one big chunk, and all the downhills added together. Theoretically if you start and stop in the same place, then total climbing and descent should be equal.

Know what's crazy? I saw the end of the women's Olympic marathon yesterday morning, and those women RAN 26.2 miles in under 2.5 hours. That's pretty much averaging the same speed as your moving average speed/pace. And trust me I'd be about the same as you - my area is pretty much nothing but hills.

looked pretty hard at that. inbound oft the grips but outside the shifters made me think shifting would sick (grip shifts) inbound of the shifts and outbound of the breaks made me worried about reaching the levers with enough hand. this mihgt be the best compromise if I end up not liking them where they are.
inbound of grips and brakes looked too narrow

that's what I thought.

I am neither disappointed nor pleased. I know that even if I were to switch out the bike today for something that weighed less and had bigger narrower wheels I would be faster and climbing would be easier.

(it would be hard to find something that weighed more 42 lbs... really. my brother in law gave up on this bike because it was too heavy to get up the stairs into his second floor apartment. when I told him I put it on my roof rack (jeep) he said he would not have been able to do that.

This is my setup. I have mine between grips and shifters since mine are trigger shifters. But for twist shifters you'd want to go between those and brakes. I have no problem reaching my brake levers from my grips with the bar ends in between. They only move in by the width of the bar end clamp, which isn't much.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...e/IMG_8027.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...e/IMG_8100.jpg

Keep it up - it's amazing how fast you'll be able to add distance.

I started at 5'8" and 220 lbs. I'm still 5'8", but I've lost about 35 lbs. Now I can't say that all of that is biking (Charles Barkley and I did weight watchers), but I'm sure it helped. I started spinning in December, biking in the spring, and on the 4th of July I did a solo, self supported 100 Km (62 mile) ride. On my steel front suspension mountain bike with 1.95 heavy tread tires.

That's when I decided it was time to upgrade. New Trek DS 8.4 should be here any day.

Like I said, it's amazing how fast you'll add distance - even on a heavy bike.

I'm 46 and 270lbs. I would pay good money to be 210lbs again! Even at my weight and age, being on the bike feels great. I haven't lost an ounce, but my endurance is building all the time. My 10-mile route used to beat me up when I started several months ago, but now it just feels good. The lactic acid burn is gone from my legs and I'm surprised how much more they have to give than when I started.