So i had my second ride today: a few questions and answers please!
 

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:o

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!

i think the saddle should be level with the ground, but others will hopefully correct me if that's not true...

if you have good padded shorts and a good saddle, see if that pain does not begin to subside as your mileage increases as it did for me and as it apparently does for most beginners...

Good pad in the shorts is important.
Not real sure if this needs to be said. However, wear no underwear with cycling shorts.
Stand occasionally to get blood flow going.
Lastly, if thre are curves in your seat, please use a level to check. Your eyes can be deceived by curved seats. I recommend a dead level seat with little or no gel padding in it.

Hope this helps.

You just need more riding to get your "saddle callouses" and you won't have as much pain. As the others said, you really, really should get bike shorts too, if you don't have them. They made a world of difference for me when I first started.

Don't worry guys, i have 2 pairs of padded shorts...

Just a couple of things;

Sounds like you were in the HIGHEST gear possible on the small ring (small ring/small cog) - meaning that you were "cross-chaining", which you should not do (too severe an angle for the chain to bend and will wear your rings/cassette prematurely, not to mention the noise).

The other thing about the shoe - just get your shoe/pedal so it's at the bottom or top of the stroke so the turning of your shoe isn't obstructed by anything. The shoe can't turn indefinitely as the holes do end, you'll just have to turn the shoe until you reach the end of the hole/cleat travel and clip it out.

As for the hot spots, you may want to wait until your cleat position is actually fixed to determine whether there's actually any problem. If your cleat was moving that much, you don't actually have a read yet on how riding feels in the realistic range of movement given a fixed cleat position.

Have a great time and good luck. :)

Here is a little thing that I do before I ride. After I pump the tires up, I hold the front wheel off the ground and give it a spin. I have a quick eyeball check to see if it is true. Then I hit the brake lever to stop it. You will feel it if you have the lever open. Then do the same with the rear.

I see people riding with them open all the time. Scarey.

Last thing - go somewhere there isn't a bunch of car traffic to look out for and run through the entire range of gearing at speed and get a sense for how different combinations affect your cadence/pedaling effort. Look at them after you've shifted up or down and then think about how that feels and sounds. Just remember that your smallest gear is the small (front)/big (rear) combo and vice versa and remember that "cross chaining" is the same/same extreme - big/big and small/small. After you have some sense of what the gearing combos feel like, try to anticipate what gear you need and shift just in advance of need. For instance, when you shifted onto the small ring, your drivetrain was likely close to full-load (pedaling pressure), which is a bad time to shift. You'll sometimes drop your chain doing stuff like this and if you're not quick-witted enough, you're going over :( . You need to be pedaling smoothly when you shift, not hammering. Hope that gives you something to go on. Good luck and have a great time with your new bike.

edit: experiment with the forward/back movement of the seat. If you have to angle it, it isn't the seat for you. Sometimes it's just a matter of moving the seat forward or back so it supports your sit-bones appropriately. Just get on your bike and ride or if you find that too distracting, go somewhere where you can hold onto a wall, and see if you can move yourself into a position on the seat where it feels better to you. Note if you moved up or back to get there, then move the seat accordingly.

If the chain is wrapped around the smallest gear up front and the largest gear in back, then that's your lowest gear. There's absolutely nothing wrong mechanically-speaking with using that gear. If you were in the smallest gear up front and smallest gear in back, then you are "cross-chained" and you are prematurely wearing your drivetrain (the chain is at such an extreme angle in those gears that it's simply not "meshing" with the gears very well).

that was what i was doing - i was on the small ring up front and the smallest at the back. It didn't sound right, but it was the lightest gear i could find...

So how else can i make it up a steep hill???? Do i have to keep the small ring up front and a medium ring at the back? That is too hard for me

Tilting the sit down will make your butt slide down to the thin part of the seat making the "perenium (sp?)" thing worse and will put more weight on your arms. If it has to be wrong its better slightly tilted up than down (IMO)

the absolute easiest gear is the small ring up front and the largest cog (ring) in the back.

RoadNewbie - you're not reading the responses carefully. Note that KevinF said "SMALL CHAINRING/LARGE REAR COG" is your smallest gear.

Really? That's strange. The closer the chain is to the spokes, the easier it should get. As you go to lower and lower gears, you'll have to pedal more and more to move any given distance. That in turn shifts the load from your legs to your heart&lungs. Is that what you find is occurring? i.e., the work load shifts and you find that your legs stop burning and your heart starts beating "too fast"?

If that's not the issue, then there's something mechanically messed up -- almost like the chain is binding as it tries to go through the rear derailleurs.

Contrary to what some people say you may NOT just get used to you saddle. I have found that for the size of my butt (sitz bones really) I need a saddle in the 143-147 mm range and one that isn't too soft. My roadie currently has a Specialized Avatar on it which is 143mm wide. I like it quite a bit but the WTB Speed V comp on my Marin is even better (it is 147mm) and I ride that bike most of the time without cycling shorts. If your saddle is too wide your thighs will rub and you will chafe and if it is too narrow your sitz bones wont be supporting you as they should and you will have added pressure on your tender bits. If you have a Specialized dealer near you I suggest going to get saddle fitted. The saddle I had on my roadie before the avatar was a Selle Italia SLK which is a high end saddle but was totally wrong for my butt as it is only 133mm wide. Check out this link for my saddle and click on the "widths" and "body geometry" links on that page to learn more.

Okay , i just looked at the bike, and realised i was on the small ring up front and the biggest at the back when i was climbing. If this is bad, what am i meant to do?

Please read the responses you've already received and ask questions about what you don't understand. Are you sure this is what you had? Because if you did and you heard a lot of chain noise, you are having a mechanical problem with your bike. If you were in the small/big combo, you were in the lowest gear and if you couldn't get up the hill with that, then you need to work up to the hills you're riding on as a new cyclist. If after time, you are in condition and still can't get up said hills, maybe you need to think about different gearing - i.e., bigger rear cassette, more teeth on biggest cog.

Read the other responses a bit more closely.... that's the lowest gear, and is a 'good' gear to use. Everything you need to know about shifting gears.

Is this a double or a triple?

Two things....

1. Hills get easier the more you climb them.
2 You might need to change your gearing. A cassette with a lower gear (e.g. a bigger sprocket) may be in order, or a different crankset. Stock gearing on some bikes isn't really all that suitable for beginner riders.

Nope small at the front and biggest at the back is your lowest gear. If you can't climb the hills you need to climb in that gear then well there are a couple of options. #1 get a different cassette for the back. Shimano makes a 12-27 and those 2 teeth will help a little over your current 12-25, bonus here is that the 12-27 in 10s is much more availible than 12-27 in 9s which seem to always be scarce. #2 a bit more expensive would be to buy a compact crank. Due to the fact that is has smaller rings (50-36 or 50-34 depending on what you but) you get lower gears but you will loose the higher ones. Too offset the expense you could sell your Ultegra 10s crank and BB and depending on what you sell it for and what crank you pick it could almost be a wash. #3 get stronger :D well other than going back and getting a triple just get stronger, get in that lowest gear and stand up and grind it out.

Good luck.

Here are a few tips on saddles. Each butt is different and you may need to work through a couple of different saddles to find one you like. Most quality shops will let you test ride saddles on your bike in the parking lot. You won't tell if you will like it after 20 miles though, so check into the return policy. Most shops will give you a few weeks on a saddle and exchange if it doesn't show any wear. Saddles are like beds, softer is not always better. The wider, softer saddles are great for comfort bikes, where you are only riding 2-5 miles at most. For longer distances, shape and support are the key issues. I ride a Selle Flite saddle, but it took a few for me to find one I liked. If your saddle is pointed nose down, you may find your hands going to sleep on you. Too much nose up and you will feel like you are getting poked between your legs. Carry an allen key with you, the first ride on a new saddle takes a large amount of small adjustments. Then, mark the position with tape. I use a small knife to make a little nick, since tape can move after miles of riding in the rain.

For climbing, you need to adjust your position and cadence. Attacking a climb works best for me, if I slow down or let up, i am a dead man. Also, building your aerobic base and spinning ability is key. I keep my cadence between 90-110, but I had to work up to that. The owner of the bike shop I used to manage gave this advice: Don't start riding in your big gear until you have 1000 miles under your belt. That may be excessive, but the lesson was to build you lungs and candence capacity before you worked on strength and speed.

You will find a large selection of good advice, some at odds with each other. The best lesson is to find what works best for you. Some rides pull through the down stroke with their feet level to the ground, some point their toes down. Again, find what works for you.

Congrats on that speed ... sounds good averaging 25 on the flats... good job.

1) All depends on your butt. Some are wider that others.... you may need to exchange the saddle for a wider or narrower one. Saddle should be parallel to the ground not angled up or down.

2) You should be able to pull it outta there. Even with the clip turning it will stop and the end of it's travel.

3) We have all done it at least once.

4) Getting exactly the right position clips/pedals/feet will take some time and small adjustments.

5) There is a non-shimano after market cluster that is 12 - 28. If that is that is not enough then you will need to look at some other options.
A) MTB cluster and a long cage rear der.
B) Triple
C) Compact or other ratio's on the chain ring.

Enjoy

well i went to turn my shoe round like you guys said, but it keeps spinning!!!
ideas?!

Can you take a photo or two? I assume you can't get a allen wrench (or does it use philips?) on it from the bottom. I think you may have to punt and go to your LBS on this one. Maybe if you can get a needle nose on the bottom of the cleat through the mechanism or...does this model have pontoons on the cleat? can you grab them and twist?

what kind of pedal system do you have. Are you looking at the cleat as you turn the shoe and is the cleat staying in a forward orientation? if it's spinning and your cleat attaches in two or more points, you have a minor problem because your cleat would only have one attachment point if it spins as you describe. Post more information and this will be easier.

You sound pretty new on the bike. Things are going to hurt for awhile. No amount of adjusting is going to change that. As far as the saddle is concerned, i have found that the lower the handle bars get below the saddle, the more i prefer to tilt the saddle below level. Mine is nosed down a slight bit and is more comfortable.