a couple of bicycle-ish questions

[Brandon]

I've posted in the Hamster thread that I bike at least 10 miles a day, at least 5 or 6 days a week. My riding is taking a toll on my poor bike. I have some questions for the 2 wheeled, pedallers among us.

1. Why is it so damn hard to get replacement pedals? Why are they so expensive?

2. I've noticed when I am riding (I ride a Trek mtn. bike) that even when I feel like I am flying, I get skunked by normal 10 speeds. Is this due to the weight difference between my sturdy mtn. bike and their smaller, lighter, touring bikes? Even though they have 10 gears, and I have 21?

3. I may be in the market for a new pair of wheels soon (bike), any suggestions? I have looked online, and all the bikes are SO expensive!

4. Anyone else have troubles with flats? I have a sort of rough-and-tumble route to campus sometimes (I am researching shortcuts), and at one point I had 2 flats in one week. Thoughts?

5. Would anyone like to share other bike questions/woes with me?

Any suggestions or thoughts are welcome, and appreciated.

[missyD]

Hi! I'm fast becoming an avid cyclist myself! It's quite addicting. I use my bike primarily for t'port though as I am carless and have a horse boarded a few kms away and ride out there to visit daily.

As for your questions:
1) No idea. Hope I don't have to replace mine!!
2) You dont get so much speed because of the fatter tyres I think. They slow you down a lot!! I used to have a racing bike and was pretty quick but I find it a lot harder to pick up as much speed on a mtb.
3) You get what you pay for...to a point though. My cousins bike was $2000++ and mine was about $500. Both do the job equally well...depends how serious/cashed up you are.
4) The bad thorns arent out here yet..so fingers crossed.

My question to others: Do you get sore knees from riding a lot? Mine are starting to hurt (right in particular). Anything you can do to prevent/reduce the pain? It mostly hurts when I am riding up hill/pushing hard.

How do you know how far/fast you are going etc when you ride..I would love to be able to keep track of stuff like that...and how far is a good dist to ride in undulating country in a 1 hour period - I'm trying to boost up my fitness, might even like to try racing at some point.
Anyway I'd love to hear from other cyclists out there as well.

[catswym]

as far as the speed thing, i think it also has to do with the shocks. mtn bikes have more heavy duty shocks (for obvious reasons) than road bikes or even hybrids and that will take energy out of the forward motion.

as far as the knees try consciously taking the pressure out of your knees and into your muscles when you are riding. after awhile you won't have to do this consciously anymore. also, i think those bikes where you sit back in the chair thing and pedal in front of you are supposed to take the pressure off of your legs, so in the long term that might be something you want to think about (altho i think those bikes are wicked expensive).

[blinkered]

1. They shouldn't be all that expensive but really how often do you have to replace them?
2. This is quite an in depth question but in essense fat knobly tires on mountain bikes generate more rolling resistance than slick narrow tires meaning that you need to put more energy in to go as fast as someone on a road bike. This is probably more important than the weight of the bike, but it is worth bearing in mind that there are a whole bunch of other factors which will slow you down inc riding position, wheels, bike aerodynamics, your weight riding position and probably many more.
3. Try some out and get the one that suits you best but you will need to go to a bike shop for this.
4. everyone suffers from this a bit the best advice I can give you is to keep the air pressure in the tyres nice and high and to replace the tires as they are starting to wear out not after they are completely knackered.

Knee pain is often attributable to poor riding position, so can probably be resolved by moving the handlebars and saddle around or if necessary getting a bike which is the right size for you. Most bike shops will set your bike up for you if you ask them, though if you look around there is some good advice on the interweb thingy on how to do it yourself.

[Skylark]

I think catswym is talking about recumbent bicycles. She's right--recumbents are a LOT easier on every joint in your body. My family and I have been riding 'bents for decades. It's true--they are more expensive. You're not likely to find a used one for $20 at a garage sale. Mine was a little under one thousand. It was a high school graduation/birthday gift. You can get a well-designed, fully functional used recumbent for under $500. Check out the Human Powered Vehicle Association. (www.hpva.org) They have an HPV-ForSale email list that should put you in line with good deals on quality bikes. (http://www.ihpva.org/mailman/listinfo/hpv-forsale)

Most recumbents are not built to be replacements for mountain bikes. They are built for comfort, speed (on roads), and aerodynamicy. If you try to do a wheelie on a 'bent, I take no responsibility for what might happen! You'll tend to pick up speed faster on downhills and spend more time on the uphills. (That's why you pedal like heck on the downhills.) I think the difference is because you don't have your entire body weight on top of the pedals to get some extra oomph. I push against the seat back, which helps--mentally anyway.

Regarding your question about slower speeds--you won't go faster just because you have a wider range in your gears. My dad's bike has 63 gears, but I can go no faster on it than I can on my 21-speed.

I have a million and one bicycling mishap/adventure stories. Which category would you like to start off with: Biking as a Child, Bike Trip 1999, The Century of 2001, or Summer Days? LOL

[WonderRandy]

i get pain in my knees when I've been riding in too high of a gear for a while. When I switch to lower (easier) gears for a couple days it goes away

[Draekyn]

About the pedals - are you looking for platform pedals or clipless pedals? The clipless pedals are much more expensive, but I've found some platform pedals on www.nashbar.com for $10-20.

[lucycat]

Tires do make a difference. I have a Trek mountain bike and since the path I normally ride has been paved since I got my bike, I changed my tires. They're thinner and have less tread. My average speed has increased by about 2-3 mph and I can coast a lot faster for a greater distance.

[salamander]

Knees - I'm no expert but I think you should always try to have your knee as far back as possible compared to your toe when your leg is at its most bent, and definitely avoid having your knee go higher than your hip... ie put your seat higher. It's just mechanics - reduce the strain as much as you can.

I think mountain bikes are great for going down mountains, they put the rider in a very sturdy position (maybe that's why they have the weird knee positions?), but a road/racing bike is definitely built for speed and less strain. Not sure how that would work on the bumpy roads but my old racer was fine on bumpy roads especially when I kept the tires hard... and faster than any other bike on the road

for the pedals, have you thought of trying freecycle or even ebay? I put a wanted up on freecycle three days ago and immediately got a reply, this guy is giving me his old 10 speed racer! Literally a free cycle! yay.

[blinkered]

Tires do make a difference. I have a Trek mountain bike and since the path I normally ride has been paved since I got my bike, I changed my tires. They're thinner and have less tread. My average speed has increased by about 2-3 mph and I can coast a lot faster for a greater distance.

There is a pretty good discussion of the subject here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e....uk%26rnum%3D2
And some good info from the very well informed Sheldon Brown:
http://sheldonbrown.com/tyres.html#pressure