Any cyclists here?

[Snow Dog]

Wondering if anyone else here enjoys regularly riding bikes, whether road, mountain, or otherwise.

I used to do a lot of running as my main cardio, but the year the pandemic hit, my wife and I each got bikes as Christmas presents to ourselves. Picked up a cyclocross bike relatively cheap, and I’ve been hooked since. One can go faster and farther without feeling as beat up afterwards, and recovery in between is also faster than running for me. Even though I’m a taller, heavier guy than most cyclists, I love climbing hills. I prefer riding outside of course, but when that’s not available due to weather or the family’s schedule, Zwift has also been a suitable alternative.

My wife gives me a hard time, saying I’m obsessed, and she’s honestly mostly right. I spend a good part of my free time reading about things related to bikes, watching bike videos on YouTube, learning how to maintain it, etc. I’ve loved modding my bike as well - I’ve changed the gearing on it to my liking for the hilly roads where I live, and sourced the parts and did the work myself. I love it. It’s definitely a hobby I hope to carry through for decades.

Who else enjoys a good bike ride? What rigs have you got (pictures are a good bonus)? What kind of riding do you do, and how long do you go?

I’m such a nerd. I could seriously talk about this stuff for hours on end…

[bosk1]

Yup.  Ride biker, but not really hardcore.  I've been out of it for a few months, and need to restart.  Typical rides for me are about 20-25 miles.  If riding from the house, I have a set 23-mile lake loop I like to do.  I also love taking my bike in to work on the train and then riding home, which is about 25 miles along the American River.  My average pace is about 15-18 MPH, so again, not hardcore.  My longest is a bit over 75 miles around Lake Tahoe (some pretty gnarly elevation on that one), and I've done a few 50s.  Haven't done a century, but have wanted to.  My bike is a Canondale CAAD-9.  It's on the older side, but still a really good bike.  I do want to update, but probably not in the foreseeable future since we will have a second kid in college next year.

[crazy climber dude]

I used to commute to work (15 miles one way) quite often, but recently retired so now doing random rides. I have an Orbea 29er MTB, so also enjoy mostly light duty mountain biking (primarily doubletrack or remote singletrack on mainly foothill based areas).

For me it was a transition from the physical rigors of hiking/climbing to something less impactful on the body (though I still do some snowshoeing and hiking). I have done some high elevation road rides (both dirt and paved) in Colorado, including 14er Mt. Evans and 13,000 foot Mosquito Pass (both of those rides were several hours on the bike). I have my sights set on Pikes Peak this summer if things go well in training. From my understanding, it's a significant step up in gruelling grades from even Evans.....so a lot of preparation needed.

Furthest I've ever ridden in a day is 100 miles....from my house in northern Colorado to Cheyenne, Wyoming and back.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Yea I started biking reguarly 2 years ago, I love to take a couple of long rides every week about 20 miles. During this winter i've been trying to keep it up despite the weather, I actually enjoy riding in rain and cold weather.

[Snow Dog]

Pike’s would be brutal, CCD. It’s already rated the hardest half marathon in the country, I can imagine how it would be on a bike!

I’ve never done the commuting thing, mostly since my city isn’t really set up well to do it safely, though changes for this are starting to pop up. Wouldn’t mind doing this either since it’d be a fairly short ride to and from.

Longest I’ve done outside is about 32 miles. Currently training to do a 100k gravel ride in Montague, CA beginning of March, then another road metric century six weeks later. What I’ve been riding is an old 2011 Specialized Crux carbon pro 10 speed. Not the most modern or fanciest of rides, but it’s fun and I’ve made it what I want it to be.

Got a good couple hours on the trainer yesterday, and the weather is hopefully looking good for an equally long ride this weekend. Would be nice to get some fresh air!

[bosk1]

I’ve never done the commuting thing, mostly since my city isn’t really set up well to do it safely, though changes for this are starting to pop up. Wouldn’t mind doing this either since it’d be a fairly short ride to and from.

That's too bad.  I'm blessed in that Sacramento is right at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, there are paved trails along the rivers, and I live upriver about 25 miles from my office.  I can ride from work to home (or the lightrail station in my town) without having to do more than 2 miles or so on actual roads.  The rest of it is paved trail.  It can get a bit...adrenaline-inducing during rattlesnake season though.    There have been a few times where I am looking ahead at a fallen piece of branch on the trail, only to discover that it is a snake when I get up close.  Or, worse, I am in my own world, focusing on my music, the scenery, or whatever, and don't notice a snake until I almost run over it or hear it rattle as I go by.  On the bright side, those encounters usually give me a boost for breaking my personal ride time bests. 

[lonestar]

I’ve never done the commuting thing, mostly since my city isn’t really set up well to do it safely, though changes for this are starting to pop up. Wouldn’t mind doing this either since it’d be a fairly short ride to and from.

That's too bad.  I'm blessed in that Sacramento is right at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, there are paved trails along the rivers, and I live upriver about 25 miles from my office.  I can ride from work to home (or the lightrail station in my town) without having to do more than 2 miles or so on actual roads.  The rest of it is paved trail.  It can get a bit...adrenaline-inducing during rattlesnake season though.    There have been a few times where I am looking ahead at a fallen piece of branch on the trail, only to discover that it is a snake when I get up close.  Or, worse, I am in my own world, focusing on my music, the scenery, or whatever, and don't notice a snake until I almost run over it or hear it rattle as I go by.  On the bright side, those encounters usually give me a boost for breaking my personal ride time bests. 

Ahh good ole rattlesnake season in Sac... I remember driving around the golf course at Murieta in the carts and having snakes randomly taking pop shots at it as I went by. Good times. Impressed that you did Tahoe, that's a brutal ride.


I was into cycling for a spell, then when I was 18 I got hit by a car. Now every time I get on a bike the anxiety and fear takes over me and I can't ride. Ridden maybe 5 times in the last 35 years.

[bosk1]

I’ve never done the commuting thing, mostly since my city isn’t really set up well to do it safely, though changes for this are starting to pop up. Wouldn’t mind doing this either since it’d be a fairly short ride to and from.

That's too bad.  I'm blessed in that Sacramento is right at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, there are paved trails along the rivers, and I live upriver about 25 miles from my office.  I can ride from work to home (or the lightrail station in my town) without having to do more than 2 miles or so on actual roads.  The rest of it is paved trail.  It can get a bit...adrenaline-inducing during rattlesnake season though.    There have been a few times where I am looking ahead at a fallen piece of branch on the trail, only to discover that it is a snake when I get up close.  Or, worse, I am in my own world, focusing on my music, the scenery, or whatever, and don't notice a snake until I almost run over it or hear it rattle as I go by.  On the bright side, those encounters usually give me a boost for breaking my personal ride time bests. 

Ahh good ole rattlesnake season in Sac... I remember driving around the golf course at Murieta in the carts and having snakes randomly taking pop shots at it as I went by. Good times. Impressed that you did Tahoe, that's a brutal ride.

Tahoe was SO much fun.  Unfortunately, I'll never do it again.  We researched it pretty well and I thought we made a good plan to avoid or mitigate some of the trickier issues (like going clockwise so we are in the sight lines of gawkers looking at the lake, or traffic on those narrow switchbacks on the climb by Emerald Bay, which we avoided by hitting that super early in the morning).  But the one thing we couldn't really plan for, which I underestimated, is where 50 west merges in on the east side of the like from Spooner Summit.  You have multiple lanes of traffic going full speed at highway speeds just inches to your left while you are bombing down several miles of steep downhill, and there are times where shoulder disappears and you have to actually merge into traffic.  That was the scariest thing I've ever done on a bike, and I'll never do it again.  Aside for that stretch, which was straight up terrifying, that ride was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  And getting to do it with a longtime dear friend made it even better.

[lordxizor]

My three oldest sons and I have gotten into mountain biking the last couple years. Single-track stuff, nothing too strenuous since we live in Minnesota and it's pretty flat where we are. It's a lot of fun. I'm not too adventurous in terms of getting air or anything, but I like being outside and in the forest. I've got a Trek 29er, more of an entry level bike so nothing fancy, but it works well for me.

[Snow Dog]

I’ve never done the commuting thing, mostly since my city isn’t really set up well to do it safely, though changes for this are starting to pop up. Wouldn’t mind doing this either since it’d be a fairly short ride to and from.

That's too bad.  I'm blessed in that Sacramento is right at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, there are paved trails along the rivers, and I live upriver about 25 miles from my office.  I can ride from work to home (or the lightrail station in my town) without having to do more than 2 miles or so on actual roads.  The rest of it is paved trail.  It can get a bit...adrenaline-inducing during rattlesnake season though.    There have been a few times where I am looking ahead at a fallen piece of branch on the trail, only to discover that it is a snake when I get up close.  Or, worse, I am in my own world, focusing on my music, the scenery, or whatever, and don't notice a snake until I almost run over it or hear it rattle as I go by.  On the bright side, those encounters usually give me a boost for breaking my personal ride time bests. 

Ahh good ole rattlesnake season in Sac... I remember driving around the golf course at Murieta in the carts and having snakes randomly taking pop shots at it as I went by. Good times. Impressed that you did Tahoe, that's a brutal ride.

Tahoe was SO much fun.  Unfortunately, I'll never do it again.  We researched it pretty well and I thought we made a good plan to avoid or mitigate some of the trickier issues (like going clockwise so we are in the sight lines of gawkers looking at the lake, or traffic on those narrow switchbacks on the climb by Emerald Bay, which we avoided by hitting that super early in the morning).  But the one thing we couldn't really plan for, which I underestimated, is where 50 west merges in on the east side of the like from Spooner Summit.  You have multiple lanes of traffic going full speed at highway speeds just inches to your left while you are bombing down several miles of steep downhill, and there are times where shoulder disappears and you have to actually merge into traffic.  That was the scariest thing I've ever done on a bike, and I'll never do it again.  Aside for that stretch, which was straight up terrifying, that ride was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  And getting to do it with a longtime dear friend made it even better.

Tahoe would be absolutely awesome to ride around, but that highway section would be straight up terrifying. I haven’t gotten used to riding in traffic much yet, and even cars driving close by at 30MPH make me nervous. I can’t imagine them whizzing by going highway speeds… I deliberately pick my routes along much quieter roads that I thankfully have easy access to, and I try to avoid busier times of day when possible.

Another ride that I have in the sights is Ride the Rim, where for two Saturdays out of the year in the fall, Crater Lake National Park shuts down the East Rim Drive to cars and leaves it open to bikes. The west side still has traffic, so completing the full circuit still has cars to deal with, but it should be doable with so many other cyclists out as well. Plus you just couldn’t much better views in many other places (Tahoe being one of them).

[Snow Dog]

My three oldest sons and I have gotten into mountain biking the last couple years. Single-track stuff, nothing too strenuous since we live in Minnesota and it's pretty flat where we are. It's a lot of fun. I'm not too adventurous in terms of getting air or anything, but I like being outside and in the forest. I've got a Trek 29er, more of an entry level bike so nothing fancy, but it works well for me.

I’ve been looking into getting a mountain bike or some such recently. There’s a pump track in a town about 30 minutes from here that’s really fun, but my cyclocross bike is way to skittish to handle it. My wife’s hybrid Trek Dualsport is much better suited for something like that, and it’s a ton of fun to ride the bumpy stuff on it. Just need to find the right deal for a decent bike like that of my own.

[lordxizor]

My three oldest sons and I have gotten into mountain biking the last couple years. Single-track stuff, nothing too strenuous since we live in Minnesota and it's pretty flat where we are. It's a lot of fun. I'm not too adventurous in terms of getting air or anything, but I like being outside and in the forest. I've got a Trek 29er, more of an entry level bike so nothing fancy, but it works well for me.

I’ve been looking into getting a mountain bike or some such recently. There’s a pump track in a town about 30 minutes from here that’s really fun, but my cyclocross bike is way to skittish to handle it. My wife’s hybrid Trek Dualsport is much better suited for something like that, and it’s a ton of fun to ride the bumpy stuff on it. Just need to find the right deal for a decent bike like that of my own.

I've got a Trek Marlin 7 and I like it a lot. It leans more mountain bike than hybrid, but it's still rideable on the road. I wish we had a pump track or skills park near us. There is one about 45 minutes away which we only made it to once last summer.

[Lonk]

I used to do it a lot, but haven't in 10 years since I moved to a smaller apartments and have no place to store bikes (though I contemplated getting a foldable one).

When I used to ride, I had 3 different routes I would do, each would be a good 25-30 miles.

[SchecterShredder]

I'm a very avid cyclist. I ride mtb and road. I race both disciplines, too, and cycle commute to work. I work from home most days, so I usually only commute to the office once or twice per week. I took up xc skiing a few winters ago, so I don't do as much riding in the winter. I still throw some studded tires on my old hard tail mtb for the commute, and will ride in temperatures as low as -30C. Our house backs on to a ravine chock full of singletrack which is connected to our city's river valley, so I can mtb at lunch in the summer. There's more than 100km of mtb singletrack in our city, including 8 of the 9km of my commute (if I take the trail route vs. road route).

My wheelhouse for a standard road ride is 60-80km, which takes me around 2-3hrs depending on the route. I try to throw in a 100km ride every week, but that usually falls off in August and September when the singletrack is in peak condition. May-July is our rainy season, and the soil around here is clay-based resulting in nothing but mud pits. Riding wet trails chews up the track awfully quick. For mtb rides, it's usually an hour each way to/from work, 45min lunch hits, or a 2hr weekend ride. When I go to the mountains, it's usually morning and afternoon sessions each around 3hrs. The Canadian portion of the Rocky Mountains are a 3 1/2 hr drive from here, so I usually take 1 or 2 multi-day trips each summer. The trails around home are fantastic, but they're definitely xc oriented. Sometimes it's nice to settle in for a 1hr climb to reap the benefits of a 20 minute descent down a mountain.

Typical mileage is about 50km per week in the winter and 150-400km per week in the summer (depending on how much mtb vs. road riding I do, with the former being shorter rides).

I also took up my own maintenance back in 2018 when I started commuting full time. It's saved a ton of money given I have 4 bikes of my own, in addition to my wife and kids' bikes. The winter riding is especially hard on the drivetrain due to the salting of the roads (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada....it's very cold and snowy here in the winter). The only work I don't do on my own is taking apart and rebuilding the suspension on my trail rig. I have a Trek Remedy that I spent far too much money on, so I fear botching something.

If anyone here is on Strava, feel free to send a follow request. https://www.strava.com/athletes/33918818

[Snow Dog]

After two years of owning my bike, I finally made the jump to clipless pedals and shoes. Was just using toe clips with sneakers prior. Ordered some Shimano SPD M540s and installed them on Tuesday. Took them on their virgin ride today, and I’m liking them.  It’s something to get used to with clipping in, and it’ll be something I’m sure I’ll need to practice a lot till it’s second nature, but I’m noticing my pedaling feels more efficient. Might be placebo, but I’ll take it nonetheless.

But the pedals finally finish making my bike what I want it to be. The rig I’m riding:
https://files.fm/f/9w2czcrsp

Specialized Crux Carbon Pro. 46/34 for the front rings, 10sp 11-36 for the cassette. 38mm gravel racing tires. Just about can do it all on this thing except single track, and changing the gearing was a must for a bigger guy like me to do any steeper climbing. Pretty much have swapped out the entire drivetrain aside from the front derailleur to do it, but it’s been worth it.

[bosk1]

Nice!  What did that set you back?

[SchecterShredder]

Clipless are absolutely a game changer for consistent power. I've used them on my road bike since the day I rode it home from the shop. I still use flats on my mtb though for safety reasons. Most of my mtb friends use clipless, but I find I need to put a foot down on the trails at least once per week. I have zero confidence that I can unclip fast enough, and I have plenty of evidence of not clipping out on my road bike to support my lack of confidence.

[bosk1]

...I have plenty of evidence of not clipping out on my road bike to support my lack of confidence.

  Yeah, I think we've all been there. 

[Snow Dog]

Nice!  What did that set you back?

Originally got it used from a friend of a friend for $600. It’s a 2011 model, I believe, but it runs great overall. As for swapping out parts and installing what I want, I’ve put in a new cassette, new medium cage rear derailleur, derailleur hanger extender, new chainrings, new cranks (original BCD was 130, I needed 110 for the 34T ring), and now the new pedals and shoes. I’ve changed stuff out in three steps, and each one was $150-200 for the gear and tools to install it. All things considered, it’s still a pretty sweet deal.

...I have plenty of evidence of not clipping out on my road bike to support my lack of confidence.

  Yeah, I think we've all been there.

I’ve heard that everyone has taken their asphalt baptism at some point. Can’t say I’m looking forward to mine.

[crazy climber dude]

Pike’s would be brutal, CCD. It’s already rated the hardest half marathon in the country, I can imagine how it would be on a bike!

I agree. No doubt it will be the toughest thing I've ever tried to do, especially as I am turning 60 this summer. Yet, that's what fuels me. It's all about health and training. If I get enough work in, and feel good physically/the body (and ticker!) holds up....I KNOW I can do the mental part.