Any pistards around?

Hi everyone. Let me first introduce myself as I am a new user. My name is Esperanza from Spain. I am into the cycling world through triathlon but now I am captain in a tandem with a girl from the Spanish Blind Tandem Team.

I have done some track with the tandem (kilo and pursuit) but never on a single bike.

In order to get experience and prepare the pursuit properly I bought a track bike for myself and I have the intention to prepare some races. I have a couple of questions regarding gears and handlebars.

My new bike comes with a 50x14. It is quite hard for me to move that and I will change it to 50x16 as a start. What are the normal gears for women?

Also, I'd like to change the handlebar for a triathlon one as my intention is to train for pursuit. are these handlebars specific for track or I can use a "normal" one?

Thank you for your attention and excuse me for my english. I have been taught to write academic papers in English but not to discuss in forums:o

I don't have any idea what you're asking about, but I think your English is perfect!

Welcome to the forum. :)
Karen

I agree, your english is great.
I think you are talking about your gears. They sound like racing gears, I would like bigger gears myself, as where I live it is fairly hilly and it's not so safe to go so fast.
Women in general ride all different kinds of bikes, we have gals(women) on here that are racers, and others of us that just ride for fun and exercise.
Welcome to the forum, don't be shy

Pistard is French for track cyclist.

Maybe this chart will help you.

I'm not the least bit knowledgeable in gearing or chain inches but I'm sure there's someone who is. I confess the idea of a sight impaired person cycling never occurred to me. Thank you for the education, what a great thing you're doing!

My husband is a trackie - he thinks a 50x16 would probably be fine for you to start with. (He says that when he took his track class it was recommended that beginners use combination that gives you a total gear inches in the low 80's). If that is still too difficult a 49x16 should drop you down enough. He also says that, at least around here, regular clip on aerobars would be fine to use for pursuit. Oh- and I also think your English is really good!

We have a team in Jerusalem that is tandems with blind people. It is really amazing and they do great rides all over the country.
Do you know about them?

Thank you for your replies.

I am greatly surprised for your interest on tandem cycling with visually impaired people. It is hard for me to explain what a great experience it is for me. Last august, we were at the Paracycling World Championships in Burdeaux (France).

The following is the link to my blog where you can find a video of our colleagues from New Zealand, Jayne and Gabrielle. You can see how it is to ride a tandem and how do we prepare for racing.

http://pedaleax2.blogspot.com/2007/0...gabrielle.html


Thanks again for your attention.