New to the forum, cycling, and choosing a bike.

Greeting, Salutation, Howdy and Hi there!
I'm pretty new to all things cycling, but I'm learning little by little. Really, I didn't realize until I started crawling all over the web that there was more to cycling than simply getting on the bike and pedalling. In truth that's really all I do right now and all that I want to do. I don't have any bike shorts yet because I don't know how to buy them, I am still getting used to the cleats (or whatever their called) I do have 2 helmets and 3 pair of gloves. I did get a nifty bike computer that I really, really love. I do between 16 and 20 miles 4 times a week and 30-40 miles once a week. I ride a Giant Rincon mountain bike with knobby tires and all. It still has all of factory components (except the pedals) but I really couldn't tell you what all they are. I don't know the size of the bike or really anything other than I set the seat and handle bars so that it doesn't hurt my tush too much to be on it for 3 or more hours. Oh, and it's red. I don't want it to be red, but I have yet to figure out the best way to paint it.
Although I do love to ride and will continue to do it as much as I can, I am really beginning a journey. It sounds a little corny, but I am planning to do the AIDS/Lifecycle ride in the summer of 2010. Ever since I first heard about the ride, I've wanted to do it. I started training for it 8 years ago, but was hit by a car while on my bike and between recovering from that and life in general, I was never able to get back to it until now. And even though I'm learning a lot by visiting various places on the web and chatting with my local bike shop (is that what LBS stands for?), I still need a lot more information. I love my mountain bike, but I think I will need something a little different for the ride. My LBS recommends that I get a cyclocross made by either trek or specialized which is what they sell. My limited knowledge and extensive research has gotten my interested in either the Surly LHT or the Surly Cross Check. If anyone has an opinion on this I'd love to hear it. Please let me know what ya'll think. I'm so excited to be on this forum and to have the opportunity to chat with people who might be able to help me.
Gray

Hmmm....OK - I posted on your other thread too. The cross check and the LHT are both awesome bikes, but they aren't light. I have ridden my cross check 80 miles in a day, but I really wouldn't want to ride 80 hilly miles. It's about 26 pounds and (except for a brooks and a generator hub) is a pretty light build. Why are they pushing you towards a cross bike instead of a road bike? Is there something in particular a cross bike will do that you want? Another touring type bike to look at (if that's the direction you want to go) is the Trek 520.

CA

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Originally Posted by CA_in_NC

Hmmm....OK - I posted on your other thread too. The cross check and the LHT are both awesome bikes, but they aren't light. I have ridden my cross check 80 miles in a day, but I really wouldn't want to ride 80 hilly miles. It's about 26 pounds and (except for a brooks and a generator hub) is a pretty light build. Why are they pushing you towards a cross bike instead of a road bike? Is there something in particular a cross bike will do that you want? Another touring type bike to look at (if that's the direction you want to go) is the Trek 520.

CA

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Hi CA! Thanks for replying to both threads. I need lots of help. Honestly, I have no idea why they are pushing the cross bike. The only thing that I told them (and they knew it already) is that there is really no safe place to ride a lot on the road around here. It's mainly backroads with little to no shoulder so I told them that I would feel safer at least at first, with tires that were a little wider than what I normally see on a road bike. They went straight to the cross and started trying to sell me on it. Quite frankly I'm not interested nor can I afford a $3000 bike. That's why Surly appealed to me. I have looked at the 520 online but not anywhere else cuz they don't have it here. I don't know if they would order one for me to try or not. I'm guessing I'm going to have to do some research and go to one of the bigger cities in PA. Anyway, I really have nothing to compare the weight to. My mountain bike is a pretty hefty piece of equipment but I handle long hill climbs just fine. I don't doubt that a lighter bike would feel way different but they weight, in theory doesn't bother me. Another point for surly. Oh, I also told my LBS that I liked the idea of the bigger wheels. I was recently in CO at a huge bike shop out there and the lady I talked to recommended 700cx35 I think. Not sure what that means exactly, but i got the impression that they were wider tires bigger wheels. The reason that I zeroed in on Surly was because the frames were steel and everything I read said that steel was very durable and very stable. I have never in my life ridden a road bike so that idea kind of appealed to me. I figured if I was riding a bike that was really solid and had a bit more weight to it, similar but a little lighter than my mountain bike with bigger wheels and the drop handle bars (which i very much like) then that was alright with me. plus the price was awesome. I don't kknow if my thinking is solid or not, but like I said I don't have a whole lot of options. I know that Specialized and Trek are some really good bikes, but I have no way that I know of to really compare. Even the bike shop in Denver, CO was pushing Trek but that gal was pushing a Trek Portland. I'm not planning on buying anything until next spring which gives me time to save some money, but I still need to be a little prudent. does that make any sense?
Gray

Hmmm.... there are 2 tire sizes we're talking about (and please forgive me if I'm telling you things you know) - the wheel circumference and the width of the tire. Most bikes are either 700c or 26" in diameter. 700c wheels are the larger wheels you usually see on road bikes, and 26" wheels are probably what's on your mtn bike (unless you have a 29'er).

Most road bikes come with 23c width tires. Very narrow. Most won't fit more than a 25c or a 28c. Probably only 23c if you want to run fenders. The cross check has the larger, 700c wheels, but will run wider tires. I have run 35c and 28c tires on mine. The 35c is plenty wide for me on gravel roads. Until you get up to large frame sizes, the LHT will have 26" wheels. I have 32c tires on my Trek 520 (they're stock). Your LBS is probably recommending a cross bike because it will take wider tires. Touring bikes would work too. They aren't a bad choice for road riding - just wanted to make sure there was a reason:)

Some folks care a lot about weight of the bike, some not at all. I think it, in part, depends on your weight/height. 5 lbs of bike weight will be less significant for someone who weighs 250 pounds than someone who is 115 lbs. And there's a bit of philosophical debate over it.

Short term - try putting slick tires on your mountain bike. You can still get them fairly wide, but you'll pick up a lot of speed on the road, and your training will likely get easier.

Good luck!

CA

Thanks CA!!! I kind of knew about the tires but didn't really know the terminology. Sorry I'm such a goober. I am going to put slicker tires on my current bike just to see if I like it. I've only got another month or two to try them before I'll need to switch back because the weather around here will start getting pretty wet pretty soon and I might need my knobby tires then. but maybe not. Thanks again for the advice.
Gray

First, welcome to TE. Lots of wise wonderful women (and some guys) here and plenty of ALC experience.

My neice, UK Elephant on this board (we don't call her that in real life ;)) did her first and will do her next ALC on a Specialized Cross bike. She did very well on the ride. The cross is also her commute-mobile.

I'm thinking of a LHT for my next long ride which would be my 6th. We'll see you in 2010 :D I adore love worship my road bike, and I'll never look at another road bike but my next ALC, I wanna Long Haul Trucker. :D

A good thread here wherein we helped another first-time ALC'er.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=20696

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Originally Posted by Trek420

First, welcome to TE. Lots of wise wonderful women (and some guys) here and plenty of ALC experience.

My neice, UK Elephant on this board (we don't call her that in real life ;)) did her first and will do her next ALC on a Specialized Cross bike. She did very well on the ride. The cross is also her commute-mobile.

I'm thinking of a LHT for my next long ride which would be my 6th. We'll see you in 2010 :D I adore my road bike but my next ALC, I wanna Long Haul Trucker. :D

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Thank you so much Trek420!! I am so happy to talk to some people who have actually done the ride. As I continue to train I'll be asking a lot of questions about it and it's nice to know that veterans are around to hopefully answer them. Thank you. And initially I was planning to get the LHT specifically because I thought it would be ideal for the ALC. Then I got confused when i read posts on this forum about the Cross Check. Thanks again.
Gray

I'm pretty new here, too, but it's a great place to be. :D

I recently got a new Trek hybrid (after riding a cheap mountain bike for many years), and while I love my new bike, it doesn't have drop handlebars which I can already tell is going to be kind of uncomfortable on longer rides. I was initially drawn to cyclocross bikes when I was thinking about getting a new bike, for some of the same reasons you've mentioned. They just don't fit into my price range at this point in my life. I wish it would be easy to just throw drop bars on my hybrid. :p

My boyfriend has a Cannondale cyclocross bike (it just came in earlier this week!) and he's having so much fun with it so far. I don't think Cannondale makes any women-specific-design cross bikes, though, if that's something you're looking for.

Anyway, with less than two weeks on my new hybrid, I'm already wondering how I spent so much time riding around town on my rusty old mountain bike. I'm sure your bike is lovely (Rincon, incidentally, is the name of a mountain range near where I live, and I was cycling in that area just this morning!), but I hope getting a new bike is as much fun for you as it has been for me! :D

Anyway, I don't have much else to say besides welcome and good luck with your decision making!

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Originally Posted by GraysonKelly

I was planning to get the LHT specifically because I thought it would be ideal for the ALC.

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I ride a full custom Mondonico Futura Legero. There's no other bike I could have done my first ALC on, or as well my 2nd time. I love this bike.

The LHT is ideal for my next ride. I'm surprised we don't all get one.:D But then I'm happy because if everyone got a LHT how would we find our bikes each morning in a sea of 2000 bikes? ;) Tassels?

After my last ride I asked my LBS "what's the best bike that is up for the ride, light and fast, with all day ... no all day all week comfort ... but that I'm not going to get farklempt if someone knocks a row of bikes over in bike parking (btw the crew is awesome, they will spoil you for any other organized ride, and I've never seen anything like that happen!) and it gets a tiny scratch.

He said the LHT is the bike for me. I've ridden one and he's right. When I first got on the bike "oh, nice but not as good as my custom ride" but he's also right that the longer you ride ... the more you will like this bike! I truly feel at the end of a week I'd like it as much or more than my custom ride.

Other bikes I've seen people very happy with on ALC are Rivendell and there are a lot of Riv riders here. And I'd love to have a Riv but my thought is to get a bike up to the task but that I won't be worried if it gets a real dusty, someone or a whole group leans their bike on it ....

Interesting, Trek. I'd think the weight would be a little heavy.....

Out of curiosity, I'm guessing you would get a 26" size? If so, do you think finding narrow tires been a problem? My LBS certainly discouraged me from it - because of the lack of availability of tires...

CA

Hey, why worry about the weight of the bike when the engine (me) could stand to loose oh ... 40-50 lbs? Yes, it's all muscle! :D Yeah right. :cool:

When I can't take 20% off the engine I'll start to worry about the weight of the bike. :rolleyes: The Mondonico is surprisingly light especially for steel but a lot of that has to do with what's on it; Campy record, Rolf Elan wheels.

This may have no significance at all, but I did a bunch of measurements and basically figured that with my height, weight, blah blah that any bike from a 54 to 56" was about ideal for me. I stupidly went into my LBS and told them what I'd figured out but didn't bring my bike so they could tell me what size it was to compare. They put a 54" road bike (it was a Trek but beyond that I don't know what it was) on a trainer and I felt so cramped! They took some measurements and concluded that the 54" was too small for me. I could have told them that. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I could comfortably use the LHT in the 56" frame and wil be able to get the bigger wheels. I hope anyway. I'm going to see if I can find a bike similar to the LHT that is in a 56" frame just to see. My LBS said that several of their employees have owned and/or still own and ride surly's so they will put it together for me if I order it online or they will order it for me and put it together. We'll see.
Hey Trek 420 I have a question about the ALC...do you know if there is anyone from the east coast specifically around the WV,PA,MD, VA area that has done the ride? I am wondering about how people from around this area trained. Right now I'm mainly riding the "rail trail" which is an old railroad route that was converted to trails. It's pretty nice but only goes so far. As I said earlier, there is no real place to ride on the road and I'm wondering about different areas to go to get not only mileage but also some more hill work. Mountain biking for the hills is great, but not in anyway similar to what I've heard about the ALC.
Gray

If you enroll in the ALC discussion board

www.aidslifecycle.org/discussion

You may find ALC'ers in the East Coast. We're from all over. But you don't have to train with ALC'ers to do the ride. Is there a local club near you with organized rides?

I don't rightly know if there are any clubs around here. I never see any groups of people riding around here but I don't think that necessarily means they don't exist. When I did my first 40 mile ride a few weeks ago, I met these two amazing women on the trail who really encouraged me and gave me tips as we rode. They gave me their contact info and the name of their group but they are all retired and their normal rides were these 2-3 day tours not one day things. Because of my job I can't do those. These women are also from Pittsburgh which, while closer that most other places, is still over an hour away. I do all of my training by myself. I can't find anyone willing to go with me. And believe me I've asked everyone I know. I even tried to get my coworkers to form a mini club with me but they don't wanna ride as far as I do. My gf says that when I get to the point where I need to ride along the road to get in more miles and hills that she'll kind of drive out to specific spots along the road just to keep an eye on me. That's awesome of her by the way. Okay, I've babbled enough. I'll just have to ask around a little more. The only club that I know of is the college's cycling club but they are students and I doubt I could ride with them. But, it can't hurt to ask.
Take care,
Gray

I'd start at your LBS (local bike shop), they will know where the clubs are.

Post an announcement here in the "places to ride" section of TE:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/forumdisplay.php?f=8

You may find folks to ride on the ALC discussion board but it's less active.

Here's a bunch of links for clubs in W. Va., just a few of those I found:
www.wvtourism.com/spec.aspx?pgid=181

welcome to TE, please visit Sheldon Brown's website. You will learn oodles about tires, bikes, brakes, anything bike related. Sheldon (who died in the last year) was like a bike encyclopedia and his family keep his website up to help others.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com

Where in WV are you? My team recently did a training camp not too far into WV (very close to the VA border in chicken farm land), and we went to 1) ride the mountains, but 2) get some good backroads riding in too :). I love riding country roads. So long as the speed limit isn't 50mph+ with blind curves, I don't mind if there's no shoulders.

I've got friends in various parts of WV and one of my teammates is from the 'burgh. I might be able to get some training tips from them for you.

I'm wondering, too. My mom is from outside Clarksburg and there is no way I would ride the roads around my granny's farm. Way to narrow and cars that drive way to fast.

I'm from Morgantown, WV. You are right about the roads around here...they are treacherous in some areas. I love the rail trail, it's so peaceful, but it's also not very safe. Not counting the fact that I almost ran over a copperhead snake a couple weeks ago while riding by myself, but there are some unsavory people that sometimes lurk around and the trail once you get past Morgantown is not travelled very much. I have been harrassed before down there and quite frankly it's scary. I would actually rather take my chances on the roads than face whatever one of them would do to me. Like i said, the trail is beautiful and peaceful for the most part but there is literally nothing (houses, phones, cell phone doesn't work, little traffic) until you get to fairmont or morgantown. Now that I'm riding further, I'll be going even deeper into that. It's disconcerting. A partner or two would be great but if I can't then I guess I'll just have to plan a route that will take me past major areas where there are a lot of houses or businesses and make sure that my gf knows where I am. I do that anyway.
I'm really enjoying this forum.
Gray

Morgantown is one hilly place, but I've heard from the kids at WVU that there are some great roads to ride. WVU doesn't have a very big road club, but there's got to be some clubs out there you can contact for some road route info. I know the guy who's the head of the WVU club, and I'm sure you can look them up online (they have a pretty good, user-friendly website), and contact them about cycling in the area. I know they are involved in MTB riding and road riding (and maybe 'cross too).

We took our trip out to the itty bitty town of Mathias, and the traffic was very friendly even on the state highways (which had the best road surfaces and more manageable grades and room for climbing and descending.

I'd just advise to plan your route with some country stores along the way for refills and rest breaks, and that ensures you're going through at least a little bit of civilization.

Hi, GraysonKelly. I you mentioned the LBS mentioned a Specialized cyclocross bike, I bought one this year. I've had it since spring and LOVE it. I can ride the trails around there that go from paved to dirt. It's very comfortable and I've had a ton of fun with it this year. I bought the TriCross Sport. Check it out.