New From The Yuba Foothills

[Yubagirl]

IVE STARTED RIDING A ROAD BIKE AND LUV IT. IM LOOKING FOR SOME GOOD ROADS AROUND YUBA, NEVADA COUNTY, IM WORKING MY WAY UP TO DO A 40 MILER IN THE POLICE OLYMPICS IN JULY IN RENO. AND BY THE WAY COULD SOMEONE EXPLAIN IN DETAIL WHAT SPINNING IS ON A BIKE. THANKS LOTS IN ADVANCE.

[SadieKate]

Howdy!! Our official greeters seem to be slacking off tonight.

Spinning on a bike can be defined in a couple of ways:
1) Spinning classes held indoors at gym on a trainer or stationary bike
2) The cadence at which you pedal -- depending on terrain (road, pavement, hill, etc.) it changes. Roadies tend to strive for 80-90 RPM on flat pavement. By keeping the gears easy and the cadence high, you can be kind to your knees.
3) Proper pedal stroke - most easily done with clipless pedals or cages where you feet are attached to the pedal so you can use pull up and push down, though this description really over simplifies the proper stroke.

Search the forums and you'll find an overwhelming amount of info and opinions about all of this. Perhaps someone knows a particular thread which has the most succinct discussions????

[CorsairMac]

Welcome to the board yuba: this might help.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...light=spinning

You can type cadence or spinning in the search box and it'll show you all the thread that talk about spinning but Sadie got it in one!

Also, if you get a chance (and I'm reading backwards so if you already did...sry!) there's a thread under open titled "getting to know you". It'll give ya about an hour of giggles reading about us and - if you're so inclined - tell us about you!

Sorry I live in New Mexico so I can't help you much with the Yuba foothills but your upcoming ride sounds like fun! Keep posting and let us know how it goes!

[Yubagirl]

thanks for the replies. Since I just got into road cycling the forum inspires me even more, your love of it is inspiring!
Thanks again. I hope someday I can offer some help and answers to others

[SadieKate]

You'll get there! In the meantime, check out the latest issue of Bicycling Mag. It has a 1 page article on cadence and spinning based on the coaching of Robbie Ventura, Floyd Landis' coach.

[Trek420]

SadieKate sez "Our official greeters seem to be slacking off tonight. "

oh, oops, sorry, sorry, sleeping at the wheel.

Well Howdy! And welcome to TE where you will learn more than you ever knew there was to learn about bikes. Good luck in the 40-go get 'em. What other bike events are in the Police Olympics?

We want to hear the ride report and all about it!

And don't forget to post in the getting to know you section.

[KkAllez]

Wow, lucky girl to get ride around Yuba. Welcome to the board!

The guys at my LBS always roll their eyes when I come in and say, "Well, on my ALL girl bike forum THEY suggest...." What can I say? It is a testosterone driven sport, we need all the Team Estrogen we can get!

You'll love this board. I've learned a ton here.

If you are in reasonably good shape already the 40 miler should be do-able.

Last year my husband went from never cycling to riding the 50 mile ride in the Hotter N Hell 100 in a month. And he was pretty much a couch potato at the time. This year we are shooting to do the full 100 miles, at the very least the 100K.

I used to mountain bike. Now I'm a roadie addict! I have this need for speed!

Kik