Fitness Thread

[Supe]

Do you have some of those biker /padded shorts?

I do not.

Replacement seat came yesterday from Bikeroo.  Put it on, and it hurt, but I made it around the neighborhood twice without dying.  I think most of the pain was the fact that I was sitting on residual bruising from the other day, so I'm cautiously optimistic.  

I did notice that my back brakes seem good, but the front disc isn't stopping worth a ****.  I can about have the lever pegged and it feels like it's only dragging maybe 50%.  A front disc should be able to put me over the handlebar.  Think I'll take it to the local bike shop and have him do what he can to the front discs.  I may also have him swap tires and front forks, since I want something I can lock out, and the super-knobby tires on it right now are not doing much good around the neighborhood.  Hopefully he'll have something for gravel/asphalt that will work on the MTB wheels.

 

[Road Guy]

our bike shops are all packed and on long wait times, since they just opened up - sort of sucks cause I stopped riding last year after we did the 40 mile ride and didnt touch it until a week ago and it defin needs a tune! garmin says I just passed 500 miles and I think I had it tuned at 300?

I resisted wearing them when I first started riding alot, but you can get some mountain bike shorts that have padding that dont look like "bike shorts" but they do make a huge difference

 

[csb]

I do not.

Replacement seat came yesterday from Bikeroo.  Put it on, and it hurt, but I made it around the neighborhood twice without dying.  I think most of the pain was the fact that I was sitting on residual bruising from the other day, so I'm cautiously optimistic.  

I did notice that my back brakes seem good, but the front disc isn't stopping worth a ****.  I can about have the lever pegged and it feels like it's only dragging maybe 50%.  A front disc should be able to put me over the handlebar.  Think I'll take it to the local bike shop and have him do what he can to the front discs.  I may also have him swap tires and front forks, since I want something I can lock out, and the super-knobby tires on it right now are not doing much good around the neighborhood.  Hopefully he'll have something for gravel/asphalt that will work on the MTB wheels.

There should be a small circular adjustment knob for your disc brake. Usually it has notches all the way around. I imagine you've just worn the brake a little (impressive for a front brake) and the adjustment will just move everything in a little so it will actually stop you. Easy peasy. 

Definitely don't be opposed to switching out seats again if you find this one doesn't work. I think a lot of people just settle in on how much biking hurts, but it can be kind of okay if your seat is right. I ride with a noseless saddle that has a cutout and it made all the difference. (Though, keep in mind, my weeklong trips are still done on my old man bike recumbent.)

 

[Supe]

It definitely should not be worn, and has felt "soft" since day 1.  I gave it some time and went through a bedding procedure assuming that they just needed to be properly broken in, but that does not seem to have done it.  I guess I could try adjusting the cable before taking it in, can't do any harm.  

I know a lot of people say don't put any money into a bike this cheap, but I got the bike for $200 off on sale, so I figure if I put that much into a new fork, I'm still ahead of the game?  Even some halfways decent dampening and a lockout is about all I need, the existing Suntour fork is just a pogo stick.  If I can get these couple issues taken care of, I don't see any need to upgrade until the thing falls apart for neighborhood/greenway rides.

 

[Road Guy]

As I am learning it seems that in about 5 years one seems to pay about 50% the cost of the bike (or more) getting it tuned- or that seems to be my projection!

I had a really old trek bike that I kept alive for years getting some $80 tunes every other year but it was worth it, I was really pissed when my kid took it to college and left it out all year and it was a rust bucket when we picked him up when school was done, I had hoped to keep it as sort of a loaner bike / guest bike. 

 

[Supe]

Yeah, the full scale tuneup here is $75 for a complete teardown including drivetrain, truing the wheels, headset, etc. 

Junior is pissed that she doesn't have a bike to ride right now, but she did the same thing with hers - left it outside to rust, so I junked it.  

 

[Road Guy]

A guy I worked with a Atkins took the full "master tech" bike class and he would do tunes for a case of beer - sadly he moved back to Salt Lake City before I could take advantage of this - I think he just liked working on bikes..

Wife took a basic bike maintenance class at REI last summer and she was starting to get into it - but that was just the basic stuff..

We had planned to both buy some good mountain bikes this year, but with the mtns basically closed until June we will probably just rent some really good ones a few times and then hope to catch some end of season deals- 

 

[akwooly]

i got my current mountain bike when i was a junior in college, i have had it for 20 years now, WTF!  shelled out $500 for it, i could barely afford it then but i wanted something good and reliable.  i grew up with cheapo bikes and they would only last a summer. the bike shop i bought it from had free tune ups for two years. after that i would randomly get it tuned up.  the last few years i have just been watching youtube videos and tuning myself.  now i can't get it to shift into the lowest gear or the highest gear so it might be time to take it in, i think i buggered it up enough. 

When we purchased  the girls their bikes from the bike and ski shop they had the option to buy into their bike service program, the best thing about that is the priority service, basically it gets next day appointments.  which is good because i procrastinate and everything seems to break right before a trip.

 

[Road Guy]

we rented some mountain bikes last year, and the shop was like, hey if you like them these will be on clearance for only $5K at the end of summer!

 

[Supe]

I'll barely spend $5k on a CAR anymore, never mind something with two wheels that requires me to be the engine.

 

[Road Guy]

it had this thing where the seat auto adjusts the height when you go up and down hills and jumps- it was really cool -  I think the gears were like the difference in a 83 ford escort and a 66 Camaro 

We really wanted to do that this summer but I think its not going to happen (but I was "only" looking to spend around $1800 per bike) damn wife always wanting to go along!!!!

 

[Supe]

So I've decided on a fork for the bike (Suntour Raidon, on sale for $250 shipped for spring), but Mrs. Supe won't let me buy anything unless I use the bike for at least another week  :BS:

I do think I'll stick with it this time.  The seat is a big butt saver, and it's the best adductor workout I've found so far!  

 

[Dleg]

I made a point to learn how to tune my own bike many years ago, and it's a great skill to have even if that does mean that I'm not all that great at it, and often have to re-tune every ride for a month to get it truly working right. But a few years ago I paid to have someone else do it for me, and it was the same thing. So I went back to doing it myself. But I don't ride anymore because I live in "the city" and I don't want to die.

I have gained back half of the weight I lost during COVID     I was pretty sure it wasn't just dehydration, but maybe it was??? At any rate, I am still less fat than I have been at any time since 2015 (when I was still biking 3x a week!)

 

[Supe]

It's definitely not hard once you've done it.  Other than needing a couple oddball tools, things like headset bearings aren't exactly complicated.  About the only thing I need to learn how to adjust are the deraileurs.  

I did go and eyeball the front brake last night.  The outer pad seems to start pretty far away.  If the rain holds off, I'll likely try and adjust it tonight.  When the store assembled it, they already have the cable stay cranked out quite a ways (closest to the caliper), so it was likely never adjusted properly from the get-go.

 

[Road Guy]

I tried replacing the brake pads on the disc brakes and went loony - hands are too big I guess..

we bought one of those things that holds your bike so you can work on it, and that defin helps.  I tried watching the guy adjust the shifter but I wouldnt mind taking a class to get more than basic maintenance and not have to watch youtube videos- our local bike shop guy went a little crazy the last time I took my bike there so last year I just used REI, they usually do same day service and if its during the week while you wait ( there used to be a bar next door we could hang out at) - GD you corona for putting that out of business..

Did 10 miles on the bike last night- not much but tried to hit it at a hard pace. got the garmin note " this was harder than your usual effort" lol thanks for telling me I am normally sandbagging it..

Main thing I dislike about biking is you really got to spend some time to rack up some calorie burn - if i dont push the pace 10 miles wont even burn 500 calories..

Hopefully well get to have a mountain biking season this summer

 

[csb]

My first time in the gym since March will be going in for Murph on Monday. She's running 30 minute heats- we run first, have to hit all the pull-ups, and then move off the rig to go do push-ups/squats in whatever combo. That gives them time to sanitize the rig and get it ready for the next heat. 

 

[Road Guy]

that may not be too bad, I think I tried to do sets of 10,20, 30 ( ring rows, PU, Air Squats) and the ring rows for me was the easiest, even switching to elevated push ups after around 40 My arms were F'n tired boss...

We are still restricted to 4 in a class, we plan to sign up for monday also since the wife has to F'n work this weekend - but if it gets full we can just do it at home (since we have pull up bar and rings)

I was hoping he would add some more spots for Monday but as of now there are only 2 classes ( so 8 total) -

I need to look it up but I think I was at 51 or 53 min last year?  I was out of shape!

 

[csb]

We've got four time slots so far, with 10 in each, and she's going to keep opening them as needed. 

I'm allowing for two hours. That should be enough, right? My arms are kind of worthless, though less worthless than they previously were before. 

I have TRX straps at home to do rows and I told my gym that if I was taking up space for someone else to let me know and she told me to stay in that spot. 

 

[Road Guy]

Kim walked most of the 2nd mile and was done in just over an hour +15 min- you will be fine - it is a fun / yet challenging event!

I think over 75 % of our gym was on ring rows for the majority of the Pull Ups, 100 pull ups is hard when you dont have to also bang out 200 push ups..

I am going to see how far I can get on push ups without going elevated, goal is 100 but well see - all this home garage workout should at least pay off for push ups I would think?

 

[csb]

Kim walked most of the 2nd mile and was done in just over an hour +15 min- you will be fine - it is a fun / yet challenging event!

I think over 75 % of our gym was on ring rows for the majority of the Pull Ups, 100 pull ups is hard when you dont have to also bang out 200 push ups..

I am going to see how far I can get on push ups without going elevated, goal is 100 but well see - all this home garage workout should at least pay off for push ups I would think?

I was hoping to get hooked up with two of those giant grey bands to slingshot my *** up towards the bar. 

I did some pushups yesterday outside on our sidewalk. I was outside because the workout included dball roll overs and I wasn't going to let 60 pounds test the floor of my house. I nailed those pushups and was feeling really great until I realized that the sidewalk has a slight grade raise and I was actually kind of elevated. Whoops. 

I'm fairly certain that my second mile will be a whole lot of walking, after that many squats. "Lieutenant Dan, you ain't got no legs!"