I dont think its worth wasting money on new components just go get faster if your goal is simply exercise. If you wanna get faster, more riding and targeted training is the way to do it. If you dont care about the money and just wanna throw some at the bike to make yourself faster without working for it, spend it on rotational weight first (ie. the wheels). So buy a better wheelset. You can also get lighter tires and tubes and lose any slime or tire liners (tho you are going to flat a lot more, so its a trade off on how crazy you get with giving up on that flat protection). Spending money on things like shifters and derailleurs arent going to really do anything to make you faster, you wont ever notice the grams you shaved off. You will however notice grams you shave on when its rotational weight (physics yo)

Hm, I often have some soreness there but not a big deal. It's recommended you get 30s in a row of relief fairly frequently, usually via standing while riding/coasting, that may help. It's hard to say if you and I experience the same degree of discomfort and it bugs you but I shrug it off or not.

Seat position matters also, you may have it too far forward or back, or tilted at a bad angle.

Regarding the bike - I might steer someone buying a bike to better components but I would rarely advise someone to upgrade parts of their bike if they don't need to. It's expensive and the improvements will probably be marginal.

Also, to be quite frank, a nicer bike makes a big difference if you're strong, not so much of a difference if you're not. The difference between my 2 bikes at 15mph is marginal, at 20 mph it's pretty start (in terms of how much power is required)

I'm always sore early in the season, get numbed up as I do increase mileage/time.

And yeah, wheels are the only thing that will make you faster, but they still won't do as much as dropping 10 pounds of belly.

Agree with all of this, although I know a lot of guys who would say "Hey, if you can afford it, get the bike that makes you happy."

Yeah, sort of. There are psychological factors. Riding a lot is mentally hard and it's better if you can remove any barriers you have. If your bike isn't fun to ride, then you won't want to ride it.

I don't give much of a **** about weight of components, but nicer shifters and derailleurs shift a lot better and it feels funner to ride bikes that shift nicer.

I agree that upgrading wheels is helpful. I have a cheap seat of chinese carbon wheels, they were about $600 shipped to my door and I think they're great. The difference is noticable. I can tell the difference just walking behind my bike and pushing it.

The bike listed above is fine. I rode one similar enough to it for 2 years. I rode it until I was faster than everyone I usually rode with and not quite fast enough for the people I wanted to ride with, then upgraded. I still have my old bike and put in about 1/2 to 2/3 my miles on it. There is no particular reason to put wear on my more expensive bike to do stuff like long base mile rides.

Cool, thanks for the feedback. If I do spend money on the bike, I'm going to be spending it on the fit/saddle first anyway. The butt discomfort is definitely something that keeps me from wanting to ride more often.

Is your name a reference to this Brooks?

http://www.brooksengland.com

Nah, it's my actual given name. They make nice saddles though.

Yeah, i have friends who swear by them.

I like the look of this one

http://www.brooksengland.com/catalog...g/Cambium+C17/

Cool name

I've tried that... Gets expensive!

On a positive note, I bought a 2008 Trek Madone 5.2 on Craigslist which has great components and it is a blast to ride. I picked it up for $1000 with pedals and shoes, the guy was my exact size. I'm much happier with this bike that's a few years old with a carbon frame and nice components than I would have been with a new bike in that price range.

I have the same issues with my butt hurting. I know if I ride more it gets better, but when I'm not riding much it can hurt for days! I haven't tried new saddles yet because they can get ridiculously expensive! I'm thinking of trying a cheaper saddle off eBay or Nashbar but I'd hate to waste my money. Anyone have advice for good inexpensive saddles? I could use one for my mountain bike more than the road bike.

Changing a flat is pretty easy. But for some reason, I still don't carry a kit with me even though I've had a couple of flats. Luckily, both flats were on my way home and pretty close (within 3 miles). But still annoying. I've gotten the puncture resistant tubes that seem to last a lot longer. Seemed like I was getting a flat every couple weeks with the old tubes, but I haven't gotten a single one since I switched sometime in January.

Anyone ride tubulars instead of clinchers? Seems like those would be really annoying to change on the side of the road. The pros can use them because they have a team car ready with a spare wheel. But mere mortals have to change it themselves.

I ride tubulars. The key thing is proper prep. I mount them with sealant and have only had one flat (knock on wood) in two years. I carry a patch kit but only carry a spare (used tire, pre-stretched with residual glue) for longer rides. In an emergency it's supposedly possible to ride on a completely flatted tub for several miles, though thankfully I haven't had to test this. All of this seems like a huge hassle, but once you've ridden tubulars going back to clinchers feels like riding on old garden hose.

On a separate note, I've been lusting after a lugged carbon bike for quite a while and just pulled the trigger on a good condition Look 585 frameset via Ebay. Feeling like a kid waiting for Christmas, though now I have to sell a bunch of my old stuff to minimize the spousal disapproval factor.

Dropped my water bottle today, hIt the brakes and my bikes skidded out from under me. Really a minor wreck, I thought. Picked up the water bottle and get back to my bike. It's completely unrideable. Front derailler is completely bent, as is the rear rim. And I have absolutely no money to fix it. ****ing sucks!

Is the rim actually bent, or did maybe just a couple spokes break and its possibly fixable?

That sucks but I hope you learned a little lesson here - don't panic. If you drop something, it'll be ok. Slow down, get off the bike and go back for it. I've seen multi-bike pileups happen from someone slamming on their brakes unexpectedly.

Bent rim probably means a totaled wheel but possibly the derailleur can be fixed. If not you may have some luck with places that have a lot of salvaged stuff. Like here in Austin there's a place called the Yellow Bike project. It's a place where people volunteer to build bikes for kids. They also sell used bike parts though and you can usually find OK replacement parts cheap. Good luck.



In other news, my race went fine. I was able to keep up with the pack and no one crashed. My finish was pretty bad because I literally have no idea what to do or when, and if I did I probably would not have the fitness to pull it off. Pretty much everyone went balls out the whole last lap. If I had to guess I'd say I came in 50 out of 75, they don't post times for anything under 20th. Because of LOL bike racing, though, I probably finished within 5 or 10 seconds of the winner.

Rims actually bent. When the bike went down, I sort of jumped off so I avoided going down with the bike. I ended up landing on the rim. Didn't help that I kicked it when I saw that it was bent.

Ironic thing is that, I was so pissed when I saw the bike was broken that I threw the water bottle that I had dropped and that broke too.

does anyone know some good youtube channels related to cycling? Preferably related to the hardware, but other stuff might work as well.

CyclingHub for road racing
Cosmo Catalano for road racing
ucichannel for all kinds of racing

Global Cycling Network for racing and for general cycling tips
Bike Radar for general cycling

Just in from a 60 mile ride. Only stopped for 5 minutes to relieve myself and eat a Cliff bar, and still had some gas left in the tank when I got home.

Both are things you can do without stopping! Step up your game, son.

Peeing while riding is super gross.

Just do it off the side, onto someone else. They'll probably like it.

Unless I'm riding in a race I'm not pissing on myself. Eating while riding, sure

I used to be a race official, and one time i got to look at about a 100 dongs when the peleton all pulled over to take a piss and our vehicle was positioned as such that there was really nowhere else to look. So I just kinda stared at the dashboard, but the guy who was driving went full on death gaze at the display. Figure he was gay, musta been pretty sweet, would be like if a hundred hot chicks all stood there with their tits out for a minute, sure woulda made my day.

Weather is finally warming up in Wisconsin! I've gotten in a few nice rides now, longest one was 41 miles and I was about dying by the time I got home. Tonight I did 28 miles and felt a little better. Hoping to get back into decent biking shape by the end of May, but I'm spending 3 weeks on vacation in May, so that may be a leak! I'm contemplating bringing my bike on vacation (Ft Lauderdale area), but not sure if I'd get out on it or not...

First, I apologize for the constant barrage of questions.

Second, I can't bring myself to order a bike online where I have to guesstimate the size and go through a tedious PITA return process if wrong. Without many used options around me, I'm saying f it and just going new.

Based on the brands carried by the two best LBS's, I'm seemingly choosing between the Giant Defy 3 and the Specialized Allez Sport. They have some components in common - Sora derailleurs/shifters, KMC X9 chains - and some a bit different - SRAM cassette/Sora crankset for the Defy and Shimano HG-50 cassette/FSA Tempo crankset for the Allez. Obviously I'm going to test ride both, but is one clearly superior to the other or are they similar enough that I should go with whichever one I'm most comfortable?

Also, I think I'm going to order these SPD/flat combo Shimano pedals that Rusty mentioned earlier.

As far as shoes go, is basing the size on the conversion chart usually sufficient or do cycling shoes have any kind of strange "fit" making it vital to try them on? I'm mainly looking at Pearl and Shimano, both of which are significantly cheaper online so I'd rather get them there (along w/ the pedals).

Thanks!