Securing Your Bike

Securing your bike is essential if you are leaving it anywhere while conducting business. The amazing thing is that people will spend hundreds on a good bike then a small amount on a poor locking device. You can see this everywhere and I have to hold my hands up and admit that I’ve been guilty of this myself.

I paid  over £700.00 for a new road bike last year then one day while I was locking it up outside of work It occurred to me that I was using a lock that I paid a tenner for. Any thief with a half decent set of blunt bolt cutters could have easily had it away.

This got me thinking about bike security and I intend to do some reviews of locks. The west Yorkshire police recommend spending 20% of the cost of the bike on securing it. Read about their secret weapon to catch bike thieves Here.

Hill Climbing

There’s no point trying to avoid them, hills are something we cylists have to contend with. Here’s some great hill climbing advice I’ve managed to pull from my frequent web trawls. You may find it interesting.

The brutal simplicity of climbing is one of its most appealing aspects. It’s you and your bike versus the hill. You push the pedals, you breathe hard and you make your ascent.

On the inside it’s a different story. Your body is stretched to extremes, dozens of physiological processes pushed further than at any other time as your bike strains underneath you. Whether you hate hills or crave cols, understanding what your body and bike endure can only make you a better climber.

Body language

As the road heads up, a whole chain of physiological responses will follow as your body works harder to counter the forces of gravity. Your muscles have to burn more energy using oxygen from your blood, your heart rate and breathing rate have to increase to deliver the extra oxygen needed, and you’ll get hot, sweaty and flushed as your body temperature increases and blood is diverted closer to the skin to radiate away heat.

Push really hard and the work in your muscles will produce more of the by-product lactic acid than your body can process. Your body can’t keep up with the workload anymore, and you’ll soon be crashing into your anaerobic threshold. The speed at which you can climb before these processes reach their limit is down to how fit you are, and your power-to-weight ratio.

Weight for it

“Power-to-weight ratio is the first and probably the most important determinant of being a good climber,” says Dr Garry Palmer of Sportstest. Heavier, less fit riders have to do much more work and meet physiological limits much sooner. You need more power and less weight, and that’s for the bike and rider combined.

“In terms of body composition, lean is the goal,” says Dr Palmer, “you don’t want to drop muscle mass unless you’re bulky up top.” In terms of healthy weight loss targets, you shouldn’t aim to lose more than a pound a week. As long as you achieve weight loss via a combination of healthy, low-fat food choices and the right kind of training, this is the best way to extend your ability before hitting your thresholds.

Know your limits

Your anaerobic threshold is the point at which the exhaled volume of carbon dioxide (VCO2) is greater than the inhaled volume of oxygen (VO2). The maximum amount of oxygen the body can consume during exercise is your VO2 max. They both happen at a similar intensity, but they’re not the same thing. A high threshold and VO2 max make up the second of Palmer’s three factors for climbing: “They dictate your sustainable climbing ability, the rate you can hold up a long climb and, theoretically at least, until you run out of energy reserves,” he says.

“Thresholds vary massively between individuals,” says Dr Palmer,“ but testing reveals your true metabolic threshold. A lab test uses continuous gas composition analysis to monitor the balance of carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) in exhaled breath. Once analysed, lab test results will tell you how to train better, by helping you set training intensity zones. This way you can target the duration and intensity of riding in training in order to achieve your goals, and it will give you valuable pacing information,” he explains.

Don’t pull, pedal

Turning the pedals round from in the saddle uses the same muscles whether you’re plummeting towards the Earth’s core or climbing into the stratosphere. When climbing, it can be particularly tempting to try to pull on the return stroke, but this is a mistake according to cycling coach Dr Auriel Forrester of Scientific Coaching: “Pulling up on the pedals decreases power output as it interferes with the all-important downstroke on the other side – specifically, you can’t pull up against gravity at the same rate or same force as you can push down with gravity!”

As you push down on the pedal – the power stroke – you engage your glutes, quads and calves. The upward – or return stroke – switches the stress to the hamstrings, ankle dorsiflexor and the hip flexors. Since your quads are a lot stronger than your hamstrings, try to concentrate on not doing anything that could detract from the downward power stroke.

Spin and win

The big ring is not for climbing. It’s one thing to grunt and strain your way to the top of a short local climb in a massive gear for a challenge against a riding mate, but spinning is far more effective. Dr Forrester explains: “It depends on the rider and the terrain, but a pedalling cadence of around 72-82rpm is optimum – lower on steeper or longer climbs, higher on shorter climbs. You need to choose gearing that allows you to maintain this cadence.”

Selecting the smaller ring sooner saves you making the change on a steep section when you risk dropping the chain. It also enables you to use the more closely packed sprockets, letting you fine-tune your ratio to suit the gradient and maintain a good cadence.

Experiment with lower gears and a higher cadence on a familiar climb to feel the benefit, then apply that technique everywhere. Using a heart- rate monitor with a cadence sensor – or in conjunction with a manual count of your pedal strokes from one foot in a minute – will help you be more precise. A power meter is the ultimate tool for this job, since it can show your cadence and output together for any point of your ride, and you will quickly discover the speed at which your engine performs best on any particular climb.

Pace yourself

“Too many riders go off too hard at the bottom of a climb because they feel fresh and their heart rate is low,” says Dr Forrester. ”Then they dip too far into their metabolic red zone, start to produce lactic acid faster than the muscles can clear it, and then they fatigue and fade before the top of the climb. Furthermore, climbing in the red uses energy nearly 10 times faster than climbing aerobically, which has clear implications on a longer route.”

Discipline yourself when you feel strong. Save some power for later in the ride and blow away your mates on the last climb of the day. A heart rate monitor with an alarm is a good watchdog.

“An ascent of 20-45mins should be climbed at around a rider’s threshold,” says Dr Forrester, “or the level of effort at which conversation becomes difficult.”

Cycling Superfoods

Black or Green Tea

I might give this a try. I’m always sceptical about so called “super foods” but my mind is always open. At 52 I’ve lived through all the eggs are bad for you, or no now there good for you routine so I’m a a bit of everything in moderation man.

Sports scientists at Rutgers University found that a nine-day supplement of black-tea extract decreased delayed-onset muscle soreness after cycling intervals. “The black-tea extract reduces the oxidative stress of the exercises and speeds recovery between intervals,” says assistant professor Shawn Arent, PhD. Try it yourself: “Add four bags of decaffeinated tea to 32 ounces of cold water and steep in the refrigerator overnight,” suggests Barbara Lewin, RD, a sports nutritionist who owns Sports-Nutritionist.com. Drink tea in place of water before, during and after rides.

Cycling Nutrition Tip: Lead with Carbs

The days of restricting carbs then bingeing on pasta are over, but carbs still rule the week prior to a big cycling event. Glycogen—what a carbohydrate turns into in the body—fuels your engine. “In our carb-phobic society, I don’t like to tell people to carbo-load,” says sports dietitian Molly Kimball, R.D. “Instead, I say to let carbs take center stage.” Consume three to five grams of carbs per day for each pound of your body weight (about 600 grams for a 150-pound cyclist), suggests Kimball. “It’s not just pasta and rice. Fruit yogurt, apples, even chocolate milk are great sources.”

Best Place To Buy A Bike From.

Here’s my opinion on the best place to buy a new bike from. Read It Here.

Boardman Bike Review

I was considering buying one of these bikes last year before I opted for the Allez Specialized. What changed my mind was some mixed feedback on the forums about them. Here’s a review from bike radar about the bike.

Boardman bikes have made such an impact on the market and won so many magazine tests that it’s hard to believe that they’ve only been around since 2008. The Comp doesn’t ride like an entry-level bike – in fact, we’d say it performs like a bike £200-300 more expensive than it actually is – and can’t fail to impress with its quick response and superb spec.

Ride & handling: Speedy and exciting; climbs well and accelerates fast

The Boardman Comp is a lively, exciting setup, and that’s partly down to the weight. Hitting the scales at a very reasonable 19.4lb (8.8kg, without pedals), it doesn’t need much persuasion to buckle down to some serious acceleration. Okay, no £700 bike can compete with a true lightweight for speed, but when it’s time to step on the gas to impress your ride-mates, the Boardman is fast to respond.

Ritchey’s anatomic handlebars provide comfortable handholds on the drops when you want to get your body low for cruising at high speed, and a good amount of backward sweep allows you  to alter your grip without feeling that you’re going to slip off the ends.

Boardman’s own saddle has enough flex in the hull to keep the ride smooth, while the carbon fork blades work hard to damp out most road vibration up front. Some might prefer the more back-friendly position provided by a higher front end, but we found it perfectly comfortable.

If you really struggle on the hills you might bemoan the Boardman’s lack of ultra-low gears, but the overall bike weight makes that unlikely – and if it’s really a problem, you could fit a smaller chainring easily enough anyway. With impressive stiffness in both the frame and wheels, the bike transfers power efficiently, even when you get out of the saddle, helping to make this a good climber.

Downhill the Comp proves itself to be a calm and composed descender that’s unfazed by tight turns or rapid changes of direction. The Continental tyres provide good grip whether it’s wet or dry and you can rely on the Tektro dual pivot brakes to pull it out of the bag when you need them.

The Boardman may not have sensible additions like mounts for fitting mudguards or a rack, but it’s a whole lot of fun – and, to us, that’s what it’s all about.

Chassis: Light and stiff frame makes for a punchy performance for the price

The Comp is built around a double-butted aluminium alloy frame with smooth welds all round and a neat gloss black finish. Although not especially large in today’s world of oversized carbon, the down tube – which starts out as teardrop profile at the head tube junction, before gradually shifting its axis – reaches a good way across the bottom bracket to hold it firmly in place.

The top tube is a diamond profile, while out back there’s just a hint of an arc in the seatstays before they head out to join the dead-straight chainstays at the rear dropouts. The hourglass head tube is fairly short – 170mm on our large frame. Even with 30mm of headset spacers fitted, that makes for quite a low and aggressive ride position that’s ideal for racing. If you want a more relaxed setup for training you can always flip the stem for a bit more height.

The carbon-legged fork matches the frame perfectly, and although it has an alloy steerer hidden away inside the frame –  as they all do at this price point – it’s reasonably light without sacrificing much stiffness.

Equipment: Solid components throughout without any glaring weaknesses

Pretty much every road bike out there at around this price is powered by Shimano, so it’s just a question of which of the ranges from the Japanese giant you get. Boardman spec a front mech and levers from the mid-level Tiagra groupset with a 105 upgrade at the rear mech – great value on a bike of this price.

Tiagra is solid stuff, the levers providing a broad, comfortable platform when you’re riding on the hoods and effortless fingertip shifting up and down the nine-speed cassette. Little gear indicators on the top are handy for riders with less experience, and you can get shims to adjust the levers inward if you struggle with reach.

The Truvativ Elita chainset is a compact, giving you a lower range of gears than a traditional design, although the inner chainring is 36-tooth rather than the more usual 34T. Still, with a 12-25T cassette at the rear, you should get up the climbs comfortably.

The Ritchey DS Pro wheels use decent sealed-bearing hubs and medium-depth rims, and they stayed true throughout testing, while Conti’s Ultra Sport tyres provided good grip in both wet and dry conditions.

Well that’s it for now. Happy and safe riding.

Paul

If you would like to guest post on my blog please don’t hesitate to contact me, I’m always looking for new content and different perspectives, and also someone else to do the work.:)