Bicycles: road versus mountain.

[Wayne]

OK I'm getting treated for plantar fasciitis and an impressive bone spur at the base of my left achilles tendon. Additionally I have to loosen my left hip which is "very strong but stiff".

(quiet)

I am forbidden to run a step for 4 to 6 weeks. So, I picked up a mountain bike, but have found that the thing tends to BOUNCE one heck of a lot when I accelerate uphills (I came close to doing reverse wheelies and landing on my head with the front wheel going over my noggin)...also I am just now, after 3 weeks, getting an idea about this big gear/little gear issue.

Question: since I bought this bike whilst in the throes of bicycle sticker shock ($4000 for a road BICYCLE???? Cripes I wasn't buying a Harley...) did I goof? I have zero, nada, zilch plans to ride offroad. I merely want to keep some conditioning until I get the OK, plus it makes sense to have a bike on hand. One never knows.

Given this, should I bite the bullet and upgrade to a more-expensive and less bouncy road bike?

[marie-angelique]

no.

learn how to spin, and work on your gearing. check that your seat height and tire pressure are correct.

i did my world bike tour on an old clunker i paid $150 for....you can have a ball on an inexpensive bike as long as it fits and you do some basic maintenance.

[Wayne]

Yes'm. Thank you.

[buffybot_in_beirut]

Mountain bikes are useful if you want to race up and down mountain tracks every day and look like Rambo. They are unsuitable for carrying any load. Most come without mudguards and lights, so you get dirty in rain and killed at night. Racing bikes are useful if you want to race on mirror-smooth surfaces, 200 km every day. Hit a piece of gravel on the road or a kerbstone and you have to buy a new wheel. Both types are unnecessary and/or unsuitable for a normal urban or semi-urban environment.

For everyday, multi-purpose use a hybrid, trekking or city bike is best. On the more comfortable bikes you look like your grandmother cycling to the vegetable market, but these bikes are, well, "comfortable," you get a smooth ride, good mileage per energy unit invested, and you can carry a bag (or your vegetable shopping). Though they look uncool they will keep you fit, and probably healthier than racing bikes with their thin, rock-hard saddles, or montain biking with the associated bumps and jumps. You already have a mountain bike? No big disaster. It's just unnecessary in town, like using a 4WD in the city. The rough offroad tyres slow you down a bit, but on the plus side there is no need to fear damage by little obstacles like kerbstones or potholes.

Avoid Chinese-made $ 150 bikes unless you are happy to chuck it after a few weeks. A decent bikes costs a few 100 dollars. No need to pay thousands, but if you can pay one thousand you will be amazed how much difference a performance increase from 85% to 95% perfection makes. It's like moving from a Mercedes to a Rolls. Not vital, but if you can afford it's a good investment.

[Wayne]

Thank you.

[shivers]

You can get smoother tires for city riding if the knobby ones bother you.

[Wayne]

It's not that shivers, it's the bouncing I get from the front suspension when I stand on the pedals to go uphill.

My guess is I SHOULD have gone with a road unit instead of what they euphamised as an
'all terrain'.

People I know who own road bicycles are now emailing me to go on rides, I am loathe to do so as they are all operating bikes that are over $1400. I have some catching up to do.

[marie-angelique]

when i was in college i had a friend who would show up at the early season races on a rattle trap piece of crap and still kick everyone's ass.

you might want to consider tightening up the front suspension.

more likely you just need to adjust the way you ride. i take my full suspenson mountain bike out on all my long road rides anymore, just because it is more fun to ride these days. maybe shift your weight back a little and smoothe out your pedal stroke.

a mountain bike is a bit slower than a roadie bike, but not enough to really make it unfun. so what if they have to wait for you once in a while? go out and have fun!

[Wayne]

Yes'm.

We must listen to those who have traveled....(sound of tabla)...THE SILK ROAD.

I've been reading about spinning, I wasn't aware the RPMs in the lower gears were so critical.

90-110 RPM. Yikes. I was expecting to use my reasonably sturdy legs to go at slower cadence in the higher gears...and I could...at first.

After about ten miles on hills you realize that Lance had a little mojo workin'.

[marie-angelique]

i dunno, i think buffybot said it best:

Mountain bikes are useful if you want to race up and down mountain tracks every day and look like Rambo. They are unsuitable for carrying any load. Most come without mudguards and lights, so you get dirty in rain and killed at night. Racing bikes are useful if you want to race on mirror-smooth surfaces, 200 km every day. Hit a piece of gravel on the road or a kerbstone and you have to buy a new wheel. Both types are unnecessary and/or unsuitable for a normal urban or semi-urban environment.

For everyday, multi-purpose use a hybrid, trekking or city bike is best. On the more comfortable bikes you look like your grandmother cycling to the vegetable market, but these bikes are, well, "comfortable," you get a smooth ride, good mileage per energy unit invested, and you can carry a bag (or your vegetable shopping). Though they look uncool they will keep you fit, and probably healthier than racing bikes with their thin, rock-hard saddles, or montain biking with the associated bumps and jumps. You already have a mountain bike? No big disaster. It's just unnecessary in town, like using a 4WD in the city. The rough offroad tyres slow you down a bit, but on the plus side there is no need to fear damage by little obstacles like kerbstones or potholes.

Avoid Chinese-made $ 150 bikes unless you are happy to chuck it after a few weeks. A decent bikes costs a few 100 dollars. No need to pay thousands, but if you can pay one thousand you will be amazed how much difference a performance increase from 85% to 95% perfection makes. It's like moving from a Mercedes to a Rolls. Not vital, but if you can afford it's a good investment.

[snaark]

Depends, does it have front AND rear suspension? A MTB with dual suspension is pointless as a roadie, unless its an exy one with a 4-bar-linkage type arrangement. Personally I use an MTB as a road bike because I don't want something that will crumple like aluminium foil the first time I hit a curb. And you don't need to pay much money - look second hand or buy last years model at reduced cost.

[Wayne]

Front suspension: Raleigh Mojave 2.0

I was looking at Giant FCR 1's but couldn't bring myself to part with that much cash at the outset. A lot depends on how my PT goes for the foot. I have no clue how far my friends want to ride: I've heard 20 miles, so I'll have to either get this spinning/gearing thing down quick or take my Bush Stimulus Package Check and use it on the road bike.

I know I know, this is what I get for hesitating and not just jumping right in. I could have
compromised and got a hybrid for under $450 but I wasn't confident enough in my riding skills, it's been decades since I've ridden a bicycle regularly after all.

I'll know better by July 29, when my first round of PT ends. I'm also supposed to bring it back
then for post-purchase-two-month-free-tuneup.

Another town has a place which sells FUJI racers for under $600, I may check them out.

[swagnit]

As M-A says Wayne spin.
Think 'circles' and your legs will go in circles.
When climbing loosen your grip on the bars and let your legs do the work, flowing smooth and steady is easier than stopping and starting your mass with each pedal stroke.

If you're not impressed with the front suspension and aren't going off-road you could just swap the forks for a rigid set.
A good set of road tyres and she'll move along fine.

As to what to use where.
Personally I use a mountain bike for touring and off-road. ( M-A may scoff, but I'm a Bob trailer convert for long haul touring)
And for road I use a racing bike (my old steel Colnago is the sweetest thing) and a single speed roadie. A reasonable quality road bike will take a hell of lot of thrashing if you're jumping holes and kerbs rather than crashing into them.
But shit you can ride anything on the road, it's just down to personal loves, likes and dislikes.

Cheers
Swagnit.

[svizzerams]

Hey Wayne: sorry to hear about the skeletal system woes....injuries suck.

I have two bikes - an Access Supergo mountain bike and a Cannondale road bike - both are 20 years old - Now my old mountain bike is not of the high tech specialized ilk of today - but I like it for early in the season on the road when there is still a lot of gravel and crap on the streets.

Hope the PT gets you back on your 'feet' soon....

[marie-angelique]

you can make any bike work for anything. jobst brandt kicks the ass of younguns offroad on a roadie racing bike. i do all my roadie riding on a full suspension mountain bike.
check out the story below:


http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/6411A437-7FFF-4775-B554-3677539A8655.html

Chechnya: Determined 63-Year-Old Bikes To Mecca For Hajj
Chechnya -- Magomed-Ali, Dzhanar-Aliev (big)
(RFE/RL)
January 26, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Every able-bodied Muslim is supposed to make the hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, once in a lifetime.

But few choose as difficult a path as Dzhanar-Aliev Magomed-Ali, who lives in Urus-Martan, 15 kilometers west of Grozny.

"I left on November 8," he told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service . "On December 25, I was at the hajj. I left on January 2, and on January 9 I returned to Urus-Martan. The entire trip covered 11,838 kilometers."

It's an enormous distance, from Chechnya through Daghestan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, nearly all of which was traveled on a rusting purple bicycle.

A Mother's Wish

Magomed-Ali had never performed the hajj, and didn't think he had the means. But then, he says, his late mother spoke to him in a dream:

"Two years ago, my mother willed me to do the hajj on a bicycle. I asked: 'How am I going to go on a bike? I don't have any money. I need the means. How can I get there?' She answered that it was the will of the Almighty that she would be watching over me, invisibly, during the trip. As they say, it was God's will," he says.

"So I did what she asked and I left. My older brother, even though he's a man, was sobbing uncontrollably. He said: 'I've done the hajj three times. I know the way very well. How are you going to make it there?' Then he said he had gotten a gravestone for me, just in case, and that he was expecting to use it. That's how my brother saw me off. No one in the family was very happy about it. But we all forgave each other in the end, and I set out on the road."

Official Barriers

Traveling through Chechnya, where Russia continues to wage its antiseparatist campaign and violence and disappearances have become an everyday occurrence, is already risky enough.

But other difficulties lay ahead, most notably in Iraq, where U.S. soldiers almost put an end to his pilgrimage because he had failed to obtain an Iraqi entry visa.

In fact, Magomed-Ali made the entire journey with virtually no documents. It was a problem he had hoped to avoid.

"I spent three months on the steps of the Chechen government building, asking for a passport," he says. "But both President Alu Alkhanov and [Prime Minister] Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as others, turned their back on me -- as if they were saying: 'There's no need to let him go. He'll just disappoint the government and the people.' I even asked the muftiyat [Islamic affairs board] for help. But I got no response whatsoever, so I left without any documents."

Magomed-Ali describes the journey as "very tough." On his return leg, however, he got some relief from the rigors of the road. He was able to hitch a ride on a bus from Azerbaijan back to Chechnya.

Having fulfilled his mother's wish -- and defied his brother's grim prediction -- the 63-year-old now says he wouldn't allow anyone to make the same trip.

haha, i approve :) i have a Bob trailer and just love it. have you flown with it?