Over the past couple of weeks, I have heard a couple of stories of roadies and drivers going at it because of actions taken on the road. While this is a super sensitive subject amongst cyclists, each of the stories involved a road cyclist that was in the wrong and they took it among themselves to attack the driver with words and flying water bottles. The Roadie Attitude In my mind, there are two different kinds of road bikers. The [...]
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The Key To Getting Faster: There is no replacement for consistent miles
Our bodies are well oiled machines that rely on muscle memory to get the job done. Some of those actions are automated and others are conditioned over time to perform a certain task. With road biking, it is no different. If you are wanting to get faster on the bike, there is still no replacement for consistent miles over time to increase your speed and the distance you are able to ride in a day. Your Body: What Happens With Consistent [...]
Road Riding Tip: How To Pull The Paceline
If you have been on a road bike for more than 5 seconds, you already know that you can ride faster with less energy exerted in a paceline. By sharing the wind resistance among multiple riders, the pack can move forward, faster as a whole than one at a time. In an organized pace line, riders take turns pulling the group over the course of the ride to insure proper pacing and energy release. However, there are certain things that [...]
Have a Coke and a Smile – Extra Road Riding Energy For The Last Climb
Are you looking for a cheap way to get some extra energy for those last climbs on your road ride? Next time you have a store stop, have a Coke and a smile. Over our last road ride last weekend, a friend of mine reminded me of a riding tip that actually produces real results and it all centers around having a Coke and a smile. I actually first learned about this trick from some marathon runner friends of mine. [...]
Charity Bike Ride: Road Bike Rides For A Cause
A charity bike ride, like the 24 Hours of Booty for the Livestrong Foundation, is a great road bike ride where you can put in long miles without the worry of getting lost or left out in the cold. With multiple mileage options and a wide variety of road bikers, charity bike rides give road bikers a way to get involved and enjoy the sport of cycling. Every city in just about every country in the world has their own form [...]
Anti Cycling Groups On Facebook
Over the past year, I have noticed an increasing trend on Facebook and other social media…lashing out at cyclists on the road. Now that everyone has a voice through fan pages on everything from sleep to your favorite website, there have been some antagonistic fan pages towards cyclists and road bikers setup on Facebook. These fan pages advocate and encourage hateful dialogue towards those of us that like to share the blacktop with cars and other motor vehicles. In some [...]
Losing Weight Where It Matters
Road biking is all about efficiency. The more power you get to the ground and the less weight you have to move to generate speed…the easier riding is and the faster you will be. The entire industry in road biking is centered around weight and how you can become a faster rider through decking out your road bike with the latest and greatest in lightweight components. While that shinny new Dura-Ace or Campy rear derailleur might look really cool on [...]
The Anatomy of the Efficient Pedal Stroke
There is one common goal among all aspects of cycling that will make you a better rider almost instantly…cleaning up your pedal stroke will apply more power to the wheels no matter what discipline of riding you call your own. The fact is that every rider should focus on how they can more efficiently transfer the power from their legs to the cranks –> chain –> rear wheel –> tire –> ground. What does a more efficient pedal stroke do [...]
Pace Lining Tips for Road Bikers
Drafting is a key part of road bike riding. For many road bikers, pulling in that rear wheel of the rider in front of you can be a nerve racking task that gets the heart racing as you blow down the street at 25+ miles an hour. In the beginning, it almost seems unnatural to get that close to another rider’s bike. Even the most experienced road bikers sometimes fall victim to multi-bike pileups due to a pace line gone [...]
9 Must Bring Items for Every Road Ride
Just like any other cycling related journey, road biking has a list of must bring items for every ride. Road biking creates a unique situation that does not apply to mountain or commuter biking. With road biking, your storage space is extremely limited, so the size and weight of the items that you bring with you on your ride has a much larger impact than they would with other disciplines of cycling. On a typical road bike, you are confined [...]
Other News
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Road Bike GoPro HD Footage: Regular Thursday Night Ride
For awhile now, I have been using the GoPro HD to record footage for the mountain biking section of Bike198. After some positioning testing, I decided to test out the helmet cam on the road bike in preparation for some product reviews and long downhill runs in the mountains to see how it would do. For this test, I mounted it to the stem and recorded some of our regular Thursday night road ride. As you can tell by the [...]
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Review: Bicycle Dreams – It’s The Race For Life
The crew over at Bicycle Dreams sent over a copy of their video for review on Bike198.com. The film goes on a journey with several of the solo racers as they attempt to conquer The Race Across America (RAAM). Before we get into the film, let’s take a look at what it is about and RAAM itself. From BicycleDreamsMovie.com: They are seekers, madmen, and angels hell-bent on riding across America on a bicycle in less than ten days. But what [...]
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The Roadie Attitude: Killing The Cause
Over the past couple of weeks, I have heard a couple of stories of roadies and drivers going at it because of actions taken on the road. While this is a super sensitive subject amongst cyclists, each of the stories involved a road cyclist that was in the wrong and they took it among themselves to attack the driver with words and flying water bottles. The Roadie Attitude In my mind, there are two different kinds of road bikers. The [...]
Read more → -
SRAM Red and Shimano Dura-Ace: Are they really worth it?
SRAM Red and Shimano Dura-Ace…the top of the pack of road bike components that roadies all over the world lust after on a regular basis. With SRAM entering the market and having huge success at this years Tour, Campagnolo and Shimano now have some serious competition out of the once mountain only component group company. When you think of ultra-light, high performance components for road bikes, names like Red, Super Record and Dura-Ace are the go to groupos to shave [...]
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The Key To Getting Faster: There is no replacement for consistent miles
Our bodies are well oiled machines that rely on muscle memory to get the job done. Some of those actions are automated and others are conditioned over time to perform a certain task. With road biking, it is no different. If you are wanting to get faster on the bike, there is still no replacement for consistent miles over time to increase your speed and the distance you are able to ride in a day. Your Body: What Happens With Consistent [...]
Read more → -
Road Riding Tip: How To Pull The Paceline
If you have been on a road bike for more than 5 seconds, you already know that you can ride faster with less energy exerted in a paceline. By sharing the wind resistance among multiple riders, the pack can move forward, faster as a whole than one at a time. In an organized pace line, riders take turns pulling the group over the course of the ride to insure proper pacing and energy release. However, there are certain things that [...]
Read more → -
First Look: FSA K-Wing Compact Carbon Drop Road Bars
Road bike drop bars have changed a lot in design over recent years. With more road bikers spending the majority of the ride time with their hands on the hoods, component manufacturers have started to design the hoods and bars to accomodate a flatter top section for increased comfort. The FSA K-Wing compact carbon drop bars feature this shift in design to the extreme with solid flat profiles in the hoods and in the flats for climbing. FSA K-Wing Compact [...]
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Have a Coke and a Smile – Extra Road Riding Energy For The Last Climb
Are you looking for a cheap way to get some extra energy for those last climbs on your road ride? Next time you have a store stop, have a Coke and a smile. Over our last road ride last weekend, a friend of mine reminded me of a riding tip that actually produces real results and it all centers around having a Coke and a smile. I actually first learned about this trick from some marathon runner friends of mine. [...]
Read more →
