Holy.

I'm doing 10 to 20KMs in the city of Vancouver itself with a combination of hills and the like and after an hour, I'm trying to keep up.

Mind you, I'm 5'8 and 220lbs with a large frame. I'm no lightweight for sure. :(

~30:
1. A loop around the Fraser River between the Cambie Street Skytrain bridge and Queensborough using Kent Ave in Van and River Road in Richmond. It's pretty flat other than some spots on Marine and Southpoint Dr in Burnaby. ~32km

2. A loop up the Ontario hill, east along the Ridgway bike route, pick a hill to go south back to the river, and close the loop along the Kent bike route. The only big hill is Ontario Street. <30km

~40:
3. Out-and-back to UBC along Kent/Heather/57th/Marine. >40km

4. Out-and-back to Iona Beach <40km. I'll often throw in the end of my Queensborough loop to get 50+km with some small hills.

I'm doing something wrong.

I keep picking routes with a fuck tonne of steep ass hills. :p

work them legs :ilied:

Anyone planning to go to the mec bikefest on fri-sun?

I'll be at MEC BikeFest, and maybe at Ride For Charity..

Who made it through Bike To Work Week? I got tons of freebies from the commuter stations!

bcrdukes: 100km rides minimum from here on out! Join the cult..hehehe..and learn to love the hills. :)

^
Sorry cult leader. I'm not joining you guys! :rofl:

Haha, sucks to lose your head when you're in a moment like that. I hit 58km/h on my MTB once and was more concerned about not being able to see with all the tears streaming out of my eyes. I have a friend who's a pro triathlete, and she was heavily affected in the head when she had a bad speed wobble induced crashed...I've never encountered anything like that but that just sounds hugely scary to me.

That's pretty scary. How fast was she going?

:troll:

Once I did a ride out to UBC and back without eating a single thing.. probably not the smartest idea.

These days, at minimum I'll bring two water bottles 4-5 Cliff Bars, use a hammer gel or two. On the recent spout of hot weather I stopped in a Chevron and got a 2 of those gatorade things for 3$. They fit in bike bottle racks too!

The last ride I did over 100km I felt like I could've kept going... ran out of time in a day. My next big ride will be out to Squamish and back (200km roundtrip). (Anyone want to join me? lol) Will do a trip report including what to eat.

The night before rides I'll eat a huge dinner.

I think for distance, the best thing to do is make one the most efficient possible on a bike. Ride with road cleats and everything properly adjusted. I think the culmination of the small things make all the difference. After all, you are the engine and the bike is just the vehicle. Keeping tires topped up to perfect PSI has a lot to do with it as is dealing with wind resistance. Riding with a tailwind is really helpful. I think also speed is a great factor. Just like how someone could walk all day, compared to running all day, you have to find a happy medium of gearing and cadence. A lot of people are using too low of a gear for max efficiency.

HAve you done the ride out to squamish? is it intmidating?

No, haven't tried, but there's a first time for everything. It should be okay since there is a designated bike lanes. Gotta prep the mind and body to hammer the hills..

:okay:

Thanks for the info. I ended up ordering my parts from CRC in the UK. Got Raceface Cadence 53/39 crankset/bb, SRAM 1050 11-28 cassette, 10 spd chain, 105 rr der, R501 wheelset, and 3 Vittoria tires for ~$330 with free shipping. Not sure what I'm doing with brakes, but I'll probably look for a good used set of 105 or Ultegra in the classifieds or Ebay. Goal is to keep the complete build under $750. That way if road riding doesn't work out for me I should be able to sell the bike at a minimal loss. With any luck the bike will come out around 20-21lbs. If I love the sport, then I'll invest in a nicer set of wheels at a later time to ditch some rotating weight.

I'm looking to get myself a XC bike to and from work. What are some stores I should check out for 2010/2011 inventory?

UFO - Could you let me know how your experience with CRC was? I've been hesitant to order with them simply because they are in the UK. I'm assuming the parts are being shipped straight to your home, correct?

I won't lie. I've been lazy these days. I don't enjoy going to Blaine/Point Roberts to pick stuff up anymore. I'd much rather pay the $15 extra for shipping to my house and deal with taxes/duties.

eddy89 - Any particular reason why an XC bike? I ask because I was thinking of one (way before I bought a bike) but my co-worker brought up a good point. Why pay road bike prices for something between a hybrid/mountain bike and a road bike? You could easily get a dedicated hybrid or mountain bike and a road bike used on Craigslist for the same amount of money.

For sure. CRC gets tons of glowing reviews from the MTB side for their quick service and shipping considering they are halfway around the world, and ridiculous pricing too sometimes cheaper than local shops' wholesale pricing. They ship free to Canada above ~$150cdn I think, and feedback has been that usually packages come tax free. A couple of the things I ordered are on back order til mid-June so my order will not ship until everything is together, which I knew about before hand so its all good.

I have an XC hardtail bike which is a pretty boutique make. I like the bike, but find its uses fairly limited around here. Its on 26" slicks now, with a 36-48 chainring upfront, and works pretty well for commuting and easy trails. It has no provisions for disc brakes, old school geometry with limited front suspension, so it doesn't see much offroad use especially around here locally.

Hard to compare value of a new bike bought in store vs. a used bike. I have had many bikes over the years but only my first MTB in 1996 was bought in store. Since then everything has been a combination of buying used and/or frame up builds. But the sourcing/speccing/building is a big hobby of mine, the riding part is merely a means to satisfy that hobby.

btw, anyone deciding to do the upcoming fondos? (whistler and grand valley) I was just thinking if can we get enough of a group, maybe some revscene suits ?? :fullofwin:

^
The jerseys would be pretty cool, actually.

But I'm out on the idea of any fondos. :fuckthatshit:

we should probably start with simple group rides before a full fledged fondo :fullofwin:

I'm not going to have any training time for the Whistler fondo :/ . I'm leaving for work in a couple of weeks, won't be back until late August/early September. I'm kinda choked cuz my dad is planning on riding the Whistler Fondo.

But yeah jerseys!

EDIT: I just realized how strange an RS jersey would be. 90% of revscene hates cyclists haha. An RSer in a car seeing an RSer on a bike repping RS... minds will be fucked.

that's very true. i'm afraid to voice my support of (respectful) cycling outside of this thread :okay:


edit: if i had space in my garage i'd totally pick up a cheap(er) cross bike for rain/trail/commuting. i love the idea of using a cross bike for commuting. road geometry with hybrid cushy tires.

Contact me when you're looking for brakes, I have a brand new set of Ultegras sitting around..I may or may not use them for a build. I also have a Race Face Cadence/Colnago anatomic drop bars if you're interested (40 or 42cm wide, can't remember).

You best be riding with at least one other person (to draft, to beat boredom, for safety's sake, etc).

Thats why it would be perfect lol.

godaammit rode to work this morning after seeing the sun and blue sky. came in and now it's monsooning. no fenders on my road bike either frick