Who rides what?

What sort of bikes do LBUG members ride?

All sorts - new, old, road bikes (ranging from racers like the Cannondale to utilitarian commuters like the Mongoose Crossway), tourers, hybrids (modified MTB style with flat handlebars, the most popular bike with most LBUG riders), Mountain Bikes with street tyres, folding bikes (Dahon) and small wheel bikes (Birdy, Bike Friday, Giant), tandems, made from steel or aluminium, in fact members have just about everything except recumbents at present. For Sunday rides around the City and day to day commuting most bikes are suitable, except perhaps a department store special with a heavy frame and great chunky tyres. The main thing is to have a bike in good working order (esp. brakes, tyres, chain) with a comfortable seat (another whole book could be written on that!) set to the right height and with the reach and handlebars set up for your optimum position and riding style (see section below on Bike Fit and various links). An old bike is OK but will need to be well maintained. Get a bike shop to check it over and fix/replace anything worn out. For commuting you might like to add mudguards, and of course a good set of front and rear lights is essential.

For longer rides or multi-day tours you will need a bike that can take racks and panniers and with a good range of gears. Most hybrid bikes and of course touring bikes can be set up for touring. Foldable Bike Fridays offer an interesting alternative.Many mtbs are suitable, with narrower road tyres fitted instead of off road nobby tyres and, conversely, road bikes with wider say 28mm tyres can be used for light touring.

Suspension is all the go lately but around the City it is often just extra weight and gets in the way of racks and panniers. Suspension may be useful on dirt road tours and the odd off road excursion but not essential for most LBUG rides.

Makes of bikes LBUG members have include Trek, Giant, Dahon, Cannondale, Mongoose, Marin, Avanti, [-this section incomplete, I hope to get some pictures of these bikes plus owners on this page - if you have a good pic of your bike send it to me.]

Have a look at the web sites of these Bike shops or go in to the shop to see what is available and/or in fashion : woolyswheels new bikes, renegade cycles; Clarence St. Cyclery. Other smaller more personal bike shops around that LBUG uses are Cheeky Monkey in Newtown, King St Cyclery in Newtown, Ashfield Cycles in Ashfield main street, Citilink Cycles in Ramsay Rd, Fivedock and Stanmore Cycles in Parramatta Rd. Cell Bikes is a new shop, also in Stanmore. Then there is Inner City Cycles in Glebe Point Road and a small shop on corner of Broughton and Crane Sts in Concord that has good prices on basics.

Reviews of bikes can be found in Australian Cyclist magazine.

Gearing

What sort of gears do I need? Strong or younger cyclists on road bikes will get away with two chainrings (the ones at the front), but for best results for the rest of us a triple chainring is a good idea. The small chainring is affectionately called "granny" and will get you up the steepest hills, and is also good when you are very tired at the end of a hard day on almost any hill. Dont be afraid to use "granny". The big chain ring is for blasting down hills at top speed or when you have a good tail wind. A triple on a tourer might have 52/42/30 teeth, or on many mtb/hybrids a lower range such as 42/28/24 can be found.

The back cogs (now typically 8 or 9 of them, and even 10) on a road bike might range from 11 to 25, or on a tourer/mtb from 13 to as high as 32 or even 34 ("mega-range").

The bigger the largest ring on the back the lower the gear ratio you can get into. With say a smallest(if you have it) 24 tooth cog selected on the front and the big 32 on the back you have a ratio of 34/24 or 1.4. This means you pedal 1.4 times around to make the wheels turn once - this is lowwww!

At the other end of the scale, if you select the big ring of say 52 at the front and the smallest rear cog of 11, you get almost 5 wheel revolutions for each turn of the cranks - this is fffffast! You usually only use this one down hill - try it uphill or even on the flat from a standing start and you will find it very hard to go anywhere. Hence the need to get into the right gear before you start up a hill, or before you come to a stop at lights or a give way!

Tyres

For hybrids and touring bikes, there are a lot of good touring tyres now available, such as Vittoria Randonneur, Schwalbe Marathon, Continental (Top Tourer 2000), Avocet, Panaracer and Michelin (Altika or World Tour), with or without kevlar. These are strong tyres that wear well and dont get many punctures, with a medium or minimal tread (the tread is mainly cosmetic, a smooth tyre will perform just as well if not better). Sizes range from 28 mm (fairly skinny) to 32-35 mm (medium) and 38 mm or more (fairly fat tyres). Some prefer even fatter tyres, 40 to 50 mm, with a smooth tread. Pumped up hard they roll well and they give a softer ride than skinnier tyres. Chunky or big knobbly MTB tyres for off road use are not particularly good for touring as they are noisy and heavy and don't roll that well on the bitumen. For commuting and most Sunday rides some of the cheaper tyres like the common Hang Chen or other similar brands are reasonable quality and good value.

Bike Fit

Danny Hannan has an intro to bike fit on the CAMWEST web page. Some basic rules: select a bike with adequate standover (crutch clearance when standing with bike between legs) height. Once your ideal saddle height and seat position forward or rear relative to the bottom bracket is determined the distance to the handlebars and their height can be optimised. Danny believes modern bikes generally have too steep down tube angles. Touring cyclists are more likely to want to sit further back than road racers. Small changes to position and saddle height etc can make big differences. Soft saddles arent necesssarily better than hard ones. Its your ischial tuberosities (sit bones) and their spacing that matter. - More on Sheldon Brown's website.

Pedals and pedalling

There is a wide range of pedals and they are easily upgraded or changed to suit your riding style. You need cycling shoes with cleats attached if using clip-ins. The MTB style cycling shoes allow easy walking as the cleats are recessed. Ordinary shoes, preferably with a stiff sole, are fine for commuting and leisure cycling but cycling shoes and cleats add that extra bit of comfort and efficiency. Shimano has a wide range of pedals, with double sided clip-ins being popular with MTB riders and the faster road bike owners, but even ordinary riders are now using clip-ins. They take a little practice but are soon easy to use. Single sided clip-ins with the other side a conventional flat pedal ( Shimano M324) are good as you can use street shoes for city cycling and cycling shoes (like the Shimano MT 30 or M038) for touring or weekend rides. Check the Shimano web site at shimano.com.au, under Products. There are other brands too.

A lot has been written about pulling up on the pedals (via straps or clip ins) on the upstroke. Some say this gives more power or speed, as you use a different set of muscles for the upstroke. Others say you should concentrate on spinning, trying to develop a smooth action that keeps the effort fairly constant round the pedal stroke. Others say whatever you are happy with at the end of a reasonably hard ride is what is best for you - ie a pedal action you can keep up for the distance. Pulling up does seem to give you a a bit more speed, but you might only use it now and again, as it tires your muscles. Just unweighting your upstroke leg ( ie taking any weight off the pedal) is similar, it is less tiring than pulling hard but seems to increase pedal speed. Try that and se what happens. "Think circles" is the other advice, dont stab up and down, that is tiring too.

read all about tyres here from Sheldon Brown. Lots more on this site, including articles on gearing and pedals.

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