Beer Drinker Appreciation Society (BDAS) - Open (Page 101)

I've had my speedplay cleats for about 4 1/2 years now and still no problems.  Shoes are 5 1/2 years and almost 10K miles, helmet  the same.  My tires have about 5K of mixed trainer and road on them, though obviously the front will have a lot less as it doesn't do anything on the trainer except occasionally catch some sweat. 

Originally posted by Juancho

Originally posted by jmhpsu93

Wow, everyone.  @ Juan - how's the wine harvest looking this year, should be soon, right?

Mike, crazy temperatures have make for a very late harvest this year, so hopefully we may start this weekend (no chemical analysis here, the guy in charge tastes the grapes every other day, and when he says "now!" we get moving.....and the day is getting close. Welcome if you want to do some work! Juan

I'd love to help out with a wine grape harvest sometime - you know they actually have vacations where you PAY to do that in Napa/Sonoma?  My wife's cousin's husband has a vineyard and winery in western Virginia; I've heard all about his harvests.

With 10-12k km per year of riding:

Cleats: Once/season (from wear. I use look keo cleats and they usually break the tips off near the end of the season)

Shoes: Once/season (from wear. My shoes take a beating from all the riding I do. Just like running shoes, cycling shoes start to 'give' after awhile. I find lots of sprinting, accelerating out of the saddle or climbing out of the saddle causes them to stretch and get floppy and loose.)

Tires: Oh boy. I go through a set of tires about once/month. Racing is not kind to tires.

Helmets: Once/year.

My wife who rides a lot less than me has been on the same pair of shoes for 3 years. She's changed tires once in that time and has had the same helmet in that time. She's replaced her cleats once. 

Point. It really depends on your riding style and how hard you are on stuff. I think helmets should be replaced every year regardless because they get banged around and its better safe than sorry. I also think shoes should be replaced more often than most probably do because uppers stretch and lose their shape and the soles fatigue and will start to flex more over time (particularly nylon and plastic soled shoes, carbon not so much) and that can result in unwanted knee pain and injuries. And shoes are always something that should feel fresh and new. Feet are important. As for tires, replace when needed but tread wear is not always the best indicator of a dead tire. Comparatively if we all went out and rode for 3 hours, some of us would put more miles on our tires than others, and those who put more miles would have more tread wear. But ultimately we all rode 3 hours so the tires are all aged the same from use (but not necessarily tread wear). So things like side wall strength, bead strength, etc, are deteriorating equally. And we're all prone to nicks and abrasions on tread and sidewall. 

Ultimately I think best practice is to replace stuff before it completely dies.

OK, Alan.  You've convinced me I need some new stuff. 

I will say that for those of us who don't rotate out equipment pretty regularly (as in, we don't ride 12k kms/year), we get pretty attached and used to the feel of our stuff.  And we probably don't know the difference because the wear is so gradually, unless you have something a little more drastic with a tire like Gretchen did.

Today's training was an hour on the trainer at 530 AM with about 40' riding sweet spot, and a 2500 SCY lunch swim which was brutal.  I used one of the workouts on Sara McLarty's blog - I think that woman is trying to kill me. 

She's a former pro triathlete and now a full-time Masters and tri coach in Central Florida.  Her archived blog is here:

http://mastersswimworkoutsbysaramclarty.blogspot.com/

There are hundreds of swim workouts there - she's pretty focused on triathletes, too, so only the "A" workout sets will focus on non-free work.

This winter, I want to learn how to do fly, and a proper (as in not just survival) breaststroke to accompany my crappy backstroke. 

That's awesome - the proximity is a big factor in the "lunch hour" workouts.  If you can get there or back in under 5 minutes, it makes a big difference vs. 10-15 each way.

It is.  Only 20 yards long and the chlorine is overwhelming.