Beer Drinker's Appreciation Society--Always Open (Page 6)

Andrew - congrats on NBD!!  And really curious to know how the singlespeed works on hills.  Any hill.  Been thinking about how folks do it, when I find myself running out of granny gears getting up modest hills...

Myself, I did not work out today but I did spend a few hours getting to know the finer points of saddle adjustment (almost there), and especially front and rear derailleur adjustment and indexing. I've watched the GCN and Park Tools videos on both front and rear adjustment, troubleshooting, and installation at least 5 times a piece. Right now on the trainer she seems to be shifting great, which is a far cry from where I was yesterday on the path - shifts on the rear would be anywhere from half a shift to one and a half shifts; and the front was anywhere from shifting ok to chain falling off to crank locking up (!)  Hopefully I can get it out tomorrow and test it under load, or at least do so on the trainer.  I need to go for a run too, so this might be a good brick opportunity. 

Time for an informal bike poll.  What are your front and rear gear setups?  I've currently got a 52/36 front (race is like 53/39) and an 11-28 rear.  I'm so incredibly bad at hills that I'm constantly granny shifting even for bumps in the road, absolutely nothing like what Jenn would encounter in the Green Mountains.  So I've purchased a 50/34 'Compact' crankset, and we'll see how that goes.

So what do you have front and rear, and are you more of a climber or flatlander?

That is cool!!!!!!!

50/34 compact on my roadbike with erm....something on the rear! Lol

1 x on my commuter with something different on the rear!

I shall investigate! 

Things i do know are I am now the proud owner of new gear:

and:

from a London based bike shop/cafe called Look Mum No Hands.

I also with Christmas money got myself a new jersey:

 based on an old school ice lolly called zoom!

Irony as I wear it as I ain't quick! Lol!

Commuter is 42 front and 11/36 rear and is VERY orange

What gear set up is that? Single or fixed?

I have a 50/34 crankset and I switch out my cassettes between 12-23 11 sp. for flatlanding and the trainer, and 11-28 11 sp. for more varying terrain outdoors.  The 12-23 gets me up most hills fine because I'm more of a grinder than a spinner on hills anyway.

I've had boot camp workouts that did that to me but never a swim workout!  Nicole, you are a legend in the pool!

Thanks all for the responses on gearing.  Each number is just the number of teeth on the gear - more teeth in front is harder, more teeth in the rear is easier.  Riles - definitely agree that there are too many ways to look at the numbers.  I was mostly polling for range, which is how I look at my own.  If I said 'man I'm having to granny shift all the time (meaning small front and large rear) for hills' because the big front (my 52) is too hard; and everyone told me they had a 52/36 front and had no issues climbing - I'd chalk it up to "I need to get a lot more climbing practice in!".

Instead I'm thinking the semi-pro 52/36 up front are too big for most of us, and 50/34 is better.  If I get to the point I'm spinning out on the big ring, I can always go back to my 52/36.  

Anyway I had gotten a deal on the 50/34 that I REALLY couldn't pass up.  I have a weird bottom bracket, that most bikes don't use.  So seeing a ~$200 crankset that fits on clearance for $70 then with a '50% off one clearance item' thing, I couldn't not get it for $41 shipped.

Got my brick in yesterday, though the bike portion was on the trainer.  30 minutes with some tempo work mixed in, followed by a 1:46 T2 (!) and a 15 minute high paced run.

I'm just miserable at transitions.  T1, ok - sometimes there's a long run from the water, plus you need to remove a wetsuit.  But T2, the bike and run are usually close and you're changing a minimum number of things.  And since I was on the trainer I didn't have a helmet to deal with.  And it still took me almost 2 mins to swap shoes and grab a hat and sunglasses.  And I didn't have to run from bike dismount.  Any tips other than setting up transition in my yard and pretending I'm racing?

If you figure out how to do this, let me know!  I can't keep my HR down for a Z2 workout unless I stop and take a nap...

Me - Resting HR 48

Also me - stands up too fast, 162

Is anybody noticing a correlation between certain NFL teams and not loving cycling?!?