Jmk-brooklyn's mentor group- FULL! (Page 9)

*hides his bike if pictures are going up*

Gratz on the mountain goat, 10 miles in heat and hills you should be well pleased

Morning all.

Went for a ride this morning and after about 14 miles my rear tyre suddenly lost loads of pressure (not totally flat, but probably dropped to 50psi at a guess). Reinflated it when I got home and it doesn't seem to be punctured or losing air.
Is this in some way due to the trench in the road I hit?

What was the tire pressure when you left home?  I'm asking because it sounds like it could be a slow leak.  If it were me, I'd check the tire pressure before my next ride and if it has lost more than normal, replace the tube.

I went to an open water swim clinic last night that the RD's put on for newbies before the sprint this weekend.  What a difference!  Not like swimming in a pool at all.  The psuedo-scrum at the start, the nonexistent visibility, the waves, the sighting....it was awesome!  I swallowed so much water on my first try, but I have a new love.  The wetsuit.  What a fantastic invention!  The best part was I wasn't last - I was actually toward the front.  So I am in the top 20% of newbies who were so petrified by the swim that they went to a clinic. 

I hear you...I have my first OWS next week and am a little nervous as well, I bailed on my first sprint and went with the DUathlon.  Twice the running was so much harder for me.  I may get to the beach this weekend and swim few hundred yards to at least know what to expect!!!!

Way to go Kate! I'm 50/50 looking forward to/fairly nervous about my first OWS. Somehow I doubt they will have a swim clinic for our event as it's in the Thames
But then, that's what local lakes are for even if it can't come close to recreating the scrum

I wish I had a chance to attend a swim clinic before my OWS.  As it was, I am lucky.  DH is a kayaker so he safety boated for me.

This weekend we are going to the Outer Banks with the Girls.  I am bringing my wet suit and planning a short OWS while we are there (with DH and his kayak and/or the wind surfers).  There is one road so route planning is easy!

Edited by jmkizer 2010-05-06 2:33 PM

I did a clinic before my first actual tri also. It was great--I'm really happy I did it. I still use some of the OW techniques I learned there, and I still have the t-shirt. It helped a ton.

The very first race I ever signed up for was an ocean swim in October. I didn't have a wetsuit at the time and had done little to no OWS practice. Someone was looking out for me, because a NorEaster blew through the day before and kicked up a huge surf, so they ended up cancelling the swim and making it a Du. In retrospect, that was probably a good thing for me. My next race was 5 months later in Texas-- warmer water, in a bayou, so no waves, and I'd gotten a wetsuit for Christmas.

have found an OWS place not to far from where I live as soon as i sort out a wetsuit i can  go give it a bash.

Sunday i will be wacthing http://www.justracinguk.com/event/clone-grendon-triathlon-world-qua... looking forward to seeing how its done for real, then in the afternoon im taking the kids for a 9 mile walk depending on weather

Lucky for me my ows swim is in a lake - not the Thames or an ocean.  Baby steps.  I'm so nervous I don't think I'll sleep at all.  Thanks for all of the advice guys.  I'll let you know how it goes and if the hook is set (I haven't signed up for another yet.  Waiting to see how this one goes.)

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEquipPopup.jsp?equipimage=/OA_MEDIA/2010/bikes/9002-52_l.jpg&equipmodel=Ruby%20Elite%20Compact

pulled it off the web - didn't fit my ride in this weekend - rain and hail on sat and snow today - I know I live in upstate NY, but c'mon!

Well, I'm still not officially a triathlete.  They had to cancel the swim after about half the waves had gone due to high winds.  The swimmers were getting blown off course and needing to be pulled out of the water.  Then I hear that the rescue boat ended up capsizing.  Definitely a bad omen.  No one got hurt, thankfully.  I saw some swim times near a half hour for the poor people who did the swim.  It was supposed to be .25 miles (of course the buoys were moving and drifting so who knows how long it was.)

So the rest of us just went across the mats, changed and did the the bike/run.  I will fill out a race report later.  I learned a lot.  The bike was harder than I thought and my gears were messed up so I had no lower gears for hills which made it hard.  My ITB kicked in about halfway through the run, but I ran through it.  It kills today, but it was worth it. 

I am trying to figure out what my next race will be.  (One where the temp is not 44 degrees with 35 mph wind.  I couldn't feel my feet until 2 miles into the run they were so numb.)  It was a ton of fun and I am definitely going to do it again!

Ha!  I'm just watching the news and our local tri is here for the high wind problems.  Apparently 10 people needed to be rescued (along with the boat) and the senator Scott Brown was one who did the swim.  Glad I wasn't the RD.

Ack!  I'm sorry that you didn't have the weather cooperate but I'm really glad that you weren't caught up in that since it doesn't sound like it would have been a good experience. 

I hope that your ITB feels better today.

but you do have one impressive story to tell people about your first race!

Stavros,

Did you figure out what was going on with your tire?  I hope that it's not still acting up.

I listened to the Car Guys (http://www.cartalk.com/) this weekend and the Puzzler made me think of you. 

"Open-frame dragster cars of the 1960s had skinny front tires with 80 PSI and fat rear tires inflated to 10 PSI. After each race, the front tires were nearly flat. What caused the front tires to deflate? Where was the air going? And why?"

I'll post the answer tomorrow (if I remember to!)

Stav is having a punture masterclass this weekend if he hasnt already fixed it

Sorry to hear about the race, Kate. You were ready and you woulda killed it. You’ll get your chance. Besides, better for your first race not to be miserable and in bad conditions. This sport is supposed to be fun, right?

Like I said, getting the swim cancelled in my first race was probably for the best. I might have just checked it off the bucket list and gone back to playing softball instead of staying with it for the past 3 years.

I went on a fairly long ride on Saturday. Literally, the second I hit my turnaround point, it started to rain and rained all the way home. Naturally. The good news is that so far, the weather for the Century on Sunday doesn’t look horrible. A little cooler than I’d like, but no rain at least. I also got in a good, fast swim on Sunday.

I watched an ITU Championship race over the weekend. It’s so strange to see draft-legal triathlons. I would love to try one. Except, of course, then I would need a road bike. It basically becomes all about the run. The swim and bike are really just about staying close enough to the front that you can throw down on the run and pass everybody. The draft-legal format makes it almost impossible for a fast cyclist to ride away from the field.

I also watched the second stage of the Giro d’Italia. Pro cyclists are bada$$es. Seriously, these guys crash into highway medians at 30 mph, limp around in their torn uniforms and their bloody elbows until the support car shows up with a replacement bike, then they hoist themselves onto the saddle and ride another 60 miles. I’d be back at the hotel with my feet up, ordering room service and watching a movie by the time the support car showed up. The Directeur Sportif of the Garmin team had a great line about crashes a few years ago: “Want to know what it feels like to crash in a pro cycling race? Get in your car going 30 miles an hour, then strip down to your underwear and jump out the door.”

Speaking of punctures, my wife has been having some bizarre bike karma lately. Last weekend, she went for a ride and got a flat. Before she left, I was inflating her tires and I remember looking at her tires, which have Kevlar linings and thinking, “There’s no way she’s ever going to get a flat tire in those.” Naturally… Not only did she flat, but it was on the back wheel, which was a huge pain in the butt to change. She got a big chunk of glass in it.

Then on Saturday, she was riding home on a very, very windy day. There was garbage and debris blowing all over the place. Somehow, she managed to have a plastic bag blow right smack into her drivetrain and got it wound up in her derailleur pulley and chain. She couldn’t pedal the bike at all, and she had to get off and walk it to the closest place. The place she took it to is called R&A Cycles and it’s one of the top bike shops in the US for equipping pros. If you look in Triathlete Magazine, you’ll see ads for them. They’re the place to go if you want to spend $10,000 on a custom setup. For a plastic bag stuck in your $500 bike? Not so much. She went in dragging her wounded hybrid and the mechanic said that in all his years, he’d never heard of that happening to anyone before. He took it back to the shop and somehow managed to dislodge the bag and she was able to ride home. She said they were super nice (which hasn’t always been their reputation), and didn’t charge her even though it took the mechanic a while to fix.

Seems I did have a slow puncture after all, but just to really annoy me it turned out my last spare (must remember to have at least 2 spares at all times!) also had a hole in it!

As Adam says, I'll be having a puncture repair masterclass this weekend (well, Adam will show me ) as I tried to patch the tube and, unless there is another hole I haven't found, seem to have failed miserably. Think I'll buy a couple more tubes tonight in the meantime.

Bummer.

OK, the answer to the drag racing question -- why the front tires were going flat after a run -- centrifugal force was causing the Schrader valves on the bicycle-like front wheels to open causing the tires to flat.  Let that be a lesson to you -- do not go 200 mph on your bike! 

I'll bear that in mind next time I decide to see how fast I can pedal downhill

Marty-
Your bike looks really nice.  I know nothing of bikes, but it looks fast.    Have you been out on it yet?  I am looking at entry level bikes, but have yet to take the plunge. My idea of entry level $$ and the LBS seems to be different.  As a man with a new bike - got any pointers?  I will take advice from everyone actually.  For my first bike, what do I need?

Ha ha!  When we see an approaching group, a friend that I ride with often yells, "Look fast!" 



I think that the answer depends on what you want to do with it.  How far do you plan to ride it at any given time?  30 miles?  50 miles?  112 miles?  (wonder where I got that last number???)  Along with this, think about the road conditions in your area (rough roads? smooth, well maintained?) and how long you plan to keep the bike (3-5 years?  forever?).

If you are thinking 30-50 max mileage per ride and replace in 3-5 years with average road conditions I'd consider an alumimum frame with carbon fork and seat post.  That would put you into something like a Trek Pilot or maybe one of the Fuji Roubaix models or maybe a Giant Avail.

Regarding components, most road bikes I've seen have Shimano components.  If you can afford Ultegra or 105, that would be great.  (They go Dura Ace, Ultegra, 105, Tiagra, Sora while SRAM goes Red, Rival, Force.)  Most people that I know think that Dura Ace is price and not worth it but I'm sure that there are those who love it!

One thing to remember is that road bikes often don't come with pedals.  I think that is so that you can customize them to your cleat type but keep that in mind when you price the bike.  You may also want to swap out the saddle that comes with the bike at some point.

Hopefully others will chime in!

P.S.  I've never had a women's specific bike.  You may or may not need one.

Edited by jmkizer 2010-05-12 12:59 PM

X2 to everything Jayne said. The first bike I got was Sora/Tiagra mix and it was fine, but I would have had to replace it after a few years ( had it not been conveniently destroyed in a crash, thus saving me the trouble…). The trouble with less-expensive components is that a) they don’t last very long to begin with and b) repairing/replacing them isn’t cost-effective since a) they don’t last very long. They also aren’t necessarily upgradable without upgrading lots of other parts, which, again, isn’t cost-effective.

I think Shimano 105 is probably the sweet spot between durability, quality and price. But having said that, a Sora/Tiagra bike is better than no bike at all.

Have you consider looking at a used bike? If you’re looking to pay less than $1000, that may be a good option. You can get a good 2008 or 2009 model with 105 for under $1000, often if you look around. Another option is bikesdirect.com. My first bike was from there and lots of people have had great experiences with them. I’m looking at getting a road bike in the next year and I’ll probably get it there unless I can find a used one. There are a couple of really nice options in Shimano 105 for around $700.

I think it’s a good idea to ride a bike before you buy it, or at least have a good idea of your size. I don’t think geometry matters as much on a road bike as on a tri bike, but others may disagree. I had my old road bike professionally fit, and honestly, I didn’t feel as though it made a huge difference. YMMV.