Saturday, May 26, 2007

beginner cycling : inexpensive setups







Pedal play if you're ready for clipless

Bicycling is so much fun. Its hard to carve out a time for a bike ride, but then it's so hard to end the trip.

Having too many interests and not enough disposable income, here is some help to get the most out of cycling investment the first time :

Schwinn World Tour is a nice bike that can be had from $20-80.

The BEST pedal configuration was this recommendation from the Performance Bike shop. It is a great setup for those that may want to road bike and mountain bike. This is one of few systems that actually crosses functionality (so you won't have to have two pairs of shoes and different pedals on your bikes) and only costs $100 :
$50 - Crank Brothers Candy C pedals
$45 - Lake shoes

Clipless can be challenging to lock in. Your foot has to be positioned just right as your riding and changing gears. However, to prevent those scraped knees, you should always twist one foot out of the pedal as you apply brakes nearing to a stop -- even if you're hoping to stall and balance without putting your feet down. Having one foot free will allow you to escape embarassments and road rash.



Other tips to consider are the helmets (Bell $15), gloves, headlights ($10), and wireless cyclometers ($20) from Walmart. These will consistently be less than the cycle shop and sometimes are the same brand. As it is, I found a nice Cateye Endura 8 cyclometer for $10.


Active Denver/Aurora bicycle group rides.



Do not hesitate to buy Slime tire liners ($5) and regular inner tubes ($4 not ultra lights). The weight is irrelevant and it will pay itself back 100 fold. Getting a flat tire is the worst experience and totally unnecessary with this combination.



Local bike shop ride today : http://www.salvagetti.com/ was a nice group of people running to a breakfast destination every Sunday morning at 8ish. Today, we did Lucille's which is a fun New Orleans cuisine in Washpark. Scott and Jennifer own it and Greg works there fixing bikes on the fly! Maynard and Tamra had fun, matching compact bikes. Sam, Josh, and Sean got into the photo above as well.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

speedplay, speedplay, SPEEDPLAY!

Anonymous said...

ditto on the speedplay reco, but hey, great job on getting into the sport for minimal investment. Equipment upgrades will make it all the sweeter over time, but what you have will enable you to experience the joy of getting out on the road. With friends or solo - a great sport!

Program Manager

As a technical leader, I develop a talent pipeline that can deliver client's expectations in a motivating and productive environment.

I have performed multi-discipline engineering on space launch vehicles, satellite command and control software, electronic medical records, and large data center operations.


I am seeking additional opportunities to deliver solutions internationally

resume MBA-Bard Center


I have delivered management and technology consulting solutions for Deloitte, BearingPoint, Department of the Interior, TRICARE Military Health System, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Raytheon, Lockheed, Northrop, and Boeing on various projects in manufacturing, software development, systems engineering, testing, and ITIL management.