ouch. never thoguht it would be so difficult. is thesre anything i can do to make this easier if i am ever to do it agen?
Get a different bike........
Tires , suspension and position are all against you.
Riding from the car park to thenuplift at inners used be be far enough 🙂
i can only afford one bike and i dont want a\ road bike and i also like to ride dh and trails. yesterday was a hard day but i would be willing to do it agen with a diffrent seat. just wondering if there is anything i can do to this bike to make it easier. i already stiffened all the suspension up
Cheapest option has to be tyres
pump your tyres to the max?
Trade it for an all mountain bike.
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thinking of these
a longer 30mm seat post and comfy seat
That'd work, but so would a cheep 2nd hand road bike, and you wouldn't have to swap tyres.
tyres £27 * 2
Saddle - £30
Seatpost - £30
total ~ £120
Lugged loveliness from mercian for £102 with 2 hours to go (and cyclists will be watching the TDF so no snipeing!). It's a 56 apparently so should fit someone about 5ft10 to 6ft 1
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercian-Road-Bike-/190703380161?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item2c66cea6c1
[url= http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/122055.html ]Tyre [/url]Try These
Gettin an "allround" bike would be the best long term solution but you can make like a bit easier for your self by:-
*Using a belt to clamp down your fork by wrapping it around your crowns, compressing the fork down and locking the belt off. This would make it much easier to pedal uphill and give you a better seat tube angle .
*If you have a layback seat post you can turn this around so your sittng more over the bb.
*Pump your tyres up harder, especially the rear.
*If your runnin a small block cassette, swap it for an xc type "34-11 tooth"
*Change your chainring to a smaller one as i bet your usin a 36t or larger. (32-34tooth would be better for all round pedaling).
*Eat lots of carbs 🙂
30mm? Isn't a Cove is it?
To be honest, two new tyres, innertubes, seat post and seat adds up to a reasonably servicable secondhand bike. Decathalon may even have a new one at that price!
Youll be fit at the end . I used to do my paper round on a dh bike 🙂 - but not 43 miles- 5 miles each way to the shop and back
30mm? Isn't a Cove is it?
no its a kona 🙁
and this was the route i took. lots of big hills
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
Why on earth would you bother?
If you need exercise, go for a run.
If you need training, all you'll do is train yourself to be slow and fed up.
I call a certain amount of trollability.
we just endend up doing it set off and we thought we might aswell turn it into a loop. was hard but fun. i even overtook a roadi. he was sat on a bench tho lol.
Why on earth would you bother?
just for fun 🙂
Lol, well I apologise for doubting you, sounds like the kind of thing I used to do before I got old and dull.
Bet the downhills were fun..
I call a certain amount of trollability.
I'm pretty sure the OP isn't a troll. 😛
Good effort on the 43 miles btw.
Terry i have a vision of you going flat out downhill with a paperbag flying behind you 😆
Bet the downhills were fun
very fun. had a good laff at my mate doing 30-40mph manuals on his ridgid cove sanchez
I call a certain amount of trollability.
not sure what this means?
hats off to you mate...well done.
it is all riding and as long as you enjoyed it, that is all that matters.
on the bike front.
a dh capable hardtail could be the way to go.
It'll be good training all right. Matey bought a Marin Quake last year against my advice, so he's hauled the bloody thing all over the Dales & NYM & me & other matey always had to wait at the top of every climb for him. Quite often we'd do 20/30 miles & he was always knackered but always finished the ride ok. Now he's bought a 5 & he's off like a shot!
(My excuse is that he's only 27 & I'm 55, plus he's at the gym every day unlike me who goes once a year for a fitness test!)
Keep going mate, It'll pay dividends.
chers for the support guys 🙂
I've done 30+miles in a day (over 50 for the w/e) on mine because of that road.Riding from the car park to thenuplift at inners used be be far enough
I always use a 60a rear and run my tyres hard and run a seat QR that can get the saddle to the same height you'd ride road/XC at.
DH bikes aren't as bad as you'd imagine on the road with a switch of tyres and long enough seatpost.
Used to use my Kona Stinky for commuting. 8)
Certainly felt like I'd earned my bacon buttie when I got to work.
DH bikes aren't as bad as you'd imagine on the road with a switch of tyres and long enough seatpost.
yes and setting my shock up real stiff helped a lot. was still going up and down a lot rather than farward
how did you do that?
wound the spring right down so it was real stiff and pumped the bottom out control up
over pre-loading the coil isn't going to help (and isn't great for your spring)..
If you're going to bother with shock settings you'd be better fitting much stiffer springs and upping your compression damping (poss. rebound too depending on your usual setting)
also, if you have true bottom out control it should only efect the end stroke (not somewhere you'd normally get anywhere near on roads)
it seemed to make the bike alot stiffer and less bobing
If you're going to bother with shock settings you'd be better fitting much stiffer springs and upping your compression damping (poss. rebound too depending on your usual setting)
cant really justify a new spring just for road as i dont do this kind of thing often
fair enough, even tho I have plenty spare stiffer springs to choose from I CBA to either..
if you get really into this DH roadbiking you'll often find S/H stiff coil springs for sale really cheap now DH bikes generally use lower leverage ratios 😉
yea you can pick em up for around a tenner second hand. just pre ride agro i cba with really. and plus if i do find some nice drops on route i can alswys free my shock back up lol 🙂