insignia100

Hey everyone, I made my introductions in the intro forum, but also wanted to introduce myself here. I'm getting back into biking after several years (though I do currently ride a recumbent trike). I decided to buy a cheap road bike, a Windsor Wellington 2.0 from Bikes Direct, to see if I had any interest in that type of cycling.

I had forgotten how much more of an upper body workout that bikes give you compared to riding the recumbent trike. While I'm up to 15-17 mile rides on my trike, I was pretty pooped after a 2 mile ride on the road bike. I think this will provide me some needed variety. My plan is to start commuting to work 1-2 days a week (2.4 mile round trip) until I get used to the saddle and can do gradually longer rides.

On a side note, does anyone else find rim brakes to be woefully inadequate for us? (I'm 5'7" 290 lbs...) I feel like it is much more of an effort to bring my 25ish lbs road bike to a stop than my 45 lbs trike -- though I'm sure a lot of that is just due to differences in geometry.

SugarMonkey

My new bike has disc brakes and I was like "where have you been all my life?" Granted, the first time I had to do a quick stop I damn near threw myself over the handle bars as I was so used to my old mountain bike that didn't stop nearly as well.

I had been off all bikes for several years for joint problems and once I got the clear from my doctor to ride again post surgery I thought I was gonna die after like a mile and a half. Now I'm up to an easy 10 a day (more if I have time). I just hit 300 miles today since the all clear.

It takes time and work and before you know it you'll be zipping around like nothing.

insignia100

I found that at least today, the biggest factor was saddle comfort. I've been used to riding around the the lawn chair seat on the trike. I found myself coasting more to take the weight off my rear than for my leg muscles. However, I was very apparent that the trike and bike use different leg muscles...

SugarMonkey

Did you get some padded bike shorts? I found those really helped with getting the backside used to riding again. Also don't fear changing out the saddle. I actually use my old schwinn saddle because I like it waaaaaay better than my other one which is too narrow for my pelvis.

insignia100

I've got a pair of cycling shorts (spandex) with a chamois that I plan on wearing under my shorts. The padding from the chamois definitely helped, but I'll be looking into getting some additional padded non-spandex shorts as well. I've already ordered a new, wider saddle to try out also.

MRT2

Saddles are personal, but wide saddles may not be the answer either.

insignia100

Oh, I know. But the one that came with the bike is pretty narrow, so I'm going to try a wider one.

jade408

Seat tilt angles matters a lot too. Play around with that as well. My saddle problems went away when I changed my tilt! (Assuming the saddle is a decent width for your sit bones)

StephenH

I think the braking action is probably more a function of the setup and stuff than of the type of brakes. I've been riding bikes with disc brakes for several years. I just bought a new rim-brake bike. Brakes on it work great, no real difference in feel from disc brakes. Yes, either one could be adjusted so that they suck, but they don't just inherently suck because of what kind of brakes they are. One thing to try is applying JUST the rear break and JUST the front brake and see if both seem to be pretty functional or one is not doing much of anything, and that'll give you a good place to start adjusting.


My saddle experience- first bike I bought was a $100 mountain bike. Saddle was like sitting on a 2x4. So I bought a big cruiser saddle for $20, that fixed that. Next bike was Worksman cruiser that came with the big cruiser saddle, so no problems there. Next bike was a Raleigh Sojourn that came with a pre-aged Brooks saddle. That was a narrow little saddle, but more comfortable than any of the others. So I assumed that the saddle on the $100 mountain bike sucked because it was a narrow saddle, and no, it sucked because it was a sucky saddle, not because it was narrow. Anyway, the saddle needs to fit under the sit-bones in your butt, and being heavier doesn't necessarily make those bones any bigger, either. If the wider saddle works, fine, but don't assume that you require a tractor seat just because you weigh more.

insignia100

The more that I tinker with my new bike, the more I think the braking is more due to lack of leverage on the levers mounted on the hood. I've found it takes more of a turning motion (as opposed to squeezing) to my hands when operating the brakes from the hoods vs the drops (which I'm still getting used to).

That being said, I can stop my trike with a single finger on the brake pads, but I'm sure the lower CG of the trike allows for both front wheels to stop much quicker than a higher CG with a single front and a single rear brake.