First Ten Rules of Cycling (of 50 from Bicycling.com)

Tips To Make You A Better Cyclist

(bicycling.com)

1. Layer Like A Wedding Cake

With winter months approaching, it's a great idea to pack yourself with layers to make it easy to regulate your temperature. Booties, vests and skullcaps, as well as arm, knee, and leg warmers can all be stashed in pockets as the day warms up.

2. Keep Your Head Up

Looking far down the road or trail will help when you see approaching traffic, spot the best line through corners, or recognize when someone's making a break.

 

3. Carry a Frame Pump. And a Spare Tube. And a Multi-tool with a chain breaker.

Basically, be prepared. You never know what you might face out there.

4. Listen to Your Bike

"A click or pop or scraping noise doesn't heal itself," says Calvin Jones, director of education at Park Tool. Pay attention to the sounds emanating from your ride and you'll know when it's time for some TLC.

Noise: Rattling over bumps
Common Culprit: Loose bottle-cage bolts or quick-release skewers
Solution: Tighten them

Noise: Thunk/shudder during braking or over bumps
Common Culprit: Loose headset
Solution: Adjust headset to remove excess play

Noise: Squeaking while pedaling
Common Culprit: Dry chain
Solution: Lube

Noise: Pop, followed by a skipping chain
Common Culprit: Frozen chain link; worn cassette and chain
Solution: Find and free frozen link... or replace chain, chainrings, and cassette.

Noise: Grinding noise during braking
Common Culprit: Grit in brake pads
Solution: Sand pads lightly to remove grit and grime

Noise: Clicks, squeals, or whines
Common Culprit: Could be any number of problems-from a loose stem to worn bottom-bracket bearings
Solution: Head in to Gotta Ride Bikes so we can fix it for you!

See our related post 22 Common  Cycling Issues and Their Solutions here!



5. Have a Plan

Improvement does not come accidentally. If you want to take your riding to the next level, you need to craft a strategy and set incremental goals to reach it. "Better yet, hire a coach to guide your way," suggests three-time Leadville 100 champion Rebecca Rusch.

 
6. Embrace the Rain

Unless you live in the desert, soggy rides are a part of life. Just dress appropriately: Layers and a rain jacket are optional during the summer, but become essential when temperatures begin to drop.

7. Keep a Spare Kit in Your Car

You never know when you'll have the chance to sneak in a ride. Borrowing or renting a bike is easy, but it's harder to find a spare helmet, shoes, and chamois. Keeping a kit in your car all but ensures you'll never miss an impromptu ride. Scour bike swaps for secondhand shoes, pedals, and other items, but buy a new helmet.

8. It's Okay to Stop

Don't be afraid to pull over for a good swimming hole, hot spring, ice-cream stand, cafe, bakery, or dive bar. In fact, some of the best rides are planned around these diversions.

 

9. Keep Your Perspective

Like most young professional riders, Ted King is learning how to balance the demands of training and family obligations with the extensive travel and training his job requires. Here's what he's learned so far.

When training: set a goal for every ride- even if the goal is recovery
When racing: ride smart, don't chop corners, and remember that the local shop ride is not the World Championships
On the road: think like a motorist. Maybe there's a reason the guy in the pickup truck is pissed at you.
 

 
10. Refuel Right

The key recovery window is the 30 minutes following a ride; that's when your body needs protein to repair muscles and help reload its energy stores, so make sure to get at least 20 to 25 grams. Stacy Sims, a nutritionist at Stanford University, recommends six to eight ounces of nonfat Greek yogurt with walnuts or berries. Or try this protein rich smoothie: Before working out, put 1.5 scoops whey protein powder, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries or blueberries, 1/2 frozen banana, 2 tablespoons nonfat Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal, and 1 cup vanilla almond milk into a blender (but don't blend it yet). Store in the refrigerator. Whirl and drink when you return.

Gotta Ride Bikes is located at

20475 Hwy 46 West #210 in Bulverde , TX 78070
 (830) 438-1229

www.gottaridebikes.com

2014 Look 675 Road Bike Has A Completely Redesigned A-stem

Straight from Look's website: "The 675 is the latest born LOOK road frame. This technology permits a large gain in stiffness and a stronger frame.

 It benefits from a completely new manufacturing process: the 3 most highly loaded frame zones are first draped on mandrels before being placed inside the mould with the rest of the frame for moulding

The chainstay has been flattened, which along with the same treatment on the seatstays comprises what Look calls their "DCDC2" compliance design. The acronym stands for Dual Comfort/Dual Stiffness and Look says it provides a 25% increase in vertical compliance while simultaneously giving the rear end a bump in torsional stiffness. Look claims that the bike is about as stiff at the bottom bracket as the the 695, their top of the line race bike.

The CEO of LOOK, Dominique Bergin says "We wanted to make something special for this price point. We like to think of ourselves as "organized dreamers" and at times in the 675's development there was a real temptation to make changes, but in the end we stayed true to the original dream"

For the first time, LOOK Completely integrated the stem into the frame design. Apart from the aesthetic impact this integration allows for Look's Direct Drive concept. Using a short head tube tapering from 1" at the bottom to 1 1/8" at the top and removing the spacers gives the bike a shorter pivot, oversized bearings and a stiffer stem. The A-stem itself permits accurate height and length adjustments without spacers. The stem provides between -15 and +15 degrees of height adjustment. Reach can also be adjusted by rotating a half-moon spacer in the handlebar clamp. Different length stems from 80mm to 120mm are available.

Why is Look so interested in integration? Product Manager Fred Caron says it "allows increasing [of] the quality by freeing oneself of present standards: we develop our own products because we can make more performing products than those found up to now on the market." Between the taller head tube and reversible (and adjustable) stem, the 675 isn't relegated to anywhere near as radical of rider positioning as it appears. The frame/stem junction is just one are where the quality production values are easily visible.

Integration continues with the seat clamp, continuing the clean lines and aerodynamics of the frame. The 27.2mm seat post combines with the rear stays to deliver more comfort. 

David Arthur of www.road.cc was also able to test ride the bike, and gives his analysis: "It feels short and compact, I feel a tad cramped - some time properly adjusting the handlebar and stem wasn't permitted with this test. This doesn't prevent me from reveling in how communicative the bike is. There's a great connected-to-the-front-wheel feeling, the sense the handlebars are relaying accurate and detailed information from the front tyre comes through strongly. Look say a stiffer front-end is a key feature of the integrated design. It seems to work.

And it feels incredibly fast. Acceleration is good out of the saddle and when heaving on the drops, lunging for the top of the hill, the 675 feels very willing. It's certainly no slouch and it satisfies my inner racer.

It may have been a short ride but the 675 was really impressive. It manages to be fast and very lively, yet it's clearly got comfort in mind with the tall front-end and bump taming near rear stays. A longer test on UK roads of a longer duration than this brief ride will be needed to get a really thorough assessment of it's performance"

Actual weight for a size large bike with LOOK pedals and carbon water bottle cage is 17lb 50z. Frame weight for a medium size is said to be 1150 grams. 

The Look also comes in a black on black with yellow trim, besides the standard white, red and black.

Gotta Ride Bikes has TWO great locations to serve you best!

 

2013 SRAM Red Road Bike Groupset Includes Hydraulic Brakes (Rim and Disc)

images courtesy of www.road.cc

 

 A Road Bike... With Hydraulic Disc Brakes?

 

A few months ago, SRAM confirmed rumors that they have new designs for road hydraulic brakes, one operating on the wheel rim and one disc version. 

Why have SRAM decided to introduce hydraulic systems for the road? They made sure to emphasize these three points in a press conference last week: power, control, and modulation.

Mat Brett with www.road.cc was able to sit down with SRAM's project manager Paul Kantor who further explains the desicion making behind the new designs.

Kantor begins by describing the ideas that went into the new design. He says that SRAM liked the concept of putting disc brakes on road bikes but weren't sure of it's benefits or draw-backs.

The guys at SRAM built a hydraulic coupler into a stem [to standard mechanical levers], put it on a steel cyclocross frame and experimented. While the hydraulic brakes lived up to SRAM's expectations, but the design was unnattractive and bulky. Their solution: make it fully integrated.

Later in the interview, Mat poses another question: If hydraulic rim brakes feel so powerful for such little effort at the lever, why would people want to go for disc brakes on the road? Kantor responds with a compelling argument: "Our hydraulic disc brake has a higher braking force at every lever force than a mechanical brake on an aluminum or a carbon rim, and more than our hydraulic rim brake. You can provide quite a bit more force for less hand effort and that's really what we like about most hydraulics. 

We think that Red mechanical and Shimano Dura-Ace mechanical brakes are pretty comparable, but with a hydraulic rim brake you are able to exceed that braking performance. On a disc brake we can create eve more force for the same lever effort. It's much more consistent wet and dry too because we are braking on a steel rotor that's consistent time and time again. That's where discs come into their own.

CEN (The European Committee for Standardization) requires that there's not more than a 20% drop off between wet and dry on a rim brake and we improve that substantially on a disc brake. It's more like a drop of 5-8% in bad conditions. Plus, it's a sealed system that's consistent over time.

You can run a rim brake engaged at about 550W for 6 minutes and you'll burst the tyre. [...] You can run a disc brake at 900W for 11 minutes and the brake doesn't boil and the tyre doesn't burst.

Once you start adding up all these testing elements you start to see more and more opportunity for a disc brake to exceed what's already out there."

You might be asking yourself: Why not just go for discs, then? 

Mat replies to that also, saying that SRAM really likes the way rim brakes ride, and that they're all about choice. They want to put many good options out there to allow the customer to make the choice. 

He says hydraulic rim brakes may eventually win out over hydraulic ones, but he doesn't think so. 

When can you afford one? Mat predicts that hydraulic disc brakes will come down in price over the next 4 years to a 105/Rival price point. He says at that point they will have to decide to either: make a fancy mechanical disc brake or see if they can push the hydraulic technology down further. 

SRAM will be selling the rotors separately. They recommend a 140mm rotor for off-road and 160mm for higher speeds on the road.

The weight is 449g per wheel (including lever, caliper, hose, and 160mm HSX rotor). The HHR caliper brake uses forged aluminum arms and a SwissSTop pad compound, and weighs in at 387g per wheel- lever, caliper, and 600mm of housing. 

The new SRAM components should be available from May to June. 

SRAM sponsored pro teams will be keen for the teams to use the hydraulic brakes, although it will be the rim version as UCI regulations don't permit discs. Stay tuned to the blog, we will be talking more about the SRAM Red 22 groupset.

 

Gotta Ride Bikes is located at

20475 Hwy 46 West #210 in Spring Branch, TX 78070
 (830) 438-1229

www.gottaridebikes.com

For 2014, Shimano Released an 11-Speed Ultegra 6800 Groupset

Shimano Reveals Ultegra 6800 Groupset

   

photos courtesy: Shimano

For 2014, Shimano has released their Ultegra 6800 11-Speed Groupset. Dave Atkinson of road.cc interviewed Shimano's Mark Greshon. He has this to say about the new group: "Ultegra normally takes the latest technology from Dura-Ace and provides it at a much more competitive price. It's for real world riders who want good performance."

The 11-speed phenomenon with Shimano's engineering power to create this new system that "uses technology that's been proven in WorldTour races, proven at the highest level."

Riders can individually choose from a large variety of gearing options for all kinds of riding. You have the choice between a 11-23 and an 11-32 cassete, and chainring combos include 53-39, 52-36, 50-34, and cyclocross specific 46-36. The 6800 crank shares the same 4 arm design as the Dura-Ace in this category.

The brakes feature the same two axle symmetric pivot design as Dura-Ace as well, an improvement that Shimano claims increases power by about 16 percent. They are available in both a traditional and a direct mount version.

Using a shorter lever stroke which Shimano claims requires 35% less force input, gives tactile feedback to the rider that the shift has been completed. A defined *click* sound will ensure you that the gear has shifted. Improvements on ergonomics and control come from the more compact hoods and bracket grip, as well as a redesigned carbon lever.

The new wheel on the 11-speed level is the WH-6800. The wheel is lightweight on an offset rim for high rigidity and power transmission. Compatible in tubular, tube, and tubless setups. As with all Shimano wheels, the WH-6800 is 100% in-house produced and hand assembled.

The chain has also been redesigned for 11-speeds, and is coated with new surface technology called Sil-tec: an advanced surface painting technology adds a low friction surface treatment that runs smoother and lasts longer.

 

All in all the new groupset is 35g lighter, and 100% improved.

Gotta Ride Bikes is located at

20475 Hwy 46 West #210 in Spring Branch, TX 78070
 (830) 438-1229

www.gottaridebikes.com