First big road ride

leevil knievil

Did my first big ride on the new road bike yesterday, from the oldham area to holmfirth aroung holmes moss 40 odd miles plus, was ok until i hit the climb at holmes moss, really did struggle on the climb with the compact chainset but also i think it was my hill endurance.

Normally do 20- 25 plus on the mountainbike with various hills but think the granny really helps, i am not going to change the chainset because i think i just need to train more and lose some poundage to increase my power to weight ratio.

Did enjoy it though, felt a bit different on the downs more vibration than i am used too but you certainly can get speed up on the rolling flats.

Just need to keep pushing, my main goal is to lose more weight and maybe do a sportive in the future.

ShutUpLegs

Well done, sometimes its easier to hit the big climbs first. Depending on what ratio cassette you have you could go to a 26/27/28 if you are really struggling.

ednino

Take the granny ring off your mountain bike.

team47b

ednino wrote:

Take the granny ring off your mountain bike.

will it fit his road bike?

smidsy

Compact chainset is easiest there is so look at cassette with a 30

Kieran_Burns

smidsy wrote:

Compact chainset is easiest there is so look at cassette with a 30

Not strictly true - the compact has a 34 inner ring but the triples come with a 30 (30/39/50)

smidsy

Kieran_Burns wrote:

smidsy wrote:

Compact chainset is easiest there is so look at cassette with a 30

Not strictly true - the compact has a 34 inner ring but the triples come with a 30 (30/39/50)

Point taken, I never really consider triples so was not even on my radar. :oops:

leevil knievil

Thanks for the input gents, think I just need to train more and mtfu, although my heart rate on the climb was pushing 174-176 steady and I know my max is about 186-187.

My legs felt it last night and this morning a few pints this affy have sorted that problem out though.

LittlePlums

I have recently bought a road bike and been out on a longish ride for the first time. I commute 25 miles round trip every day on a hybrid, so not huge distance but the point I'm making is that I have a degree of cycling fitness. My legs today feel like I've been participating in a completely different sport.

Like you I have a compact on my road bike, but felt like I was running out of gears even on quite minor climbs. I never use the granny ring on my hybrid and usually grind it out on the big one, unless it's a "proper" hill. I'm hoping that this is just positional, ie that the road bike is using slightly different muscles which will take a while to adjust and I'll be OK once I fully embrace Rule #5. I had a buzz for hours after my ride though, something I haven't had in a while on the commute. I wasn't pushing particularly hard as it was more a case of familiarisation and getting some miles under the belt than setting KOMs on Stravs, but my average speed was definitely a lot higher than usual.