Road Bike Maintenance

Howie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:45:05 +0000

As I start to rack up some serious mileage on my bike it dawned on my that I am really unprepared to do the required bike maintenance. I am currently doing about 60 miles per week on my bike and I hope to increase this over time. Since this is moderate usage I need to start to implement a regular bike maintenance program. Since this is something that I never really did it was time I learned.

In looking online I found a few good resources that may help you as well.

eHow Video Series

Mickey Denoncourt put together a eHow video series on easy maintenance tips for road bikes in this free video series that covers the basics of how to become a knowledgeable road biker. Mickey is a Category 3 road racer, Semi-professional DH mountain bike racer and avid BMX bike racer. He also owns Spooky Bikes. I thought this was an excellent series and think you will too.

Maintenance Checklist

Dr. Edmund R. Burke, Ph. D. on Active.com put together a simple list of necessary maintenance items and recommended frequency of maintenance is designed to give a recreational or club cyclist or a commuter an outline for a schedule. This list is simple and straight to the point bike maintenance checklist.

Let me know any other good tips or resources.

Expresso S3 Upright Bike

Howie — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:13:23 +0000

The YMCA recently got a new bike the Expresso S3 Upright which has all of the bells and whistles you could possible want. It looked fun and that quick preview I had earlier in the week just didn’t do it for me. I thought this would be a good bench mark for my riding since it has some reporting features that I was very curious about specifically cadence and power. Having spent the off season spinning I had a understanding of what these things were but no clear bench mark. This was my chance. So I sadly let my Look go after a look (and touch – kind felt like I let her down – o-well) and headed over to the YMCA.

Feeling good I set my ride fairly ambitious not really knowing how I would do. I choose from the black diamond which was the third level of difficultly out of four. The pacer was set for 150 watts which I figured I should be able to handle after my quick intro to the bike earlier in the week. I started out and quickly understood that I had under-estimated myself so I cranked the pacer to 200 watts and it was on.

I really got a healthy workout but more importantly a new respect for the work I had been doing in spin. The interactivity of the computer and pacer made the workout fun. The display was clear and it was interesting to see my power and cadence graphed in my workout. I definitely learned a bit about my fitness.

A few things about the bike I didn’t like. I did not care for the seat configuration. Now that I am fully adjusted to my tri bike I wanted to move that seat forward more. I also did not like the transitions when standing. I needed to crank the gears high and coming off a hill it felt like it was slipping. I would like to see those transitions smoothed out a bit more.

I averaged 194 watts of power for 40 sweaty minutes. It was a good workout but I would consider it a supplement and training tool. In the off season I would rather be on my trainer or in spin.

The Triathlon Optimist » Equiptment

Road Bike Maintenance

Expresso S3 Upright Bike