Cycling Thread

[Northendzone]

Took the family for a ride out to banff this afternoon as we rode spray river loop. It was a good ride for the family and my daughter did quite well.

Wether was quite nice not too hot.

[Northendzone]

Took the family for a ride out to banff this afternoon as we rode spray river loop. It was a good ride for the family and my daughter did quite well.

Wether was quite nice not too hot.

[Fuzz]

How was the drive home? Came back from Canmore around noon, and it was already crazy busy, and the Sunday highway work didn't help.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

Took the family for a ride out to banff this afternoon as we rode spray river loop. It was a good ride for the family and my daughter did quite well.

Wether was quite nice not too hot.

How old is your daughter, I'm looking at doing that one

[Northendzone]

^ GGG my daughter is 10 and not overly athletic - she walked a few parts as she is not overly motivated to climb.

Another good ride I have found is riding along the river at lake Louise and then we rode the tramline up to the chateau....the tramline was a grind for her. Park across from the train station, there is a lot with a porta potty.

I'd also,think the water tower ride would be good for kids if you parked at the lake and skipped that horrible ride across the washed out riverbed and that steep hike a bike.

My last thought is tunnel mountain, not a lot of long uphill grinds.

Now if only I could find a family friendly ride in bragg creek.

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by cracher

Bum Hulkface: How did 24hoa go?

I have some cousins looking for looking for an old guy (me) to make the middle age category for next year. Details on how incredibly difficult and grueling it was please. Help me say no!

24 hours really isn't that tough. Remember, a lot of riders that compete in the event only get out a couple of times of year. If it was too tough, they'd lose the weekend warrior crowd, which is their bread and butter.
I've done it 10 times before and haven't in the past couple of years because of some ######baggery by Stuart towards one of my team members and members of my bike club. It was time for a bunch of us to take a break from it. However, I would say do it, and have some fun. It is a good time.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by cracher

Bum Hulkface: How did 24hoa go?

I have some cousins looking for looking for an old guy (me) to make the middle age category for next year. Details on how incredibly difficult and grueling it was please. Help me say no!

Originally Posted by bossy22

24 hours really isn't that tough. Remember, a lot of riders that compete in the event only get out a couple of times of year. If it was too tough, they'd lose the weekend warrior crowd, which is their bread and butter.
I've done it 10 times before and haven't in the past couple of years because of some ######baggery by Stuart towards one of my team members and members of my bike club. It was time for a bunch of us to take a break from it. However, I would say do it, and have some fun. It is a good time.

I've done it a bunch of times as well. Tons of fun. I last rode it in 2012 I think, I hadn't done much riding at all, got on a team with a bunch of triathlon types and still knocked off the fastest lap because none of them could descend worth beans.

Ride it, you won't regret it.

[KTrain]

5 Minutes into my morning ride, the crank arm fell off while attached to my foot. Thankfully it was the left, and I was clipped in, so I could turn around and one pedal it back to the house.

[cracher]

Originally Posted by habernac

I've done it a bunch of times as well. Tons of fun. I last rode it in 2012 I think, I hadn't done much riding at all, got on a team with a bunch of triathlon types and still knocked off the fastest lap because none of them could descend worth beans.

Ride it, you won't regret it.

Thanks for the info. I think I'll have to do it next year, but maybe not on this team. They actually have aspirations of ranking. I'd be more into the best helmet contest type stuff.

A brief glance at the 24hoa trail map tells me that it's yellow/upper orange loops, back to the day lodge, then back out to lower orange. Where does the descending come in? I know there are a couple of rooty chutes around there, but none of them are really that nasty.

And Ktrain - PM me if you can use a basic 24mm spindle shimano crank (but only 170mm arms). upgraded wife's bike to RF next, I'm about to toss these into the garbage.

[habernac]

any kind of root for a roadie is trouble, these guys were fit as hell, it's the only thing I could think of that would have slowed them down. I had 20+ pounds on all of them.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by cracher

Bum Hulkface: How did 24hoa go?

I have some cousins looking for looking for an old guy (me) to make the middle age category for next year. Details on how incredibly difficult and grueling it was please. Help me say no!

It was a really fun time. I'm very glad I did it, but don't really feel the need to do it again.

The riding itself isn't that bad. There is nothing very technical on the whole course, lots of double track, and really only one spot I can think of that you could find trouble if you flew up on it too fast.

The night riding was really cool.

The thing is, it's $320 to go ride an ok trail a few times while sleep deprived and you don't get to ride with your friends instead it's packed with strangers. Oh, and you don't get to drink all the beer you want after because you need to ride again in a couple hours.

The whole festival atmosphere is really cool, and I'd never done any sort of race before so I'd always been curious how I'd do, but I still really am more drawn to getting a camping spot for $30, riding with my friends on a couple different quiet trails for a day, drinking all the beer after, and sleeping for as long as I feel like

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by habernac

any kind of root for a roadie is trouble, these guys were fit as hell, it's the only thing I could think of that would have slowed them down. I had 20+ pounds on all of them.

I think it's all the anaerobic climbs too. Those guys aren't use to the short bursts requited to get up everything.

I find with the 24 hrs course, your time is made by how hard you're willing to crank up the gradual double track, and if you are ok with going 70km/h on the rolling double track to take the uphills out of the equation.

[Northendzone]

we stopped for lunch in canmore yesterday, saw a lot of nice mtn bikes with number plates attached to vehicles, i assumed all fo these folks were in the big ride.

also saw lots of bikes on vehicles on the way back to calgary, although these did not seem to be related to the 24hrs race - just more people getting out on bikes........

[pope04]

Hi, guys:

Super quick question here - I've got a 27-speed hybrid that I commute with in the summer and a couple 24-speed MTBs that I have set up with different tires to handle everything winter throws at me. For simplicity's sake, I'm considering converting the 24s to 27 speeds. Obviously, I need to swap out the RH shifters, the cassettes, the chains and the rear mechs. Has anybody executed this conversion? I was gonna order everything online, but, before I pull the trigger, I wanted to make sure this is feasible.

[Northendzone]

^ would it not be easier to convert the one 27 speed to 24 versus converting a couple 27's to 24?

I am assuming this can be done, however you may need to place a couple of orders to get the right combination of parts.

What is your budget for this job?

[Fuzz]

Ya, put an 8 speed cassette on the hybrid, set the derailleur limiters and you are good to go. Oh.. I guess that depends if it is Shimano or SRAM. I think with Shimano you will need a shifter, too. Maybe a new chain, too if it is old.

[pope04]

Good thoughts, guys! I'd considered going the other way, 9 to 8 speed, but part of the issue I have with going 8 speed on the commuter is all the "good stuff" available is 9-10 speed. When I started pondering this, I went onto CRC and Jensen and it was pretty easy to find 9 speed shifters in LX or XT, but in 8 speed all they had was Altus or Acera.

No real firm budget - I have the greatest wife in the world! She doesn't mind me picking up used bikes off Kijiji and then spending a few hours a week in the garage tinkering on them.

I guess another potential issue would be the front mech - 8 speed FD cage would be a little wider than a 9 speed. And the 9-speed chain might not like the 8 speed chainrings.

[Fuzz]

I kinda went through what you went through, and ya, the issue with 8 speed is all the stuff sucks. I replaced my drivetrain on my old racing bike, and stuck with 8 speed, mostly because I was told 9 speed wouldn't work(bad advice, should have converted it all to 9s). So I had already bought an 8 speed cassette, shifter and deraulier. The front chainrings blew out after a year. Anyway, I replaced them with 9 speed chain rings(actually 9/10s) as they were the only durable ones I could find.

What it comes down to is that 8/9s stuff is fairly compatible, and 9/10s stuff is, but the larger difference jumping from 8s to 10s is a little to much. The thing is though, there really isn't 9s stuff anymore. Just 8s that works on 9 and 10s that works on 9. So while I do finally have a working 8s rear cassette/shifter with a 9s chain and 10s chainrings I did have to add thin spacers on my biggest chainring to get it to work. It depends on your chainline, among other frustrations.

So if you are upgrading your old 8s and the front chainrings are fine and will last, you should be able to put a 9s derailer, cassette and shifter. If your crank arms have 5 arms, you will need to get new cranks and chainrings at the same time to go to something decent up front. Possibly a new BB too. I'm fairly sure the front derailer will be fine.

Fun, eh? Careful talking to the bike shops, none of them gave me proper advice. Mostly told me to get a new bike...

[kevman]

Originally Posted by pope04

For simplicity's sake, I'm considering converting the 24s to 27 speeds.

What makes this more simple? I would use the 24 speed in the winter as is until the drive-train needs replacing and then make the jump to 9/10 spd. I don't get what you're hoping to achieve by upgrading an outdated drive-train to another outdated drive-train. If the 8 spd stuff still works you may as well keep using it.

[Fuzz]

Anyone doing the RTCC this year? The route is posted, looks pretty much the same as last year, which wss pretty good. Only part I don't like is the Trans Canada section.