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My faves are Vredesteins Fortezza Tricomps. Lots of grip, particularly in the wet, and they corner like you're on rails. They also feel like they roll distinctly faster and ride better than the Conti GP3000 I have on another set of wheels (even if you don't pump them up all the way to 160psi!). They're also very good value, you can typically pick them up for under £20 on ebay. Don't last as long as the GPs but for a race tyre they're great, I like them a lot.

Otherwise, when I'm feeling flush, I'm going to try a set of Vittoria Corsa Evo CXs, which I've heard only good things about (apart from cost/wear rate...!).

Have a look on roadbikereview.com for more opinions.

Courant

One more thing while I think about it:

BringMeMyFix, I wish I could spin, then I could get into the anaerobic workload that burns fat

That's not partcularly accurate either... To burn fat, you need to do work. Work is power (independent of cadence) multiplied by time. If you're working anaerobically, yes you're putting down more power, all other things being equal. However this ignores the time side of the equation in two ways. Chances are you haven't got much anaerobic endurance because this requires quite a lot of training and base aerobic fitness to develop (and actually is generally done at lower cadence - think hill sessions etc.). So, if you try to train anaerobically, you're most likely to blow-up way too soon and end up cutting your session short, both in terms of time and power output. Net result is that you won't have done as much work as trying to keep things nicely aerobic and steady for a longer period of time. The secondary effect is that a hard anaerobic session is likely to cane your legs for a day or two, leaving you unable to put much work in on those days; if you'd have kept things easy, you could basically put decent training miles every day and the cummulative effect is massive.

On the whole personal freedom debate, I'm absolutely behind people making whatever decisions they like in the face of peer pressure or received wisdom - I'm not particularly conventional myself, either! However, it's always useful to know the facts when making or revaluating decision :-)

Courant

I looked at the 2 threads I found on gear ratios, and it seems that the assumption is that spinning is better for your health, and your knees. But what if you can't spin (which is based on cardiovascular fitness)? If one has asthma or defective lung function, and can't spin, should they use a high gear and basically never have a good top speed?

I can't spin (never could, never will), but my 48x17 is just undergeared for me. I'm sick of blokes looking like 100 years old overtaking me on their geared bikes. I should slay them with my acceleration and then top speed, but I spin, and in two seconds I am the one that becomes the 100 year old, gasping and wheezing like my time has come.

I need a bigger gear. Would a jump to 48x15 be too much of a step?

GrandeAnse,

Sorry, got to this thread a bit late but here are some comments, FWIW.

I'm a roadie, and my cadence "comfort zone" is 95-100rpm, where I can sit quite happily for a number of hours. Only had my fixed for a couple of weeks, but 48/18 feels absolutely spot on for me for everything from daily commuting to 60+mile rides - 95rpm equate to ~20mph. I really can't imagine anyone would want anything bigger for regular riding, unless they were nailing it on a short commute, or TT or something. (I also have 48/16 which I'm using on fast short training rides).

Anyway, spinning is not limited by lung function. Absolutely no way. (I also have a roadie friend with asthma and spinning is not a problem for him). However, it does place more stress on your your cardiovascular system, instead of your legs, that's why it's favoured by endurance cyclists and people with dodgy knees! It's interesting that you're finding cardiovascular fitness a limiter when you spin and you say you have strong legs. And you're right in saying that this will stop you going fast and mashing is going to knack your knees, it's definitely something to work on improving. Can I suggest some other points?

First, the obvious one, is that you should improve your cardiovascular fitness. You probably know how to do this already, but long, low intensity rides built up gradually is the way to go.

Second, another obvious one, is that if you want to spin, you have to train you neuromuscular system to spin, it doesn't just happen - the muscles have to learn how to fire together with the correct timing, at the required speed. If you lack fitness, then this will mean you going really slow so you can keep your heart rate under check in order to maintain a higher cadence for long enough for your body to adapt. I can quite imagine that, in your current state, spinning is burning a lot of energy and is very inefficient (hence the cardio vascular load) because your muscles are wasting a lot of effort by not working together well. You will probably find that, as your neuromuscular system adapts, this wasted effort will diminish and you'll magically appear fitter, aside from any improvements in cardio-vascular fitness or strength.

Third, relating to the last point, is your muscle strength. Turning a pedal a full revolution is a complex movement that recruits quite a range of muscles, large and small, if you're going to do it smoothly (the key to high cadence pedalling), not just your prime movers. I'm willing to bet that you have some large imbalances going on: despite strength in, say, the quads, it could very well be that your hip flexors/gluteals are quite underdeveloped. This is really common, especially if you have bad posture or are overweight. As a result, you don't actually have the musculature to pull off high cadence cycling. You body "fakes" pedaling smoothly at low cadence by relying on the prime movers to provide the push/pull over a fraction of the full rotation, and then the pedal "carries" your leg over the rest. This isn't possible at high cadence, the lack of full muscle recruitment becomes sharply apparent. The solution: more high cadence pedalling, again done in such a way that you can sustain it from a cardio-vascular perpective for sufficient time. Another complementary training method: pilates, which will train a lot of those smaller muscles and iron out imbalances.

Everyone can spin at 100rpm, it's just training. If you're sick of being overtaken, do something about it ;-)

Hope this helps!

Courant

That's looks totally fine to me (the picture too, the amount of seatpost showing is fine), the thing to avoid is (clearly!) nailing your balls on the top tube. But, one other point... brushing your sac, aren't you wearing lycra shorts?! Problem solved :-)

Courant

Defo sounds like a positioning thing to me.

One point to note, that hasn't been directly mentioned, is that it's not just the handlebar position (both in terms of length and height, relative to the saddle), it's also your saddle position relative to the pedals. Your saddle wants to be not too far back, but far enough so that you can just take your hands off the bars and stay in balance without toppling forward. This way, your bum carries most of the load and your arms and thus shoulders don't have to work hard at all. Once the saddle is set, then the handlebars fall into place.

And, yes, 90psi in the tyres is a good idea!

Courant

I'm about 5'6" with a 29/30" inside leg so I'm going to order a 52cm frame. I've tried to find a bike shop that is local with a 52cm road bike with similar dimensions in stock but it seems most stock 54's and they would have to order a 52 in for a shorty like me.

Anyone of a similar height got a Touche?

52cm sounds about right. But, instead of guessing, give Pearson's a call. They're super helpful and will be able to advise on sizing.

Courant

But if you prang a carbon or a thin aluminium, you have issues. And you have to watch some of the bonding on older carbon frames. Not to say they don't make good frames, but when you're buying secondhand, a well looked after steel frame presents far fewer risks.

Oh yes they do. (some of them)

Well, OK, they do. Sometimes. I had a 531 frame that rusted through at a boss that wasn't correctly welded.

Steel frames don't generally die ;-)

Courant

I'd go the secondhand route, as long as you know what you're doing and what's suitable for you. Otherwise, go down to a decent bike shop and let them look after you - this way, you've a much better chance of getting something suitable. Getting something that fits and is comfortable is really important.

I've been riding for a few years now and my main bike I got off ebay a couple of years ago for £550. A look carbon frame with full ultegra groupset and a decent set of wheels. It's a really nice bike!!!

Other bargains exist. For example, ebay item 160239685440 went last week for £499. (Unfortunately too small for me otherwise I would have bought it!). Gorgeous custom dave yates steel frame, full campag record groupset. Only needed wheels to make it complete but this would have made a really superb bike for not a lot of money. Sure, it's done some miles and the frame is a few years old, but steel frames don't die and a good groupset keeps on going.

Only thing is, to find bargains, you need to look for the niche stuff that people haven't heard of. So this requires some research/knowledge and you need to know what you're doing.

If you go to your bike shop, £600-800 is sufficient to get you something quite decent.

Hope this helps!