[roy_libran]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Join the club! Happens to me every single (~100 km) ride.

Used to happen with me as well every single time UNTIL a couple of my friends asked me to take BCAA supplement with the hydration. Almost completely solved this problem for me, although I still tend to get it on hot days.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by motorworks

So I managed to speak some folks at TI cycles India and they referred me to a shop in Bangalore who apparently deal in these stem risers. The shop guy confirmed that there is an universal stem riser that can do the job, so Im going to probably pay a visit this weekend.

@Motorworks,

Saw this post of yours, and even I want to raise the height of my MTB by at least 1 inch if possible.
In case you have done this could you please let me know the place in Bangalore from where you picked up the universal stem extender ?

Also any feedback/tips are most welcome

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

So far I haven't figured it out why this happens - the headache stays till I go of to sleep.

Hypoglycemia (low glucose) and hydration (including electrolytes).

Sleep puts you in a basal metabolic state.

That coupled with what you must be eating and drinking post ride.

Eating and drinking on the bike is not natural for amateurs.

Even the pros train for it.

It's a simple thing of forgetting, plus not being able to pedal, breathe hard and eat or drink at the same time.

Your body doesn't care about the reason. It's only bothered about what it gets to burn.

I used to go out on my century rides like any other weekday training ride ... fasted, except for a mug of black coffee after waking up. And used to have a more effort second half of the ride (by the time the glycogen stores have been used up). Eating then makes little difference because by the time it kicks in the ride is done ... sluggish or even suffering.

One day I found one of my post workout boiled eggs in the fridge. And put some peanut butter on a slice of bread for a folded one slice sandwich and gulped that down along with the egg. Had a brilliant ride. Started eating an egg and a peanut butter sandwich pre ride regularly after that.

Cheers, Doc

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by graaja

Talked to Methods Automotive here in Coimbatore. They are quoting 26K for the base rack (Foot kit + WingBar), and 11.25K for the Pro591. Delivery in a week's time on confirmation of order with an advance. Planning to order shortly.

Thank you once again for the information and for sharing your experience.

Thanks, graaja for your help. The current rates are around 30K for the foot kit & Wingbar and a hefty 50K for the Touring 200 roof box. Will have a think and get back to them.

[jsrakkar]

Originally Posted by roy_libran

Congratulations! Some pointers about your concerns -
1. Your handlebar seems to be a bit angled up and that will cause you discomfort in your palms along with straining your neck.
......................
3. Wear gel padded cycling in shorts if you think the family jewels are under undue stress. The decathlon ones are pretty good, but get their costliest variety because the cheaper ones give out very quickly.

Thanks Roy!

Yes, straightening the handlebar is the first thing on my list now. As adviced, will be ordering some good quality shorts from decathlon. The wait times are long, but fortunately, I won't be cycling for the next couple of days, so that should help!

Originally Posted by ebonho

Wow! That is a seriously good bike. Congratulations!! ......................

And all will be answered and revealed and either discarded or fall into place with a minimum of a thousand kilometers in the saddle first.

Thanks Doc!

Originally Posted by ebonho

P.S. Removing that side stand would add tremendous value to future photos on Team BHP and elsewhere. Lol

About the discomfort with the posture, let me try to explain with a picture.
The highlighted N is the neck (as obvious), which is shorter than what average people have and due to this when the back is arched in the way as show, I have to angle my neck more than normal upwards to get a good view:-



I tried sitting a bit upright with my hands (rather, my fingers) lightly gripping the handlebar; basically, something similar to the position if the handlebar was around ~ 3 inches higher and that relaxed my neck and shoulder blades a lot! That made me think, maybe I should raise the stem (marked 'S') a bit.

Is this also something that I'll get used to with time or can it be rectified in some way?

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Hypoglycemia (low glucose) and hydration (including electrolytes).

Fan-tas-tic! I knew I had this sorted years ago; your post just cleared it up! I used to eat fruits(bananas) & liquids a lot lot more back then while riding. Thanks doc!

Originally Posted by jsrakkar

Finally, after almost months of deliberation, countless hours of spending sleepless nights (quite literally), going through multiple discussions on Cyclops and some other cycling forums, videos from GCN, and multiple queries on the forum here (with some great advice from Doc (ebonho) and Ninjatalli specifically) - I was able to clinch a pre-loved Triban 520!

Missed your post completely - congratulations!

Your observations are on the dot - as I had remarked earlier, the road bike is made for a more "efficient" biker and it demands similar aspects from the rider. So you'll have to adjust/transition your body to get used to the road bike setup.

Others have given pretty much all the advice that you'd need so I won't repeat. But I'd just say delay the handlebar shift for a while. Also see if you can shift the seat a few cms back/forward using an allen key (screw lies directly under the seat); default position is in the middle, so you should be able to shift it ahead or back a bit. That extra cms might help you on the neck position while you get used to the road bike riding position.

Also lower the tire pressure, more the effort you will have to put. So take a call accordingly. A good gel padded shorts and a good pair of cycling gloves (with padding) would do a much better job than reducing the air.

P.s. This goes for any pre-owned purchase - get the bike a quick/basic check-up at a bike shop. Just to be on the safer side.

Originally Posted by jsrakkar

I tried sitting a bit upright with my hands (rather, my fingers) lightly gripping the handlebar; basically, something similar to the position if the handlebar was around ~ 3 inches higher and that relaxed my neck and shoulder blades a lot! That made me think, maybe I should raise the stem (marked 'S') a bit.

Is this also something that I'll get used to with time or can it be rectified in some way?

I'd say give the bike some kms and time to figure out what/where is the problem and what's going to be the solution. I'd suggest atleast a few months and some hundreds of kms (if not more) and several long rides before you can correctly identify what will work for you.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by jsrakkar

About the discomfort with the posture, let me try to explain with a picture.
The highlighted N is the neck (as obvious), which is shorter than what average people have and due to this when the back is arched in the way as show, I have to angle my neck more than normal upwards to get a good view:-

I tried sitting a bit upright with my hands (rather, my fingers) lightly gripping the handlebar; basically, something similar to the position if the handlebar was around ~ 3 inches higher and that relaxed my neck and shoulder blades a lot! That made me think, maybe I should raise the stem (marked 'S') a bit.

Is this also something that I'll get used to with time or can it be rectified in some way?

Your lower back, shoulders, triceps, wrists and neck will all adjust to the new position with miles in the saddle.

Assuming the frame size is ok for you, I would say that various points of your body are being scrunched up by the funny handle position alone.

There is no more scope for your stem to be raised. ALL the spacers are below it.

Maybe the stem could be flipped, later.

First try setting the handle in a neutral flat position. The current one is hurting me just looking at it.

Just rotating the handlebar a few (2-3) degrees up (towards you) or down (away from you) by loosening the four Allen bolts of the stem clamp, can cause huge changes in the overall body position and feel for the rider.

In your case its been rotated about 20-30 degrees at least ...

Cheers, Doc

[graaja]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

With 6 months of lack of exercise (due to the lockdown) and the uncertainty of Covid-19 as well as gyms re-opening, the weight has again ballooned to 84 kgs .

Food for thought. More than the lack of exercise during the 6 months, it is your diet that should have caused your weight gain.

1. Do you add lot of sugar in your diet?
2. Do you include lots of processed packaged food in your diet?
3. Is your diet predominantly carbs (rice, rotis etc.)?
4. Do you eat more than three times a day (including snacks)?
5. Do you have a late dinner and early breakfast?
6. Are you in your thirties?
7. Is your waist to height ratio more than 0.5?

If the answer to two or more questions is "Yes", then please do not consider cycling to lose weight. Cycling can help you stay fit, but if you want to stay healthy, please consider fixing your diet

The older we get, diet starts playing a major role in weight control than exercise. Consider options like intermittent fasting, cutting sugar and carbs etc. if you want to lose weight. Do your workouts and cycling to stay fit.

Check out the Weight Loss Thread (The Weight Loss Thread)

[greyhound82]

Started my cycling after a long gap of 3 years . Was active from 2011 to 2017, participated in couple of BRM’s , annual 5 -6 days seafront tour from Mumbai to Goa via Konkan , weekly 100 kms . It was an awesome period .
Had a very bad hit and run during my daily morning cycling , helmet and luck avoided head injury but had to undergo a surgery to take care of a compound fracture . This results in a slight length difference in my left hand and confidence issues with cycling and accessing the traffic
Slowly started again . Hope I can enjoy those long rides again

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by graaja

If the answer to two or more questions is "Yes", then please do not consider cycling to lose weight.

Yes for only No 7 (0.58). But I still keep shuttling between 82 and 85.

I've given up stressing about weight now (few months away from entering my 50s).

Easier to work on endurance and power instead ... the only way I can lose weight is starve myself, and then I cannot do the structured workouts especially on the heavy days.

Cheers, Doc

[graaja]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Yes for only No 7 (0.58). But I still keep shuttling between 82 and 85.

I've given up stressing about weight now (few months away from entering my 50s).

Easier to work on endurance and power instead ... the only way I can lose weight is starve myself, and then I cannot do the structured workouts especially on the heavy days.

Cheers, Doc

That is "Yes" to two questions. I should rephrase #6 to "Are you in your 30's or more?"

If you are entering 50's, then I would say you should take a few months off from structured workouts and focus on bringing your waist circumference lower and then resume your workout. In spite of all the cycling you do, if your weight is not coming down, then this just shows you have developed insulin resistance which can only be reversed by diet.

For reference, when I was training for my half ironman and finished the event, my weight was 80 kilos. Even with all the training load, my weight wouldn't budge. End of last year, I decided I have to reduce my weight if I have to improve my performance and went on a strict Keto/IF and brought down my weight from 80 to 68. Now I have a waist to height ratio of 0.45. Planning to focus on strength training for the rest of the year and resume triathlon training from next year. Still have a goal to complete a full ironman before I turn 50.

In my opinion, health comes first to fitness.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by graaja

In my opinion, health comes first to fitness.

My problem with such views (and that’s why I stopped going to the weight loss thread) is the weight related metric seems to justify everything.

I have done the diets in the past, gone from 96 to 72 kilos over a year and bounced back to late 80s within a few months; the moment I got of the diet to healthy food (but minimal restrictions).

For me health and fitness go hand in hand - it’s more qualitative for me than a statistic (for eg waist to height ratio, total weight, etc)

- am I able to run a half marathon with less than a week’s practice
- can I cycle 100kms (or even a brevet) without feeling like I need to take the rest of the day off just to recuperate
- do I have the energy to climb a decent sized mountain (think Harishchandragad as a good eg)
- can I swim at least a few lengths of a normal sized pool
- can I go on full day hikes (treks) for many back to back days
- can I kayak at least a few hours in rivers or the ocean

and so on. For me, it’s important that I am able to truthfully answer yes to all such questions.

That’s being fit to me. I have been in mid 80s since past 2 years inspire of numerous marathons and long cycling and whatnot, and I have made my peace with it (except when I look at my naked body in the mirror )

[motorworks]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

@Motorworks,



Saw this post of yours, and even I want to raise the height of my MTB by at least 1 inch if possible.

In case you have done this could you please let me know the place in Bangalore from where you picked up the universal stem extender ?



Also any feedback/tips are most welcome

Hey, I got the universal stem extender for my sons Montra from RR cycles, Marathahalli. I think they have other showrooms in Bangalore as well. It looks like a fairly easy process, was fixed in 10 minutes or so. The only flip side is the fact that it does not look good, since the stem protrudes a bit outside, until you adjust it to the highest position. Guess my son has another 6-7 months left before we get that done.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

My problem with such views (and that’s why I stopped going to the weight loss thread) is the weight related metric seems to justify everything...

For me health and fitness go hand in hand - it’s more qualitative for me than a statistic (for eg waist to height ratio, total weight, etc)

- am I able to run a half marathon with less than a week’s practice
- can I cycle 100kms (or even a brevet) without feeling like I need to take the rest of the day off just to recuperate...

That’s being fit to me. I have been in mid 80s since past 2 years inspire of numerous marathons and long cycling and whatnot, and I have made my peace with it (except when I look at my naked body in the mirror )

Totally agree with all your views.

It's just that our interpretation on health and fitness evolves as we grow old and our metabolism slows down. I have grown old, and hence the different POV

PS: Guess we have gone quite OT to this thread. Apologies for that.

[14000rpm]

Does anybody here know about the brand Haibike?






The handlebar on this Bike has caught my intrigue. I've never seen one similar before nor do I find it online. Anybody know more about it?

In fact on closer look, there are a lot of unique parts on this bike