Yes it happens all the time. Good race organizers disqualify those riders. The reason I try to steer you away from that bike is you seem like a serious athlete interested in understanding your performance. Those products are not for people like that. If you said you wanted to be entertained while riding indoors and didn’t care about how you compare to the real performances of other athletes, I’d say it could be OK. Any cardiologist would say you could maintain good health with that bike, but that’s different from training for performance.
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Ok thanks. I have actually found a gym with Kickr bikes in my city that I will try out for a month or so before I decide on what to do (and after a month I will be back to running from my injury if I want to as well).
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I recommend you get a comfortable flat bar road bike that you can also enjoy riding outside.
Used will be fine.
Get a smart trainer, perhaps one of the Jet Black trainers (if issues are fixed)or one from Saris…
Even if you really get into cycling and get a road bike and a dedicated trainer, it is still good to have a comfortable outside slow bike for easy rides with friends, kids and spouses.
Actually, seeing that Jet black still has issues, maybe Saris is a better option.
Just don’t get the BH Bike. If you are a competitive enough athlete to be running 2:48 marathons, you are 100% absolutely not going to be happy with a wildly inaccurate machine that you won’t even be able to confirm how inaccurate it is and in what direction. It would be like running a marathon with a watch that was accurate 30% of the time, would read over by a factor of 1.5x-3x 30% of the time, and would read under the other 30% of the time by an unknown factor. Would you honestly put up with that? If you ran a race without a watch and they told you at the finish “Your time is somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30, good job!”, would you be happy because the race only had a $30 entry fee?
No one starts running on a whim and casually runs 2:48 marathons. You are a serious athlete and you train seriously. You will not be happy with a cheap, inaccurate piece of equipment in cycling either. Yes, cycling is expensive to get into. That’s the unfortunate fact. But someone used to serious training is going to want accurate results.
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Kickr bike is a very solid machine - highly adjustable, you can easily change the bars on it, different saddles, etc.
Strength in the legs is what gives you that power, so you want to hit the gym and start building up that leg strength.
Yes it still is an advantage on virtual hills, though people can always drop their weight by 20kg as some do (even though they are on Zwiftpower).
Really, I think better would be getting a decent road bike and pick up outside riding first, join a club and get the feel for group riding before you do indoor cycling.
“Kickr bike is a very solid machine - highly adjustable, you can easily change the bars on it, different saddles, etc.”
Are there any cheaper options available that you would recommend. I could pay that much if I want to get serious but I would prefer something cheaper.
“Strength in the legs is what gives you that power, so you want to hit the gym and start building up that leg strength.”
What leg muscles should I train? Should I go heavy and few reps or light an many reps or something in between?
Some of both, depending on the riding you see yourself doing. High-RPM in a lower gear is the way to go for endurance cycling (just like running, get your cadence high). But sprinting/fast-twitch power is useful for sprints, short climbs, etc.
To start with it’s just lots of reps with lighter weights to get used to the workouts and correct form and then building the weights as you get better.
One of the most useful things is having the strength to just punch over little small hills. I lost that after my 2022 accident. Where I could just punch out 600w for a little bit and keep my average speed up, that’s gone. One of my legs is still good, the bad one is just very lazy.
Flat bars are a terrible suggestion, get a proper road bike with drop bars! Drop bars allow 4 different positions (drops, hoods, bars, on the knobs) whereas flat bars only allow 1!
You could use a real bike and a smart trainer like the kickr core, both can be found used in your area I’m sure, facebook marketplace etc…
Hey buddy, this guy doesn’t even know if he wants to ride a bike in a year.
Your opinion is correct in the context of someone who wants to race but for someone just trying to get on a bike, race advice is not going to help them
Beginners need beginner advice.
Everyone is more comfortable on a road bike with drop bars, especially beginners, because they can change position. There is only 1 use case where a flat bar is superior to a drop bar: as a city commuter because the more upright position allows for a better overview of traffic but otherwise dropbars are just way more comfortable and easier
Not sure I agree with this. More functional for road riding perhaps but i wouldn’t say more comfortable.
I know, literally, dozens of friends, and many more customers at our shop, who will say you’re simply wrong here. Flat vs Drops comfort will vary of course for specific use-cases. My die-hard flatbar friends would likely feel better IRL in a road bunch on drops, but my die-hard drops friends would likely feel better IRL on gnarly single-track with a flatbar. But on Zwift, you don’t need to be actually aero.
But no, it’s just not true that everyone is more comfortable on a road bike with drop bars.
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Maybe being overlooked here… road bars have flats/tops as well. And on zwift you don’t have to concern yourself with having your hands near the brakes.
I’m not saying you’re wrong but you may not be right in all circumstances.
I assume people asking about what bike to get haven’t ridden a lot of miles over the past year so I try to recommend the most comfortable and flexible options.
2 observations.
- Most serious riders should also make sure they also have a slow bike
A hybrid is a good option. Good to ride with the kids to school, ball game or parade route.
2.A lot of riders have their dropped handlebars wrong
They are uncomfortable or slammed to the point the rider almost never rides in the drops and is always on the hoods.
That’s over-simplistic. I know plenty of serious riders who don’t have a slow bike - they have no problems riding their fast bike slowly when they want to.
Buying lots of different bikes keeps bike shops in good business at least. I would buy just the one bike that does everything and save money.
Especially if you are starting out - buy what’s going to keep you going for longer. Rather than something you have for a short while then sell for nothing much and spend more money later.
Well sure there are cheaper options in smart trainers, but then you are buying a bicycle to use with them too. That costs money. Kickr bikes are solid and dependable and you don’t have to mess about with chains, cassettes, etc. They are also quiet.
Want different gearing? Open the wahoo app and select what you want.
Saddle soreness is about the pressure points of the saddle on your body and making sure there isn’t excessive pressure in any one place. The type of saddle and the bike fit are key. This you have to work out yourself as we are all built differently.
On the left (the first image) is what I battled with since my accident in 2022 leaving me with one leg shorter than the other. Result - lots of saddle soreness. Fix was a different saddle, making it a bit lower, a bit further forward and a very non standard stack of shims on one shoe to make up for that leg being shorter:
That completely solved the soreness.
Chamois cream helps against chafing but won’t deal with saddle soreness where you are getting pain/numbness.
Good quality bibs also help. They must fit properly, not loose. If they are loose then it’s a sure fire recipe for chafing. Some bibs have bad quality material in the padding as well.
Hey guys, the OP didn’t ask what handle bars to get, you are way off topic now and this tangent is likely not helpful.
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That has nothing to do with handlebar type but everything with geometry and fit (bikes with drop bars often have a more aggressive geometry) but with the same geometry and fit a drop bar will always offer more comfort than a flat bar because you can switch to (at least) 4 different positions allowing you to relieve pressure of your perineum/hand/arms/shoulders. Flat bars are more convenient in cities and of course on mountain bikes though
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Hi Christoffer,
because I find your questions interesting I would also like to answer. However, I am too lazy to write in English and have used an automatic translation. I hope you still understand what I am trying to say.
First of all, I would like to say that you are not a newbie. Many things are certainly the same in endurance sports. However, an important difference between running and cycling is that in cycling you can train much harder and with higher intensity on the one hand, and on the other hand you can ride slowly for much longer. Both make you faster because you certainly have a high vo2max.
Your body has to slowly adjust to the new challenge. This will take many years, but as a newbie you can improve for many years to come.
Paul Southworth is the expert here when it comes to equipment. I would follow his recommendations. Cycling is an expensive sport. Many people spend a lot of money on it every year.
The question of saddle sore is not so easy to answer. It’s a very personal thing. I’ve learned a lot from triathletes. They are the experts on the subject. There are many false statements on the subject. Many people do it deliberately out of malicious glee. Once there is inflammation, nothing helps in the short term. So you have to take preventative measures and hygiene is key. The product from Body glide, the cycle glide stick, is perhaps one possibility.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)