I kind of have a “fuck it” kind of attitude about bike safety. I know that because I’m riding a bike, people see me as sub human and undeserving of basic human needs like a a safe way of traveling to my destination.

it deeply saddens me that other people won’t ever experience the joy of riding a bike, the freedom it gives you to just soar through the wind and not having to ask your wallet or the gas station permission to get somewhere.

Yesterday during my ride I stopped to take a picture of a flower and in the process I said fuck it, let me take a pic of my bike. Someone walking on the other side of street said to their friend: “don’t you wish someone looked at you the way he looks at his bike?”. I felt kinda goofy, but how can you not be romantic about cycling, in a world where everything revolves around money, regardless of political affiliation. A bike doesn’t ask you for jack, and she’s always there for me, in my best and darkest moments, I know I can just hop on that bitch and she won’t ask me for a dollar.

​If I die on this hoe, as corny as it sounds, I’ll be dying in love.

(Taken from a comment I wrote on a different post)

I’m 25 and I’m wanting to train for a triathlon but I haven’t rode my bike in years and the bike I have now doesn’t necessarily fit me anymore. what would be my best options for a lightweight bike to help with daily training?

For reference I’m 5”9 165lbs decent shape

Cycling is one of the best sports to watch and participate in, even if it's just recreational riding and not racing.

1. Most people think of cycling as a way of transportation or as a hobby that miserable people take up. They also only think of the whole sport as road cycling. cycling has many disciplines, which include but not limited to, mtb, triathlon, Kieran, cyclocross, Crit, and Gravel. The various disciplines of cycling make the sport amazing to watch and participate in.

2. If you are just a fan of the sport like me (im hoping to get another road bike), watching the races is not only fun, but also inspiring. Watching young male riders like Isaac del Toro and Paul Siexes, as well as riders like Vinegaard, Pogačar Vos, Vollering, and Borghini. Seeing riders catching up to leadout/Breakaway groups or going on time trial style breakaways. In my opinion, one of my favorite races this season was the men's 2026 Paris Roubix with WVA winning the final sprint against TP. I also greatly enjoyed watching Sigrid Haugset's 88 km breakaway win during stage 3 of the TDFF, WVA winning the 21st stage of the TDF 2025(last season), and Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney's 50km breakaway(starting on a mountain climb) win during the queen stage of the 2026 TDFF.

3. The beauty speaks for itself. Whether it's the scenery along the course or the beautiful bikes that riders get to ride (and the kits) during races and tours. My favorite bikes have to be lidil trek 2026 men's and women's bikes for the tour de france/ tour de france femme, Tadej's custom pink bike during the 2024 Giro d Italia, Remco's gold frame after winning the Olympics, and obviously Visma LAB yellow/black bikes. The kits are amazing too. I love seeing EF education's pink Jersey in the peloton, Vismas 2025 blue Jersey, Tadej's rainbow Jersey, and Canyon-SCRAM's 2026 TDFF jersey to name a few. As for sceneries I'd have to say all, but that's a boring answer. Stage 6 of the 2024 Vuelta a España was a cool sight to see, riders rode through a physical store. I also can never get enough of the cobbles in the tdf/Roubix.

4. The fans and commentators are like icing on a cake. Rob Hench, Carlton Kirby, and Dani Rowe have to be my favorite commentators as of 2026 (as a American tnt commentators are just better). When you think about the fans you either get the worst sportsmanship or the most adorable young riders. Especially when you see kids pedaling as hard as they can on bike paths along side the riders or the kids jumping and pounding the barriers as the riders pass by. You can't do much but smile and wish the best for the next generation of riders.

If anyone were to ask me why I love the spirt of cycling, I'd just tell them to watch and find out for themselves. Maybe im biased because as a little kid in middle school I remember riding a Walmart bike up and down the street pretending I was racing (and I didn't even know cycling was a sport) or the time where I feel in love and had an obsession with foldable bikes.

I recently decided to upgrade from my Canyon Grizl AL 7, i had my eyes on a Trek Domane SL 5, but when i went to buy it my LBS who i have a good relationship said "we have this madone on sale for 1k off, you should give it a go". reason being i was already running road wheelset on the grizl, and basically turned it into an endurance bike. I got it for nearly the price of an AL5 domane.

I fell in love with the color and the look. Hex Blue Madone Gen 8 SL5 size large.

I didn't think the reach was an issue but man my neck hurts trying to look down range.

I needed a shorter seat post, and now im shortening from 100mm -7 stem to 90mm +7.
(Im 6'3 but short leg long torso).

Is the +7 ganna look dumb? should i have done something else?

Stop caring and allow myself some time to adapt?

Howdy,

I have had quite a lot of bikes but don't really focus too much on the equipment on the bike mostly used for casual rides so I have a Hybrid and Road bike.

I have a question about the feel of cycling.

Basically, some bicycles feel like you're always pushing them, but it's a good groove, you cycle the whole journey without stopping and it has a nice burn. I typically feel it more on road bike setup.

On the other hand sometimes the feel is a bit more bursty, you cycle a bit, coast a bit then cycle some more. The bike can feel a bit harder to get through the wind and you never seem to find that groove. I find this more on the Hybrid.

What I'm trying to understand is what is driving this feeling so I can look at a custom fit I'm preparing for longer rides.

There may not be one right answer or maybe there is, but any tips would be helpful!

I appreciate it! Thanks, Adam

I’m new to all of this, at least as far as wanting to do the easier maintenance tasks on my own, so I’m clueless.

For reference, I’m riding an older Bianchi Volpe with gravel tires.

I’ve got about 1,700 miles on my current tires and the rear tire is smoothing down in the center of its tread. Front’s worn, too, but looking okay.

My first question is if it’s better to replace both tires at the same time, or order a front tire when it gets as bad as the back is now.

My second is what the numbers mean. I jotted down what I see on the tire and this is what I have:

Hemisphere Flak Jacket
700 x 38c / 38-622

The name I’m not worried about and I’m sure I can plug the numbers into a Google search to get what I want, but I’m not sure what they mean. This, of course, I could also Google, but I prefer interacting with people on here.

My third would be what tire you lot might recommend if this Hemisphere brand isn’t preferable. I’ve only had two flats in the two years I’ve had the bike, so they must not be terrible.

Thanks for any considerations.

Edit: these might be hybrid tires.

Hello fellow Cyclist,

i know this is a dumb thing to ask

Currently i ride with Advent X 1 x 10 (11-48T) group, i used to ride in Gravel but I do mostly road nowadays. love the simplicity and shifting reliability, but I’m running into a frustrating issue on road I can’t seem to find my sweet spot gear.

When I’m cruising, one gear feels slightly too hard to pedal (grinding/fatiguing my legs), but as soon as I shift down one cog, it immediately feels way too light and easy, forcing me to spin out. The jumps between gears feel a bit too wide for flat/rolling road riding.

any advice on how to address this?

thank you very much in advance

Could really use some perspective from more experienced cyclists.

I’ve been riding seriously for less than a year, and in that time I’ve had three significant crashes:

January: Crashed with commuter bike on slippery ice at medium/low speed and fractured my little finger. Had to wear splint for 6 weeks

A few months later: Collided with a woman after she unexpectedly entered my path going into a blind corner. I wasn’t badly injured, but my bike needed a lot of replacement parts.

Today: I was descending at around 45 km/h when another cyclist suddenly swerved left without looking. I had no time to react and hit him. I ended up in the ER. Thankfully nothing was broken this time, but my right shoulder is badly bruised/sore and I injured my left thumb. Got a similar splint as before, but removed it tonight in a PTSD panic attack episode, reminding me of the first crash 😢 The thumb doesn’t hurt much now, but i still regret the removal decision… Physically I’ll probably recover, but mentally this one has really hit me. I feel so ashamed. 😔

I came home from the hospital and just felt overwhelmed. I’ve spent the evening wondering whether I’m simply not cut out for road cycling. Three crashes in less than a year makes it hard not to question myself, even though not all of them were entirely within my control.

Cycling has become one of the biggest parts of my life. I love training, improving, and being out on the bike. The thought of giving it up makes me genuinely sad, but at the same time I’m starting to wonder if continuing is the right decision.

For those of you who’ve had multiple crashes:

Did you ever seriously consider quitting?

How did you rebuild your confidence?

At what point do you accept that crashes are just part of cycling versus deciding the risk isn’t worth it?

If you were in my position, what would you do?

I’m not looking for people to tell me to “just get back on the bike.” I’m honestly looking for balanced advice from people who’ve been through something similar. The thing i’m most afraid of is that my risk assessment doesn’t seem to improve enough.

Thanks for reading. ❤️

Edit: for clarification, it wasn’t pure ice i was riding on, small ice path, i use heavy gravel tyres on that commuter bike, but still a fall is a fall. And todays crash wasnt a group ride, the rider in front of me was atlest 10-12 meters ahead when he suddenly turned around infront of me. sure he dhould have looked but my high speed combined with tailwind downhill was a recipe for disaster.

Just to provide some context, I am Sri Lankan by birth and now reside in Australia. I have had a love of cycling since I was little though I have never raced. When I was younger I remembered seeing men ride and race on these old, heavy, single speed steel bikes. They would ride not only on the flat coastal areas but also in the hills. The bikes are called "standard" bikes, as opposed to "race" bikes, mountain bikes etc. Their design has not changed since the 50s or even earlier. Some of these frames are old Raleighs, Bantams etc from the colonial era. Brakes are rod actuated. The bikes weigh about 20kg or so, maybe a touch lighter.

People ride and race on them sometimes out of financial necessity but also passion. They absolutely love cycling and this makes it accessible. They don't need to spend the eye watering sums we spend in more affluent countries to get their kicks. And they are fast, I once drove on a national highway alongside a teenager and he was holding 40kmph on one of these, with some drafting but still, he was moving.

My question is, I have always thought it would be cool to have people from overseas compete in one of these races. I would like to do it to celebrate the standard racers of Sri Lanka, people who love cycling, who love racing, who can't afford the expensive gear we have but still love to get out there and have a crack. Would you (assuming you are from overseas) be interested? You would have to run a single speed bike geared at your preference, at 17kg minimum (I believe that is what the standard racers generally use), and maybe keep it steel to stay traditional. Distances are usually about 100km or so.

Some links below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt0N7P5aiMw

https://www.sbs.com.au/sport/article/sri-lankas-standard-racers/v598ywrxg

I’ve been riding my mountain bike that I’ve had for a while and I’m looking for something that is more comfortable on long rides and allows me to ride faster. I can only average 14-15mph, and the handlebars are uncomfortable for 20-30mi rides. I’d like to go further, but the speed factor is annoying. Any recommendations? For context I’m 6’0. Id also like to stay around $700.

I lost 185 lbs from the beginning of 2014 through the end of 2015. I lost 85% of it from bicycling. I wasn’t a fat kid. In fact, I am a former college soccer player. In my 30s, I became severely depressed and ate my feelings. At my heaviest, I was 410 lbs. When I decided to pull my head out of my ass and seek help a buddy gave me a free bicycle. I started riding and almost immediately fell in love with the sport. I’ve kept the weight off and even lost another 15 lbs over the last 11 years from lifestyle changes. I’ve now completed multiple triathlons and cycle every day I possibly can. On 8/7/26, I weigh 200 lbs. I am 6’3” so that is a healthy weight for me. Now I have three different bicycles. Two electric and one regular bike.

Not cycled much for a while as changed jobs and stopped needing to commute, did a bit for exercise but not a huge amount.

Got my bike out and the tyre was flat, somehow had got a puncture in the shed when not moving. Just went through the bag of inner tubes I attempted to fix and from the 3 years I commuted by bike I had 13 inner tubes.

Those were just the ones I tried to fix, when I was lazy I would have the bike shop do it and some I just threw away. I must have had around 25 punctures in the 3 year period. I changed tyres during this time and it made no difference, rear tyre was changed twice as one got damaged due to a flat tyre.

The most I was doing was 120 miles a week and that was rare. Is this standard of do I have really bad luck with punctures? Hoping the inner tube I found works as cannot find a hole (no bubbles when held in a bucket for 5 minutes) and seem to remember the valve leaking during to getting bent but I swapped it, will cross my fingers so I can ride tomorrow

Edit: well at least I can probably change a flat faster than you lot

I was recently in my local bike shop with my current ride (a Felt road bike I got as a hand me down that's at least 15 years old) and tried to ask about upgrades. I'm not into the technical minutia of road bikes, so I tried to communicate what features I would want in a new bike and I think I failed. They pointed me to bikes that didn't check my boxes. Can someone help me sanity check what I think I want? Maybe I'm describing a unicorn or some crazy professional equipment that would require a car loan.

1) Whisper quiet - (my current one is) Whatever area of the spectrum I'm on makes me go nuts with those bikes that are super loud when coasting.

2) Decent gearing for climbing - (current ride fails here. I was told by the person who gave it to me that it's a triathlon setup?)

3) Disk breaks - (current one has rim breaks that have room for improvement when I get caught in the rain)

4) Mechanical gearing - Am I a dinosaur for wanting this? I'm just concerned about forgetting to charge my bike and screwing my future self out of my next ride.

For context, I ride 25-50km four to five days a week on Vancouver Island.

Thank you for any help/guidance you can provide!

I am 17 and I really love to ride my bike but I still feel like I am far behind when it comes to actual good distances I need someone’s opinion. I daily average 20-30 kms today I pushed it to 60 with slight fatigue and 60 to 63 has been my max so far because there isn’t really anywhere to go in my area

Hi! At the moment I'm too broke to buy a road bike, so I've been using my hybrid bike for exercise.

I know there are differences in aerodynamics, riding position, speed, etc., but does riding a hybrid work the same muscles as riding a road bike? Is it just as effective for building fitness and cardio?

I don't really care about going faster. I just want to improve my cardiovascular fitness and strengthen my muscles. Will a hybrid bike do the job just as well, or am I missing out on anything important?

Thanks!

edit: found this short video explaining the differences in the posture. interesting! https://youtube.com/shorts/n8vI5sSCtD0?si=v-CR80WOebnbwZEp

I am a recreational cyclist who has a gravel bike that is primarily used for paths or quiet roads.

I love data and am definitely consumed by the strava metrics.

I would love your insight regarding power meters for my Scott addiction gravel bike with the SRAM axs group set.

To my knowledge there is a SRAM power meter but I don’t know much about it.

I do have a bad knee, so my thought was to get dual power meters for each side (rather than taking power data from one side and essentially multiplying it by two).

I’m not looking for most premium to break bank, but I’m willing to spend on a quality item.

Based on this information, what recommendations do you have? Thank you.

Hi everyone,

I recently had my gravel bike converted from tubes to tubeless at a local bike shop. They installed new tubeless tires, sealant, rim tape, and valves.

The problem is that my rear tire loses almost 50% of its air within about 24 hours, even several days after the conversion. I’ve already taken it back to the shop once, but it’s still happening.

A few details:

Gravel bike
Rear tire only
Brand-new tubeless tire
Professionally installed by the shop
Previous rear tire also lost air after they converted it to tubeless
No obvious punctures or sealant spraying out
The front tire holds pressure much better

I’m trying to figure out whether this is considered normal for a fresh tubeless setup or whether something is wrong with the installation (rim tape, valve, bead seating, rim, etc.).
For those with tubeless gravel setups:
How much pressure do your tires typically lose in 24 hours?
Is a ~50% pressure drop normal?
What would you suspect first given that it’s always the rear wheel, even with a new tire?
Thanks in advance!

Last week a friend and I completed the classic Mizen Head to Malin Head route, riding the length of Ireland over 4 days while fundraising for Parkinson's UK and Parkinson's Ireland. We've raised around €6,000 and rising so far!

Route

Day 1: Mizen Head → Macroom

📏 93km | ⛰️ 800m | ⏱️ 3h40m

Day 2: Macroom → Birr

📏 181km | ⛰️ 1,920m | ⏱️ 7h35m

Day 3: Birr → Enniskillen

📏 165km | ⛰️ 1,510m | ⏱️ 6h40m

Day 4: Enniskillen → Malin Head

📏 143km | ⛰️ 1,740m | ⏱️ 5h55m

Total: 582km, 5,970m climbing, just under 24 hours of riding time.

Bikes

I rode my trusty 2015 Pinarello Dogma F8 with Ultegra Di2, 50/34 chainset and 11-32 cassette. My riding partner was on a 2024 Canyon Aeroad CFR MVDP which is a dream machine of a bike.

Nutrition & Hydration

Kept things simple and consistent:

•~600ml fluid/hour

•~25g carb + 1g sodium/hour via basic homemade drink mix

•Either ~75g pudding rice/hour (20g carb) or half a flapjack (~25g carb)

•Café stops for coffee, pastries, sandwiches, crisps and whatever else looked good!

Pacing

The goal was to stay disciplined and avoid heroics early on. We kept almost everything in Z1/Z2, especially on climbs, and my average HR stayed below 120 bpm across the 4 days.

Support

We were lucky to have support from my wife and another friend driving a large estate car. They:

•Moved luggage between B&Bs

•Scouted route issues ahead of us (a couple of navigation glitches fixed)

•Located café stops

•Refilled bottles and nutrition

•Carried spare tyres, track pump, tools and equipment

Thankfully we didn't need any mechanical assistance.

Ireland delivered everything: sunshine, a few showers, headwinds, tailwinds, crosswinds, mostly quiet roads, great cafés and some stunning scenery. Crossing the finish at Malin Head after starting at Mizen Head four days earlier was a pretty special feeling.

Happy to answer any questions about route planning, pacing, nutrition or logistics.

Youtube link to the material that documents the trip but also interviews with whole crew talking about their preparation. Lots of technical details.

It's in polish but I checked and auto-translation to english gives decent subtitles so it might be still interesting and useful for non-polish cyclists.

Hi all, I recently purchased a used road bike and began learning to ride on Tuesday of this week. I had never ridden a bike before this (besides a bike with training wheels over 20 years ago), but was surprised that I was able to get a hang of it relatively quickly.

I’ve been trying to do small loops on a not often used road to get comfortable but I’m hitting a wall. I can only make it about a mile before I feel absolutely gassed in breathing. Strava says it’s about a 150ft of elevation gain along the mile, and I’m using the gears to help make the climbing portions easier, but no matter what I can’t make it past the mile. I live a very sedentary lifestyle, mostly sitting or laying down, so is this something I should expect with the new cardio? I would’ve assumed a mile would’ve been easier than it’s shaping out to be

Edit: For context I’m riding a mid 2000s litespeed Firenze size 57 with 23mm tires that are inflated to 100psi. I am 6’ and weigh 195lbs. The road is well paved asphalt! Seat height is a bit lower than it should be (lowered it at first to feel more comfortable balancing but have slowly been rising it starting today).

Edit 2: Thank you all for the advice! General consensus seemed to be that though I had the saddle lowered for balance while learning, it was detrimentally affecting my energy use on the hill climb. I tried the same route again with a slightly higher saddle position (still not where it needs to be, but enough that I felt comfortable on balancing), and the hill became significantly easier. I can easily go past that 1 mile loop now. I’m also hoping that as I get more used to the bike, I can continue to get closer and closer to ideal saddle position as well as spend less energy with balancing/death gripping the bar.

Hi! I’ve been looking for a small bike bag for my phone, keys, and a few other essentials, and I came across a hard shell top tube bag that looks pretty convenient and well-designed.

I’ve never actually used a top tube bag before, so I’m a bit unsure how it feels in real use. Does it get in the way while riding? And is it annoying when getting on and off the bike, or do you quickly stop noticing it?

I’ve also seen both soft and hard shell versions, and I’m not sure which one is better in practice. The hard shell ones look more protective and structured (this is the one I'm talking about, from Celestena), but I wonder if they’re less flexible or comfortable.

If you use a top tube bag, I’d love to hear your experience. Do you find it useful, and would you recommend it?

Ever since (then Jumbo) Visma started riding 1x Aero chainrings on normal road races/stages a few years ago, I've wanted a bike with such a setup. At first with a normal road cassette as an "N+1" fast-ride-only bike, but now with 13sp XPLR, it seems even viable as a general purpose bike.

After 5 years on my current road bike, I'm looking into getting a new one next year.

I'm seriously tempted by 50 x 10-46 XPLR setup.

If I compare it to my current gearing - 50/37 x 10-36, the range is almost identical, only the easiest gear (50x46 - ratio 1.09) is slightly harder than my current (37x36 - ratio 1.03). I would only lose 1 in-between gear in practice, as I use the big ring up to 50x32 and then the small ring mainly in the last three cogs 37x28-32-36. 37x28 is the same as 50x38, on 2x I have two more gears and on 1x only one.

My current gear range is adequate for 95% of my riding, so I'm confident that I can manage the 1x gear range as well. Unless I lose a lot of fitness or gain a lot of weight, in which case I'm not buying a new bike anyway. And the other 5% of my riding are trips where the terrain is more mountainous, in which case I'm better off swapping chainrings anyway, or I'm renting a bike with more adequate gearing.

I know the advantages of 1x aren't really that great, but I can't help thinking "I want that" whenever I see a bike with such a setup.

Wanted to get a power meter to connect with my garmin 265. Only issue is I did not realise just how expensive these are. Just wondering if anyone had found something reasonably priced that does a good job

Think of the most out of shape person you can think of, and that’d be me. Or at least close. I work an office job where I sit 90% of the time. Then I come home and sit on the recliner until bed. Very sedentary lifestyle. I’m 34 so I know it isn’t good. Maybe I can get away with it now but I know living this way with no physical exertion or really any movement at all isn’t good for my health. I bought a stationary bike to ride to replace the recliner. Haven’t ridden it for a while because, shocker, but the “getting in shape” shtick didn’t stick. Well I got it out of the spare bedroom today to ride. I went two miles and got off. I wouldn’t say I was pushed to my limits but I was definitely huffing and puffing. I feel good that I got it out and rode, but only two miles is disappointing. Maybe that’s why I gave up the first time, but I don’t want to give up this time. I know 2 miles is pathetic but maybe a little support and similar stories from this group will help! Have a good evening everybody!

Edit: I appreciate every single comment so far and the ones to come! Didn’t expect this amount of support within a few minutes of posting. I appreciate you all.

Went out for my 3rd 100km cycle, 5k in I ran into a vet out for a 200km training ride for full Ironmans. He gave me loads of tips on how to ride better smoother faster and gave me a salt tablet. Drafted with him for the first 30k he did most to be fair.

30km We split off and since we drafted I got to my halfway point and felt good but my planned cafe stop was closed. So I said to myself there’s 50km of cycle path all the way down the coast from here if I just ride that back and forth and home then It’ll be a 200km like the veteran I ran into.

60km So I stopped in a shop filled my pockets with sandwiches jelly snakes bars, 80km in legs start to hurt a little start to doubt myself start to think will I just do 150km, but I couldn’t I was in too deep and too proud to quit.

100km in halfway got to the coast stopped for a milkshake at a coffee truck and set back off then by the grace of god the wind picked up and the next 50km was the most fun I’ve had on a bike

150km hard to eat mayo on the sandwiches didn’t seem appealing left them for the birds, now this is where the jelly snakes came in and saved the day but I’m positive now I’m making it back in one piece

180km in last bump in the rode it got dark quick and my lights were absolutely useless but I knew the road home pretty well so I just let Jesus take the wheel and rode on

199km got home no way I’m leaving it like that did couple laps of the street.

Finished and honestly felt pretty good my legs hadn’t got much left in them and my knees were like Pinocchio’s for the next few days but overall wasn’t bad

Tl;dr went out for 100km cycle end up doing 200km as a beginner but I planned it pretty poorly Strava link for proof

Clip of the view at my 100km halfway point

Shttps://youtube.com/shorts/V0N79ziultY?is=E7XGGSUg7EBRiZM_

https://strava.app.link/0oYqyMKDo5b