The pain!! The weakness!! The embarrassment!!

Since 2001, over 90,000 cyclist's have joined Cycling Forums to discuss topics from general cycling to equipment, training, racing and travel or vacation destinations (especially in europe during the tour de france). We also feature an great deals in our online store, 100's of articles, classifieds and product reviews.

Hi,
My name is Jon and I've had a BH speedrom for 5 days now.
I've been riding a mountain bike for a few years and would say that I'm relatively fit, experienced and even teach skills to students. I train approx 3 times a week, off road in the dark, in the mud etc.
I recently decided that I wanted to increase fitness and loose weight so that I could compete in some adventure races on the mountain bike. After much reading, and discussion I decided about using the road bike.
she arrived all shiny and new, so that afternoon I replaced my mountain bike gear for lycra! That was easy, maybe a little too easy!!
I then got onto the bike, rode about 100m and thought I must be in the wrong gear. I unclipped, put my foot on the pavement and fell over!! stupid spd's, not like that on a MB. I realized that I was in the granny gear and proceeded very slowly up the slight gradient, unbelievable! It wasn't long before I was going along the flat and changed gear, changing back was another stop, slide with the shoes and fall onto my back!!
I got back on and cycled to "The Hill" owwww!! half way up I decided to get out of the saddle; that lasted half a turn of the crank before I sat down again! The bike twisted and turned with every breath, stone, bug that came in its way.
To cut a very long journey ( 3 miles!!) short, I eventually got home, alive!

My question to you all.... Is it just me? Should I get back on my mountain bike and dream of mud? Can I get past the, I'm so scared I can't put my hands on the drops? Will I one day be able to ride one handed long enough to wipe the sweat out of my eye?
Any, I mean any advice would be most welcome.

Jon, I now can't ride a bike, Hodge

Many casual road bikers use SPDs, myself included. Maybe you should get a spare pair of mountain pedals and some shoes with rubber on the sole.

Just get back on that horse! If you can ride a MTB, you can ride a road bike.

Absolutely you will be able to do it. You may want to start as I did a while ago with the pedals with spd on one side and flat on the other. Those are good for touring if your clips somehow break.

Fear is really not such a bad thing...it will make you smarter and more attentive. Just too much fear is the problem...Also practice in grassy areas to start, off road and away from traffic. So if you fall it is not a problem...

I learned here in NYC traffic and boy was that an experience the first day...lol

-Js

Hi,
My name is Jon and I've had a BH speedrom for 5 days now.
I've been riding a mountain bike for a few years and would say that I'm relatively fit, experienced and even teach skills to students. I train approx 3 times a week, off road in the dark, in the mud etc.
I recently decided that I wanted to increase fitness and loose weight so that I could compete in some adventure races on the mountain bike. After much reading, and discussion I decided about using the road bike.
she arrived all shiny and new, so that afternoon I replaced my mountain bike gear for lycra! That was easy, maybe a little too easy!!
I then got onto the bike, rode about 100m and thought I must be in the wrong gear. I unclipped, put my foot on the pavement and fell over!! stupid spd's, not like that on a MB. I realized that I was in the granny gear and proceeded very slowly up the slight gradient, unbelievable! It wasn't long before I was going along the flat and changed gear, changing back was another stop, slide with the shoes and fall onto my back!!
I got back on and cycled to "The Hill" owwww!! half way up I decided to get out of the saddle; that lasted half a turn of the crank before I sat down again! The bike twisted and turned with every breath, stone, bug that came in its way.
To cut a very long journey ( 3 miles!!) short, I eventually got home, alive!

My question to you all.... Is it just me? Should I get back on my mountain bike and dream of mud? Can I get past the, I'm so scared I can't put my hands on the drops? Will I one day be able to ride one handed long enough to wipe the sweat out of my eye?
Any, I mean any advice would be most welcome.

Jon, I now can't ride a bike, Hodge

[QUOTE=jsirabella

Fear is really not such a bad thing...it will make you smarter and more attentive. Just too much fear is the problem...Also practice in grassy areas to start, off road and away from traffic. So if you fall it is not a problem..

-Js[/QUOTE]


HUH!?
RIDE a road bike in grassy areas / off road? is that possible actually!?

...HUH!?...RIDE a road bike in grassy areas / off road? is that possible actually!?Yeah, I've done it many times. I've also ridden dirt roads, single track trails, deep gravel and all kinds of other funky surfaces with 23c road slicks.

An old school trick for learning balance and bike handling is a game of "chop". Basically you take a bunch of folks on road bikes and confine them to an arbitrary playing field such as a grassy park. The idea is to force other riders to track stand and fall over or put a foot down without outright pushing and shoving. Last rider upright wins. You get pretty good at body english and slow speed maneuvering.

Riding road bikes on grass or other soft surfaces is no big deal and a pretty good thing to have in your bag of tricks for times when the road is less than ideal. I watched a racer get around a bunched up pack in an uphill sprint this spring by cyclocrossing off in the gravel, grass and tree roots when most of us were just boxed in. Gotta give him credit, he moved up a dozen or more places with that move.

-Dave

Thanks all,

Drove to an area not so hilly this morning and did 4 miles!! I know, amazing!! My wife cycled on her mountain bike whilst I moved around the bike at low speed, standing up, sitting down, putting weight around the bike and I almost feel I can do this now!! I even rode one handed for a while and put my hands on the drops!!
I think the problem I had before was the fact I live in such a hilly area on the edge of Dartmoor and wasn't used to the gearing/feel of a road bike.
I'm happy now and need to think about a sensible training routine.
Thanks again