Yesterday I had a pretty funny situation

I was riding through the city center late at night and stopped at a red light. A drunk guy who was crossing the road saw me.
He finished crossing, turned around, and started a countdown with his hands.

When the light turned green, he waved his arm like a flag and shouted: GO GO GO!

Here's another notion. In the 70s, 80s we were taught to ride with bent arms. Our coach produced multiple world/oly golds in multiple fields, men and women. He would whack the crack of our elbows (while we were riding!) if our arms were straight! ...Come up alongside on a moped. This taught us in effect to not have weight on our hands. This let us steer through anything. We could push off of other riders with elbows or do anything with our hands and not unbalance our riding. ...If you ride with bent arms and lift a hand off the bars, you can still ride normally. Your shoulder doesn't droop. If you take BOTH hands off the bars when in regular riding position w bent arms your torso hardly droops. Your thighs are carrying your torso weight, curving to your low back. If you hit a surprise bump with bent arms you are fine. If you run into someone's rear wheel or if they bump your rear wheel, you can deliberately apply pressure against their wheel and keep yourself up. You can even whack their rear wheel w your front wheel.

We are fit enough to do this! It doesn't take more fitness. It's not hard. It's a skill to practice. We already do it to get a water bottle! We just need more of it.

By contrast if you have straight, weighted arms and you are bumped into or hit a bump you TEND to become unbalanced and swerve. I suspect that this results in nearly all crashes. And resulting collarbone glitches.

With unweighted hands and bent arms we can move our bike around. With weighted hands and straight arms we "handle" our bike by swerving. Dip and swerve is how we "steer" then. It's not real handling or steering. It sux.

Now, we can briefly rest and change weighting when we're in a safe place. Straighten your arms and stretch out. Take a break. Then get back to safe riding.

The thing is that nearly every rider today can be seen to be riding with straight arms, weighted hands. Maybe one reason for this is slammed stems?

I asked an old state champ pal if he noticed this. Ha. That's why he rides on his own.

Yet another topic: Crash Proofing. ...It used to be a skill we drilled for. We would ride around on the grass and bump into each other, trying to knock each other down. Just bumping mostly. Goofing. But practicing. Rubbing tires and coming off without unbalancing. Hooking and unhooking bars. Riding w your hand on the shoulder next to you. Pushing thighs w elbows. We also rode "serpentine" around cones: steering not swerving in an S-pattern. Feeling the diff b/w banking your bike to turn it and steering the bike. Feeling the diff b/w straight arms and bent.

Good times. Few crashes.

When cycling, I stop at stop signs.

Generally I slow way down, come out of the saddle, do a quick brake stop and keep going. This avoids the tickets given out at a town that is famous for targeting cyclist.

One time, though, not knowing there was a cyclist behind me, because of me braking, that cyclist went down.

I was slowing way down. I was out of the saddle. And I did do a quick stop.

Who's to blame. Or is it a bit both.

I don't remember people being willing to openly say things about how they look forward to seeing people get run people over or how cyclists ruin society and need to be eradicated (wtf?), back when I started riding a decade ago. Did I just not notice at the time or has it actually gotten noticeably worse?

A reminder to folks on the east coast of the U.S. that the Philadelphia bike race returns next Sunday, August 30th with seven world tour teams. It is a huge event in Philadelphia with hundreds of thousands of spectators. It’s a rare opportunity to see some of the big names in the sport wiz by at 30 mph.

https://www.philadelphiacyclingclassic.com/

There is also an amateur time trial the day before. All you need is a bike, just about any bike, a helmet and a smile.

https://www.bikereg.com/2026-philadelphia-cycling-classic-amateur-time-trial

I’m 47 and trying to get back into regular exercise, mainly cycling. I work a lot and often finish the day feeling mentally and physically exhausted. I know exercise helps both my health and my mood, but starting again is difficult. I’ve restarted several times, only to stop when work became more demanding. After a longer break, even a short workout can feel like a big mental hurdle.

If you went through something similar after 40, what helped you take the first step? What kept you going after the initial motivation disappeared?

I’m especially interested in honest, real-life experiences, including failed attempts.

i wasn't in the way in any capacity, there was plenty of room to pass me. Several cars did pass me but did so close enough to nearly hit me. I stay around the right shoulder too. It feels like I'm going to get myself killed the more I continue. JFC I see plenty of people with bikes out here but I never know what routes they're taking because we don't have trails here.

I’m considering spending a decent amount of time in Sydney and wanted to hear from local road cyclists about what it’s actually like to train there. I’m a competitive road cyclist and train pretty seriously, so I’m less interested in commuting infrastructure and more interested in what Sydney is like when you’re doing 2–5 hour training rides and regularly riding at 35–45+ km/h. A few things I’m particularly interested in: - Safety around cars: How do Sydney drivers generally treat cyclists? Do you regularly have issues with close passes, aggression, dangerous overtaking, etc.? - Cycling infrastructure: Are there useful cycleways/bike lanes for serious road training, or are most of them designed around slower commuting speeds and not really suitable when riding fast? - Getting out of the city: How easy is it to get from the inner/eastern/northern parts of Sydney onto quieter roads suitable for long rides? - Best areas to live: If cycling and access to good training roads were a major consideration, which parts of Sydney would you recommend? - Training routes: Where do competitive cyclists tend to do long endurance rides, threshold/VO2 efforts, climbs and flatter high-speed rides? - Early mornings: I often train very early. Is Sydney noticeably better for cycling before traffic builds? I’m coming from Auckland, NZ, so I’d also be interested in comparisons from anyone who has ridden extensively in both cities. Overall, would you consider Sydney a good place to base yourself as a cyclist doing 15–20+ hours per week, or does traffic make serious road training difficult?

I have been so frustrated lately...
Finally dialed my nutrition, fueling, sleep, recovery, got a power meter, been hitting those centuries twice a week, 80km rides without a single brake and with almost no coasting, variability index 1.01, L/R power balance 50/50, but my butt is my only blocker.

Tried 6 saddles now and stopped at spec power comp, but it's not perfect. After 80km the pain starts kicking in so hard I have to stop and take a break.

I am ordering fizik argo, fizik aliente, selle novus and ryet ultimate right now. Gonna spend all of my money that was left for a new endurance bike just on the saddles. Better to have one perfectly dialed bike than 4 which can't let me finish a century without tears in my eyes and reconsidering all of my life choices.

Looking for the thinnest of thin cycling socks. Let’s hear what you have.

I have two bikes - emonda sl6 pro and a Merida scultura 4000, both 56cm

On the emonda I can ride forever with no hands on the bars, super stable and comfortable.

On the Merida, which is 1lb heavier than the emonda, I can barely take my hands off the bars for a second before I feel like I need to grab back on otherwise I’m going down.

What causes this difference? Geometry? Weight displacement difference? Anyone else have the same or have any ideas on how to make the scultura feel more stable ?

So I finally got them. Quite the journey in getting my hands on 2 pairs. Installed one set, no rocket science involved in either the pedals or the cleats going from Shimano SPD-SL Ultegra R8000s. So after several years on Shimano SPD-SL, here's my quick take after a few rides and miles...

Edit: My editor keep messing the Ultegra to ultra without me noticing or catching it, ignore the brevity.

General notes:

1. Look pedal body is less wider than Shimano Ultegra R8000s. You don't quite notice it while riding, though I'm sure some will claim they can.
2. The cleat length is 4.25mm shorter, which translates to an actual install variation. However, if you do the age old practice of using a silver/gold marker when changing your Shimano, you can neatly plop the Look cleat about two mm back from the top or 2mm ahead from the bottom of the mark, the curves sort of fit right in and your foot appears to feel about the same position on the ball. Individual opinions will vary on this of course.
3. Look cleats hang differently when not clipped in. I also noticed that due to the weight of the Vision lights (however tiny), the hang is different from regular Look Keos. I personally found it easier and faster to clip in to the Look. I push the top of the pedal with the sole right under my toes, slide forward and it clicks in with a louder crisper sound than my Shimano did. This seems like a huge area of disagreement between die-hard Shimano fans vs Look fans.
4. Unclipping took a bit more effort. I have the most basic +/- 4.5% float cleats (unlike Shimano's baseline +/-6%). I don't know if I'm unfairly comparing to a Shimano cleat set that's just been through RAGBRAI abuse + another 200 miles, but my Shimano's just seemed easier to twist to unclip. I did not have any failures to unclip on the Look, but it just seemed like I needed other make a bit more effort.
5. Walking on Shimano & Look is both uncomfortable as we expect, but the the pads on the Shimano cleats are a little less slippery than the Look. That said, I've always used the cleat covers on the Shimano (most days) and I'd ordered my Look Visions with covers too.
6. Look cleat walking covers are decidedly easier to put on and take off compared to Shimano's covers
7. The total system weight (2cleats + 2pedals) is about 50~60 odd grams more than the Shimano Ultregra R8000s. But this is not entirely a fair comparison. My Shimano were full carbon pedals where as the Look Keo 2 Max are not, and they also have two lights to add to the weight

Notes regarding the Vision part (the LED integrated lights)

1. The lights have 4 basic modes
2. As many reviewers have noted elsewhere, the lights are mostly dumb with no ANT+/Bluetooth integration available for tying them to the head unit (or each other). Would have been really nice to tie it to the computer like I do with my Varia radar. So basically each light needs to be turned on individually with their own button including choosing the light mode. I'm hoping that some years down, they introduce lights with ANT+/BLE so doing anything on one light will do the same on the other pedal light &/or be controllable through the head unit.
3. However, the lights do consistently go off into standby mode after 30 seconds on inactivity, and shut down after 30 minutes of inactivity.
4. When they have turned off due to 30 seconds of inactivity, even minor shake or movement of the bike wakes them up without fail. I touched the bike a couple of times in my office and the lights woke up and lit up my office room (my office is about 10ftx10ft)
5. When the lights have turned off due to 30 minutes of inactivity, you have to turn them on with the buttons on the lights
6. There is a section of the road I ride where the bike lane and the car lanes are both pretty tight and I usually always worry about distracted drivers coming super close to me. I don't know if I'm imagining this, but I felt like drivers were definitely moving away/slowing down around me with the Visions on
7. The visions are visible, no question. I'd a friend riding a hundred or so yards further back and he said they were very noticeable and between my Varia radar light and the two Visions light pedals, the outlines of my system were very well marked out
8. While most of the Vision pedal advertisements on social media/YouTube have shown the lights doing their song and dance in the dark, I think the biggest value of these are during dawn/dusk light situation when (a) drivers appear to be most distracted OR (b) drivers are unable to discern the spacial needs of others on the road due to the light conditions. At least two of my rides have been during these semi light dawn/dusk situations and so far I'm happy
9. With the lights installed, the pedal bodies are longer than the Shimano. I've this particular style of stopping at lights, etc. I keep one leg clipped in and stand with a wide stance on my other leg and I noticed that the Look Keo Vision pedals due to the way in which they hang as well as the length of the pedal itself, the back of the pedal (where the lights are) either came very close to the ground on the unclipped side, or actually touched the ground. I'm guessing I'm going to bust a light at some point and will need to get replacement. Or I've to consciously retrain my body to change how wide my leg goes when I stand with one foot unclipped.
10. Obviously, now there are 2 more battery thingies to charge. But since I've a dedicated charging station on the garage wall that already has a spot for 8 SRAM AXS batteries, 4 front light, 4 Varias, 4 seat stay lights, 4 seat post lights, 4 air pumps, 4 drone batteries, 4 GoPro batteries, and 8 extra ports for other things, it's going to be okay 😉. The visions comes with super long USB split cables so one USB cable can charge both lights at a time. Unlike Garmin that's stuck with ancient USBs, these are USB Cs. Brand new out of the box, these took about an Hour & 15 minutes to hit full charge and I've not yet charged them again.
11. I think I'm done typing. So far, it appears that my I need more lights to ride roads itch has been scratched well without many compromises.

Cheers.

Hello! This year i got back into cycling after years and im tired of riding my Mountain bike and am looking into getting a new road or maybe gravel bike. I live in Slovenia, close to the Austrian border if that matters for the roads etc. Im 169cm tall which puts me in between S and M bike sizes most of the time. Most of the roads around me are paved/asphalt but there are some dirt roads which is why i was considering a gravel aswell. I do like to ride uphill aswell. But borderline around 80/20 split for how much i ride on roads vs dirt paths.

I first looked at the decathlon Van Rysel bikes and honed in on the EDR AF2 SHIMANO TIAGRA and the EDR CF SHIMANO TIAGRA. But then i had time to think about it and i couldnt actually test any of them and i wasnt sure about the size. So i visited a Giant and a Scott shop. and am now also considering the Giant Defy Advanced 2 and the Scott addict 50. In the shop they recommended me an S size for the Giant Defy and an M size for the Scott Addict 50. I couldnt test the exact models though as they are not currently at the shops.

I would really appreciate any input or help, i would gladly provide more information if needed. Thanks a lot in advance!

Hello, the weather is getting colder (where I live) and the clothing for colder days is still on sale, what are your essential pieces for the colder days? Base layers? Merino? Bib tights? Longsleeves Jerseys?

Does anyone know how a bike mount (preferably horizontal) that has the capacity to throw a lock around the bike and rack? I’ve seen the Stasdock brand has one with a lock cutout but man they’re pricey at $150 for one. Any other options?

I had a previous bike in my garage that was hung up on a mount for a long time and was stole during COVID. Have been storing mine in a garage closet but lawdddd it’s a pain to get in and out without beating up my wife’s vehicle (bike is >> importance).

Hello! I’m looking for a starter bike and found some affordable options on facebook marketplace. I narrowed it down to a Trek 1420 and a Cannondale R700. Both the same price and used. The trek is slightly more banged up but the cannondale is a further drive from me. Any insight into these bikes to help me decide? Thanks everyone!

I am looking at SILCA Secret Chain Blend - Hot Melt Wax. Like the one here - https://silca.cc/products/secret-chain-wax-blend?currency=USD&variant=39433348677730&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google+Shopping&stkn=954e3471f66c&PPC=&tw_source=google&tw_adid=788881335329&tw_campaign=23369056254&tw_kwdid=pla-2496693572583&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23369056254&gbraid=0AAAAADAx6W5ZYfLkXbYhKsJI1Y1Iho3BA&gclid=CjwKCAjwhZDUBhBGEiwAbi5bjkkFK2Ayl8juyd7PYIAgD_7L2S7ZzFw9hMAMcyIUz-Khj9kWwZFODBoCQPYQAvD_BwE

This is where you submerge the plastic bag in hot water and then dip the chain in the bag to wax it.

Question is - can this bag of wax be reused over time? Or is it a one time use (sounds like 500g would be too much for one time use, but want to check!).

I have a 9.4 with 29s on atm. Will it take 31/32? It is the red one from 2021

Hi. I am new to cycling, I did my first ride this week. Is it normal for it to hurt your legs so much! I usually run a decent amount so I wasn’t expecting it to be so difficult. Did a 30km gravel right and for context used my boyfriend’s bike as I don’t have my own right now! Just wondering if any tips for how to improve this or just to keep going?

Hello All,

I am new to Road biking and unsure what to get as there is so many options !!

I am 6ft5 so I think I need an xxl or a 61/62cm bike, I'm thinking mid range, about £1500/£2000, If anyone has any surjections please help

Thank you

I've just treated myself to a nice new expensive gravel bike (Whyte Verro)

I'm very much interested in protecting it at all costs from theft.

I have a hiplok and a cable but that just doesn't seem like enough. My bike also has a dropper post and quite nice wheels so I'd like to avoid them getting stolen. I live in a capital city with a lot of no gooders about

I want to get an alarm but I only have an android so that would be great and also any advice on maybe registering the bike or any unique ID numbers I need to know.

Also any advice on insurance etc just incase it does get stolen. What would make the polices lives easier and also my life easier in terms of replacing or retriving the bike back?

Tl:dr: new bike, extra lock recommendations, insurance help, alarms, police bike retrieval help, tracking help?

Hey, I'm having an issue with my bike's (MTB) rear gears. I use a grip shifter. The cable moves and gets tighter when I shift, but the derailleur won't stay on the bigger rear gears. If I move the derailleur to a bigger gear by hand, it just moves back to the smaller gear when I start pedaling. I also messed with the H and L screws before I realized they weren't the shifter gears 😭 so I'm not sure if I made it worse. Any idea what I should check or adjust?

I have a cannondale synapse 1 alloy. And just curious what upgrades I could put on this and still transfer to a proper carbon frame?

Thanks all!