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Old September 5th 03, 11:42 PM
Rick Onanian
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Default Need to go faster / New to road bikes

On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 16:15:27 -0600, Ken Bessler wrote:
few months. That and a proper diet has dropped my weight
from a high in march of 298 to 231 now.


Congrats! I wish I could lose weight as easily.

for a replacement then stopped in the Salvation Army. I
saw a Bianchi road bike for $35. I figgured if I avoided the


Wow, great find. Maybe I'll start hitting those
Salvation Army stores...

And what wierd handlebars! Shaped like regular road bike
bars but with the brake cables hidden in the wrapping. I


This is the standard now.

thought this was just for looks untill I saw a pic of Lance
Armstrong riding with his hands on the back of the brake
handles. It was then that I realized why they are that way.


The rubber grip on the back of the brake handle is
referred to as the "hood", and you are said to be
"riding on the hoods" when your hands are there. It
is a comfortable, useful, and safe place for your
hands.

It's probably where my hands are most on my road bike.

Nice bike! It's my first road bike, with 700x23 mm tires
rated for 115 psi (Yikes!!!). A local bike dealer suggested
running with 85-90 psi untill I lost more weight - he was
worried that I'd be breaking spokes. He appraised the
bike at $500.00 new and said it was a 1994 model or
thereabouts.


Unless it has exotic, low-spoke-count wheels, or
rotting tires, I'd pump it to the 115 psi max.
I'd be more concerned with pinch flats (when the
tube gets cut between the rim edge and the tire,
due to underinflation) and worse, rim dents from
those potholes.

What gets me is how much faster and farther I can ride


Yup, you have the proper equipment for the
conditions: a road bike for the road. It is
designed for the road, and is significantly
faster for a whole slew of reasons.

Herin lies the problem - I'm running out of gear - I mean
on a slight downhill or with a tailwind I top out at
about 23-25 mph and I feel like I need more gearing.


I have this problem, though at higher speeds, too.

I'm in 10th gear and peddaling like mad and my legs
feel like I'm in 5th gear or so.


In cycling discussions, it's more common to refer
to the size of the individual gears, so in 10th,
you probably mean 52x13. In 5th, you maybe mean
38x13 or 52x29 or something.

Can I change out the gears to get a taller setup? The


Short answer: yes.

For least expensive results, you will need to find
a compatible "freewheel", which is probably the type
of gears you have on the rear (the other type is a
"cassette").

Or, you may be able to replace your large chainring
(the 52) with a larger one (a 53). This may turn out
to be both easier and cheaper, and possibly less
compatibility issues.

See http://www.sheldonbrown.com/ for in-depth
technical info. There are multitudes of other
very useful sites around too.

in the rear is 13 teeth. Is this 52/13 a fast ratio or a
hill climb setup?


That's a controversial question, believe it or not.

There are people here who will tell you that you
can't possibly be strong enough to need a taller
gear than that. Others, like myself, know it's
easy to make use of it for some people.

To say something is a hill climb setup, you would
need to specify it's lowest gear combo, not it's
highest.

52/13, IMO, is a conservative hill descent setup.
I use 52/13 on flat land comfortably, and want for
more when descending (and maybe someday I'll stop
saying that and actually do it).

How do I know which model
Bianchi I have? It just says "Bianchi" on the stickers
and "Limited" stamped into the ends of some of the
frame tubes.
The bike's VIN is JS11101.......


Somebody else might be able to help with that by
serial number, but you'd probably be better off
putting photos of it on a website so people here
can look at it.

Also, look for details that could identify it,
like exactly what equipment is on it (brands of
parts, etc), then post whatever info you find.

You might try rec.bicycles.tech.

Ken

--
Rick Onanian
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