First road bike to loose weight

crispydolphin

Hello,

I am thinkin about buying my very first road bike after not cycling for very long time, my main reason is to loose weight and it sparked my interest, I am a 19 year old male and weigh 118 Kg and I am 6ft, I want to do somethin about that so I looked up couple bikes in my prize range, it was Carrera Zelos LE 2013 large size, is it a good idea to cycle to loose weight and if I am not too heavy for the bike?

DaveR1000

Of course its a good idea - and no you're not too heavy for it.

Go for it and best of luck

krissovo

I did the same, I was 138kg last year and now at 104 , I feel great!

The bike will handle the weight just be careful of pot holes, I did buckle one wheel slightly but a trip to LBS had it fixed in no time.

Make sure the gearing is suitable for your fitness as that bile only has 14 gears! I was not that fit at the start and had to fit a triple ring crank set so I could get up my local hills. I still struggle now with a standard crank set but just about coping.

crispydolphin

My area mostly has flat roads and tiny heels, would it be expensive to change the gears?

Invincible

crispydolphin wrote: »

My area mostly has flat roads and tiny heels, would it be expensive to change the gears?

Build up your stamina and those gears will do fine and loose the heels, better to cycle in flat shoes

crispydolphin

I never thought about that, would there be any other tips? It will be very helpful.

dedocdude

krissovo wrote: »

I did the same, I was 138kg last year and now at 104 , I feel great!

34kg drop? well done son! impressive stuff.

marko93

Once you get your fitness / ability up join your local Bike Club and go for spins with them, still haven't done so myself due to time restrictions but there's plenty to be learned from older/experienced riders!

Good luck, I'm in the exact same position, buying my second bike as my beater/commuter to continue to weight loss!

EaSwe

Just build up your fitness gradually, and don't push yourself too much too quickly.
I don't think weight should be an issue really. Once your a bit fitter I would definitely look into joining a local cycling club, being a similar age to you I found it really helped, you'll learn so much from the other riders there and it's nice to have that social aspect. Maybe look into doing a charity cycle or sportive next year, as something to work towards.

Good Luck!

kuro_man

Sign up for a (flat-ish) 100km event sometime next spring, then train for that. It is much easier to train when you have a target to aim for. If you can cycle 70km on your own, you'll be fine on the day.

Count calories to loose weight. You might burn 500 calories on spin, but it is very easy to eat 1000 on your return.

jober

im cycling a year now, was 17 1/2 stone now 14, didnt change my diet to much
i now cycle 200 + kms a week commuting and a week-end spin
i found setting myself a target helped, mine was to cycle to galway (from dublin) which i done solo in july
just dont try over do it on distance to early, i decided to jump from 40km to 80km and suffered ,just up your distance by 10-15%
iv read here joining a club helps but i do all my cycling solo

crispydolphin

I will look into the events, and I visited couple of shops and they said 500-700 entry bikes are better to start off on, but counting in the gear I need would bring it up too much as it already is

crispydolphin

I went into the Helford store and the bike is brought down from 750 to 320 so I will go ahead with the bike

crispydolphin

And thank you for the support, it helped a lot and much appreciated

Inspector Coptoor

Good man.
Fair play on getting started.

I;m only on the bike since June but I absolutely love it now.
Cycle around 100km a week commuting to work and get another 50-100km in at the weekends.

working well for changing body composition and low impact on the joints too.
(i;m a fairly big lad too @ 103kg)

Bigus

The main gear I'd recommend is padded shorts , even to wear under track suit bottoms or padded cyling leggings in aldi or lidl . Padding in the shorts will extend the time you can spend on the bike , as your bum will be the limiting factor of the time you can spend on the bike rather than fitness.

Secondly, it's very tempting to actually eat more "because I worked it off cycling" so make sure you eat less and better and stay away from energy drinks and bars ,just have water in the bike bottle.

Thirdly find a few hills.


And definitely aim to do an event of a decent distance
Good luck

crispydolphin

I will be picking up my bike tomorrow at 10 and I am definitely buying padded shorts hahaha

krissovo

Check out TKMax for shorts, I was using lidl shorts and chaffed a bit after 30k's. I found a great set of Birko's in TKmax for 20 euro and zero chaffing and doing 60k plus :-)

crispydolphin

There is no TKmax here but I've seen them in halfords for 18 euro and thought of buying those

quozl

You'll also find that whatever shorts you have that for the first while your arse is going to be sore on surprisingly short spins. It's to do with your legs getting stronger and supporting more of your weight rather than it all resting on the saddle.

So don't be put off, that passes in a few weeks.

Paddy Fields

Good topic and I'm in the same ehhh, boat. I too was a bit afraid that I was too heavy for a bike at about 95-100kgs. Recommendations for bikes especially with pics welcome. Halford's?

crispydolphin

Paddy Fields wrote: »

Good topic and I'm in the same ehhh, boat. I too was a bit afraid that I was too heavy for a bike at about 95-100kgs. Recommendations for bikes especially with pics welcome. Halford's?

Yeah, currently halfords have a sale for a Carrera bike from 750 down to 320, they assemble the bike for free too

TychoCaine

On the whole weight issue, as long as you 'get light' (i.e. raise yourself out of the saddle slightly) when you hit the bumps you'll be fine on all but the lightest of bikes. The wheels are the weakest link, and some ultra-lightweight race wheels wouldn't last long under a 118Kg load, but the sort you find on a <€1000 bike will be fine. Even if you do trash the wheels, a pair of Mavic Aksiums or Shimano R-501s won't break the bank and will survive the lardiest of arses.

FYI, I'm even taller and heavier than you (right now) and I'm plugging away with a carbon bike on R-501 wheels and I haven't even broke a spoke yet.

joxerjohn

It is not that easy to get started this time of year with the dark evenings etc. but try and make sure you get out on the bike as much as you can.

Make sure you get yourself a good track pump to keep you tires well inflated before each ride (about 100psi) otherwise punctures can be a problem. Make sure you have a few spare tubes and that know how to change a tube to get yourself home when you do get a puncture. Get yourself a good pair of padded cycling shorts as you may find it a bit uncomfortable on the rearend at first.

Built it up slowly, maybe using time/duration of the the cycle as good guide. So initially go out for spins of up to 1 hour, then after a few weeks built it up to 2 hours in increments of say 10 mins at a time over a 6 - 8 week period. Then you want to build up to 3 hours after that.

That is not to say that every spin will be 3 hours long maybe once a week a three hour spin and one or two 1 hour spins during the week. So if you aimed to get to 5 hours a week by the the spring then you would be doing very well.

An hour will roughly be equal to about 25km when you start off so 3 hours is 75/80 Km. If you can handle that distance then you will be well able to tackle the sportive event at around 100Km. It takes a while to build up the distance so building up slowly is the way to go rather than trying to do too much too soon.

Best of luck, and let us know how you get on !

crispydolphin

Thank you very much for the tip, I went on the bike yesterday and found out I am completely out of shape, and had to sprint to bike shop to get a lock then sprint into college, it was hell in jeans haha

Hunterbiker

Good luck. I started for the same reason and it does work. You just have to be consistant and make yourself get out there.

As for kit as well as the shorts get some spare inner tubes and a couple of tyre levers as many a bike lies dust covered for not having a spare tube to hand...

iMADEtheBBC

Hey OP well done on getting started. I'm at it now since June and got a bike through the bike to work scheme.

Kept going in the good weather doing 15-20km most days and even managed to hit 30km some weekends.

With the weather turning (and work getting more hectic) it's been challenging to get out as often and I have to limit myself to < 20km every couple of days.

Working from home means a commute isn't going to help.


Any tips for keeping it going through the winter?

Any advice for thinking about a "next bike"? The reason I ask is that I bought a Giant Solo which is a good solid road bike but I reckon I should really be thinking of getting a lighter frame ... a racer I guess. I'd target doing one of those long 50km-100km treks next spring or summer but I can't imagine it's do-able with my heavy road bike. Or am I wrong?

quozl

iMADEtheBBC wrote: »

The reason I ask is that I bought a Giant Solo which is a good solid road bike but I reckon I should really be thinking of getting a lighter frame ... a racer I guess. I'd target doing one of those long 50km-100km treks next spring or summer but I can't imagine it's do-able with my heavy road bike. Or am I wrong?

I don't know the Solo but you could do a 100km sportive on it next year if you wanted to. A friend of mine did the 105km Joe Loughman in September on a Hybrid. People - weirdos - do the Wicklow Way 200 on mountain bikes.

If your bike has straight handlebars rather than drop-bars then IMO you'll find it a lot more comfortable for long rides on a drop-bar bike. If it does have drop-bars and it's just heavy then don't worry about that, a few Kg is feck all really when you and I weight so many multiples of that!

BTW, I tried googling the Giant Solo and couldn't find any hits?

JonDoe

Try a heart rate monitor, 220 bpm minus your age is the maximum you should hit.
Then the fat burn zone is roughly between 60%-80% of this, try keep it up for 45minutes a few times a week. Weight will fall off.

After a while when you're used to cycling again, start single speeding, every other, other ride. Pick a route. Then select the highest gear you can that will get you through all the terrain. Then try cover the course as fast as you can. It's very good cardio and hard on your system (but not as hard as running) I use a single speed 29er for this with really wide bars, good work for all the body.
This will get you body out of the cycling grind routine, get rid of lower back pains and shift more stubborn weight.

If you buy a heart rate monitor (€30 ish on line) there will be more guidance to the different zones for fitness levels.

nordicb

In my view HR monitoring will certainly help to loose weight more efficiently and train safely within your abilities. It is believed staying aerobic below zone 3 should promote greater fat burn.

mondeo

I have to say I have learned a lot reading through this thread... I'm trying to get the best out of my hybrid.