First road bike to loose weight

crispydolphin

Same as, got a letter of approvement from Suzi so I'll be abable to get the heart monitor.

krissovo

I picked up a heart monitor in aldi today for 16 euro

T-Maxx

krissovo wrote: »

I picked up a heart monitor in aldi today for 16 euro

Might grab one myself at that price. Which one were you at? Plenty stock left?

RayCun

JonDoe wrote: »

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.

(220-age) is wildly inaccurate for most people
the more you train, the more fat you will burn. You don't have to stay in a particular HR zone

crispydolphin

I want to get one with millage as well and limit or heart rate etc

petethedrummer

mondeo wrote: »

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

Like most threads, some of the information is wrong, some of it is right and some of it is highly debatable.

krissovo

petethedrummer wrote: »

Like most threads, some of the information is wrong, some of it is right and some of it is highly debatable.

Interested to know what you info on this thread you categorize as wrong?

petethedrummer

krissovo wrote: »

Interested to know what you info on this thread you categorize as wrong?

There isn't enough time in the day. And I may be wrong about about the wrong stuff.

crispydolphin

This isn't about who is right or wrong, everyone has different experiences, don't make it complicated for the beginners like myself will think that this thread might be no help, like I said, everyone has different experiences.

petethedrummer

That was my point. There is a lot of information in this thread for a newbie. You may try it, find it doesn't work and think you are the problem. The information may be the problem. That's all.

T-Maxx

petethedrummer wrote: »

Like most threads, some of the information is wrong, some of it is right and some of it is highly debatable.

Sooo,

You can get HRM in Aldi for €16
You can get HRM in Aldi but they're more than €16
You can't buy HRM in Aldi
You can but they're junk

RayCun

crispydolphin wrote: »

This isn't about who is right or wrong, everyone has different experiences, don't make it complicated for the beginners like myself will think that this thread might be no help, like I said, everyone has different experiences.

Basic advice for beginners:
Do a bit more every week - a bit longer, a bit faster, a bit hillier, whatever. Slow but steady improvement will get you there.
You don't need to know your exact speed, distance, heart rate, calorie intake...
Just every week, go out and do a bit more than the week before.

petethedrummer

T-Maxx wrote: »

Sooo,

You can get HRM in Aldi for €16
You can get HRM in Aldi but they're more than €16
You can't buy HRM in Aldi
You can but they're junk

Some of the information....

Stone Deaf 4evr

If you can stretch to it, and have a fancy dan smartphone, it might be worth holding out for a bluetooth heart rate monitor. you can download apps like strava and endomondo that track your training routes, and your heartrate hear and there. to be perfectly honest, i just like looking at all the pretty graphs and lines, but its nice to show off the work you've put in to your friends. Its alwasy cool to see how much further you can go as time passes.

ford2600

crispydolphin wrote: »

This isn't about who is right or wrong, everyone has different experiences, don't make it complicated for the beginners like myself will think that this thread might be no help, like I said, everyone has different experiences.

There is no need for a heart rate monitor for most cyclist.
Buy it if you want another gadget, but it is not remotely necessary.

Cycle your bike, enjoy your time on bike, eat well, eat very little junk, rest when tired.

If your goal is weight loss, avoid sugary drinks, bars gels etc.... I could open a can of worms here....

Seaneh

The best advice I got when I started road riding was "it doesn't get easier, you just get faster". I think that's true.

crispydolphin

I mainly need it because I have heart problems in male side of my dads side family, my brother head a heart support thing placed recently and that's why I want to get fit to have little to no chance of that happening to me, and I have a smartphone so I might look into bluetooth one.

EaSwe

Maybe I'm reading what you said wrong, but I can't see how a heart rate monitor has got a whole lot to do with a family history of cardiac issues. Obviously, it might help you get fitter faster, I started off without and never used one yet but I can see how it can be useful.

If there is a history of cardiac issues in your family though maybe talk to your GP about screening etc. just to be sure

Anyways good luck with it

crispydolphin

What I meant is that I want to lose weight and get fit which will improve my health and prevent any problem which I might have, just a precaution, and it would basically make me feel better and I'm interested in cycling, so the heart monitor would be very usefull to not put too much strain on my body and help mentaim
mentain a lot of things

EaSwe

From that point of view it makes sense then. My only pieces of advice, (I'm relatively new to cycling too) is too try to get out as often as you can with maybe one longer spin at the weekend, and to not push yourself too far as, I did this once and put me off for a while.

RayCun

crispydolphin wrote: »

What I meant is that I want to lose weight and get fit which will improve my health and prevent any problem which I might have, just a precaution, and it would basically make me feel better and I'm interested in cycling, so the heart monitor would be very usefull to not put too much strain on my body and help mentaim
mentain a lot of things

I can see that you'd like the reassurance of a heart rate monitor... but, honestly, unless you know your heart rate zones accurately, a HRM telling you your heart rate is 155, 165, or 175 isn't providing you with any useful information. You will know yourself, from breathing and perceived effort, when you are working hard.

TychoCaine

I'd disagree. Most HRMs will not only display BPMs, but also your zone taking age into account. They're not much use on the road, (you should be looking at the road after all) but they're a huge help on a turbo trainer to ensure you work as hard as you should, but not too hard.

RayCun

TychoCaine wrote: »

I'd disagree. Most HRMs will not only display BPMs, but also your zone taking age into account. They're not much use on the road, (you should be looking at the road after all) but they're a huge help on a turbo trainer to ensure you work as hard as you should, but not too hard.

But 220-age is no more accurate for working out max HR than throwing darts at a board.
If you do a lab test, or an uphill-sprint-till-you-puke test, or some other reasonably well established method of working out HR zones, then cool, HR-based training is useful.
If you get some crappy Lidl HRM, enter your age, and then slow down because it tells you you've left your fat-burning zone...

petethedrummer

which zone is the fat burning zone?

RayCun

just south of the Bermuda triangle
http://www.builtlean.com/2013/04/01/fat-burning-zone-myth/
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/fatburn.htm

Danjamin1

What are peoples opinions of the Carrera Zelos?

I'm currently on a Lapierre hybrid (Shaper 300) which I bought two years ago on the BTW scheme and I'm thinking of picking up a road bike as well. I plan on keeping the hybrid for short, casual cycles as I really like it, but I'd also like to get a road bike for longer cycles. my BTW allowance was used 2 years ago so I can't avail of it again.

I've been looking around and was thinking of getting another Lapierre in Cyclesuperstore for €750-900, but this seems like a great deal in Halfords at the moment as it's down from €750 to €320.

So should I look in to the Carrera or consider something else around the €750 mark?

crispydolphin

I'm bringin my Carrera back to the shop, the wheels gave in, rear brakes and dodgy and nearly fell on the road when the gear changed out of nowhere, I'll ask them if they'll fix it for free or give me my money back

keppler

Danjamin1 wrote: »

What are peoples opinions of the Carrera Zelos?

I'm currently on a Lapierre hybrid (Shaper 300) which I bought two years ago on the BTW scheme and I'm thinking of picking up a road bike as well. I plan on keeping the hybrid for short, casual cycles as I really like it, but I'd also like to get a road bike for longer cycles. my BTW allowance was used 2 years ago so I can't avail of it again.

I've been looking around and was thinking of getting another Lapierre in Cyclesuperstore for €750-900, but this seems like a great deal in Halfords at the moment as it's down from €750 to €320.

So should I look in to the Carrera or consider something else around the €750 mark?

Halford's prices are basically meaningless! They purposely inflate the listed price of their bikes so they can do exactly what they're doing now with the Zelos. If you look at the spec of the bike you'll find that its fairly basic by todays entry level standards. Steel forks, Tourney gears non-integrated shifters, tektro brakes. In my humble opinion that bike might have been worth 750 about twelve years ago but today its just about worth 320. So really, I don't think you're getting much of a bargain.

First thing I'd do if I were you is take a good look on adverts.ie and donedeal. If you're committed to buying new then I would take a look up at decathlon in belfast or on their website (they deliver to the republic for 20euro i think) they have the triban 5 for around €500 which has a vastly superior spec to the velos....carbon fork & sora groupset. There is another big cycling shop in derry but cant remember its name right now. Also take a look at wiggle sometimes they have good bargains on special offer and they deliver to Ireland too.
I'm sure there are some competitive shops in the republic too but you'll just have to do a bit of looking is all.

krissovo

crispydolphin wrote: »

I'm bringin my Carrera back to the shop, the wheels gave in, rear brakes and dodgy and nearly fell on the road when the gear changed out of nowhere, I'll ask them if they'll fix it for free or give me my money back

Wow, thats nuts! Sounds like is was setup badly, at a guess the spokes were lose and not checked in the shop

Danjamin1

That doesn't inspire much confidence in the Carrera so!!

My gears did the same thing on me before and I ended up going over the handlebars right on my face. It resulted in a trip to the emergeny room and some stitches to hold my face together

I found out later that what happened was cross-chaining. If you're not aware of it, it happens when your gear selection isn't quite right and your chain ends up being stretched as it's going between the wrong cogs. When I moved my pedal back at a set of traffic lights it shifted gears on me, then when the light turned green and I took off it shifted back rapidly and sent me flying.

Rookie mistake that won't happen again!!

Here's some info about it:

http://www.activesports.co.zw/train_health_nutrition/mtb_cross_chain.htm