Bicycle racing for almost anyone

If you want to push the point, in a nutshell you will be looking for a comfortable, easy-handling bike for road racing and a quick-handling, higher-clearance machine for criteriums. A blend of the two is a nice compromise, and how you arrive at that compromise will be trial and error – unless you instinctively know that you want an unstable, flighty, jumpy road rocket and will settle for nothing less. (I personally have never had more than 3 road bikes, all different in character, at any one time.)

Bikes, character? In some respects bikes are bikes – 2 wheels, cranks, chain, pedals, saddle et al. However there are the wanky-looking carbon single piece frames, the conventional triangled tube effect and many variations in between. But that’s not really character, as I see it. It may be style, it may be substance… but not character!

Character is the way the bike handles, how it jumps, how it leans into a corner… Some bikes are built short and high in the bottom bracket, with steep frame angles to give you ‘jump’ out of corners, lifting the front wheel like a 500cc racing motorcycle; which is nice, if a little nervous. You don’t want that all of the time. You find yourself leaning forward, pushing that front wheel down (and thereby encouraging that back wheel to lift!). Sounds like a good criterium (‘crit’) bike to me!

Other, less steep frame angles give a more relaxed approach, where things happen slower and you can take your hands off the bars, get that energy bar out of your back pocket, change out of that rainjacket and write a note home to mum without finding yourself falling road-wards. Now that’s a road bike – it won’t embarrass you at a feeding station or when stopping at the cafe.

Even when you have the frame angles the way you want them, you can still tweak the bike by changing seat height, stem length and height, crank length, gearing… you name it. It will all have an effect of some sort, it’s just a matter of what effect you want.

Get some help, and do be careful, won’t you? You won’t get your bike set up right without proper assistance. Even after seeking such help, you may prefer to do your own thing. It’s a free country.(Depending upon which country you are in when you read this, of course.)

Firstly, whatever you do, get plenty of opinions, and be prepared to try different ideas. I know one 70 year old who is still adjusting his position after over 50 years of racing!

Secondly, when making changes, make only small adjustments, and each one in isolation, to give your body some time to adjust to that new position. By making big changes and then doing a long training ride I managed to injure my knees and put myself off the road for a few weeks. It's a painful lesson. Don't be tempted.

Labels: bike racing, bikeracing 101, bikes