The Result So Far

Went for a ride over the weekend and attempted to keep my cadence up at the 80-100 rpm range.  Averaged maybe 86 rpms over an hour and a half but still wasn’t able to get my speed up.  Average speed after the ride turned out to be 23.9 kph, a bit of an improvement over my previous average but still no great shakes.  I suppose it’s just a matter of getting the mileage on and working on my legs at this point.  I’m also not sure if the cadence made the ride easier but I was still pooped afterwards.

Ayala Alabang Ocho Bike Route

This is my daily/standard bike route, the popular "ocho" around Ayala Alabang Village. Each full round is around 12k and involves a good combination of straights, long hills, descents, smooth road, rough road, and traffic. On weekends there are a ton of bikers on this route in the early mornings. By the time I usually get on the road these guys are done and enjoying a Coke and merienda down at the coop on Luzon Street. It’s a challenging route for beginners like me in that the hills still pose problems in terms of leg fatigue. It isn’t uncommon for me to be plugging away on the hill behind the country club only to have a more experienced/weathered biker breeze by me. I really don’t know what the x-factor is because when I look at their gearing it’s the same as mine. It’s probably the cadence or the fitness level but either way it’s going to be a while until I can do the same thing.

Here’s the route for those of you wondering: Starting at the green point on the map, the intersection of Luzon and Madrigal Avenue, head down Madrigal towards the interior of the village. At the intersection of Country Club Drive and Madrigal hand a left and follow this road around the club until you get to Acacia Avenue. On this stage of the route turn left and continue down Acacia Avenue extension towards Saint James Church. Keep on biking down Acacia extension/Cuenca until you make your way back to Country Club drive. Here you begin the second stage of the route and turn left on to Country Club drive to tackle the same hill that you did on the first stage. This time once you get to Acacia Avenue turn right and keep on barreling down the road unti you get to Maria Christina, a small side street almost to the Acacia Avenue gate. Turn right here and then turn left as soon as you hit the next street, Molave. Head down Molave until the second to last corner before you ram into the chain link gate then turn right and you’ll find yourself back on Madrigal Avenue. Turn right to return to the beginning point then either keep on going for more rounds or turn left onto Luzon, find the co-op store by the intersection of Luzon and Polillo, and buy yourself a drink. Enjoy the ride!

The Cadence

I’ve been basing my rides on maintaining a cadence in the range of 70-80 rpm.  This is easy enough to do on flats and downhills but much more difficult to do on uphill portions.  From what I’ve been reading on the web however, it seems that most riders maintain a cadence of 80+ rpm, with top riders doing 90+ and some, like Lance Armstrong, doing 100.  

A higher cadence means you have to switch to a lower gear if you can’t hit those rpms in a higher gear.  This means a much easier spin on the crank but is something I would normally associate with less "push" on the bike.  This kind of thinking is also what made my previous bike experiences so unsatisfactory.  Apparently I (like many other bikers out there that think they know how to ride properly) am completely wrong.  Higher rpms, even if you are in a lower gear, will result in higher speeds.

Ken Kifer summarizes it best on his webpage:

The best cadence is a balance between leg speed and pedal pressure, but as a cyclist puts more energy into the task, both increase. So, the non-cyclist will pedal at 60 rpm going 10 miles an hour, the tourist will spin at 80 rpm going 15 miles an hour, and the racer will twirl at 100 rpm going 20 miles an hour.

Read the full article for the logic and the math behind it.

At this point in my bike career I’ve managed to elevate myself above the non-cyclist in the example above and am trying to achieve the heights of the racer.  The obvious thing for me to work on then is my cadence.  I’m currently averaging around 23-25 kph so if I increase my cadence I should theoretically be able to get it up to an average of 28-30kph fairly easily.  The beauty of the whole thing is that as my own stamina and leg strength improves I’ll be able to use higher gears while maintaining higher cadence and, as a result, enjoy higher speeds; it’s a natural progression and just requires me to get out on the road as often as possible to build up my performance.

The Bike

I really think I got a good deal on my bike. It’s decent for the intermediate-beginner and leaves me with no desire to upgrade any of the components. I know some of you out there will tell me that the wheelset could be improved or that the pedals are too heavy but, honestly, this bike is perfect for me right now and that’s what counts.

Here are the details:

• KHS Flite 700 frame – aluminum frame with carbon fork and partial carbon back thing
• Generic carbon fiber seat post (second hand)
• Fizik Arione seat
• Turbolite stem
• Turbolite handlebar
• Shimano 105 grouppo
• FSA 52/39 carbon fiber crank
• Shimano 105 clip-type pedals
• Shimano 105 wheelset
• Hutchison kevlar reinforced tires
• rear reflector
• cheap bottle holder
• portable tire pump
• saddlebag
• Cateye Astrale bike computer with cadence

This setup was recommended by Edmund over at the All Terra bike shop in Libis. His explanations for why he recommended some of these components really made practical sense and I’d like to point those out here:

• Carbon fiber is a rider’s friend. The more carbon fiber your bike has the lighter it is (obviously) but it also sends less vibration down the arms of the rider. This means less fatigue and that it’s easier to spend more time on the bike. I spent for some carbon fiber parts that I could have gone without but that might have made the ride more jarring. As you know the roads in Manila, even in Ayala Alabang, aren’t smooth like butter and every little vibration-reducing part helps. Having said that I also wasn’t about to spend the big bucks on an all-carbon frame.
• Edmund recommended the Fizik Arione seat, it’s the one he uses and he finds that it really works well for him. It’s longer than the the usual bike seat so you can actually sit on the tip (mountain bike style) while chugging uphill. It’s also designed to spread out and support the buttockal area without squeezing the family jewels. Sounded good to me. So far it’s proven itself well as I haven’t had any saddle sores or aching groin.
• The Turbolite stem and handlebar, while not carbon fiber, are still lightweight and “cheap”. Good enough to keep the weight of the bike down without breaking the bank.
• I chose the Shimano 105 grouppo as it is the bottom of the upper-end Shimano groups. I missed a chance on an Ultegra group that I could have bought for the same price as the 105 but otherwise the price difference between the two is too high. Also I don’t think I’m at a level yet where the group will make a difference to how I ride. If that’s the case then why didn’t I just go for an even cheaper Tiagra? Well, the reviews online all say not to waste time with the Tiagra if you can afford the 105. So that’s where that came from.
• The FSA crank is the only component of the grouppo that I changed. Edmund gave me a killer deal for it that I couldn’t pass up.
• I went for the Shimano pedals instead of the Look Keos because of the price.
• The original recommendation for the wheelset that I got from Jingo at Cycle Zone was for a pair of American Classics. Again the online reviews for these wheels consistenly mentioned that these were lightweight but easily broken. Considering the road around here the fragility of the wheels concerned me. The Shimano 105 wheelsets, while not as flashy or light as the American Classics, were routinely described as robust. Also they were more than ten thousand Pesos cheaper.
• The Hutchison tires were another thing that Edmund recommended over the Kenda Kalientes. Again the Kalientes were lighter but also more prone to punctures. Edmund showed me the Hutchisons on his bike to prove his point. The things weren’t just scratched but gouged, torn, and ripped but still protected the inner tube. For these roads and the fact that I didn’t want to change tubes or replace tires that often the Hutchisons won hands down.
• “A rear reflector,” I can hear you saying to yourself. “This guy isn’t a serious biker.” well, serious or not I’d rather be safe than sorry. This is the minimum I would need to go around biking at twilight (usually the only time I can bike is after work). For any time later than this I would have gone for the dorky-looking flashing red light. Safety first, my friend.
• A cheap bottle holder works just as well as the fancy carbon fiber ones and is just about as light and considerably cheaper.
• The portable tire pump is one of those things you don’t really think about needing as a biker but that proves to be a lifesaver when you most need it. The first pump I got was a Turbolite clip on but within three weeks it disappeared from my frame. I still don’t know if it fell off while I was riding or if one of my kids stashed it away somewhere. Needless to say I’ve replaced it, this time with a Zefal pump with a clip that also has a rubber band catch thing. That pump is staying on this time.
• A saddlebag works for me because I keep my extra inner tubes (2) and tire latches in there. I’ll never forget them because they’re always on the bike. Also I haven’t yet bought a proper bike jersey so I don’t have any pockets to keep things in while I’m riding.
• The coolest thing on the bike is the bike computer. I bought this at Christie’s by Cartimar and it’s the best training tool you could get. Maintaining cadence is key to getting the right workout for me so I really rely on this thing.

Edmund really hooked me up with this bike. Great service and good technicians. I’d recommend his shop any day. As for my decisioin to choose this bike and these components price and practicality won over flash. I was able to stay within my budget (well, I didn’t go too far outside of it) and feel good about what I brought home.

Back in the Saddle

I hadn’t owned my own bike since selling my last one after college and I never felt a need to use a bike. I figured I’d get my exercise other ways (swimming, squash, tennis, whatever) and that biking wasn’t anything I’d be interested in. This was especially true because, despite riding bikes for years, I hadn’t actually properly understood the mechanics behind the gears and so had made my own biking life terribly difficult.

Last year I ended up having to take care of my brother’s mountain bike for a while. I was kind of intrigued by the thing but it took me another few months before I actually decided to take the bike out for a spin. It was fun being out on the road again but I was still having problems with the gears. Once home I got on the Internets and looked up pages on proper bicycle gear-using technique and the next time that I got on the bike I applied what I’d learned. Boy, what a difference! Instead of slogging up the hills I was flying and instead of burning my legs up I was able to use a much easier stroke and last much longer on the bike. So this was what I’d been missing!

Needless to say I was on the bike a lot more often from that point on. Still not often enough to warrant buying my own steed but enough for me to feel like I was beginning to understand the whole “bike thing”. Then earlier this year I received a notice in the Ayala Alabang Village newspaper that the village was hosting a triathlon that included a beginner’s/noob triathlon. A 200 meter swim followed by a 12k bike leg and a 2k run. Well now, that caught my attention. The swim was, contrary to most people, the segment that I had the most confidence in. I had swum competitively in high school and played some club level water polo in college so I was extremely comfortable in the water. The bike leg was a decent distance, not too long and not too short. The run…well, not my favorite thing, but at only 2k I figured I’d just last it out.

So I practiced and trained for about a month for this triathlon thing, really just the swim and bike portions though. Like I said, running’s not my favorite thing. I got up at 6 the morning of the race and just barely managed to register and get my gear stowed before the whistle blew and started the race. As expected I did well on the swim; I came out of the pool in second place just behind the leader and well ahead of everybody else. Ran down to the transition area, popped on my shirt, shorts, shoes, and helmet then walked the bike to the road before hopping on and watching the leader just pull away from me on his road bike. Remember, I was using my brother’s mountain bike, a ten year old Rockhopper with off-road tires. So I was pedalling along on the first round around the country club happily chugging away. The leader was long gone ahead of me but I thought I was doing well. Then around the back of the club is where I started to inch my way down the leaderboard. Zoom! went the first guy on his road bike, shortly after that, zoom! went the second guy. About five bikers later I was starting on my second and last round around the country club. The same thing happened with the road bike-equipped bikers just leaving me in the dust. By the time I pulled in to the transition area for the run I was well in the middle of the pack. The run portion was painful and was, for me, mostly a walk. I finished the race with the satisfaction of having completed a triathlon and with the lingering suspicion that I would much rather have been riding a road bike.

Fast forward a few months later. I had to return the bike to my brother and was excited enough about biking to want my own ride. It took several weeks to canvas prices and specs. I searched the Web, talked to a couple of dealers (Cycle Zone, Sabak, All Terra, Christie’s, the rest of Cartimar), and spent some time mulling over how much I was willing to spend. I took the plunge in early August and got what I think is a good bike for the money. I’ve been out riding with my brother a few times, really just around the village, but it’s been good.

It feels good to be on my own bike, motoring my way around, up the hills, down the straights, dodging jeepneys and cars, and just feeling the wind on my face. Back in the saddle and for the first time, really appreciating what that means.