Paris or bust ... probably bust
- Thread starter Mwhwsmith
- Start date
tiltmaniac
Zen MBB Master
I believe that the standard
I believe that the standard cassette is an 11-36, not a 11-32, at least according to Robert in other threads w.r.t. Silvio S30s.
Dunno if the V20 is different, but keep it in mind!
I believe that the standard cassette is an 11-36, not a 11-32, at least according to Robert in other threads w.r.t. Silvio S30s.
Dunno if the V20 is different, but keep it in mind!
The complete V20 does
The complete V20 does come with an 11-32.
The complete V20 does come with an 11-32.
Mwhwsmith
Member
Arrived !!!!!
It's arrived ... my LBS have done a great job and I am now the proud owner of a Cruzbike Vendetta.
Picture below:
As you can see, there is still a little 'finalization' to do once I have gotten a better feel for the position of levers, set-up for boom etc. However, I am delighted!
So, I took it for a first ride in my local train station car-park which has a lot of space and a gentle incline. I had about an hour and followed much of the guidance eon here religiously ie. rolled down the incline 5-6 times, did some flintstoning, did a few runs down the hill with the feet on pedals, then tried pedaling etc. I'm still a long way from riding on the road, but by the end of the hour I had completed 6 consecutive circuits of the carpark clockwise and anti-clockwise and had a few 'flat starts' under my belt.
I guess I will need to do another hour or two tomorrow and through the week to start to get confident on it.
I must say, given my longest ride on it is probably no more than 1-2 not very relaxed miles, Paris is feeling a lot further away than it did when i started on this ...
M
It's arrived ... my LBS have done a great job and I am now the proud owner of a Cruzbike Vendetta.
Picture below:
As you can see, there is still a little 'finalization' to do once I have gotten a better feel for the position of levers, set-up for boom etc. However, I am delighted!
So, I took it for a first ride in my local train station car-park which has a lot of space and a gentle incline. I had about an hour and followed much of the guidance eon here religiously ie. rolled down the incline 5-6 times, did some flintstoning, did a few runs down the hill with the feet on pedals, then tried pedaling etc. I'm still a long way from riding on the road, but by the end of the hour I had completed 6 consecutive circuits of the carpark clockwise and anti-clockwise and had a few 'flat starts' under my belt.
I guess I will need to do another hour or two tomorrow and through the week to start to get confident on it.
I must say, given my longest ride on it is probably no more than 1-2 not very relaxed miles, Paris is feeling a lot further away than it did when i started on this ...
M
Beautiful!!!
Before long you
Beautiful!!!
Before long you will be zooming along - trust us!
Robert
Before long you
Beautiful!!!
Before long you will be zooming along - trust us!
Robert
1happyreader
zen/child method
Memories
Mike,
Thanks for the pic.
Your cruzbike learning is progressing at a nice pace.
It's hard to remember your first bike, but after the training wheels and the parents big push there were lots and lots of weaves and wobbles.
Try restrain yourself from just jumping on the road till you check off as many little skills as possible.
Learning to reach the water bottle or shift your shorts while riding are much better mastered in the privacy / safety of your favorite car park.
have fun,,, remember to lean back and smile !!
Mike,
Thanks for the pic.
Your cruzbike learning is progressing at a nice pace.
It's hard to remember your first bike, but after the training wheels and the parents big push there were lots and lots of weaves and wobbles.
Try restrain yourself from just jumping on the road till you check off as many little skills as possible.
Learning to reach the water bottle or shift your shorts while riding are much better mastered in the privacy / safety of your favorite car park.
have fun,,, remember to lean back and smile !!
Mwhwsmith
Member
Firstly, sorry for my lack of updates … I have had some great device on here and should have given a little more back.
So in the spirit of shared experience this is how my learning has gone:
First weekend: this was spent mostly in car parks and trying to get a feel for the bike. I spent an hour on my first day and 45mins on my second rolling down inclines, building to making a turn at the bottom and attempting to ride in a circuit (first clockwise, then anticlockwise).
Mid-week: I did three evenings on an unused road trying to master starting and stopping. I confess to getting carried away and trying to continue into a circuit of the village green. This did not end well and I took my first (and only) proper fall at speed. My ankle hasn't yet recovered. I was finding I could get going maybe 50% of the time.
Second weekend: mostly spent on the unused road and trying to cycle around the common. There is a 4ft wide footpath than I tried to keep on although its fair to say my directional control was low. I started to play with the geometry of the boom and handles bars. It seems everything was slightly too long and so I shortened the boom. I also allowed the handlebars to move back closer a little which was much more comfortable. I then got my LBS to do the finishing touches to the bike: adding handlebar tape, adjusting gears and brakes etc.
Then I went on vacation … and I was pretty stressed that I had made a dreadful mistake.
However, on getting back I took the bike I found a lot of things 'just clicked'. Starting and stopping was much more reliable - probably 90% of the time and I found I was much more confident on the bike - especially because I started to lean forward in the seat whenever traffic was near or I had a corner. As a result I felt comfortable taking the bike on some quiet lanes outside the village.
That weekend I did 20 miles on the first day and almost 35 miles on the second day. I was quite astonished: I wasn't fast (20% slower than on my mountain bike over the same circuit) however I had almost no physical aches/pains other than tiredness in the legs (which is exactly what I want) and tiredness in my hands/fingers (mainly from gripping the handlebars too tightly). I also found I could 'climb' up the steeper inclines but gentle inclines were more comfortable than steady descents.
I then spent some time back in the car park doing more figure 8s and specifically trying to do these in my lowest gear. What I found was that my problem was not the climbing - it was the low gear (I couldn't keep the bike stable on the flat in the lowest gear). However I spent a couple of hours over a couple of evenings revisiting the basics.
Then today I took the bike back on my regular 20mile circuit. My fastest time on my MTB on this route was 1hr 7mins. I went out this morning and did it in 1hr 15mins. I then stopped for a coffee at home and went out again: doing the same route in 1hr 6mins. While I was very much expecting the V20 would be much faster than my MTB, I wasn't expecting to start experiencing that on only my 3rd proper ride. Overall I did 40-45miles today.
So my priorities now are:
a) Learning to ride with one hand on the handlebars
b) More stability at low speed - I still can't ride in my lowest gear consistently
c) More stability at high speed - I get very unstable at 25mph
The most striking thing about the bike is how easy it is to spend long times on the road. The speed will come, but I get no aches/pains - I just get tiredness of the legs. It is quite astonishing.
I'm feeling really goo d about this now …
Mike
So in the spirit of shared experience this is how my learning has gone:
First weekend: this was spent mostly in car parks and trying to get a feel for the bike. I spent an hour on my first day and 45mins on my second rolling down inclines, building to making a turn at the bottom and attempting to ride in a circuit (first clockwise, then anticlockwise).
Mid-week: I did three evenings on an unused road trying to master starting and stopping. I confess to getting carried away and trying to continue into a circuit of the village green. This did not end well and I took my first (and only) proper fall at speed. My ankle hasn't yet recovered. I was finding I could get going maybe 50% of the time.
Second weekend: mostly spent on the unused road and trying to cycle around the common. There is a 4ft wide footpath than I tried to keep on although its fair to say my directional control was low. I started to play with the geometry of the boom and handles bars. It seems everything was slightly too long and so I shortened the boom. I also allowed the handlebars to move back closer a little which was much more comfortable. I then got my LBS to do the finishing touches to the bike: adding handlebar tape, adjusting gears and brakes etc.
Then I went on vacation … and I was pretty stressed that I had made a dreadful mistake.
However, on getting back I took the bike I found a lot of things 'just clicked'. Starting and stopping was much more reliable - probably 90% of the time and I found I was much more confident on the bike - especially because I started to lean forward in the seat whenever traffic was near or I had a corner. As a result I felt comfortable taking the bike on some quiet lanes outside the village.
That weekend I did 20 miles on the first day and almost 35 miles on the second day. I was quite astonished: I wasn't fast (20% slower than on my mountain bike over the same circuit) however I had almost no physical aches/pains other than tiredness in the legs (which is exactly what I want) and tiredness in my hands/fingers (mainly from gripping the handlebars too tightly). I also found I could 'climb' up the steeper inclines but gentle inclines were more comfortable than steady descents.
I then spent some time back in the car park doing more figure 8s and specifically trying to do these in my lowest gear. What I found was that my problem was not the climbing - it was the low gear (I couldn't keep the bike stable on the flat in the lowest gear). However I spent a couple of hours over a couple of evenings revisiting the basics.
Then today I took the bike back on my regular 20mile circuit. My fastest time on my MTB on this route was 1hr 7mins. I went out this morning and did it in 1hr 15mins. I then stopped for a coffee at home and went out again: doing the same route in 1hr 6mins. While I was very much expecting the V20 would be much faster than my MTB, I wasn't expecting to start experiencing that on only my 3rd proper ride. Overall I did 40-45miles today.
So my priorities now are:
a) Learning to ride with one hand on the handlebars
b) More stability at low speed - I still can't ride in my lowest gear consistently
c) More stability at high speed - I get very unstable at 25mph
The most striking thing about the bike is how easy it is to spend long times on the road. The speed will come, but I get no aches/pains - I just get tiredness of the legs. It is quite astonishing.
I'm feeling really goo d about this now …
Mike
Jeremy S
Dude
Same experience on my Silvio 2.0, the sun going down is really the only thing that stops me at the end of the day.
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Excellent progress. Well done.
This is pretty typical; the brain given a break will process what it learned and adapt. Some of the best learning in the early stages of the bike; is 30 minutes on 1 hour off; repeat 3-4 times.
This is pretty typical; the brain given a break will process what it learned and adapt. Some of the best learning in the early stages of the bike; is 30 minutes on 1 hour off; repeat 3-4 times.
Charles.Plager
Recumbent Quant
Learning to ride with one hand is a great idea. Learning to ride with no hands isn't a useful skill in itself (or, at least, it's arguable), but being able to do so means that you've really mastered the MBBB (Moving Bottom Bracket Beast - copyright 2015 - all rights reserved).
You haven't mentioned clipless and I'm not sure I'd recommend them to you yet, but once you're ready, it really makes riding easier.
As far as high speeds go,
r
e
l
a
x
.
.
.
I find that this is crucial, (particularly when I'm towing one or two kids with a trail-a-bike).
Mwhwsmith
Member
I working on relaxing on it .. I'm assuming the more miles the better.
I also found a really useful video of Maria Parker climbing (and a comparison to a DF rider). This was really helpful as it gives a better idea of what I should be attempting to do. The synchronized pulling on the handle-bars I get, the thing I wasn't doing was pulling my back out of the seat (I was bring to stay fully reclined). Anyway I went out to try this - mainly on the flat to beginning with - and my upper arms were aching at the end.
I was trying to find more videos of people riding uphill or sprinting as this would be really helpful guidance. There are a few from onboard, but this makes it hard to tell what the rider is doing.
Also, I hit a bit of a milestone at the weekend: it was my first 100+ mile weekend!
Paris is starting to feel a whole lot closer now ...
I also found a really useful video of Maria Parker climbing (and a comparison to a DF rider). This was really helpful as it gives a better idea of what I should be attempting to do. The synchronized pulling on the handle-bars I get, the thing I wasn't doing was pulling my back out of the seat (I was bring to stay fully reclined). Anyway I went out to try this - mainly on the flat to beginning with - and my upper arms were aching at the end.
I was trying to find more videos of people riding uphill or sprinting as this would be really helpful guidance. There are a few from onboard, but this makes it hard to tell what the rider is doing.
Also, I hit a bit of a milestone at the weekend: it was my first 100+ mile weekend!
Paris is starting to feel a whole lot closer now ...
Lief
Guru Schmuru
On a real heavy sprint, try locking your elbows. It really stiffens things up.
Then as you progress you won't need to do that except in the heaviest of exertions (all out full power race-like).
Perhaps the first time, don't lock them solid, just real stiff until you get the feel.
Then as you progress you won't need to do that except in the heaviest of exertions (all out full power race-like).
Perhaps the first time, don't lock them solid, just real stiff until you get the feel.
Mwhwsmith
Member
Having done my 100miles weekend, my mind is turning to hydration and also carrying basic spares (a pump, tubes, tools etc.)
There seem to be loads of examples of bags that others have fitted ... but many seem to be to earlier Vendetta models and come seem to involve some additional 'fabrication'. I was hoping for some guidance on bags that fit a V20 'off-the-shelf'. Specifically, I'm looking for something that can take a hydration bladder.
At the moment I'm thinking a Fastback Double Century would be good - can anyone confirm that these fit easily without interfering with the rear wheel. Or should I get something else?
Thank you,
Mike
There seem to be loads of examples of bags that others have fitted ... but many seem to be to earlier Vendetta models and come seem to involve some additional 'fabrication'. I was hoping for some guidance on bags that fit a V20 'off-the-shelf'. Specifically, I'm looking for something that can take a hydration bladder.
At the moment I'm thinking a Fastback Double Century would be good - can anyone confirm that these fit easily without interfering with the rear wheel. Or should I get something else?
Thank you,
Mike
ratz
Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
I'm not a hydration bladder guy as that's really only good for water and not fuel mixes. So if you stray from the bladder check out: http://cruzbike.com/forum/threads/how-i-spent-my-summer-vacation.7599/#post-28370
My final configuration can be done with off the shelf parts and if using all tradition bottles the 5 bottle set give you just over 3000ml of fluid.; as pictured in the last photo I'm setup for 1500ml in the black bottles; and 1300ml in the behind the head bottles which can be setup for hose drinking. I can run 100 miles between refilling; or in other words I have to stop to remove liquid more than I stop to add it.
My final configuration can be done with off the shelf parts and if using all tradition bottles the 5 bottle set give you just over 3000ml of fluid.; as pictured in the last photo I'm setup for 1500ml in the black bottles; and 1300ml in the behind the head bottles which can be setup for hose drinking. I can run 100 miles between refilling; or in other words I have to stop to remove liquid more than I stop to add it.
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Abbott Smith
Guru
The NorBack Frame Pack from FastBack will fit and could hold a small bladder. The SoloRacer panniers from Radical Design would also work.
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Rick Youngblood
CarbonCraft Master
Ooww
! That hurts just thinking about!
