The key to riding long distances is food and drink.

Sure, training is important—but nutrition and hydration are even more vital. According to ultramarathon rider and coach John Hughes of Boulder, Colorado, “Nutrition, not necessarily training, is the limiting factor in endurance cycling.”

The reason? Even the best-trained riders pack only enough muscle fuel (glycogen) for a couple of hours of hard cycling. Fluid stores vanish even faster.

For everything from century rides to multi-day tours, remember these time-tested tips: 

• Enjoy the Last Supper. Eat aggressively the night before a long ride so your muscles are crammed with glycogen the next morning. Emphasize carbohydrates such as pasta, vegetables, bread, whole grains, and fruit. Don’t forget dessert!
• Don’t Skip Breakfast. Cycling’s smooth pedaling motion means you can eat just before a long ride without risking stomach upset. You’ll need a full tank. Cycling consumes about 40 calories per mile, or 4,000 calories in a century ride.

Three hours before the start, eat about 60 grams of carbohydrate if you’re an average-sized woman, 80 to 100 if you’re a man. (Cereal, skim milk, a banana, and a bagel with jam equals about 90 grams of carb.) Many riders find that adding some protein and fat, like scrambled eggs or an omelet, keeps their stomach satisfied longer.

• Prehydrate. Fluids are as important as food. Drink at least eight big glasses of water the day before the ride. If you don’t, your performance and comfort may plummet by mile 50. During the hour before the ride, sip 16 ounces of a sports drink.
• Eat and Drink During the Ride. Drink before you feel thirsty. Your sensation of thirst lags behind your need for liquid, so grab your bottle every 15 minutes and take a couple of big swallow (about four ounces). About every 30 minutes, eat 20 grams of carbohydrate—the equivalent of half an energy bar, several fig bars or half a banana. Some riders prefer smaller portions more frequently.

On unsupported rides, use a backpack-style hydration system and carry food in your pockets. Stop at convenience stores along the way, if necessary. Most organized rides have aid stations every 20 miles or so, but always carry food and fluid just in case.

• Hydrate After the Ride. No matter how much you drink on a long ride you’ll finish dehydrated. Weigh yourself before and after, then compare the figures. Lost weight means you’ve failed to replace the fluid you’ve sweated out. Drink 20 ounces of water or sports drink for each lost pound of bodyweight.

How do you know you’ve caught up? Your urine will be pale and plentiful, and your weight will be back to normal. Rehydrating is especially vital during multiday rides. If you get a little behind each day, by the end of the week you’ll be severely dehydrated, feeling lousy, and riding poorly.

• Eat for Tomorrow. Muscles replace glycogen better if you consume carbohydrate immediately after riding. So within 15 minutes of getting off the bike, eat or drink 60 grams of carbohydrate (if you’re an average-sized woman) or 80 to 100 grams if you’re an average male.

The re-fueling process becomes progressively less efficient as time passes. Eat or drink a high-carb snack while chewing the fat with your riding buddies.

For additional race details and event information visit the Jerejak Rainforest International DH Challenge 2012 website at http://www.jridc.blogspot.com/

Pacelines are organized. They have specific rules. But in big groups like you find in centuries or charity rides, things will be disorganized. This can intimidate even experienced riders.

Sooner or later you’ll find yourself in a big group amid some riders with sketchy skills. It pays to learn how to survive (and also make yourself welcome) in a crowd.  

• Look for Risky Riders. These are the unsteady people who wobble, appear nervous, have a tense grip on the handlebar, and frequently grab the brakes. Avoid them! Move up to keep them behind you, or slide to the other side of the road.

• Stay at the Front. This is easy to say but hard to do in some groups. At the front you have more control over your destiny because most crashes occur in the rear two-thirds of the bunch. It may take a bit more work to reach the front and stay there, but it’s worth the effort.

• Watch the Wind. Wind direction determines on which side the greatest draft is found. If the wind is from the right side of the road, smart riders move to the left of the wheel in front of them for greater protection. If you’re doing this, beware of overlapping wheels with inexperienced riders. They may swerve and take out your front wheel.

• Be Wary on Climbs. A major cause of group crashes is riders who stand abruptly. They slow for a second, causing the rider behind to hit their rear wheel and spill. To avoid this danger, let the gap open a bit on hills or ride a foot to either side.

To avoid being the one who causes such a crash, pull your bike forward as you leave the saddle. Don’t lunge and make a hard pedal stroke. Keep your speed steady. When sitting again, push the bike forward a bit.

Cycling isn’t a contact sport, but it’s not uncommon to have your arm brushed when riding near others in a group. It pays to learn how to bump into other riders without swerving or falling. You can practice this.

First, go with a cycling friend to a large grassy area like a soccer field. Ride side-by-side at a walking pace. Keep both hands on your bar. Start by gently touching elbows, then shoulders. As you gain confidence, lean more vigorously on the other rider. Soon, you’ll be bumping each other with abandon and throwing in a few head butts for fun, all without going down. (Of course, always wear your helmet just in case.)

Riding relaxed is the key to absorbing contact without swerving. Have slightly bent elbows, a firm-not-tight grip on the bar, and loose arm and shoulder muscles. If you’re relaxed, your body can absorb the shock before it gets to the handlebar.

Cycling is full of prodigious numbers—the distances ridden, the calories consumed, the tires trashed. Another statistic that can seem astounding is the number of pedal strokes made.

Let’s suppose it takes you six hours to ride a century and you pedal at the rate of 90 rpm throughout. As you cross the finish line, you will be making pedal stroke number 64,800.

Whoa, that’s a lot! But it barely registers on the scale of what happens during a full season. For example, during the year in which I had my biggest mileage total, I figure that I got there by pushing the pedals around approximately 13,340,000 times.

Can you say, repetitive use injury? You can see why cyclists are good candidates, especially if we aren’t pedaling from a nearly perfect position.

Your body and bike must fit together and work together in near-perfect harmony for you to be efficient, comfortable, and injury-free. The more you ride, the more essential this is. If even one thing is out of whack, it’s a good bet that it will cause a problem during thousands of pedal strokes.

Fortunately, it isn’t difficult to arrive at an excellent riding position. But it does take time and attention. You need to be careful with your initial bike set-up, then conscientiously stay aware of your body and the need for occasional refinements. As time goes by, your position will stabilize and you’ll be riding in a smooth groove.

The following guidelines come from my experience and the advice of various experts. One is Andy Pruitt, Ed.D., the director of Colorado’s Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. Andy has probably solved more position problems than anyone during his years of work with elite cyclists.

As you work on your riding position, always remember Pruitt Rule No. 1:

“Adjust your bike to fit your body. Don’t force your body to fit the bike.”

• Frame: Measure your inseam from crotch to floor with bare feet 6 inches apart, then multiply by 0.68. The answer is a good approximation of your road frame size, measured along the seat tube from the center of the crank axle to the center of the top tube. As a double check, this should produce 4 to 5 inches of exposed seatpost when your saddle height is correct. When the crankarms are horizontal, the top tube should be right between your knees when you squeeze them together.
• Arms: Keep your elbows bent and relaxed to absorb shock and prevent veering when you hit a bump or brush another rider. Hold arms in line with your body, not splayed to the side, to be more compact and aerodynamic.
• Upper Body/Shoulders: Don’t be rigid, but do be fairly still. Imagine the energy wasted by rocking side to side with every pedal stroke on a 25-mile ride. Save it for pedaling. Also, beware of creeping forward on the saddle and hunching your shoulders. There’s a tendency to do this when pushing for more speed. Shift to a higher gear and stand periodically to prevent stiffness in your hips and back.
• Head and Neck: Resist the temptation to put your head down when you’re going hard or getting tired. It takes just a second for something dangerous to pop out of nowhere. Occasionally tilt your head to one side and the other instead of holding it dead center. Change your hand location to reposition your upper body and give your neck a new angle.
• Hands: Prevent finger numbness by moving your hands frequently. Grip the bar firmly enough to keep hands from bouncing off on unexpected bumps, but not so tightly that it tenses your arms. For the same safety reason, keep your thumbs wrapped around the bar instead of resting on top. Move to the drops for descents or high-speed riding, and the brake lever hoods for relaxed cruising. On long climbs, grip the top of the bar to sit upright and open your chest for easier breathing. When standing, hold the lever hoods lightly and sway the bike side to side in synch with your pedal strokes, directly driving each pedal with your body weight.
• Handlebar: Bar width should equal shoulder width to open your chest for better breathing. A bit too wide is better than too narrow. Make sure the hooks are large enough for your hands. Modified “anatomic” curves may feel more comfortable to your palms. Position the bottom, flat portion of the bar horizontal or pointed slightly down toward the rear brake.
• Brake Levers: Move them around the curve of the bar to give you the best compromise between holding the hoods and braking when your hands are in the hooks. Most riders do best if the lever tips touch a straightedge extended forward from under the flat, bottom portion of the bar. The levers don’t have to be positioned symmetrically—remember Andy Pruitt’s rule. If your reach is more comfortable with one lever closer to you than the other, put ‘em that way.
• Stem Height: Start with the top of the stem about one inch below the top of the saddle. This should give you comfortable access to every hand position. As time goes by, think about lowering the stem as much as another inch (not all at once) to improve your aerodynamics. If your lower back or neck starts complaining, or if you notice you’ve stopped using the drops, go back up. Never put the stem so high that its maximum extension line shows, or it could be snapped off by your weight on the bar.
• Top-tube and Stem Lengths: Combined, these two dimensions determine “reach.” Depending on your anatomy and flexibility, your reach could be longer for better aerodynamics, or it may need to be shorter for back or neck comfort. For most riders, when they’re comfortably seated with their elbows slightly bent and their hands on the lever hoods, the front hub will be obscured by the handlebar.
• Back: A flat back is the defining mark of a stylish rider. Notice I didn’t say a great rider. Anatomy and flexibility have a lot to do with how flat you can get. Lance Armstrong, for instance, has a rounded back that’s not picture perfect and yet he still manages to go down the road pretty well. The same was true for John Howard, once America’s dominant road racer. I’m in their boat (back-wise, not speed-wise). Once you have the correct reach, work on flattening your back by imagining touching the top tube with your belly button. This helps your hips rotate forward. You don’t want to ride this way all of the time, but it’ll help you get more aero when you need to.
• Saddle Height: This is the biggie. You’ll find various methods for calculating this critical number. Here’s the one I like best. It has become known as the LeMond Method, because Greg brought it to us from his Renault team in the 1980s. (Invite a friend over so you can help each other and both wind up with primo positions.)

Begin by standing on a hard surface with your shoes off and your feet about 6 inches apart. Using a metric tape, measure from the floor to your crotch, pressing with the same force that a saddle does. Multiply this number by 0.883. The result is your saddle height, measured from the middle of the crank axle, along the seat tube, to the top of the saddle.

Add 2 or 3 mm if you have long feet in proportion to your height. If you suffer from chondromalacia (knee pain caused by damage to the underside of the kneecap), a slightly higher saddle may feel better. However, it should never be so high that your hips must rock to help you reach the pedals. If this formula results in a big change from the height you’ve been using, make the adjustment by 2 or 3 mm per week, with several rides between, till you reach the new position. Changing too fast could strain something.

• Saddle Tilt: The saddle should be level, which you can check by laying a yardstick along its length and comparing it to something horizontal like a tabletop or windowsill. A slight downward tilt may be more comfortable, but be careful. More than a degree or two could cause you to continually slide forward, putting pressure on your arms and hands.
• Fore/Aft Saddle Position: Sit comfortably in the center of the saddle, click into the pedals, and set the crankarms horizontal. Hold a weighted string to the front of your forward kneecap. For most of us, the string should touch the end of the crankarm. This is known as the neutral position. Loosen the seatpost clamp so you can slide the saddle to get it right.  Seated climbers, time trialists, and some road racers may like the line to fall a centimeter or two behind the end of the crankarm to increase pedaling leverage. On the other hand, track and criterium racers may like a more forward position that breeds leg speed. Remember, if your reach to the handlebar is wrong, use stem length to correct it, not fore/aft saddle position.
• Butt: By sliding fore or aft on the saddle you can bring some muscles into play while resting others. This is a technique favored by Skip Hamilton, my teammate in the 1996 Race Across America. Moving forward emphasizes the quadriceps muscles on the front of the thighs, while moving back highlights the hamstrings and glutes—the powerful butt muscles.
• Feet: Some of us walk like pigeons, others like Charlie Chaplin. Your footprints as you leave a swimming pool will tip you off. To make cycling easier on your knees, shoe cleats must put your feet at their natural angle. This is a snap with clipless pedal systems that allow feet to pivot freely (“float”) several degrees before release. Then all you need to do is set the cleats’ fore/aft position, which is easy. Simply position them so the widest part of each foot is centered on the pedal axle. If you experience discomfort such as tingling, numbness or burning (especially on long rides), move the cleats rearward as much as a centimeter.
• Crankarm Length: In general, if your inseam is less than 29 inches, use 165-mm crankarms; 29-32 inches, 170 mm; 33-34 inches, 172.5; and more than 34 inches, 175 mm. A crankarm’s length is measured from the center of its fixing bolt to the center of the pedal mounting hole. The length is usually stamped on the back of the arm. If you use longer crankarms than recommended, you’ll gain leverage for pushing big gears but lose some pedaling speed.

The major activity of any cycling club, racing or touring, is the group ride. As a result, it’s important to know how to hang tough on a given ride and make yourself welcome on the next one. Success is often due to more than fitness.

Here’s a club cycling primer!

• Know the group’s traditions.

Some clubs like to start all rides, no matter how fast they’ll eventually become, with 20 or 30 minutes of easy warm-up. If you’re impatient early, you can cause hard feelings by chafing at the bit to go faster. When you know the pattern, it’s easier to be patient.

• Know what kind of ride is planned.

Will it be a fast training ride? A leisurely spin? Paceline practice? It’s disruptive when most of the group is thinking one thing while one or two cyclists are on a different agenda. If an easy recovery ride is scheduled, but you’re out for hard training, people are going to get angry. Be certain of the ride’s goal before the start.

• Don’t be a loco locomotive.

If you’re having trouble taking your pulls at the front, get off quickly and slide back to get maximum draft in the paceline. It’s far better to sit on the back and let others do the work than to slow everyone with valiant but sluggish turns at the front.

• Use a racing trick if you often get dropped on climbs.

As a climb begins, be nestled in the front third of the bunch. Get as much draft as possible. If you can’t hold the pace, don’t blow up trying. Let yourself slide back through the group but still be in contact at the top.

• Accept help on hills.

Stronger cyclists may give you a helpful push as they ride by. Don’t be embarrassed by their help. They probably got towed up climbs when they were starting, too. A short push often allows you to regain your breathing and climbing rhythm so you can continue on your own.

• Pick a strong rider to follow.

If you’re really having difficulty keeping the pace, get on the wheel of a good rider and mirror his (or her) technique. Use the same gear, stand when he does, take a drink as soon as he reaches for his bottle, and so on. This teaches you good cycling habits. Plus, emulating his movements takes your mind off your own effort and helps you past the hard spots.

• Don’t be afraid to say the pace is too hard.

It’s a good bet that other cyclists feel the same way but are reticent to speak up—or can’t, because they’re breathing too hard to talk! Perhaps even the riders who are setting the pace are having difficulty, but they continue to go hard out of vanity or because they think everyone else expects them to. A little communication goes a long way in making a group ride a more pleasant and productive experience.

• If you always have trouble holding the pace, look for different group.

Find one closer to your ability level. There’s no shame in rationally assessing your strength and choosing cyclists who share it. You’ll actually improve faster if you ride with a group that you are on equal terms with. You’ll be able to practice paceline cycling, following a wheel, riding in close quarters, cornering in a group, and other important skills.

• Don’t let group cycling hurt your progress.

Frequently riding with a too-fast group will make you tired. You won’t improve as rapidly as you might with more rest. A pace that’s too fast will hurt you mentally, too. You’ll begin to associate cycling with pain, misery and disappointment. Don’t let your ego overpower your better judgment. An appropriate dose of humility now will pay dividends later.

Andy Pruitt’s name has become synonymous with sports medicine for cycling. As director of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Boulder, CO, Pruitt has made a career out of treating world-class riders such as Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie. In 1996, Pruitt served as chief medical officer for the U.S. Olympic Cycling Team.

Pruitt is an elite athlete in his own right, too. He lost his lower leg in a hunting accident at age 14 but still wrestled and participated in track, eventually winning 12 high school varsity letters. When he took up cycling he earned a category 2 ranking in able-bodied racing and was twice a world champion in disabled cycling.

But the Boulder Center isn’t reserved for elite clients. Pruitt wanted to develop a sports medicine center equal to any university or Olympic training facility but available to recreational athletes of any age. That’s what he has accomplished

Here’s a sampling of Pruitt’s sports medicine wisdom. 

• Floating Pedals. “In the late eighties, the cycling injury rate soared due to step-in pedals. The old, slotted cleats and soft leather cycling shoes allowed feet quite a bit of movement, but the newer step-in cleats and more rigid shoes with a heel counter locked feet in one position. Now the injury rate has gone way down due to cleats that float, allowing each foot to find its best position on the pedal.”

• Bike Fit. “I’ve done thousands of bike fits. Much is made of saddle height and saddle fore-and-aft position. It’s true—they’re important. But the reach to the handlebar along with the height difference between the bar and the saddle are the two most personal aspects of bike fit. If they aren’t right, you’ll be miserable. We’re seeing more riders who want to raise their handlebars for increased comfort.”

• Chondromalacia. “When cyclists have chondromalacia (pain under the kneecap) it’s not good medical advice to keep them off the bike. They need to ride. The knee likes motion and riders want to be on their bikes. So we check saddle height and other bike fit factors like cleat position and let them ride. Most chondromalacia sufferers can ride at some level no matter how severe the degeneration. I’ve seen riders with a back of the kneecap that was full of gouges. It looked like one of those rural road signs peppered with bullet holes. But they can still ride without pain.”

• Patellar Tendinitis. “Strain of the tendons around the knee often happens in the early season when riders get caught out in the cold and wind and decide to get home fast. They push a big gear, maybe they aren’t wearing leg warmers, and the next morning they have an ominous twinge. The problem is that in the early season, your muscles can bear a lot more strain than your connective tissue.”

Saddle Position. “Greg LeMond has extremely long femurs. His kneecaps are slightly above his ankles. So for him a bike with a slack seat tube angle, a long top tube, and the saddle jammed all the way back is appropriate. But most people aren’t built that way. For example, Ron Kiefel moved his saddle back when a famous pro he admired told him he’d be faster if he did. Ron didn’t get faster, instead he got severe back pain and missed several weeks of racing. The moral of this story: Let your femur length determine your saddle position, not your hero.”

It’s the summer cycling season, and it’s hot where you live. Cyclists and other outdoor athletes are the first to notice rising temperatures. And the hotter it is, the faster you lose fluids when you ride.

Fluids are crucial to your performance and sense of well-being. We’re really just big bags of fluid – our blood contains about 50 percent water. Because water helps keep us cool, a loss of only one percent of our body weight as sweat means a significant loss of speed and endurance.

I know you’ve heard it before – drink, drink, drink! But it’s amazing how few cyclists heed this advice. They forget to drink because of the excitement of the ride, and then they wilt before the end.

But proper hydration is easy. Here’s how:

• Ride early or late. You’ll need to replace fewer fluids if you ride when it’s cooler. One approach: commute by bike so you ride early in the morning and again in the evening when temperatures have moderated.

• Practice drinking on the bike. If you aren’t comfortable taking one hand off the bar to pull the bottle from the cage, practice while riding in an empty parking lot or lightly traveled road with a wide shoulder. Hold the bar with your other hand near the stem to limit swerving as you reach down.

• Pre-hydrate. Make sure you’re well hydrated before the ride. Most people are chronically dehydrated because they simply don’t drink enough water. Keep a bottle on your desk and sip frequently all day.

• Drink during the ride. Because your body’s sensation of thirst lags behind its need for liquid, always sip from your bottle BEFORE you get thirsty. When you feel thirsty, it’s already too late. Make it a habit to drink from your bottle every 15 minutes. Most riders need one big bottle (about 28 ounces) per hour but it’s highly variable depending on temperature, intensity of the ride, and other factors such as body size. Experience will help you judge your own fluid needs.

• Hydrate after the ride. No matter how much fluid you drink while riding, in hot weather you’ll finish the ride depleted. Your stomach doesn’t empty fast enough to keep up with the demand. Weigh yourself before and after the ride. Compare the figures. If you’ve lost weight, drink 20 ounces of fluid for each pound of body weight you’re down. Keep drinking until your weight has returned to normal and your urine is pale and plentiful.

• Restore sodium levels. Those white stains on your clothing and helmet straps after a hot ride come from the salt that you sweat out. It needs to be replaced. Low sodium levels are associated with increased incidence of cramps. Heavy sodium losses lead to hyponatremia, a potentially life-threatening condition. Your sports drink should contain at least 100 mg of sodium per 8 ounces (check the label). It may also help to salt your food when you’re riding frequently in hot weather.

Reduce the chances of your bike becoming a target

Know how thieves think
Thieves need privacy, an easy target that won’t take them a long time to get and won’t attract attention. The worst possible place to lock a bike is with other bikes in those big public racks because people tend to not pay much if any attention to someone fiddling with locks at a bicycle rack location. That’s because we assume they’re just having trouble with their own lock! You are better off locking your bike by itself elsewhere in plain sight for everybody to see. But be careful, check that the object you’re locking your bike to is solid and secure. Use natural obstacles to make getting to your bike difficult. In Thailand I love to use the phone booths, weight machines, and calling card kiosks that are always just outside seven-eleven stores.

Don’t assume outside your home is safe
Inside or out of sight is the idea here. If you have a bike of any value, you should never leave it outside your home for extended periods of time. In urban areas it’s really asking for trouble to leave your bike outside. Backyards, second-story balconies, and even fenced in areas are not sufficient enough security against a determined bike thief. If you can’t keep your bike indoors and it has to stay in a shed or storage locker at night, make sure that the storage space is properly locked and the bike itself has a lock on it. Storing a bike in the same spot day after day, week after week lets the thief know right where to find it, so mix it up a bit and keep the thief guessing.

Buy a lock
When it comes to bicycle locks you get what you pay for. Consider the value of your bicycle and purchase a good quality U-Lock in a price range that is no less than 3% of the value of your bike. A 30,000THB bike gets a 1,000THB lock.

Know how to use a lock
Having a good lock is not the only answer to bike theft prevention. Using it properly needs to be addressed as well. The space inside a U type lock needs to be packed with all the bike you can. Pass your lock through the bicycle frame rather than wheels, spokes, racks, or cables. Point the keyhole of your lock downwards, it is a lot harder to strike it with a hammer this way. Remember that whatever part of your bicycle that you place the lock around will be the part that most likely remains.

Make your bike impossible to ride
Another thing you can do is to purposefully sabotage your bike, making it the worst getaway vehicle for any thief. Remove your chain from the front chainring. Upshift your gears so that if a thief tries to ride off they’ll be pedaling fast and going nowhere. Remove the front, rear, or both quick release skewers from your wheels. I have a friend who uses a SRAM powerlink on his chain and he removes his chain every time he parks his bike for long periods. Remove the seat and seatpost. Remove the front wheel completely.

Record your bike details
Worst case scenario is that after having done all that you can to prevent the theft of your bike some scumbag gets away with it. What do you do? Well, you should have had the forethought to record and keep the details of your bicycle somewhere. Even though bike theft is not on top of the list of crimes at Police Departments you should still take the time to register it and keep the registration paper in a safe place. Knowing your bike’s serial number, make/model, size, color, specifications, monetary value will make it easier to claim if it is ever found. Also, by providing this kind of information (preferably with a recent photo of your bike) to local area bicycle shops and cycling clubs the chances of your bike being seen and reported by someone greatly enhances.

Mark your territory
You should store a small item or waterproof information card somewhere inside your bicycle (handlebars, seatpost, bottom bracket, frame) that can be used to prove that you are the true owner of the bicycle if there is any contention. You can prove your ownership of the bicycle without any question because you would be the only person to know the presence of the item or card.

Let’s talk about road tires:

• Overinflated tires:
• Reduce rolling resistance but you’ll need ultra smooth roads to notice any potential gains
• Give a harsher feel to your ride if you encounter bumps
• Underinflated tires:
• Will cause you to have handling/control problems
• Could damage the rims on your bicycle
• Increase rolling resistance, requiring more effort on your part to propel your bicycle
• Cause uneven wear patterns on your tires that could lead to premature failure
• In case you’ve ever wondered about the tire inflation capacities of CO2 cylinders:
• 700 x 23 Tire size
  
• 12 gram cylinder will inflate up to 94 psi
• 16 gram cylinder will inflate up to 130 psi
• 25 gram cylinder – NOT recommended for road tire use
• 700 x 26 Tire size
  
• 12 gram cylinder will inflate up to 90 psi
• 16 gram cylinder will inflate up to 123 psi
• 25 gram cylinder – NOT recommended for road tire use

The factors to consider when selecting tire pressure are:

• Rider weight
  
• What you weigh is important in determining air pressure. Don’t worry so much about what the bicycle weighs before you get on it.
• There’s a certain amount of deflection in every tire profile that’s optimal for balancing grip, efficiency, comfort and durability. That deflection is based on the tire’s construction and the weight of the rider.
• Road conditions
• Unless you ride on perfectly smooth road surfaces you’re going to have to account for the bone-rattling bumps along your route.
• Tire size
• The front and rear tire should be set at the same air pressure level.
• Never simply squeeze a tire to ascertain its pressure level. Invest in a good quality pump with a built-in gauge and/or a hand held bicycle tire pressure tool.

Use this handy chart as a good starting point for road bike tire pressures
Riders weighing below 100lbs-45kg should inflate to minimum pressure indicated on tire sidewall.
Riders weighing above 190lbs-86kg (***) should inflate to maximum pressure indicated on tire sidewall.

In my many years of experience working on bicycles I’ve come across a particularly interesting thought paradigm that exists in the minds of 90%+ bicycle owners. The thought paradigm is this – “I have no problem spending large amounts of money on replacing, tuning, upgrading my derailleurs but I refuse to pay $4 to $6 (120-180THB) to replace a derailleur cable.”

Which brings us to this article. I thought for this month’s article I would encourage our readers to ascertain whether they fall in to this 90%+ group or not and then to do something about it. Change your thinking and for God’s sake change your cables!

In my experience derailleur shifting problems are caused by:
84% rusted, frayed, corroded cable/housing
10% bent derailleur hanger (rear derailleur)
3% derailleur out of adjustment (derailleur limit screws/B screw)
2% derailleur in wrong position (front derailleur too high/low)
1% bent derailleur (usually because of a crash)

Manufacturers build new bikes with less than awesome cables. This doesn’t mean that the new cables on your new bike need to be replaced right away. What it means is that when you’ve ridden your new bike for 6 months and you’re ready for a new set of gear cables, go ahead an splurge and buy the good ones.

Most bicycle owners don’t do preventative maintenance. In other words, they get things fixed on their bike when it breaks, not before. If that describes you than think about this – bicycle derailleurs work because of spring tension. There is a coiled spring inside front and rear derailleurs and it is the tension of this spring that the friction or ratcheting system of your shift lever is counteracting. Any additional tension created by a corroded cable sliding through its housing causes this spring to work harder, effectively shortening the lifespan of the derailleur.

Guideline for replacing cables:
I know what you’re expecting. You want me to talk about riding miles and conditions and how they determine the proper schedule for replacing derailleur cables. Well, I’m not going to do it because my goal is to create an attitude in bike owners that favors preventative maintenance.

Mountain Bikes – Replace your gear cables every 3 months. Use a cable that is stainless or stainless with a teflon coating. Cable housing should be plastic lined and cable end caps should be plastic or aluminum with rubber seals.

Road Bikes – Replace your gear cables every 4 months. Use a cable that is stainless. Cable housing should be plastic lined and end caps should be aluminum with rubber seals.