Embarrassed

[juice]

As you may know I'm new to biking and have been commuting to work for the last 6 weeks now on a Trek 7.3 hybrid. Am up to 12 miles a day (7 miles in, 5 miles home). Anyway, I've been thinking that my times to work aren't really dropping and also noticed my tyres were quite flat...So I bought myself one of those Airtower pumps and pumped up the tyres...At least i thought I did. This is where the "new to biking" bit comes in. I never realised that the presta valve had a screw at the end I had to undo in order to get air into the tyre

Once I did this, found out that the tyres were only at 35PSI instead of 60

Now they are properly inflated I've knocked 5 minutes off my time and actually overtook two Full Lycra clad blokes on road bikes this morning and never saw them again ! Does this increase my FCN ?

What an embarrassing admission...Still I'm learning, that's the main thing..I think.

[walm]

If you cycled in the same way you cycled home I am sure that would drop your times too, or does your workplace magically move halfway through the day?

I am a newbie myself and the other big changes that helped my speed were raising the seat post to the right height (heel on the pedal with a straight leg at its lowest point), SPDs and slick tyres.

Also, dropping a cog and upping the cadence really helped too.

[juice]

walm said:

If you cycled in the same way you cycled home I am sure that would drop your times too, or does your workplace magically move halfway through the day?

I take a longer route into work than home, mainly because at the end of the day, I want to get home as soon as possible. I was just amazed by the difference that having correct pressures in the tyres makes !

Edited by juice on Thursday 1st October 16:23