Re: Bike for the Alps

[Jim Feeley]

On Mar 7, 1:51 pm, Colin Campbell > wrote:
> I'm going to Italy during the Giro. The event is "CSC Employee Week",
> and they will supply us with road bikes (Cervelos, probably team bikes
> from 2007 and earlier). I asked if any would have triple chainrings,
> and the answer was, "No, they have compact doubles, though."

Could you ask what size cassette and chainrings the bike have? And
then possibly bring a bigger cassette (and of course your own shoes
and pedals)...and perhaps a new chain...and even a smaller inner
chainring? Of course, the max size of the cassette (and min of the
chainring) will be somewhat determined by the model of rear
derailleur.

That'd still be cheaper and easier than shipping your own bike, I'd
think.


Jim

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On Mar 8, 12:17*pm, Colin Campbell > wrote:
> Jim Feeley wrote:
>
> The tour company told us that the bikes would have compact 50 / 34
> chainrings. *They didn't say what the cassette gearing was. *My Campy
> equipped compact setup has a 12 / 25 cassette.
>
> I believe Team CSC uses Shimano components. *Shimano offers cassettes
> from 11 / 23 to 12 / 27 in the Ultegra lineup, and 11 / 21 to 12 / 27 in
> Dura-Ace. *So maybe I should just buy an Ultegra triple and front
> derailleur to carry with me. *eBay might just be my friend in this case.....

What's your lowest gear on your bike with a triple?
Probably 30/25, a ratio of 1.2. That's about the same
as 34/28. Find out whether the CSC bikes have Campy
or Shimano gearing, and buy the matching cassette that
goes as big as their road derailleur will handle. I know
both will go up to 27 at least. The difference between
27 and 28 isn't going to kill you. Don't futz around with
trying to change out the crank on a borrowed bike.

The bigger issue is learning how to moderate your
efforts so you don't blow yourself up at altitude. It's
not incredibly high - you will probably find walking
around feels normal. But you have to moderate
aerobic activity a little. The initial feeling from your
leg muscles is not that different from sea level,
so it's possible to ride or run at your normal pace
for a few minutes and then realize you're breathing
much faster than normal and have ridden yourself
into a hole.

Also, bring sunscreen. If it's clear, you can get
sunburned really quickly; there's more UV and
less haze.

Finally, stop worrying about the cycling vacation of
a lifetime, you lucky dog.

Ben