Formerly known as easy rider

This is a damn good idea! Hope Admin gets it going soon. A lot of cyclists go away and would like to join club rides in other parts of the country. It would deffinitely attract a lot of cyclists to this site.There must be 300 cyclists in our town of which only a handfull visit this forum. Go for it Admin

Kempo the first real goal for this year is to get in a good 94.7. Nutrition for the moment is keeping protein up,no starchy carbs, other veg up to get rid of fat(its working well!!) I think BikeMax has a point about the power cranks on a tandem.Its combined output that matters.If I link workouts to HR (in the beggining stages of training),to gather data (as each tandem partner can work in different zones) and then worry about power output later,I reckon I can come up with a program that works for both of us. I have seen that time spent riding together is all important especially when it comes to climbing on a tandem.You can end up "fighting" each other on hills!!So its best to train together as much as possible. Maybe a few individually incompatible wokouts on "half" bikes. Thanks for all the info BikeMax.

Ok Kempo here's my chance to get some free advice and yours to put all of that hard spent money and time studying to good use. (good use= getting a vrot old fart back into good nick!!) My girlfreind and I enjoy our tandem.Have not done any serious riding for a while. My mission is to get myself into good shape with minimum effort and maximum results. So after two thousand or so slow kays.on a "half bike" to get the excess weight off( lost 6 kg,s so far 6kg's to go + 1300 kays).I planned the following. 1)Get on a power trainer,with a heart rate monitor. 2) Do a "ramp" test and measure lactate to draw curve(Threshold) 3) Work out workouts according to Joe Friels % of LT (using HR as a guide). 4) Re test every 4 weeks to measure progress. Am I on the right track? I figure this will give me the best info as to how my body responds to training and allow me to work out what works and what doesn't ???????? Help please.

Go on Kempo inform me. I thought I had this whole thing sussed.

Great to read a thread without the name calling and mud slinging that has plagued the hub of late! Thanks for all the info here.My Problem. How does one measure power (individually) on a tandem?

Testing Bike Max's patience (again!) Bikemax I'm not having a dig ,just trying to understand the power/hr/lactate "thing" . Why if what you say is true do the pro's spend time bothering with power,hr and lactate testing? I understand that if you ride at a xyz watts for an hour you are training at xyz watts for an hour,and if you can't sustain xyz watts for an hour,you can't. fine. But isn't HR the best and most convenient way to measure the bodies response to the sustained effort of the ride? (Yes I have had rides that have felt good and yet my HR has been very high.) I have found that the lower my resting HR,the fitter(faster) I become. I have also found that too much riding at high heart rates makes me weaker. This also gives me a higher resting HR. I have been lead to believe that the best way to train is to get the lactate/power/hr thing tested and base training on hr. Is this just for convenience/economy's sake? Why do the so called fundies use LT to determine "training Zones"?

Nomad You need more than a plan broer,you need a miracle. See you there.

I would have loved to ride Nomad. But I have got fat and vrot running the "belly Off" program at the gym,and have walkers and runners doing their thing on Saturday. Sounds like the organizers have pulled out all the stops this year hey? I'm sure Wheelbarrow will present his best race yet. Nomad send me your details and ID number,theres good easy money to be made on you with the life insurance boys.

I'll come see you off at the start. Be sure to start on Friday night at 7 to make the Waterpoort breakfast stop. Those o's are packed and gone by 11!!!

Nomad You're gonna die riding the 'Tart, and if you don't I'm gonna die laughing watching you!!

Thankyou muchly for the info. Crux. Is Jaco getting you to sprint??

We have a pretty "mixed bag" of cyclists in our club.Mainly recreational.Quite a lot of us are interested in finding a coach,somebody that will come up to us in Louis Trichardt and do an assesment and supply us with training programs. The thinking is to start off with the program in winter after the Kremetart.Most of us will never be hotshot cyclists.I do however believe that a good coach can help even the "easy riders" to make the most of training time. Have any of you had experience with coaches that you can recommend?Do you know of anybody that would come up to us if there were 20+ cyclists? Any advice/contacts would be appreciated

Does anyone know where I can get Levers/pegs for the stoker handlebar?Does anybody keep them locally in SA? advice/info appreciated