Motorcycle Riders...how Many Ride Bicycles?

[Cobie Fair]

I know there is some way to do a poll on this thing, but I'm just gonna ask...how many of you guys ride bicycles too? Seems like there are quite a few, but wonder if that is a representative view of riders, or maybe more in the sport riding arena?

 

CF

[aredman]

I do but for training/fitness purposes only (Need to drop weight to go racing!!!). No competition stuff.

[faffi]

I use mine rarely as I find it worse for my knees than running and besides I dislike the "rest and get cold on downhills after sweating up the previous hill" stuff.

[vaibhav31kumar]

I ride a stationary bicycle mostly to get my weight down. (used to before I broke my collarbone)

 

15 miles a day - 5 days a week. (~60 mins daily over changing terrain - about as much as it can change on a stationary bike )

[warregl]

Great question Cobie. I'm very curious about this as well. I don't currently ride a bicycle however I've been thinking about buying one because I hear about so many professional racers that train on one. I've been meaning to start a thread asking if there is specific benefit to training on a bicycle in relation to motorcycle riding (beyond the obvious aerobic benefits). And if there is, are there pointers about the kind of riding you should do (i.e. mountain biking vs road biking, etc)? If you ride a bicycle to train for motorcycling please post up about your experience, training routines, or advice. Inquiring minds...

[Cobie Fair]

Now some of that did surpris me. I have done very little stationary bike training, I just want to get outside. It really is one of the pluses of living in SoCal, there really isn't a time you can't ride (if you understand hydration and electrolytes at least).

 

I pretty much only road ride, I've done very little mountain biking but many like it a lot.

 

For the training side, I've been looking at Dr. Al Sears information on training. He has a book called PACE, Rediscover Your Native Fitness (something like that, don't have it to hand). His theories look good to me, but haven't had enough people try it that I know. Originally Keith turned me on to it, I'd suggested it to others, but the darn book was pretty expensive on Amazon last time I checked.

 

I'm surprised that Eirick has had issues with his knees, I'd thought it was good for the knees, better than running--anyone else on this point?

 

CF

[faffi]

It could be because I smashed my femur into crumbles 3 decades ago, which did my right knee no favour whatsoever. Since then, the best thing to do when it hurts is heavy, deep squats. Riding a bicycle lets it makes all kinds of klicking noises, but even the left chimes in.

 

That said, I have a friend who was a very promising junior bicyclist, competing at the world level, who sadly had to quit competing because his knees wore out. So it could also possibly be affected by genetics in some ways.

 

As a general rule, however, bicycling should be much better for your knees than running.

[Cobie Fair]

Eirik,

 

Yeah, seems that overall it's been a good sport. I rode a lot as a kid, and a bit of skiing and I attribute that to having had pretty bulletproof knees. That's not very scientific, but a lot of skiers I know do the same in the summer months...

 

CF

[khp]

I've been bicycling all of my upbringing and parts of my adulthood too - which should come as no surprise when I was brought up and I'm living in Denmark.

But for the last 10-15 years, I haven't ridden bikes very much.

 

As for the benefit, I've read in Doohan's biography that he changed from running to cycling as a way to keep up the cardiovascular fitness, when he got his leg smashed in Assen.

[Cobie Fair]

Seems like there are more and more doing it here in SoCal, which really is a perfect place to do it.

 

CF

[gstone]

Cobie, I live in Mill Valley, CA .....Mt. Tamalpais next to me is the birthplace of mountain biking. I do hills behind my house once a week which is combo of downhill, (I crash a lot, at least for dirt bikes and mtn bikes if you don't crash your not riding fast enough) some technical, and bike hills from sea level to 2700ft. I work out at gym 3-4 days and mtn bike once a week to push my self a bit.

 

Try the Downieville Downhhill ride in Downieville (NorCal 50 miles North of Lake Tahoe-----google it) 17 miles downhill, 5,000ft drop of epic trails and drop offs........you would love it.

 

Greg

[Cobie Fair]

Its a fact, I do need to get in the dirt more.

 

My dirt bike (motorcycle) has 2 years of dust on it, and that is a pathetic statistic.

 

CF

[Redshift]

I began riding bicycles (road and then mountain shortly thereafter) about 2 years before learning to ride a motorcycle. That plus 50 track weekends in cars all over the world has really helped my moto riding come up to speed quickly (well, if you don't count my crash on one of Keith's S1KRR at Barber last June!)...the skills do help, and the physics are similar between the two.

[spthomas]

I ride in the summer, although not so much this year due to some work schedules. Usually I do triathlons so it's a mix of cycling and running and swimming (which I do year-round). I really like being outside, I can't do an indoor treadmill or stationary bike. The only problem I have with my bike is I keep twisting the end of the handle bar but I don't go any faster

[Jasonzilla]

I ride a stationary bike right now out of necessity. My back won't allow me to do anything else. It's just..... so..... flippin'..... BORING. Actually getting out and riding isn't any better. I'd lose interest in exercising if I tried to make it a hobby. I used to mountain climb, skateboard, trail run, swim.

[1adam12]

I'v been riding road bikes 30 plus years. My body fat is 17% and my resting heart rate is 45bpm. At 54 years old I could last all day at the track.

The reason I share this info is because the trackday riders become Very poor bike handlers after about the 4th session.

If a bicycle rider checks out after a 1hour ride at 70% max heart rate, Think what the person's like by noon at THE STREETS OF WILLOW with 100+ temp.

Well that my input, enjoy, ride safe........................

[mugget]

Interesting topic... I've been thinking about taking up road cycling for fitness, especially since I've heard more and more in the last year or so about some high profile racers who are big into road cycling (think Ben Spies and Troy Bayliss - and they are both competitive in road cycle racing as well).

 

I've got a mountain bike and BMX in my garage, but I don't ride them all that often... I always wish I had the time to hit more good downhill runs on the MTB though.

 

For a little while when I was trying to drop some bodyfat I was coming home after work 2-3 nights a week and going for a 30-40 minute ride. Good fun.

 

For fitness I'd guess that swimming is the next closest thing? But cycling seems like a naturally good type of cross training. (You can still use alot of techniques that apply to motorcycling, like counter steering etc.)

[Furious Flip]

Looks like this topic has been a bit dry for a few months but, since this is thread related...

 

First off, first post on this forum--and it's bicycle related!

 

I've been riding motorcycles for 8 years and have been riding/racing bicycles for 18 years. I got into motorcycling as a natural progression from riding bicycles. It's been an on-going love affair for all things two-wheeled.

 

I've raced bicycles as an amateur since I was 15, in all disciplines from cross-country, downhill, and road. When I finally had the time and opportunity to get my license and a bike, I found the transition to be natural. The most difficult thing to acclimate to at first, was managing the weight of the motorcycle. Because of that, I found that I had to make more "conscious" inputs to the controls as opposed to just "flowing" on my bicycles.

 

As a training tool, bicycling (road or mountain) is great for cardio, as evidenced by the number of pro motorcyclists that participate in it. I have personally found that regardless of what else happens, this can be a "lifetime" sport for me (bicycling).

 

Coincidentally, this is what has brought me to seek out the CSS. Living in the SF Bay Area, there are a lot of roads that I ride both on my motorcycle and road bicycle, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I can ride more than a handful of the downhill sections faster on my road bicycle than I can on my motorcycle. It seems that since a few of the roads I ride on are frequented by both pedal- and motor-cyclists, I have a pretty good guage of how much more comfortable I need to be on my motorcycle--it's not uncommon for a few fellow motorcyclists flag me down (while riding my road bicycle) at the bottom of some of these downhills and tell me "the only way they could keep up was because they could throttle up on the straights."

 

I don't have any desires (not yet!) to be the next motorcycling super-star--I've been happy just to commute through some twisties with the occassional "sport-riding" thrown in, well within my comfort zone for the past 8 years. But now, I since my motorcycling trending more toward recreation than transportation, I would like to shorten the learning curve to get as comfortable on motorbikes as I am on pedal bikes and why I'm happy to state I will be booking a class this spring with CSS.

[gogogusgus]

anyone find they can reach, say, 80% of the benefit from road cycling with gym spin classes?