What is important in cycling, and what isn’t, to your average road cyclist….

This game is pretty simple and easy, as it pertains to your average (even above average, technicslly) road cyclist. For example, skin suits don’t matter. You’re not fast enough to need a skin suit if you have to pay for your cycling clothing. Not only that, if you don’t have the physique of a pro cyclist, chances are you’ll look a little gnarly in one. A lot can be overlooked in cycling clothing.  It’s tight-fitting, it is what it is.  Not so with skin suits.  Sorry.

See? Simple.

Shaved legs matter. Shaving the guns saves a lot of time – they’re big-time aerodynamic when shaved down (No, seriously, science says so). They look better too. You won’t realize how off a Yeti looks in a pace line till you see one. Then you’ll be like, “Ohhhhhhh-h”.  Shave the guns.  Treat them well.

Shiny, baby!

The bike…. doesn’t matter. At least to an extent. Steel frame, aluminum, titanium, bamboo, wood, graphene, or good old-fashioned carbon fiber. If you like it and it feels good to you, you’ll probably be able to make it go fast.

Doesn’t matter, I’m just as fast on either bike, though speed is more comfortable on the fourteen years newer Specialized.  Oh, and there’s a four pound difference between the two.  Four pounds.  And I’m just as fast in a group.  I just can’t pull as long up front…. and yes, I can feel the four extra pounds on the bike.

Components matter.  Seriously, especially if you’re trying to keep up with a group.  Modern integrated shifters are a must, Shimano 105, Campy Record (maybe Chorus), or SRAM Rival at a minimum.  9, 10 or 11 speed.  Etcetera.  You will not be just as fast with old down tube shifters.  Don’t kid yourself.

The helmet doesn’t matter… as much as one’s diet.  A $300 aero helmet won’t fix a decidedly un-aero body.  Push yourself away from the table, eat less and pedal harder.  After that, the helmet really does matter.  Also, don’t bother with a ventless aero helmet unless you’re competing in a time trial.  In a group, they’re silly.  Go for something a little less suffer-inducing.

Wheels matter.  Wheels don’t have to be carbon fiber to be good.  It helps, but isn’t required.  A good set of aluminum wheels will go a long way to helping you be fast.  Those carbon fiber aero wheels only start to shine above 25 mph.  You don’t have to push quite as hard to maintain your speed.  Look for good hubs and good bearings first, then worry about carbon fiber if you still have money to burn.

Your ego doesn’t matter.  Check it at the start line and enjoy being a part of the group.  Or don’t, and wonder why you never get invited to unpublished group rides.  Also, just as a side note, don’t blow the group up to show everyone how fast you are.  If you find yourself off the front, go to the back and get a handle on the pace.  Once you know the place you can pull again.

The saddle matters.  Fizik has an app for that.  Seriously.  I’m between a snake and a chameleon, though I ride a bull saddle on the Venge.  Go figure.  Specialized has a special fitting process, it’s very nice, if obtrusive….  You’re going to spend an @$$-ton of time on your saddle so make sure you have one that agrees with your heinie for each bike.  ALL SADDLES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.

The shoes don’t matter.  Comfort over carbon fiber.  Comfort matters.  Carbon and real leather are a bonus.  Don’t sweat it if you can’t afford $400 for cycling shoes.  Want to trumps carbon fiber soles.

The number one thing that matters….  The number one thing that matters is want to.  Peter Sagan is the best cyclist since Lance Armstrong (and arguably A LOT better because Sagan is clean) because he has the most “want to”.  I am as fast as I am because I push to the edge of my “want to”.  I could be faster, but I don’t want to.  Embrace, then wrestle to the ground, your want to.

Be a friendly, good representative of the sport…  That’s sexy.  We are quite often the object of scorn on the road.  Represent the sport well.  Being a good ambassador now could save someone else’s life later.  If you’re confronted with an ugly motorist, be a Penguin of Madagascar:  “Smile and wave, boys.  Smile and wave.”

Look good, feel good, ride good.  That’s sexy too.  Not proper grammar, but it works.  You don’t have to be a supermodel to look good on a bike.  It helps, but definitely is not a requirement.  Dressing the part will go a long way, no matter your body style/type.  Remember, don’t feel self-conscious if you’re not perfect yet.  You’re out there doing what needs to be done to get that body in shape.  That’s what really matters.  Always.  If you don’t look, feel, or ride good, fake it till you make it.  

Ride hard my friends.

Of course, now that I write this post I’m sure to be @$$ deep in bike problems in three…. two…. one…..

I walked into the bike room Friday afternoon, looking for something to tinker with. Bar tape, indexing of a derailleur, a minor brake adjustment, even wiping one of the two bikes down.

Nothing. Chains are clean and lubed, the bikes are immaculate, the brakes are perfectly centered, front and rear derailleurs are perfectly indexed…. Headsets are perfectly square and tightened down. Actually, speaking of squaring a headset/fork/handlebar, I can give you a simple cheat to get your stem and handlebar perfectly lined up with the fork. First line your stem up to your tire, eyeball it like most normal people do, then mount the bike and look down at the bar top and how it relates to the front wheel hub:

If you’re more than a quarter of a degree off, you should be able to see it easily. Line the front edge of the handlebar with the hub and tighten the stem screws down.

While this is obviously a good place to be, this is actually a sad time for me. I don’t need anything. I’ve got great wheels, nice, clean bikes, saddles that work excellently on each of my bikes – and everything is mechanically sound, my components match the bike they belong to and my colors are perfect throughout the stable… I’ve even got five kits in rotation, all but one matches the paint scheme of the bikes – and that one is a 2012 Colorado Challenge jersey (the year I bought the 5200 in the photo above) and I’ve got my USA Jersey for 4th of July rides…

There is one glowing bit of awesomeness that rises higher than simply having a few nice bikes though: All I have left to do is ride.

That’s a really good place to be..

Across the pond in England, they call it a winter bike.  I call it a rain bike, my dedicated, “better than 15% chance of rain” bike… because not only was the good bike expensive, replacement parts are freaking ridiculous.  We call it a rain bike over in the US because they don’t get snow in the UK like we get snow, and there’s no riding a road bike in the snow.  Skinny tires are hard enough in the rain, dude!

The quintessential modern American Rain Bike

Ideally, the responsible way to pick a rain bike is to relegate the old A bike to rain bike status when you get a new A bike.  At least that’s how I did it until I bought my Specialized.  

My first rain bike was a Cannondale, all aluminum with a chro-mo fork…  Riding on an actual railroad rail would only be slightly less comfortable:

I could still make this beast average 20 mph though

Ultimately, the rain bike will be set-up quite close to the A bike – and thus why I like relegating the old A bike to rain bike status.  The closer the two bikes are in set-up, the more seamless it will be to transition between the two when the weather has a chance of getting nasty.

Now, say money wasn’t an object (it is) and I wanted to keep the Trek as an heirloom bike, updating the components.  My A bike is a Specialized Venge:

It just so happens that I know the next best thing to a Venge is an Allez.  There are minor differences of course, but I should be able to match the set-up on the Venge easily.  Let’s say I had a Tarmac for an A bike, I would go with a Secteur or Roubaix.  Those pairings in Specialized’s line-up match up in geometry fairly close.

Now, let’s get into how I know this, because most people won’t know how in God’s name to figure out which geometries work within a bike line:  I took a factory photo of an Allez, made it transparent, and placed it over a factory photo of a Venge.  The only difference to work around is the head tube height on the cheaper Allez models.  Now, if you have a shop owner who builds frames, they can look at the published geometry numbers….  I don’t have the time to apprentice for him so I can learn how the numbers work.

 Beyond that, because my rain bike has a vastly different geometry from my A bike (they’re even different sizes), I transferred the numbers from the A bike to the rain bike then took both bikes to the shop to have them compared.  I’m as close as I can get the two bikes.  I paid attention when the Trek and Venge were fitted to me, so I know what to measure and how to change the set-up.  Simple as that.

One more thing to consider….

There’s a neat reason I like my 5200 for my rain bike:  Easy Access Repairs.  I have completely stripped down and put back together my Trek.  I can change a brake or shifter cable in minutes.  I have internal routing on the Venge so it’s a little tricky should a cable fray while I’m up north on a road trip in the middle of a four day tour.  This is a tiny point, though.  Barely worth mentioning, but still, a fair point indeed.

In the end, I want my Venge to operate flawlessly for as long as possible so I prefer to have a rain bike should we be heading out under a chance of rain.  The rain bike takes the abuse so the A bike can shine. 

Worse case scenario, and this is what I really appreciate, with a rain bike in the stable I never have to miss a day on the bike with my friends should the A bike go down and have to spend some time at the shop for a repair.

Of course, there is one other non-option:  Take a day off every time you think it’s going to rain…. but that’d be silly.

UPDATE:  Ian, in the comments section, offered that a good idea for a rain bike is to go with a cyclocross bike.  This way, gravel roads are opened up as well.  It’s an excellent idea.