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What Style of Biker Are You?

From touring to off-road riding to track riding to cyclo-riding to recreational biking—there are almost as many different styles of riding as there are bikes. The following is a discussion of three of the most popular styles of biking today.

Street/Urban Riding

Street/Urban riding is when you bike through urban areas, ride on ledges and other man-made obstacles. Some riders execute tricks as well as stalls and grinds. Hybrid bikes, sometimes called city bikes, are typically used for street/urban riding. Hybrid bikes are a cross between a Mountain Bike and a road bike. Most have front suspension with wide comfortable seats and upright handlebars.

Free Riding

The essence of free riding has it origins on the shores of British Columbia. As some free riders have explained it, free riding is more than just riding, it’s about riding with your friends and doing things on your bike that push the limits of both yourself and your bike. It’s not about being the fastest or coming up with a new trick. Rather, it’s about being totally free on your bike. Free riding is different for everyone. Essentially, when you ride for pure enjoyment, do your own thing, in your own way, that’s free riding--making it more of a mindset than a structured style of riding. For example, you could free ride downhill, cross-country or down the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland.

Many free ride bikes closely resemble downhill bikes and weigh as much, although they are usually designed to be easier to pedal. Free ride bikes should be in the 30 to upper 50 pound range, have a steeper angled frame in order to make maneuvering on narrow obstacles possible, and be built from stronger, heavier materials.

Downhill Mountain Biking

If you think downhill biking is all about kicking back, stretching your arms and cruising at a leisurely pace, think again. Even though it’s all downhill, biking down a mountain demands concentration, quick reflexes and bike-handling skills much different than free riding or city riding. It’s also a blast! Downhill mountain biking races involve race courses that are designed for riders to speed down while navigating huge jumps, obstacles and more. It’s very similar to motor cross racing.

While it’s true that all bikes go downhill, bikes that provide the optimum ride for Downhill Mountain Biking have what is called full suspension. This means that the front and rear of the frame are equipped with shock absorbers.

Mountain Bikes – A Mainstream Riding Style

Mountain bike riders must have shock system type of bikes that include full suspension and Hard Tail and even no suspension. The shock system is important as because it helps to absorb the impact over rugged terrain that provide a smoother ride. Full suspension bikes got suspension in both the front and the rear of the bike. Hard tail bikes have solid rear fork and shock system in place of the Front Fork. Mountain bikes with lower end models do not have a shock system in the front or in the back of the bike. Types of Mountain Bikes to Enjoy

Mountain bikes for cross-country riders are ideal for small to moderate train and they got both climbing and descending capabilities as well. The travel in the rear suspension system is less than four inches that does not hinder the ability to climb hills. The standard numbers of gears on cross-country bikes are 28 providing a wide range of gears suitable for the traveling over varied terrain.

In mountain bikes, trail bikes are more substantial than cross country bikes as they are intended for use for more technical mountain bike rides. The travel in suspension systems used on these bikes ranges is from 4-7 inches. This increased travel allows for a very smoother ride but makes pedaling uphill more difficult too. Mountain bikers have to weigh the decreased pedal efficiency versus a smoother ride.

The down hill mountain bikes detailed with the front and rear shock that have up to eight inches of travel. These bikes are specifically designed to do downhill racing. The amount of travel in the suspension systems makes it difficult to pedal uphill, for this reason these bikes are used almost exclusively for the downhill races where the shock systems allows smooth possible ride over harsh terrain at high speeds also.

Dirt jump bikes are one more verity in mountain bikes, which have only a front suspension system and used for flying over jumps. They have 16 gears in these bikes which allows the rider to build up the speed they need while making jumps.

Strength Training For Cycling

The research done to date on the effects of weight training on cyclists has brought mixed results. The study done by Ben Hurley at the University of Maryland had 10 healthy men take up strength training (bench presses, hip flexions, knee extensions, knee flexions, press-ups, leg presses, lat pulldowns, arm curls, parallel squats, and bent-knee sit-ups) for 12 weeks, while eight other healthy men served as controls. After 12 weeks, the strength-trained men improved their endurance while cycling at an intensity of 75 per cent V02max by 33 per cent and also lifted lactate threshold (the single best predictor of endurance performance) by 12 per cent.

However, these men were untrained prior to the study and did not carry out regular cycling workouts during the research, so the applicability of these findings to serious athletes is questionable

The study carried out by R. C. Hickson and his colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago was considerably more practical. In that investigation, eight experienced cyclists added three days per week of strength training to their regular endurance routines over a 10-week period. The strength training was incredibly simple, focusing on parallel squats (five sets of five reps per workout), knee extensions (three sets of five reps), knee flexions (3 x 5), and toe raises (3 x 25), all with fairly heavy resistance. The only progression utilized in the program involved the amount of resistance, which increased steadily as strength improved.

Nonetheless, the strength training had a profoundly positive impact on cycling performance. After 10 weeks, the cyclists improved their 'short-term endurance' (their ability to continue working at a very high intensity) by about 11 per cent, and they also expanded the amount of time they could pedal at an intensity of 80% V02max from 71 to 85 minutes, about a 20-per cent upgrade.

On the negative side, we have research, carried out by James Home and his colleagues at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, seven endurance cyclists who averaged about 200 kilometers of cycling per week incorporated three strength training sessions into their normal routine. The strength program was relatively unsophisticated, consisting of three sets of up to eight repetitions of hamstring curls, leg presses, and quadriceps extensions using fairly heavy resistance.

After six weeks, the strength training had produced rather impressive gains in strength (the gains averaged a bit more than 20 per cent). However, actual cycling performances were not improved; in fact, they were worse than before the strength training was undertaken! 40-K race times slowed from 59 to 62 minutes, and the strength-trained cyclists complained of feeling 'heavy' and tired during their workouts.

Why did Hickson's study uncover clear advantages associated with strength training for cyclists, while Home's work revealed the reverse?

No one knows for certain, which means it's time for a personal observation. It seems quite likely that the strength training carried out by Hickson's charges improved fatigue resistance in their muscles, permitting them to persist longer both during high-intensity tests of endurance and prolonged efforts at a submaximal (80% V02max) intensity. Meanwhile, it's likely that Home's added strength training sent his athletes into the overtrained - or at least 'stale' - state. The feelings of fatigue which originated shortly after the beginning of strength training suggests that the athletes were simply doing too much work.

Home's cyclists were averaging 124 miles of weekly riding when they started their strength training, while Hickson's athletes were logging considerably fewer miles, so one might be tempted to suggest that strength training can produce major benefits for low-mileage cyclists but does much less for experienced, higher mileage competitors who have already built up considerable strength merely by riding. That certainly wouldn't be an unreasonable thought, but it doesn't explain why strength training per se would actually slow down endurance performances, as it seemed to do for Home's performers (no other study has shown this). It seems very likely that Home's added strength training was simply the straw that broke the camel's back; it wasn't the strength training which slowed the cyclists but the total amount of work they had to complete.

Another issue that was not kept controlled in the studies was nutrition and supplementation which also would have a major impact. It is my personal feeling after three decades in the physical training world that weight training is advantageous in almost all sports when done properly and paired with the correct nutrition.