State College made #11 in this list of Top Cities for Biking. We're working to get the Centre Region COG (S.C. Borough, Ferguson, College, Harris, Patton, & Halfmoon Townships) designated as a nationally recognized Bicycle Friendly Community.

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/06/americas-top-cities-for-bike-commuting-happier-too/240265/#slide11

 

More "Living with hills (and how you can learn to love them)", part 2 of ?

I had a few questions after the first hills article and I thought answering them would be a good start for this follow on.

You get the most power generation sitting down and keeping your cadence up (using clips and a good "circle" technique, see #2). However, when you stand up, you do get the added benefit of all your weight pushing down on the pedal -- as long as you're lifting your other leg and not pushing it up too!!

Personally, I haven't found that standing really gets me going any faster, and takes just as much, if not more, energy and I get winded faster. Even so, standing can give your hamstrings a break. I had a friend who was a very good climber and he mimicked some tour-de-france rider who claimed that changing your hand positions from the drops to the hoods to the top of the handle bars gave you six positions for climbing (those three positions and sitting or standing). He further claimed that each position used slightly different muscles so that you could get some good benefits by switching between them on a climb. Though I was never quite convinced of the theory, he always beat me up the hills. On a long hard climb, I'll stand about 25% of the way, just for the change. Also, have you ever heard of "the magic shift"? Shift up to a higher gear or two as you're standing, and shift back to a lower gear as you're sitting down.

Tips from our October 11, 2010 Meeting

Clothing

Dry 50-60 Degree

• Torso – Short sleeve jersey, arm warmers
• Legs – Shorts with knee warmers, Knickers, Capris
• Hands – Short finger gloves, light full-finger gloves
• Feet – mid cuff socks, shoes
• Head – headband for ears under helmet

Hills suck!

Part 1 of ...

There's an old adage in cycling: If your legs hurt, you're in too high of a gear. If your lungs hurt, you're in too low of a gear. If both your legs and your lungs hurt, you're climbing a hill!

No ifs, no ands, no buts, hills suck. It doesn't matter about your level of fitness, how long you've ridden, how fast you ride, hills will suck. Why? Because, the amount of energy it takes to get over a given hill at a given speed is a basically* a constant for your bike and your weight. If you and your road bike weigh 165 lbs together, you'll need to generate about 160 watts to get over Pine Grove Mountain at 5 mph. Using a mountain bike? The extra weight and higher rolling resistance of a big tire won't help you here and requires another 20 watts. Double your speed (a great feat, by the way) to 10 mph and you'll get up there twice as fast, but you'll need an extra 170 watts.

With gas prices at an all-time high, and likely to rise even more, you're probably already driving less and bicycling more. But, just in case you're having a hard time breaking the 4-wheel habit, we put our heads together and came up with our top 10 "other" reasons to ride rather than drive.

1 How long have you been biking to work?

30 years, off and on.

2. How far is the commute?

My latest commute is 4 miles each way.

3. Do you do it everyday?

No. My goal this year is 75% of the time. When I don't ride, I usually take the bus. Low carbon footprint and all.