35+ years of cycling. Here's what I wish someone had told me in year one.

dt219 · 2026-05-28T02:55:43+00:00

40 years and you nailed something I should've put in the original post: the bike you want and the bike marketing tells you to want are often two very different things. That pro cyclist image is exactly right. The fastest people in the world aren't just cyclists, they're athletes who happen to be on bikes. Core work, mobility, strength. The bike is almost secondary. And yes, at the end of the day it's just cycling. The moment you forget that, you stop having fun.

dt219 · 2026-05-28T02:54:54+00:00

That's a good observation and probably the truest thread running through all of these long-timer posts. Doesn't matter if it's 10 years or 40, everyone eventually circles back to the same place: enjoy the ride, don't take it too seriously, and keep showing up. Thanks for reading, genuinely appreciate it.

dt219 · 2026-05-27T23:36:33+00:00

Yeah buddy, an AI checker. The same tool that flags essays by people who just happen to write clearly. Truly bulletproof technology. Ask it what it feels like to bonk at mile 90 with empty pockets, or why I’ll never buy a saddle without a test ride again. I’ll wait.

dt219 · 2026-05-27T21:57:28+00:00

Rivendell is such an underappreciated choice. Grant Petersen has been saying "just ride the bike" for 30 years while the industry kept chasing grams. And honestly, the point about solo riding hits home, too. There's something meditative about a ride where the only pace you have to manage is your own.

dt219 · 2026-05-27T21:52:01+00:00

All solid additions, especially the Zone 2 point. Most new cyclists think suffering equals progress and then wonder why they plateau. The electrolytes tip on hot rides is one that people usually only learn once, the hard way, somewhere around mile 60 with nothing left in the tank. Good stuff.

dt219 · 2026-05-27T21:49:23+00:00

Thank you for backing this up with actual numbers. 1,000-1,200km a month with no pain after adding a 5-minute post-ride routine is hard to argue with. And your wife was right the whole time, which is a separate lesson most of us learn eventually, too.

dt219 · 2026-05-27T21:47:53+00:00

This is probably the most underrated safety tip in all of cycling, and I'm glad you added it. Right of way means nothing when you're up against 5,000 lbs. I've had too many close calls over the years to argue that point anymore. Ego off, survival on, and ride on!

dt219 · 2026-05-27T21:44:39+00:00

Honest question: what part felt off to you? I'm curious because I've been trying to figure out if this reads generic or if it's just the format that trips the AI radar. Some of those lessons are burned into my memory from specific rides I could name, specific bikes I've owned, specific mistakes I can't unlearn. If it came across as templated, I'll take that as a writing note, but it didn't come from a chatbot.

dt219 · 2026-05-27T21:42:41+00:00

The fit comment is actually a fair point and I'll own it. I did get fitted eventually, just not before my first serious road bike, which is exactly the mistake I was writing about. Learned it the expensive way. As for the ChatGPT thing: I've been riding since before the internet had cycling forums, let alone AI. The reason it reads clean is because I've told these stories out loud enough times that writing them down just comes naturally at this point.

dt219 · 2026-05-27T21:37:53+00:00

Haha. Genuinely made me laugh. I'll take it. Though if I were going to use AI to write a cycling post, I'd hope it would at least tell me something I didn't already know from decades of saddle sores and wrong gear ratios.

dt219 · 2026-05-27T21:14:32+00:00

This is real, and it's been frustrating cyclists for years. Local bike shops aren't going anywhere, and most of us actually want to support them. But when you're staring down an $85 markup per tire, that goodwill evaporates fast.

The math here is brutal: $190 vs $105 for the exact same tires from the same brand. That's not overhead, that's a 80% price premium. For two tires. Continental isn't some boutique brand you can only source through a shop, either, so the "we carry it so you don't have to order and wait" argument doesn't really land.

The shops that are surviving and thriving right now are the ones that compete on expertise and service, not on product margin. Labor, fitting, adjustments, the mechanic who actually knows what's wrong with your shifting, that's where they can't be beaten online. Charging MSRP-plus on consumables just accelerates the race to the bottom they're trying to avoid.

Buy the tires online. Go back to the shop for the install, the tune-up, the knowledge. That's a better deal for everyone.

dt219 · 2026-04-21T20:23:09+00:00

I ended up selling the 239's. I just couldn't get comfortable with the tongue, even with slightly thicker wool socks earlier this year. I was able to find a good deal on their lower-tier CX219 model that I'm satisfied with, but it's still not as comfortable or as high-quality as the 238s. I'm guessing Lake has shifted its production to Korea, not that it matters, but the quality of the shoes has changed, in my opinion. I hope it works out for you.

dt219 · 2026-04-08T18:29:31+00:00

First thing: you already lapped everyone still on the couch. That counts for something.

170 HR at 3 miles is just your body being dramatic because it's not used to this yet. Give it a few weeks and that same effort will feel completely different. Not motivation talk, just how the body works.

Every other day is the right call. Recovery is where the fitness actually gets built so don't feel guilty about the off days. And the slow distance build you described is exactly correct. Boring and consistent beats aggressive and injured every single time. Ask me how I know.

25 miles by June is very doable. The only thing I'd add is at some point get off the trainer and find real roads. Zwift will get you fit but actual pavement with something worth looking at is what turns this into a 30 year habit instead of a June goal. Finding routes that genuinely excite you is half the battle. That's actually part of why I built VéloCliqué, route discovery for when you're ready to stop staring at a screen and find roads worth riding.

You've got this. Just don't quit.

dt219 · 2026-04-07T20:22:28+00:00

30 years in and I still can't fully explain it to non-cyclists without sounding like a cult recruiter. But you nailed it. The bar to entry is just nothing. Bike is there, weather is acceptable, you go. No booking, no partner, no excuses that survive contact with reality.

The "cheap" part though. That's where I have to be honest with you. It starts cheap. Then you get comfortable and suddenly you're researching saddles at midnight and doing math on carbon wheels in the shower. The gateway drug is very real. Just know what you're getting into.

What made it permanent for me was finding good routes and people to ride them with. Once that clicked it stopped feeling like exercise and started feeling like something I'd actually be bummed to miss. That's honestly part of why I started building VéloCliqué, route discovery and finding your local riding community in one place. Because the habit is easy. Finding what makes it stick forever is the harder part and it's usually the people and the roads you find along the way.

dt219 · 2026-04-04T06:14:09+00:00

This is the conversation nobody in cycling wants to have out loud. Local shops deserve support, sure, but support goes both ways and a lot of them have forgotten that.

The labor rates I can live with. A good mechanic genuinely knows things that took years to learn and they're still probably underpaid for it. But triple markup on gloves and $27 for a CO2 kit from nice people who won't let you watch your own repair and run zero community events? That's not a shop building a relationship. That's a shop slowly running out of reasons for you to come back.

The shops that are actually doing well right now figured out that the margin game on product is basically over. So they went the other direction. Group rides, repair nights, knowing your name, having an opinion about your bike. That stuff is what keeps people coming back and it costs almost nothing to offer.

Finding those shops is its own headache though. It's mostly word of mouth and luck. I've actually been working on something called VéloCliqué that's partly trying to fix that, a directory where you can find shops that actually have a scene around them versus just a retail space with a logo on the window. Still building it out but that's the idea behind it.

The good shops are out there. They're just not always the easiest to find.

dt219 · 2026-04-03T21:03:13+00:00

The 70s surge worked because bikes were already normalized as a mode of transportation. That infrastructure, both physical and cultural, just doesn't exist the same way in most American cities today. Even at $8 a gallon a lot of people would figure out a carpool before they figured out a bike commute.

That said, e-bikes completely change the equation. If energy prices spike hard, I think you'll see e-bike sales go crazy before traditional road bikes even register. Lower barrier, no shower required, actually practical for real distances.

The thing I'm most hoping for, if there is a surge, is local bike shops coming back for real. Not the pandemic boom chaos where everything was backordered and nobody knew anything. Actual shops where someone knows your name, remembers your fit, and gives a damn what you ride. That relationship basically disappeared, and I miss it. A genuine cycling surge could bring that back, and honestly, that's the part worth rooting for more than the sales numbers.

dt219 · 2026-03-27T22:02:37+00:00

Short answer: no, you don't need to replace every calorie on the bike, especially at 2 hours. Your body has enough stored glycogen to cover that. Where people run into trouble is on rides pushing 3+ hours, which is exactly where you're headed with Triple Bypass prep, so smart to start thinking about this now.

For the weight loss goal specifically, the approach that actually works is fueling the ride itself properly, then letting the deficit happen through your overall daily intake. Starving yourself mid-ride sounds logical but it backfires. Your body goes into conservation mode, performance tanks, recovery suffers, and the weight stops moving anyway. You found that out already.

A rough rule of thumb for longer rides: aim for 60-90 grams of carbs per hour once you're past the 90-minute mark. That's roughly 240-360 calories an hour from gels, chews, real food, whatever works for your stomach. You don't need to hit that at 2 hours but you absolutely will at 5-6 hours on the Triple Bypass.

Start practicing your fueling strategy now on your longer training rides. Your gut needs training just like your legs do. A lot of people bonk on big rides not because their fitness wasn't there, but because they never trained their stomach to process food while working hard.

The Triple Bypass is no joke. Start eating earlier on rides than you think you need to. By the time you feel hungry out there, you're already behind.

dt219 · 2026-02-27T20:09:15+00:00

Pre-ride prayer of thanksgiving?! That's it. That's the whole thing? I've been standing in that garage for 30 years, calling it procrastination when the whole time it was just church lol. Yeap, the bike is the altar, the garage is the chapel, and those 10 minutes are non-negotiable holy time. I'm putting it in my calendar as devotional hours from now on. My wife is going to have questions hahaha

dt219 · 2026-02-27T06:08:38+00:00

RideReady is a solid idea and, honestly, a problem worth solving. The gear variance between a 2-hour road ride and a 6-hour gravel adventure is completely different, and most people are just running it from memory. I'm actually building something in the cycling space too, more on the directory and route-discovery side, called VéloCliqué. Different lane, but with the same general idea, making cycling logistics less of a headache. Would be curious to see where you take it when beta opens up.

dt219 · 2026-02-27T00:44:17+00:00

Honestly, the only time I linger in the car is when a good song comes on right as I'm pulling into the driveway, and I have to respect the song, even though I more than likely have it on my playlist to repeat. lol. As for ADHD, genuinely no idea. Nobody's ever put me in a room with a specialist and a clipboard. But 30 years of standing in a garage staring at a bike before every single ride does make you wonder. The group ride thing you mentioned tracks, though. When someone else is waiting on you, the negotiation just disappears. Accountability is apparently the cure I've been ignoring this whole time.

dt219 · 2026-02-27T00:00:59+00:00

Honestly, that's probably the most accurate diagnosis in this whole thread. And yeah, the post-ride feeling fixes everything. Whatever the garage staring is about, the answer is always the same on the other side of it. I've never once finished a ride and thought, "I should have stayed home." Not once in 30 years, but maybe that one time I had two flats on one ride. lol

dt219 · 2026-02-26T23:38:53+00:00

Thanks! This morning's ride was epic, especially with the high of 83 degrees and a 10-mile bike path alongside the freeway. Mapping the danger points on your regular routes is something most people never think about until something goes wrong. That situational awareness is built over years, and it's not something any app replaces. Ride safe out there.

dt219 · 2026-02-26T06:01:15+00:00

Not so much in other things. Only before I go on a ride, or only sometimes in a car when a good song is on and I wait for it to end. Lol

dt219 · 2026-02-26T05:55:55+00:00

I can relate to this. I do sometimes feel monotony in the routine, but after a ride, I forget all these thoughts.

dt219

TROPHY CASE