Road bikes - a few questions

[Nearly there]

A roadie past me(naturally) wearing a camelbak last summer+ most roadies i see on rides have a saddle bag however the ones ive seen on races tend not to.

 

[Alembicbassman]

I didn't think the UCI allowed hydration packs in competition road riding, the bottles that riders chuck are great souvenirs anyway. I'd hate to see them go. I love the way the back marker loads up with bottles then speeds back to the rest of the team to hand them out. You can't put sticky sports drinks in a pack without clagging it up a bit, the High Five tablet things are quite good in bottles though because you can carry them easily and pop them in a refilled bottle.

 

[biggs682]

surely its what you want to do rather than worry what others do or think

 

[HLaB]

I didn't think the UCI allowed hydration packs in competition road riding, the bottles that riders chuck are great souvenirs anyway. I'd hate to see them go. I love the way the back marker loads up with bottles then speeds back to the rest of the team to hand them out. You can't put sticky sports drinks in a pack without clagging it up a bit, the High Five tablet things are quite good in bottles though because you can carry them easily and pop them in a refilled bottle.

I'm pretty sure I've seen them in TT's but thats a solo event. I saw the vuelta a few years ago and bottles were thrown about all over the place the only souvenir I got though was a coke can The bloke next to me caught a bottle screwed off the lid inside was what looked like puke

 

[Nebulous]

The great thing about a roadbike for me is the distance you can travel fairly readily. I'm in the centre of a small city, but can be on a quiet road with few cars within 20 minutes. If you think about a 50 mile ride, which is a typical weekend morning ride for me, surely you could find quiet routes within 25 miles of your house? I have little problem finding somewhere I've never been before. Or I can travel a route I've done a few times before.

I read all the advice about nutrition and hydration and 'bonking' on here before starting out and was really wary about getting it wrong. As I've become used to it, my requirements have either dropped, or I never needed it in the first place. A 50 mile ride on one 750 ml bottle of High5 4:1 is perfectly fine. About 50% of the time I'll also have a banana, and in the summer (if only) I'll have another 750 ml bottle of water. That is probably about half of what I would have had when I began cycling.

 

[Part time cyclist]

Like many others I have two bottle cages on my bike, I have a small saddle mounted tool kit with puncture outfit pump and pocket tools, I have a frame mounted pump and on longer rides a carry a back pack with extra bottles of drink should I need them, waterproof jacket, spare inner tubes, wallet etc. I didn't Want to be a Lycra clad road cyclist so purchased a pair of the Altus padded boxer shorts, these were fine but me being a fat lad and covered a lot of miles, I have managed to kill the padding in about 8 months, I have now relented and from sound advice from many cc members bought some dhb aeron Lycra cycling shorts... I have indeed started my journey to the dark side but I can wear shorts over the top to hide them

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Hi,
Lie most others I have 2 BC's - seat tube n downtube and a seat bag containing:
Tube, quick patches, air-force frame pump, multi-tool and latex gloves(!) and tyre levers.
These are for commuting, however if I am ging out on a jolly longer than 25 miles, I add chain spltter, 3" of chain, Co2 pump, 2 old credit cards(for badly split tyre).
My mobile, debit card and emergency fiver o in my rear pockets along with a windproof and a banana.
Hydration, i use none for the commute and one bottle - water - for up to 40 miles and two for longer- one with Lucozade sport. For v long rides - 80+ I take th hydration pack (Tesco one) with 1 litre water and one lucozade sport in a bottle - and stuff from the seat bag goes in there.

 

[Alun]

I always carry tools, keys and suchlike in a seatpack, MTB or Road bike. Don't carry anything on your back that you don't want to land on in the event of an accident

 

[Part time cyclist]

I recently went out on a thirty miler with my 20 year old nephew who emptied out his under saddle bag of all it's contents so he could put his phone in it :0) not such a good idea when he had his second puncture and I had run out of spare patches. He did however get his phone out of the saddle bag to ring his dad to come out and collect him lol!!!

 

[Ethan]

Is this sort of thing frowned upon?

I have a fairly big saddle bag, can easily take a jar of jam.
I've never had any comments
Racers dont have saddle bags because they have support cars with all the stuff they could possibly need following them! Every little helps in the world of racing. But in the 'real world', If someone is that anal about weight that they wont carry a saddlebag with must haves in, then they've got something wrong with their head! Especially if your commuting on the bike! You're going to have to carry a bloody heavy lock as it is, whats another hundred grams?
/rant over

For what its worth I carry an inner tube, 2 tire leavers, multitool, asthma pump, antihistamine syrup (I have a very bad milk allergy, even if I accidentally eat half a crisp with milk in without knowing I go into exercise induced anaphylaxis!) 3 AAA batteries, a few sweets to cheer me up and usually my mobile.

As for the rest of your questions:
Drinks, most have two bottles as others have explained.
Jerseys have 3 pockets in the back which carry decent amounts, I sometimes put a drink in there.

Get a saddle bag for supplies. I hate having to wear my rucksack all the time when cycling.

I got my roadie in September, I started off wearing a t-shirt and my baggy basketball shorts. I too said I'd never wear lyrca!
I then got a cheap aldi jersey, had enough of it looking rubbish.
Im now wearing specialized bib tights, gloves, jersey and decent cycling shoes.
Wear whatever your happy in, if thats baggy shorts then go for it!
You'll soon be making your way to the lycra anyway

Why do I like road bikes? I like bikes in general. But road biking/track racing just seems to be my thing. Simple as that! I ride to uni on mine and yes, I do get a mouth full of fumes every now and then but its really not that bad. But thats not the end of the story, just because its a road bike doesn't mean you're stuck to busy roads!
In summer Im going to ride around Anglesey and snowdonia, surely thats just as good at getting me out doors as mountain biking is!

Club runs are something Im still pretty apprehensive about. 16mph isn't to hard to average if your in a large group though! You'll be surprised how quickly your average increases.

Final word, get a road bike. Get out on the country lanes with it. Go a little to fast down them hills and scare your self. Push your self a little bit harder than you should doing that hill climb.
You'll soon figure out why road biking is great fun!

 

[Canrider]

I'm pretty sure I've seen them in TT's but thats a solo event. I saw the vuelta a few years ago and bottles were thrown about all over the place the only souvenir I got though was a coke can The bloke next to me caught a bottle screwed off the lid inside was what looked like puke

Didn't Armstrong ride a TT with a drinks bladder built into his bike frame?

 

[HLaB]

Didn't Armstrong ride a TT with a drinks bladder built into his bike frame?

Quite possibly. Watching the ToQuatar TTT earlier today, I thing some folk had camelbaks there.

 

[ianrauk]

Didn't Armstrong ride a TT with a drinks bladder built into his bike frame?

dunno, but apparently Cancellara had an engine in his...

 

[smokeysmoo]

Quite possibly. Watching the ToQuatar TTT earlier today, I thing some folk had camelbaks there.

I've heard of pro TT riders wearing them on their fronts. Must be an aerodynamic thing I guess?

 

[lukesdad]

I switched to bottles on the road bike recently with flip top covers. This was after a couple of nasty stomach bugs that could have been picked up from road muck. Something to think about if you do a lot of mucky lanes.