Long Distance Cycling

[25GTT]

sh*t and interesing point you bring up about clothing. I now have a pair of padded Altura black lycra shorts, might have to look at a good top then to go with them!

[mad082]

the longer you ride on the fatter tyres the better since you will use more energy on them so get stronger.

as for whether it's you or the bike, it depends on a few things but i'd be inclined to say both. if they are semi serious roadies then they probably do something like 150 to 250kms a week, so they would have much stronger legs unless you are doing similar sort of distances.

as for higher end flat bar vs road bike, once you get above about $1200 they do start running road bike gearing, but some will use triple chainring cranks while road bikes only run double chainring. that said, the flat bars of a similar spec will usually be a touch cheaper due to the road bike shifters being rather expensive. for example, the flat bar version of my bike retails for $500 less ($2000 vs $1500) and the only difference other than the shifters/flatbar setup is the wheels are a bit lower quality but they would only account for $100 or so. in the carbon versions there is a similar price difference.