Last year at Interbike, I picked a company called Broken Bones as my favorite of the show.  It wasn’t because they had the best technology or had the best bike, but because of the very cool attitude they were bringing to the cycling industry.

I  like to call myself a rule-breaker, and I’m definitely far from being normal traditional….so I generally migrate towards companies that do things differently.

Anyway, Josh from Broken Bones bicycles just launched the Broken Bones Garage webcast series.  In it he gives tips on training, diet, strategy and also tells some of his best crazy “racing in other countries” horror stories.

We’re teaming up with Josh and the Broken Bones Garage and will be featuring some of his tips over here at Loving the Bike.  Here’s the first one all about how smiling can help get you through the suffer points of your ride.  Watch for more from Josh in the coming weeks.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a sweaty mess when I’m out riding.  Okay, I don’t mean to aggravate any of you who are still waiting for the hot and sweaty temperatures to arrive…so my apologies in advance.

If you sweat (and odds are you do…at least a little bit), there are some important things you should do to prevent it from messing up your bike and accessories.

Before getting into what and how it can mess things up, let’s quickly go over what sweat (perspiration) is made up of.

Perspiration consists of water, minerals, lactate and urea.  The average mineral composition is:

• sodium (0.9 gram/liter)
• potassium (0.2 g/l)
• calcium (0.015 g/l)
• magnesium (0.0013 g/l)

Sweat can also include trace metals including:

• zinc (0.4 milligrams/liter)
• copper (0.3–0.8 mg/l)
• iron (1 mg/l)
• chromium (0.1 mg/l)
• nickel (0.05 mg/l)
• lead (0.05 mg/l)

It’s the sodium that can cause the most damage to your bike and accessories due to its corrosive power and how it reacts with metals, aluminum, and carbon.

Your Bike

Where does your sweat go when it drips off your body?  Down.  That means your bike is soaking up a lot of sweat and corrosive materials as you ride along.

Prevention:  In order to prevent corrosive issues to your bike, be sure to clean it regularly.  If you need some tips on how best to clean your bike, have a listen to our Cycling 360 podcast on Cleaning Your Road Bike.

Note – I can speak from personal experience on this one.  I feel like I do a good job at keeping my bike clean, but all that sweating I’ve done in the past has caused my seat post to totally seize up.  You don’t even want to hear about how difficult it is to fix something like this.

Your Helmet

If your helmet has one of those new magnetic snaps like my Lazer Helium does, then you’re going to want to heed my advice once again.  This is the first time I’ve had one of these types of snaps on the chin strap so I never knew what problems could be caused by lack of cleaning.

Just a couple months ago, I was riding along and my chin strap came undone.  I tried snapping it back together, but it wouldn’t stay connected.  I finally stopped and realized that the one side of the snap that the magnet clings to had been totally corroded away.  The snap was shot.

Being in the Caribbean I can’t just go to my local bike shop for a replacement, but I was able to borrow the part I needed from my Wife’s Nutcase helmet…..they have the same closure system as the Lazer.

Thanks to the great people at Nutcase helmets for sending me a free replacement so I could replace the one I stole from my Wife.

Prevention: Wash your helmet and if you have a magnetic snap, rinse and soak both sides of it regularly.

Your Sunglasses

If you’re like me, you’re never caught outside without a pair of sunglasses on your face….especially on the bike.  Well, once again this accessory takes on a whole lot of your sweat while out riding.

Okay, so how many of you have had a pair of good sunglass lenses peel away making them un-usable?  Yep, happened to me once and I learned my lesson fast.  Ever since then I’m sure to rinse my sunglasses following every ride….and never had any issues since.

Prevention: Rinse your sunglasses after every ride.

Your Turn

Of course, sweat can mess up pretty much any of your cycling accessories. but these are the ones that I’ve had issues with in the past.  Now it’s your turn, what damage has sweat done to your bike or accessories?  Let us know so that we can help others in preventing it from happening to them.

Top photo c/o Franck Fife/ AFP/Getty Images

Whether you’re a road cyclist or mountain biker, there are several different types of route types you can take when going for a ride….what type do you like best?

I’m primarily a road cyclist, and my preferred type of ride is one that takes me on a loop from home and back.  When I lived in Austin, I found myself also doing a lot of out and back rides.  For me personally, if it’s this type of ride I prefer the out to be at least 10 or 12 miles so it can be doubled up on the way back.

But I’ve also found myself loving the mountain bike lately and along with this I have learned that there are a whole bunch of ways to classify a route.

So what type do you prefer, and why?  Below is a list of some of the various route types that I know about….feel free to add in any of your own in the comments below.

Road Cycling

The Loop – This is a popular type of ride for many cyclists.  Basically, it’s a ride that takes you around in a full circle so that you’re never double backing down any of the roads you head out on.

The Out and Back – This type of ride takes you down a road (or series of roads) and then you trace back your route to come back to where you started.

The Crazy Word Design – With the popularity of GPS and online tracking of rides, there are millions of personal ride routes to be found on the internet.  You’ve also probably seen some of these crazy designs and spelled words that have been posted as well.  I’m still not sure if they are legitimate or not, but funny to look at either way.

Hill Repeats - Doing hill repeats is everyone’s idea of a good time, right?  Uhhhh, not exactly.  Hill repeats are when you climb one hill (or a series of a few hills) over and over.  You climb up, you ride down….and then do it all over again.

Mountain Bike

I’m taking this list of typical mountain bike routes and names from my friend Greg over at Singletracks.

Figure 8 – Pretty self explanatory….just don’t make yourself dizzy from too many of these.

Lariat – Like a popsicle.  It’s basically a loop with a stick off of it.  Usually you ride the popsicle stick out, ride the loop, and ride the same popsicle stick back.  Is anyone else craving one right now?

Network – Lots of places are actually trail networks.  A network is basically a spiderweb of shorter trail segments that add together and form a cohesive network.  Here’s an example of a trail system with sub-trails: http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/bull-mountain.html.

Shuttle – A shuttle ride is generally a point-to-point route where you ride from one end to the other, but use a vehicle to do the connection.  Usually you take a vehicle high up into the mountains and then ride the trail back downhill.

Loop – A loop for mountain biking would be pretty much the same as on a road bike…..it would just likely have different terrain.  Same thing goes for the Out and Back.

Your turn….which one do you like best?

Shuttle Route photo c/0 http://singletracks.com

The 2013 cycling season is upon us, pretty much wherever you live.  Depending on where your location, each year there may be a period of time where you’re not able to ride outside…and when Spring arrives you’re ready to bust out and hit the road.  The time is now.

Wait a minute.  Did you promise yourself at the end of last season that you’d do some strength training and conditioning so that you’d be stronger this cycling season?  Ooops. Well, it’s not too late.  You can still work it into your weekly training routine….just be sure not to burn yourself out.

There’s several ways to implement strength training into your weekly routine, and still have lots of time and energy to train on your bike as well.  I’m not a cycling coach, but I have been involved in the fitness and cycling scene long enough to give out some advice.  I’ll explain more in a minute, and tell you my suggestion for work out programs to help your condition.

If you’re going to be including strength training along with your riding, try going on a rotating schedule where you ride one day and then do weights the next.  In an alternating schedule like this, I would suggest getting in 3 to 4 rides and having 2 days of strength training each week.

Now how about that strength training routine?  Well, you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your workouts so that you’re not using valuable time and energy and not getting results.  Lifting weights is not as simple as you may think….it’s pretty easy to pound out a bunch of strength training exercises and not get much back in return.

I recommend following a packaged training program like Rushfit.  I say this because it will provide you with a step by step plan so you don’t need to put in time researching what you should do.  It’s quick and effective and you’ll get the most out of your training time.  This type of program will also help you out with your cardiovascular conditioning which will help you out on the bike as well.

Sure the season has started, but instead of wishing you would have done things differently over the winter….let’s jump on it and perform at your best.

It’s been about three years since I last had a professional bike fit.  Although it was done virtually, it totally helped my performance and comfort on my road bike.  Best of all, my bicycle fit was what started a fantastic friendship with my (now) good friend and Cycling 360 co-host….Victor Jimenez.  If you weren’t a follower of ours back when I was virtually fitted, here’s the links explaining how it all went:

• Fit to Get Fitted
• And the Bike Fit Continues
• I’ve officially been pimped Fit

Ideally, you should have a professional bike fit each year to make sure you’re riding in the ultimate position….but I’ve sort of neglected this.  To be honest, I’ve felt great on the bike so I didn’t feel I was in need of a re-fit.  Until now.

For the past couple months I haven’t felt exactly right, and my shoulder has begun to ache once again.  I’ve moved my bike around a lot over the past couple years, so I figure I must not have something set up properly.  So I enlisted the help of Victor once again.  You know, he isn’t called the Guru for nothing…and I was sure he’d get me back on track.

I sent Victor videos of me riding on the trainer from three different angles so that he could access how I was looking.  After looking them over, his first words to me were “Dude, you’re messed up”.  Then he asked if I’d ever hurt my right shoulder somewhere along the way.  My response to him was, “Dude, don’t you read my blog”.  I guess he missed my post about how I have a messed up shoulder due to being hit by a car quite a few years back.

The video shows what’s happening better than this picture on the right, but you can tell that my right shoulder drops when I’m riding.  Because of this, it’s creating the ache that I’m feeling on the bike.

Being the bicycle guru that he is, Victor explained a few ways I could help things out and also suggested I do some shoulder strengthening exercises to improve things.

I put his prescription into effect immediately and am working towards feeling as strong and comfortable on my bike as I have in the past.  Victor has virtually fixed me once again.

If you’d like more information on Do-It-Yourself bicycle fits, have a listen to our Cycling 360 Podcast (click the play button, or play in new window link below) or connect with Victor himself.

We’ve come to the end of our week of cycling tips here at Loving the Bike.  I hope you’ve enjoyed what our crew has had to say, and be sure to have a look at all our other cycling tip posts as well.

It’s kind of tough to single out a Number 1 Tip for cyclists, so I’m cheating a little and combining a few tips into one.  There are so many important things to consider and ways to improve your cycling, but above it all is just getting out there to ride.

Please have a watch as I go over our final Cycling Tip for the week which talks about enjoying your ride and some tips on how to make sure you keep it that way.

Loving the Bike Cycling Tip #1 – Enjoy Your Ride

So there you have it…our top 5 cycling tips.  Now it’s time for you to let us know some of your favorite tips.

Have a look back at all the tips from this week, plus check out all our other cycling tips posts as well: Cycling Tips and Information.

We continue our week of Cycling Tips, with this fantastic nutrition tip from Kelli.  Each week Kelli brings you a Loving the BITE recipe, but along with that she provides a wealth of nutritional information for you as well.  On top of it all, she always let’s you know how certain foods, herbs, and spices can benefit your cycling.

See what three things Kelli recommends for on the bike fuel for your ride.

Loving the Bike Cycling Tip #2 – On the Bike Fuel and Nutrition

We wrap up our week of cycling tips tomorrow….be sure to drop back and see what our #1 Loving the Bike Cycling Tip is.

In our Loving the Bike number 3 tip, we discuss the importance of stretching and how it can improve your cycling performance and keep you healthy.

In tip #5 from earlier this week, I mentioned how there’s really nothing better than time on the bike to improve your cycling….but now I’m going to explain how this off the bike routine can help you out as well.  Yeah, stretching is so ultimately important for keeping your body performing well.

In our #3 tip, I go over a few tips on stretching for cyclists and also provide my favorites for you as well.

Loving the Bike Cycling Tip #3 – Stretching

For additional stretches and stretching tips, have a look at our Stretching and Conditioning section….and for that post on yoga for cyclists, read our “Loosen Up Your Tight Hips” post.

Kelli is in tomorrow with our Loving the Bike Cycling Tip #2.  I won’t give it away, but you can bet it has something to do with nutrition and better performance on the bike.

As we continue with our week of cycling tips, Stevie is here today with #4 for you.  This just might be the first time many of you have heard Stevie speak, so make sure you have your translation book handy….you just have to love that UK accent.

Find out what Stevie has to say about proper handlebar height on your bike.

Loving the Bike Cycling Tip #4 – Handlebar Height

Visit us tomorrow for Loving the Bike Cycling Tip #3.

Each day this week we’re bringing you one of our Loving the Bike Top 5 Cycling Tips.  We do our best to provide cool stuff and interesting tips and information for all you cyclists on a regular basis, but this week we’re coming at you with our top tips.

We’re kicking things off with Tip #5 today, and will continue to run through to Tip #1 on Friday.  Each one will be a video post from either Stevie, Kelli, or myself….and we hope you enjoy the information we have to share.

Loving the Bike Cycling Tip #5 – Make it Happen

Stop back tomorrow for Stevie’s #4 Loving the Bike Cycling Tip.