What are the biggest problems you encounter in cycling. This could be everyday things like tech, gear, kit, software, etc. What detracts the fun from the training and the ride. I’ll share something. I feel like there is a big lack of clarity on the next steps you need to progress. There are so many factors (Gear, nutrition, training, recovery, etc) with so much conflicting data, that it is very daunting to even begin to address or optimize them. Anyways, that’s what bothers me, what about you guys?
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Is this just like venting, complaining about stuff that can be fixed? or?
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My biggest issue I encounter is the mechanical side. It gets a creak or click or doesn’t shift right and chase it and chase it to the point you want to throw your bike in the dumpster and start over.
The rest is easy for me personally. Train…recover…eat. You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want.
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For me it’s my body not being able to achieve what my brain wants it to achieve without breaking.
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Cars. Cars. Cars / shitty drivers / shitty drivers / shitty drivers. Poor pavement / potholes
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My aging body not wanting to do all the things I want to do even though I’m now retired and have the time to do them.
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I just spend the last 3 months chasing a loud creak on my mountain bike. Ordered and replaced the bearings. Nope. Rebuilt the bottom bracket, greased the chainring bolts, and greased the pedals. Nope. Lubed the dropper post. Nope. Serviced the rear hub. Nope. Serviced my headset. Nope.
It actually was my dropper but it needed a 300 hour service which is a full teardown and bushing replacement that only took 20 minutes after ordering the parts.
At least most of the bike got the maintenance I’d be doing over the winter.
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Weather. It’s raining, or it’s too cold, or it’s too hot with high humidity.
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Roads. Surface is rough and slow. Or full of potholes. Or debris. Or all three.
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Drivers. No, honking at me is not going to get me to go into the ditch to let you by. Nor to go faster; if I could go faster I would be. Just pass me, there’s room. No need to acknowledge the pass with more honking. Only \#3 because surprisingly few drivers are actually a problem.
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Shimano. Yes, I’m still pissed they won’t sell me the part I need.
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Nowhere safe to leave my bike. Definitely that. Cycling is a luxury when you do it for fitness/training/enjoyment. I want to be able to cycle as part of my everyday life too. Utilitarian cycling to the supermarket is a dream I cannot risk. There’s no way I’m leaving a decentbike and panniers locked outside a supermarket, the chances are it won’t be there when I come out. The nearest supermarket is a 40 min trip on the hilly lanes and then 40 mins home loaded with shopping, not something for a knackered old ‘pub bike’
This is also an issue with touring. Security of the bikes. A decent lock weighs a ton, and a little lock is easily broken.
Actually security in general is probably my biggest issue. I’ve had bikes stolen over the years, friends have had bikes stolen, local businesses have had bikes stolen. Insurance is too high to afford and they often don’t provide the cover that people really need.
Finally, the fact the office is just a tad too far to commute to. I mostly work from home but I would go in the office a lot more if it wasn’t a 3 hr round trip on a bike.
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My biggest battle in regards to cycling is managing stress from my 10hr/day, 5 day work week. I have no issues fitting training into the schedule, but some weeks work takes so much of my head space it reflects on my cycling performance and even general health if training hard.
I’m sure im not the only one that struggles with this. No doubt there are plenty of cyclists out there coping with much longer hours as well.
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Family. Taking up all my time when I could be out cycling 
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The lack of clarity is mostly due to the 100s of companies and people that are trying to sell you something. IMO it’s really pretty simple:
- Train consistently
- Increase volume
- Add some intensity
- Back to step 1
Everything about precision of zones, lactate measurement, whether sweet spot should be 90% or 94%, the perfect fructose:glucose ratio etc, etc, etc, is mostly nonsense and isn’t going to amount to anything until you do the basics for the better part of a decade.
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- Crazy/distracted drivers that trigger my PTSD and keep me off the bike (at least outdoors)
- See number one
I seriously may commit to finally getting Zwift and trying to do some Zwift races this winter. 99% of my riding is indoors and I can only watch so much Youtube.
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The biggest issue I had with cycling training, riding, and racing, was drivers and other cyclists. So the biggest issue I had was safety.
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The weather. I’m right North of Atlanta, GA and we had the wettest Spring and early Summer I can remember in decades. Every other ride for weeks at a time was in the wet. Heavy constant rain. Spent significant time cleaning and maintaining my bikes. Constantly unpacking and repacking spares kit to let it dry. Very annoying.
Then once it finally dried out and I was able to ride consistently in the dry; the creaks and clicks started. I’ve been chasing down one thing or another for weeks. If I had known it was going to be like this I’d have just given every bike a frame-off rebuild at the end of August.
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I will trade you 3 months of 100F and no rain for 5 or 6 inches of rain here in Texas
Headwinds and gravity.
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“yOU muSt nOt PlaY goLF or fLy AirplAnes!”
No, I don’t. I just ride bikes. And I still find it too expensive. Admittedly, I’m naturally frugal, especially when it comes to the non-essentials of life, but I’ve almost had to quit looking at any accessories, apparel, etc. because I know they’re just going to be ridiculously priced. Nothing against anyone who does buy the things (unless it’s putting you in debt). I’m actually excited for you! And maybe I’ll talk myself into some of it here and there.
Safety is probably my only true concern. Yes I train and I like seeing my numbers go up. I race and getting a good result is exciting. But at the end of the day that doesn’t truly affect my life. I’m not paid to race so results are for my enjoyment. On the other hand, what I would give to just be able to ride safely without fear of getting harassed, injured, or killed by drivers. I’d trade racing and training for good if I had safe roads to ride everyday. We just had another cyclist killed by a driver a few days ago. And we have a government that’s actively dismantling cycling infrastructure and making it harder and harder to ride safely.
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- Safety. I won‘t repeat what has been said (which should be adressed first). Otherwise I think safety can be improved a bit with clothing that is abrasion resistant. Would have saved me some skin.
- I think I‘m doing that, but not really getting that much better sadly. I must be doing something wrong.
- I would like nicer colors for bikes that are not top of the line. I will not buy >5k bikes and I will not buy it if I don‘t like to look at it.
- Better weather or less winter and more sun (not too hot though).
- More time in general to do things I like.