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Posted by on Nov 3, 2016 in bike routes, cycling and bike pics | 0 comments

MTB ride to the top of Monte Palmeto

MTB ride to the top of Monte Palmeto

The bike routes I made for on-sicily.com are all meant for road bikes. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t beautiful routes for mountain bikes in the area. On the contrary! Climbing the mountains in the area on your MTB will give you spectacular views in beautiful areas of this sunny island. The first route I’ll mention on this blog, is the climb to the top of Monte Palmeto. This is the large mountain that you see when you drive from the gulf area via the A29 to Palermo. This rocky mountain is located close to Eurobici, where I can organize bike rental for you. The climb is not that long, so if you only have a few hours to spare, this route would be excellent. The climb: If you start counting from the main road, the climb is around 9 km long. The climb on the mountain itself is 6.6 km long and has an average grade of 6%. In the first few kilometers there are a few steeper...

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Posted by on Nov 3, 2016 in bikes, gear and gadgets | 0 comments

There, I fixed it!

There, I fixed it!

If you, like myself, don’t have magnet-less sensors, you probably use a wheel magnet and a cadence magnet for your Garmin bike computer. And if you have more than one bike, you probably bought one or two Garmin GSC10 set(s), consisting of a wheel magnet, a cadence magnet and three black zip ties. Nice, but why there are no Garmin sets with just a couple of wheel magnets? I never had to replace a cadence magnet, while I had to replace many wheel magnets. I believe I have 6 or 7 cadence magnets lying around and I probably won’t ever need them. Maybe it’s me, but I think those wheel magnets are just too damn fragile! And clearly, I’m not talking about the magnet itself, but the black u-shaped part, that goes around your spoke. The first ones I had, were made from some kind of bendy metal, so as soon as the magnet hit something (like the cadence sensor), that black part would bend and I’d either lose...

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Posted by on Oct 30, 2016 in bike routes, cycling and bike pics | 0 comments

Climbing to Piano Margi

Climbing to Piano Margi

If you like climbing in excellent weather, then cycling in Sicily will be a blast! There are many nice climbs in my area, both for road bikes and for mountain bikes. The climb to Piano Margi is one of those climbs. The first part can be done on a road bike and an MTB, but if you’d like to go all the way to the top you’ll have to do the climb on a mountain bike (like we did here). The climb starts in the small town of Cinisi, pretty close to the airport of Palermo. The climb: The climb is over 8 km long and when you’ve reached the top, you’ll have climbed 540 meters. The average grade is more than 6%, but you will encounter a few short steep parts up to around 15%. If you’re as strong as Giovanni Visconti, it will take you 24.5 minutes to reach Piano Margi. Many of us aren’t, so Strava times range from 25:17 to 1:18:13… Strava route: I created...

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Posted by on Oct 17, 2016 in cycling and bike pics | 2 comments

Climbing Monte Inici

Climbing Monte Inici

My Cannondale F4 had problems with the gearing and I mainly use my roadbike anyway, so I hadn’t touched the bike in ages. When a good friend of mine bought a new group for his mountain bike, I decided to buy his “old” XT group, so I could go for a ride on the mountain bike again. Yesterday I went to Monte Inici, a beautiful, rocky mountain near the coastal town of Castellammare del Golfo and took lots of pictures. Below you’ll find several of those pics, which will show you why I love cycling...

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Posted by on Oct 16, 2016 in bikes, gear and gadgets | 0 comments

Testing the Schwalbe Pro One tires

Testing the Schwalbe Pro One tires

Since I bought my first road bike, around 5 years ago, I have ridden nearly 50,000 km in sunny Sicily. While that may not be particularly impressive, I believe the fact that I never had a flat, sure is! So, are the roads on this island paved to perfection? No, not really. I was just lucky my bike shop advised me to go with Schwalbe Durano Plus. This tire has a gel layer that helps prevent punctures. For me they are the perfect tires and several pairs lasted for over 10,000 km.   I did always wonder whether the Durano Plus tires were much slower than other tires. I don’t race, but I am quite competitive on Strava, where my current tires haven’t prevented me from getting some good results. I decided to do some research and see what makes a tire fast and whether a faster tire would be a better option for me. Here are some aspects that affect speed: Tire width: I still use 23 mm...

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