OK, so you got the bike and you got the gear. Now what? Here are a few tips for getting you riding again happily.
1. Build it up slowly
A few years ago, I went out riding with a friend who was out of practice. For the first hour, she was sailing along, amazed at her own fitness and ability.
But as we hit the second half of the ride, she started to struggle more and more and by the time we got home, she was exhausted.
This is entirely normal. When you start, your muscles will be unfamiliar. So take it easy for the first few rides, say 10-20 km (6-12 miles). A few hills (see below) and with a low gear (see below). Let your muscles adjust and take at least 3 days between each ride. Very soon, your muscles will feel fine and you can double the distance to around 30-40 km. Again, hover at that for a while until you feel like going for a longer ride. Find out what you enjoy and stick to it. A lot of that will depend on the terrain and how much climbing you do.
After a while you will find that you can easily go much further.
2. Bring plenty of water
This is really a common mistake made by those getting into cycling: underestimating the amount of water that you will need to drink.
Cycling is thirsty work: all those hills and kilometres take a toll and one of the worst experiences is running out of water on a ride.
Make sure that your bike is fitted with two bottle holders. As a rule of thumb, in ordinary conditions, I drink about a 750ml bottle of water for every 20-30km. In hot weather, it is closer to double that. The important thing is to come prepared or be ready to rush into a café or knock on someone’s door to ask to fill up your water bottle.
For those of you brave enough to ride in winter – and I recommend it – you could pack either a thermos of tea/coffee or a thermal water bottle.
Just drink…
3. be happy in low gears
One April, I lent a friend one of my bikes to ride out with me to see the marvellous bluebells in the Bois de Hal. She had a good time… until we reached the not very steep hill that takes you up to the plateau where the wood is. I saw her straining away and getting further and further behind. The following week she complained of muscle pains.
The next time that I rode the bike that I had lent, I found out why. She had switched to the second largest chainring – the big gears you pedal over – for pretty much the whole journey. No wonder it hurt! It would have killed me.
Gears are the most wonderful invention in cycling: use them to the full, especially the lower ones. It is better to ‘dance’ in the lower gears than straining your muscles by pushing in too high a gear. Many is the friend who has surged off ahead of me in a high gear at the start of the hill only to find me dancing past them in a much lower gear half way up the hill and quietly receding into the distance. Don’t be afraid of slipping into low gears when you start: you can always go harder later.
4. Learn to love hills
Pretty much every cyclist begins by hating and fearing hills, and as we saw above, if you approach them in the wrong gear, they will be a torture.
But approach them with the right mindset, the right gear and a decent bike and hills take on a form of pleasure, be they the short and brutal ones, the slow and long ones or those whose characteristic shifts all the time.
Hills are wonderful. Hills are beautiful. Hills can become a form of meditation, concentrating on your breathing and heart rate and not looking up.
Hills are like glasses of hard liquor: the first is a shock, the second is warming, the third, fourth and fifth are quite delightful… and have too many in too short a period of time and you will feel dizzy and sick…
Relax: you will learn to love them. They will show you how far you have come. And occasionally, how far you need to go.
5. Don’t be afraid of the weather… up to a point.
You look at the weather forecast for the weekend: 50% chance of rain showers. Do you plan to go out?
Yes*, though you keep your plans flexible so that you can adjust the time if there is a gap in the showers.
For a start, that’s only 50%, so there’s 50% chance that it won’t rain. Even if the probability is 70%, it is still not certain. One evening, I set out, certain of rain. Not a drop and instead a glorious sunny evening, with no cyclists around.
For a follow-up, that’s showers, rather than a downpour, so even if it does rain, it is not going to be for long. Today I went for a ride and got rained on three times. Thanks to the lycra that I was wearing, I was fine and was dry a few minutes after each shower.
Many beginner cyclists worry that rain will make the roads unstable and dangerous, so you will skid. Yes, there are times when rain will create danger: when it rains after a long period of dry weather, there will be dry oil left on the surface from car exhausts. This will make the road more slippery.
But if it has been raining for a while or has rained in the last days, this gunk will have washed off. Granted, you need to increase your braking distance, but you can still ride safely. If anything, the rain will create more friction with the surface, slowing you down. What is critical in rain is having good tires with good treads that will give you control. Bald tires are dangerous.
Don’t get me wrong: you don’t want to spend the whole of the ride in a downpour. But a little won’t hurt you.
And don’t get put off by cold weather: just wrap up and consider getting some rubber foot covers for when the temperature gets to around freezing and below. I have had some glorious winter rides in sub-zero temperatures.
No, the four weather conditions that you do need to be careful about are:
- Thunderstorms: difficult to completely avoid, but if one breaks near you, start using the distance counting technique and if it gets closer than, say 4-5 km, seek shelter.
- Snow/sleet, unless you have appropriate tyres
- Extremely high temperatures, say over 35C, which can dehydrate you very quickly
- Winds.
And this is where I come to the asterisk. When you look at the weather forecast, don’t just check for rain and temperature: also check for wind speed and direction.
Speed. If the wind speed is below say 10 kph, there may be the odd flutter but basically it is not going to interfere with your ride. If it is in the region of 10-25 kph, it will still be rideable but could be annoying particularly if you ar riding into it.
Above that, and things start to veer towards being dangerous especially once you reach 35kph. Twigs and branches will start to come off and you will be vulnerable to sudden gusts that make it difficult to control the bike.
Personally, when I can, I avoid riding in these conditions. I had to ride in them when touring recently and they made what should have been a lovely ride very very difficult.
If the wind is gusting but acceptable, it is worth looking at the direction and adjusting your ride so that if you do a loop and have to ride into the wind, you do it in the first half of your ride when you are still full of energy, rather than on your way back.
6. Ride with conviction…
A friend once advised me to “Ski with conviction”. What he meant was that if you ski as if you mean it, you are much more likely to take a firm line and avoid accidents. I think that there are many similarities in the attitudes needed for good skiing and those for safe riding: if you are a good skier, think about your rides as a slightly flatter version of pistes and ride accordingly.
Riding through gravel or sand? Go hard and go straight and your momentum should carry you through just as if it were powder snow.
Riding over cobbles/ rutted road? Think of them as tiny moguls and go as fast as you can, with your hands loose on the handlebars but close to the breaks. My hand position often resembles one of the Playmobil people: a slightly cupped U-shape.
Riding downhill? Keep an eye on the slope: if it is a reasonably straight road and see an uphill coming up (or you have followed my advice and bought a GPS which warns you), let it go and use the momentum to get you as far as possible up the hill.
Dealing with dogs? A bit of alpha aggression usually scares the buggers off.
Another area where assertiveness and conviction come in handy is in towns when you are on a narrow street. If you stick too much to the side of the road, there is a risk that cars will see a gap and try to squeeze past you… at the very best a scary experience. Take the centre of the road and if necessary, move around a bit on the road so that there is no temptation for the car. Yes, you might annoy it and delay it, but not as much as a court appearance for dangerous driving. By the way, this approach is totally within the Highway Code in most countries: it amounts to defensive riding.
7. and Finally: Be nice…
This might sound odd and/or patronising but speaking from my own experience, the adrenalin that pumps through your body when you are riding can turn even the nicest person into a raging monster. You can get so fired up in anticipating obstacles and dangers each of which could send you flying off your bike and into a hospital, that you react strongly, especially when riding through cities. The primal response: fight or flight? FIGHT.
And there is a kind of moral righteousness that can come over you: feeling healthier than pedestrians and more environmentally friendly than drivers.
I think that it happens to all of us, but let’s admit: more to the male of the species who can be driven to react to any pedestrian threatening his progress like a caveman being chased by a bear only to be held up by a sheep. Or to a driver bearing down on him like the caveman in a life or death struggle with the bear. Having been held up by the bloody sheep.
I am far from perfect on this front, so do as I say, not as I always do, but try, please try, to stay calm and be nice when you are on a bicycle. Think of yourself as an ambassador for cycling and act accordingly.
Be nice to drivers. If you have a car behind you and you can find somewhere to pull in and let it past, do so. If you are riding with a friend and a car is behind you, go ahead or behind them. Behave predictably: signalling any manoeuvres. And above all, when a car gives you a decent space in taking over, lets you through or is in any way accommodating to you, acknowledge it with a wave of the hand, a thumbs up or at the very least, a nod of the head. This is simple courtesy and it will make the driver happier to do it again.
Be nice to pedestrians. Warn them with your bell in advance that you are coming through and be aware that they may do something odd, especially children. Don’t use the pavement unless absolutely necessary. Slow down.
Be nice to other riders. Give them space. Give them warning, especially when coming round a corner. Offer to help them if you see them broken down at the side of the road.
But don’t be nice to people on scooters. They have it coming and eternity in Hell awaits them in the afterlife.
See you out there!
