Cycling..What is it you wish you knew when you started

Idiophreak

chucknorris wrote: »

I take my cycling quite seriously despite only having a mountain bike with slick tyres and wearing an old tee shirt and track suit bottoms. I do enjoy the challenge of taking on seriously attired road bikers when I come accross them, but what you have to realise is that some of them will be on very long training routes (possibly over 100 miles). So obviously they will be pacing themselves, whereas I only do 20 mile sprints and I am guessing that you aren't doing much in the way of distances either if you have your daughter with you.

Made me think of this:

http://www.itsnotarace.org/

If I had to offer advice, it would be:
People are always going to blast their horn, cut you up and generally behave like forking idiots...so if there's something you can do that will make you safer - primary position in traffic, setting off early from the lights - don't worry about upsetting people, just do it.

Marco_Panettone

You can't bunny-hop potholes on a fixed wheel in the same way you can on a freewheel!

Hanky_Panky

Doesn't matter how good you think you are, if you ride on icy roads and hit a patch you most likely will not 'catch it' and continue on but could easily end up in A&E with a fractured elbow:(

bosseyed

Your bike will make curious noises that prove nigh on impossible to track down the source of. Bottom bracket? Seat? Pedals? Who knows where that mysterious squeak is coming from as you can't adequately look for the source whilst riding the bike and the noise cannot be replicated whilst off the bike.

Marco_Panettone

www.parktool.com will give you decent repair guides for fixing pretty much everything yourself. Other books and websites are available. Some might be better, but I find this one to do the job for me. :-)

saxonrosecliff

When you have a regular route try and memorise where all the drain covers are on the cycle path (particularly where you have to turn right outside my local branch of Tesco). When the ground is covered with snow and the drain covers are invisible you should be able to miss said drain cover and won't skid into Tesco's fence in a spectacular fashion taking out part of the fence. This has now happened so many times (not all of them to me) this part of the fence has been taken out and replaced with bushes!

Marco_Panettone

saxonrosecliff wrote: »

When you have a regular route try and memorise where all the drain covers are on the cycle path (particularly where you have to turn right outside my local branch of Tesco). When the ground is covered with snow and the drain covers are invisible you should be able to miss said drain cover and won't skid into Tesco's fence in a spectacular fashion taking out part of the fence. This has now happened so many times (not all of them to me) this part of the fence has been taken out and replaced with bushes!

Surely they should've replaced it with a net!

mumf

PasturesNew wrote: »

When you buy a bike, make sure the shop has/can fit a rear light to it ..... I've still not got a rear light fitted and I bought my bike in about 2005/6.

??????? ???????
You also need a front light. They are easy to fit yourself. In fact stupid easy.

Big_G_RC

if you're going to ride clipped in buy the stiffest shoes you can afford.

I just changed from £60 ones to £240 ones and OMG. my performance on the bike has gone up like crazy and the effort required gone down. Any standing up pedalling seems so easy now. Really happy with that purchase.

sillygoose

It rains a lot more often than you think in this country, you notice it less from inside a cosy car.

Whoever invented the sprung seat post retrofit should get the Nobel Prize, especially for us numpties that bought bikes without any suspension for riding rough paths.

Cheap rear lights are designed to spring apart when you hit a bump and fling broken perspex and AA batteries down the road.

You can never get the numbers on the gear handles to match the marks perfectly always needs to be a couple of clicks one way or the other.

Never ever reveal to my wife (shredded the receipts) that her bike I got is a cheap heavy steel one and mine is more expensive light alloy and thats why I can get up the hills.

Always set off with less clothes than you think, it gets a lot warmer pretty quick.

Always wear eye protection / sunglasses during the bug season unless you want to carry a mirror and eyebath!