Recently, I took a neophyte triathlete friend of mine for a ride. She's still very new to the sport, having only completed one super sprint so far (but she won her age group!). She's so new to cycling, in fact, that she is still in that New Scared Rider Stage. It's the same stage that six mile seems like a long ride, that hill at the end of your street is a granny gear mountain, and you're super uncomfortable trying to fix anything on your bike because who knows how you're going to break it, but you are sure you will.
She did great. Her tires were much too under-inflated so we took care of that with help from a friend with a pump that lives nearby. Her seat post bracket was broken so we rode to a nearby bike shop with her sitting basically on the frame and replaced it, knees hitting her in the chest the whole way there, but she's so new she didn't realize how bad that was and how much harder she was making it on herself.
We rode probably eight or nine miles all told just around her neighborhood and she was fine. No complaining, game for different routes, and, most important, she listened to me babble at her.
It all got me thinking about a List Of Things New Cyclists Should Know/Do. I'm not the first one to come up with a list like this, but I want my swing.
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Ride somewhere you've never been, or somewhere you think you know where you're going but you aren't sure. Explore. There is an element of childhood to riding a bicycle and before you had a car this was your means of exploration. Rediscover that.
On the side of the road, mid-ride, cars zipping by. It's going to happen. You're going to have to do it. Might as well get it out of the way.
Welcome to the Most Frustrating Thing About Cycling. The learning curve on flat fixing can be brutally steep. You will miss something, some little sliver of glass in the tire, some piece of the tube sticking juuust out on the rim waiting to be pinched, and that tire is going to go flat again. I don't care how many YouTube videos you watched. Failure is learning. Welcome to class.
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Then make a list of best to worst by customer service. You are going to be close with these people, you might as well find the friendly ones. Amazon is great when you don't need stuff in a hurry but when the race is tomorrow and you just discovered your tire is flat or you're out of air canisters these people will be your saviors. Be cool to them and find the ones that are cool to you. Pay a little more for friendlier service. That comes around.
Talk about riding. Be That Guy. Talk, tweet, blog, text, and find forums online. Make friends who also enjoy cycling. They are all over the place and will be fonts of information and motivation. Plus, it is safer to ride in a group.
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There are hills in your neighborhood that look like mountains. Hills that suck to climb. Attack them. Ride them. Suffer and strengthen. Graduate to bigger hills. Then, in six months, go back to that first brutal hill and zip up it thinking, "What was so bad about that?"
Everyone was new once. Even Lance sucked for a little while. Ride in a group and try to keep up. If they are cool then they won't complain, or they'll drop you then wait a few miles up the road or at the top of the climb. Everyone remembers their struggles at the start. Ride, don't complain, and try.
It feels so good to buy a book or look online and then get in there and make adjustments. Your instincts and this book say your seat should be higher? Raise it.
Make the adjustments, feel right but weird, talk yourself into being positive you did something wrong and a horrible tragedy is waiting around the next pedal stroke, take the bike to the shop, watch them make miniscule adjustments, and feel better about your instincts. A proper bike fit changes your life, but you won't know it until you feel it.
We all have done it. You'll do it too. Forget to unclip, do the slow unstoppable fall to one side, get up, glance around like you meant to do that, and move on.
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"What the? How did I get grease on my elbow? And I swear I scrubbed it off my calf. Wait a minute...my chain isn't even on that side of my bike!"
Your seat slips. An aero bar loosens. Your chain gains sentience and tries to make a break for it. Bust out that multi-tool in your pocket or seat bag and fix it right there on the side of the road. Leave your helmet on, don't trust cars, then get back out there.
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George Carlin did a routine about Stuff. You need a small Bike Version of your Stuff. Money, ID, cell phone. So you can buy a snack, a drink, or an emergency supply. So people know who you are. So you can call for help when you blow your second spare tube 10 miles from home. Ziploc baggie, back pocket, ready to go.
No matter where you live there is somewhere pretty you can ride to. Find it, ride there, take cell phone pictures and text them to your friends who slept in with snarky, superior, only half-joking messages about how awesome you are and how cool where you stopped is.
Of course! This should be fun. Like I mentioned right at the start, you are basically using a grown-up version of a child's toy. Sometimes you need to stop and remember that.
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