Hi Twiggyho, really sorry to
Hi Twiggyho, really sorry to take so long to get back to you.
Funnily enough I’d just been trying to find your earlier comment to reply to that when I found this.
Here’s my advice – I know riding on the road can be a very daunting experience but it is actually much safer than it looks. The key thing to remember is that if you are riding on the road you are traffic – so you need to act like traffic – riding in a consistent manner and communicating your intentions clearly. That means riding confidently and assertively being aware of what is going on around you, continuously reading the situation and anticipating problems – the same as you would read the trails riding off road, in my experience mountain bikers make extremely good road riders, because they are used to dealing with the unexpected and they usually have very sound bike handling skills as a result. You do need to be able ride in a straight line, look behind you, and signal, but I’m guessing that isn’t going to be a problem for you.
So how do you build up your confidence?
In your other post you said that your boyfriend was an experienced road rider, so the first thing I would suggest is that you you go out on the road together with you riding just in front of him, to an agreed destination – that way he can coach you along the way and give you some pointers on things you might need to be more aware of or, more likely boost, your confidence by telling you that you are doing fine.
It may well be that you don’t suddenly have a eureka moment and find that you can ride on the road without worry, but the more you ride on the road, maybe little and often you’ll find your confidence grows over time. And if you do find yourself in a situation that you don’t feel confident about, crossing a busy roundabout for instance – don’t feel you have to force yourself to face it, there’s no harm in simply getting off and walking around – it’s not as if there’s going to be anyone on the other side waiting with a medal (more’s the pity, I’d quite like the of job standing at roundabouts waiting to dish out medals to novice cyclists) the same goes for any other situation, just work up to it.
Other things you can do:
Read some books THE book on the subject of riding a bike on the road is John Franklin’s Cyclecraft http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyclecraft-Skilled-Cycling-Techniques-Adults/dp/0117020516
Get some training – I’ve sent a few experienced cyclists along for cycle training over the years and all (well both) of them genuinely got something out of it. On your profile it says your location is Falmouth so here’s a list of accredited trainers in the South West from the CTC website – there’s load of ’em and there’s loads more around the rest of the country too just in case you’re not really in Falmouth.
http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4755
Hope that all helps or have I said too much I do tend to go on a bit sometimes…