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15 things every cyclist loves — explore the best bits of riding your bike

The stuff that makes you feel good when you're out riding

Here's our pick of 15 things that we think every cyclist loves. Are we right or do you disagree? Let us know down below.

1 Reaching the top

Marrakech Atlas Etape Robin Kitchin 102

Even if you love the climbs, there’s something about reaching the top that gives you an instant boost. Whether it’s Alpe d’Huez or a humpback bridge, it’s a job well done.

2 Riding with a tailwind

WInd Power (CC BY 2.0 reynermedia|Flickr)

WInd Power (CC BY 2.0 reynermedia|Flickr)

Ride with a tailwind and you feel unbeatable, like your legs and lungs got stronger in the night. Very, very occasionally the wind will change direction during a ride and you’ll get a tailwind on the way out and a tailwind on the way back. On these days you think you're Eddy Merckx.

3 Dropping your mates

Panarotta 1.jpg

The fact that they’re your mates only makes you want to drop them more.

4 Green traffic lights

Traffic light tree (CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevandotorg)

Traffic light tree (CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevandotorg)

Remember that day when every traffic light you passed was on green and you just sailed through? No, because it has never happened. One day it will, though, and then your life will be complete.

5 France

Le Semnoz-Crêt de Chatillon (CC BY NC 2.0 will_cyclist|Flickr)

Le Semnoz-Crêt de Chatillon (CC BY NC 2.0 will_cyclist|Flickr)

Yeah, the cycling might be good around your way but France is the gold standard. Le Tour, of course, the Alps, the Pyrenees, Paris-Roubaix… Mind you, there’s Italy too. And Belgium.

6 New bike clothes

Image of road.cc Women's race cut jersey

Yes, you’ve got your old favourites but you can never have too much new stuff. Don’t blame me; I didn’t invent greed/avarice/capitalism.

7 Light stuff

canyon_ultimate_cf_slx_9.0_disc_movistar_edition_12spd_campagnolo_-_crank.jpg

It doesn’t matter how many times you’re told that being aerodynamic is more important than shaving off a few grams, light kit always puts a smile on your face. That applies to your frame, handlebars, wheels, shoes, body… Pretty much everything, in fact.

8 A clean bike

btwin_ultra_900_cf_105_-_riding_3.jpg

Clean bikes are faster. Well, they might be. They certainly look faster. On the other hand, a dirty bike shows you’ve been riding it, so that has it’s merits too. Confusing.

9 The sound of a freehub

Some freehubs sound so ace you’ve just got to stop pedalling and listen to them ticking away from time to time. Not for too long, mind. That’s just slacking.

10 Trying a new route and it works out

Garmin Edge 1030 map

I’ve got a hunch that this road will join up with another one that I know. I try it and it does. Hurrah! Just call me Mr Garmin.

11 New bar tape

Lizard Skins DSP Dual Colour bar tape

Every road bike can be improved by the application of new bar tape. Fact.

12 Beating other riders away from the lights

Hectic street racing in Oxford (CC BY 2.0 Tejvan Pettinger)

Hectic street racing in Oxford (CC BY 2.0 Tejvan Pettinger)

It might not be the Olympic final but every victory counts. You're Le Patron until the next set of lights.

13 PBs

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Sean Rowe|Flickr)

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Sean Rowe|Flickr)

Even the least competitive cyclist likes to beat their time from point A to point B. Better your personal best by a second and you feel brilliant, miss it by a second and you feel crushed, yet that’s only a difference of two seconds. That’s just the way it is.

14 Coffee and cake

IMG_0688

They’re pretty much essential.

15 The post-ride shower/bath

Rubber duck (CC BY-SA 2.0 vallgall|Flickr)
(CC BY-SA 2.0 vallgall|Flickr)

The more achy your legs, the better it feels.

Go on then; what did we miss?

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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154 comments

Avatar
bikecellar | 9 years ago
1 like

"Hot and overcast. I take my gear out of the car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafe's. Non Racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me."
That quote from "The Rider" says it all.

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Comrade | 9 years ago
0 likes

Riding a section of road the Tour of Britain just went down, then having loads of school kids cheering as you pass...the volume increases as you wave and smile!

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Stinky Pete | 9 years ago
1 like

Going for a ride after having taken 2 sinutab for sinus trouble
-now you know why pseudo ephedrine is baned!

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MartyMcCann | 9 years ago
0 likes

Out on a lone ride, big headwind and rain lashing-getting it tight! Then the PSNI helicopter appears, hovering quite low- suddenly I am no longer grinding around Craigavon but a solo break in a Classic- even the crappy parts of the road are suddenly pavé! Enough energy for a surge for home, feeling like I should apply for Belgian citizenship, challenging the wind and rain to do its worst.
Arrive at home, have a great shower then upload Garmin to find I beat my personal best on the wee draggy climb home which had been set on a sunny day with a tailwind!

(Plus the commentators in my head were Kirby and Kelly, not Liggett and Sherwen which was an added bonus!)

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arfa | 9 years ago
1 like

Beer. That is all

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rjfrussell | 9 years ago
0 likes

The fact that my wife was still prepared to get back on the bike, having thrown it into a bog, as we battled our way to Belmullet into the teeth of an Atlantic gale.

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Simon E | 9 years ago
0 likes

Coffee and cake should be separate entries. It undervalues each of them if they are lumped together as a single benefit  3

Possibly the greatest feeling comes as a result of a number of the above (e.g. cresting a climb), and that's the knowledge that by riding you are living, not merely existing.

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Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
1 like

That moment you casually look down at your 'puter and realise you're cruising at 25 mph.

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Hedgemonkey | 9 years ago
0 likes

Filling every available pocket with food from the breakfast buffet in a French hotel and no one bats an eye even as you clip clop out to your bike.

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Hedgemonkey | 9 years ago
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Filling every available pocket with food from the breakfast buffet in a French hotel and no one bats an eye even as you clip clop out to your bike.

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youngoldbloke | 9 years ago
1 like

The sound of hard tyres on smooth tarmac. Just SMOOTH tarmac

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Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
0 likes

Actually one of my best days was tailwinds from Fort William to Bonar Bridge. Tailwinds up the Lochs and a beautiful day. This was preceded by one of the worst days, from Glasgow to Fort William. Head winds and rain all day, a rockslide increased the mileage of the longest day. I practically went potty going through Glencoe at 11mph and couldn't break 15mph going down hill, with 40 miles still to go and 7hrs recorded in the saddle.

My line was if day the from Glasgow to Fort William made you question why you ride, the next day was the answer....

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KiwiTTL | 9 years ago
0 likes

Beautiful people in the bunch with great tans and killer calf muscle definition!

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Feltrider2015 | 9 years ago
1 like

Sun but not too hot

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slam that stem | 9 years ago
1 like

My continued disbelief after almost 30 years that an inert machine weighing the same as a fat house cat can deliver so much joy and endorphin rush!

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julianrh | 9 years ago
1 like

When it's your mate who gets the puncture.

When you're going down a hill fast and there's a bend at the bottom and you're not quite sure if you're going to get round and then you do.

Leaving the coffee stop in a bunch and wending your way home.

At the end of the club run when you wave goodbye to your mates and say 'see you next week.'

When the package from Wiggle arrives.

The first sight and sound of Sean Kelly for the new season.

Removing mudguards, not wearing gloves or over-shoes and leaving the winter jacket at home because spring has sprung.

Chasing after a ride who's just passed you and then passing them.

Saying 'good morning' to a Dulwich Paragon rider and getting nothing back (in joke).

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redimp | 9 years ago
0 likes

Not bothered about cake. Does that make me strange?

Oh, and one of my favourite things is nice flat and smooth tarmac. Round here it is all big chip top dressing and pot holes.

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bigfatron | 9 years ago
0 likes

The work.
Enjoying turning the cranks.
Anything else would be unnecessary.

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bigfatron | 9 years ago
0 likes

The work.
Enjoying turning the cranks.
Anything else would be unnecessary.

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Quince replied to Sadly Biggins | 9 years ago
0 likes
Sadly Biggins wrote:

What's a tailwind?  3

It's a state of utter mental clarity and physical prowess. No idea why it's called that though.

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RandomCyclist replied to shearer27 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Oh yes... possibly one of the most overlooked but most beneficial reasons...

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Nellymosser replied to nwardill | 9 years ago
2 likes

Waving to the husband as I ride off, knowing he will have cooked something great and tidied the house when I get back. Cos we're a partnership.

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2 Wheeled Idiot | 9 years ago
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The process of struggling to gain fitness after injury and illness, then that magical first ride back when you're out, the fitness is back and the ride isn't just a continuous struggle  1

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J90 replied to 2 Wheeled Idiot | 9 years ago
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When Dan Lloyd or Matt Stevenson replace Sean Kelly, much better commentary alongside the legendary Carlton Kirby.

2 Wheeled Idiot wrote:

The process of struggling to gain fitness after injury and illness, then that magical first ride back when you're out, the fitness is back and the ride isn't just a continuous struggle  1

That ride can't come soon enough  2

chokofingrz wrote:

Closed road events or the morning leading up to a TdF stage - 2 of the best riding days I had last year.

Comrade wrote:

Riding a section of road the Tour of Britain just went down, then having loads of school kids cheering as you pass...the volume increases as you wave and smile!

YES & YES.

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Dapper Giles | 9 years ago
0 likes

Number Two. My commute starts and ends with a steep climb because I live in the middle of a hill. Every morning I dread it, every morning I feel awesome at the top.

Also riding in bad weather.

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Ush | 9 years ago
0 likes

A cool sip of liquid in between breaths  1

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McDuff73 | 9 years ago
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agree with all but dropping your mates, I go out riding in a group for a reason and thats not to leave them all behind to make me feel better.

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mtm_01 replied to McDuff73 | 9 years ago
0 likes
McDuff73 wrote:

agree with all but dropping your mates, I go out riding in a group for a reason and thats not to leave them all behind to make me feel better.

Agree except for pre-agreed proper hills to zoom up, naturally waiting at the top and then carrying on leisurely.

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Martyn_K replied to McDuff73 | 9 years ago
0 likes
McDuff73 wrote:

agree with all but dropping your mates, I go out riding in a group for a reason and thats not to leave them all behind to make me feel better.

I really like pulling someone in to the faster group and coaching them into riding in the middle of a good group. Their sense of achievement when they get back to base after a longer/ faster ride than they thought they could do is great.

I also like to turn on the hurt in the last 10 miles of the club run but not every week!

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ianrobo | 9 years ago
0 likes

just feeling fitter and fitter as the year goes

Also the feel of new bib shorts that cost you a fortune !

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