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
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)
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
The fact that they’re your mates only makes you want to drop them more.
4 Green traffic lights
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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)
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
They’re pretty much essential.
15 The post-ride shower/bath
(CC BY-SA 2.0 vallgall|Flickr)
The more achy your legs, the better it feels.
Go on then; what did we miss?
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154 comments
I really really wish I liked coffee, and confess that if I did I probably would be the kind of twat who'd say things like that.
getting a sad face from a speed indicator device.
Getting onto the beach at Dunwich
Wheeling the bike down the path from the front door and deciding which way to go.
A bike that runs silent
Really good coffee
Good mates
That is all
To start with, just getting out of the front door. Then heading out in the rain and the mist and feeling like there is no where you'd rather be. And feeling like, you can get through this winter.
That short stretch of road that you always seem to fly along.
One of those gear changes that feels and sounds perfect.
That zen like feeling you get on a summers evening ride when you feel at one with your bike.
Crisp gear changes
Smooth tarmac
Silent running
Caffeine in my blood stream
Sun on my back
The long road ahead
I'm tempted to be cynical, but anything that can move taciturn, emotionally repressed, quietly desperate middle aged Englishmen to thoughts akin to poetry has value which should be applauded.
For me, it's the sound of clicking into that left pedal at the start of a ride. It's the prologue, the introduction, the start of a story.
An open fire in a pub after a long ride into a bitterly cold nor-easterly to warm up your toes. And the beer that goes with it.
That feeling when you've gone up to your threshold level, (for me its about 183bpm), and then you've got over that climb, or finished that sprint, and you go back down to 155bpm, and it feels like the bloods coming back into your heart, and you feel powerful again. I love that feeling.
Just being on the bike
Cycling for mile after mile - two abreast - and counting more cyclists than cars. (Okay that one's not for every cyclist. Sorry.)
And as I've just got this warm fuzzy feeling.
Completing a build and even the bar tape is perfect.
Eating a banana at the turn back home point on a pre-breakfast Saturday morning.
Post-ride shower with your boyfriend
When the city traffic is in gridlock due to an accident or earthquake and I can still get home to my family in the usual time.
Sunday mornings full stop.
getting to the bottom of a descent and looking forward to the next climb
Riding past the "Yorkshire Dales National Park" sign on a sunny spring morning.
When it's so hot, either in France or Italy (and once or twice in England), that a descent is like riding into a blow dryer. When the jersey that was soaked at the top of the hill is bone dry at the bottom and those unsightly salt lines show just how much effort was expended.
Early sunday morning roads with no cars.
Catching up with and then overtaking the idiots that cycle through red lights whilst you're waiting for them to change to green like the rest of the road users.
Being at the bottom of the hill and thinking how can I do that? Then doing it.
When you crash, think it's gonna be bad, but your bike, and you are absolutely fine
Ride in a mild weather in the warm sun with a bit of breeze and sip that ice water in the hydration pack.
Enjoy the smooth sound of the bike when at speed.
Love every time I brake with hydro disc on my road bike. Bring smile to my face every time especially it just reminds me how much I hated rim braking.
That exhilarated feeling of being able to give it pelters cos you've found a stretch of road with no pot-holes.
Just riding, actually riding in the rain on a warm day, you can't be any wetter, but it stops bothering you that you are wet. That is freedom...
Spring.
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