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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. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. 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

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Hielke | 9 years ago
0 likes

When you are getting tired and a scooter comes along on the perfect speed.

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PonteD | 9 years ago
2 likes

Rolling past all the queued traffic that has just raced past you for the last 30 minutes knowing when you get to work/home they will still be sat in their cars.

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darren13366 | 9 years ago
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Being on a club ride with your mates having all turned up in the same kit for once.

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nowasps | 9 years ago
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Arriving home.

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severs1966 | 9 years ago
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My most favourite, yet vanishingly minor, aspect of club rides was always when the group rolls to a halt at a junction or traffic lights or whatever and the unofficial trackstand competition would resume.

Joining the "elite club" of riders who could stay upright, stationary, with both feet still clipped in was my dream... But you had to stay up until the lights changed and ride off without putting a foot down or (shock horror) leaning on street furniture while you wait.

It was especially impressive when someone would do it in old-fashioned quills and cleats with straps done up tight; no chance of getting out if you start to fall... tense and exciting!

Of course, once in a blue moon someone would turn up on a Longstaff trike or summat like that and make us all feel faintly ludicrous. These days it would be a Greenspeed or ICE recumbent trike I suppose (I have a Greenspeed GTT myself but have never tried to take it on a club ride).

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Daveyraveygravey | 9 years ago
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The feeling I will get tomorrow when the cast comes off and I can hang onto the bars and hoods at a normal angle without the cast digging into me.

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mcnoodle | 9 years ago
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knowing last year you were 20 stone and could only cycle a mountain bike,, this year your 16 stone and most road bikes are availible , new season new me , new bike,

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wycombewheeler replied to Petethepump | 9 years ago
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Petethepump wrote:

A bike that runs silent

Speak for yourself. There is no better sound than my campag freehub.

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Leviathan replied to DaveE128 | 9 years ago
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DaveE128 wrote:

Spring.

Good news, Dave. Spring is scheduled for this weekend.

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Paul_C replied to mcnoodle | 8 years ago
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mcnoodle wrote:

knowing last year you were 20 stone and could only cycle a mountain bike,, this year your 16 stone and most road bikes are availible , new season new me , new bike,

and next year you'll hopefully be below 14 stone?  1

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john wells replied to wycombewheeler | 9 years ago
0 likes

I have a Campag freehub. Can only hear it with my hearing aid in!
i e when I am sevicing it in the garage.

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giff77 replied to Leviathan | 9 years ago
0 likes
bikeboy76 wrote:
DaveE128 wrote:

Spring.

Good news, Dave. Spring is scheduled for this weekend.

Really¿ This is what I came out to this morning

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oliverjames replied to DaveE128 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Arrived last weekend in the Pays de Gex.

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Toast | 9 years ago
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OK, you lot can have "dropping your mates", I still get a kick if I can keep up with mine for the whole morning :-p

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Pengo69 | 9 years ago
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A perfect descent on a dry and sunny day, no traffic, no potholes, perfect silky smooth roads, and reaching 80kmph!!

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SuperG | 9 years ago
2 likes

Beating 20, 30, 40 and 50 year olds on sprint segments....I'm 66!

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MarkiMark | 9 years ago
1 like

Realising one day that spring has arrived, and that you haven't stopped cycling all winter.

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nniff | 9 years ago
0 likes

Braking in the spring without that ghastly grinding noise of filthy pad on filthy rim.

Cold crisp days when I don't turn into a sweaty mess.

Riding in the hills above the mist in the valleys.

A rock-steady track stand at the lights

A winter without punctures - damn, that's like saying 'Macbeth' in a theatre isn't it

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shearer27 | 9 years ago
2 likes

A partner that understands that you must go out for a ride. Thanks Kate x

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IanEdward | 9 years ago
0 likes

A long relatively flat stretch, headwind optional, when you get forward on the saddle, in a big gear, with the right tune in your headphone (left hand only of course *still awaits flaming*) and just the right amount of pain in your legs, and yet still feel like you could keep it turning forever.

Keeping the power down over cobbles and skipping across them.

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Sadly Biggins | 9 years ago
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What's a tailwind?  3

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kwi | 9 years ago
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Just those few hours away from CBeebies.....

And adding some new blue lines onto your heatmap.

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chokofingrz | 9 years ago
1 like

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

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dafyddp | 9 years ago
0 likes

Taking a newbie on their first long distance ride, and sharing their sense of achievement/amazement that they can cycle 50 miles or whatever.

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nwardill | 9 years ago
1 like

Waving to the wife as i ride off, while she is doing the housework

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Yorkshie Whippet | 9 years ago
0 likes

One of those rides when you don't seem to have thought about changing gear, braking or picking a line. They all just happened perfectly. The climbs hurt just enough, descents just fast enough. You finish with just enough energy to put the kettle on or stagger to the burger place/bar, smile to yourself and say "That was a good ride!"

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gazpacho | 9 years ago
0 likes

Post-ride curry.

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Konstantine | 9 years ago
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That unexpected oomph out of nowhere, without having diligently complied with Rule #5 nor being able to attribute it to those extra jelly babies, making you think that maybe you are a little bit better than you actually thought you were....

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Storey89 | 9 years ago
1 like

In extreme bad weather when car drivers look at you in a state of pity, what they don't know if that you're actually bloody loving it.

That feeling of being mental after the above ride.

Riding toward a sunset.

Eating whatever you want (to a certain degree).

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billsdon | 9 years ago
1 like

The smooth running of your bike after getting a DIY repair job right.

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