[Anna Marie Hughes]

With the coronavirus restrictions there haven’t been as many opportunities lately to go on rides with groups of friends or join in on a club ride. It’s been harder to pick up those little bits of cycling know-how here and there as a beginner, so…

We want to compile a guide with the best snippets of things you wish you’d known when you started out and the best advice you were ever given.

Share in the comments below or email to tech@road.cc

Topic

[don simon fbpe]

I’d forgotten about that

I’d forgotten about that shite.

[Captain Badger]

Steve K wrote:

Steve K wrote:

..

Oh, and ignore the ‘rules’.

Except for rule 1…

[Sriracha]

For a newbie I’d say carry a
For a newbie I’d say carry a spare inner tube and know how to fit it, and to find/remove the cause of the puncture. Then learn how to glue a patch on once you have the puncture, in the warm and dry. But I wouldn’t let that prevent you starting, especially if your first routes are not too far to walk slowly home. Or go with a friend who can.

Best advice would be to find some nice quiet routes so that you actually enjoy your first experiences and not be scared shitless on day one. Maybe try CycleStreets or Komoot apps to find safe routes.

[Captain Badger]

David9694 wrote:

Captain Badger wrote:

These components have remained largely unchanged for decades.

In petit peu sweeping, n’est-ce-pas?
Quill stems vs A-head, d12, cassettes vs freewheels, SPD, horrid non-standard bottom brackets, the development of CF, frames and components, Kevlar in tyres, lovely German hub dynamos, brifters, thru axles, various cartridge bearings that you can never find replacements for, disc brakes, hydraulic controls, £40 handlebar tape

Oui, un peu, c’est vrai.

You can spend as much as we like, as we all know. However the principles behind frame, steering assembly, deraileurs and rim brakes are largely the same. Electronic shift maybe,  though the derailleur is the same. Freewheel v cassette simply the means of mounting your sprocket. Likelwise headsets re steerers. BB is an axle where the cranks attach. There has been little fundamental change, with maybe the exception of hydraulic brakes, which are by no means ubiquitous yet (although that is changing). 

 

 

[David9694]

Steer well clear!

Steer well clear!

[Captain Badger]

David9694 wrote:

Remove them when spring comes.

Isn’t that a couple of days before summer ends, in the UK?

[Captain Badger]

don simon fbpe wrote:

What’s rule 5?

Rule 5: Harden the f*ck up

Velomanati rules.

Lots of fun, but not to be taken seriosuly. Unless you obey rule 1….

[don simon fbpe]

Don’t go on cycling forums.

Don’t go on cycling forums.

[don simon fbpe]

What’s rule 5?

What’s rule 5?

[OnYerBike]

1) I think in a thread for

1) I think in a thread for beginner cyclists, talking about The Rules is just a turn off.

2) Mudguards aren’t so much for your own enjoyment as to keep the bike clean and for the benefit of others riding around you. 

[David9694]

Rule 5 
 

Rule 5 

 

[OnYerBike]

Because for nine months of

Because for nine months of the year it never rains?

[David9694]

Remove them when spring comes

Remove them when spring comes.

[Hirsute]

Fit mudguards.

Fit mudguards.

[brooksby]

SimonAY wrote:

1. Learn your local geography and topography and look at wind direction and strength before heading out. Much nicer to ride out into a headwind where you are sheltered by hills/trees and then ride home with a tailwind on exposed, flatter roads

2. if you can, try to make the last couple of miles of a long ride downhill, gives you a nice boost if you’re flagging when nearly home

Sorry, but I think that “tailwind” is a myth like the Loch Ness monster.

Now, “headwinds”… That’s a different matter, and they definitelty exist 😉

[Author]

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