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MissLiz:
Thank you for all the tips. I have been checking into local clubs but there doesn't seem to be a beginning club here. Or one that is specifically for women. Probably because this area is such an avid bike area that people are all experienced. However, I am not letting that deter me and I have been putting up posters to start my own beginning bike club. So far I only have one interested person but one is better than none and it may grow in time.
Hey, that's a good idea! I've noticed a lot of the posted rides on the local club in Columbia are in the 18-22mph range. Yikes! There are a few that are for 14-16mph riders. That would be me, but I've still been too scared to go so far. :eek:
Well, one other riding buddy is a club. You can find more along the way. And you can look for a touring club- there are big ones all over- that will probably have slower rides. There is no such thing as a beginners club, since the members cease to be beginners. Even if they're too hard, show up, hang on to the back, and if you get dropped that's why you bring a cell phone and cab fare. I've done that!
The all woman rides are also usually either freinds, or part of a touring club schedule. Or a WOMBAT tea party, but I don't think you're ready for that yet :D.
The League of American Bicyclists is the parent orginization for touring ( as opposed to racing) clubs. Google them, maybe they can hook you up. And keep those flyers up, that shows a lot of very admirable initiative :) . Probably the quickest way to find riding buddies.
Lizzy
Hibiscus09:
I'm only a beginner so I don't know if my advice is worth anything but I would say not to be afraid of the 22 mile rides. It just sounds like a long ride but it isn't really. The very first ride I took was a 15 mile ride and it was on a really old decrepit bike with nonworking gears and brakes, as I soon found out. I think the real difficulty is in whether your riding with people who have a higher cadence then you do. . The bike clubs around here ride at a very fast cadence that most beginners would not be able to keep up with. I know I can't and I've recently run into a few people who decided cycling wasn't for them because they went on a ride or two with the local bike clubs and were dropped because they couldn't keep up. I hate to see people give up on something they might have had an interest in because they had a bad experience once. Anyway, if you can, try riding a 22 miler on your own. I'll bet that you can do it without any problem at your own speed.
MissLiz:
That makes sense that there wouldn't be a beginning bike club but the local clubs here have a nice rating system with examples of how they rate rides and believe me these cyclists are way above level. First, there is the cadence which I would never be able to keep up with. But most importantly is how they rate the rides. The rides they consider easy are rides I still have difficulty with and consider very challenging. I do hope to be able to get to the point where I can eventually join them though. Not being courageous, I am trying to work up enough nerve to follow your advice and join a ride and do the best I can until I get dropped. Were you embarassed when you first started and got dropped? There aren't any local all women rides but so far the answers I've had to my fliers have all been from women so perhaps soon. I'm dying of curiosity. what is a WOMBAT Tea Party? Thanks for the info on touring clubs.
Thanks Bianchi Babe. :) Actually, I meant 18-22mph averages on the rides. Way too fast for me. I've done a 46 mile ride in length and so far, that's the farthest. I averaged a 14.25 mph pace on that ride. I was riding in an area with a lot of stop signs, though, so maybe that pace will pick up some if I brave it out and go on a group ride that is 14-16mph. :D
Hibiscus09:
Wow! 46 miles thats wonderful. I'm impressed. Sounds like your doing very well to me.
Again, I think it's fabulous that you're putting up the flyers and forging ahead, I think you'll do really well and have a great time with cycling. The fact that women are answering your flyers for beginner rides means that there's a need for a beginners riding program, AS well as a lot of women interested in cycling, and kudos for you for going out and starting it.
WOMBATS stands for Womens Mountain Biking and Tea Society. It's a thing started by Jaquie Phelan who was the first great proffessional woman mountain bike racer, really in the early days of the sportback in the eighties? or so. It's a loose national network of women who ride dirt, you pay your dues and get your T shirt and a membership list. She teaches now, all dirt riding, but the whole BAT idea is that in a very male dominated sport women can start their own clubs and ride hard and still be women. And have a lot of fun. Jaquie is very much a free spirit, and famous for racing in frilly blouses and pearls- just to make a point. She can leave most guys in the dust.
The most important point though, is the teaching. Cycling is terrible for telling beginners anything, especially women. You may have noticed that. The lack of beginner rides? The lack of freindly coaching, teaching, advice? Mt biking requires a lot of technique, none of which is rocket science but none of the men wanted to tell the women how to do anything for years! Jaquies clinics are meant to be empowering experiences as much as teaching the technical side. Once girl can hop a log, not much else will scare her.
The membership rides, however, are pretty intense. I've never been on one 'cause there are no BATs here, but I've heard. And this is all mt biking so it does you no immediate good, but it's good to know about. Up with women on bikes!
Lizzy
WOMBATS... I'd forgotten all about them. I chickened out of going to one of Jacquie's skills clinics a few years ago, even after getting an encouraging email from JP herself :( . Checking out their web site (http://www.wombats.org) I see she's offering one or two clinics a month in the Bay Area and Colorado. The clinics teach skills like track standing and wheelies, and are for either mtn bikes or hybrids. Maybe I'll steel my nerve and finally try a clinic, since after nearly 10 years of riding I still can't lift my front wheel...
And is it my imagination, but a few years ago I remember a picture of a group of wombats gathered drinking tea, with mtn bikes at their sides, naked and covered in mud???
Snicker snicker LOL:D My wrench boys have that picture up in the workroom at the shop! Jaquie is a legend, but she wrote about how the first two years she rode dirt nobody ever told her about lofting the front wheel, much less how to do it! I had always understood that her clinics are very much geared to individuals abilities and fears, so you should GO! I would love to study with her, and as soon as I'm back in somekind of shape it's worth a road trip to the left coast.
Jaquie is all about it being just fine to make a fool of yourself. Nothing to be chicken of there. Just make sure you wear your cashmere arm warmers
:D
Lizzy
Dear Lizzy:
Thanks for the information about WOMBATS. Jackie sounds like an interesting person. After what you said about her classes using hybrids perhaps one day I might consider going to one of those classes as my bianchi is a hybrid and I just love it. My husband keeps encouraging me to get road tires but to be honest, our roads here are the worst in the whole world. They are cracks, pot holes, and patches upon patches upon patches making for a very rough ride even when going slow. Then there are the sharp metal pieces or glass that dot some of the sides of the narrow roads so I think I'll keep to my hybrid tires in the hopes that I won't get a flat any time soon. My husband already got one on his road bike and we were traveling down a fairly smooth road that time. Once I have the hang of this I think Jackie's classes could be of real use to me. What kind of a shop do you work in?
Well....
1- I don't work at a shop. I just bug the people who do by drinking all their beer :p .
2- Jaquie Phelan's deal is all hard core mountain biking. She's great, but a hybrid won't cut it at her clinics. You'll need a mountain bike.
3- Tell you're husband you'll go to narrower tires when you're good and ready. This is truth, you will wake up one day and decide to change, but you need to do this in your own time. Ask him to explain what he wants to do to your bike and mull it over. Tires come in an almost infinate variety of widths and treads so there may be a comfort/ speed compromise that's better, just get him to talk to you and let it be your desicion. And you may keep the hybrid as is and make him get you an Orbea. :D
Hybrid tires ARE road tires, just wider than those used on drop bar bikes. You can keep the width, and get slicker tires that will be faster. If you have a suspension fork you can go narrower and not really feel anymore beat up, though they will handle a little differently. You'll take a whole week to get used to them ;). But if you like your bike, just ride it. Men oh so love to jump in and fiddle with things. It's just their nature, and not a bad thing. But he should explain it and let you decide, it's your pet and you ride it.
I have slicks for my mountain bike and have done a lot of 50-60 mile rides on the road on it. It's not just about tires, though. It takes time to learn technique and get fit enough, and a lot of riders forget what it was like. I've been off the bike with a couple years of injury and coming back has been a rude awakening.
Carry on girl, you're doing great.
Lizzy
Dear Lizzy:
I missed two weeks due to some injuries and I can't believe how much I missed riding my bike! I even dreamed about it. So I can sympathize with you over your injuries. I'm sorry they were so serious as to keep you off your bike for so long. However, due to past experience I can honestly say healing up right will be far better than trying to do things before your completely healed. Otherwise, you risk more serious injuries with even a longer time to heal.
I like your advice about the tires. My husband says my bike doesn't roll down the hills as fast as his bike because of the knobby, slightly thicker, tires that I have. But at this point I don't really care how fast I'm going down hill. I'm still trying to get the basics down. I have to do it in my own way or I won't be comfortable.
Kind of like my first bike ride on a big bike when I was a kid. I was scared and didn't think I could do it even though my dad thought I could. I crashed. The bike was really way to big for me and I believe that probably contributed to my fall. But I didn't feel comfortable with it and did it anyway to please my parents. They felt bad that I crashed but since they were poor they bought a big bike expecting it to last me until I was grown up. It did and I never really grew into it until I was about 18. Though I had managed to learn how to make it work for me.
What are slicks?
Well take care.
BB
Slicks are road tires for mountain bikes. They don't have much a of a tread - hence the name. Knobbies are off road tires for a mountain bike. They usually have a fairly bumpy tread.
Hope you're feeling better!
Veronica
You know, if you have knobs on your tires but you're riding on the road they will be slower and will slide out more easily on the wet asphalt. I assumed that since it was a hybrid, you had a fat but road type tire that's smooth. Maybe you would like to change. Just make sure every body involved explains things to you. Great opportunity to learn stuff. Bike shops have whole racks of tires and you can compare widths and how much tread or knob you can have- all lined up for inspection. bat your eyelashes at your sweety :D and get a lesson out of him. And the shop guys.
This is the downside of cyberspace- you can't really show somebody how to do something, or give 100% accurate advice if you can't actually see what's up. Bars and swimming pools still have a place after all.
Hope you feel better soon. Was it bad?
Lizzy