Riding tips for the extremely new and klutzy

[Teddy]

Well, at the age of 44 I decided I wanted to learn to ride a bicycle. Yes its true, I never learned to ride as a child or even as a teenager. So, a few weekends ago I rented a mountain bike from one of the local bike shops and taught myself to ride in a parking lot. It was a bit harder than I thought it would be, but I could tell it would be so much fun as soon as I could stay upright for any extended period of time. The weekend after that, I bought two new bikes (with the help of a friend who rides). I've been riding a few times a week (short rides), and had a great day yesterday riding my mountain bike around that big parking lot. Excited and thoroughly psyched, I thought I'd try out my beautiful, sleek, sexy road bike today. In hindsight, I suppose I probably should have waited until I could actually ride the mountain bike without almost eating it every ten minutes, but I couldn't help myself. I have been dreaming of riding my road bike since I brought it home. Well, things started out a bit shaky, but I quickly got up and pedaling and all of a sudden it was the coolest thing on earth. That bike feels like a Ferrari, and as I pedaled faster, it responded beautifully. I was in heaven...pure bliss...for about ninety seconds...and then I ate it...HARD. I derailed the chain and cheese-gratered almost all of the tape off the left handlebar. Not to mention leaving a large quantity of skin on the asphalt.

So my question(s) is/are as follows; does anyone have any tips or tricks or advice on what would make it easier to ride that sexy beast? (I realize now that I should get better on my mountain bike before taking another run at the road bike....I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes.) And if I'm going to take a digger - which I know I will again - how to avoid major damage to myself and my bike. As for how I fell, I know it sounds ridiculous, I think I went down because I was coming up on a turn and I just freaked out. I guess I manhandled the front end of the bike (i.e. turned the handlebars like a trucker steering a big rig) and took myself down.

Help, tips, feedback and comments will be very much appreciated.

Thanks so much.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Just keep going slow and practicing in empty parking lots. That's what I did. Do large figure 8's, then do smaller ones. Practice starting and stopping a lot. Don't go any faster than you feel in control going. You'll get faster naturally.

Think of yourself as just a kid with a new bike having fun- this can mentally help keep you excited even though you are in a parking lot going round and round. Worked for me!

Great going!

[Kalidurga]

As Lisa said, a good bet is to take it slowly until you gain a greater comfort level. One tip I will suggest, though, is to gradually learn how to steer without turning the handlebars. For a tight curve, obviously you need to turn the bars to some degree, but relying on them for turns will make the bike go squirrelly on you. Learning to manuever the bike with your hips will give you much more control. Here's a thread that describes what I'm talking about: Steering with your Hips.

And don't let any crashes dampen your enthusiasm!

[7rider]

Instead of a parking lot - try riding it on a grassy field. Crashes hurt less. And the slower speeds will help you master balance.

[mimitabby]

another thing you might try doing at least with the road bike is borrow someone's wind trainer. It's a thing that holds your bike stationary. you could then start practicing with the gears.
Or:
before you get on your bike, check which chain ring you're on.
Put your bike in the middle chain ring in the front. and just leave it there.
Now start riding around again. In the middle chain ring, you should now be able to use your right hand to go through all the gears without getting the chain to come off.
and practice shifting gears now, (right hand) so you can start to feel the differences and know when to use them.

A lot of us started on single speed bikes, and then we got 3 speeds.

to start right off with a fancy 27 speed bike might be pretty overwhelming.
So take it slow and don't run too much before you learn to walk.
I am very impressed that you are learning to ride!

[farrellcollie]

For my GF, who had not been on a bike in 30 someodd years, we lowered the seat so her feet could be flat on the ground until she felt comfortable. I don't know if this would work for you - she was on a hybrid. It would not work forever because it isn't particularly good for the knees - but it helped her feel safer and she rode more and eventually the seat got raised.

PS. If you are really falling hard - may I recommend wearing gloves and elbow guards? GLoves are good in general, and a friend of mine cracked his elbow falling off bike on an unbelievably tame trail here - he was riding along a packed earth/light gravel trail (not mountain biking or rough gravel - just one of those packed earth MUP things) and hit a small branch lying on the ground - went down on his elbow and ouchy. This is not to scare you - but if you are still learning - it might help. I am super cautious about joints (The joys of being middle aged)

[mimitabby]

oh, yeah, to add to Farrellcollie,
We hope you're wearing gloves and a helmet. And whatever other padding you need until you get it figured out.

Good luck!

[Zen]

Contact your local bicycling club. They might offer beginner riders classes, maintenance classes and could put you in touch with a coach.

[KnottedYet]

Big grassy fields are great places to learn. Less damage to the bike, less damage to you, and handling the bike on the irregular surface will tune your balance skills up a treat!

I learned to ride as a kid in a cow pasture. Dried cow-pies made for smoooooth ridin'!

[LBTC]

Excellent suggestions here, all of them. While you are learning in grassy safe places at slow speeds, try to find some little hills to go up, go down, and to ride diagonally up and down. This would be a good one to try after some figure eights.

And I agree - I sure hope you are wearing a helmet and gloves! There is a lot of mountain biking protective wear out there, too, even crash pad shorts that have padding around the hips, etc, in case of falls. It's up to you how geared up you want to get - in my early days of mountain biking I used it all and sure am glad!

I'm looking forward to more ride reports from you. Keep it up!

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[Teddy]

I wrote a response just now, but hit the wrong key on my computer and it went...I don't know where. So here it is again...

Thank you all for the great tips and help. It is much appreciated.

A few responses/questions to your comments;

- Yes, I was wearing a borrowed helmet and gloves...thankfully. But perhaps full body armor would have been more appropriate given my tendency to hit the ground right now.

- I lowered the seat on my mountain bike when I first started riding it, then raised the seat when I felt more confident. I think it's where it's supposed to be, but I'm not sure. Any suggestions on where my seat should be adjusted? Right now it's about where I can barely touch the ground with my toes if I'm in the saddle. And with my lower pedal all the way down and my foot flat on it, I have a slight bend in my knee. Sound about right?

- I lowered the road bike seat as low as it will go, but the stem won't allow it to go any lower. I definitely cannot touch the ground with my toes when I'm in the saddle, and my leg position is a little bit straighter. Makes for very dramatic starts and stops... Should my seat be this high on a road bike?

- I definitely over-bought when it came to my bikes. I had a friend (okay, boyfriend), help me with choosing size, type, etc. However, I bought a very fancy, fairly expensive road bike - which is probably wasted on my at this time because I can't tell the difference between a $500 bike and a $5,000 bike. My boyfriend was certain that I would be happy with this bike very soon though, and I do trust his judgment. As for the mountain bike, probably over-bought there too, but its a sweet bike and I am having fun learning on it.

- I would join a bike club in a heartbeat, but I live in a pretty rural area (Jackson Hole, WY) and although there are a lot of people who ride here, there aren't any clubs to speak of. And I don't think there are any people here who own wind trainers, but I could check around. My boyfriend might even have a spare he could loan me. Hmmmm.....

- Steering... I actually had that epiphany on Friday when I rode my mountain bike and learned how to steer it without using the handlebars. And that's exactly why I ate it on my road bike yesterday...excessive use of the handlebars. I'm going to be reading that article on steering with your hips today before I go out on my bike again. Thanks!

- Gears... They are a mystery to me and there are so many. It's a bit easier on my mountain bike because they're right there on top and you have a visual for what's going on. On the road bike there are so many more gears and the shifters are in a different place. Also, I have no idea what gear I'm in or what gear I'm supposed to be in at any given time. The wind trainer would definitely help here. Great idea. Thanks!

My boyfriend is dying to help me learn to ride...and I would love it if he could, but he lives in another state so it would be a challenge. He's also certain that I will want to race once I get riding seriously (he races velodrome), and I absolutely agree with him. It's my dream to race the track someday and maybe do some road bike races too.

I am having so much fun learning to ride (despite the loss of skin and perpetually bruised body parts) that I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. Last Friday, when I rode around and around the parking lot on my mountain bike and had such a great ride, I really did feel like a kid with a new bike. I rode through the sprinklers and around the cars and practiced shifting and it was the most fun I've had in a very long time. Such a simple pleasure, but wonderful nonetheless.

Thank you all for your help and great advice. It is very much appreciated!

[RolliePollie]

You'll get it! I was a mess (I mean an absolute disaster area of a mess) when I first got my road bike. I hadn't been on a bike in at least 15 years and I'd never ridden a skinny-tire road bike before. Amazingly, I didn't fall at all (until I got my clipless pedals).

This may be taboo, but what I was going to suggest is that for now, while you're first learning, lowering your seat so you can touch the ground. But it sounds like you've already lowered it as far as it can go and you still can't touch the ground. So I guess that suggestion may not be a good one for your bike set-up. You are not supposed to be able to touch the ground if your saddle is adjusted correctly, but when I very first started, I put my seat really low just so I could easily catch myself if I started to tip over. I've been raising the seat more and more as I've gotten more comfortable on the bike. I still need to raise it another 1/2" or so, but I'm not great at starting and stopping even now, so I'm leaving it a little low as a security measure.

Another little tip I learned is that you are actually a lot more stable if you have some speed. If you are going super slow, it's much harder to steer and control the bike. Of course, you don't want to go fast if you're not in control. But if you can find a parking lot or a non-busy road or trail and try going a little bit faster, you may notice that the bike handles better.

As for buying a more expensive bike, you may be glad you did. I bought an entry level Trek, and although I really like it a lot, I'm already wanting to make some upgrades. And I'm quickly finding things I don't particularly like about it. So on one hand, I'm glad I went with entry level because it's not so bad when you bang it up with falls and such, but on the other hand, I wonder if I would've been better off going with a more expensive bike with better components. I'm planning to ride this bike for two seasons and then upgrade. But only if I can control myself and not splurge on a new bike next Spring!

Anyway, you'll get the hang of this. It's not as easy as I thought it would be and there is quite a little learning curve. But it's amazing how quickly you can progress. I've had my bike only 3-1/2 months and I know I've made huge strides. Good luck!

[Teddy]

After reading all of your posts and then reading the post on steering with your hips, I was all fired up to go out and try it. I took my mountain bike to the middle school parking lot again, and tried applying what I'd learned here on my bike there. And IT WORKED!!! I tried steering with my hips and it seems so simple that I can't believe I was struggling so hard before. Wow, what an epiphany! I rode around and around the parking lot trying all kinds of different things as my confidence grew. I shifted gears, took one hand off the handlebars, reached for an imaginary water bottle, stood up on the pedals, tried pedaling out of the saddle, made big and little circles, figure eights, last minute changes of direction, holding a line and on and on. I rode for an hour and it was so much fun.

And it's so funny because steering with your hips is very similar to what you do when you ride a horse. I used to ride and compete a lot up until about three years ago so the concept of steering with your hips made total sense to me. Subtly shifting your weight onto and off of your seat bones is foundational to good riding and making that connection to riding a bike made all the difference in the world. Thank you Kalidurga for showing me that link. It was awesome!

And thank you all for the kind words and great advice.

Tomorrow I'm going to go on a real ride...maybe the bike path or ???

Yee Haw!

[Laterider21958]

I learnt to ride a bike when I was about 8 years old. I can remember that the bike I tried to ride first off was too big for me, and I couldn't even sit on the seat and reach the pedals properly, which made it hard to manage. Back then, the bike didn't have gears and I pedalled backwards to brake. (It was way back in the '60's)

I think that you need to lower the seat so that you can touch the ground with both feet while sitting on the seat. Next learn how the brakes work and use them both at the same time - not just the front one. Forget about changing gears until you become more proficient at balancing and maintaining control of your steering. Just have the gears set so you can pedal comfortably, but not too easily (ie spinning furiously). Keep practising and then gradually learn to change gears, and then begin raising the seat as your ability and confidence increase.

Congratulations for taking the plunge, you won't regret it!

[lph]

So cool to hear you're having fun learning to ride a bike, and so fast!

Saddle height: once you get past the feeling that you need to plant both feet on the ground, you'll want to boost your saddle up so you can use your legs more efficiently. I've been told that the correct height is when your leg is straight with your *heel* on the pedal (get someone to hold your bike!) When I do that I get a slightly bent knee with my toe on the pedal. To me it feels better being able to straighten my leg completely once every revolution, so I have my saddle a tad higher.

If you have to twist your hips and "reach" down with your foot it's too high, though.