Quote Originally Posted by velogirl View Post
Unfortunately, most new riders never take the time to learn the basic prinicples behind the sport -- balance and weight distribution. Instead, they learn the more intricate "tricks" of the trade -- cornering, descending, steering, taking one or both hands off the bar, etc. All fine and good, but these are the icing on the cake. These are the implementations of those two basic principles. And if you never really understand those two principles, you'll never really master cycling.
Amen! Especially true for road-only riders.

I add to this that one should know enough basic mechanical skills to get you home.

You can ride for miles and miles and take forever to learn some things, or get a coach and have a much steeper learning curve.