Mentoring newbies

[lor]

As a road bike newbie, I am appreciative of mentors! I'm keeping an eye out for classes in my area, I think I found one in June - the info is a little vague. I'm sure I could use some tips on shifting (when, how hard/soft to be pedaling, etc.), and just learning general biking etiquette. I'm also planning on taking my LBS up on their free weekly maintenance classes. They rotate between 4 class subjects each month.

[nuliajuk]

There are many reasons to get out of the saddle besides hills - starting up quickly when the light turns green, getting over level crossings and cattle grids with more even loading on the wheels. In any case, this woman wants to learn how to do it, so I'm willing to show her how.
Many of my best commuter skills were, oddly enough, learned on a velodrome while training for the weekly track racing league. It's surprising how useful a good standing start is in downtown rush hour traffic. And of course we had to learn to shoulder check to both sides without wavering, because we didn't want to switch up or down the banking without making sure there was no-one coming up behind us.

[Crankin]

Well, I've been able to survive without standing on hills in my 12 years of cycling, although I do stand to go over tracks (no cattle guards here).
On another mentoring note, yesterday we lead our club's annual new member ride. It's not really for new members, though. Because of threatening rain, we had a smaller turnout than usual. I was sweeping the faster group and ended up coaching 2 women. One just had difficulty with hills but wanted to challenge herself by going with the faster group. She stayed with us until the half way point and then rode back on her own, after I gave her some tips on shifting for hills. The other was a very fit and younger woman who just seemed to be in the wrong gear all of the time. I ended up staying with her and finally deduced that she had no idea how to shift, even though this was her second season with the bike! We finally stopped and I figured out she had SRAM, so I remembered something about the double tap, and voila, she was at least able to shift the front. I gave her more of a lesson, with my DH when we got back.
She had had no instruction from her LBS and had no idea how anything worked. Now, I am a mechanical dunce, but the fact that the shop let this person go off with such a lack of knowledge is just horrible. Then, I helped another couple with some other things.
I got a really nice email from the first woman, thanking me for teaching her. And the couple told DH and I that we are "the perfect cycling couple."

[lph]

I'm with Nuliajuk here, you can certainly get by fine without standing out of the saddle, and some people just don't like it, but it does come in handy when cycling in city traffic, or anywhere else you need to rapidly accelerate. That's cool that she wants to learn.

Come to think of it, I probably rode regularly for almost a decade before switching to clipless pedals, trying a road bike or learning to ride no-hands. None of them essential skills, but I appreciate all of them now, for various reasons. I still struggle with getting a bottle out of a cage though, as I don't drink very often while riding. Should be working on that one!

[Crankin]

Well, for the first five years I rode, I couldn't even stand up on the pedals. Not sure what the issue was, as I am plenty strong. I can stand up now (I do to stretch), but it seems to have the opposite effect on me when climbing. My speed decelerates, mostly because my legs are hurting like hell. Generally, in order to stand and climb, I need to be in a harder gear than I normally would be, so I can balance on the pedals. Hence, it just feels harder than it needs to be. If I saw some kind of speed increase, I'd do it! So, when I do difficult climbs, I just gear down and spin. Since I am not racing, there's no need for a sprint to get to the top.
Riding no hands will never be a goal for me, lph. I am much better with the water bottle now, but that's about my limit. Maybe this is why I enjoy helping newbies so much. I am not particularly coordinated and my spatial/balance skills are pretty poor. Yet, I'm a bike leader and I had little issue learning to use a road bike, clipless, etc.

[shootingstar]

It is important to at least hand signal with one hand off the handlebar, and shoulder check without wobbling the bike.

You never know when you're going to need it ...like the time when a bee got stuck with its stinger on my eyelid (flew between face and sunglasses!) and I had to frantically pluck off that bee from my eyelid with one hand, while still cycling up a road hill, hanging onto handlebar with other hand. For certain, that was an emergency manoeuvre in a moment of terror!

I've never been able to ride with no 2 hands. And won't worry about it ...at this point in life.

When I returned to cycling over 2 decades ago, I often cycled behind my partner to learn how he dealt with new routes, signalling, etc. and that's when I watched-learned how he could climb-spin up long hill and mountain grades without standing/rising from his saddle. He does this also with full weighted bike panniers and a loaded bike trailer also. He is a experienced and long distance endurance cyclist....I believe he has racked up 130,000 km. over the last 25 years and he doesn't rise from his saddle. Yes, he has iron legs.

Yet, I am certain he is incorrectly/negatively judged by younger/same age guys flying up the mountain grades on their carbon bikes in their team kits. (My partner has never cycled in a team kit. He never will. Just ordinary lycra, jersey and high-vi apparel. That's all.)

I don't think he's ever figured how to take a water bottle out of cage while riding along. He just stops and drinks. He doesn't race. He's done some group rides but he...just stops and drinks. He does have good geospatial skills so getting disconnected from group is less of an issue, compared ....to me.

It is actually really inspiring to see someone ahead, apply tremendous mental disclipline and stamina/strength with a weighted bike to exercise patience to go up 10-19% long grades in this way. It's helped me a lot of how to prepare myself mentally....because half of the time, that's what it is. Cycling for transportation is not for folks who dislike cycling with weight and who want to cycle fast a lot of the time.

It helps to learn to cycle up hills with heavy grocery weight with the image of someone else not dancing up a hill up on carbon bike, but someone who is pulling up ordinary everyday weight of food and other stuff on bike.

[Catrin]

Like Crankin, I don't stand on the bike except to stretch. I feel...unstable when I try to pedal while standing and I just do not like that feeling. I prefer to use my gearing and just spin when I need to do so. With my shoulder & t-spine mobility problems I don't know that I will ever learn how to use a water bottle - I use a hydration pack. I am thinking about taking water bottles for shorter rides and just....stop when I need to drink