Mentoring newbies

[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

[Owlie]

I stand for a little extra oomph on really short, steep stuff. If it's an actual hill, I'm not getting up it on the bike if I have to stand. And I can get a water bottle out of the cage while riding. I just can't get it back in.

Crankin, that's kind of scary.

[nuliajuk]

Instability while out of the saddle is usually due to being either too far forward, too high up (legs too straight), or both. Most bikes have a balance point that usually falls about 10-12" in front of the saddle, so that's what the hips should be lined up above. Crouching a bit lower so that the leg at the bottom of the pedal stroke is a little bit bent also helps with balance. It is harder on the legs than being in the saddle, which is why it's usually only done on very short steep snorts. And of course, it helps to have a bit of grip on the pedal so that it can be brought back and up at the same time the other pedal is being brought forward and down. Just pushing down on the pedals tends to make the bike weave from side to side.

Last Monday we all went to a nearby school playground and had people practice the various things they wanted to work on. I didn't get to work with the one that wanted help with gearing and getting out of the saddle, my charge was a woman who hadn't ridden for a number of years and could only get stopped or started with one leg on a curb. So I had her get one crank horizontal, step down on it, and coast just standing on that pedal for a short way. After a few coasts, she was able to bring the other leg up to the top of the other crank and start pedalling and getting onto the saddle. Then she worked on doing it in reverse to get off again. She did well until we all got back on the road to go back, which is normal when learning a new skill, the old way of doing things kicks in automatically until the new skill is cemented into place in long term memory.

The new rider is doing really well, in the week since she got a bike she's already learned to ride. A bit wobbly, but she can pedal it and stop and start.

[Crankin]

Owlie, what's kind of scary? The fact that I'm not that coordinated, or the woman who couldn't shift? THAT was scary; my lack of coordination, not so much. I push my limits regularly and I'm actually better from riding, despite my advancing age!

[lph]

Good work, Nuliajuk. I like that you have a sense of the longterm learning process, and that it takes time for a new habit to overlay an old one. I took my drivers licence not that many years ago, and my poor instructor was quietly pullling his hair out at how he'd teach me something, I'd focus on practicing it, but the next time I had to do it in a hurry the new skill would go out the window. It was pretty obvious too that 38-year olds learn slower than 18-year olds... :-D

I just read "Born to Run" (fantastic book! enough to make anyone want to buy a pair of huaraches and hit the trails) and there was something there about trying to run barefoot "if it feels easy you're doing it wrong", ie. if you're actually trying to make a relevant change to a entrenched habit it will and should feel clunky and clumsy at first.

[Owlie]

Owlie, what's kind of scary? The fact that I'm not that coordinated, or the woman who couldn't shift? THAT was scary; my lack of coordination, not so much. I push my limits regularly and I'm actually better from riding, despite my advancing age!

Not your lack of coordination, the woman who couldn't shift. I'm not exactly coordinated either! I do better on wheels than I do just walking around, though.

[Crankin]

So, I saw the woman who couldn't shift on Saturday. She came on our ride, but was with the slower group. She thanked me profusely for my patience and said she had been practicing like crazy since May. When I saw her at the lunch stop, she was happy as a clam.