Getting Back to Cycling

When I considered starting cycling again, first in order to get fit and secondly in order to commute, I was unfit and needed the exercise. Fortunately as a callow youth I had regularly cycled about 14 miles to get to school so I knew I could probably do it but I still had to rebuild that stamina.

However it still was not a case of just jumping on a bike, there is fair amount of ground work you need to do before you even consider buying a bike or riding it. This post is about my advice that I gleaned from starting from scratch again, in my late 30s to allow me to cycle into my mid 40s.

Walk the Routes

If you are going to cycle across a number of standard routes, walk them first. You need to ensure you're fit enough to push your bike to your destination if something goes wrong and if you can't walk it you probably can't cycle it On foot you are also able to look at the condition of the roads, consider the visibility of the junctions and take your time to explore dedicated cycle paths (which may not be the boon they seem).

Consider the danger to you from the traffic when walking, for this will influence how much you want to spend to make yourself more visible. Consider the gradients of the hills, for when starting you want to try and make sure that uphill climbs are mostly on gradual climbs even it means you have to go out of your way a bit to find an easier ascent. If you have any local cycle paths examine who uses them, for scaring elderly pedestrians is not cool, and how safe it is to transfer from cycle path to a conventional road.

Get used to using all your senses from the pavement, keep aware of traffic and look out for what other cyclists are wearing and riding on the same routes. Explore to see if you can find bike racks near to the places you want to cycle to or investigate where you can leave a bike without it being stolen.

Read the Highway Code


If you already drive it will probably be a simple case of buying the latest edition and reading on the rules, signals and obligations that cyclists must obey. If you don't drive then knowing the rules of the road for all road users is invaluable, especially to allow you to predict what other road users will do and to avoid inadvertently breaking the law yourself while cycling.

Being predictable on a bike, by following the highway code, can save your skin many a time. Having the required reflectors and a bell is more useful than it might first sounds. Possessing a pair of lights, that you can detach when you lock it, will allow you cycle through not just dawn and dusk but also the night itself.

You'll need to know the Highway Code quite reflexively as if you manage to cycle at even a half respectable pace you'll need to make decisions fast about rights of way concerning junctions and roundabouts. Once you understand how stable, balanced drivers drive it becomes easier to spot less trustworthy ones.

Visit the Bike Shops

There are three broad things to be careful of when buying a bike; buying a cheap "bike-shaped object" that might be so unreliable that it is unrideable, buying a fashionable bike that is too expensive because it looks cool and buying a bike that is so expensive that if you give up on cycling you'll be guilt ridden!

To avoid this I recommend plenty of investigative shopping at bike shops. Dress down, wearing the kind of practical clothes you would intend to initially cycle in and go in to ask for advice. By this time you should have done most of the ground work I recommended above and therefore committed to buying a bike but you should not buy until you spoken to about three bike shops.

At each shop look at the prices of standard items and compare them from shop to shop. You'll probably see a stark price difference between the shop although you should probably choose the shop based on whether you are given sober, sensible advice rather than just advised to buy the most expensive models.

I would consider first purchasing a cycling safety helmet, lights, something florescent to make you visible, a pair of locks to allow you to secure your new purchase and a bike that allow the correct saddle height, is light enough for you to carry for short distances if necessary, with brakes you can trust and with sufficient gears to face the hills and cover the flat stretches.

If you live in England you should consider the rain, if you want to wear regular trouser then I would recommend bicycle clips. A well-chosen pair of gloves will keep your hands warm, protect them from grazes if you fall off but also allow you to be dexterous enough to operate the bikes brake and gear levers.

You may also need a small backpack, or day sack to allow you to transform from cyclist to pedestrian with ease. Panniers are also an option, especially if you feel comfortable detaching them and carry them around with you after you have locked your bike somewhere secure.

This is your "first" bike; you will probably wear it out if everything goes to plan.

Practising Riding

Bikes tend to work by gyroscopic effect in that if you cycle at a sufficient speed in a straight line they become stable. People who cycle are not masters at balance, they simply take advantage of this.

So to practise you need somewhere quiet where you can both cycle in a straight line and practise slowing down to the point where you loose that gyroscopic effect and the bike become unstable. You seriously don't want to wobble for the first time in busy traffic.

Hand signals need to be practised too and I recommend you make them as clear, with almost theatrical exaggeration, as possible.

Before you cycle to work practise the route on your bike on non-working days. You should already have walked the route, read the highway, bought a sensible bike and practised with it.

You also need to ensure you can cope with a flat tyre, your chain falling off and you falling off - even if your proposed remedy is to simply to push it home or to the bike shop.

Summary

In a single post this is all the advice I can give, I hope it has been of some use.

That Introductory Post

I would have chosen "By Human Power" but I didn't want to distract from the done by human powered groups and I didn't want to talk solely about this subject.

I'm someone competent about getting around on foot, by bicycle and by rowing in part due to a "misspent" childhood where I was brought up by the River Thames by a family with strong ties to the river. In these middle years I've gotten back to each of these activities by patient work, building myself up. In none of these activities do I seek to race or compete beyond seeking an healthy outlet for my energies.

Although an scientist by training, with an honours degree in Computer Science, I still seek to study all things including Comparative Religion. One way that I judge my "wealth" is through the better chosen parts of my reference bookshelves, which in theory should surprise a casual observer.

However on religious grounds I remain relatively uncommitted on the basis that is more important to be ethical than to confirm to the often random seeming whims of dogma, to be bribed by a heaven or cowered by a hell. I also believe it is a mistake to try to describe other religions with Medieval, or Evangelical, Christian terms for religion is more complex, and richer, than the narrow creed that held back science through fear for centuries.

I'm an aspirant writer and a role of this blog is to try and purge my fictional writing of the need for it to be about me. To assist with this task this blog with be about my humble (at times) self.

With ethics naturally comes politics, with mine being left-of-centre with Official Monster Raving Loony Party sympathies. If a politician comes within my reach, where he is David Cameron or Jack Straw, he or she will generally be told off or encouraged, but more commonly told off ...

I work three days a week in a paid role and volunteer for the other two days in charity bookshop that I probably should not name directly here. If you can live a modest, affordable life and cycle or walk everywhere then such a lifestyle is survivable.

I shop very carefully for items, in part because of my former role as a mad inventor, in part because I'm seeking to eschew purchases of things at 20% VAT and in part because I've not actually got that much to spend at all. Therefore I usually window shop very carefully before I buy.

I'm also an artist, poet and photographer of sorts. I sold a poem to a pie manufacturer in 2010 but I've yet to see it applied to the quiches for which I was paid.

Anyway a key thing about a first post to a blog is whether is it is followed by second post. Only time will tell, I'm afraid, for I am renown, amongst the few people that know me, for my mortal failings.