Mistakes I made as a begineer

kingrollo

I can larf about it now but here I a few things I did as a begineer:-

Went cycling in baseball boots

Wore plimsols and toe clips

tried a crash hat on (old style) backwards in full gaze of the shop assistant

wore lycra shorts backwards (with pants on !)

My girlfriend at the time brought me a panasonic cycling top - she asked in the shop - if they did them in any other colours

Wouldn't buy a bike because it hadn't got top pull brake levers (death traps)


Any others ?

chuckcork

Wearing heavy gore-text trousers and jacket more suitable for hill walking, sold to me in a cycle shop BTW! Now I wear proper cycling gear made by companies that make cycle gear as a speciality....

Bronzie

Thinking that I could do an 80-mile hard training ride with the club's big hitters with nothing other than 500ml of orange squash to get me round :x - what a plum!

Thinking that riding long touring rides would make me quick enough for racing :oops:

teagar

When I was 16 I decided to go cycling around cornwall with some mates for a week. We did it on full mountain bikes (mine was at least a stiffy) and with about 10-15kg of baggage.

No cycling clothing or anything like that.

We'd booked the hostels around 70-90miles away, which, in Cornwall, is a long way!


Got me into road cycling though so it can't have been that bad.

keef66

Aaah, travelling round Cornwall with a stiffy. That takes me back to the days of my youth!

fnegroni

Threw away Castelli bib shorts with real chamois and yellow jersey because they looked outdated.

Did not stop my father from selling a '78 Moser for a ridicolously low price.

kingrollo

Thinking that riding long touring rides would make me quick enough for racing


erm.....you will be telling me theres no further christmas

Gav888

Yep,

Over analysing your nutritional requirements
Consuming to much carbs
Not drinking enough
Using trainers
Pedalling too slowly
Snotting out into the wind :shock:

But im still a beginner.....

StrangelyBrown

What's a begineer?

Chip \'oyler

StrangelyBrown wrote:

What's a begineer?

A pedantic forum user

Alibran

Bought a hybrid because someone (who knew no more about cycling than me) told me I wouldn't be comfortable with drops.

keef66

buying a £50 "mountain bike" in a huge cardboard box from the forecourt of a former filling station. It weighed a ton, the chain snapped, and various bits fell off if ever I ventured off smooth tarmac.

Mind you, it got me fit, back into cycling, and I managed to sell it for £40 2 years later!

My next 2 bikes came from proper bike shops, light and well specced, and in 12 years the only thing that's needed replacing is a front shifter after 10 years use.

fast as fupp

tried to ride from liverpool to wales in jeans and trainees with 1 bottle of water and no food

got as far as port sunlight :oops:

iain_j

Thinking that because I'd done one >100 mile ride, I could do the same for two days on the run with two ridiculously heavy panniers on my ridiculously heavy old bike.

Well, I managed the first day: 110 miles from Liverpool to Pen-y-Pass youth hostel. As well as the heavy bike/luggage I had lots of hills, lots of rain (no jacket!), a headwind, a near-crash with a kerb, the bonk, a dice with death on the A55 "cycleway", and a soggy, illegible booking slip when I got there.

But I made it, and I still look back on it with a smile Needless to say I split the return journey over 2 days.

DomPro

1. Skimping out on inferior cycling products because I'm such a tight-arse. (Overcome this now. Its always worth the extra expense)

2. Going too far from home with insufficient nutrition. (still happens sometimes - partly because my enthusiasm for cycling hasn't waned since I started)

3. erm.. I'm sure thers more but i can't remember.

fatandwheezing

2. Going too far from home with insufficient nutrition. (still happens sometimes - partly because my enthusiasm for cycling hasn't waned since I started)

Yep, get up, quick cup of tea, and 2 slices of toast, cycle 20 miles, hit a brick wall, and limp back home like an 80 year old man. Particularly bad having no cash, and passing all those enticing cafes and petrol stations.....won't make that mistake again......possibly

Elganesh

Fixing my bottle cages on the wrong way up and spending a week wondering why it was so hard to take my bottles in and out. :oops:

chriskempton

Went out for a ride without reattaching front brake caliper bolt.

I was going down a hill, applied brakes. The caliper grabbed the rim, came out of the frame, span round wheel until it ran out of cable. Then it pinged up in the air, before landing back in the spokes and going round the wheel to the forks. When it got there, it jammed between spokes and forks, stopping the front wheel dead. I naturally went over the bars and landed in a bloodied heap in the middle of the road.

page23

failing to practice at least once taking my foot out of the first pair of clipless pedals i ever owned (i also neglected to check the tension setting). first set of traffic lights saw me fall sideways into a car in the middle of the one-way system in winchester. i had to kick the bike off my feet just so i could get back up...

StrangelyBrown

Chip \'oyler wrote:

StrangelyBrown wrote:

What's a begineer?

A pedantic forum user

Well wash my mouth out with soap for some lighthearted forum brevity

And I put my seat post in facing the wrong way and rode for ages with a very strangely angled saddle - it's why I now walk like John Wayne.

Sea_Green_Incorruptible

fatandwheezing wrote:

2. Going too far from home with insufficient nutrition. (still happens sometimes - partly because my enthusiasm for cycling hasn't waned since I started)

Yep, get up, quick cup of tea, and 2 slices of toast, cycle 20 miles, hit a brick wall, and limp back home like an 80 year old man. Particularly bad having no cash, and passing all those enticing cafes and petrol stations.....won't make that mistake again......possibly

I have been know to devour a large back of peanuts in less than a second under similar circumstances.

justresting

StrangelyBrown wrote:

Chip \'oyler wrote:

StrangelyBrown wrote:

What's a begineer?

A pedantic forum user

Well wash my mouth out with soap for some lighthearted forum brevity


please try to resist, we did

jimycooper

i've wasted this whole winter by doing audaxs and riding with local adults club when infact, i my main goals of the season are in a velodrome... silly me!

Nuggs

Assuming every maintenance job will only take 10 minutes.

kingrollo

Asking on a forum "wots best campag or shimano"

Believing the responses and buying campag

Buying Endura Overshoes - based on a C+ review (they were in holes after 1 ride)

warrior4life

Aged 15 back in 1991, had food poisoning for a week... the 1st day i was better got dropped off at dalby forrest and followed the mountain bike world cup circuit from that year (1991-1990?) 25 miles and tried to bike the 65 miles home on my raleigh magnum complete with dynamo Speedo, rack and stand.

I bonked before finishing the mtb route and still had over 70 to get home..no money...no phone

I made it home.

Mistake no2. Downhilling with only a back brake one the same bike in the same year.. i ended up in hospital after jumping of my bike and straight into a tree...either that or go straight over a 20ft drop.

Mistake no3. Bonking on 50% of my rides between 1994 and 2002 because i didnt have enopugh money for food.

StrangelyBrown

justresting wrote:

StrangelyBrown wrote:

Chip \'oyler wrote:

StrangelyBrown wrote:

What's a begineer?

A pedantic forum user

Well wash my mouth out with soap for some lighthearted forum brevity


please try to resist, we did

I'm very very very sorry I will only ever be serious from now on - these things are important.

trickeyja

-Taking my speedometer to the computer to record stats
-Leaving it by computer
-Computer disappearing
-Finding speedometer eventually
-Swearing always to put speedometer back on bike
-Taking my speedometer to the computer to record stats
-Leaving it by computer
-Computer disappearing
-Swearing because I still can't find it!

That, and bonking, having only brought about £3 for food!!

Getting stranded in a freak snowstorm in Shropshire and having to stay with a very kind couple!

I'm sure there are more...

iain_j

chriskempton wrote:

Went out for a ride without reattaching front brake caliper bolt.

I was going down a hill, applied brakes. The caliper grabbed the rim, came out of the frame, span round wheel until it ran out of cable. Then it pinged up in the air, before landing back in the spokes and going round the wheel to the forks. When it got there, it jammed between spokes and forks, stopping the front wheel dead. I naturally went over the bars and landed in a bloodied heap in the middle of the road.

I'm sure it wasn't funny for you, but ....

Nuggs wrote:

Assuming every maintenance job will only take 10 minutes.

That's why I don't do routine maintenance. I should, but I don't have the hours it takes me to do it.

GavH

Thinking I could just buy an Alu stiff tail MTB frame and take all of teh bits off my full sus frame to make it an easier commuting bike. Didn't actually appreciate that things like seatposts, front mechs, wheels come in different sizes and didn't know until I got to it that BBs and Headsets don't just 'pop' out! Needless to say, I've learned a fair bit from that experience nearly two years ago.

CiB

Fitting aerobars and after a couple of weeks of nearly tying myself in knots trying to work out what the speed-related knocking was whenever I was down on the bars, suddenly clicked that I'd lost a bit of weight, my wrists had become a bit thinner and my watch was now bouncing around hitting the bars on the angle. Gnnnn.