A Beginner's Advice

Devon Lad

When I first started cycling and searched for advice, it was helpful, but always from much more experienced cyclists than myself. In this post I will aim to highlight some of the things I've learned, (often through trial and error!), from a beginner's perspective.

Hills
Living in south Devon I am surrounded by hills and to begin with they really used to make cycling a misery for me. My "secret" or major breakthrough with regard to hills came when I viewed them as a challenge not as a chore. For me, along with rapid descents, cresting a punishing hill is a highlight of a ride. The truth is, some hills will make you crawl, you just need to learn to enjoy crawling!

(Scary) Club Rides
I have seen endless posts on here asking "Should I join my local club?". When I was more of a beginner than I am now, I debated this exact same question, Club runs were scary, if people had joined a club and rode every week they must be serious and therefore fit and fast. In the end I took the plunge with a mate for moral support. Best decision of my cycling life so far! We slotted perfectly into the "leisure ride" and it was a very easy induction into the world of group riding. In short, group riding provides easier riding over longer distances, motivation and a wealth of advice from all the riders at the club! Do a bit of research on the club first to check they are not a GB Academy feeder group, but if they say they welcome all comers, and will stop and wait to regroup, they really do mean it.

Food
For me food seems to fall into two categories: Food that can be eaten whilst riding and food that is eaten at stops. When I am cycling on my own I will rarely stop and so food I can eat while riding is necessary. Some people will claim that real food or energy bars work for them, for me personally, when I am tired and my mouth is fairly dry, I could not stomach an energy bar or real food. Energy gels work for me, my favourite are the Lucozade gels. Cheapish at Tesco I find.
When there are stops on the ride however, I find real food and bars a lot easier to stomach and so I do bring them for club runs.

Clothing
I started out wearing rugby shorts and trainers, the moment I upgraded to Lycra and clipless pedals and the appropriate shoes was perhaps the biggest upgrade to my cycling by anything bought so far. I too was apprehensive about the tight stuff at first, but apart from cycling round the village to see friends, I will never cycle in anything else again. As weird as it sounds, you don't wear underwear underneath, I thought this was a joke also when I was first told, but it is (very comfortably) true.
I don't want to restart the helmet debate, but I do wear a helmet, I don't like the look or the feel of it, but I wear it. My mum was a lawyer and apparently you lose 50%? of your damages in a claim due to contributory negligence if you don't wear one, even if the accident is not your fault. However, do as you wish. Likewise, I wear an iPod riding on my own, but on a social club ride I don't.

I'd just like to finish by saying, buying a new bike will NOT make you a better cyclist. True, it is a better tool to cycle with, will make you feel better and look nicer, but it won't stop hills hurting or take 30 minutes off your PB. Sure I would love a new bike, and my money has been burning a hole in my pocket on occasions. But when I feel my cycling level can justify a new bike I will buy one. There are no short cuts to being a better cyclist cycling does hurt at times and it is one of the things I like about it, being able to suffer gives you confidence in many other areas in life.

Hope all this helps, even if it is just a little bit! Sorry if I have missed anything.....

sagefly

That's a really eloquent posting and has given me a lot of good sensible advice

Thanks

PhildB

For beginners like me this stuff is gold, - very interesting to read, - thanks for posting

bianchimoon

Nice post, well written

Devon Lad

Thanks a lot! Really glad I could help out. Makes it worth the effort

mike101

Which club do you ride with in South Devon?

FSR_XC

Excellent post.

Only thing I do not agree with is the wearing of an iPod.

napoleond

When ironing your cycling clothes, make sure the setting is on its lowest.

andy46

^^ I put mine on hangers above a radiator and the creases drop out nicely lol.

On a more serious note, good post!

liquor box

Devon Lad wrote:

Hills
Living in south Devon I am surrounded by hills and to begin with they really used to make cycling a misery for me. My "secret" or major breakthrough with regard to hills came when I viewed them as a challenge not as a chore. For me, along with rapid descents, cresting a punishing hill is a highlight of a ride. The truth is, some hills will make you crawl, you just need to learn to enjoy crawling!

I also think that climbing hills is the highlight of all of my rides, I will never be as fast as some riders on the flat, downhill or uphill, but one thing I like to think I have is the mental motivation to climb, I may not be very good but there is an awesome feeling when you get up a hill that is a struggle.

Getting to the top of a steep hill is a rush to me, and is the highlight of my day. My cycling goals are almost exclusively to make it all the way up long steep climbs in my local area.

I think that climbing hills is a mental thing

MarksMintness

All of this is great stuff and I would certainly agree with the paragraph on clothing!
It's plenty hilly where I live as well, every route away from my house seems to involve a lot of climbing, but I found that this meant that even a short 10 mile ride would feel like a 20 miler - more bang for your buck from even a short training ride!
Keep it up - great post

TommyB61

Great post. Like a few on here I'm a late starter to road cycling, & this has given me an opportunity to get a few useful tips & to tick off some things I'm already doing.

Cheers

Pross

An excellent post, the only issue I'm not sure about is the 50% loss of compensation for contributory negligence - as far as I am aware there is no case law reflecting this and contributory negligence (if proven) is usually allocated on a case by case basis.

y33stu

Great post. As a newbie thinking about joining a club, you've convinced me to give it a go.

DavidJB

Good post.

Devon Lad

Thanks for all the replies. The club I'm a member of is YOGI, for the person who wanted to know. It's not strictly speaking South Devon, being Plymouth based, but it is near enough for me to cycle to the start point, or meet them in the south hams.

As for the negligence element, I do not claim to be an expert, hence the percentage figure being followed by a question mark, but I'm sure riding without a helmet would not strengthen a claim in an accident. However this post was never meant to debate the whys and wherefores of helmets an iPods and I do not want to see this thread descend into that very old argument.

Really glad I've inspired someone to go club riding! (You won't regret it!) and also that other people share my odd passion for hills.

Thanks for all the posts, you've made writing the original post worthwhile!

tarquin_foxglove

Devon Lad wrote:

As for the negligence element, I do not claim to be an expert, hence the percentage figure being followed by a question mark, but I'm sure riding without a helmet would not strengthen a claim in an accident.

I understand that no claim of contributory negligence in a TWO vehicle (1 bike & 1 car) accident has been proven in court. All have fallen on the fact that a helmet is designed to protect a cyclist from a fall onto a hard surface with a head speed of 5.4m/s (12mph). The force of the impact in two vehicle accidents is well beyond their design capability.

Recently a claim of contributory negligence was found in a SINGLE vehicle (1 bike) accident and compensation payout reduced by 67%. Reynolds v Strutt and Parker

However, the fact that these are going to court shows that insurance companies will try to reduce a payout for not wearing a helmet.

Compulsion by the back door...

_topcat

Devon lad that's a great post buddy. I too am in Devon, Newton abbot and am thinking about joining mdcc to spur myself along but have been worried as after an hour I'm pooped but I'm going out a few times in the week to build up to it.
Thanks for advice and I too treat hills as a challenge as you know, we have a few in Devon.
Regards
Ed