Category: cycling

Generally, I’m all in favor of fitness activities that you can do solo. This is largely personal preference, but I’ve also seen serious motivation problems come out of being too dependent upon other people. It normally goes like this: you and a buddy get a gym membership/make a fitness pact and motivate each other. Eventually one of you loses motivation, which means then it’s on the other person to constantly provide the get up and go. Which burns them out. And then you’re just sitting on the couch, sharing a tub of hummus and saying man, you should really get back to working out.

Be your own motivation. Don’t let friends drag you out of the habit.

That said, exercising with other people is normally way more fun than doing it alone. I did (and will hopefully do again in a few months) kung fu for eight years, and talk about group energy. Being around other people who are enthusiastic about whatever you’re doing helps make you more enthusiastic, and makes it easier to push through when you’re tired.

I’m an incredibly competitive person by nature. Having other people around makes me push myself in ways I never thought possible, because I don’t want to get left behind. I want to be in the front of the pack, damnit! (When you’re not the lead dog, after all, the view never changes.)

Which brings us to group rides for cycling. This is a thing I’ve gotten in to since coming to Houston for the summer. It’s got the same energy and enthusiasm bonus as being in a big class for kung fu or something else like step. I love it and can’t recommend it enough.

The bonus, of course, for group cycling rides is they’re also much safer than riding solo if you’re on the roads. Once you get a critical mass of cyclists (6-10, I’d say) you can easily take over an entire lane on the road and cars are no longer brave enough to fuck with you because you have the numbers.

So how do you find group rides? Start with your local bicycle shop. A lot of group rides use those as gathering points, and are even sponsored by them or run by the team that calls that shop its home. In Houston, I regularly participate in the Bikesport and Planetary Cycles rides, and have done the Bike Barn ride.Houston also has a cycling group on meetup.com, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of other big cities do as well.

Joining a group ride:
You’ll notice the ones I linked to are free (as far as I know, most for fun group rides should be!) and run basically as a show up on time and ride affairs. It’s all fairly simple. There are a couple of things you should know about, though.

1) Drop versus no drop. Unless a ride specifically states that it is “no drop” assume that it’s a drop ride. On a no drop ride, it’s the group policy to not leave people behind. This can happen by accident on occasion, but normally the people in charge of the ride will keep at least one person at the back of the group to make sure stragglers don’t get left alone or lost. No drop rides will also pull over and wait to let people catch up if the group gets cut in half by a giant hill or a stop light. There is nothing wrong with drop rides, per se, but if you’re just starting out (and don’t know the area you’re riding in well) than a no drop ride is much friendlier and less intimidating. 

2) How fast do you go? You’ll notice most rides have a minimum speed requirement. This can seem kind of tough, but it’s really to help keep the group together and minimize frustration. (You get frustrated if you’re left behind a lot, they get frustrated if someone is really slowing the group down.) This is one of the places where having a computer for your bike is useful, since that will give you a good feel for your speed. However, you can also just do a route of known length and estimate your speed off of that. 

What does the speed number actually mean? It tends to vary, from what I’ve seen. One of the rides I do asks for an average speed of 15 mph at minimum. Keep in mind that your average speed includes all the less than stellar times you’re accelerating or decelerating for stop lights, for example. So an average of 15mph means that you’re actually spending most of your time going significantly faster (probably around 18-20 mph) and will be comfortable sustaining that pace.

Another of the rides I go on is big enough that it’s divided into four groups: A, B+, B, and C. Each of those groups has a speed associated with it, and that speed is whatever you can comfortably maintain. So the C group is 15-18 mph sustained speed, which means a much lower (probably 13-ish mph) average. I learned this by starting off with the C group the first time I did the ride because I thought they wanted 15mph average, and I ended the ride bouncing up to the B+ group because I wasn’t having to work hard enough. (The B+ was just a little too fast for me, though!)

So how do you know? The best thing you can do in a situation like that is ask other people in the ride and find out what the speed requirement means. If in doubt, start with the slowest group, hang with them, and bump up to a faster group if you’re not working up enough of a sweat. 

3) Ride safe. Check what the ride requirements say to start with. Some evening rides will be out when it’s dark, so you must have a flashing tail light and a headlamp. Honestly, those things are a good idea to have anyway, even if you only ride during the day. Always wear your helmet. Bring a spare tube and some CO2 canisters in case you get a flat.

Most big rides will have a quick safety talk for new riders before they get going, so make sure you get there a little early for that the first few times you go. Here are a few things I’ve learned, however: 

Communicate with other riders so they know if you’re passing them. If the group is coming to a light or a stop, people will often yell “stopping” or “slowing” to warn the back of the group. Pass that back. Signal turns so everyone knows where they’re going. You’ll also see other hand signals get used, to warn people about potholes and the like. These things, you eventually learn by observation, but you have to start by paying attention. Listen. If you’re like me and can’t live without musical accompaniment, only wear one earbud, and keep it in your right ear so you can hear the other riders and the street noise. (If you’re in a left drive company, keep your right ear free instead.)

4) The after party. Sometimes after a ride, everyone goes out for beer and pizza. This is the best part.

One of the first things you’ll discover about bicycles is that apparently the vocabulary was designed by someone with a sadistic sense of humor who was convinced that life would be better if newbs had no idea what anyone was talking about. Take the saddle bag, for example. I bet you immediately envision those bags you sometimes see hanging off the sides of bikes, over the rear wheel. You know, like saddlebags on a horse.

Not clips. Nope. Those are actually the shoes for clipless pedals (and the shoes are cleats.)

That’s because these are clips:

And then the third type of pedal you’re normally going to see are flat or platform pedals. Those are the kind you grew up with on your bike, just a flat thing for you to put your foot on and push. 

So, why do you care about clips and clipless pedals?

If you’re just riding bikes casually, you probably don’t. Flat pedals will get you from point A to B just fine if you’re not trying to go a significant distance. Most road bikes will come with clips already on them. If you tighten them up appropriately, they’ll keep your feet properly positioned on the pedals and let you get a little more push on them. 

Clips aren’t the easiest things to extract your feet from, to be honest, not if you have them tightened down pretty well. (Particularly depending on the type of shoes you’re wearing. Shoes with smooth uppers are much easier to pull out of clips.) They can also be kind of a pain in the butt to get your feet in to. The added oomph to your pedaling is definitely a benefit, though.

Clipless pedals have the same advantages as clips, but more so. You can really pull up as well as push down, which gives you a big jump in efficiency and helps you get up to speed faster. Of course, your feet are then attached to the pedals – but in all honest, I’ve found it easier to get my cleats out of the clipless pedals than extract my shoes from clips at times. 

If you’re going to switch, do it all the way. There are pedals you can get that have a platform on one side. The problem with those is when you’re first starting out, getting the cleats to clip in can be rough, and it’s even harder if you’ve only got the clip-in on one side of the pedal. Just do it. All the way, and don’t go back.

The downside to clipless pedals (and clips) is that your feet are effectively glued to the pedals. Probably at least once, you’re not going to get one of your feet pulled out in time and you’ll fall over. The most dangerous time for these kind of pedals is actually when you’re stopped, and it does happen if you’re not paying good enough attention.

I’ve fallen over twice, both times in a parking lot. I’ve seen it happen to other people on group rides. It’s not a big deal, and the thing that gets hurt the worst is your pride. You’ve just got to learn to get a foot free before you stop. Preferably, just free one foot; keep your other in so you can start pedaling without having to get clipped back in. As with all things, practice makes perfect.

Is it worth switching? If you’re going to be riding your bike a lot, and you’re doing it specifically for distance and speed, yes. A thousand times yes. Clipless pedals will change your life. 

After all of my talk about running, I actually haven’t been doing much of it in the last month. This is partially because I’m in Houston for the summer – you know, Houston. A city renowned for its cool and balmy summer weather. – and running outside at nearly any time when the sun is up is like asking for death. Sweaty, bug-covered death. I’ve also been having problems with some plantar fasciitis in my left heel, a thing that doesn’t take kindly to even walking, let alone running.

Instead, I’ve been riding my bike. A lot.

Biking is something I’ve only started doing recently. This year, in fact, because I didn’t actually own a decent bicycle until I bought one back in March. But to be honest, I’m having a much better time with it than I do with running. I normally ride 20-30 miles at a stretch and I’m a much stronger biker (I’m already able to maintain 15.5+mph average speeds) than I’ve ever been a runner. Plus hey, it doesn’t make my left foot hate me, so that’s certainly a bonus.

The biggest problem with biking is that it can be very expensive. Running, you can do as long as you have a decent pair of shoes and a desire to sweat a lot. If you’re going to cycle, at the very minimum you need:
Bicycle
Helmet (if you don’t get one of these I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN)
Puncture repair kit & extra tubes
Floor pump (trust me, way better than a hand pump)

And if you’re going to start doing more than 15 miles at a stretch, trust me. You want to spring for the shorts with the padded butt. You might feel silly wearing them, but your ass will thank me in the long run.

Of course, the most expensive thing out of that list would be the bicycle. Often, you can try to find one used. But if you want a bike for more than just trundling back and forth to the grocery store, you’re going to need to spring for one that actually fits you. The frame size is very important, and the frame size you need varies with things like your height, the length of your inseam, the lengths of your arms, etc. You can try to figure it out with a frame size calculator, but you’re really better off going to your local bike shop and test riding bicycles until you figure out what’s the right size. And keep in mind, frames change from brand to brand. So a 52cm Trek is not going to be the same as a 52cm Litespeed, and so on. Once you know what size bike frame you need, you can always then see if you can find one cheaper online or used.

It also matters if you want to mountain bike (which I can’t really say anything about) or do road biking or just have something to take to the grocery store instead of your car. You don’t need to get something top of the line when you’re first starting out – in fact you shouldn’t – but it’s well worth it to get a decent frame. But keep in mind that even a “cheap” road bike new costs over $600.

If you’re interested in biking – and I think it’s hella fun, obviously – don’t run out and spend a ton of money right off the bat unless you’re sure you know what you’re getting in to. Before I finally bit the bullet and got a big girl road bike, I owned an Electra cruiser for years and just rode it back and forth to the store. Particularly if you’re new to bikes or haven’t had one since you were a kid, that kind of bike isn’t a bad reintroduction and gives you a chance to decide if you even like bicycles any more.

What pushed me to finally let go of the cruiser and get a road bike was the fact that I’d be living without a car for the summer, so I needed something a little better for distance and commuting. It was kind of a scary prospect, since the posture you end up in on a road bike is much more aggressive (you end up leaning over the handle bars and have to learn to not put all your weight on your hands) and takes getting used to. But when I went over to the bike store and started trying bicycles out, it was ludicrous how much faster the road bike was.

When you’re trying to push a bike up a hill with the power of your thighs, light weight and tiny, ridiculously pressurized tires are your friend. That’s actually what pushed me into getting a road bike instead of the less aggressive hybrid (a cross between road and mountain bike). Trying the Trek out first just sort of ruined me for anything heavier.

I’d really like to encourage people to try out biking, even if you don’t want to spend 6+ hours a week with your ass glued to a seat. If you use a bike for short trips instead of a car, you save emissions and money, since you don’t use gas. A lot of cities in America are starting to have bike share programs, where for a small “rental” fee you can get a cruiser-style bike and use it to run errands within a city and turn the bike in at any convenient return point. I recommend giving it a try, and if you decide you like it enough to make it your main form of exercise, awesome! If not, even if you just do little side trips and errands, you’re still getting in some good exercise and helping the environment.

This is something I’ve learned in the endless quest to stay moving – anything you can do that gets somewhere under your own power is a very good thing. That means walking, that means taking the stairs, and that means riding a bike if it’s safe to do so. You can get in a lot of good exercise without having to make a special deal out of it in your day, and you can pat yourself on the ass for being environmentally friendly while you do it.

If you have any questions about beginner biking, let me know. I’m still working to figure this crazy gig out, but I’m having a heck of a lot of fun.

Denver bicycle sharing program
Houston bike sharing program
National site for the B-cycle bike sharing program
NYC bike share

…and you get the idea. If you’re in a large metropolitan area, google your city + bike share or bike sharing program and chances are you might have one already.