New Cyclist

Here Are Probably The Most Common Things To Come Up In Conversation with New Cyclist

Shorts

A lot of cyclists new to the sport start off wearing underwear under their bib shorts and complain about being saddle sore and chafing. Fortunately, there is a changing room on the premises where they can remove their underwear and ride in the shorts (hopefully bib) as they’re meant to. I often see new riders in shorts that are too big and wrinkled up where the pad moves around. Shorts should be a snug fit, stabilising muscles and not getting hooked up on the saddle nose as you get in and out of the saddle. Bib shorts stay in place better and take pressure off the waist and belly.

Pedalling technique

Once we start the rider pedalling on the jig in the studio, we soon get an insight into their pedalling technique. There is a whole bunch of analysis that we can look at on pedalling but very simply for the new rider they often need to get their cadence up i.e. increase the RPM their legs are spinning at. I’ve had new riders come in and pedal at 50rpm. This is extremely low and there are lots of benefits to increasing it. Drivetrains shift gear a lot better with higher cadence and will wear less.

Knee health and muscular endurance can be negatively affected at low cadences if pushing too high a gear. A good cyclist will have the ability to use a wide cadence range depending on the environment but typically cadences usually work best around 85 to 95 rpm. Of course, the reason they are pedalling slow could just be that they need a bike fit to get their position in a better place to lift their cadence.

Coming home from a ride knackered is not unusual when starting off

For rides longer than an hour some riders need more than a bottle of water. A carbohydrate mix in the water bottle and a snack on the way round can make all the difference. Garmin computer head units such as the Edge have excellent route planning software. You can pick the distance you want to go and the direction you want to head in, and it’ll design you a route that other cyclists have used. Remember to look at how much climbing elevation there is and the options for on and off-road routing. You’ll not want to take your nice clean road bike down the canal towpath!

Wind direction is an important consideration too. Battling back against a headwind when you’re already tired can be demoralising. One of my favourite apps is Windy.com. I use this to look in advance which way the wind is coming from and plan my route to head out into the wind so I’m blown back home. The wind is your friend, it makes you stronger.