10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Cycling

10 things I wish I knew as a beginner cyclist

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here’s 10 more things I wish I knew when I started cycling you don’t need drop bars but there’s a reason why recreational and sports cyclists gravitate towards them firstly it puts your hands into a more neutral position so if you just stand naturally then if you lift up your arms while keeping your hands relaxed they’re pretty much in the same position as a drop handlebar shifter would put you in whereas using a flat bar you have to completely rotate your wrists so switching to drop bars can often help if you’re getting hand wrist shoulder or neck pain it’s a more neutral position or as close as we can get while riding a bicycle which granted we’re not designed to do in the first place second your weight distribution is improved sitting really upright on a flat bar bike is fine for a short amount of time but it means most of your weight is going into your saddle q a sore ass drop bars will generally stretch you out a lot further so there’s more weight on your hands and less weight on your saddle so it’s distributed more evenly lastly and this won’t matter to everybody it’s faster you generally have a smaller frontal area when you’re riding drop handlebars which means you can cut through the wind more easily essentially free speed there’s no hard and fast rules here though if a flat bar works for you then fantastic bike weight doesn’t matter as much as you think it’s easy to look at cycling media and the marketing and make you think your bike’s too heavy I think the obsession with bike weight has come from it being the only thing we can measure and compare really easily it’s hard to compare aerodynamics it’s hard to compare ride feel it’s often anecdotal whereas weight you can just put your bike on a scales and find out unless your ride is from the bottom of a hill to the top of a hill a couple of extra kilogram isn’t going to make that much difference to the total amount of time it takes from the start of the ride to the end of your ride we’ve been testing bikes around the 400b mark on this channel recently and they all weigh about 11 kg that is plenty light to do a huge variet iety of riding on bear in mind I regularly ride a 30 kg bike setup across countries and I still have a fantastic time yeah it’s slower on the climbs but it’s still totally ridable and it still gets you to where you need to go so unless you live on a 10th floor apartment and you have to carry your bike upstairs or you’re racing don’t worry too much about bike weight don’t feel pressure to ride really hard all the time volume is more important than riding hard if you want to get faster if you want to get nerdy have a look at syo’s hierarchy of training needs volume is the most important thing and this is aimed at people who are training seriously it’s especially not worth focusing too much on the things at the really pointy end if you haven’t got those more important things address first riding more will lead you to get used to your bike used to fixing Mechanicals used to riding with other people how to dress for the temperature you’ll discover local Loops all of this will happen faster if you focus on volume instead of intensity although if you want to ride hard go for it it’s fun just don’t feel pressured to if you don’t want to it’s not the most important thing even if you’re training to be fast make friends with your local bike shop and be good to them bikes go wrong sometimes and it’s worth knowing a few mechanical skills basic ones however particularly more modern technology like disc brakes tubeless now on road bikes can be a bit daunting so having a good relationship with your local bike shop can pay dividends granted all shops aren’t created equal check your Google reviews see what the deal is and find one that suits you and your needs also worth bearing in mind is that if you pay a little bit more than online prices and use your local bike shop you’ll get after care as well chances are they’re going to fit things for you and if something does go wrong you can usually just swap it out in the bike shop and they’ll do the warranty for you but give you a brand new thing straight away so there’s loads of benefits generally if you bring in things you’ve bought online to a bike shop for them to fit there’s going to be excess excessive labor charges so if you do the mass it often works out cheaper just to buy from your local shop support the lbs knowing which things are going to make a real difference in terms of upgrades to your bike a few small and affordable changes can make a real difference to how your bike rides high quality tires and appropriate gearing is always first on my list when I get a new bike followed by contact points so saddle handlebars and handlebar tape you’ll eventually work out what shape works for you I’ve ended up with five pairs of the same handlebars so now when I do get a bike I can switch them to my favorite ones stuff that isn’t really worth upgrading until a lot later group set ceramic bearings fancy jockey wheels and carbon finishing kit it doesn’t really make a difference to how your bike feels but it might look cool so if you want to buy them go for it oh and an extra note here a quality pair of cycling shoes will make more difference than a fancy pair of carbon wheels it’s where all of your power or lack thereof goes it’s the rider not the bike perfectly demonstrated by Sam Pilgrim here riding a bike made out of a bed down a trail faster than most people can ride a full suspension mountain bike down a trail equally Yen’s Voit can finish a World Tour Bike Race on a children siiz bike which he swapped for his bike when it went wrong with a fan at the side of the road affordable bikes have never been better and a 400lb bike can do pretty much everything you want it to do technology has trickled down the lower end groups sets now are lightweight really durable feel really great in your hands the shifters are comfortable cheaper frames are well made and tires are grippy and puncher resistant even at the lower price points bikes at entry level have never been so good always have spares with you even if you’re not confident in fixing a puncture I always carry a little bag under my saddle with a spare inner tube a tiny little patch kit I prefer the ones with a separate little bit of glue instead of preglued because they work better a multi mul tool with a chain breaker on it so if your chain snaps you can reattach it and a mini pump I prefer a mini pump over CO2 because you can keep using it but if you want a super fast puncher change maybe consider taking CO2 with you as well even if you don’t end up using it yourself you could save someone else’s day so always take those spares and be prepared learning slow skills it’s often overlooked or taken for granted it might be worth working on your slow speed skills because over time it translates to your faster r in and creates much more confident and capable Riders further down the line some simple drills can quickly teach a beginner Rider how their weight distribution on the bike affects the handling how to maneuver up curbs and over potholes safely without getting a puncher and it’s a great thing to get refreshed on after a winter of riding on an indoor trainer if you live where we live there’s actually some great drills on the USA cycling website I’ll put a link in the description down below and if you’re based in London a shout out here to veloc posy a women Cycling Club that do slow skills sessions link to their website is in the description down below I wish I knew the bike price sweet spot you can spend £100 on a bike you can spend £20,000 on a bike but how much should you spend for this we need a graph diminishing return here you can see bike goodness goes up drastically up to £1,000 you’ve gone from a bike shaped object at the lower end to a fully functional rable speed machine past 1,000 you’re still making gains in bike goodness frames become lightweight Wheels get lighter and you get more gears squeezed in which makes it easier to Pedal your preferred Cadence right up to £2,000 after £2,000 what are you really getting electric gears quite nice lighter components yeah all right ceramic bearings H better Carbon layup so it feels feel nicer and comes out even lighter custom paint and bespoke stuff right at this end [Music] here but does any of that later stuff really make a difference to your life Point number 10 it might take over your life you’re probably going to become a weirdo who keeps your bike indoors sets alarms for 5:00 a.m. so you can go riding before work but it’s a great community and a great hobby just remember to also enjoy non-cycling stuff too it’s right riding a bike it’s meant to be fun after all thank you so much for watching if you like this video please subscribe for more videos like this let us know what you wish you’d knew when you started cycling in the comment section down below