Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site randvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!randvax!norm From: norm@randvax.UUCP (Norm Shapiro) Newsgroups: net.bicycle Subject: Re: Advice 4 Novices Message-ID: <1959@randvax.UUCP> Date: Sat, 1-Sep-84 13:27:03 EDT Article-I.D.: randvax.1959 Posted: Sat Sep 1 13:27:03 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 6-Sep-84 03:04:01 EDT References: <26700010@uiucuxc.UUCP> Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica Lines: 167 Before addressing your questions, let me introduce myself by way of qualifiying myself. I am often grossly obese (I sometimes weigh over 270 pounds and am about 70 inches tall) and led a totally sedentary life until I discovered bicycles about 15 years ago, when I was in my late thirties. Bicycling has now become a very important and indespensible part of my life. Biking is almost my sole means of transportation, a way to combat depression and anxiety, and the best inhibiter of compulsive overeating I have known. I have never used illegal drugs, but I find it hard to imagine a better way of experiencing the "high" I get when I top off a 2000 foot climb. I ride from 10,000 to 20,000 miles a year, mostly in the hills, valleys and mountains of Southern California. I do not drive a car, except when I am too ill to bike or am on an out-of-town business trip. (I have never gotten much into taking a bike on air airlines, but I probably should). I get my best ideas, and think most clearly on a bicycle. I am not a novice now, but was once very much one. Any advice, I or anyone else, can give you about bicycling is bound to be contraversial -- this is a subject about which there is little unanimity -- but here goes. 1. Get a 10 speed bike, with drop bars, steel rims, clincher tires, caliper brakes, and a narrow, hard saddle. Pay about $250 to $300 dollars for it (if its new) expecting to maybe buy another and more expensive bike in a year or two, when you have a better idea of what you want. The drop bars and the saddle, will take some getting used to, but, in the end [sorry about that], will be more comfortable. Don't bother much about light weight and high performance for your first bike -- you don't plan to enter any races or set any records. A lighter weight bike won't get you any more exercise or pleasure it will just let you cover somewhat more distance with the same amount of exercise. (Saddles for women is a more complex subject. Your wife will probably want to replace her saddle after a few months.) It is extremly important that the bike fit you properly -- it is very hard to enjoy an ill fitting bike. Here are some rules of thumb: (Have a friend hold the bike standing in front of it while making these tests.) The saddle height should be such that your knees are almost straight but not hyper-extended when the pedals are lowest. This adjustment should be possible with 1/4 inch to 1 1/2 inches of seat post showing. It should be possible to stand astride the bicycle, just in front of the saddle with your feet flat on the ground and the bike perpendiular to the ground, with the genitial area between your legs either clear of the top tube or, at worst, barely touching the top tube. (Many people will claim that this will result in your buying too small a frame, but this advice is predicated on your being a "novice".) The handle bar height and the gooseneck length should be such that if your hands are on the forward part of the tops of the handle bars, you are sitting on the saddle and your feet are on the pedals then your elbows are very slightly bent and there is substantial weight on the the three weight bearing points of your body: feet, seat and hands. Ideally the weight should be about equally distributed between these three, but you have no way of measuring this. Do not expect to be comfortable at first. In fact you will feel very strange, and simply sitting on the bicycle will initially strain your hands, seat and neck. But in time, you will grow to like and enjoy this posture. Change, or have the shop you buy from change, the chain wheels and/or rear cluster (usually its easier and cheaper to change just the rear cluster) so that the lowest gear ratio (The lowest gear ratio is computed by multiplying the wheel diameter (usually 27 inches) by the number of teeth in the small front chain wheel and dividing the result by the number of teeth in the largest cog of the rear cluster) is 28 inches or less. This may also entail changing the rear shifter and lengthening the chain. Ignore the advice that the bike shop clerks and some cyclists give you when they say that 28 inches in unneccesarily low. Don't worry if this means that your highest gear ratio is less than 90 inches. The chances are that the replacement rear cluster will have 5 cogs, varing from 14 to 34 teeth. If the bike shop you go to says there is no such cluster made, your at the wrong bike shop. 2. Always ride in the lowest gear. (By lowest I mean so that you move the minimum distance with each revolution) you are capable of riding in - given your speed and the slope of any hill you are riding up or down. The limit will be your cadence. That is, you will be unable to ride in a lower gear because you will not have the coordination to ride with a higher cadence. Always keep your cadence as high as you can, consistant with relaxation and pleasure. (Don't worry much about what your cadence actually is, but it will probably start out at about 35 to 40 revolutions per minute; within a few weeks, go to about 50 to 60 revolutions per minute; and after maybe 6 months to 18 months go to 90 to 110 revolutions per minute). Riding in a low gear might be counter- intuitive but its the way to get the most out of yourself and your bike. 3. When you first start riding, ride every single day that weather permits. The first day ride for 5 minutes or less. Thereafter, on each day ride for about 5 minutes more. Ride only on flat terrain. Ride just as slowly and leasurely as is comfortable and enjoyable. When you are riding about 2 hours a day, you can start interesting variations. Maybe once a week, take a 4 hour ride or a two hour ride over more vigourous terrain, or a 2 hour fast ride. Gradually increase the severity of the terrain you ride, the speed and the length of your rides. Try to ride nearly every day that weather allows, if even just a half hour spin. (Some people believe that you should take off one day a week. There is some merit to their arguments, but I think that, on balance, its best to ride every day.) Try to occasionally ride over the most strenous terrain that is comfortable for you . The habit forming aspect of bicycling seems to promoted by riding hills. 4. You will suffer all variety of aches and pains. I won't bother reciting them all. A good rule of thumb is to ignore any pain for the first 10 to 15 minutes of a ride, or after a rest stop, but be wary of pains that persist or that develops when a ride is well underway.. You will sometimes be stiff after a ride. If this stiffness goes away after a quarter of an hour on your bike you can ignore it. 5. Get in contact with a local cycling club. A local bike shop is a good place to start. Otherwise, write to the League of American Wheelmen, (If you need it, I can look it up the address for you, but I don't have the address handy right now.) 6. Obey all traffic laws. Ride on the right side of the street. Three of the most frequent kinds of accidents that novices have are caused by: Improper use of the breaks. Too much force on either of the breaks witout enough force on the other will get you in trouble. I know no way of communicating proper breaking technqiue. Get lots of experience breaking when you don't need it so proper breaking is second nature when you do need it. Opening car doors. Never ride to the left of a car without enough clearance for a suddenly opening door, except when you have observed that the car is empty. Railroad tracks, gulleys, street drains, low curbs etc. All of these things should be avoided or ridden perpindiular to the surface irrregularity. Note that none of the above involves interacting with a moving car. Getting hit by a moving car is a danger, but its not one of the the 3 biggest dangers you face. One danger that novices are mostly afraid of is simply not a danger to adults obeying the law. (so says the data). That's getting hit by a passing car going in the same direction as the bike. This hardly ever happens, and essentialy never happens when the auto driver is sober. If you do get hit by a moving car the chances are it will be at an intersection or when you and the car are not going in the same direction throughout the incident. Don't assume that bike lanes are safe. They are usually more dangerous that regular streets. 7. But this above all: A BIKE IS TO ENJOY. Never push, never strain. Within in a year you will probaly be able to easily cover a hundred miles in a day, or climb 5000 feet in day. Hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Norman Shapiro norm@rand-unix ...!decvax!randvax!norm 213 393 0411 The Rand Corporation 1700 Main Street Santa Monica CA 90406