First Group Ride Coming Up
10-01-22, 03:28 AM
#27
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10-01-22, 05:25 AM
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Wear a shirt, don't take any zoom meetings during the ride, don't pull over to look into dumpsters, and -- above all -- don't blow any snot rockets.
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10-01-22, 05:45 AM
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My back hair isn’t that long anyway, but enough where I don’t go shirtless for sure. LOL
10-01-22, 04:23 PM
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OP here. Just got word that tomorrow’s ride will be rescheduled due to weather (we’re getting the remnants of Hurricane Ian).
I will see what other rides are coming up and register for one. I will report back afterwards. Thanks for all the advice!
I will see what other rides are coming up and register for one. I will report back afterwards. Thanks for all the advice!
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10-01-22, 04:59 PM
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10-01-22, 09:25 PM
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The following was written by one of our most respected riders who wishes to remain anonymous
10 Things You Can Do To Make Yourself A Better Rider And Make Riding In A Pack Safer
1. Relax
Riding with a death grip on the bars, your arms locked and tense shoulders is the best way to insure that you'll ride twitchy and be ill prepared for any unexpected road hazard or bump. Relax!
2. Look Way Ahead
Too many riders spend all their time either staring at a patch of road six inches in front of their front wheel or at the back wheel of the rider in front of them. Doing this gives the rider no time whatsoever to react to anything that happens in front of them. Any reaction that there is ends up being overreaction in the form of locking the brakes or swerving. Looking way ahead and well beyond the rider in front of you will allow for much more time to react. Riding only as close to the rear wheel of the rider in front of you as you feel comfortable with will prevent overlapping of wheels. Use peripheral vision to maintain a safe distance while looking way ahead.
3. Learn To Soft Pedal
There are an infinite number of pedalling speeds between pedalling hard and coasting. Many of these speeds are collectively called soft pedalling. Learn to soft pedal. Soft pedalling is a technique that enables a rider to make minor adjustments to their speed to allow them to, for example, maintain a consistent distance from the rider in front of them without using the brakes. Soft pedalling is really just varying the amount of pressure being applied to the pedals.
4. Steer With Your Hips
There's no need to muscle the bars to get your bike to go where you want it to go. Your bike knows where it's going. The bars are there to rest your arms on and to give the brake levers a place to attach. Use your hips to steer. This is what's happening while you're riding 'no hands'. Find the squirreliest, twitchiest rider and no doubt they will be clenching the bars like their life depends on it.
5. Be Predictable
Are you the driver on the freeway who abruptly changes lanes without signalling or looking? Well, then don't ride your bike like that. If you find the need to be somewhere else on the road take a quick glance over your shoulder before you make the move to make sure that you won't be chopping someone's front wheel. Try to couple any move to the side(like going around another rider) with a corresponding amount of forward motion.
6. Control Your Bike
Learn how to ride your bike smoothly without throwing it side-to-side. Use the muscles of the upper body to counteract the movement of the legs in order to guide your bike in a straight line. This is especially important while standing. Don't be a ****. Riders who are ****zes tend to crash themselves and/or crash others. Practicing the techniques covered in numbers 1 through 5 above will help prevent one from becoming a ****.
7. Point **** Out
Along with riding in a group comes the responsibility of alerting the riders behind you of potential road hazards that they are unable to see. This responsibility is even greater for those riders at the front. Point **** out!
8. Stop ******g Coasting
Have you ever tried riding on the wheel of someone who seems locked in an endless cycle like this: pedal-brake-coast-pedal-brake-coast-pedal-brake-coast? Totally ******g irritating isn't it? This is even more annoying going uphill, where there's a greater tendency for the rider's bike to come back at you, than on the flats. If you've never noticed this then maybe you're doing it. For the sake of every one's sanity stop ******g coasting! Try soft pedalling instead.
9. Pay Attention
This shouldn't require a whole lot of explainin'. Suffice it to say that deep philosophical conversations should be left to the coffee shop.
10. Learn What A Paceline Is And How To Ride In One
Watching some pro cycling videos can help with this one. There's a reason they're pro's. You may not be able to have a VO2 max. like them but you can certainly try to ride a paceline or in a pack like them. Really, you can. Two things to to avoid are riding in between and half wheeling. When there is a double paceline you should be riding behind one of the two riders in front of you and NOT between them. Riding between the two riders means that the rider next to you will have to ride out in the wind. This will piss them off. Get on the wheel in front of you and don't piss off the rider next to you.
Although half wheeling, or side wheeling, or whatever you want to call it, comes in many forms perhaps the most irritating is when one is riding on the wheel in front of them and another rider comes up from the side and tries to ride on the same wheel. Doing this is wrong. Doing this is also irritating as hell. Don't be a half wheeler. If you must get into a paceline look for an opening, go to the back or go to the front. Doing otherwise shows poor etiquette.
11. And finally...
...if you're new to cycling, or to riding group rides, give it some time to figure out what's going on, and to perfect your skills, before jumping into the fray. Also, have enough self-awareness to consider that you may not know enough to know that you don't know yet what's up. Not knowing but wanting to learn is cool; ignorance is not. And, just between you and me, you stick out like a sore thumb.
Practicing these 10 things will not only help make riding in a group safer for everyone but also make everyone a better rider.
10 Things You Can Do To Make Yourself A Better Rider And Make Riding In A Pack Safer
1. Relax
Riding with a death grip on the bars, your arms locked and tense shoulders is the best way to insure that you'll ride twitchy and be ill prepared for any unexpected road hazard or bump. Relax!
2. Look Way Ahead
Too many riders spend all their time either staring at a patch of road six inches in front of their front wheel or at the back wheel of the rider in front of them. Doing this gives the rider no time whatsoever to react to anything that happens in front of them. Any reaction that there is ends up being overreaction in the form of locking the brakes or swerving. Looking way ahead and well beyond the rider in front of you will allow for much more time to react. Riding only as close to the rear wheel of the rider in front of you as you feel comfortable with will prevent overlapping of wheels. Use peripheral vision to maintain a safe distance while looking way ahead.
3. Learn To Soft Pedal
There are an infinite number of pedalling speeds between pedalling hard and coasting. Many of these speeds are collectively called soft pedalling. Learn to soft pedal. Soft pedalling is a technique that enables a rider to make minor adjustments to their speed to allow them to, for example, maintain a consistent distance from the rider in front of them without using the brakes. Soft pedalling is really just varying the amount of pressure being applied to the pedals.
4. Steer With Your Hips
There's no need to muscle the bars to get your bike to go where you want it to go. Your bike knows where it's going. The bars are there to rest your arms on and to give the brake levers a place to attach. Use your hips to steer. This is what's happening while you're riding 'no hands'. Find the squirreliest, twitchiest rider and no doubt they will be clenching the bars like their life depends on it.
5. Be Predictable
Are you the driver on the freeway who abruptly changes lanes without signalling or looking? Well, then don't ride your bike like that. If you find the need to be somewhere else on the road take a quick glance over your shoulder before you make the move to make sure that you won't be chopping someone's front wheel. Try to couple any move to the side(like going around another rider) with a corresponding amount of forward motion.
6. Control Your Bike
Learn how to ride your bike smoothly without throwing it side-to-side. Use the muscles of the upper body to counteract the movement of the legs in order to guide your bike in a straight line. This is especially important while standing. Don't be a ****. Riders who are ****zes tend to crash themselves and/or crash others. Practicing the techniques covered in numbers 1 through 5 above will help prevent one from becoming a ****.
7. Point **** Out
Along with riding in a group comes the responsibility of alerting the riders behind you of potential road hazards that they are unable to see. This responsibility is even greater for those riders at the front. Point **** out!
8. Stop ******g Coasting
Have you ever tried riding on the wheel of someone who seems locked in an endless cycle like this: pedal-brake-coast-pedal-brake-coast-pedal-brake-coast? Totally ******g irritating isn't it? This is even more annoying going uphill, where there's a greater tendency for the rider's bike to come back at you, than on the flats. If you've never noticed this then maybe you're doing it. For the sake of every one's sanity stop ******g coasting! Try soft pedalling instead.
9. Pay Attention
This shouldn't require a whole lot of explainin'. Suffice it to say that deep philosophical conversations should be left to the coffee shop.
10. Learn What A Paceline Is And How To Ride In One
Watching some pro cycling videos can help with this one. There's a reason they're pro's. You may not be able to have a VO2 max. like them but you can certainly try to ride a paceline or in a pack like them. Really, you can. Two things to to avoid are riding in between and half wheeling. When there is a double paceline you should be riding behind one of the two riders in front of you and NOT between them. Riding between the two riders means that the rider next to you will have to ride out in the wind. This will piss them off. Get on the wheel in front of you and don't piss off the rider next to you.
Although half wheeling, or side wheeling, or whatever you want to call it, comes in many forms perhaps the most irritating is when one is riding on the wheel in front of them and another rider comes up from the side and tries to ride on the same wheel. Doing this is wrong. Doing this is also irritating as hell. Don't be a half wheeler. If you must get into a paceline look for an opening, go to the back or go to the front. Doing otherwise shows poor etiquette.
11. And finally...
...if you're new to cycling, or to riding group rides, give it some time to figure out what's going on, and to perfect your skills, before jumping into the fray. Also, have enough self-awareness to consider that you may not know enough to know that you don't know yet what's up. Not knowing but wanting to learn is cool; ignorance is not. And, just between you and me, you stick out like a sore thumb.
Practicing these 10 things will not only help make riding in a group safer for everyone but also make everyone a better rider.
Last edited by LarrySellerz; 10-02-22 at 12:00 PM.
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10-02-22, 01:50 PM
#35
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The following was written by one of our most respected riders who wishes to remain anonymous
10 Things You Can Do To Make Yourself A Better Rider And Make Riding In A Pack Safer
1. Relax
Riding with a death grip on the bars, your arms locked and tense shoulders is the best way to insure that you'll ride twitchy and be ill prepared for any unexpected road hazard or bump. Relax!
2. Look Way Ahead
Too many riders spend all their time either staring at a patch of road six inches in front of their front wheel or at the back wheel of the rider in front of them. Doing this gives the rider no time whatsoever to react to anything that happens in front of them. Any reaction that there is ends up being overreaction in the form of locking the brakes or swerving. Looking way ahead and well beyond the rider in front of you will allow for much more time to react. Riding only as close to the rear wheel of the rider in front of you as you feel comfortable with will prevent overlapping of wheels. Use peripheral vision to maintain a safe distance while looking way ahead.
3. Learn To Soft Pedal
There are an infinite number of pedalling speeds between pedalling hard and coasting. Many of these speeds are collectively called soft pedalling. Learn to soft pedal. Soft pedalling is a technique that enables a rider to make minor adjustments to their speed to allow them to, for example, maintain a consistent distance from the rider in front of them without using the brakes. Soft pedalling is really just varying the amount of pressure being applied to the pedals.
4. Steer With Your Hips
There's no need to muscle the bars to get your bike to go where you want it to go. Your bike knows where it's going. The bars are there to rest your arms on and to give the brake levers a place to attach. Use your hips to steer. This is what's happening while you're riding 'no hands'. Find the squirreliest, twitchiest rider and no doubt they will be clenching the bars like their life depends on it.
5. Be Predictable
Are you the driver on the freeway who abruptly changes lanes without signalling or looking? Well, then don't ride your bike like that. If you find the need to be somewhere else on the road take a quick glance over your shoulder before you make the move to make sure that you won't be chopping someone's front wheel. Try to couple any move to the side(like going around another rider) with a corresponding amount of forward motion.
6. Control Your Bike
Learn how to ride your bike smoothly without throwing it side-to-side. Use the muscles of the upper body to counteract the movement of the legs in order to guide your bike in a straight line. This is especially important while standing. Don't be a ****. Riders who are ****zes tend to crash themselves and/or crash others. Practicing the techniques covered in numbers 1 through 5 above will help prevent one from becoming a ****.
7. Point **** Out
Along with riding in a group comes the responsibility of alerting the riders behind you of potential road hazards that they are unable to see. This responsibility is even greater for those riders at the front. Point **** out!
8. Stop ******g Coasting
Have you ever tried riding on the wheel of someone who seems locked in an endless cycle like this: pedal-brake-coast-pedal-brake-coast-pedal-brake-coast? Totally ******g irritating isn't it? This is even more annoying going uphill, where there's a greater tendency for the rider's bike to come back at you, than on the flats. If you've never noticed this then maybe you're doing it. For the sake of every one's sanity stop ******g coasting! Try soft pedalling instead.
9. Pay Attention
This shouldn't require a whole lot of explainin'. Suffice it to say that deep philosophical conversations should be left to the coffee shop.
10. Learn What A Paceline Is And How To Ride In One
Watching some pro cycling videos can help with this one. There's a reason they're pro's. You may not be able to have a VO2 max. like them but you can certainly try to ride a paceline or in a pack like them. Really, you can. Two things to to avoid are riding in between and half wheeling. When there is a double paceline you should be riding behind one of the two riders in front of you and NOT between them. Riding between the two riders means that the rider next to you will have to ride out in the wind. This will piss them off. Get on the wheel in front of you and don't piss off the rider next to you.
Although half wheeling, or side wheeling, or whatever you want to call it, comes in many forms perhaps the most irritating is when one is riding on the wheel in front of them and another rider comes up from the side and tries to ride on the same wheel. Doing this is wrong. Doing this is also irritating as hell. Don't be a half wheeler. If you must get into a paceline look for an opening, go to the back or go to the front. Doing otherwise shows poor etiquette.
11. And finally...
...if you're new to cycling, or to riding group rides, give it some time to figure out what's going on, and to perfect your skills, before jumping into the fray. Also, have enough self-awareness to consider that you may not know enough to know that you don't know yet what's up. Not knowing but wanting to learn is cool; ignorance is not. And, just between you and me, you stick out like a sore thumb.
Practicing these 10 things will not only help make riding in a group safer for everyone but also make everyone a better rider.
10 Things You Can Do To Make Yourself A Better Rider And Make Riding In A Pack Safer
1. Relax
Riding with a death grip on the bars, your arms locked and tense shoulders is the best way to insure that you'll ride twitchy and be ill prepared for any unexpected road hazard or bump. Relax!
2. Look Way Ahead
Too many riders spend all their time either staring at a patch of road six inches in front of their front wheel or at the back wheel of the rider in front of them. Doing this gives the rider no time whatsoever to react to anything that happens in front of them. Any reaction that there is ends up being overreaction in the form of locking the brakes or swerving. Looking way ahead and well beyond the rider in front of you will allow for much more time to react. Riding only as close to the rear wheel of the rider in front of you as you feel comfortable with will prevent overlapping of wheels. Use peripheral vision to maintain a safe distance while looking way ahead.
3. Learn To Soft Pedal
There are an infinite number of pedalling speeds between pedalling hard and coasting. Many of these speeds are collectively called soft pedalling. Learn to soft pedal. Soft pedalling is a technique that enables a rider to make minor adjustments to their speed to allow them to, for example, maintain a consistent distance from the rider in front of them without using the brakes. Soft pedalling is really just varying the amount of pressure being applied to the pedals.
4. Steer With Your Hips
There's no need to muscle the bars to get your bike to go where you want it to go. Your bike knows where it's going. The bars are there to rest your arms on and to give the brake levers a place to attach. Use your hips to steer. This is what's happening while you're riding 'no hands'. Find the squirreliest, twitchiest rider and no doubt they will be clenching the bars like their life depends on it.
5. Be Predictable
Are you the driver on the freeway who abruptly changes lanes without signalling or looking? Well, then don't ride your bike like that. If you find the need to be somewhere else on the road take a quick glance over your shoulder before you make the move to make sure that you won't be chopping someone's front wheel. Try to couple any move to the side(like going around another rider) with a corresponding amount of forward motion.
6. Control Your Bike
Learn how to ride your bike smoothly without throwing it side-to-side. Use the muscles of the upper body to counteract the movement of the legs in order to guide your bike in a straight line. This is especially important while standing. Don't be a ****. Riders who are ****zes tend to crash themselves and/or crash others. Practicing the techniques covered in numbers 1 through 5 above will help prevent one from becoming a ****.
7. Point **** Out
Along with riding in a group comes the responsibility of alerting the riders behind you of potential road hazards that they are unable to see. This responsibility is even greater for those riders at the front. Point **** out!
8. Stop ******g Coasting
Have you ever tried riding on the wheel of someone who seems locked in an endless cycle like this: pedal-brake-coast-pedal-brake-coast-pedal-brake-coast? Totally ******g irritating isn't it? This is even more annoying going uphill, where there's a greater tendency for the rider's bike to come back at you, than on the flats. If you've never noticed this then maybe you're doing it. For the sake of every one's sanity stop ******g coasting! Try soft pedalling instead.
9. Pay Attention
This shouldn't require a whole lot of explainin'. Suffice it to say that deep philosophical conversations should be left to the coffee shop.
10. Learn What A Paceline Is And How To Ride In One
Watching some pro cycling videos can help with this one. There's a reason they're pro's. You may not be able to have a VO2 max. like them but you can certainly try to ride a paceline or in a pack like them. Really, you can. Two things to to avoid are riding in between and half wheeling. When there is a double paceline you should be riding behind one of the two riders in front of you and NOT between them. Riding between the two riders means that the rider next to you will have to ride out in the wind. This will piss them off. Get on the wheel in front of you and don't piss off the rider next to you.
Although half wheeling, or side wheeling, or whatever you want to call it, comes in many forms perhaps the most irritating is when one is riding on the wheel in front of them and another rider comes up from the side and tries to ride on the same wheel. Doing this is wrong. Doing this is also irritating as hell. Don't be a half wheeler. If you must get into a paceline look for an opening, go to the back or go to the front. Doing otherwise shows poor etiquette.
11. And finally...
...if you're new to cycling, or to riding group rides, give it some time to figure out what's going on, and to perfect your skills, before jumping into the fray. Also, have enough self-awareness to consider that you may not know enough to know that you don't know yet what's up. Not knowing but wanting to learn is cool; ignorance is not. And, just between you and me, you stick out like a sore thumb.
Practicing these 10 things will not only help make riding in a group safer for everyone but also make everyone a better rider.
10-02-22, 02:13 PM
#36
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Well, Larry did say that this was written by someone else and that he was quoting them. Still, good job Larry
10-02-22, 03:06 PM
#37
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An addition. You are coming back to cycling after a hiatus but never having ridden in a group before. One thing you should make sure of is that you are self sufficient if you have a problem. Be sure that you can deal with a flat tire out on the road. Stuff happens, particularly if you normally let basic maintenance slide. You can do that if you ride alone and are willing to make "the call of shame". However, in a group, others will almost always be willing to help you out. If you are woefully underprepared either by neglected maintenance or by insufficient preparation for possible onroad problems you could be embarrassed in front of your ride partners. My point? A though check of your bike before the ride to see if everything is in good order. But still, stuff happens
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10-02-22, 04:54 PM
#38
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An addition. You are coming back to cycling after a hiatus but never having ridden in a group before. One thing you should make sure of is that you are self sufficient if you have a problem. Be sure that you can deal with a flat tire out on the road. Stuff happens, particularly if you normally let basic maintenance slide. You can do that if you ride alone and are willing to make "the call of shame". However, in a group, others will almost always be willing to help you out. If you are woefully underprepared either by neglected maintenance or by insufficient preparation for possible onroad problems you could be embarrassed in front of your ride partners. My point? A though check of your bike before the ride to see if everything is in good order. But still, stuff happens
10-02-22, 05:29 PM
#39
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I think it’s all pretty much been covered, but one thing I didn’t see and would add is Listen, as well as look.
If you’re attentive, you’ll hear things that help you be ready to react as things happen. For example, if you hear free hubs clicking ahead of you, it means riders ahead of you in the group are coasting and slowing, and you may want to soft pedal, and be prepared to slow.
aAlso you can hear riders ahead braking, before yo see the rider directly in front of you brake.
If you’re attentive, you’ll hear things that help you be ready to react as things happen. For example, if you hear free hubs clicking ahead of you, it means riders ahead of you in the group are coasting and slowing, and you may want to soft pedal, and be prepared to slow.
aAlso you can hear riders ahead braking, before yo see the rider directly in front of you brake.
__________________
You could fall off a cliff and die.
You could get lost and die.
You could hit a tree and die.
OR YOU COULD STAY HOME AND FALL OFF THE COUCH AND DIE.
You could fall off a cliff and die.
You could get lost and die.
You could hit a tree and die.
OR YOU COULD STAY HOME AND FALL OFF THE COUCH AND DIE.
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