Complete newbie

[djmummy]

hello all

how are you?

Just thought i'd pop my head round the virtual door and say hi.

Well im a complete newbie, haven't been on a bike for years, but due to my car giving up for the final time. and the fact we have moved home to almost the center of town, we've decided to become bikers. Me, fiance an the kids. Gunna be rough for the 1st few weeks, but im hoping on top of saving money we get fitter for it, i need to lose another 2 st to get to my target weight. my only concern is getting up the killer of hill to get to my university I'm a student (so any tips on doing hills would be great), plus all my camera kit i need to carry at the same time.. hmm gunna be intresting.

so hello. feel free to sat hello back.

Lucy

 

[Gerry Attrick]

Hi Lucy and welcome to the forum.

You've made a great decision and yes, it will be hard for a while, but with perseveance you will succeed.

Hills, well they are never going to be easy, but they will get easier. It seems you have the ideal training route will that killer hill. Give it a few weeks and you will rename it the speed bump! Just try to get into the habit of using a lower gear and spinning your legs rather than straining in a high gear. It may feel as though you are pedalling too fast initially, but you will become accustomed to it.

Keep us updated as to how you progress and ask as many questions as you need. There will always be someone to advise.

 

[Fran143]

Hello Lucy.

Good on you and I'm sure the youngsters will love it, happy cycling.

 

[ACS]

2 quotes:

"Hills never get easier you just get faster."

"Never met a hill I cannot walk up!"

 

[djmummy]

thanks for the welcome..

ive woken p this morning with a pit of dread in my stomach as my son isnt confident on his bike. bit of a baptism of fire me thinks lol.

 

[Paulus]

Hi Lucy and welcome Good advice about going up hills, a nice low gear and spin the legs. As you get a bit faster/easier up the hill, change down a gear and repeat. Soon you will wonder what the fuss was about. This is a friendly forum with loads of places for advice or a chat. Drop into the cafe for a cup of tea and cake sometime.

 

[User10119]

Personally I rather like riding with my eldest son - grand fun, especially when he's on form. It is quite noticeable at the moment that he's out of practice since he hasn't been putting in the miles since winter came! He doesn't deal well with the cold, and has a bit of a tendency to go reptile-slow when the temperature drops, as Arch discovered when she joined us for a ride a couple of months back.

He's always loved cycling, then he got a lovely new (to him) bike for his 8th birthday, a bit over a year ago, and set himself the long-term goal of cycling to his Granny's house - on the other side of the pennines from us. We started with riding to school, riding the 3-4 miles to the swimming pool, worked up to riding to the nearer granny's house, finally got his first half century ride done and last summer spent 4 days cycling (and B&Bing) 116 miles across the country with him carrying his own panniers the whole way. It's astonishing what they can do if they get the 'bug' and I've made about as much progress as him in the same time (not that you'd think it if you'd seen me dragging myself round 40-ish incredibly slow if very enjoyable miles yesterday!).

Start with small, fairly easily achievable stuff and help him to slowly gain the necessary skills and confidence. It's fine to get off and walk up the odd hill, or when you encounter a tricky junction, if that's what you need to do. We did quite a lot of 'training' rides where we would set out to cover a target mileage and where I would plan routes that were as benevolent as possible but making sure that little by little he got to try out roundabouts, traffic lights, and some of the more complicated junctions. Mind, the first time I rode on a busy-ish a-road with him was still fairly terrifying - but much more so for me than for him as he took it completely in his stride and did me proud. Our council offers cycle training for families, where they will teach your kid some road skills, advise you on how best to ride on the road with them and help you to find good routes for the places you frequently go to - it may be worth seeing if there's something similar in your area.

I've done a lot of lovely rides in the last year, some on my own and many in company, including the company of some people on here and have hugely enjoyed pretty much all of them. But I have to say that I'm looking forward to some warmer weather and getting out into the lanes with m'boy again. Cycling together was probably some of the best time that we spend together last summer.

 

[Hop3y]

Welcome Lucy!

Good work getting on the bike! I live in town and the bikes the best way to get about!