Advice on learning to ride a bike

[MobBoss]

Actually, if you are riding it to work and back dont get a mountain bike, get a street bike. The larger tires on a mountain bike make it a lot harder to peddle and unless your work has a shower, people wont appreciate you showing up all sweaty.

Get a nice simple 12 or 15 speed street bike with thin tires. Easy to peddle, start to finish and easier to control.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

get fat tires. If you fall use your legs. practice daily.

 

[MobBoss]

get fat tires. If you fall use your legs. practice daily.

I am telling you, I used to ride a bike to work everyday. You use fat tires, you will regret it immediately, and most likely stop riding. Thats not what you want.

Best advice...go ask the bike dealer near you and tell him you are using the bike to commute. Follow his advice (which I am sure will be a street bike).

 

[JonnyB]

And buy a good lock, maybe 2.

 

[aaglo]

Go for a hybrid bike.

About the saddle: wider for shorter distances/periods of biking (less than 30 mins), narrower for longer distances. Altough the narrow seat huts like hell the first week, it'll be eventually easier on your lower torso.

And I'd suggest you wear a helmet when riding.

When starting to learn: don't start too slowly - the slower you go, the harder it is to balance. The front fork of the bike is designed so (actually it's just physics), that on the move, it triest to straighten itself automatically. You don't have to do anything on the handlebar to make it go straight - just hang on to it.

Oh, good luck with it.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

I am telling you, I used to ride a bike to work everyday. You use fat tires, you will regret it immediately, and most likely stop riding. Thats not what you want.

Best advice...go ask the bike dealer near you and tell him you are using the bike to commute. Follow his advice (which I am sure will be a street bike).

Fat ites means it is more stable. Good for beginners, not good for us that ride daily. Hybrid is also a good idea.

 

[nivi]

Your first instinct when learning to go slow, don't, go fast and just physics will help balance you.

And if you have realy hard/fast brakes, brake with the back and not the front, or you just might do a somersault with the bike landing on top of you (painfull but very hilliraious if you watch it from the side).

 

[Leifmk]

And buy a good lock, maybe 2.

Yeah! When you park the thing, make sure you've got locked chains through both wheels, and also that it is chained to some kind of fixture. If you only lock one wheel, there are people who can and will steal the other wheel. In broad daylight, in front of witnesses. Happened to me.

Also, get a helmet. It may look dorky but it may also save your life and/or prevent brain damage.

 

[thetrooper]

I am 19 and I've never learned to ride a bike.

Wow, that's just odd. It's all about balance though.

And the advice: buy a helmet and 'pads' (dunno what you English speaking people call them) for your elbows.

You'll make it. As soon as you pick up speed it's easy.

 

[Turner]

And the advice: buy a helmet and 'pads' (dunno what you English speaking people call them) for your elbows.

That would be 'elbow pads'.

 

[thetrooper]

That would be 'elbow pads'.

Thanks, my deductive powers rarely fails!

 

[Turner]

You Da Man!

 

[Rambuchan]

I am 19 and I've never learned to ride a bike. [...]

Any advice?

Have no fear. Sure you may fall off and hurt yourself a little bit. But that's part of the process of learning and is to be expected. It will all be worth it when you find yourself cruising along, with the wind in your face, free as a bird (on a bike). So have no fear!

I can't go topless trust me NO ONE wants to see that

Clearly Perfection does, and I second the motion. Get that camera out and get youtube posting man!

 

[Grisu]

Actually, if you are riding it to work and back dont get a mountain bike, get a street bike. The larger tires on a mountain bike make it a lot harder to peddle and unless your work has a shower, people wont appreciate you showing up all sweaty.

Get a nice simple 12 or 15 speed street bike with thin tires. Easy to peddle, start to finish and easier to control.

agreed, especially on relatively flat terrain with a road, street or speed bikes ride a lot smoother and with less effort. It might be a tiny little bit harder at first, but you'll get over it fast (there were no mountain bikes when I learnt biking and I still managed )
you don't need some 21 gears on flat terrain anyway, even 12 is a bit of an overkill, but I guess there are no more 3-gear-bikes these days...

 

[silver 2039]

I never learned to ride a bike till I was 12 or 13. My dad never bothered to teach me. In the end one of my friends taught me.

But its been years since I had a bike(3 at least) and now I've lost my balance again. I tried to ride one here but I fell over. It may be the Indian roads, and poor quality Indian bikes though.

 

[Verbose]

Actually, if you are riding it to work and back dont get a mountain bike, get a street bike. The larger tires on a mountain bike make it a lot harder to peddle and unless your work has a shower, people wont appreciate you showing up all sweaty.

Get a nice simple 12 or 15 speed street bike with thin tires. Easy to peddle, start to finish and easier to control.

I second that, if you're going to use it for riding to work.

Don't go for fat tyres, they increase friction and on a smooth, hard, dry road they do nothing but slow you down. And they don't improve balance. (They can make the ride smoother on a bumpy road though.)

And as others have said, the trick isn't to balance it when sitting still, which is hellishly hard, but quickly getting enough speed to help with balancing the thing.

Maybe you could try putting one foot on the first pedal in an upright position, push it downwards to get the bike moving before you swing the other leg over the side of the bike to start pedalling?
If you make a mess of it just drop the bike to the ground. Since you're not yet sitting on it you're unlikely to fall very hard. (Unless you trip on it.)

That's one popular way of starting. Some seem to find it easier to get some speed up. It does require a decent balance to start with though. (You need to keep the handlebar steady and deal with the rotation of swinging your other leg across the bike. Dunno' how limber you are.)

The other one is of course straddling the thing and then starting by pushing down the pedal with your leg of preference. It might take a bit more strength but be easier to balance...

 

[skadistic]

I taught my self at 11 to ride a bike. I used a big steep hill. It took two days and alot of bumps bruises and road rash. Just hop on and go and don't worry about falling.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

One intresting thing about learning to ride a bike and falling is this. If you ride on grass you won't get hurt when you fall but you will fall a lot. Ride on asphalt and you will fall less often but it will hurt a lot more. I learned to ride a bike on grass.

 

[Atlas14]

You will have mixed success until you put a nice wicker basket attatched to the front handlebars. It helps with balance.

 

[Abaddon]

Im simply here to third the topless motion.. but paint CFC on your back!