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Advice on learning to ride a bike

Anyways I am now 19 and I have a job that pays 900-1000 a month and insurance+gas = 250 a month. My job is only 4.75 mile a way and allthou I have lost 90 lbs :goodjob: I am still 70lbs a way from a healthy weight (100 from what I want to weight) So going to work and the gym twice a day on a bike could help me out alot (+200 a month twords things I need/want).

your job is only 5 miles away and you spend 250 in gas? if you went back and forth everyday that's only 300 miles. what the hell are you driving an aircraft carrier?

Tomorrow when I pick up my check I am going to buy a bike and I am going to try and learn to ride it with the help of my friends. (Don't worry i'll film it and put it on youtube for your entertainment ;) :D :goodjob: :king: )

I fourth the topless with perfections avatar motion.

Any advice?

any bike made since the mid 20th century will do just fine. Really a bike doesn't need 500 gears and cost several hundred dollars. As for riding itself i'd recommend staying away from places that it would be seriously dangerous if you fell off.
 
Your first instinct when learning to go slow, don't, go fast and just physics will help balance you.

Yes. It's much easier to balance while you have speed than when you do not move at all.

The way I learned when I was a kid: I would not use the pedals to start, but my feet, pushing with them while seated on the bike. Then once I had enough speed I would put my feet on the pedals. Gradually I used my feet less and less :)
 
easiest way to learn to ride is on a bike that is too small for you. it allows you to keep your feet flat on the ground when you need to so that you don't fall too much while you are learning balance.

wear a helmet and pads until you get used to it. even after that it isn't such a bad idea.

nothing wrong with learning to ride on the grass in your back yard either. it's safe, it's private, and you get more exercise too.
 
I never learned to ride a bike. As a homeschooled suburbanite, I never found much use for that skill.
 
Elta, that story is like mine. I had a bike with training wheels and rode it a little, but i never rode the real bike I got. I just skipped the bike period that all of my firends and my sister went to, and went to basketball, which I figured was much more important. In fifth grade I tried one more time, but quickly stopped for embarassment and a massive wipe out I had.

I don't really miss it though.
 
your job is only 5 miles away and you spend 250 in gas? if you went back and forth everyday that's only 300 miles. what the hell are you driving an aircraft carrier?

Well it is actually about 120 on gas (135 on insurace)
I drive a Crystler lebaron* I get 4 to 7 miles pg from my estimates :eek: I go other place also but, they are all my friends houses in this little cornor of north town (2 min drive 10 min bike ride) I ussually meet them at thier pads but, I think I could just have them pick me up.


*Yeah it's spelled wrong but I refuse to look it up:D
 
You realize that the money you waste on such a poor mileage would be enough to buy you a new car with a decent mileage?

Yes I know buy what I am going to do is save some money on the cost of gas, and get fit.

I owe 1200 one credit card - 5,000 on another (minimum payment is 150 a month and 130 goes to principal ...it was for some surgery I needed)

I want a 360 (+8 games that I want about 1,000 bucks)
I am down two size 2X shirts and 44 pants now, when I get down to Xl and size 40 I think I'll spend some money on decent clothes.

After all that I am likley to buy a decent honda or toyota that gets 25-40 miles PG.
 
Don't just use the front brakes when you need to stop quickly.

or when you're not used to them!

when i was little i was riding a friend's bike instead of my own. headed down a hill (not even a very steep one), hit the hand brakes, and promptly fell over the bike and onto my face.

the good news was, i got to eat nothing but milkshakes for days due to my fat (well, more like obese) lip.

the funny was that my front teeth hadn't come in, altho the baby ones were gone. when they did come in, they were chipped! they'd apparently already been formed at the time and that fall was hard enough to do it. after braces i had them bonded and now you can't tell but all the dentists were intrigued.
 
Well, good luck! For the first few minutes, if you don't have training wheels, just sit on the saddle and scoot yourself along by pushing with your feet. Or get a friend to run along behind you, pushing. You'll need to learn the trick of going in a straight line, holding your arms steady. If you can find a very gentle slope, start at the top and just roll down (rest your feet on the pedals) several times until you're used to the balencing. When you're fine with balencing when the bike is going straight, learn to pedal while balencing and going straight. When you're fine with going straight and pedalling along, try setting yourself up an obstacle course (a few random things in a nice flat carpark, for example), and start learning to steer. It can take a while to learn the movements, pointing your arms at where you want to go. When you're confident that you can pedal along without falling off, and steer around things, try putting on a bit of speed. The faster you go, the easier it is to balence. If you're going fast enough, you can steer just by leaning into the curves and shifting your weight.
The next thing after that is pretty tricky: learning to ride safely around other road users. You need to be able to keep going straight and look back over your shoulder, hold one arm out to signal a turn, etc. At first, just practice looking around you and keeping going straight, rather than at what you're looking at. Then, try a glance at 90 degrees over your left shoulder (assuming you drive on the right), back at the traffic trying to overtake you. Try to look for just a whole second without deviating from your course. It's hard! When you can look around safely, try cycling along with just one hand on the handlebars, without changing speed or direction. When you can do that fine, try cycling along for a long way with one arm out. Try it for both arms (not at the same time, obviously).
And, most importantly for your safety: find out about the rules of the road for cycling! If you're expected to give a signal before turning, doing so may stop you being driven over by some jerk in a big car. Learn the signals for "turn left", "turn right", "stop" etc, and make sure you can make them. On the road, the only thing more vulnarable than a cyclist is a pedestrian. Develop some paranoia and awareness of where all those dangerous fast hunks of metal are.
The best way of combining the last two paragraphs, once you've learned more or less how to ride, is to take a cycling proficiency class. These might even be free: they teach you a lot of useful stuff, and you get a pretty certificate. Local schools might be able to help you with finding out about those.
 
Well, people here have already given some brilliant advice on starting. I hope my two cents will be handy when you've gotten into biking.

Develop some paranoia and awareness of where all those dangerous fast hunks of metal are.
I'm afraid that Sophie didn't get that quite right. You'd better develop a notion that they're out to get you.

Avoid loose gravel on asphalt like something smelly lying in the gutter. Believe me, that stuff is deadly.

Remember, the more you bike, the faster you can,and want to, go. With enough driving hours you may find that the minimum acceptable speed in any conditions is approx. 30 km/h.

Learn how to fix your bike yourself. It'll save you a fortune.

Oh, and off-road makes more fun.

Regards, hope you like it. :)
 
Hey - I allmost forgot.

I've went out twice once with my older sister and once with my best m8. Sadly nor mine or my sisters cameras are worth thier weight in tortillas when it comes to recording at night.

Since I have only went out twice (due to 45 hours a week at work and a sore bum after riding) ....... I am not as good as I want to be yet. I can push of and keep going indefenatly - allthou not in a straight line I just sorta wobble from side to side.

Tomorrow me and some of my friends I haven't seen in a while (on the count of the national guard :mad: :mad: ) are going to be sword fighting with wooden swords and what not (Man am I glad to finnaly get a saturday off). I am going to film all of that and hopefully my more tech. savy friends will finnaly teach me how to edit videos.

I'll be able to edit videos of the bike thing later ....which will be rather boring because I didn't go end over end on the bike as I predicted. At the very least I'll strap a camera to my helmet and show people the national park areas around Vegas, there are some very nice things to do around here (nature wise) and I wish more people would check them out when they visit; so I would be thrilled to show off these places.

I'll post the sword thing at the very least sooner rather than later (2 days with luck - maybe longer if I edit it my self - I hope not thou)
 
Well I just taught myself how to ride it after giving up that night after going with my friend.

After a year and a half >.<

My car bit the dust as far as I am concerned last week. (cost to repair it not worth it) I came out at midnight bound and determined to ride that thing. If I could learn that I could learn to ride a moped.

So I got on it - failed for 5 minutes. Then I started screwing with the little nobs on the handles (which I think are resistance?) I was instantly able to ride a bike after doing that. So I rode for 2 hours and just got back a little bit ago. :D

I am gonna buy a 150cc moped now :D

My college is about 4 miles away give or take and so my job.

So a moped that goes 50 MPH (the limit in main streets in Northtown) it seems doable :D :D :D
 
Other stuff semi worth mentioning: I didn't go out with the helmet right now (didn't look and couldn't find it either way :cringe: luckily with these big ass tree trunk legs I am stuck hulling around when I feel like I might fall from leaning I just put my leg down and stop easily, holding on to the bike as well of course.
The only difficult thing is making sharp 180s everything else is cool.



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

Even though I am still a double X shirt and size 44 pants I've been taking my shirt off to go swimming and skinny dipping and such lately. Even with all of the nasty stretch marks and scars from fading back acne I still get more chick that way. ......... and it blows my mind. Maybe all of my friends were right and it is the confidence thing. .... That is not to say that I am not still working out, but damn.
 
For your particular purposes I would say:

Commuter bike > mountain bike > road bike

Commuters (hybrids) really are good for that task. Mountain bikes, while slower, have flexibility, are more durable, and are easier to handle than a road bike, and this is probably what you would want in this situation. And who knows, maybe you would want to go off-road with your friends. While I love road bikes they are more a secondary bike for when you already have your primary bike. Mine is like the Ferrari that sits in the garage all day while I beat around in the old Chevy van.
 
The wheels on a bike act as gyroscopes and kep you upright naturally. The faster you go the more stable it is.

As a beginner you should find a bike with no suspension, and as you're heavy make sure it's sturdy. A city bike is what you want. It's like a mountain bike without all the silly unnecessary junk. Unfortunately it seems like they don;t even make such a thing any more. The closest to a reasonable bike i cuold find in a quick search was this:

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=600065&subcategory=60001247&brand=&sku=23722&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=Shop%20by%20Subcat%3A%20Mountain%20Bikes

So if you can't find anything used for less, there's a $200 option. I didn't spend any time looking at details but I know the company (Nashbar) and they have a decent reputation.

The advantage of that style of bike for a learner is the upright position. A proper road bike (known as "English racers" when I was a kid, or "ten-speeds" with its more laid-out position really isn't ideal for learning to stay upright.

Best of all would be to find a friend with a bike and let them teach you. There's nothing to be embarrassed about: everybody has to learn sometime. It really isn't that hard.

One quick tip: as above, the wheels act as gyroscopes. when you are going any speed at all, you only have to move the handlebars a tiny bit to steer, as the gyroscopic effect makes the bike lean into the turn. Most people "learn" this by feel and instinct, but it helps to know that when you're going fast, to turn right, you actually nudge the handlebars to the LEFT, and the gyroscopic effect makes the bike lean to the right. In an emergency, knowing that can be very useful.

Good luck, we're rooting for you.
 
Prepare to fail a lot before you get the hang of it. Remember that as the wheels on the bike turn, the easier it gets to balance. Centrifugal forces and all that. But there are going to be times when you gotta take a chance.
 
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