h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oooh! I never rode a folding bike! Do tell how it goes won't you?

Learning on a folding bike may be a little trickier as they tend to have smaller wheels which can make it harder to balance. Don't let this put you off though as the smaller, lighter frame and step-through design is much less intimidating than a full size crossbar style bike. Folding can be a great asset for taking the bike to a safe area to practise too as it should go in the boot of a car.

Let us know how you get on so we can post some further words of encouragement.

F

What's step-through? Is that like on a girl's bike or what?

Yes - like a scooter - instead of lifting your leg over the crossbar you can step through the frame and place both feet on the ground before sitting on the saddle. This is much easier to learn on because you are not faced with the immediate problem of balancing on one foot (more advanced riders use one pedal) while throwing the other leg over the saddle.

F

Oh good point. I ride a boy's bike and can do the whole whooshing down the road on one pedal whilst flinging the other leg over the bike. Learning to do that I had a few nasty falls.

I'm wondering if easing the brakes slightly on a new bike would be good...so you don't leap over the handle bars?

ok..well looks like the actual purchase will not come until the spring

the environment here is ...potholes...lots of potholes...I live in a University town so that means lots of potholes on the sidewalks...more people use the sidewalks, so they get more damage

In the city, we are not allowed to ride on the sidewalks, so I will have to learn street-riding safety

I would never have thought of the dogs sniffing the wheels. That explains why I occasionally see dogs chasing bicycles...I just assumed that the dogs belonged to the rider.

Thank you so much everyone for your advice. What I am doing now is going to the gym...so my muscles will be in much better shape when I start riding. Exercise recommendations????

Hi Andrea,

Is that 'coffeshop' in the Amsterdam sense?

Exercise recommendations: just one - take it gently at first.

F

Some extra advice if you still want it:

Avoid starting on grass; it's hard to cycle on! You can manage a hard surface without sraping your knees or falling off if you go carefully. Tarmac with a slight incline is good, level tarmac is equally perfect.

For the most luxurious, easiest way into the world of cycling bliss:

Get someone to take off the pedals (they screw off with the aid of a spanner, one has a right-hand thread and the other a left-hand thread). Lower your saddle till you can put both feet flat on the ground. What you now have is a hobby-horse, and you can scoot around easily, safely and comfortably for as long as you like, lifting your feet more and more as you gain confidence. (With the pedals left on this is possible but you'll be constantly knocking your ankles on the said pedals, which is painful and generally discouraging.) When you have got the hang of balancing, turning and braking, you will be perfectly able to put back the pedals and zoom away.

Best of luck!
~Recumbentman, just back from a 1,400-mile cycle from the north of France to the south of Sweden, through Holland, Germany and Denmark. And no saddle-sore at all, no wrist, shoulder or neck strain, no strain of any kind. How? See A901036

have a really hot shower before you intend to ride your bicycle and wash your ears really thoroughly.
YES! I know it sounds stupid but if the pressures in your inner ears is good and equalized (if fiddling with ur finger in ur ear doesn't work trying squeezing your nostrils shut and blowing until u feel a slight pop or pressure change. u'll know it's happened) then u should have a good balance to ride safely. try and look as far ahead of you as possible when peddling and be prepared to apply brakes at any time and put feet down off ur peddles to balance on good old terra firma (the more Firmer, the less Terror!).

you should get used to balancing pretty quickly, practice cycling up hills (small inclines at 1st) and practice turning right (in my opinion the most dangerous thing a cyclist has to do).

and most of all, be safe

Time warp!

Most of all have fun. Cycling is a fresh breeze.

Reason for my negative reaction to "most of all, be safe" --

"When over 50 times as many people are killed in cars or walking across the street, over 40 times as many commit suicide, over 30 times as many get murdered, over 15 times as many die from falling, over 9 times as many get poisoned, over 6 times as many die of burns, over 5 times as many drown, and over 25 times as many die of various and sundry causes, why is cycling perceived to be dangerous?" -- Ken Kifer

....recently, I saw a cycling course for adults, not to learn to cycle, but to cycle safely, run by local authority.

....this is just a suggestion for someone wanting a bike for general cycling and not mountain biking....buy a bike with Sturmey Archer enclosed gears. They don't have the masses of gears like a mountain bike but they are very reliable, low maintenance, not as vulnerable as mountain bike gears, which have a tendancy to go out of alignment and give that rattling, crunchy noise.....before anyone says mountain bike gears are easy to maintain, I am talking about people who just want a bike you can use and not have to worry about.

the reason i said be safe?

A2262485 Being Hit by Car, Very painful!

my own story of what can happen even if you are a safe cyclist.
as a bike rider against motorcylist and cars weighing over a ton in weight, the human body is an amazing piece of design but car or motorbike hitting cycle powered by human being is a collision that human being and cycle are hard pushed to escape safely.

That is a wonderful entry. What I take from it is, what did the bystanders think they were doing, not taking the details and giving you their numbers?

We are all bystanders from time to time. We have inescapable duties, and we must keep ourselves in a state of impatience to do them, completely and right away.

I sympathise entirely with your failure to complain. The only time I went over a car's bonnet I had no injury, only a torn jacket and a bent front fork. I was so elated to be all there physically that I also took no details and bought my own new front fork and jacket.

It is a piece of commonplace blindness; people in charge of cars are in charge of things that are more lethal than guns. They deny this truth hotly. The justice system does not do its duty in correcting their denial.

Advice from a more experienced cycling friend: when you are knocked down, stay on the ground. Do not move a muscle until you have internally checked each single part of your body.

The sight of an immobile body is sobering to all present; and furthermore you will have time to consider what you ought to do, which is not necessarily what you feel like doing.