A Note to Cycling Enthusiasts

In general, none of the advice on these pages is aimed directly at you. You love your bike. You ride your bike. You have your own theory of what cycling is all about.

This set of pages is aimed at people who have thus far been unable to fit within the framework provided by you and your fellow cycling enthusiasts. They may not have tried racing AND mountain bikes AND BMX. But whatever they did try didn't work for them at all and it scared them off for a good long while.

I really only care about what enthusiasts do when their actions discourage non-riders from getting (back) on a bike, or promulgate an approach to riding that is impossible for ordinary people on bicycles to adhere to.

Do you think I'm encouraging unsafe riding? I subscribe to the view that the more people there are cycling, the safer it will be for everyone, as we all get used to seeing cyclists and look for them. I do encourage people to be safe, mostly by insisting they should trust their instincts about avoiding routes that make them uncomfortable and pointing them at resources to help them anticipate dangers that are not obvious to a beginning cyclist. I also encourage a see-and-be-seen upright riding position, and bicycles that are easy and undistracting to manage, that are compatible with obeying traffic laws (no dorkstanding, because dorkstanding encourages people to avoid stopping the bike when the law says they should).

Do you think I'm wasting people's money on bikes they will grow out of? Even people who are quite comfortable on more aggressive geometries are quite capable of getting good use out of a friendly bike. And they're a lot more likely to take a cargo and kid carrying bike out on an errand on a sunny weekend than they are their carbon fiber beauty without a kickstand. Even if it does have a carbon fiber bottle cage.

Trying to mount a new rider?

If you picked them, don't be pushy. Pushy creates more resistance.

If they picked you, congratulations! Presumably, they respect you and your cycling enthusiasm and knowledge. Now that your expertise has attracted them, push it firmly aside. It doesn't help a newbie to be constantly reminded of their relative ability. Get them on a friendly bike, and let the process of cycling encourage them. Bikes are at their most magical when the details of managing them disappear, and when they are structured in a way that increases confidence even in a rider without much confidence. That's why so many adults who rode as children and don't ride as adults have such fond feelings for single speed beach cruisers: heavy, stable, thick tires that erase unevenness of surface, require no gear changes, with comfy seats and the ability to put your feet right down on the ground at will. With a little thought, you can get them on bikes that are much more city-friendly than a beach cruiser, but retain that ease and comfort of use.

And I'll be blunt. I've met a lot of enthusiasts at this point, male, female, young, old, East Coast, West Coast, blah, blah, bleeping blah. If you love riding that titanium, carbon fiber, yadda yadda yadda however many speeds it has, you aren't one to appreciate subtlety. Here it is straight, in words you might actually understand, words that have highly charged and negative connotations for you, but that you will have to get over if you're going to get new riders out there having fun on bikes:

Please mount your newbie on a "girly" bike that is "too small" for them, "too heavy" for "real" riding, with "too thick" tires, gears that are for "wusses" and a "dorky" upright riding position. And keep your idiot mouth shut about all those adjectives so you won't feel great remorse when you finally get it through your speed-addled head that you've been trying to teach an apple how to be an orange.

If you do it right, some tiny fraction of the newbies you introduce to cycling will grow up to blow your doors off on some curving mountain road. The rest of them will love the bike you put them on for a decade or more, and sell copies of it to all their friends. And the racer might well keep using that bike to go get a six-pack some weekend evening.

Copyright 2009, Rebecca Allen
Created: July 11, 2009
Updated: November 23, 2009