General Cycling Discussion - Cyling Magazine

How should I proceed to begin learning more about cycling? Is there any magazine out there I should I consider subscribing to?
Which or would you recommend a bicycle?

Best thing to get into cycling is to get a bike and ride, not read about it. First things first though, do you know how to ride? You can't read about how to ride, it must be done by doing. The League of American Bicyclists has good instructors, one in your area may have experience if you need someone to help you learn.

Also, I would get a cheaper bike, but not a Walmart type.

Best thing to get into cycling is to get a bike and ride, not read about it. First things first though, do you know how to ride? You can't read about how to ride, it must be done by doing. The League of American Bicyclists has good instructors, one in your area may have experience if you need someone to help you learn.

Also, I would get a cheaper bike, but not a Walmart type.

hard to believe there are people out there that don't know how to ride a bike, arn't you being a bit condescending?

I don't think so, and I think that might change some of the recommendations. My wife didn't know how to ride until last year, when she was 35. It certainly wasn't my intent.

I Recommend Ricky visit a friendly Local Bike shop,
the folks at those will be happy to get you started,

and help you pick the appropriate style of bikes to suit your needs. and price point.

and keep it running well in the future..

Thanks, I found one on (Sorrento) on craigs list. I don't have a local bike shop, My closest one is 2 hours away. I live in a rural area. I may make a trip dow one daysoon though

Go to your local library and start reading whatever books you can get ahold of about cycling. Interlibrary loan is a wonderful thing when you live in a rural area.

How should I proceed to begin learning more about cycling? Is there any magazine out there I should I consider subscribing to?
Which or would you recommend a bicycle?

I'll be honest, I think the web and this forum has more information and articles then you can ever read in your lifetime. There is such a wide variety of riders here, from those who are roadies, to recumbents, to those like myself who ride department store bikes at 12mph.

My favorite and a new one has been Bicycle Times magazine - http://www.bicycletimesmag.com/
If you love to flip through page after page of ads along with articles mostly catered to roadies - Bicycling Magazine - www.bicycling.com

Personally, I think bike magazines are a waist of time and money if your intent is to learn more about cycling in general. They rarely have any useful articles for real world riders and the focus seems more on selling you more products rather than education.
This site and many other similar bike forums will serve your needs better than pages out of any bike magazine with the exception of some cycling related books. An example of a good cycling book is the Park Tool's "Big Blue Book" if you want to learn more about bike maintainence.

I started riding in the early 80s after reading some old Bicycling magazines from the library. I had been riding my Murray 10-speed around town, but the magazines were my first exposure to nice bikes, good equipment, long distance riding, and sources of bike parts. I didn't really even know bike shops existed except for the local Schwinn dealer located in a Goodyear Tires store. It took me even longer to find out there was a local bicycle club, and it just had a handful of members. So I will attest that the information found in books and magazines is invaluable, and I'm thankful that the internet has made it much easier to learn, and find other riders.
So read! read! read! and go find other riders. The combination will do you good.
How do you find other riders? Do an internet search for local organized rides, and look at places like mapmyride.com to see who has posted rides local to you. Friend them, send them a message, or just ride their routes and get lucky. Those pesky bike riders have to come out of the woodwork sometime!

Bicycle Times is my favorite as well, seems to be geared to the more normal enthusiast. I think I read an article in Bicycling on what they called Entry Level mountain bikes, and all were over 2k.

I would absolutely recommend that you subscribe to the Bicycling Magazine if you desire to learn some practical things about cycling. What I really love about this magazine is that it centers upon casual/recreational cycling rather than pro cycling. Most cycling magazine on the newstand today contain way too much pro cycling hype that they contain nothing applicable to the common recreational bike rider.

As far as recommending a particular brand or type of bike as your second question implies, it depends on what kind of biking you want to get into.

As far as learning more about cycling, I would suggest getting hooked up with a cycling club or bike store in your local area to get you started.

hard to believe there are people out there that don't know how to ride a bike, arn't you being a bit condescending?

Not really, my wife didn't learn to ride until she was in her 30's, I just met a young lady (about 21) that doesn't know how to ride a bike. There are may people that don't know how to ride, consider yourself fortunate that your family was able to afford a bike for you to learn on.

Not really, my wife didn't learn to ride until she was in her 30's, I just met a young lady (about 21) that doesn't know how to ride a bike. There are may people that don't know how to ride, consider yourself fortunate that your family was able to afford a bike for you to learn on.

+1

I would absolutely recommend that you subscribe to the Bicycling Magazine if you desire to learn some practical things about cycling. What I really love about this magazine is that it centers upon casual/recreational cycling rather than pro cycling. Most cycling magazine on the newstand today contain way too much pro cycling hype that they contain nothing applicable to the common recreational bike rider.

I'm pretty sure you don't mean Bicycling Magazine ... what magazine name did you mean to say?

Not really, my wife didn't learn to ride until she was in her 30's, I just met a young lady (about 21) that doesn't know how to ride a bike. There are may people that don't know how to ride, consider yourself fortunate that your family was able to afford a bike for you to learn on.

Or in the case of my wife, a bad teacher, an older sister that almost seems to be plotting to kill you one way or another. The bike was probably too large on top of that though.

Most people that don't know how to ride, you'd never know. It's easy to not get in a situation where your "secret" is exposed. In NYC they have classes for adults on learning to ride. In September they have 12 classes that have a registration limit of 30 students. All of the classes are full. They say they average about 1,000 to 1,500 students taking that class a year. Of course New York is a bit special, since there are both a large number of immigrants and an extensive public transit system, but that still is an impressive number of adults wanting to learn.

Now, this doesn't really have anything to do with the OP, but when someone asks about learning more on biking and doesn't currently have one, it is a valid question.