Originally Posted by kenoshi

You know you should never be ashamed of what you are doing. Believe it or not, most cyclists are pretty understanding about new riders. I've only been riding since March, and in callie I've always had more experienced riders acknowledge me and stuff, always a heart felt "hey buddy" or "how's it goin' brother" when they do pass me. People have always offered to help when I got a flat etc.

4 months later and 70lbs lighter, I find myself doing the same things. Although I'm by no means an experienced rider (I just trued my bike for the first time yesterday), I'd pass folks who obviously just started, and is going slow or having a hard time, or just plain lost, and tell them to "keep it up buddy" or "hang in there brother", and offer to help people patch flats or show them better routes etc., if I had known such a great community existed, I would have started riding a long time ago.