soccerallstar_1

Okay, I just got a bike yesterday and its nothing but a cheapie from Target. I have realized I'm woefully out of shape. Are there any tips for getting in shape quickly?

I bought a wide seat since the seats that come standard always make me sore. This one is still making me sore. Is it just getting used to it or is there something I should do differently?

And this is the height of my stupidity, what gears are for when? Are the harder gears for going up hill or down or for flat?

And please tell me I will get to wear I can pedal up hill with my son in the trailer! Goodness, I could hardly get up the hills!

cruzMOKS

You just gota ride. The more you ride the stronger you'll get.

The big gear in front and the small gear in the back causes you to go faster.
The small gear in the front and the big gear in the back causes you to go slower.

Go to a quiet road and just try out the gears.

Seat comfort: you will get tougher with time on the bike.

To get up the hill change into the lowest gear before you get to the hill.
After you gain some confidence you can stand on the pedals for more power.

Brusheda

Commuting will get you in shape the fastest.

seosamh

i'd say attack the hill as fast as you can and then gradually come down the gears,gradually come down the gears when you feel the one you are in getting a bit tough... if your standing while doing this, learn how to balance on both peddle as you changes gears cause it can be nasty if you don't know how to stand and change gears at the same time..if you're wieght is one one peddle the chain can slip and you'll fall onto your bike.

there are many ways to approach an uphill, try a few out and see what works best for you..

soccerallstar_1

LOL. I work at home. We bought it so that I could run errands around town since our 2nd car died.

Another question:

We have a bike/walk trail right next to us that used to be a old rail road bed. It used to have a good bit of gravel that was packed down pretty well (though some of the rocks were rail road rocks). Now they took a bull dozer through and the ground is really soft and sandy/really loose dirt with very little gravel. When I was biking down it today, I was sort of sliding to the side, almost as though my bike couldn't get a grib on the ground or something or sort of like skidding on ice. Should I wait to bike on it until the ground gets packed more or is that typical of bike trails?

seosamh

bigger tyres would help, but it's also probably just the state the trial is in...i went off road on my 1.75 semi slick today and the difference between them and my usual set up of 2.3 front ad 2.1 on the back is night and day, i was sliding all over the shop, i expected that mind, wanted to see if these tyres could handle easy wet muddy rooty stuff, they can but i need to be far more careful..

Bill Kapaun

If you haven't ridden in quite some time, I wouldn't haul your child yet. Take a couple weeks of riding. You'll gain much more awareness of what's going on around you AND improve your skills.
I got back into riding 3 years ago at age 56. I had trouble looking back without swerving all over the place. I'm MUCH better now and can also see what I'm looking for much quicker. Kind of hard to describe, but I feel much more confident about what's going on other than what's directly in front of me.

vpiuva

+100

Ride lots.

Velo Dog

The best way to ride better is to ride more--it's that simple. It may take a few weeks of regular (four or five times a week) rides to notice the difference, but it WILL come. Try not to kill yourself at first--do what you're comfortable with, take a day off (or do a really easy ride) when you need to, and add maybe 10 percent a week, no more. Don't push so hard you burn out or start to hate it. I remember my first 10-mile ride, more than 30 years ago, and thinking I was a hardened cyclist. Now I ride 25 to work without giving it a thought.
A few beginner tips, though:
--A Target bike is probably very low end, which is OK for where you are now, but it wouldn't hurt to check it over to make sure everything is tight, the tires are inflated properly etc. I used to build bikes for a department store when I was in high school, and it's a wonder we didn't kill a dozen people every Christmas. Lubricate everything that moves, too--the chain, the pivot points in the brakes and derailleurs etc. It probably wasn't done right at the factory and it certainly wasn't done in the store. A good Web site for general information is www.parktool.com.
--Get a patch kit, tire levers and a pump, learn to use them and carry them with you. You WILL have flat tires; I've had three this week. If you need a wrench to get your wheels off (if they're not quick-release), carry that, too. You can be back on the road in 10 minutes if you have the right stuff.
--Big fat cushy seats are often less comfortable than hard ones on longer rides, but if that's what you've got, make the most of it. Be sure it's set level with the ground, or nearly so, and adjust it in tiny amounts (fractions of an inch of tilt) until it feels right. Moving the nose of the saddle an eighth of an inch up or down can make a difference.
--Learn to use the gears properly. In general, no matter what you're doing (uphill, flat or down) you want to be in a gear that lets you pedal at 80-100rpm (complete revolutions of the cranks, 360 degrees) all the time. Going uphill, use the small chainring and a large rear gear. On the flat or downhill, shift to a larger ring in front and/or a smaller one in back. As another post said, find a flat, quiet spot and practice. you can learn this in about 10 minutes.
And for God's sake, have fun. This is just a form of recreation--don't make it a chore or a challenge.

bsyptak

soccer all star 1. Hm.

soccerallstar_1

You rang?

MichaelW

Little and often is the best way to get fitter for cycling. Mainly its about conditioning yourself to the cycling position and toughening your butt. You dont need to do anything as extreme as training, just ride along at a breathing rate equivelent to a brisk walk.
The human body has a very narrow power range, essentially constant. Gears match your power output to the conditions. You can vary your pedalling force and speed (cadence); the gradient, surface and wind can vary as you travel. Gears enable you to select your desired pedalling force and cadence , you just have to let speed take care of itself. A good cadence to start with is about 60rpm but most experts go faster, about 80rpm.
As the drag forces get higher (steep hills, headwinds) you need to shift down to a larger rear cog.
Generally you stay in the middle chainring at the front until you run out of rear cogs then shift to a smaller chainring to get a much lower ratio of gear. You may have to to shift to a smaller cog to make a small step change in gear ratio.

seosamh

RE: gears btw, this is roughly how i use them, whether it is right or wrong is up for discussion, about 75% i'm in the middle chain ring swapping to the others if it want a bit more or less speed when required, sometimes i'm lazy and i don't, but i generally try to stick to this kinda way, gives me roughly the whole range of gears on my bike.

bold means the combos of front and back gears....

small front chain rain i'll only really use 4 at the back, these are the slowest gears for when you are going up really steep hills..
III

IIIIIIIII

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front middle ring, medium gears, five in the middle sometimes when i'm lazy i'll use the whole range here tho, use these on the flat and up and down less steep hills
III

IIIIIIIII

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front top - and 4 at the back, these are basically when you want to go the fastest...

III

IIIIIIIII

i find when i change the front, if i come up/down 2 gears on the back i'll roughly get the same gear i was on, this will be dependant on you bike set up tho, so test it out on yours.

-----------------

so on a 27 speed bike ideally i'm only using 13 gears..

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generally, the idea with gears is not to do this kinda thing

III

IIIIIIIII

or

III

IIIIIIIII

it puts strain on the chain...

dunno if that'll make sense but i thought it try anyhow...from memory so may not be 100% how i do it mind, but it's along those principles.

ericgu

Bike shorts and miles will help you be more comfy.

As for training, initially, just ride where you are comfortable for most of the time you ride. It's okay to get out of breath on hills, but it should be fairly easy otherwise. Ride for time, not for speed.

You will start seeing improvements from that.

When you start getting up to rides of a couple hours or 30 miles will a fair number of hills and/or the idea of a century (100 miles) no longer seems crazy, come back and ask again.

Trailers up hills are challenging.

JeffB502

+1 on bike shorts. I just picked up 2 pair of Andiamo padded cycling underwear for $18.99 each at Performance and they're perfect for wearing under my Dickies on my ride to work. I started off with a $69.99 pair of Pearl Izumi Attack shorts (the cheapest at my LBS) and they're great, but it's hard to justify spending that much for something I'm basically using as padded underwear. I'm looking forward to getting into good enough shape to be able to wear the Attacks without anything over them. Waist size is already down from 38" to 36"...I've been riding pretty much everywhere since I got my bike in late March...just turned over 800 miles on the odometer

By the way ericgu, does your new bike have any suspension? I bought an inexpensive dual suspension mtb from Target back in 2003, and soon got fed up with the spongy suspension taking my energy and using it to compress a spring instead of turn the wheels. My new bike (Trek 7.2FX) only has a suspension seatpost, and after riding for a while I think any suspension is unnecessary and wouldn't mind a regular seatpost. If you feel like the suspension is stealing alot of your energy, adjusting it to a firmer setting could make your cruising speed a bit quicker, which may motivate you to ride more.

haningp

+100 on the bike shorts. I just got back into riding myself a couple of months ago. I'm also riding a cheapie brand from target (Huffy blackwater, 15 speed). Having padded shorts makes a huge difference in comfort. I also noticed that raising my seat to a higher position made a big difference in riding. Maybe some more experienced riders can help out with how high to adjust your seat but I read it should be high enough so you can extend your leg fully to touch the pedal. It does make for interesting (clumsy) dismounts but I do notice a big difference in riding. I'm still a bit clumsy with the gears and still learning how to work with them. I don't know if a better bike would help with that. Maybe others could answer that question.

seosamh

the thinking behind that is when you are sitting on your seat put the arch of your foot on the peddle and you should have a slight bend in you knee, not to much but not too little either, and that's generally the correct position for optimal riding..something like that anyhow.