Stupid and obvious things you did not know as a new cyclists

[Sillyoldman]

That you don't have to have your chain dripping with oil for it to be correctly lubed.

 

[Canrider]

From a friend of mine (no, seriously): Do not apply gun oil to your disc brake rotors.

From me: When buying parts, measure the size, then buy, don't assume everything 'will be the same standard size'.

 

[kerndog]

That it is harder than it looks - and way more fun!

 

[GetAGrip]

That the most critical person there is to worry about what I wear on a bike is ...me!
Most others out and about their business couldn't give a flying fig what I look like

 

[mrandmrspoves]

Many years ago, I used to volunteer as a "Pilot" riding a tandem with a blind person on the back. We used to collect the tandems and cycle across Norwich to collect our "stokers".
As I was nearing my destination to collect my stoker one slightly damp evening, the traffic lights (Magdalen Gates) changed just as I was approaching them at speed........application of brakes saw me skidding sideways through a busy traffic junction with traffic coming at me from both sides.
No weight over the rear wheel (and a plonker riding it!) makes a tandem a scary place to be on a wet and greasy road.
I am sure that if any of my blind passengers could have seen me, they would never have risked their lives by jumping on the back of a tandem piloted by me!

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Brakes don't work properly on wet steel rims! (Not as bad a problem with alloy rims, though remember to apply brakes early in the wet to dry off the rims before effective braking is required.)

(As a teenager, I was nearly killed when I accidentally ran a red light at the foot of a hill in the rain ... )

I well remember the combination of suicide levers, steel rims and old style side pull brakes, there were times when I would be thinking "I would be better off putting a boot in the spokes", I would have stopped quicker.

 

[MarkF]

I've a good chance of winning this............ A decade ago I was getting fat, I'd had to give up football (at 40) because of arthritis in my hips. It was suggested a low impact activity like cycling might help.

I bought my first bike from the free ad's, a Muddy Fox MTB. It was incredibly uncomfy, I'd come home with serious wrist & neck pain but I dug in though and used it every day through the woods building up to 20 mile trips on the canal. One day another cyclist told me the bike was too small for me.This was highly interesting news as I had no idea that there were different sized adult bicycles. I am 6'1", the Muddy Fox was 16".

So I bought a 23" Dawes Galaxy, I'd heard that these were "good" bikes, this fitted me but I simply carried on as before, that is using it as a MTB, I spent more time falling off it and unclogging the mudguards than I did riding it.

 

[EltonFrog]

Hills are the devils own work.

 

[Peteaud]

Hills are the devils own work.

Hills are fun, they are only flat bits at an angle.

 

[WobblyBob]

That i needed any kind of p******** repair equipment or spare inner tubes.....or even a pump for the 1st 4 months of riding a bike last year until it was pointed out to me that i might actually have a problem if the worst happened one day

 

[stu9000]

Have you ever tried to stop an exploding bottle of pop by putting your hand over it?

Err... Sounds painful. Think I'll stay away from fixies

 

[Saluki]

I discovered that hubby's expensive seat (Sella Italia Proline) was seriously painful on a ride. He got a new one and donated the 'good' saddle to me. I rode home and put the cheap (comfy) Giant seat back on. Just because a seat is expensive and 'nice', does not mean that it will be comfy!

Also, the gears took me a while to work out. The little lever moves the chain to the little ring and the big lever moves the chain to a big ring. Once I had worked that out, all was well.

 

[sheffgirl]

Brakes don't work properly on wet steel rims! (Not as bad a problem with alloy rims, though remember to apply brakes early in the wet to dry off the rims before effective braking is required.)

(As a teenager, I was nearly killed when I accidentally ran a red light at the foot of a hill in the rain ... )

This I did not know, thanks!
It's good to know since my new bike has alloy rims , although I always brake slightly when rolling down big hills anyway just in case something unexpected happens.

 

[ColinJ]

This I did not know, thanks!
It's good to know since my new bike has alloy rims , although I always brake slightly when rolling down big hills anyway just in case something unexpected happens.

The combination of steel, water and brake blocks is not a good one - it is a horrible feeling when you apply the brakes and find that they hardly work!

With alloy rims, it takes a couple of seconds for the brake blocks to scrape any water off, but after that the brakes do start to bite. Once you are aware of that, it becomes second nature to apply the brakes lightly before you want to do any serious braking. The big problem comes if you need sudden emergency braking! Not much you can do about that except keeping your wits about you in the wet and trying to avoid such emergencies.

Oh - another tip - make sure that you clean your wheel rims after mucky wet rides because an oily film can build up on them which can seriously mess up your braking. I went for a ride which included a very tricky 20% descent emerging onto a busy A-road. I couldn't slow down enough and it nearly ended in tears ...

 

[fossala]

Bike sizing, I bought a 61cm giant tcr. I'm 5ft 10. I rode it for 2 weeks before I realized that you can't "make it work".