Austin - lots of great comments here. I started cycling "seriously" in 2014 when I started training for a ride around Lake Tahoe (72 Miles, 3500ft of climbing). Even then, I didn't think of my self as a "serious" cyclist. My advice: forget all the extra gear and pay for a proper bike fitting. I JUST did it, almost 10 years later and THOUSANDS of miles of riding a fairly expensive bike improperly. I was initially fit by a bike shop, but they can only do so much. I HIGHLY recommend trying to find a professional bike fitter - often they will have physical therapy or other body ergo experience that is specialized. I made a few modifications to my bike per my bike shop fitting in 2015, but in January 2022 after having a few injuries and finding riding almost unbearable, I made some minor but specific adjustments as a result of a professional bike fit and I am so much happier and so much more comfortable. Plus I had instruction on how to sit on the bike. Think about any other sport and how much goes into a batting stance or a defensive position and we just don't get that training for a bike. BUT - we need it!
I hope you and I make it to cycling at 80 - you're worth the time/money of being fit properly. It will make everything you do after that easier! Don't be like me and have major regrets and body aches for not doing it sooner.
Your excitement is awesome. I love biking...ever since we were kids kid. It meant freedom. We road miles and miles and miles. I went to the U of O in Eugene and riding was the way to get around. (Hard to come back to the east coast and leave the amazing bike paths). A friend gave me a bike pre-pandemic. When the temperature is above 45, I ride every morning, early. It is the BEST.
Recommendations...get a light so it's safe to ride at night. I resisted for longer than I should and it's worth it. Riding at night in the summer is great...though your night riding may be a different season. Ride on!
Good suggestion — I got some super bright lights that recharge via USB! They seem to work well so far. My friend Clayton has a crazy bike helmet with a wild light INSIDE the helmet.
Hi Austin, have you every read Craig Mod? Yours and his are my two favourite newsletters. When I saw you writing about biking, I immediately thought I should introduce you both - and the only way I can do it is to share Craig's fantastic article on biking for a loaf of sourdough in Japan:
In case you're encountering Craig for the first time, I think you'll get a kick out of reading what all he's up to. I believe you both would be friends if you met.
Congrats. I have two bikes both very "vintage" at this point. When I take them into the shop for a tuneup or upgrade they get "oogled" by the guys working at the shop. I have a Marin mountain bike which I use for trail riding and a Bianchi Brava which I bought in the late 90's. I will say I like the mountain bike better as it can handle anything on the trail. I think we get our first taste of freedom and independence as children bike riding. It lasts forever.
Check out "Steve Retired and Cycling" on YouTube. That's living the dream IMO.
“You have to kind of get through that first layer of Los Angeles before you get to what is awesome about the city. It’s a texture. It’s a collage. And the bicycle is like a cross-fader. The bicycle is a way to travel between these things that mix. How do you read a place by looking at the space between the things it appears to be? The bicycle travels in that space.”
Ok be careful if you are just starting to bike. Focus on the road and your surroundings. I have a route mapped out so it is a planned event and I am not worried about cars hitting me. Get a basket for the front to hold things. I also carry a pair of scissors to cut flowers I can steal. And be weary of the dog. They will bite as they don’t like wheels. Welcome to biking as it is the best for feeling the air on your face and great in lieu of walking on hot days.
I love this post. I started semi-serious road riding at 13, because I wanted to ride TOSRV, a two-day, 210-mile ride in Ohio. That was in its heyday of thousands of riders of all sorts -- so much fun. (It's still around, but a shadow of its former self.) Some of my best teenage memories are of long bike tours with my dad, including a weeklong ride to Canada when I was 14. I'm much more comfortable road-riding now than a lot of people I know, probably because I started long before I learned to drive.
My husband and son are enthusiastic mountain bikers, so last year I finally started learning to mountain bike (at 45). It's also lots of fun, but a whole different skill set from riding on roads or bike paths, and a lot more opportunity for injury. It was funny to me that you find cycling engages all your senses. One thing I like about road riding is that it's second nature to me, so I can sort of zone out and let my mind wander. And that's what I don't like about mountain biking -- I have to pay attention all the time, and that's always true even for the folks who are good at it (which I am not yet). So I like mountain biking, but I don't find it very relaxing.
Last year I started feeling like road rides were such a production -- the gear, the clothing -- and also the riding position has gotten very hard on my hands and wrists. My husband got me a bright yellow 7-speed cruiser for our anniversary, and I'm in love with it! I feel like I can just hop on it and pedal away -- no special clothing needed, no sore wrists. I do second the advice below for a rack and panniers or baskets so you can carry stuff. I've taken it to the beach a few times, and my son has rigged it up with a removable fishing rod holder. It's the bike we all fight over.
Definitely bring the kids. You'll make amazing memories for all of you, and it's an activity all ages can enjoy.
I highly recommend JUST RIDE by Grant Petersen, and Freehub magazine. Freehub is a beautiful print mountain biking magazine that will make you want to visit all the places even if you aren't a mountain biker. Thanks for a great post, as always.
Love all this. What you said about it being second-nature so you can zone out: I know the zoning out is the point in this case, but the guy I ride with says he has to fight that all the time, so he gives himself little noticing activities while he's riding to keep alert. I feel like it's like that with our work, too: sometimes we know we're coasting/zoning out, gotta do something to "make it new" again and re-engage...
Been thinking about your comment, and I may not have been totally clear. Sometimes I do zone out and think about other things, but the fact that I don’t have to pay attention to the mechanics of road biking lets me notice a lot more going on around me.
Love the playlist idea. I don’t listen to music when I ride — except when I’m going up Paris Mountain near my house. It’s about 2 miles and a 6.9% grade, and takes me about 27 minutes. My Paris Mountain playlist is timed so that “We Are the Champions” is playing when I get to the top.
Some of my best memories come from riding bikes, so enjoy it! For movies: Breaking Away. It shows its age but it also captures a timeless passion for riding.
Congrats on the new ride!! Two simple pieces of advice: clipless pedals and ask the shop (if they haven’t already) to do a fit kit. The pedals will give you more power (you and push and pull), and the fit kit will ensure the seat and stem/handlebars are the right height and length. I used to work at a bike shop, and 80% of new riders wanted their seats too low and the bars too close. Ride on!!
Wonderful! So glad you're enjoying your new bike! I reluctantly dusted off my bike in spring 2020 when it wasn't safe to use the bus...and found out I love the thing! Then, I found a Lebanese restaurant at the end of our one of our bike trails. The Baklava Ride was born...
Austin, you are wearing the wrong shorts. Go to the bike store and buy some spandexy kind and get some good gloves. Plus you need a spandexy shirt. You will need to order a wrist bracelet, Road ID, in case you crash and can’t talk the information is on your wrist. Be sure you have blinking lights so motorists can see you. Butt paste is great for the ass and always ride with the traffic. Always yell “On your right” very loud. Pedestrians never listen. Don’t forget to bring your water and snack. Cliff Bars are good. They give me gas but you are a lot younger so you will be OK. The most fun I’ve had on my bike is when Zilker Park had their Jingle Bell Ride at Christmas. So much fun!! I am 70. I love riding my bicycle.
I just got my bike repaired last week, and have been feeling very excited to get back into biking with my son, who I used to pull around in a bike trailer, but now is big enough to keep up to me. A few years ago I saw an amazing one woman show called Spin by Evalyn Parry, that tells a story of the bicycle as a feminist vehicle. Fascinating and amazing multimedia art. https://evalynparry.com/spin/
Austin - lots of great comments here. I started cycling "seriously" in 2014 when I started training for a ride around Lake Tahoe (72 Miles, 3500ft of climbing). Even then, I didn't think of my self as a "serious" cyclist. My advice: forget all the extra gear and pay for a proper bike fitting. I JUST did it, almost 10 years later and THOUSANDS of miles of riding a fairly expensive bike improperly. I was initially fit by a bike shop, but they can only do so much. I HIGHLY recommend trying to find a professional bike fitter - often they will have physical therapy or other body ergo experience that is specialized. I made a few modifications to my bike per my bike shop fitting in 2015, but in January 2022 after having a few injuries and finding riding almost unbearable, I made some minor but specific adjustments as a result of a professional bike fit and I am so much happier and so much more comfortable. Plus I had instruction on how to sit on the bike. Think about any other sport and how much goes into a batting stance or a defensive position and we just don't get that training for a bike. BUT - we need it!
I hope you and I make it to cycling at 80 - you're worth the time/money of being fit properly. It will make everything you do after that easier! Don't be like me and have major regrets and body aches for not doing it sooner.
Some links from friend of the newsletter Steve Parker:
Frank Zappa playing a bike on the Steve Allen Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9P2V0_p6vE
Thor Harris & Henna Chou jamming on a bike instrument Steve made: https://vimeo.com/189632993
I can't resist also adding this cool story about theatre powered by bicycle (yup!) in an effort to find creative responses to the climate crisis: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/theater/a-play-for-the-living-in-a-time-of-extinction.html
whoa! I wonder if I could power my studio that way. HA!
Your excitement is awesome. I love biking...ever since we were kids kid. It meant freedom. We road miles and miles and miles. I went to the U of O in Eugene and riding was the way to get around. (Hard to come back to the east coast and leave the amazing bike paths). A friend gave me a bike pre-pandemic. When the temperature is above 45, I ride every morning, early. It is the BEST.
Recommendations...get a light so it's safe to ride at night. I resisted for longer than I should and it's worth it. Riding at night in the summer is great...though your night riding may be a different season. Ride on!
Good suggestion — I got some super bright lights that recharge via USB! They seem to work well so far. My friend Clayton has a crazy bike helmet with a wild light INSIDE the helmet.
Exactly - via USB! Re: lights INSIDE the helmet - that sounds wild. Onward.
Hi Austin, have you every read Craig Mod? Yours and his are my two favourite newsletters. When I saw you writing about biking, I immediately thought I should introduce you both - and the only way I can do it is to share Craig's fantastic article on biking for a loaf of sourdough in Japan:
https://papersky.jp/en/electric-ride-vol2-oiso/
Hope you enjoy it.
In case you're encountering Craig for the first time, I think you'll get a kick out of reading what all he's up to. I believe you both would be friends if you met.
https://craigmod.com
Oh yeah! I know Craig's work well. Thanks for sharing this post though, I think I missed it.
Congrats. I have two bikes both very "vintage" at this point. When I take them into the shop for a tuneup or upgrade they get "oogled" by the guys working at the shop. I have a Marin mountain bike which I use for trail riding and a Bianchi Brava which I bought in the late 90's. I will say I like the mountain bike better as it can handle anything on the trail. I think we get our first taste of freedom and independence as children bike riding. It lasts forever.
Check out "Steve Retired and Cycling" on YouTube. That's living the dream IMO.
Thanks, Lori! Here's the Youtube link for everybody else: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC37ujVViOCRKIeAnnOhWVow
"My ass hurts. My knees hurt. I feel great."
Yes, yes, yes.
My friend Mark sent me this great video of artist Geoff McFetridge talking about about why Los Angeles is such a great city for biking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzXX-CMGKag
“You have to kind of get through that first layer of Los Angeles before you get to what is awesome about the city. It’s a texture. It’s a collage. And the bicycle is like a cross-fader. The bicycle is a way to travel between these things that mix. How do you read a place by looking at the space between the things it appears to be? The bicycle travels in that space.”
Ok be careful if you are just starting to bike. Focus on the road and your surroundings. I have a route mapped out so it is a planned event and I am not worried about cars hitting me. Get a basket for the front to hold things. I also carry a pair of scissors to cut flowers I can steal. And be weary of the dog. They will bite as they don’t like wheels. Welcome to biking as it is the best for feeling the air on your face and great in lieu of walking on hot days.
I love this post. I started semi-serious road riding at 13, because I wanted to ride TOSRV, a two-day, 210-mile ride in Ohio. That was in its heyday of thousands of riders of all sorts -- so much fun. (It's still around, but a shadow of its former self.) Some of my best teenage memories are of long bike tours with my dad, including a weeklong ride to Canada when I was 14. I'm much more comfortable road-riding now than a lot of people I know, probably because I started long before I learned to drive.
My husband and son are enthusiastic mountain bikers, so last year I finally started learning to mountain bike (at 45). It's also lots of fun, but a whole different skill set from riding on roads or bike paths, and a lot more opportunity for injury. It was funny to me that you find cycling engages all your senses. One thing I like about road riding is that it's second nature to me, so I can sort of zone out and let my mind wander. And that's what I don't like about mountain biking -- I have to pay attention all the time, and that's always true even for the folks who are good at it (which I am not yet). So I like mountain biking, but I don't find it very relaxing.
Last year I started feeling like road rides were such a production -- the gear, the clothing -- and also the riding position has gotten very hard on my hands and wrists. My husband got me a bright yellow 7-speed cruiser for our anniversary, and I'm in love with it! I feel like I can just hop on it and pedal away -- no special clothing needed, no sore wrists. I do second the advice below for a rack and panniers or baskets so you can carry stuff. I've taken it to the beach a few times, and my son has rigged it up with a removable fishing rod holder. It's the bike we all fight over.
Definitely bring the kids. You'll make amazing memories for all of you, and it's an activity all ages can enjoy.
I highly recommend JUST RIDE by Grant Petersen, and Freehub magazine. Freehub is a beautiful print mountain biking magazine that will make you want to visit all the places even if you aren't a mountain biker. Thanks for a great post, as always.
Love all this. What you said about it being second-nature so you can zone out: I know the zoning out is the point in this case, but the guy I ride with says he has to fight that all the time, so he gives himself little noticing activities while he's riding to keep alert. I feel like it's like that with our work, too: sometimes we know we're coasting/zoning out, gotta do something to "make it new" again and re-engage...
Been thinking about your comment, and I may not have been totally clear. Sometimes I do zone out and think about other things, but the fact that I don’t have to pay attention to the mechanics of road biking lets me notice a lot more going on around me.
One idea that stuck since the first time I heard it: "the bicycle is like a crossfader..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzXX-CMGKag (LA!)
Only recommendation: consider creating a biking playlist. If you hear a song and think, "this would be great to ride to", you're probably right.
Excited for you!
Love the playlist idea. I don’t listen to music when I ride — except when I’m going up Paris Mountain near my house. It’s about 2 miles and a 6.9% grade, and takes me about 27 minutes. My Paris Mountain playlist is timed so that “We Are the Champions” is playing when I get to the top.
This is so good - thanks buddy
Some of my best memories come from riding bikes, so enjoy it! For movies: Breaking Away. It shows its age but it also captures a timeless passion for riding.
Congrats on the new ride!! Two simple pieces of advice: clipless pedals and ask the shop (if they haven’t already) to do a fit kit. The pedals will give you more power (you and push and pull), and the fit kit will ensure the seat and stem/handlebars are the right height and length. I used to work at a bike shop, and 80% of new riders wanted their seats too low and the bars too close. Ride on!!
Wonderful! So glad you're enjoying your new bike! I reluctantly dusted off my bike in spring 2020 when it wasn't safe to use the bus...and found out I love the thing! Then, I found a Lebanese restaurant at the end of our one of our bike trails. The Baklava Ride was born...
Mmmm I love baklava
Austin, you are wearing the wrong shorts. Go to the bike store and buy some spandexy kind and get some good gloves. Plus you need a spandexy shirt. You will need to order a wrist bracelet, Road ID, in case you crash and can’t talk the information is on your wrist. Be sure you have blinking lights so motorists can see you. Butt paste is great for the ass and always ride with the traffic. Always yell “On your right” very loud. Pedestrians never listen. Don’t forget to bring your water and snack. Cliff Bars are good. They give me gas but you are a lot younger so you will be OK. The most fun I’ve had on my bike is when Zilker Park had their Jingle Bell Ride at Christmas. So much fun!! I am 70. I love riding my bicycle.
I just got my bike repaired last week, and have been feeling very excited to get back into biking with my son, who I used to pull around in a bike trailer, but now is big enough to keep up to me. A few years ago I saw an amazing one woman show called Spin by Evalyn Parry, that tells a story of the bicycle as a feminist vehicle. Fascinating and amazing multimedia art. https://evalynparry.com/spin/
Oh cool look forward to watching this. Simone de Beauvoir wrote about the freedom of cycling for women. I need to look up the passage