<center> <img src="https://docs.monadical.com/uploads/36665f33-30f6-486d-80af-f0ebf090a397.png" style="width: 100%; max-width: 800px; border-radius: 20px"/> # How to Ride a Bicycle: Advanced Tips & Tricks *Originally published 2017-02-10 on [docs.sweeting.me/s/bicycle-journal](https://docs.sweeting.me/s/bicycle-journal).* These are my beginnings of notes for a zine/pamphlet/wiki about bicycles. </center> --- - as you get better at riding, you become more relaxed, and use less energy. That's true for all sports too, whether it's snowboarding or tennis, elite athletes consume less energy per km than beginners and thus can go for longer distances - Long distance riding is a mental game where you have to tweak the parameters of your exercise to conserve as much of your limited resources as possible. Just like multi-pitch alpine climbing or ultra-marathon running, long-distance cycling is a game of numbers where you decide strategy on whether to sprint or spin. Some of the resources to track: ⁃ Oxygen (and how to manage breathing to optimize endurance and power delivery) ⁃ Glucose/Glycogen (e.g. carbs/food, gatorade, easy sugar, etc.) ⁃ Lactic acid buildup (e.g. muscle group fatigue, cramps, general fatigue) ⁃ Water (and how to use less over time & time intake with sprints) ⁃ Mental fatigue (e.g. attention, situational awareness, motivation) ⁃ Potential energy (e.g. altitude, pedal stroke) ⁃ Momentum (e.g. minimizing velocity change, using the body pendulum effect as a spring) ⁃ Electricity (e.g. for Di2, navigation, music, headlamp, tail lamp, etc) ⁃ Warmth (e.g. outside temperature, wind, layering, evaporation, heat from exertion) ⁃ Light (e.g. batteries, daylight, street lighting, shadows) - Good Habits and Exercises ⁃ Look up & far ahead always. easier said than done because you cant just blindly look farther ahead and ignore everything closer, you need to git gud enough to process the faster/closer stuff at a lower reflexive layer ⁃ pick your lines far head of turns, and scan smoothly far ahead of your wheel while keeping sight lines up & ahead ⁃ Leave room for the unpredictable ⁃ Pay attention to traction and surface conditions very carefully, especially the smaller changes that are easy to overlook: smooth/textured, painted/non-painted, wet/dry, sandy, sloped/non-sloped, etc ⁃ Countersteering, unlearn normal steering and relearn the physics of whats actually happening, it helps you steer so much better. hypothesis: in low gravily environments, motorbikes would not need countersteering until higher speeds, because there is less gravity to trigger the fall & lean-in of the bike. ⁃ Lean angle, it provides all the steering and affects traction ⁃ Weight shifting, weightless rider technique ⁃ Hips and center of gravity do all the steering, not the hands ⁃ No hands = default, you should be comfortable riding every situation without hands as comfortably as with hands ⁃ Traction (you have tons of it on a bicycle, way more than motos, take advantage of it!) ⁃ Tread patterns and why they actually have less traction than slicks on pavement ⁃ Hops, bunny hops, wheelies, manuals, general balance control ⁃ Using surface reflections around you to monitor traffic, especially quick changes in lighting and shadows ⁃ Defensive driving, defending your lane, monitoring driver attention, estimating approach speeds and potential collision impact energy ⁃ Avoid relying on perioscopic depth perception, learn to read ambient light & moving shadows to gauge depth at night (headlamps are better than bar-mounted lights for this reason because you can move your head in small circles to make shadows move & illuminate depth queues) ⁃ Front brake is king, never rely on the back brake unless traction is especially low ⁃ Watch car front wheels and driver's gaze for earlier indication of turning intent ⁃ Signal your own intent with your eyes and head. when approaching an intersection where you want a car to cross *before* you: gain the drivers attention, then look very deliberately **behind** them, 99% of them will proceed to cross when they see you look *away* from them. From their perspective it looks like you're sizing up the car after them in line, and that you've already assumed they're rolling through the intersection first. ⁃ Shoulder-check every 5-15s if there's even a single car within 200m, especially on empty roads with infequent traffic, don't get complacent and assume "vicinity is empty now" = "vicinity will remain empty for 30+ sec" ⁃ Trigger inductive traffic sensing loops on the edge over the wires, not in the center ⁃ Intersection approach, look both ways 3 times, starting with the busier/closer intersecting lane ⁃ Mash to accelerate, then spin in a light gear to maintain momentum, more time spinning lightly lets you recover more and maintain that speed over a longer-distance without burning out quickly (applies to cresting hills as well) ⁃ Stretch to drop your heels down farther while pedaling (+stand up) to stop calf cramping ⁃ Pedal with exaggerated ankle & toe movement + in an easier gear to stop thigh cramps ⁃ Don't stretch when stopped during long rides, it feels good temporarily but you're already stretching most muscles just by riding, and stretching them slightly more than the natural pedaling position shortens endurance and makes cramps happen sooner. Save stretching for the day after. - Setup & supplies ⁃ Gear ratios and deraileur types ⁃ Lights: one strong 10hr+ headlamp + one smaller 24+ hrs front light, rear should be 50+ hours, cold temperatures and battery wear severly reduce runtime, test your gear frequently ⁃ calculating correct PSI, the maximum is bad for everything except perfectly smooth wood, 75-95psi is usually good for mixed city/trail/road riding ⁃ Patch kit, pump, batteries, multitool, chain master link, string/wire ⁃ tire tread pattern selection ⁃ Look for versatility in tools, aim for multiple uses for everything, e.g. Hat is good for blocking bright lights at night, insects, rain, and warmth ⁃ Weight ⁃ Bike fit ⁃ Brake tightness is good (cars have the brakes always dragging for immediate response) ⁃ Optimize for things that fail gracefully, e.g bike lights that switch to 10+ hour low power mode, pliers can become a wrench or hammer, string snaps into two shorter strings ⁃ Headphones + hat = good isolation from many uncomfortable environments ⁃ put coins & presta adapter for gas station air pumps in patch kit - Planning rides ⁃ Route, battery, refill stops ⁃ Lighting & traffic (night is better) ⁃ Layers for temperature change ⁃ Goals for the ride ⁃ Elevation ⁃ Strava/Mapmyride/GPS tracking ⁃ Aim for fewest turns on an unfamiliar route, optimize for ease of navigation first, and distance second ⁃ Bike the walking directions for most direct route, check street view and satellite for shortcuts ⁃ Avoid traffic lights and prefer parallel side streets with stop signs ⁃ Prefer well lit streets with no bike lane to the reverse ⁃ Music ⁃ Play connect-the-dots with known bike paths instead of following more "direct" google maps routes that try to avoid car streets ⁃ Always have a contingency to get home in case of trouble (bus, train, friend, etc) - biking at night - looking for headlights behind you - reflective tape and lights - weight shifting - muscle group rotating - no hands practice - mapmyride - transit app bike directions - dealing with bugs - backbeat pros - steering with hips not hands - hands-free operation - nighttime tips, headlight tracking ### Links - **Best cycling physics interactive animated explanation:** https://ciechanow.ski/bicycle/ - **Great all-around resource for advanced cycling info:** https://www.sheldonbrown.com - **Global cycling network videos:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ9CGswQSsc - Nice article on the bicycle maintenance mindset: https://tegowerk.eu/posts/bicycle-repair/ --- ## Related Photo Journals * **[🚲 Motorbiking Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/motorbikes)** * **[🚲 Bicycling Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/bicycle-journal)** * [🚐 Vanlife Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/vanlife-journal) * [🧗‍♀️ Climbing Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/climbing-journal) * **[🏁 Racing & Rally Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/racing-journal)** - [🏂 Winter Sports Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/snow-journal) - [🌊 Water Sports Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/water-journal) - [🪂 Air Sports Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/air-journal) - **[🚁 Drone Flying Journal](https://docs.monadical.com/s/drone-journal)** * **[🗺️ Guide: Off-Road Route Finding & Navigation With GPX Tracks](https://docs.monadical.com/s/offroad-navigation)** * [🧳 Guide: Adventure Gear & Packing Lists for Off-Road Moto-Camping](https://docs.monadical.com/s/packing-lists) * **[🏍️ Listicle: Motorbikes I've Owned and Enjoyed Using](https://docs.monadical.com/s/motorbikes-used)** <br/>