Am I ready to start bicycling on the roads

I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70
miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to
bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a
stationary bike and mileage on the roads?

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 10:26:39 -0800, wrote:

I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70
miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to
bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a
stationary bike and mileage on the roads?

There really does not seem to be a correlation between "miles" on a
stationary bike versus miles on a real bike. I presume you are talking
about 3-5 hours a week on the stationary bike. Personally, I could never
tolerate that much on a stationary bike, but that much time on a real bike
is, for me, far too little.

Riding a bike is different from just the exercise. It's fun, at least it
is for me. It's challenging, and you get to see and experience the areas
you ride through in a way you cannot in a car.

On the other hand, such things as balance, comfort in traffic, safe riding
practices, and hills, are very much there on the bike but not in the gym.
Even if you are tired and bored, if you are 20 miles from home, you still
have to ride. I find that to be an advantage, in that I can't stop just
when I begin to feel tired -- I have to work through it.

But the issues of safety and riding skill you need to address. Find
someone who can help you get used to balancing a bike. While it is true
that, once learned, you will probably always be able to do it, it does
take some learning at first. If you drive, you probably already know the
basics of the rules of the road, but there is more than that to safe
riding, and a class in "effective cycling" is a good investment.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | You will say Christ saith this and the apostles say this; but
_`\(,_ | what canst thou say? -- George Fox.
(_)/ (_) |

In article ,
says...
I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70
miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to
bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a
stationary bike and mileage on the roads?

No consistent one, because of the difference in resistance. If you
keep it cranked up on the stationary, you're probably in pretty good
shape; if you have it set low, you won't be in as good of shape.

However, conditioning is really a secondary matter. Bike handling
skills are more important, and can't be gained on a stationary.
Putting a real bike on rollers will help a lot with balance and
steering, but the best way IMO is to just get out on a quiet road or
bike trail and start riding.


--
Dave Kerber
Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 13:51:37 -0500, David Kerber
wrote:

In article ,
says...
I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70
miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to
bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a
stationary bike and mileage on the roads?

No consistent one, because of the difference in resistance. If you
keep it cranked up on the stationary, you're probably in pretty good
shape; if you have it set low, you won't be in as good of shape.

However, conditioning is really a secondary matter. Bike handling
skills are more important, and can't be gained on a stationary.
Putting a real bike on rollers will help a lot with balance and
steering, but the best way IMO is to just get out on a quiet road or
bike trail and start riding.

Good replies. Since I'm just starting doing both (adding sta. biking), I'll
say that if you push it a little on the sta. bike, and you're doing 30
min/session four times a week, that would translate easily to riding about
10 miles on relatively flat ground on a bike trail (trying to separate out
the road skillz for the moment).

But if you're transitioning to road/trail/outside riding, then you'll get
pretty steady improvement, since you have a little bit of a base already.

I'm presuming that you've been riding the sta. bike for 3-6 months at this
level, are not grossly overweight, etc. (I only mention the 'overweight',
b/c that can be a handicap at first if you live in a hilly location. Larger
riders do just fine.) Just be sure you've had a MD's check up, and all the
other 'yadda, yadda's for doing strenuous exercise - actual biking can be
more strenuous - you have to do emergency sprinting, or as the other reply
mentioned, if you're 20 miles from home, you can't stop, you have to work
through it. It's very hard to 'work through it' on a sta. bike, b/c of the
tedium, the constant pedalling (real biking comes in bursts, with lots of
little 'rest' periods, even though it can be more strenuous at times).

If you're asking how much should you be doing to bike that much on the
roads, I don't understand the question. Are you planning to transition, or
do you just want to continue the sta. bike but tell your mom that you could
ride 10 miles a day, 7 days a week if you wanted. ;-)

Finally, I'm not sure you're asking, but if you've never ridden a bike, it
might take a week or two to learn to balance on two wheels. That's a whole
'nother discussion.

HTH,
-B

David Kerber wrote:
In article ,
says...

I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70
miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to
bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a
stationary bike and mileage on the roads?

However, conditioning is really a secondary matter. Bike handling
skills are more important, and can't be gained on a stationary.
Putting a real bike on rollers will help a lot with balance and
steering, but the best way IMO is to just get out on a quiet road or
bike trail and start riding.

Emphasis on quiet road. If you live in a city, drive your bike to the
outskirts and start on less-traveled state or county roads, or stay
close to a home in your suburban neighborhood if you have one. Learn
the lessons of driveways, taking the lane (when, how) and stupid driver
tricks one at a time. Feel free to start slow and wait years for the
skills to develop.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall
"We should not march into Baghdad. ... Assigning young soldiers to
a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning
them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerilla war, it
could only plunge that part of the world into ever greater
instability." George Bush Sr. in his 1998 book "A World Transformed"

wrote in message
om...
I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70
miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to
bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a
stationary bike and mileage on the roads?

I dk about that, since the amount of time I've spent on stationary bikes vs.
real riding is minimal. But what I recommend is if you have a bicycling club
in your area, to see if they have beginner rides. You'll feel much more
confident on those roads when you have others to ride with and learn from.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com

Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm

New CD coming out this month! See: http://www.tiferet.net

"To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner
was you."

Fri, 20 Feb 2004 16:27:48 -0700,
,
Raptor wrote:

Feel free to start slow and wait years for the
skills to develop.

That's driving, silly.
Cycling is to start slow and _work_ years to develop the skills.
--
zk

On 20 Feb 2004 10:26:39 -0800,
) wrote:

I am a new rider. I have never had a bicycle. I am bicycling 40 - 70
miles a week on a stationary bike. How much should I be doing to
bicycle that much on the roads? Is there a ratio between mileage on a
stationary bike and mileage on the roads?

Stationary cycling is emphatically *not* real cycling. See my
despairing thread on it ("I know why the caged bird sings")

You might be putting out an awful lot of energy on the stationary
bike, but on the stationary, you don't have to worry about other
traffic, road conditions, where you're going, or, indeed, staying
upright. In terms of total effort and exhaustion, I am pretty much
empty after 45 minutes on the stationary trainer. I can ride on real
roads for hours and hours--but real riding requires concentration.

If you have never ridden a real bicycle before, I *strongly* suggest
you get one and try it out somewhere where you won't be a danger to
yourself or others. A deserted parking lot, an empty suburban street,
a little-used bike trail (make sure the surface is good: having
traction is good, not having it is very bad).

I learned to ride as a little kid, so it's hard for me to describe how
to ride a bicycle. You ride a bicycle! In seriousness, you will be
spending a lot of time learning to balance the bicycle (BTW, you cant'
balance it when it's standing still--it's got to be moving, even if
only a little....).

Once you've learned how to balance, then there's the question of
traffic. On the bicycle you are a vehicle, and all the laws that
apply to vehicles in your state apply to you. That means riding in
the roadway, following all the signs, signaling, etc. Not to mention
getting used to the feeling of being overtaken at very close quarters
by traffic that might be moving quite a bit faster than yourself.

Be bold, but prudent. Gain confidence slowly. Ride a little, then a
little farther, then a little faster, then a little farther again.
And remember that riding is not the same as cranking 200 Watts of
effort for 45 minutes.

-Luigi

"Whoever wants to know a thing has no way of doing so except by coming
into contact with it, that is, by living (practising) in its
environment. ... If you want knowledge, you must take part in the
practice of changing reality. If you want to know the taste of a pear,
you must change the pear by eating it yourself.... If you want to know
the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in
revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience."
-Mao Tse-tung


www.livejournal.com/users/ouij
Photos Rants Raves

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 15:27:31 -0500, Badger_South
wrote:


Finally, I'm not sure you're asking, but if you've never ridden a bike, it
might take a week or two to learn to balance on two wheels. That's a whole
'nother discussion.

um, actually, B, it's *this* discussion....

OP has *never* owned a bicycle before, and presumably has never ridden
a real one, either. Fitness is one thing, but skill is quite another.
And the OP needs skill.

Take sculling, for instance. In my boat club at college, there were
guys who rowed sweep (two hands on one oar, with at least two rowers
ina boat) but had never sculled (hand on each oar) before. It took
several weeks of learning on a single scull before they could even
begin to start serious training. Until then, it was all they could do
not to fall into the water, or steer crooked, or collide with
anything, or otherwise come to grief. And these were otherwise young,
fit guys.


-Luigi
"aaaand death for ten! death one!...."

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 23:00:38 -0500, Luigi de Guzman
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 15:27:31 -0500, Badger_South
wrote:


Finally, I'm not sure you're asking, but if you've never ridden a bike, it
might take a week or two to learn to balance on two wheels. That's a whole
'nother discussion.

um, actually, B, it's *this* discussion....

OP has *never* owned a bicycle before, and presumably has never ridden
a real one, either. Fitness is one thing, but skill is quite another.
And the OP needs skill.

OK, just finding it hard to believe that someone had never ridden a bike.
This is different (?) from never owned a bike...naw, guess not. Gopher it.

Take sculling, for instance. In my boat club at college, there were
guys who rowed sweep (two hands on one oar, with at least two rowers
ina boat) but had never sculled (hand on each oar) before. It took
several weeks of learning on a single scull before they could even
begin to start serious training. Until then, it was all they could do
not to fall into the water, or steer crooked, or collide with
anything, or otherwise come to grief. And these were otherwise young,
fit guys.

And, during the heyday of sea exploration, most of the sailors couldn't
swim. ;-p

-B



-Luigi
"aaaand death for ten! death one!...."