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bloomingpanda asked: I've been so inspired with your biking everywhere, and I really want to beable to do that, I cant drive yet and have no acces to rides and everywhere around me is between 4 and 17miles, if I can learn to bike 8 miles, I would have so much freedom. So where im getting at with all of this is, How did you start biking for so many hours ? What do i do, to push myself to bike more then 2miles? Any tips for biking? : ) And anything else you have! ? have a wonerful day. A.

When I started riding I started riding out of necessity. I lost my license and it was either ride or not work and get evicted and starve to death, so I opted for riding haha. So I really sort of just dove straight into it. My commute each direction at the time was about 4.5 miles. So I’d ride 4.5 miles, work for X amount of hours, and then ride 4.5 miles home. Plus riding anywhere else I’d need to go like the grocery store, pharmacy, etc etc.

4.5 miles really isn’t much at all, especially if you have a road bike with thinner tires, which is where I’d recommend you start. Go on Re-Cycle ((I love this site, hopefully there’s a location near you!)), craig’s list or garage sales or thrift shops in your area and find yourself a cheap used road bike. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to work. You can always sand and paint the frame and replace every single other part on the bike with time.

Bring a tape measure with you when you go checking out bikes. You’re gonna wanna measure the seat tube length of the bike to make sure it’s the right size for you. THIS WEBSITE is a GREAT resource for learning how to properly measure a bike and know what size bike you personally need.

Once you find a road bike with the proper frame size for you, buy it and take it to a bike shop. Get it tuned up, lubed up, tires inflated, etc etc. It’ll probably run you $50 for a tuneup but it’ll be worth it to not have it rattling under you every time you hit a pothole, like it’s going to just cumble beneath you haha. They can fit the seat height for you as well, to give you the most comfortable ride.

And like I said, the first thing you’ll want to upgrade is your saddle, but before that get yourself a sturdy U-Lock to lock your bike up with so no one steals it. Also, if you’re going to be riding at night, get yourself a set of lights so you don’t get run over. Make sure to take them off your bike when you lock it up and put them in your bag, so no one steals them off your bike.

And then, when you want to go somewhere, just go on google maps and use the bike option to get directions on how to get to where you’re going. It will also give you a rough time estimate on how long it will take you to get there. When I started riding I always added 10 minutes to that just to be safe, and also to account for any traffic.

Learn your local laws for riding your bike around. This website is my local site for cycling guides and it’s a good place to start even though it’s not local for you, since it just give a pretty basic rundown of common sense and common courtesy road cycling.

2 miles on a bike is really nothing! I can ride my bike 2 miles in 8 minutes no problem if there are no stoplights haha. Skinny road tires mean less drag on the road and you can really fly. So pushing yourself past 2 miles, even just starting out, shouldn’t be hard. At most it will take 15 minutes, with traffic/lights.

So, instead of saying “Oh I’m going to have to work up to going 5 miles away, I’m gonna have to practice riding and all these things first” just say to your friends “Okay, I’ll meet you there at 3pm!” and then hop on your bike at 2 just to make sure you get there in time with no issues. If you just hop on your bike with a destination in mind and the knowledge that A) you would have no other way to get there and B) you’re saving money, exercising, and doing good for the environment, you’ll be surprised on how fast it will go. :)

Hope that ramble makes sense haha. If you need me to elaborate, please ask!

Anonymous asked: do you know of any good/comfy bike seats at stores like target or something? i just started riding today and i've never been so sore in the butt. god that all sounds really wrong, but i don't know how else to word it.

Hahaha it doesn’t sound that wrong.

Okay, first off, Target is NOT the place you want to go for a bike saddle.

There are things you should know about bike saddles:
1. If the store or package labels a saddle as a “seat”, it’s not good.
2. The wider, cushier, gel-lier a saddle is, the less comfortable it will be. Even if it’s labeled as a “comfort” seat or saddle. Trust me. I do a lot of riding.
3. The narrower, harder, and thinner a saddle is, the more comfortable it will be.

You can google yourself to confirm all of these things. The reason you want a harder narrower thinner saddle is because then when you ride, you put all the weight on your sitbones of your pelvis and you won’t get chafing or saddle sores.

The seats I went to target.com and found look horrifying to me!
Ack!
Scary!

If you’re going to invest in one thing and one thing only for your bike, invest in a good saddle. I’m riding around on a Frankenbike of mismatched road bike parts mostly, but I’ve got a $160 saddle and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I switch my nice saddle onto whichever of my 3 bikes I’m riding, because I can’t live without it.

This is the company that makes my saddle. I recommend them and their saddles to the fullest. ((Mine is the Vitesse, but I have it in a limited edition Italian leather chameleon finish, depending on how the light hits it, it’s either blue, violet, or red violet. Soo pretty haha.))

You can really see the difference in the shape and form of the saddle compared to the giant “fatman couch cushions” they’re selling at Target. Believe it or not, my saddle is much more comfortable than any of the cushy wide gelly saddles I’ve ridden on.

It puts the weight on your sitbones properly so you absorb impact from bumps better, and you don’t have any extra rubbing to cause you chafing, which trust me, is the ABSOLUTE WORST. I did a 60 mile ride once with a wider saddle and I could barely walk or ride my bike for a week after, it was so uncomfortable.

Check out discount bike sites like Nashbar.com for good deals on saddles, or check out sites like amazon.com, though sorting through the rubbish on that sort of site might be more work.

Or stop in at a local bike shop and have them fit you for a saddle. Bike shop people are super helpful. Even if you don’t buy it from them and end up finding it online for cheaper, at least you’ll know the saddle width you need.

Anyway, sorry that was sort of a ramble, but yeah. Good luck getting a new saddle, and really, it’s well worth it to invest in a good saddle above all else. Besides that, your bum will get used to the riding the more you do it, and you’ll get more accustomed to taking the impact of bumps and stuff the more you ride, so keep riding! :D

Anonymous asked: do you think riding a bike is a good way to lose weight? do you have any tips or anything? all i really know is people say to ride for distance, not speed, something like that. but that's as much advice as i've gotten.

Riding a bike is a great way to lose weight! When I lost my license and started cycling, I definitely dropped a few pounds right away. And when cycling season ended here for the winter, lord knows I put a few pounds back on X(

My dad used to be a professional cyclist and he’s in the best shape of any 52 year old man I’ve ever seen, even though he hasn’t ridden in a few years now.

Riding a bike is a lot easier/less intense, in terms of cardio, than running is. So unless you’re doing a lot of climbs ((hills)), you’re gonna have to put in more time/distance on the bike. You also should aim for speed, but at first just work on distance and riding form, and speed will come naturally after. But it’s nice because in an hour on a bike, if you cycle hard and fast, on flat ground, you can go FAR. You can really go places on a bike!

My dad used to always aim for Metric Century rides, which are 100km or 62 miles. He found a place 31 miles away from the front door of my parent’s house, which happened to be an ice cream shop, and he would ride there 3 times a week, get an ice cream, and then ride home.

He said having a computer on your bike is the best way to tell exactly how far you’ve gone, but you can get a little obsessive with trying to make an even mileage like 25, 30, 50, 62, etc etc. I just use DailyMile.com and MapMyRide.com to tell how far and how fast I’ve gone. I am going to get a computer for my bike in the spring though, because I’m going to do a lot more cycling this year than I did last year.

If you want to cycle to lose weight and not for leisure, I say definitely get a road bike with skinny tires, and a good saddle. I have a $160 racing saddle, it’s thin and hard and honestly MUCH more comfortable for distance riding than a big cushy seat, which actually tend to cause horrible chafing and saddle-sores. I ride single speed but if you want to keep your derailleur on that’s up to you.

Go to a bike shop and get fitted for a bike so you know what frame size you need in cm, and then buy a used bike for a lot cheaper than a new one. You don’t need something super fancy to start off with. Mine is from Craig’s List and I love it to death. Just as long as it fits well and isn’t super heavy, it will be fine. You’ll definitely want to invest in a good saddle though, and take it in for a tuneup. After a saddle the next thing you’ll want to invest in is wheels and tires, and then pedals and handlebars. You can always sand and paint a frame.

Uh yeah this sort of just turned into a ramble.

What it comes down to is:
Get a bike that fits.
Ride the hell out of it.
Lose weight.

Also, start bike commuting! It’s a great way to get in cardio.

Cars run on money and make you fat. Bikes run on fat and save you money.