Need a Reason to Buy a Bike?

Three great things about riding a bicycle: It gets you fit. It gets you outdoors. It actually gets you places under your own muscle power, occasionally even faster than you could get there by car.

Best of all, it lets you accomplish all three things simultaneously.

On the fitness front, riding a bike burns calories, builds impressive lower-body strength, and improves aerobic (heart-lung) capacity. Riding a bike for a couple of hours doesn’t really feel like work, either—to me at least—compared to, say, running or swimming laps for the same amount of time.

As for getting outdoors, cycling has brought me breathtaking scenery, the scents of pine woods and lilacs, backyard barbecues and just-mown hay, the sounds of rushing streams, raging surf and, once, a whinnying horse who galloped the length of long field alongside me, matching my pace as I rode by.

Cycling brings me the familiar sights of landscaped grounds, green pastures, old barns, stone walls, forested hillsides, laundry swinging from the line, children playing on the lawn. Pedaling along, I’ve seen my fair share of the odd and unexpected, too. Riding home one day in a stiff breeze, I saw an old barn collapse into a heap of boards. Another time, I rode by a tiny girl dancing on the lawn in a pink tutu, holding a black umbrella against the rain, while her family watched from a row of white plastic chairs.

I’ve had many encounters with wildlife. Once, I had to stop to allow an albino porcupine shepherd eight little babies across the road. Another time, I swept down a hill and around a corner and barely missed colliding with a bull moose as he charged from the woods across the road.

As for actually getting me somewhere, since the day I left George Issa’s bike shop in 1984 with my first real bicycle, I’ve cranked tens of thousands of miles over hill and dale on a succession of road and mountain bikes. I’ve done the great bulk of that mileage simply commuting to and from work.
 
I approach bike commuting with a no-nonsense attitude: Pump the tires, fill the water bottles,
climb on the bike and start pedaling. Once a week, I bring a couple of changes of work clothes and hang them in the supply closet at the office. I keep a towel and a bar of soap in my desk drawer for quick sponge baths in the ladies’ room. I carry my lunch, wallet and hairbrush in a backpack.

A few essential tips:
 
Wear the helmet. Twice in 22 years I’ve crashed badly enough to send me to an emergency room. Both times, the ER physicians told me my helmet saved my life.

Buy a helmet with a SNELL or ASTM sticker indicating it meets the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CSPC) safety standards. To protect you, your helmet must fit snugly and sit squarely on your head, with the inner band of the helmet resting just above your eyebrows and the chin strap pulled as tight as you can comfortably wear it.

Don’t wear the helmet again after a crash, even a minor crash. Even the best-designed, most expensive helmet will protect your head for only a single impact. Don’t buy a used helmet. You can’t tell by looking at it if it’s gone through a crash.

Buy local. Unless you do all your own mechanic work, it makes sense to buy your bike, most of your gear, and your service from a local shop. You’ll want and need to form a long, trusting relationship with your shop’s mechanic(s). The folks you trust and rely on deserve your money, too.

Get your bike “fit” and have it tuned annually by a professional. “Fitting a bike” means setting it up and adjusting it to accommodate your body, your intended use of the bike, and your riding style. A proper fit will help you avoid injury, improve your comfort, and boost your energy efficiency. Have a professional tune-up each spring to check the bike for safety and replace worn parts.

Train up. Especially if you haven’t cycled for years, start with a few easy miles and work up gradually. Rather than risk knee injury by grinding away in a high gear, learn to “spin” fast in a low gear. Polish your shifting, turning, climbing and other skills with practice runs on a traffic-sparse road before moving onto a major roadway.

Follow the rules of the road. If you ride on paved roads, ride assertively, but courteously, with traffic. Ride single file. Use appropriate hand signals (but avoid rude gestures. You can’t win against an enraged driver).

On long rides, pick your pit-stop locations with care. Once, my biking partner and I ducked into some secluded woods in the middle of nowhere, she on the right side of the road, I on the left. A few seconds later, I saw three or four gun-toting guys in camouflage gear running toward the spot where my friend had disappeared into the underbrush. Then I saw her, running out with her hands up, shrieking, “Help! Don’t shoot! I’m a civilian!”

Turns out, we’d answered nature’s call in the middle of a paintball field.

By Peg Boyles, UNH Cooperative Extension Writer/Editor

For more information call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Center's Info-line (toll free) at 1-877-398-4769 or send us an email. Volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday 9:00am to 2:00 p.m.