First you need a bike and a helmet.
You can buy a dependable bicycle for $300 with a plush seat that will absorb your neighborhood’s bumps and forgive careless handling. Or you can spend $14,000 for a carbon fiber racing machine that will feel as if you’re riding a board and twitch like a thoroughbred beneath you. Be sure to ask if the price you negotiate includes pedals. There are such a wide variety of pedals that most new bikes are sold without them.
Of course, you can find a used bike at any number of garage sales, but if the bike has been “in storage” for a long time, then it will need more reconditioning than you’ll want to do.
Buy at a local bike shop rather than a discount chain. The advice, fitting, bike quality and service following the sale will be worth any extra money you might spend.
The recent surge of cycling popularity prompted whole new categories of bicycles. Don’t be confused by descriptive terms like cruiser, city, commuter, cross, plush, fixie, race or mountain. Just tell your bike store guy how you plan to ride and where.
All helmets are manufactured to specific standards, and you are not buying a safer helmet by spending more money. Higher priced helmets will be lighter and fit better.
When you go riding, be seen. Part of the benefit of the bright, flashy clothing you see cyclists wear is just that — you see them. Mount a bright flashing safety light behind you.
In mere moments, your bicycle can carry you miles from home. You may be out on a rural road by yourself, have an accident and be unconscious. Carry identification and an emergency contact number. You can get a wristband ID on which to list your vitals, contact, blood type, etc., from several vendors, including www.RoadID.com.
How do you find safe routes? On your smart phone or computer (http://maps.google.com/), you can actually pick a destination and ask for the best route by bike. Many areas are establishing bike lanes on municipal roads.
Searching “Alabama rails to trails” gets you 30,000 options for designated trails in the state, including 71 miles of wide, hard packed trails built on old railroad beds, on which the steepest grade will be 3 percent. (www.great-trails.com/ala.shtml)
If you start riding as part of your regimen to lose weight, then be careful not to use a short ride to justify a huge infusion of calories. On the 500-mile RAGBRAI (The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa), each summer that rolls through every 4-H Club, church bazaar, Girl Scout barbecue and pie sale in Iowa, it is not unusual for some of the 10,000 riders to actually gain weight. (TAB)
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