Intro post!

[rivenwanderer]

Hello! I've been bicycling for the last 6 or 7 months. I bike the (totally walkable) .7mi to work each day to keep in practice, and go for longer rides on weekends or in the evenings when I want to see friends in the next town over and that sort of thing. My bike has panniers on it, so if I decide to do errands on the way home from work, I can carry stuff home easily.





The stickers are reflective, though it's not in an area that needs a lot of visibility help--it's mostly just for fun. (They're from http://www.funreflector.com/)

My girlfriend's been biking in the city since childhood, so I think of her as the "real" bicyclist and myself as the dorky "new kid" (though both of us are more Clever Cycles types than either fixies or spandex). It can be tricky to bike together because she tends to be more aggressive about interacting with traffic. Anyway, I love my bike--the upright position and intended-to-have-a-foot-on-the-ground geometry, the balance between speed and hauling capability, and of course the fact that it's purple :)

We're hoping to bike to a pick-your-own berries farm later this summer--it's 12.5 miles away, which is easily 3 times the farthest distance I've ridden (though it looks like the terrain will be relatively easy). How much should I freak out about practicing riding for farther distances to get ready? Will just a few trips to 6-miles-away destinations be enough practice? (How do people usually describe bike trips, anyway? Do you talk about the distance away that the place you're going is (e.g. 12.5mi), or the length of the total round-trip (e.g. 25mi)?)

Comments

[copracat]

Well, hellooo gorgeous bike.

I'm newly back into bicycling and also have a Townie. I'm cycling for fun, commuting and knee rehab and I find it pretty easy to cycle 12km in a round trip, with a coffee break at the far point of the trip. That's about 9, 9.5miles. I have a short, but slightly hilly trip to work and do longer, flatter trips on the weekend to get stronger and more skilled.

I think it's a great plan to practice but you could also locate a couple of places on the route you can stop for a pleasant break if you do find it hard going. I think it's mentally helpful if you know you've got those breaks.

Do you ever stand up on your pedals to cycle? I find it hard to keep the cadence if I try it on my townie, so I wonder if they're just not made right for stand up on the pedals cycling?

[rivenwanderer]

Oo, planning out potential stopping points along the way is a good idea.

I've actually never learned to stand on the pedals when biking, so I haven't tried it on the townie.

[darkemeralds]

I've never ridden a Townie, but my cruiser and my Dutch bike both have similar geometry, and there just isn't room in the "cockpit" area to stand on the pedals. You'd kind of tend to go over the top.

[copracat]

I feel like I can't get the right angle or height or something. What you say makes a lot of sense. Thank you.