How do you bimble?

How do you bimble?

There’s any other approach?

The direct answer is pulse on the handle bars and be brutal about sticking in zone 2. As your pulse creeps up on a hill you have stop pushing on the pedals and focus on balance. Imagine you’re with some one who is tired and suffering

It’s actually really hard. Lower gearing really helps.

This year i cycled up a 10% road hill in zone 2 . Quite an achievement for me

I’m not sure if pulse meters and training zones are really in the spirit of bimbling!

This is where the non-cycling clothing comes in: Imagine you’re going to riding to a nice pub for lunch with some friends and parents and maybe a stroll round town after. If you’re worried about padded pants – I reckon a bimble bike should have a comfy saddle that you can ride a decent way without a chammy pad.

You’re wearing normal clothes and want to be as fresh as you would have been if you’d arrived by car. Getting a bead on? Knock it back, click down a couple, soft pedal for a bit.

Call it a “normal clothes bike”. Cycling clothes are for getting sweaty in. Normal clothes are for spending the day in.

I’m not sure if pulse meters and training zones are really in the spirit of bimbling!

A top tip from a seasoned bimbler: dump Strava and any of that nonsense. Has anything else done more to suck the joy out of an activity? Who gives a toss how fast you got up climb A or got down decent B?

A top tip from a seasoned bimbler: dump Strava and any of that nonsense. Has anything else done more to suck the joy out of an activity? Who gives a toss how fast you got up climb A or got down decent B?

You can just use it for logging rides, not pay for the ‘premium’ analysis features and KOM tables and just treat it like an online riding diary with some bolt on SM, kind of what it always was.

Cycling is a pleasure in itself and if you get what you need from going fast, then go fast, no one’s obliged to bimble.

To the pleasure of just cycling though, bimbling adds the pleasure of where you’re cycling (for me this is out in the country away from people & amongst the wildlife). Perhaps tweak your cockpit so you have a slightly less acute attack position and had a look around; if you’re focussed on a patch of tarmac a few feet in front of your front wheel, all you’ll see is tarmac. Prioritise comfort over weight/performance?

Take in the view and see what’s about. I’ve been known to wish a ‘good morning’ to cows, sheep etc. as I pass by.

I’m very OCD and tend to cycle the same old routes, I need to bimble more myself. When getting back into cycling after some heart attacks I was glancing at Komoot and spotted that there was a windmill up on the Mendips that I knew nothing about, so set out to find it. Just riding lanes that I hadn’t before was great & I found the windmill. When I got there (and this is very bimbly) I actually got off my bike, had a wander around & took in the view.

Try it. If you don’t like it go fast.

SPD sandals help.

It is an offence to ride a pedal cycle on a road or other public place whilst being unfit through drink or drugs…

True, but….

My drinking is also at a bimbling pace when I am on a country pub/bike bimble. I also suspect/hope the police have better things to do than stop me on a bridleway miles from a town to do a breath test.

A top tip from a seasoned bimbler: dump Strava and any of that nonsense.

perhaps you are unaware that the default Strava map now highlights pubs/cafes etc – basically the places bimblers will want to stop at – plus the heat map will show you the best route between them (don’t want to be bimbling on busy roads 😂). It’s literally the bimblers’ best friend 🤣

https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/the-slow-cycling-movement

Also take a look at an introduction to one of Jack Thurston’s ‘Lost Lanes’ books. It is very much about attitude first and foremost, and being present in your surroundings, curious to the places and landscape you’re travelling to, and being open minded about routes.

You need to forget about HR zones, speed, and distance, these will become just consequences of the riding you do, and you don’t need to track them or care much about them at the time. You can also go fast in the parts you want to go fast, but keeping the right mindset is the key.

I largely bimble, but I also have parts of rides I want to purely enjoy the speed of a bike over a particular section, which I do, but then i’m happy to stop whenever I want and take a picture, or decide to go a different direction. The ride itself needn’t be dictated by how fast you think you should or shouldn’t go, or if there’s a strava segment or whatever. I’d say bimbling is anti-competitive, so keep that in mind?

Also take a look at an introduction to one of Jack Thurston’s ‘Lost Lanes’ books. It is very much about attitude first and foremost, and being present in your surroundings, curious to the places and landscape you’re travelling to, and being open minded about routes.

Yes! Love those books! Done a fair few of the rides. And the pictures throughout reflect what I was going on about earlier – definite normal clothes vibe!
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^ Bimble-curious bike somewhere in Herts on a Thurston ride, some (many) years ago -big tarty balloon tyres will help control the pace as well!
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^And home again afterwards. That was a good day. Nice place to live as well!

I’m with the wear the correct attire crowd. A bimble should in undertaken in relaxed clothing, flannel shirt and preferably a straw hat. You need another bike too, not one you wish to upgrade and reduce weight with a nice upright stance. A Party Pace bike if you will.

edit – and a bell too, but then all bikes should have one of them.

It is an offence to ride a pedal cycle on a road or other public place whilst being unfit through drink or drugs…

True – but its a much differnt standard than for car driving.  You have to be “unfit” which in effect means you have to be unable to ride the bike by being pissed.  Certainly around here what the cops do is tell you to walk home if pissed and you have to be all over the road to attract attention.  a failed breathalyzer is not enough for a prosecution indeed they should not be breathalising at all.

Joining @tthew in the old P7 Bimblers Bike Club (though mine’s only 13 years old)…

I’m off out on mine shortly for a convoluted, pootley bridleway route to pick up some shopping. I will be wearing non-bikey kit, but unfortunately no straw hat, though I feel I do need to invest in some SPD sandals 🙂

Come on then… lets see your bimbler bikes

In its natural habitat (outside the pub 😂)

and a bell too, but then all bikes should have one of them.

I currently favour a clown horn.

But I’d love one of these:

Ride no hands.

If you find this difficult, pretend that your family has been kidnapped by aliens, and that you can only get them back by completing the aliens’ fiendish challenge of riding no hands for <insert stupid challenge here>.