What are your top cycling tips that you have learned from 1st hand experience?

Mine is never rest the brake disc on your leg when fixing a puncture half way down a 10km descent. It is hot and it will burn you!

Don't try adjusting your front mudguard stays while riding.

Don't unclip one foot to look round backwards.

Keep your front wheel straight when you land.

Theres no such thing as "tweaking" gears.

Falling off usually hurts but not as much as you expect! and can lead to a good tale to tell in the pub.

Look before you leap (or do a jump)

Try not to do wheelies in the car park and fall over in front of your friends before you even set off.

Biking + beer + texting almost always leads to a broken phone and cuts and bruises, so don't do it, m'kay?

Always say "its the penultimate run of the day" not the last – and don't go for a LAST blast 🙂

Never try to adjust a cycling computer just a little closer to the wheel whilst riding.

Although, I enjoy my riding much more without that stupid thing anyway!

keep your mouth shut when descending the next hill after crossing a sheep/cow field

Never try to adjust a cycling computer just a little closer to the wheel whilst riding.

Although, I enjoy my riding much more without that stupid thing anyway!

what, your finger?? 😯

don't look down to see how much your fork compresses on landing when you're mucking about on the doubles at the local bmx track.

Don't ride bikes – They are expensive, break you both physically and mentally. Plus they make your wife leave.

I'm happy being broke, single and scared 😀

Always wear gloves when doing any fettling around the chainrings, revolving wheels, removing a tight fitting pump from the valve

I know someone who I'm sure would recommend not putting your fingers in the spoke area of a spinning wheel.

Asks for 4 pints and comes back with 2 and 2 halves. 😆

bikes and large amounts of beer dont mix

(once rode into the side of my own car in a campsite trying to get to the toilet block)

never attempt a trackstand waiting for the traffic lights to change when there is an audience of school kids crossing in front

never wear white lycra on a rainy day with no mudguards

a) Do not try spds for the first time in a small gravelled yard

b) Do not attempt to repair a shifter by taking it apart at the side of the track.

c) If ignoring point b), do make sure that you actually take apart the broken shifter, not the one that was working…

If you pick your nose & flick the bogie onto your forks do not try & kick it off.

You will put your foot in the wheel, which will make your foot go round & hit the back of the forks, which will bend & cause the wheel to break and you to stop …fast.

This will send you over the handlebars onto the road ripping the skin from you palm & elbow and mean you have to walk 1 mile home through the high st with a wheel in one hand & a knackered bike with blood running down the frame in the other 🙁

Never again!

Heels down + head up.

Never pedal out of a corner on a 1in3 rocky jeep track at 40mph, you will clip a rock, but the mechanism, not be able to slow down as you cant get back on the pedal, crash horribly and be barley able to walk more than a kilometer for 3 years.

I ride flats now 🙂

If, on a downhill section, the person ahead of you stops abruptly to pick up something dropped by the person in front of them, DO NOT hit the rear quarter of their bike so as to invoke an airborne manoeuver that results in a visit to casualty.

Never, when doing something up by hand and not with a torque wrench, give it one last quarter turn, just to 'nip it up' a bit

Be aware of where your fingers are when setting up discs 🙄

swapping your hands over on the bars 'as an expeirment' is best not tried on a steep descent when lorries are approaching 😯

Don't take it too seriously

always use the proper tools if possible….

always take some bog roll with you on a ride if its going to be an all dayer, using your socks is not ideal, especially in winter!

dont try your first clipped in wheelie in a busy/gravel/hard carpark – it'll only end in tears and bruises.

From my sister, some years ago:

Unless you want to dent the (metal)rear bumper of a Metro, bend your forks backwards by 30° and trash your wheel, always check how close you are to parked cars before you look down and try to see where your brakes are rubbing on your rim…

If you look at something off the trail you WILL ride into it….

Forgetting to put the piston spreader widget in the caliper when bleeding your brakes, then pumping said brake, will result in brakes feeling very, very squishy and a drip-drip-drip noise as fluid hits the floor…. not that I have ever done that, no, not me….

SPD's – As a new user, no matter how much you practice on your drive / back yard etc, you will fall over at your first stop on the trails, having completely forgotten you were clipped in….

never wear white lycra when there is an audience of school kids

Yeh, one day they'll publish the sex-offenders register you know

If you take it with you, you won't need it. If you leave it in the car, you absolutely will. (tools, extra water, food, money…)

When changing the oil on forks, don't hold onto the fork brace as you try to compress the spring to get the top cap threaded, cue spraying all of my carefully measured fork oil out of the top of the forks and all over our kitchen…

dont carry a camping stool in your hand whilst riding on the drops of a road bike whilst cornering. APARANTLY the stool legs can get caught in the revolving spokes until they reach the forks. Forward motion may cease abruptly causing pain and injury. the forks and wheel may become whats known in the industry as ….fecked!

Don't let anyone ever talk you into letting them use "spray on plaster" on your scuffed elbow. It hurts more than the scuffing of said elbow along an Alp!

Sorry, but some of these are abslolutelyfrigginhilarious! 😆

Do, when descending a 1 in 3 tarmac road on a frosty day and realising that, whilst your forward speed is significant, your front wheel is not revolving, expect it not to end well.

Spray on plaster/liquid skin do indeed hurt like fek, but do work IME.

Used them on my knee whilst swimming during revovery from the accident noted up there —–^

Theres no such thing as "tweaking" gears.

😆

spray on plaster

Wife fell and skinned her knee quite badly on holiday last month. After the initial clean up I suggested the magic spray plaster treatment told her it would sting a bit…

Don't do a half arsed "maintenance" job on your wife's cheapo forks and then "test" the forks by doing wheely bounces, unless you want a fork spring + 6 months worth of muck to hit you square in the face at high velocity.

Don't:

Put your arm out to break a fall off a 5ft drop or you'll have to type things like this one handed

follow your mate so closely that you don't even see the hole that flings you over the bars, resulting in a face rock interface broken nose and 2 dead black teeth for the rest of your life

get your barend stuck under a friends bar while riding at 20mph on the road – it results in lots of skin being lost from forearms

use your bare knees for landing on from big jumps at the BMX track. If you do then don't accept a challenge to kneeling wrestling after a bottle of Buckfast – you'll rip the very large scab off.

Not cycling but worth knowing: don't forget to let go of the string of a massive power kite as it pulls you in the air – broken knees take a while to recover from.

If you get a bug/fly/moth in your mouth, try not to spray your mates when trying to get rid of it. They probably don't want a shower just yet.

From my experience: Don't try out spds for the first time without checking that the cleats are screwed tightly to the soles of the shoes. You won't be able to unclip. Options will be stop and fall over, or try and unlaise the shoes while riding.

From a friend's experience: If you're defending down the road at Cwmcarn, in the dark, at high speed, because your chain broke, don't try and change your light from low to high, end up turning it off all together, panic, and with only one hand on the bars, slam your front brake on!

Don't cane it down your precipitous local trails having just fitted new rear pads which haven't yet bedded in. You will not slow down enough before that tree, drop your wheel over the edge, and subsequently somersault into said tree. Then get rammed up your arse by your mate.