Learn How to Ride a Bike in Austin
It can be challenging to try to learn a skill like riding a bicycle as an adult. The two most important tidbits of wisdom a cycling instructor can impart are: 1) getting started is the hardest part, and 2) don’t give up!
The City of Austin website states that Austin is a gold level Bicycle Friendly Community according to the League of American Cyclists. What that entails is challenging to find these days. Although you can find attributes of a BFC and 2022 state rankings fairly easily.
Regardless of how much others know about cycling and how the community ranks, improving your knowledge and skills is important for your own safety and peace of mind.
Things a cycling instructor can teach a beginner:
- How to find your balance — balance biking
- Power pedal position — gaining momentum
- Front brakes v Rear brakes — how and why
- Proper bike fit, proper helmet fit
- Bike parts & purpose
- Basic maintenance — like fixing a flat
- Signaling — riding with one hand and verbal signals
- Basic rules of the road
- Riding out of the saddle — climbing and other anticipations like bumps
- Proper use of gears
- Bike Gear — Where and what
- Obstacle avoidance
- Basic handling
- Emergency stops
There’s no set amount of time it takes a student to learn and master this base layer of skill. And there is more to learn about bicycles and bicycling. A cycling instructor can point you in the direction of the oodles of informative and entertaining content that is out there for cyclists.
So — where does one bike once up and going? Austin has a handy map and set of DIY adventure routes. If you get on Strava, you can also check out the heat map. A heat map tells you where the most common bike routes are. There are hundreds of miles of trails as well as a Veloway if you want to avoid traffic altogether. Beware there are ratings available for trail systems that let you know a trails difficulty. No sense bringing a bike if you end up walking it the whole way!
How I categorize my lesson levels (so far) are:
- Never rode / Beginner-Beginner
- Balance: learning to pedal and glide
- Beginner-Intermediate
- Riding: learning and practicing safety skills such as scanning, riding out of the saddle, signaling, riding various surfaces, obstacle avoidance, beginner handling
- Intermediate
- Confident riding at the Beginner-Intermediate level, able to go up and down curbs, able to maneuver emergency stops and avoidance drills, uses both front and rear brakes confidently, learning cornering skills and possibly going clipless, knows bike parts and basic maintenance, etc
- Intermediate II
- Confident in Intermediate skills, knows about the various kinds of riding (gravel, MTB, road), gear that goes with it, types of bikes, and preference (if any), comfortable riding at night and during the day, is developing more advanced avoidance techniques, solid understanding of gears (if any) and anticipation, confident climbing and descending, etc
Hopefully these little tidbits will help you on your bicycling journey. Check out our ongoing news for updates about cycling programs.
If you are a parent and want to reach out about Learn to Ride lessons for children, I recommend contacting Doug Ballew. Doug is an outreach marketing coordinator from Woom bicycles and can often be found at the many free children’s bike rodeo events Woom sponsors.
For more information on lessons for children or adults, reach out anytime.
