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I love group rides and I love building a community of women to cycle with but when was the last time you went out into the world and rode solo? For many of us, the idea of going on a solo ride may be daunting or embarrassing but solo rides for many gives one a sense of freedom. You’re completely in control of the route, pace, and amount of stops you want to take for a snack break. In addition, you have opportunities to work on skills that you want to improve or not. If you’re aiming to work on goals and building your skills, here are a few tips to help you make the most of your solo rides.
Set Your Goals
Think about what you want to accomplish on your ride, will you tackle 50 miles, sustain a power output or reach a certain amount of elevation? Try something that you want to work on to grow your skills. Whatever the direction of your goal, you will feel motivated to do more so decide where and how you will push yourself a little more outside of your comfort zone.
Push Yourself
Cycling alone requires preparation, knowing cycling skills, and being comfortable with pain. You must persevere through boredom and tough climbs. One way to do so is to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts. Thinking ‘My legs just don’t have any energy‘? Change it to ‘I can sustain my pace’. For every challenge you have, use the power of positive thinking to push through.
Tackle Your Fears
Do you avoid cycling in traffic? Descending hills? Clipping in? Whatever your concerns are, you’ll need to overcome your cycling fears by building your skills with small, doable steps that move you toward your cycling goals. Then, push yourself slowly to take on more challenges. Cycling skills practiced consistently will make you a more confident cyclist.
Staying Safe While Cycling Alone
Getting your bike ready and knowing how to communicate when out on the road alone is just part of being safe. When thinking about heading out for a solo ride, here are some things to prepare for the ride.
Pre Ride Bike Maintenance
Check your tires. Inflate your tires to the proper psi and check for any holes or tears. If you’re unsure how to change a tire, it’s a good time to brush up on how to change a bike tire.
Check your bike chain. Spin your pedals counterclockwise to ensure your chain is moving smoothly and noiselessly. If it’s not, you’ll want to clean and oil your chain.
Check your brakes. Squeeze your brake levers to make sure they’re properly gripping your wheels or disc.
Test ride. A short ride down the street will let you know if you need to make adjustments or fixing.
Read more on pre ride maintenance.
Kit and Gear
For any ride, there are a few things you must bring with you. You’ll most likely store your gear in a handlebar bag or saddle bag. If you don’t (or want to) carry anything else with you on your rides, think about carrying these cycling gear essentials.
For any gear that you won’t store in your handlebar or saddle bag, be sure to store them into your bike jersey back pockets. Start with filling the middle pocket for balanced weight distribution. Here are somethings to carry with you on a ride:
- Arm warmers, push them up and out of your way when you get too hot. There are two weights to arm warmers – a lighter arm sleeve for warmer temps, and a heavier thermal weight for fall and winter.
- Bike lights, front and back
- Bike pump
- Cash
- Cell phone
- Chapstick
- CO2 cartridges
- Cycling gloves
- Cycling shoes
- Energy bars or gels
- Extra charger
- Extra tubes
- Helmet
- High visibility gear
- Identification
- Jacket
- Mini first aid kit
- Multitool
- Patch kit
- Sunglasses, to protect your eyes from flying debris
- Sunscreen
- Water bottles
Personal Safety
Ditch the headphones. Cycling with headphones can be dangerous depending on the route. By tuning out the noises of your environment your awareness of approaching vehicles, other cyclists, or animals dims. Stay aware of your surroundings by keeping the phone in your pocket and leaving the headphones at home.
Mix up your route. If you aim to cycle alone frequently at a specific time, use different routes. This creates unpredictability in case anyone is tracking your movements. And, it prevents you from getting bored and into a training rut.
Listen to your intuition. Feeling like someone is following you or something’s a little shady? Don’t question it and don’t believe you have to be nice. These are warning danger signals you need to listen to protect yourself. If you’re being harassed, stop in a busy place with people and call the police with details of the person.
Notify Your Family or Friends
Always let someone know where you are, your route, and when you expect to return from your ride. Here are a couple of apps that provide another layer of security that allows them to follow and notify your close ones in case of a crash.
STRAVA Beacon is available for iOS and Android, tracks your location with live GPS tracking. The app allows you to text message someone feature. You can choose to have Beacon follow your steps for a specific length of time. If you haven’t checked in when the time’s up, the alarm will alert your friends.
ROADiD, an app available for iOS and Android, uses an ‘eCrumb Tracking’ feature to share your location while riding. If you’ve stopped moving for more than 5 minutes, the ‘Stationary Alert’ will notify your selected contacts. The app includes an ability to customize your phone’s lock screen to provide your medical information to First Responders in case of an emergency.
Staying safe and preparing for your solo ride eases your worries so you can enjoy the freedom that comes with cycling alone.
Image: Laura Austin