10 Top Common Cycling Mistakes for You

As a beginner in cycling, you must have made mistakes before you become a master. Or as a master, you must have made mistakes before you become what you are today. Therefore, what are the common cycling mistakes? Here I have listed 10 for you to prevent or review.

Not ready for long distancesCommon Cycling Mistakes
Many injuries come from not preparing well. You should give some time your body for adapting to another distances. Don’t start too fast or you may run out of body energy and cannot continue in the latter half of the route. Take some warming up at the beginning and form a cadence later.

Not taking a toolkit or money
On a beautiful day, your bike is in good condition; you feel good and have planned a lovely route which will take you to somewhere you want to go. However, when you have gone further, something bad happens. A puncture, a pedal loose or so on but you have no kits to fix it. What you can do is waiting for somebody willing to pick you up or taking an expensive taxi. You’d better packed a necessary toolkit to take you home which can include inner tubes, mini tool, patches, mini pump, and tire levers.

Wrong seat height
Do you feel pain in the front of your knee? Maybe your seat is too low. You’d better bend your knee and hardly keep in touch with the pedal at the end of the stroke with a right seat position. Meanwhile, the crank arm should be parallel to the tube of seat and not be vertical to the ground. The distance between the bottom bracket and the seat top should be measured.

Not enough supplies
Have you ever met with stopping cycle for the supplies’ lack? It may occur to you when you are not clear about the route enough and haven’t planned beforehand. If you are going to somewhere you are not familiar, make sure whether you have little chance to find out supplies there, if yes, take a little more than you need. To avoid the risk of running out of the supplies, you can also take enough money if you can buy them there, which is more convenient and you can take less stuff.

Common Cycling MistakesKeeping still
You know, riding is a matter of many elements, including the balance. Instead of standing up while climbing a hill, you’d better lean yourself forward so your weight can be transferred to the front of the bike. However, when you are descending, you should lean yourself backward to transfer your weight more to the back of the bike. What’s more, if you are encountering corners, you should lean yourself a little to corners’ directions. These approaches will not only decrease your risk of crashing, but also make you ride more efficiently. Thus, you don’t need to keep still on your seat, which makes you ride harder and may give you an unfortunate touch with the road.

Not braking earlier
It’s a very common mistake especially for beginners. To brake earlier is the most efficient and safest way for you. You’d better not brake in corners because you may lock up your bike and lose control. You should brake when approaching to a bend, gently but enough to slow you. In wet conditions, brake earlier because the stopping needs more distance, especially those whose bikes are with caliper brakes.Common Cycling Mistakes

Too much Stuff
Somebody would like to take everything he wants to take, which brings too much load to the bike. You should just bring necessary stuff, such as a kit for repairing, some food and drink, and something for bad weather coming, etc. Too much stuff will low your speed by its weight, get you tired, and the worst, cause the risk by drowning something into the wheel.

Not equipped with safety gear
Many accidents happened because of the riders’ not wearing helmets. It’s better to wear a helmet than not to, even in a short distance. Otherwise, you are recommended to wear reflective clothing and install front and rear lights so cars around you can see and avoid hitting you.

Braking hard and suddenly
You should brake in a proper way which helps your weight distribution on the bike remain stable enough. A sudden braking will cause the loss of control and sometimes even make people fly over the handlebar. To brake safely, you should watch out the surroundings and brake for a stable feeling, using the front and rear at the same time.

Not enough maintenance
Common Cycling MistakesBike maintenance is a matter of lives, that is, yours and the bikes’. Many just but bikes and give it poor maintenance, which does nothing to prolong the bikes lives but even do harm to themselves. If you don’t want to ask for rescue or repair it on the way, you’d better form the habit of checking your bike regularly and maintain it, no matter for the convenience or safety.
Check the handlebar, gears, brakes, tires; get your chain clean and lubricated regularly. If you cannot make sure what to do facing complex components, you’d better not change them.

That’s all of the cycling mistakes I want to remind you. And how many do you remember? I hope that you can cycle without the problems caused by them. If you are a beginner, may you become a master; if you are already a master, may you be better!