My experience getting back to cycling after 25 years

My primary objective was to ride 10-20 Kms a day and try to explore some nearby places. Also, I was looking forward to ride on decent roads with no plans to take it to offroad.

BHPian arun_josie recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My cycling journey or as my wife calls it “Midlife crisis of a software engineer” :

With age catching up fast and approaching mid-forties, I wanted to get into some physical activity to improve my physical fitness. My only criteria was that it should be an enjoyable activity. I was never a gym guy so didn’t consider it at all. During my school days cycling was my primary mode of commute and I used to enjoy those rides. So, I thought of getting back to cycling after a gap of 25 years.

Cycle Shopping:

During this 25 years gap, I never followed this segment except for buying cycles for my kids. So, when I started looking one for me, I really didn’t know what to look for (Non geared/Geared/Hybrid/MTB etc). I took assistance from my friend and team-bhpian speedsatya who is an avid cyclist. After multiple discussions, I started looking out for hybrid cycles.

My primary objective was to ride 10-20 Kms a day and try to explore some nearby places. Also, I was looking forward to ride on decent roads with no plans to take it to offroad.

I started with a budget of 10K as I didn’t want to invest too much and then shy away later. After checking out multiple models in various brands, the budget went up-to 25K and finally I purchased Fire Fox Road Runner Pro D. This is a hybrid model and comes with 21 Speed Gears and disc brakes.

Cycling Journey 1.0:

The cycle came home during one of the lockdowns and I was super excited to go for a ride. There is a lake road near my place, and I decided to do some laps on this lake road. Each lap is 2Kms. I thought I will be able to pedal 10Kms+ easily from day 1. But the reality took over and I couldn’t ride more than 3 Km on day 1. That’s when I came to know on how bad my stamina was. And when I was riding, some pedestrians around me were overtaking me. I thought this will change in 1-2 days but I couldn’t improve much.

Apart from my stamina, understanding the gear system was a bit confusing to me. So, I used to slot into a gear which I am comfortable and avoid changing it further during the ride. I continued riding for couple of weeks, but I could hardly ride beyond 5Kms. I didn’t have any ride partners either.

Slowly cycling became boring and the ride frequency changed once from 2-3 days to once in a week and then to once in a blue moon. I really didn’t get any motivation to improve my stamina in anyway. I was not following any proper routine of warm up before/after cycling. In retrospect, I feel that I was setting myself up for a failure without realizing it.

Cycling Journey 2.0

More than a year passed and one fine day I casually checked my weight, and I was shocked to see the 3 digit figure. This has never happened before. I could feel the effect of this weight on my body. The clothes stopped fitting me properly. I couldn’t do my tasks without getting winded. The parked cycle gathering dust came to my mind. This time the motivation to better my fitness levels was real and tangible. Decided to get back to cycling again with a more serious intent. Around the same time frame, a few of my friends(avid cyclists and beginners) in the apartment were planning rides together and sharing ride stats on the Whatsapp group. I had company this time.

Recharged Riders:

This cycling group is named “Recharged Riders”. This group was a big motivation for me. I found a BIG difference between riding solo and riding as a group. After all, we are social animals. Here is what I experienced being in a group. Some of them maybe very basic but I had not given enough attention to it before.

I started learning about the appropriate gear changes from others’ experiences
I started understanding the importance of warm up before and cool down after the rides
Installed Strava App and started tracking all my activities
The group updates on Strava motivated me to keep up with the others.
Maintaining the right tyre pressure. Till I joined this group, I was checking the air pressure with the old method of pressing the tyre with fingers and inflating it when I felt it was needed. I realized later that I was under-inflating the tyres with this method. When I first checked the psi using the pressure guage, it was 30 psi lower from the recommended pressure. As per the instruction on the tyre, the recommended pressure is 75-77psi. So, this correction made a big difference to the ride quality.
Weekend group rides helped target longer distance and you get a chance to learn from more experienced riders. Such group rides are fun too.
You can target challenging routes as you have friends to motivate and help in case of any issues.
Helped to get info on quality basic accessories like cycle pump, lights, mobile pouch, glasses, gloves(got these as gift from speedsatya )
Suggestions to try different routes instead of doing the same routes repeatedly. And you find new-to-you routes from the group and Strava.
Tips to do basic service of the cycle by ourselves and maintaining it in good condition
Learnt about maintaining the right seat height, initially I was doing this wrong.
Carrying enough water and plan the refill spots for longer rides so that you don’t get stranded at remote locations without water
Immediate help available in case of incidents. I had an incident of chain slipping off during one of these long rides. The group helped me get back on track in no time.

More importantly you get lot of motivation and camaraderie that you miss while riding solo.

The impact of 2.0:

I started with 4Kms on day 1 with lot of struggles. But with all the tips shared by this group, I was able to progress slowly. I started cycling on alternate days and every week I pushed the total distance up by 5 Kms. This gradual increase worked for me nicely. I also started concentrating on basic warm ups and cool downs.

Now its more than 2 months and I have been very regular with at least 3-4 rides a week. Recently I did two 50+ Kms ride with the group. During the weekdays, I stick to 10-20Km range based on my work schedule. And I target more during the weekends.

On rest days I do an hour of walking. So, these changes have helped to improve my stamina and my fitness levels. I can feel the positive impact of cycling over these two months.

Observation on roads/traffic while riding a Cycle:

You start feeling the inclines on the roads that you have driven for many years. While driving a car, many of these inclines are masked nicely as its effortless driving a car.
People(bikers/autos) coming on the wrong side are really on the higher side, you notice this very often because you lose the momentum as they make you slow down/brake. I hate it when this happens on an incline.
At some roads, you will be quicker than the 4 wheelers

Ride to Hennagara Lake and Kallubalu Lake (50 Kms ride) – Max Elevation Gain: 285m

This was my first group ride which had more than 2+ riders. Initial plan was to do a trip of 40Kms, but some detour made this trip to 50+ Kms. We started around 5:30 AM and reached this location for sunrise. Since the group had beginners as well, we took two water breaks. This route has both inclines and some nice declines. During the return we covered Kallubalu lake and then stopped for breakfast. We could have avoided this stop as it took away the momentum we had going. Yet overall this ride was fun and a nice learning curve for me to do more longer rides.

Here are some pics,

Nice early morning view