How to: The first solo bike ride
In this blog post, Stefanie shares her experiences on her first solo bike rides as well as 10 tips on how you can reduce the fear of it and put some sort of safety net on yourself.
You’ve treated yourself to your first bike and want to take off, but no one really has time to ride, or you feel like you’re a drag on everyone else’s bike and not fit enough for group rides yet? The list of reasons to do a solo bike ride is long. Especially in the current covid situation, it’s certainly not a bad idea to prefer touring alone. Easier said than done. After all, who hasn’t heard the numerous “what ifs” and horror stories from your buddy’s colleague’s sister?
It was similar for me at the beginning; I had respect and also fear of cycling alone. I would have been very happy about tips at that time, but in my bubble at that time, I was the only one who was really interested in cycling. To make it easier for you to start your first solo bike ride, I would like to give you some tips that made me ride safer, make my circles bigger and have fewer worries.
“I would be totally scared to ride alone (through the woods)!”
The probability of being attacked in a Berlin subway station is 1000x greater than being attacked by people in the forest. The people I mainly encounter in the forest are dog walkers, couples and families. Sometimes you meet another cycling or jogging person. That’s it. For most of the time. In between there is usually nothing except a few shy deer and a lot of quietness. Being scared is basically nothing wrong, it’s helpful and absolutely normal. Still, it shouldn’t stop you from exploring your surroundings independently, confidently and joyfully, and testing your abilities on the bike. It may be difficult at first to rationally assess and consider fears and then decide in the respective situation how justified they really are. That takes practice. And you can’t do it from one moment to the next.
No matter what you see on social media: very few people ride 100 km alone through the pampas overnight, go wild camping or do solo bike packing. Everyone starts somewhere. For me, it started with 25 km on a Peugeot road bike that was way too big, packed with a backpack ready for all the “what ifs”. Over the years, this backpack shrank to a small saddlebag containing only the most important tools (pump, multi tool, inner tube, repair kit). This material change was, among other things, also an expression of my increasing security.
“What happens if I get a flat tyre in the forest?”
First, nothing will happen. You will most likely not be taken into custody by wolves, even if you are riding in Brandenburg. In addition, in our latitudes it is not life-threatening to push your bike for a while through the forest to the next village or town if you don’t have a repair kit or spare tube at hand.
To fix a flat tyre is not rocket science and with a little practice you will eventually get the hang of it. You’ve never had a flat tyre or always had someone nearby who could help you out? To prepare, I found it helpful to simply let the air out at home and simulate the situation. That way, when I had my first real flat tire, I didn’t have to try to call up YouTube University in the forest (that’s also perfectly fine).
“What if I get lost and the roads are bad?”
If you are extremely unsure about route planning, simply use the routes of friends or ride them together beforehand. There are certainly routes where the cobblestones are from hell, the mud is knee-deep or there are lots of tree trunks on the route. Pushing, carrying and getting shaken up can be annoying, but it’s not the end of the world and that’s the fun of it (at least for the engravers among us). If some paths are absolutely impassable, plan spontaneously or go back the way you came and take another path. Sometimes these detours are the better routes. The courage to be flexible pays off in most cases.
“What if I have an accident?”
Recently I was talking to a friend about my next major tour, which I have planned with a friend. He was very relieved to hear that this will not be a solo bike ride, because what if I had an accident. And there we are again in the “what if” vicious circle.
In my opinion, such approaches are super limiting, not conducive and if I approached all things this way, I would probably never set foot outside the door. I usually just ignore such comments because by now I have quite a bit of experience with cycling alone. However, these mostly unqualified comments can be poison for someone who is just starting to learn the ropes. That’s why it’s important to assess dangerous situations correctly, not to overestimate yourself and to listen to your body. I only have up to a certain point in my hands to avoid accidents. But what I have 100% in my hands is not to be unsettled by the residual risk and the comments and to collect great experiences.
10 tips for your first solo bike ride
My reason for cycling alone was mainly the lack of cycling friends at the time. Admittedly, I didn’t feel like I belonged to any “scene” or “club” back then. It is no secret that cycling is an exclusionary, elitist sport. Out of necessity, I had to decide between a) riding alone or b) letting the bike gather dust.
Option A then changed my world and I am extremely grateful to have made that decision. Here are 10 basic tips on how to create a safety net that doesn’t limit your growth. These tips have always given me confidence on my first solo bike rides:
1. Break your route into mentally shorter bites (cycling 101).
2. Consciously plan breaks, whether it’s for a Spezi at the petrol station or cake at the village café. The best time for this is halfway along the route.
3. Plan your first solo bike ride so that you are relatively close to public transport or towns and can jump on the next train in case of need.
4. Use offline maps (Google Maps tends to leave you in the woods) or plan your tour with e.g. Komoot beforehand.
5. Ride the route with another person before riding it alone.
6. Plan A->B tours. It sometimes helped me to know that I don’t have to go back the distance I’ve travelled, but just keep going until point B is reached. That way you can also plan nicely with the wind.
7. Take your time for your first solo bike ride. No one needs to be proven anything (not even Strava). Neither route length, speed nor altitude metres matter. The same goes for equipment.
8. Tell one person about your solo bike ride and let them know what you plan to do. It can be reassuring to know that you can call them if in doubt. Alternatively, you can use the live track feature of Wahoo or Strava Beacon to share your location with another person. However, this requires the GPS device to be connected to the phone via Bluetooth, so it draws more battery.
9. Pack a “what if” backpack if you feel more comfortable with it. Mine always contained lots of food, tools and clothes felt like from Easter to October.
10. Enjoy the ride and keep snacking!!!
