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Hi guys, it's Alanna here with Sixthreezero. And today we are going to go over some tips on getting back on a bicycle. If it's been a while since your last ride.
If you're not a part of our Sixthreezero Pedalers group on Facebook, we have this great community on Facebook. It's for Sixthreezero owners. And people like to post questions, ask for accessory recommendations, post pictures of their ride.
And it's just a really great active community. Earlier this week, we had someone post a question about getting back on a bike because it's been a long time since they last rode a bike and they were worried about balance and just being comfortable with the whole thing. So they were asking for tips and we thought this would be a great opportunity to answer that question and give some tips on getting back on a bike if it's been a while since you last rode.
Our first tip is to reacquaint yourself with the bike and all of its components. This is a single-speed bike. It has a coaster brake, meaning that you pedal backward to brake. So it's good to know how that works before you even think about writing. If you have a multi-speed bike, you'll have handbrakes, it is good to familiarize yourself with that.
The left-hand brake stops the front wheel, the right-hand brake, the rear wheel, and some bikes have a combination of coaster and handbrake. So just make sure you understand how that all works before you get going.
Now, when it comes to getting back on your bike, balance is key.
So just to get your mind in the right place, you might want to do some balance exercises. Really simple, just practice balancing on one leg at a time and holding it for a few seconds. If you need to hold onto a wall or something like that, feel free to do that, but do try to get the balance for at least five seconds without holding on to anything before you think about going back on your bike.
Okay, now that your head is in the right place, you're ready to get on the bike. You want to make sure that you have a nice empty wide open space with a pretty level ground to practice on. So good ideas and some tips from our Sixthreezero peddlers were empty parking lots, church parking lot, or a park parking lot are great options. You see here, we have a pretty empty parking lot. It doesn't get a lot of traffic and it's pretty level. So it's a good place to start working on riding.
Now you're ready to get on your bike. And one thing that I would recommend that I think is key, is to lower your seat enough, that when you are sitting, your feet can lay completely flat on the ground. When we first start out getting back into biking, we're going to completely ignore the pedals. You want to make sure that your feet can stop you. This would be a good seat height if I were to ride normally, but since I want my feet completely on the ground, I think I'm just going to go ahead and lower the seat completely.
Okay, that is a good height for me. I'm five-one. And so I have the seat all the way down. All right, before you get on your bike, if you have handbrakes, you're going to want to mount from the left side, holding the brakes, so the bike doesn't move. You can hold both handlebars, swing your leg over. And there you are. You holding both handlebars, you'll kick up, see kickstand. And from here, you're just going to practice walking your bike. You don't even have to be seated at this point. It might feel a little awkward, but it'll just get you used to the handlebars and maneuvering left and right.
Once you're comfortable walking your bike. You've practiced going right and left. You can do the same thing but from a seated position. So from the seated position, you're going to pretty much push off alternating, which foot is on the ground. So push off with your right, with your left foot elevated, and then you're left with your right foot elevated and just try to push, step, push step.
And then you can gradually add a little more power behind the push so that your other foot is off the ground for a little bit longer.
And then once you feel comfortable doing that? You can practice pushing off and having both feet off of the ground. One thing I like to think of is push, push, glide. So you can push right, push left, both feet off, and then just glide for a few seconds and both feet down. Remember that you can always put both feet down. That's why we lowered the seat. You can put both feet down to stop. Don't worry about the brakes. We're keeping it really slow. So just remember feet down. If you ever feel nervous or uncomfortable, or you start losing your balance feet down. So this is what the push, push glide looks like. Once you feel comfortable with that. Then you can add in a decline. So if you can find an area with a slight decline, that's going to give you a little bit of momentum. So you can glide for even longer with both feet off of the ground, that's going to really help you get the feel for being back on a bike and balancing.
So those are our tips for getting back on a bike and getting a feel for your balance on a bike. These are very beginner-level tips. So we're not even talking about peddling at this point, but we will get into that in our next video.
And I hope you found this helpful. If you have any other tips, definitely feel free to add those in the comments. We love all of your feedback. And if you haven't joined our pedalers' group yet, be sure to join. We'd love to see your ride pictures, your achievements, accessory recommendations. So make sure to join, check out what everyone else has to offer, and contribute your own pictures and ride info. If you haven't downloaded the app yet, the app is awesome. There are already some people up on the leaderboard I need to catch up with, but it's a lot of fun to see how other people are writing and it's motivating too.
So be sure to join that. This week, today actually we are launching our e-bike giveaway. So make sure you are following us on Instagram. That one will be on Instagram and we're giving away a 250-watt e-bike. So we're really excited about this e-bike giveaway. If you don't yet have a bike, this is your opportunity to get an awesome e-bike. And if you already do have a bike, it's your opportunity to upgrade to an e-bike and get some power behind those wheels. The e-bikes are so fun to ride. I'm really excited that we're giving one away. So check that out on Instagram.
As always, don't forget, you can always send us your questions. Any other additional tips or advice you have is always welcome. It's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.
