Top Tips

Bob Chaperone maintains a list of cycling 'top tips' - an essential compendium for any rider. All advice is founded on a lifetime of cycling and leading groups throughout UK and Europe. 

Top tips to ride hard/ride safe:

#1 Pedal. The following is placeholder text known as “lorem ipsum,” which is scrambled Latin used by designers to mimic real copy. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

#2 Keep pedalling. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae. Donec eget risus diam. In sit amet felis malesuada, feugiat purus eget, varius mi. Vivamus a ante congue, porta nunc nec, hendrerit turpis. Aliquam bibendum, turpis eu mattis iaculis, ex lorem mollis sem, ut sollicitudin risus orci quis tellus.

#3 Zip down on the way up... zip up on the way down. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

#4 If you can't talk, you're pedalling too fast. Vivamus a ante congue, porta nunc nec, hendrerit turpis. Aliquam bibendum, turpis eu mattis iaculis, ex lorem mollis sem, ut sollicitudin risus orci quis tellus.

#5 If you don't want to talk, go elsewhere. Simple rules here!

#6 Asda bags. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. * other brands are available... for the record PG's favourite choice is a Waitrose bag. 

#7 Polka dot rides warrant a foil blanket. Take it from me. Foil blankets work. 

#8 Eat more crisps. Solution for cramps (not crabs!). Preferably salt and vinegar. Kettle chips the best. Full packet during each Ironman transition. 

#9 Invest in a loud horn. Be heard, be seen. Bugle horn. Cheeky sound. From old dears to pretty young things. Always brings a smile and defuses situations. 

#10 Two pairs of socks. Pau-Tourmalet (July 2010).

#11 Pedal on the downhills. Read the road. Every opportunity to pedal and use the contours.

#12 Invest in stadium lighting. Invest in the best you can afford. So many circumstances where good lighting is insufficient. Great lighting is what you need. So many memories when BC's lighting has helping others out. France, Glen Coe, Les Saises...

#13 No white lycra. Yes. I know. I've learned the hard way too (#13 unlucky for some). At first I was really proud of the new cycling kit. However... Pau-Tourmalet sorted that out.

#14 Free wheel on the uphills, pedal on the downhills. Reverse psychology. 

#15 Avoid braking. The more you brake, the more you need to pedal... so no braking. Newtons law of physics. Simple. 

#16 Active recovery. Keep pedalling... over the brow of each hill until terminal velocity is achieve. Remembered by Lucy Clarke. Regularly repeats the story. So many people stop peddling when they reach the top... the best is to keep peddling through and actively recover on the way down. In competitions, you gain so many more places.

#17 Stand up for roundabouts. When approaching, get out of your saddle. Two benefits:

1. Be seen and make yourself more obvious. Riders who suit down and less obvious and traffic can miss them. Ride safe.

2. Ability to accelerate when required. Roundabouts can be fun, especially when you integrate with traffic, accelerate and make up time. Ride hard.

#18 Listen to the road. Especially when corning. Parallels with skiing and ability to listen for subtle changes in snow and adapt your skiing style. When cycling, you need to keep listening to the road Loose gravel, bumpy surface, smooth surfaces... all these things can help you out when you learn to adapt your riding style. Ability to corner safely, know when to stand and also when to put your foot down. Ride hard/ride safe. 

#19 Stay focused.. Especially towards the end of a ride. It's easy to let your mind wander. You're tired. You mind is elsewhere. Don't. This is when accidents happen. You need to keep focused, listen to your body, and stay alert for traffic. 

#20 Painting (riding) by colours. The faster you ride, the faster you need to process information. It's hard to spot potholes, drain covers, loose gravel etc... especially when you're zipping along at 40 mph. You therefore need a different way to process information. I use colours. Put simply, you look at the road ahead, and only ride on one colour. Avoid differing colours as this can lead to disaster. All potholes, drain covers, oil spillages and any other defect will appear as a different colour... therefore avoid high contrasts at all costs. Note - when riding in the wet, contrasts become less, so invest in polarised lenses and you'll be amazed at the difference. 

#21 Invest in high contrast glasses. Dark lenses may look cool, but they can camouflage a whole variety of road defects. Tunnels in darkness. Early mornings and late night rides. 

#22 Teach yourself to play the piano. A common fault with novice riders is to become tense in the neck and suffer shoulder aches. Does this sound like you? If so, you may be gripping too tightly. A simple remedy is to sit back, extend your arms and pretend to play the piano with your fingers. This helps relax your back and immediately improves your posture. If you're feeling more confident, extend your fingers even more, and play with just your finger tips.

#23 Check for cross winds. Keep your eyes peeled for where the wind is blowing. Heads up for five bar gates, gaps in fences, missing houses, and collapsed dry stone walls. Especially true when descending at speed or in tri position. Both hands on the handlebars please.

#24 Bernoulli principle. Always cycle down the path of least resistance. This could be the middle of a road, or it could be tucked up to a hedge in a head wind.

#25 Navigate by cloud formations. Used in solo rides and long-distance cycling. Always be mindful of the cloud formations, wind direction, and general weather conditions. Cycling may be easy when following a tail wind all day, but can prove hazardous when you reach the turn and realise you’ve a raging head wind and dark skies for the journey home. Unless your name is ‘The Badger’… you may want to adjust your route accordingly.

#26 Heads up before you head down. Especially important when descending into a blind corner. Keep your eyes peeled w-a-y before you drop and enter that corner.

#27 Careful when turning right down a descent. Think Tina’s maiden voyage. Belmont Road to bleach works. And any other road where you turn right from a main road to a downhill. Lots of loose debris. Need to stay upright. Listen out losing front wheel. Gravel rash and a buggered chainset ensues.

#28 Use your legs as a spirit level. Imagine your legs a spirit level. They’ll tell you when you’re pedalling uphill and downhill, and will probably do a better job than you reading the road. Any slight undulations are your sign to max out on the pedal stroke.

#29 B=MAP. One for the behaviour designers out there! Behaviour = Motivation + Ability + Prompt. Most people are generally motivated to cycle and improve (otherwise, they’d still be stuck at home). And there’s little you can do to shed two-stone whilst on a ride. So what you can do, is learn the prompts of when to pedal and what to look out for… we call these behavioural prompts… and they can be personal prompts, contextual prompts or action prompts. By far, it’s the action prompts that work the best.

#30 Watch for the birds. A relatively new top tip. Keep your eyes peeled for what birds are doing and how they are flying. Flight formations. Wind direction, wind speed, gusts and relative calms.

#31 Pack a foil blanket. I learned the hard way. Wrestled to the floor by Rich Chaperone and a bunch of others. We weren’t even 35 miles in to a relatively mundane meander across the Scottish border. Radiated heat. Like being put in a microwave over. Any longish solo ride or epic adventure. A foil blanket is a must. 400km to Snowdonia. Alpine skiing in Chamonix. Descending Cormet de Roselend (like a warm idiot) under the stars.

#32 Gum on the right leg. Always pack chewing gum on RHS leg. Keep mouth fresh.

#33 Litter on the left leg. Take your litter home. Tuck it in your jersey pocket. Sounds simple, eh? Not quite so. Invariably, you faff and unwittingly drop litter en route. Not a good behaviour. Instead, you should place all litter under your leg thigh—within your Lycra shorts. Yes—used gel wrappers, snack bars, sweet wrappers. Anything that you can’t dispose of properly, tuck it in and take it home.

## Ditch the tech

## Watch your teeth

## New shoes. Avoiding punctures. Take good care. Inspect after every ride. Watch out for flat spots. Pay close attention to the valve

## Dusting down before you set off. Don’t try this at home kids. On the trot. Watch out for those thumbs! Ouchy.

## Wheel alignment. Always check the wheels and brake alignment

## Plan your pit stops. Yorkshire Dales and 40 miles without any sign of life.

## Photos on the uphills, never on the downhills. Pull over if you need to!

## Leaves in the wind. Wind direction.

## Big winds and little winds. General wind direction, then local isolated patterns. Get to know your roads. When to shelter and when to ride wide. See Bernoulli.

## Use you weight to balance braking… especially when braking on the downhills. Easy to lose balance, by braking too hard at the front. Instead reposition your centre of gravity by dropping you weight behind the saddle. It’s the opposite of getting out of you saddle going up hill. Try sinking behind your saddle when stopping. Quicker and more efficient way to stop. Even with disc brakes!

## Look for where the road is drying quickest. On quiet roads, this’ll be the highest, flattest and smoothest areas. Ride here.