Riding can be a great way to get some quality alone time, but it’s also a brilliant way to spend time with your family.

In this guide, we take a look at the best ways to get children onto two wheels and riding safely and confidently, from non-pedalling passengers to independent riders.

How to cycle with your kids

Step 1: Get your partner on a bike too

Family cycling isn’t only about teaching your children how to cycle. Often, it’s a time when a non-cycling partner also starts riding again.

First things first: make sure you both have good bikes in working order. If you’re buying a new bike, check out our in-depth guide on how to choose the best bike for you.

New isn’t the only option, of course – the second-hand bike market can be a great way to pick up a bargain, but read our guide on tips for buying a used bike to make sure you avoid common pitfalls.

It’s a good idea to perform a quick safety check on a bike if it hasn’t been ridden in some time. This will help keep all the bikes in the household running sweetly, and ensure if there are any surprise issues, such as a mid-ride puncture, everyone is equipped to deal with it.

Let the newer cyclist set the pace and mileage, and you can also level the playing field by fitting any bike trailers, child seats or luggage to the bike of the more experienced or stronger cyclist for the bulk of the ride.

It’s also worth avoiding busy roads, which can be intimidating for new cyclists and children, and aren’t conducive to conversation while you ride. Choose a quiet, pleasant route that’s going to be fun for everyone.

If you live in the UK, Sustrans has a database of cycle paths, many of which are away from roads completely.

Keep mileage low, especially for the first few outings, and take plenty of snacks and drinks. Younger children won’t need much entertaining, but they’ll want to stretch their legs, so aim for somewhere with a bit of grass or a play area.

Step 2: Get the right kit

Having the right kit will make the whole experience safer, more comfortable and, therefore, more fun for everyone.

You may need some specialist equipment such as a bike seat or tow-along, but you don’t need to fork out for loads of special kids’ bike clothing – unless you want to, of course!

How to buy a kids’ helmet

Helmets are like shoes – the most important criteria for a helmet is getting a good fit. When choosing a bike helmet for a child, rather than looking for a specific model, visit your local bike shop and choose one that sits snugly on their head.

In the UK, it should be EN 1080 European Standard approved, which covers helmet safety for children. In the US, it must comply with the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. In Australia, the helmet must fit its own mandatory standard.

Ventilation isn’t very important though, especially for child passengers, who don’t generate much heat.

Make sure it’s worn properly, with the forehead protected. Avoid over-tight straps or nipping your child’s neck with the clasp by sliding a finger behind the chin-strap when fastening it.

Summer cycling clothes for kids

Avoid sunburn by liberally applying sunblock and/or choosing light clothing with arm and leg coverage. The back of the neck is very vulnerable for children in child seats.

Dress your child with an extra layer of clothing because they won’t get as hot as you.

Winter wear

Children can and do get very cold when cycling in winter, even in trailers. Wrap them up really well.

Ski-style salopettes make great over-trousers, and a balaclava under the helmet (remove some padding) will prevent painfully cold ears.

Wellington boots are useful even in trailers, which may collect water in the footwell.

Kickstand

It can be difficult to get a child into or out of a child seat or trailer by yourself, so a strong kickstand, such as the Pletscher twin leg, can help. But never leave a child unattended in a child seat, even with a kickstand.

Step 3: Pre-school riding

Up until the age of four or five, small children are usually non-pedalling passengers. Fortunately, they’re fairly portable – with the right equipment.

The most popular choices are child seats and trailers, though cargo bikes are getting more common and many people swear by them for the school run.

Bike trailers

Bike trailers are usually two- or three-wheeled trailers that will seat one or two children, and can be attached to the rear of the bike to be pulled along behind it.

They will have a roll cage and covers that protect the passengers inside from weather, grit from the road and insects. Many often work as joggers and strollers in addition to trailers.

There are a few advantages over a child seat, including greater carrying capacity with room for nappies, groceries, toys and so on, as well as better bike handling for you.

They are wider and more visible than child seats too, which encourages drivers to give you room.

Another advantage of a trailer is that you may be able to fit a small balance bike in the storage space. This way, if your little one wants to ride for a bit they can, then jump back in the trailer when they get tired.

Trailers are also very stable; if you happen to fall, the trailer should remain upright, and even if it does topple over the children are protected by the aforementioned roll cage. Also, while trailers may look bulky, most trailers fold flat for storage at home.

Kids’ seats

Most kids’ seats fit on the back of a bike, using an attachment system similar to a rear pannier or luggage rack, or attaching via a mount fitted to the down tube.

You can also get front-mounted child seats that usually sit on the top tube between the saddle and the handlebar.

For the majority of child seats, you’ll need to ensure the bike you plan to use has the right mounts on the frame. Child seats are cheaper than trailers and require less leg and lung power. They’re great for outings in better weather, and most suit children from nine months to three or four years. A weight limit of 18 to 20kg is usual.

After fitting the seat, accustom yourself to the bike’s compromised handling by taking a trial run with a big sack of potatoes or similar.

Also practise getting your leg over the top tube without swinging it over the saddle, or you may accidentally kick your passenger.

Front seats affect the handling less than rear seats, but force you to ride bow-legged – okay for a mile or two, irritating beyond.

When fitting, ensure the back of the seat is above or in front of the rear axle. Weight further back can ruin handling. You get better control with a wide bar – flat or riser.

Safety note: It’s vital that nothing – wayward clothing, feet, fingers – ends up in a wheel. All trailers have side panels to prevent this, and most seats have foot straps and side panels.

Dangling laces, scarves or mittens-on-strings can still be a risk. Make sure, too, that you periodically check all your family cycling equipment for loose screws, bolts and so on.

Balance bikes

Balance bikes are an increasingly popular way to teach children how to cycle. They are brilliant for giving children the feel of riding a bike without the complication of gears and pedals.

Teaching your child how to ride a balance bike usually makes the transition to riding a bike with pedals quicker than learning on a bike with pedals and stabilisers, then removing the stabilisers later.

However, bear in mind that kids won’t be able to cover a lot of ground on a balance bike, so these are best for either local jaunts or rides where you’ll be able to carry the child and store the balance bike when they get tired. Or bored.

Step 4: Ready to ride

By the time they start school, most children will be capable of riding a bike of their own, but not far and not on busy roads. There are other ways to get them pedalling, though.

A trailer bike (or tagalong), which is half a bike plus a towing arm, is the cheapest solution, and many fold for storage. Most suit children from four to nine years. The upper limit is weight: your trailer bike passenger shouldn’t exceed half your bodyweight.

You can also get towing arms that fit to the front of a child’s bike and hold the front wheel off the ground, working in effect like a trailer bike.

The advantage here is that you can use them to ride to a destination such as a park, then detach and allow the child to ride free.

When riding with a trailer bike, fit a mudguard to the ‘down tube’ of the trailer bike, up near the handlebar, because your passenger’s face is in the line of spray from your back wheel.

Also, use mudguards on the towing bike and get two racks or hitches so you can swap the trailer bike between towing bikes.

If riding at night, you must fit a rear light and reflector to the trailer bike because it will obscure those of the towing bike.

Because your child is under your direct control, you can ride anywhere. Busy roads aren’t any more dangerous, although conversation will be impossible, so quieter lanes are better, while off-road singletrack, bridleways and forest tracks are all possible.

On longer rides, you need to check the trailer biker’s morale and energy levels regularly, and, if necessary, boost both with stops and snacks. Adults can feel themselves getting tired, while children can tire in moments and suddenly be upset and tearful – or fast asleep!

Step 5: Independent cycling

Children as young as six can ride a dozen miles, and by the age of 10 or 11 most are keen to use their own bikes.

Independent cycling offers a sense of freedom and achievement. The snag can be finding a suitable bike.

Finding the right child’s bike

Finding the best kid’s bike for your child is important. A lot of lower-priced children’s bikes are under-specced and overweight; 15kg is typical, which can be half the rider’s bodyweight.

Your child will get more enjoyment out of cycling – and more miles – with a lighter bike. As a rough guide, aim for 13kg or less for 20in- and 24in-wheel bikes, especially if they’re likely to go off-road.

Don’t be tempted to buy a bike for your child to ‘grow into’. An over-large bike will be awkward to ride.

As a rule of thumb, 14in- or 16in-wheeled bikes suit ages four to six, 20in-wheeled bikes ages five to 10, and 24in-wheeled bikes ages eight to 12.

A long seatpost and a steerer with plenty of spacers, or a quill stem, will maximise growing room. Children often prefer a seat height that’s lower than optimum, and must be able to stand over the bike and dab a foot when seated. Also, smaller hands need to be able to reach the brakes.

The number of gears on a bike can be a badge of status among children (and adults!), but too many gears can cause mechanical complications. One gear is best for starter bikes, a 3-speed hub for second bikes, and a 7-speed or 8-speed derailleur for pre-teens.

Teaching your child to cycle

Sooner or later, your child will fall off, but off-road falls at this age are rarely serious because there’s no traffic or street furniture to hit, and speeds are generally low.

As mentioned above, a helmet is an obvious precaution, and cycling mitts can help prevent scuffed hands.

Long trousers, such as tracksuit bottoms, and shirts with sleeves are better than bare arms and legs. They offer protection from minor grazes, scratches and nettle stings. Boots or sturdy trainers are better than sandals or plimsolls for the same reason.

Some clothing companies do offer cycling kit in child sizes.

As always, plan the ride so you’re going to places that will interest the children – a cafe stop here, a good place for trying to do jumps there, whatever interests them.

Don’t overestimate your speed when planning the route. If they’re on their own bikes, you may be averaging only 5mph or so off-road.

Above all, relax! This should be an enjoyable experience for everyone. Hopefully, you’ll be cultivating a lifelong love of cycling in your kids.

These cycling tips, covering kit, clothing, nutrition, technique and more, are aimed at beginners, the new riders who’ve just started out on their great two-wheeled adventure. Think of BikeRadar as your riding buddy, who wants to help you get the most out of yourself and your bike!

Below, we’ve tried to cover the common pitfalls of getting into riding, but not forgotten that the best thing about cycling is that it’s fun.

Whether you’re a road cyclist, mountain biker or city commuter, there’s bound to be something here for you (spoiler alert: the most important one is at the bottom).

In the words of the great Eddy Merckx – the legendary Belgian ex-pro cyclist who won 11 Grand Tours, including five Tour de France victories: “Ride as much or as little, as long or as short, as you feel. But ride.”

If you’re looking for specific tips, you can skip to the relevant sections of this article by clicking the links below:

• Best cycling clothes for beginners
• Bike maintenance made easy
• What to eat and drink when cycling
• Cycling safety for new cyclists
• Riding technique

Best cycling clothing for beginners

Right, let’s start with what to wear. There’s a huge range of cycling clothing out there, in a dazzling variety of colours and fabrics, from the easily affordable to the insanely expensive. Let’s measure you up…

1. Padded cycling shorts

The best cycling shorts stop your backside from hurting so much.

If you’re asking yourself: should I wear underwear under padded cycling shorts? the answer’s no. Massively padded perches won’t help you on longer rides, trust us on this.

The only way to be comfortable in the saddle is to wear padded shorts, choose the best bike saddle, set the saddle height on your bike right and ride until you get used to your saddle.

2. Wear a cycling helmet

We know legislating helmets is massively contentious, but the best road bike helmets and best mountain bike helmets might save your life.

It’s not hard nowadays to find one that’s comfy, light and affordable. And no, you don’t have to buy the most expensive model because they all conform to current safety standards.

3. Try clipless pedals

Deciding between flat or clipless pedals can be tricky.

Clipless pedals are confusingly the ones you clip into using cleats, and they are without a doubt the best road bike pedals.

The binding can be made loose enough to come away easily, you’ll quickly learn how to use clipless pedals and they’ll make a massive difference to your pedalling efficiency.

4. Mountain bikers, wear protection

Mountain bikers, particularly when you’re starting out or learning new skills, will be very grateful for a decent pair of gloves and knee pads, as a minimum.

What to wear mountain biking depends on how technical your riding is. If you’re learning big jumps or hardcore downhill trails, consider armour and pads for your elbows, and even back protectors too.

5. Get some cycling sunglasses

The best cycling sunglasses don’t need to cost the earth or make you look stupid, but they will keep your eyes protected from bugs, stones, sun and rain.

Some versions feature interchangeable lenses, so, if you can, get one lens for bright conditions and one for dull, wet days.

Bike maintenance made easy

Now that you’re wearing something comfortable, let’s move on to keeping your bike happy. You don’t need a shed full of tools to achieve this, but it helps to have a friendly bike shop nearby in case you need advice.

6. Use chain lube

Keep your chain clean and lubricated, particularly if riding in bad weather. As our guide to how to clean a bike chain explains, you’ll eliminate the dreaded ‘creak’ that cyclists hate, and more expensive parts such as chainrings won’t wear out as quickly.

7. Check your tyre pressure

Recommended tyre pressures will be indicated on the sidewall of your tyres, but the ideal road bike tyre pressure is subject to a number of factors.

The best bike pumps are a good investment because they require less effort to get to the recommended pressure, and will feature a handy pressure gauge.

8. Fit mudguards/fenders for wet conditions

Fitting mudguards is an integral part of how to get your road bike winter ready.

Your back will thank you, your washing machine will thank you, anyone riding behind you will be thank you too. Some (including some BikeRadar staffers) will point out they can ruin the clean lines of a fancy road bike but, in the mire of winter, do you really care?

9. Keep your bike clean

Although few of us are as fastidious as we should be, you can clean your bike in seven simple steps.

Hot soapy water and a sponge will do the job for most parts unless the grime is caked on, in which case there are some great cleaning sprays available. Use specialist degreaser for the drivetrain (cassette, chain, crankset and so on). Then spray your gleaming bike all over with a silicone aerosol – avoid braking surfaces – this will stop mud sticking on your next ride.

10. Master puncture repair

Learn how to fix a puncture, and always carry a repair kit (including tyre levers, patches or a new inner tube, and a pump).

When you’re miles from home and suddenly hear that hissing sound, you’ll be glad you learned how to fix it yourself.

What to eat and drink when cycling

Right, that’s clothing and kit sorted, let’s consider your fuel source. You could spend a fortune on specially formulated sports nutrition, but the truth is you don’t have to. Have a rummage around your cupboards at home and see what’s portable.

11. Stay hydrated

Whether you prefer a water bottle or a hydration pack, make sure you pack some fluid whenever you’re heading out.

The best bottle cages are a practical way to carry water on your bike. You can nearly always find somewhere to refill along the way, and most coffee shops are happy to oblige for free.

12. Stay fuelled

Avoid bonking on a bike ride, where your body runs out of fuel and you grind to a painful halt.

The body can carry around 90 minutes’ worth of glycogen for high-tempo efforts before it needs replenishing, or else will switch to burning fat. The problem with burning fat is that you can’t work at anywhere near the same intensity level. Given how many calories cycling burns, consume around 100 to 250 calories every 30 minutes, whether that’s energy gels, cereal bars or a banana.

We like carrot cake, by the way. If you make your own energy bars, you’ll save money and can tailor them to your taste and nutrition requirements.

13. Use electrolytes

Cramping is a common complaint when you start riding harder or longer than your body’s used to.

One piece of advice often offered is to ensure you replace the electrolytes lost through sweating, either by drinking specially formulated sports drinks or by making your own energy drinks (it’s basically fruit juice, water, and a little sugar and salt). No one knows for certain why cramps occur, but this seems to help.

14. Refuel

Carbohydrates and protein are what to eat and drink to recover from a hard ride. It’s best to have a carb and protein-rich meal for post-ride recovery. But between meals or when you’re pressed for time, try a delicious smoothie recipe for pre- and post-ride fuelling. These act as a recovery drink, which after a long, hard ride will help the body repair itself, in conjunction with some rest.

Aim to consume something with a 4:1 carbs-to-protein ratio soon after finishing. There are plenty of pre-mixed recovery drinks on the market, or you can have fun by making some. Our current go-to is milk, one banana, a tablespoon of peanut butter and some honey, all whizzed up in a blender. Yum.

15. Give it the beans

The mid-ride coffee stop is a cherished tradition and there’s sound scientific reasoning behind it: coffee and cycling are a performance pairing. Caffeine has been found to measurably improve your endurance on the bike. Do say: “Espresso doppio, per favore.”

Cycling safety for new cyclists

This is an important one – we want to keep you safe. The good news is that with the right mix of confidence and caution, city streets and rural roads are yours for the taking. Build up some experience and you’ll learn to read situations quickly and accurately.

16. Communicate

If you’re going out for a long ride on your own, tell someone where you’re going and when to expect you back. The best bike computers and best cycling apps, such as Strava, allow you to send a tracking link to your loved ones so they know where you are. You can also share your location via WhatsApp.

17. Get street-wise

Learn some basic traffic-riding skills for the city. You’ll feel a lot more confident for it. Be assertive, stay out of the gutter and remember that you’ve got as much right to be on the road as anyone else. In order to ride safely in traffic, you need to know the difference between ‘primary’ (middle of the left-hand lane) and ‘secondary’ (about one metre to the left of the moving traffic lane) positions, and use them appropriately. Our cycling to work guide has more commuting tips.

18. Don’t jam the brakes

The front brake is much more effective than the rear at stopping you, so try to achieve a 60/40 or 70/30 power distribution between front and rear. But be very, very careful not to lock up. Modern brakes are pretty powerful and you don’t want to go over the handlebars.

19. Turning technique

When cornering, ensure your outside pedal is at the lowest position, with pressure being placed on it. This will give you more grip, particularly in the wet, and make sliding out less likely.

20. Better together

On the road, knowing how to ride in a group opens up social and training opportunities. A friendly pack of riders is much more efficient (read uses less energy) by taking turns at the front, but this requires riding close to each other. And you don’t want to cause any accidents. So keep a level head, don’t make any sudden movements or brake unexpectedly, and avoid ‘half-wheeling’ (riding slightly ahead of the person next to you). Learn how and when to use hand signals on your road bike to warn riders behind you of any obstacles they might not see until it’s too late. They’ll do the same for you.

Riding technique

We come to our final section, cycling technique. There’s plenty of debate out there on the ‘right’ technique for all forms of riding, but there are also a few absolutes:

21. Sit comfortably

Perfect your road bike position and get your bike saddle height right. You’ll be more comfortable, more powerful and all-round happier if your bike is the right size and your handlebars are set up correctly. We highly recommend that cyclists of all levels get a professional bike fit, and a decent bike shop can help you here.

22. No chain strain

Avoid ‘cross chaining’ the gears. In other words, if you’re in the largest chain ring, don’t run it with the largest cassette cog (ditto, smallest chain ring, smallest cog). This places extra loads on the chain and stresses the whole system. Your bike really doesn’t like it and it’s not efficient. Our guide to bike gears has all you need to know.

23. Spin

Try to maintain a high, regular cycling cadence, around 70 to 90 pedal revolutions per minute if you can. If you’re grinding too hard a gear, your cadence will drop and power output will tail off. Try to anticipate big hills by shifting into a low (easy) gear just before you need it.

24. Team up

Find some riding buddies. That could mean joining a cycling club, persuading your mates to dust off their old bikes or showing them how to buy a used or second-hand bike online. Should they need convincing, roll out a handful of the great benefits of cycling. You’ll feel more motivated to get out and ride if you’ve got a pal to share it with.

25. Grin

Riding bikes is fun. Acknowledge other riders, enjoy yourself, then eat cake, and don’t worry too much about having the ‘right’ gear or the ‘best’ bike. The best bike out there is the one that you enjoy riding.

That’s it, our list of 25 cycling tips for beginners. Do you agree with them? Think we missed some out? We’d love you to tell us in the comments!

When you start cycling, there’s a whole glossary of jargon to get your head around, and one of the most cryptic terms is “cadence”. What is cadence and why is it important to your riding?

What is cadence?

Cadence is fundamentally very simple: it’s the number of revolutions your pedals make per minute as you ride. But you don’t have to spend too long cycling to see that riders will often pedal at different rates.

Watch a bunch of pros in a race and they’ll seem to be pedalling really fast, particularly on a flat course. Their cadence will typically be very high, often 100 revolutions per minute (rpm) or more. 

Most will be pedalling slightly slower on a climb, but still much faster than the average cyclist. Chris Froome’s extreme climbing style is a prime example of this, with a cadence still often around 100rpm even going uphill.

On the other hand, the average recreational rider will typically pedal much slower, at around 60rpm, while a fit amateur might be doing 80 to 90rpm.

Does it matter whether you have a high or low cadence? Let’s take a closer look at why cadence matters, how you measure cadence and whether there’s an ideal cadence to aim for.

Why is cadence important?

Cadence is a key measurement because it’s a vital component in the power you put out on the bike. After all, power is a calculation of how hard you push on the pedals (torque) multiplied by how fast you are turning them (cadence).

Cycling at a lower cadence typically puts more strain on your muscles, while a higher cadence shifts the load more to your cardiovascular system, says Dr Xavier Disley of AeroCoach, who has researched cycling efficiency and cadence, working with a number of elite cyclists.

If you have a more muscular build, you’re likely to be more comfortable at a lower cadence, while a wiry rider will probably want to push a lower gear at higher revs. There’s an energy cost to just turning the legs, which will vary with your physique, Disley points out.

Experiments have shown that trying to ride faster at a lower cadence (in a high/difficult gear) is more likely to lead to muscle strains and muscle soreness after a ride than achieving the same speed at a faster cadence, but with a lower load. 

On the other hand, too fast a cadence and you’re likely to find your pelvis rocking, which could lower pedalling efficiency. You’ll also tire quickly.

Measuring cadence

The simplest way to measure your cadence is just to count how many times your legs go up and down in a minute. But for a more accurate record, there are electronic devices (cadence sensors) you can use. 

Many cadence sensors for bikes are designed to attach to the left-side chainstay. A magnet attached to your crank arm passes the sensor, which in turn records how many times it goes past and then sends a signal to your bike computer. You will then have a record of your cadence over time, which you can analyse as your training progresses.

Wahoo’s RPM Cadence sensor, on the other hand, attaches to your crank and works as a standalone unit, transmitting cadence data to your computer.

And if you have a power meter, this will measure cadence and send the data to your computer too. Some bikes come with an integrated cadence sensor.

What is the ideal cycling cadence?

In truth, there isn’t one. The ‘ideal’ cadence depends on a number of factors and can vary from one rider to another.

Measuring in a lab how much power cyclists can put out relative to the energy they’re using shows that most cyclists will self-select their optimal cadence, says Disley. 

Experience also matters, and riders who have logged lots of miles in the saddle will likely have found a range of cadences that work for them, depending on the terrain and demands of a particular ride.

Disley also points out it’s important to experiment with different cadences to find your optimum – and one cadence may not be best across all situations.

Time trialists, for example, tend to use a higher cadence in shorter events than they do in longer tests, Disley says. “Your aim should be to improve your cadence, rather than just to increase it,” he adds.

There are also benefits to varying your cadence in training sessions to improve your cycling technique and provoke specific adaptations.

Using a high cadence at lower loads will train your neuromuscular system to pedal more smoothly, while a lower-cadence/higher-load session will help to increase your strength. 

Riding rollers is a good way to smooth your ride style, while structured drills are better than long, steady rides to get your legs spinning smoothly and efficiently. 

Want to know more? The training sessions below will help you to pedal more efficiently.

Two training drills to improve your cadence

We asked Matt Rowe of Rowe and King to recommend two training sessions to work on different aspects of cadence: one to build strength and one to improve pedalling fluidity.

He’s coached pro cyclists and is an advocate of indoor training.

1. Pedalling fluidity and coordination 

Rowe recommends a 20-minute session of 4x (4 minutes at 120rpm + 1 minute easy).

For the whole 20-minute block, keep your upper body as still as possible. A strong core is key. Allow power transfer to come from the waist down.

You can then rest and repeat the block for a second time if you feel adventurous, Rowe says.

2. Strength endurance session

To build your strength, Rowe recommends a lower-cadence drill with high power output.

2x 15-minute blocks at 89 to 90 per cent of FTP, at a cadence of 50 to 60rpm. If you’re not familiar with FTP (Functional Threshold Power) read our guide.

The lower the cadence and higher the power, the more torque is created. So, over time, as you progress you can nudge the power up and decrease the cadence.  

Rest well between each block (between 10 and 15 minutes) for full recovery.

Marginal gains

Get into elite-level cycling and it’s not just about cadence and power output.

Expert bike fitter Andy Sexton of Bike Science points out that elite time-trialists and triathletes are going so fast that a small increase in power output from a faster cadence will be more than outweighed if that stops a rider being able to maintain an optimal aero position.

Cadence will also vary with the type of riding: a track sprinter will put up with a much more extreme riding position and cadence for a handful of seconds in a sprint relative to a pro road rider who’s in the saddle for hours.

Meanwhile, physiotherapist Phil Burt, who has worked at British Cycling and Team Sky supporting elite Olympic and pro cyclists, points out that crank length is also an important determinant of cadence because it contributes to the rider’s gearing.

It’s easier to maintain a higher cadence with shorter cranks, Burt says, and there’s a trend for triathletes to ride short cranks for smoother power delivery at higher revs.

Crank length is typically determined by frame size on off-the-shelf bikes, but this may be an appropriate component to swap for riders looking to fine-tune their pedal stroke.

This is a comprehensive guide on how to change the gears on a road bike or on a mountain bike.

Road bike shifters can feel intimidating at first, but this guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to use Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo drop-bar shifters.

On road bikes, the shifters and brakes are usually integrated into one unit. There are slightly different variations on the design, but this is by far the most common design on modern drop-bar bikes. They are sometimes referred to as “brifters”.

The best mountain bikes  (and the best hybrid bikes) use flat-bar shifters. While they are pretty intuitive, there are different designs, so we’ve provided instructions for the main two types: thumb shifters and grip shifters.

How to change gears on a road bike

You can change the gears on your road bike when riding on the hoods (this is when your hands are on the top of the shifters and will be your most-used position on the bike) or from the drops.

We have a more in-depth look at exactly how your gears work, that’s well worth referring to if you’re a new rider but, as a brief refresher to make the language below more clear:

• Easy gear (smaller chainrings, bigger cassette cogs) = smaller gear
• Harder gear (bigger chainrings, smaller cassette cogs) = bigger gear

However, just to make matters more confusing:

• Upshift = harder gear
• Downshift = easier gear

Lastly, talking about moving ‘up the cassette’ is a more ambiguous term. When we use it on BikeRadar, we use it in its most literal interpretation:

• Up the cassette = from a smaller cog to a larger cog
• Down the cassette = from a larger cog to a smaller cog

With that roughly as clear as mud, here’s how you actually go about using your road shifters.

How to use Shimano road bike shifters

Shimano Total Integration (STI) shifters use a split-lever design to change gears.

A small lever just behind the brake lever shifts the chain onto a smaller cog, while the whole brake lever can be pushed to the side to shift to a larger cog.

• Right-hand shifter controls rear shifting: Push the inner, smaller paddle inboard (sweeping from right to left) to shift down the cassette into a smaller cog (a bigger/harder gear). Push the brake lever inboard (the small shift paddle will come with it) to shift up the cassette into a larger (easier/smaller) gear.
• Left-hand shifter controls front shifting: Push the inner, smaller paddle inboard (sweeping from left to right) to drop down into the smaller (a smaller/easier) chainring. Push the brake lever inboard (the small shift paddle will come with it) to shift into a larger (a bigger/harder) chainring.

Shimano shifters also feature a trim function on the front (left-hand) lever. Shifting the inboard lever with a smaller throw (roughly half as much as a normal shift) will move the cage of the front derailleur inboard to stop the chain rubbing in certain gears.

Di2 (electronic) Shimano gears function in exactly the same way, but the mechanical innards of the shifting mechanism are replaced with small buttons. These can, however, be re-programmed to suit your needs and desires.

How to use SRAM road bike shifters

SRAM DoubleTap shifters use a single paddle to shift both up and down. A short click will shift into a smaller cog, and pushing the lever further will shift into a larger cog.

• Right-hand shifter controls rear shifting: Push the paddle inboard (sweeping right to left) a small amount to shift down the cassette into a smaller cog (a bigger/harder gear). Push the paddle further inboard to shift up the cassette into a larger (easier/smaller) gear.
• Left-hand shifter controls front shifting: Push the paddle inboard (sweeping left to right) a small amount to shift down into a smaller chainring (a smaller/easier gear). Push the paddle further inboard to shift up into a larger (harder/larger) gear.

eTap is SRAM’s electronic shifting system. Functionality can be customised almost endlessly, but set up to its factory defaults:

• Right-hand paddle: Click the shift paddle to shift down the cassette into a smaller cog (a larger/harder) gear.
• Left-hand paddle: Click the shift paddle to shift up the cassette into a larger cog (a smaller/easier) gear.
• Both paddles together: Push both shift paddles simultaneously to shift between chainrings

How to use Campagnolo road bike shifters

Campagnolo shifters are slightly different again – a shift lever behind the brake lever shifts into a larger cog/chainring on both the front and rear, while a thumb-operated paddle on the inside of the hood shifts into a smaller cog/chainring.

• Right-hand shifter controls rear shifting: Push the shift lever behind the brake lever inboard (sweeping right to left) to shift up the cassette into a larger cog (a smaller/easier gear). Push down on the thumb paddle to shift down the cassette into a smaller cog (a bigger/harder gear) on the cassette.
• Left-hand shifter controls front shifting: Push the shift lever behind the brake lever inboard (sweeping left to right) to shift up into a larger chainring (a larger/harder gear). Push down on the thumb paddle to shift down into a smaller chainring (a smaller/easier gear).

EPS (Campagnolo’s electronic shifting system) mimics the action of the mechanical shifters but, as with Shimano and SRAM, functionality can be customised.

How to use bar-end shifters and down tube shifters

Bar-end shifters slot into the end of the bars and provide a lever that actuates your gears. These are very similar to thumb shifters and are available in both indexed and friction shifter forms.

These have popped up a little more recently, providing a simple way of combining a hub gear with drop-bar brake levers.

Down-tube shifters work in much the same way, but as the name suggests, these are located on the down tube of the bike.

Moving either of these levers towards or away from you will shift up or down the cassette or crankset.

How to change gears on a mountain bike

Flat-bar shifters are common on mountain bikes, as well as hybrid bikes, where you rest your hands on the bars rather than spending time on the hoods of road bike shifters.

These shifters often work the same way across brands, but can vary. Sometimes, these shifters are integrated with brake levers, but they aren’t always. Some will have dials showing which gear you are in, whereas others will forgo this feature.

Thumb shifters

Thumb shifters have two levers that enable you to toggle between higher (harder) and lower (easier) gears.

These levers will often be positioned so one is effectively underneath your handlebar and operated with your thumb, while the other is above your handlebar and operated with your index finger. Others will have two levers next to one another underneath the handlebar, both of which can be operated with your thumb.

The function of the two levers depends on which side of the handlebar they are on:

• Right-hand side: The thumb shifter on the right-hand side of your handlebar will be the one you use most because it changes the sprocket on the cassette. You use the larger thumb-operated lever closer to you to move into a harder gear. You use the smaller lever hidden behind the larger lever to shift into an easier gear.
• Left-hand side: The thumb shifter on the left-hand side of your handlebar operates the front derailleur, changing between the chainrings at the front. This works the other way around to the shifter on the right-hand side, so you use the larger lever to move into an easier gear, and the smaller lever to move into a harder gear.

Grip shifters

Grip shifters work similarly to thumb shifters, but instead of being a lever-operated system, they rely on you gripping them and twisting your hand either toward or away from you to change gear.

Grip shifters used to be common across adult mountain bikes, but now they are more often seen on the best kids’ bikes. SRAM does, however, still produce grip shifters for its mechanical mountain bike groupsets.

Like thumb shifters, you use the left-hand and right-hand grip shifter differently to change up or down:

• Right-hand side: The grip shifter on the right-hand side of your handlebar changes the sprocket on the cassette. You twist it away from you to move down the cassette into a harder gear. You twist it towards you to move up the cassette into an easier gear.
• Left-hand side: The grip shifter on the left-hand side of your handlebar operates the front derailleur and moves the chain between the front chainrings. You twist the grip towards you to move into a larger chainring and harder gear. You twist the grip away from you to move into a smaller chainring and easier gear.

Are you planning on riding a century, double century or an even longer distance in 2022? There’s a lot of misleading or just plain wrong information on the web relating to long-distance cycling, but I’m here to tell you what I have found makes for a successful, lengthy ride.

Plan to succeed

While the idea of riding through lonely rural landscapes may sound attractive, you’re unlikely to pass through many populated areas, which means you’ll need to be self-sufficient on the bike and will have few (if any) convenient bail-out options.

On the other hand, spending hours riding through big towns, and invariably traffic, eats up a lot of time, bringing your average speed down. Even a small reduction in your average pace can be the difference between finishing at stupid o’clock and sensible o’clock.

While you could avoid these concerns and ride around a closed track until you’ve reached your target, you’d no doubt pedal yourself into dizzy oblivion and give up due to sheer boredom before anything else.

Striking a balance between the two on your first ride is the key; neither huffing excessive diesel fumes or bonking in a ditch on the side of a desolate moor will get you closer to your goal, so pick where your route takes you carefully.

For planning the ride, we recommend using an app such as Komoot, Ride With GPS or Strava, and exporting the route to a GPS. While the idea of travelling down unknown roads may feel romantic and adventurous, after the first few wrong turns, it’ll quickly get boring.

If you don’t own a GPS-equipped bike computer, paper maps will of course suffice, but they do add an element of stop-start hassle that, if possible, is best avoided.

When planning your route, if you don’t feel confident and would like some help along the way, you should consider entering a sportive or audax (also known as a randonnée outside of the UK).

The latter in particular is a great way to make friends and ride in a supportive and non-competitive environment. Audax UK, the body that regulates and runs events in the UK, has an excellent guide to riding your first audax.

What should I eat on my first century?

Jack Luke / Immediate Media

Nothing else is as mercilessly and unnecessarily fussed over by cyclists as food.

The established distinctions between what is and isn’t appropriate cycling food – this sickly gel is special cyclist’s food; this honey and peanut butter bagel is the scoff of mortals – shouldn’t be taken as gospel, particularly for long-distance cycling.

Basic rules should be followed, but there are no right and wrong foods for every cyclist in the land – while a diet consisting of only caffeinated jelly beans, dusty protein bars and other freaky science-foods may work for some riders, for others, all that performance nutrition causes is a noisy tummy.

Why not incorporate sports nutrition into real food and save money by baking homemade energy bars for cycling?

Experimentation is the key to working out what fuels you best on long-distance rides – try out lots of different food before your big day out and you may stumble on something that works perfectly for you.

On a long-distance ride, choosing the right food is also a psychological decision. Spending half a day hunched over handlebars will invariably ruin your appetite, and switching up what you eat throughout the course of the day will help to keep things palatable and you motivated.

I personally recommend you carry as much food with you as possible on your first ride. Being able to eat on the hoof means you can avoid the wasted time of stopping at shops or cafes for nourishment.

When you are able to confidently pace and plan a long ride, that’s the time to start indulging in more gourmet off-bike dining experiences.

I’d recommend investing in additional on-bike storage for your cycle snacks. Panniers may seem like the obvious option, but these are unnecessarily bulky for a lightweight, single-day excursion. A better choice is something along the lines of a Carradice saddlebag.

Setting up your bike for long-distance cycling

As long as you feel comfortable on it, the likelihood is that whatever bike you’re currently riding is pretty much fine for long-distance riding.

While a drop-bar, dynamo-equipped, be-fendered, plump-tyred, relaxed-geometry audax wagon will be the most comfortable way to ride more mileage, not owning a bike like that shouldn’t be a barrier to your enjoyment of long-distance riding.

However, there are still things you can do to improve the performance of your existing bike for long days in the saddle.

The first thing is to address the fit of your bike.

While a super aggressive, butt-up, head-down position will be more aero – and, thus, faster – than an upright stance, if you’re not used to riding in this position for an extended period, you’re likely to put excessive strain on your hands and arms over the course of a long day.

However, bear in mind that, like food, bike fit is highly personal.

While an upright position may work for some, it won’t necessarily for you, even for long-distance riding – again, experimentation is key but, if you don’t know where to start, consider getting a bike fit.

If you ride in wet weather, or even on wet roads, you’re going to get damp. The morale boost of being warm and dry on your bike cannot be overstated and I would always recommend fitting proper, full-cover mudguards for long-distance riding in inclement climates.

Even if you don’t plan on being out after dark, it’s always wise to bring a set of bike lights with you. What if you have a mechanical failure and have to limp home via the nearest train station? What if your average speed drops a little and you’re going to get back after dark?

Simply put, avoid the stress of worrying about not having lights – fit them to your bike and forget about them until you need them.

Prepare yourself

After scheduling your marathon ride, you’ll need to gradually increase your mileage in the weeks and months beforehand.

If you’ve chosen a spring or summer date, your winter training must include base training. These long, steady miles will boost your endurance for the big outing. You’ll begin to understand training zones and identify a pace you can hold for hours.

If you plan to do this outside, you’ll need to get your bike winter-ready. Your hands will need the best winter road cycling gloves.

Although most of us will opt to conquer an outdoor century, the benefits of indoor cycling could make a smart bike a valuable part of your preparation.

Unless your route is pan flat, raising your power-to-weight ratio in advance will pay dividends on the climbs. Turbo trainer workouts on training apps such as Zwift are an effective and efficient way to do so.

Moreover, Wahoo SYSTM allows you to create a training program specific to your goals while addressing your strengths and weaknesses. The workouts can be done on the best smart trainers or on the road.

If it hurts, stop

When I used to work in a bike shop, I was regularly shocked by the injuries that customers had as a result of their cycling.

Cycling is an exceptionally low-impact sport and these injuries were most commonly the result of poor fit on their bikes.

Sure, if you’ve just finished riding 200 miles, it’s not unreasonable to have a tender behind and feel a little stiff the day after, but you shouldn’t be incapacitated in any way.

If you think something isn’t right about the fit of your bike, or if you’re not quite physically ready for that long-distance goal, go home and try another time. The roads will still be there tomorrow.

Cycling marketing often fetishises ‘epic’ experiences on the bike – remove the rose-tinted glasses and you can easily translate ‘epic’ to ‘unpleasant’. There’s nothing noble about hurting yourself for the sake of hitting an arbitrary number.

Also, ruining future days out because you’ve ridden through injury isn’t big or clever. Pain is not a shared experience and few will care how hard you worked to ride those miles. Remember, this is supposed to be fun.

Learning to ride on your own, without stabilisers or support, is a massive moment for any child (and their bike-mad parents). But there are real pitfalls to avoid, so what is the best way to teach a child to ride once you’ve bought them their first bike?

First things first, the best way to get a child started on a pedal bike is by giving them a balance bike to practise on first.

The child learns how to balance and steer a two-wheeler without the complication of pedalling and taking their feet off the ground at the same time.

Many children learn to ride with stabilisers, but there are advantages to choosing a balance bike over one with extra wheels. Stabilisers hold the bike in a rigid upright position, so children don’t learn to lean the bike in order to balance and steer.

With this in mind, follow the eight steps we’ve outlined below and your child should be well on their way to riding a bike and heading out on rides with you.

How to teach a child to ride a bike

Gauge if the child is ready

Most children will be ready to learn between three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half years of age. If they’re not ready, it’s usually pretty obvious right away and they won’t get the hang of moving the pedals in circles quickly.

If children see other kids riding, they’ll get some sort of idea about turning the pedals. Remember, children are hardwired to learn to walk and run, but not to cycle.

Choose a suitable area

It’s important to choose a suitable area for their first lesson. It can be tempting to choose soft grass because it’ll give a softer landing, but this is actually harder to pedal on.

What you want is a smooth and fairly flat tarmac surface that’ll let the child get some rolling momentum, ideally with plenty of space so the child can roam around and, of course, away from traffic.

Get the bike set up

Make sure you buy the right bike size, and try not to put them on a bike that’s too big in the hope they’ll ‘grow into it’.

Set the saddle so the child can get the balls of their feet on the ground. It’s tempting to go for setting the saddle low enough that they can put flat feet on the ground, but that makes the pedalling action more difficult because their knees will come up too high and interfere with the steering. This will make gaining balance more difficult.

Most kids’ bikes are sold based on wheel size, and we have a guide to kids’ bike wheel sizes to help you find the right size bike for your child or teenager.

Support the child in their first efforts

It’s tempting to hold on to the saddle and handlebars, but you’ll be interfering with how the bike leans and responds to the rider’s weight.

It’s best to stand behind the bike and child, and wedge the rear wheel between your feet and calves. Support them with your hands under the armpits, so they’ve got complete control of the bike – it’s easier on your back too!

Gradually let go (but stay ready to catch them)

As they gain confidence riding, you can gradually let go, but stay ready to grab them under the armpits if necessary.

When you’re running behind them, you can guide their body and help them to understand how the bike responds to leaning, show them how to corner and make S-turns.

If they’re ready to learn to ride, they’ll find their balance and be pedalling forward quite quickly, usually within one session of half an hour or so.

Let them set off on their own

Once they’ve got the hang of pedalling forward and balancing, you can show them how to set off on their own.

Put the pedal of their stronger foot in the 2 o’clock position, and get the child to place their foot on the pedal. Tell them to push down hard on that pedal while pushing on the ground with the other leg. It will take a few attempts before they get the hang of it.

Teach them to brake

It’s sometimes easier to introduce the concept of the brakes without the child riding, so ask them to walk alongside the bike and pull on the brake levers to see what happens.

They will pull on the levers pretty hard to begin with. You can then encourage them, while walking, to squeeze the brakes more slowly.

Once they’ve got the hang of that, put them back on the bike to have a few goes. They’ll usually brake effectively, but forget to put their feet down – so be ready to catch!

Soon they’ll be riding without you running behind them.

Try, try again

Practice is key to getting the hang of it. But remember that every child’s different and the point at which they’re ready to ride varies.

Be careful not to make it a stressful experience for the child, no matter how keen you are for them to join you on rides. With any luck, they’ll love practising this new skill and the freedom it brings.

Oh, and don’t forget the protective gear, particularly at this early stage; a helmet is essential, and cycling mitts can help prevent scuffed hands. Long trousers, such as tracksuit bottoms, and shirts with sleeves are better than bare arms and legs because they’ll help protect them from minor grazes. Boots or trainers are better than sandals too.

A good set of legs and lungs stands you in good stead for cyclocross racing, but the discipline rewards bike-handling expertise far more than other branches of road racing. There are several ‘cross skills you’ll need to climb up the field. Many of these are also handy on the road.

Practising getting on and off your bike, as well as running with it, will make your initiation to cyclocross racing less daunting.

Although you only do it once, getting out of the blocks quickly is one of the most important parts of the race. As you progress, you’ll learn how to scythe through corners by not touching the brakes and scale steep banks without getting off the bike.

The most advanced racers will also bunnyhop to good effect to maintain speed and avoid punctures.

Key cyclocross skills and how to practise them

Cyclocross starts

A fast start in a cyclocross race helps avoid congestion at the first corners and can be pivotal to overall positioning.

The term ‘holeshot’ describes the flat-out dash from the startline to the first bend. The fastest riders to get up to speed can break clear or make up ground if they’ve started near the back of the grid.

You need to react swiftly to the start signal, clip in during the first pedal stroke and be in the correct gear to power away. The best cyclocross shoes are a massive help with this.

If you’re new to riding with clipless pedals, this is a key skill to practise – you want the process of clipping in to feel like second nature.

Dismounting and remounting your bike

Obstacles, such as barriers, may call for you to get off your bike. Technical sections, such as banks and mud, can often be quicker to run than ride.

On all but the fastest and driest of courses, where you’ll spend more time seated, your aptitude in this area could save or cost you minutes.

Running dismounts maintain precious speed you’ve worked hard to build up. Remounting on the move gets you back to speed quicker after a fall or bike change.

Mastering this is a key skill for any serious cyclocross racer and, as silly as it might feel, practising this is key if you want to be competitive.

Carrying and shouldering your bike in cyclocross

Sometimes, lifting your bike and running is the best way forward on unrideable sections or when competitors have stopped in front of you. If you push the bike over rough or muddy terrain, you’ll find it hard to control and the chain will bounce about.

Thankfully, the best cyclocross bikes are exceptionally light and relatively easy to carry. Many will also have specially shaped top tubes to aid carrying.

Both techniques for doing so are more comfortable once you’re removed the bottle cages from your frame.

Bunnyhopping in cyclocross

This technique gets you over small obstacles without having to dismount. It can bring high rewards.

At regional races, you’ll see the top riders jump skilfully over wooden barriers and overtake rivals as they remount and clip in.

But, as anyone who has not gained enough air to clear the blocks of wood will testify, bunnyhopping is high risk.

Only a fraction of pros in the men’s and women’s World Cup series will dare try it. Loss of time, injury and a race-ending mechanical are possible pitfalls.

If you’re unsure whether it’ll pay off, it’s best to use the running dismount.

Cornering in cyclocross racing

Choosing the right line through a corner increases your exit speed, allowing you to surge out of it.

Look where you want to go, and then your head and body should follow. By holding your weight back, the front wheel can turn freely and will be less likely to lose grip.

A straighter line is a faster line, so seek traction and take the widest line you can before braking and then turning. Tyres struggle to do both at the same time without understeering or sliding.

On reverse cambers and slippy bends or descents, where grip is at a premium, pros often employ a technique called ‘scooting’.

They unclip one foot, usually the inside, and touch the ground for balance or to propel themselves around  the corner.

Climbing banks

Racers who can ride over short, sharp climbs can carry more speed over the crest and put time into rivals.

They dance athletically past us mere mortals scrambling and slipping our way up – made more ungainly by a two-wheeled burden.

But there’s no magic involved. They’ve just perfected the technique, and so can you.

Time taken experimenting with gearing and finding the best line on practice laps will be well spent. Aim to carry as much speed into the bottom as possible, and select the appropriate gear in advance so you don’t falter later.

Adjust your weight distribution between the rear wheel, for grip, and the front for steering and to stop it lifting. It’s a matter of strength to keep the pedals turning.

Riding in a group safely and efficiently is one of the key skills of road cycling. However, the first few times you ride in a group it can be a confusing experience. We’ve got all the essential information and techniques you need in order to stay safe, ride with confidence and have an enjoyable time.

• How to descend safely
• 10 steps to becoming a fitter, faster, better cyclist
• How to flatten even the steepest of hills

Basic group riding technique

When the road allows, you’ll usually be riding two-abreast in a double pace line. This allows everyone behind the two leading riders to shelter from the wind. 

The time each rider spends on the front is usually decided before the ride starts. Tired riders will take shorter turns.

If you’re riding on the front, keep your speed as smooth and controlled as possible because everyone is riding close to one another. This means no grabbing handfuls of brake or fast accelerating, particularly out of corners. Always have your hands covering the brakes, either on the hoods or the drops.

Half-wheeling – nudging your front tyre ahead of the rider beside you – is poor group-riding etiquette. It can come across as a passive-aggressive signal you wish to up the pace. Instead, always try to keep your handlebars level with the person next to you. If unsure about pacing, match the speed of more experienced riders.

Starting out, it’s best to keep at least a wheel length between your front wheel and the back wheel in front. As you progress, you can close this gap. But don’t overlap your wheel with the person in front, because the wheels may make contact with the slightest gust of wind or bump in the road. Try to keep your head up and look ahead for hazards or signals from the other riders.

When approaching hills, it’s important to widen the gap between cyclists to allow for slowing down. Avoid getting out of the saddle when someone’s right behind you. Your back wheel will drop back about half a bike length. This could cause them to swerve or brake sharply.

On downhills, front riders should try to keep pedalling, otherwise riders benefitting from their draft will have to brake. Before longer descents, consider letting everyone go down at their own speed and regroup at the bottom.

Communicating hazards

Ensuring everyone in the group knows about what’s going on, is aware of any hazards, and is happy communicating with the others is very important. 

The front riders are responsible for warning the group about upcoming hazards (such as potholes), approaching cars, corners or junctions. The signals should pass all the way back through the group. 

When on the front, make sure you always let the rest know if you slow down or brake. 

If you aren’t familiar with hand gestures and calls, make sure you check these with the rest of the group before you set off.

It’s up to the riders on the back to let those in front know what’s behind. They should call if a car is behind them or about to overtake. 

On narrow lanes, this allows the bunch to single out when it’s safe for the vehicle to pass or remain two-abreast when it is not. Elsewhere, front riders will know not to move towards the middle of the road when a car is passing.

Call clearly (but not too loudly) and give notice of hazards as early as you can to allow time for the group to react. Keep your pace even with the rider beside you, and you’ll be set.

Advanced group riding skills

If you’re comfortable with basic group riding skills, take your group riding up to the next level with more advanced techniques. These techniques are ideal for road racing, breakaways and team time trials.

The two most commonly used advanced techniques are the ‘through and off’ and the single pace line. These keep a high pace over flat or rolling terrain, and most groups alternate between the two, depending on the number of riders and the type of road.

The through and off technique

This technique is ideal for groups of six or more riders on roads where the local laws allow cyclists to ride two abreast. It’s an efficient way of keeping the group’s speed high.

A fast ‘through and off’ is a flowing machine consisting of a fast line and slow line. It’s a lot like a double pace line, except that riders continually rotate. Before starting, it’s essential you agree which side to move up the group (usually on the right or outside).

By taking short turns at the front, it’s possible to push the pace high, which is why this technique is often used in breakaways during races.

The most important action takes place at the front of the double pace line. As the rider in the fast line draws level with the rider in the slow line, the slow rider should ease off the pedals slightly.

This permits the fast rider to move over and call ‘clear wheel’ when there’s space to slot in front of them.

The rider who was behind the fast line rider will then do the same, pulling through then easing off once in the slow line. Turns on the front are hard but brief, lasting between 5 and 10 seconds depending on the speed of rotation.

Riders in the slow line will begin to drift backwards in relation to the fast line. Once the last rider in the fast line has gone past your front wheel, get back on the gas, move across and accelerate back into the fast line.

Call ‘last rider’ when you rejoin the fast line so the next person in the slow line knows it’s safe to pull into the fast line once you are clear.

It’s worth noting that smoothness is key to keeping this safe and efficient. The changes in pace are subtle; slight increases or reductions in effort. The slow line rider shouldn’t ease off completely and the fast line rider shouldn’t surge. Their aim is to maintain, not increase the train’s momentum.

This technique gives a brief moment of recovery to each rider as they take the slow line, before increasing their efforts again in the fast line.

Rotation can be clockwise or anti-clockwise and can depend on the wind direction. For example, if the wind is coming from the left, the group will rotate anti-clockwise, and vice versa.

‘Through and off’ needs practice and effective communication to reward you with a sense of team effort and speed gains.

The single pace line

The single pace line is the ideal technique for groups with six riders or fewer, or on roads where riding two-abreast isn’t suitable.

Turns on the front are usually longer than with the ‘through and off’ technique, which allows a greater recovery time. Time spent in the wind depends on the skill and stamina of the rider. A stronger rider may do 60 seconds; a weaker rider may do 20 seconds.

Ride within yourself. Overdoing it on the front can send you flying out the back after pulling off if you don’t recover in time to hold the wheel. The group goes faster if riders leave the front before fatigue causes their speed to drop.

As before, the front rider is driving the pace along in a smooth and consistent style. Once a rider finishes on the front, they will pull out of the pace line and fall back down the line, without easing off the pedals completely. Once the former lead rider has dropped back level with the rear of the group, the back-marker will call ‘last rider’. They can then slot in behind them without overlapping wheels.

In the line, each rider stays on the wheel of the rider in front until they peel off. At this point, the rider will need to increase their effort in a smooth and consistent manner to maintain the speed of the previous rider. 

Both techniques require excellent team work, trust and cooperation. Once mastered, riders become valued cogs in a satisfying high-speed, mile-swallowing machine.

Rollers are viewed with suspicion, incomprehension or downright fear by many road cyclists. But once mastered, they can provide a valuable addition to the winter training armoury of any cyclist, regardless of experience.

Although essentially based on the same simple design that’s been used for years, modern rollers have evolved and are much more user-friendly than those of old. Track and cyclocross riders still use them to warm up for races and recover afterwards.

Improved bearings offer a smoother ride, and smaller drums are easier to get spinning. Some roller sets now have parabolically shaped rollers, which make the trainer easier to stay on.

Rollers vs turbo trainer

The advantages of riding on rollers

There are two major benefits to using rollers over even the best smart trainers.

First, rollers improve your balance and bike-handling skills.

If you struggle on the road with basics such as holding a straight course when getting a bottle out of its cage, digging an energy bar out of your jersey pocket or taking off a jacket, then you can definitely gain from the balance and core stability training that rollers deliver.

Edmund Burke, former physiologist for the US cycling team and author of Serious Cycling, says it might take a few weeks to feel relaxed enough to ride no-handed on rollers. “Once you get past the learning stages though, the bike-handling skills you obtain will make you a more confident and successful cyclist,” says Burke.

Second, high-cadence workouts on rollers are perfect for developing a super-smooth, even and efficient pedal stroke. Described poetically by the French as ‘souplesse pedalling’, it’s something pro riders spend a lot of time on. 

Dr Jamie Pringle, senior physiologist at the English Institute of Sport, sees this as a major benefit. “Pedalling style is a major component of fitness,” he says. “An efficient pedal stroke ensures that the delivery of force is economical. On a turbo, you can get away with mindlessly mashing the pedals. On rollers, you can’t.”

By concentrating on key aspects of the pedal stroke when roller riding, you can go a long way towards minimising the dead spots at the top and bottom of the stroke, and improving efficiency.

“Don’t think you have to pull up on the pedals,” says cycling coach John Capelin. “But focus on scooping through at the bottom of the stroke and pushing over the top.” 

Another benefit is that you get a more interesting workout than on a dump turbo trainer because you have something to concentrate on. The ease of setting up is also a bonus – you don’t have to bolt your bike on.

If you train with a power meter on your bike outdoors, you can also use a set of rollers with indoor training software such as Zwift or TrainerRoad.

The disadvantages of rollers

First off, you’ll have to spend time learning how to ride them – riding on rollers takes genuine skill and can be pretty nerve-wracking at first.

Some sets come with optional resistance fans or other methods for raising the training load, but the maximum resistance level of rollers is lower than almost all turbo trainers, smart or otherwise.  

While it is technically possible to race on Zwift with rollers, your power output will be capped by the maximum resistance of the rollers, which will limit you to fairly gentle riding. 

You’re better off doing a Zwift FTP test on your smart bike or turbo trainer.

For these reasons, an ideal winter training plan would include a combination of turbo and roller training to harness all the benefits of indoor cycling.

You could, for example, use the rollers for lower-intensity base training and sweetspot training, unless you’re a powerful rider.

“Rollers don’t offer much resistance, so use them for technique work, warming up and recovery spins,” Capelin says. “Use the turbo for higher-level work.”

“Turbos and rollers combined allow you 100 per cent control of your effort and intensity,” says Dr Pringle. “And, without having to worry about traffic and junctions, they’re ideal for finely controlled, constant power efforts such as intervals.

“Riding for two hours indoors, without stops or being able to freewheel, is equivalent to three hours on the road.”

You may improve your power-to-weight ratio by riding indoors for the winter, but Dr Pringle offers the following warning. “No matter how close the turbo or rollers come to the feel of riding on the road, they’ll never replicate the exact demands of the sport and you’ll still need to get out and do the miles outdoors as well.”

How to ride on rollers

1. Starting off

You might want to start off riding in trainers instead of your cycling shoes. That way, it’s faster and easier to put a foot down if you need to.

Set the rollers up next to a wall or inside a doorway. If you set up next to a wall, consider placing a tall stool or sturdy, tall-backed chair on the other side for support.

Put your bike in a hard gear. Just like riding outside, the faster you go, the easier it is to balance.

If you are using clipless pedals, clip in one foot and carefully climb up onto the bike, using the wall or chair/stool for support.

Make sure your wheels are in the middle of the rollers and, keeping one hand on the wall or chair/stool, begin pedalling.

2. Keep looking straight

Look straight ahead. You don’t watch your front wheel on the road, so don’t do it on the rollers either.

Once you feel confident in your balance and you’re staying central, let go of the wall, build up your cadence and you’re off.

After a few sessions, you’ll gain confidence and develop more advanced skills, such as riding no-handed.

3. Relax!

The first few times you ride the rollers, you might put a death grip on the handlebars, with your shoulders tensed and raised up by your ears. Relax your hands, arms and shoulders. Focus on pedalling with your legs and hips, and engage your core muscles to keep yourself planted on the saddle.

4. Keep your mind on the job

Concentrate on what you’re doing — no watching TV in your pain cave or turning around to see who’s just come into the room. However, many turbo trainer accessories are indispensable when riding rollers.

To stop, you need to simply slow down gradually and, before you come to a complete halt, reach out for the wall.

Two recommended roller sessions

1. Wake-up drill

Dr Jamie Pringle’s pre-breakfast session works well for anyone who can split their training into twice a day, which can be more beneficial than one longer session. It’s a great way to start the day and an excellent warm-up.

• 0–10 minutes: Start off spinning in an easy gear at 90–100rpm and, over 10 minutes, increase the gear incrementally.
• 10–15 minutes: Continue building cadence (100–110rpm) and progressively work through the gears so that by the 15-minute mark you’re riding at tempo effort. This pace will feel sustainable, but will need concentration to keep it up and equates to around 80-90 per cent of maximum HR.
• 15–20 minutes: Hold the tempo effort.
• 20–25 minutes: Put in three hard 20-second efforts with 90 seconds of easy spinning recovery.

2. Maxing out

A tough session that will take you through training zones to total failure and improve your VO2 max. 

• 0–5 minutes: Warm up, spinning at 90-100rpm in a medium gear (39×18).
• 5–10 minutes: Ride a cadence of 100rpm+ and a gear that allows you to ride at 60 per cent of max heart rate.
• 10–10½ minutes: In the same gear, ride for 30-seconds of all-out effort.
• 10½–13½ minutes: Recover – spin easily in medium gear.
• 13½–18½ minutes: Ride a cadence of 100rpm+ in a gear that makes you ride at 65-75 per cent max HR.
• 18½–19 minutes: In the same gear, ride for 30-seconds of all-out effort.
• 19–23 minutes: Recover – spin easily in medium gear.
• 23–29 minutes: Ride a cadence of 100rpm+ in a gear that allows you to ride at more than 80 per cent MHR.
• 29–29½ minutes: In the same gear, ride for 30 seconds of all-out effort.
• 29½–34½ minutes: Recover – spin easily in medium gear.
• 34½ minutes–end: All-out in top gear for as long as you can.

If you’re cycling at night, whether on lit roads in town, unlit roads or off-road, it’s important to be properly prepared.

There’s the obvious, such as lights, but there are other steps you can take to make riding at night safer and more comfortable.

We asked Matt Woodcock, training manager at Cycling UK, and Chris Bennett, head of behaviour change and engagement at Sustrans, for their advice on how to ride safely at night.

And, if you’re a mountain biker, we’ve got tips for trail riding at night too.

1. Use appropriate lights

In the UK, “there’s a legal requirement during the hours of darkness [sunset to sunrise] to have a front white light and a rear red light,” says Woodcock. You can read our guide to bike light laws in the UK for more information.

The lights you need for cycling to work in town are very different from those you need to ride on unlit country lanes or off-road. If there’s decent street lighting on your route, it’s all about about making sure you’re seen by other road users, while on dark roads or pitch-black trails you the lights have to illuminate the road or trail ahead of you.

“If you’re riding along unlit country lanes, you’ll need a different lighting setup to riding in an urban setting – or you may need to have a mix of lights if you’re riding through both environments,” says Woodcock.

So, whereas a lower power blinky might work as a front light in town, you’ll need a much more powerful front light for a mountain bike ride or country lane – anything from 400 to 800 lumens on the road and even more off-road, depending on where you’re riding and how fast you’re going. In all cases, you should have a red rear light.

It’s worth having multiple lights too. If you’re riding on the road, you can use one flashing to alert other road users and a constant to light your way. It’s also easier for approaching vehicles to work out how far away a constant light is than a blinking one, so a second rear light is useful.

“Helmet-mounted lights are used by many cyclists as they not only directly illuminate your line of vision, but they’re also handy to see with if you need to carry out any bike maintenance,” says Bennett.

Off-road, a helmet light will light up turns and hazards better than a bar-mounted one because it points where you want to go, rather than where the bike is heading, and is mounted higher up. But keep it lightweight, a heavy one will be uncomfortable and may shift your helmet around as you move.

• Best bike lights for road cycling and commuting
• Best mountain bike lights

2. Ride where you can be seen

Upping your visibility on the roads at night isn’t just a question of lighting yourself up. In general, drivers are looking ahead, so you want to make sure that you’re in their field of vision.

That means riding a little way out into the road – around 70cm to 1m. That way you should also avoid the worst of the obstacles at the side of the carriageway, such as potholes and drain covers.

“When cycling at night, ride in the right position to be seen clearly. Make your intentions known to others earlier than you would in daylight,” says Cycling UK’s Woodcock.

3. Add reflectives

“The other legal requirement is to have a white reflector (front), red reflector (rear) and pedal reflectors,” Woodcock points out.

“Studies have shown that having reflectors on your pedals, or ankles, will help you stand out more because other road users notice the elliptical movement of the pedal strokes,” he continues.

Bennett suggests you go beyond this to up your visibility. “On top of the legal requirement to have a front white light, a rear red light, plus reflectors at night, you should ensure that you’re seen from side-on,” he says.

That’s something to consider when buying bike lights – do they offer any side visibility? Reflective detailing on key parts of your kit or on a cycling backpack if you’re commuting can also help.

“Reflective gear has been shown to be seen better than hi-vis wear at night,” adds Woodcock. “Having reflective piping on your clothing, especially your gloves, will help others see you and your hand signals.”

4. Don’t dazzle oncoming vehicles

Some high-powered front lights have brighter beams than car headlights. “Be aware of the dazzle some powerful lights can cause to others, so ensure that you direct your beam of light down to the road surface to avoid blinding drivers,” says Woodcock.

Some road-specific lights – such as those that comply with Germany’s StVZO light regulations – have a beam pattern shaped to avoid dazzling other road users.

If you’ve got an off-road-ready front light, it’s a good idea to dial down its brightness or switch to a flashing mode if you have to ride on the tarmac for a while. That will conserve your battery, too.

5. Have backup lights

Make sure you’ve fully charged your lights before heading off at night and select a light mode that should give you the burn time to comfortably complete your journey. Remember, claimed run times from manufacturers aren’t always accurate.

As we’ve already covered, it’s useful to have a second front and rear light, so you can run both on a lower power setting than your main lights to up battery life. That way you won’t be left in the dark if one does stop working.

Once your eyes become accustomed to the dark, it should be possible to dim your lights on less tricky terrain or where there’s street lighting, saving the brightest settings for technical trail stretches or unlit roads.

If you’re planning to do a lot of night riding, it might be worthwhile investing in a dynamo front wheel and light set, so you’re independent of battery power. A modern dynamo lighting system is very efficient and adds minimal drag.

6. Ride with caution

If you’re new to night riding or are venturing out onto unknown terrain, take it steady.

“Keep an eye out for hazards, such as slippery leaves, and where possible stick to riding on familiar road routes or else opt for better-lit paths,” says Bennett. It’s easier to hit unseen obstacles at night too.

Even if you know the route you’re riding, it will look very different at night. So don’t plan to take on anything too ambitious and don’t try to thrash it.

If you’re riding with others, leave enough space between you and the rider in front so that your light won’t cast their shadow ahead of them, making it difficult for them to see their way. Also, if you’re riding in a group, avoid dazzling the rider behind you with an overpowered rear light.

7. Wrap up

You don’t need us to tell you that it’s likely to be colder at night, but make sure you’re properly prepared for the conditions. If you’re planning to ride regularly through the colder months, investing in decent winter cycling kit will make all the difference.

Even on a summer night, it can get chilly, but a ride at close to zero degrees Celsius in winter can be a very unpleasant affair if you don’t have the right kit. Swapping to full-finger winter gloves, tights and thicker socks will help keep your extremities warmer.

Mist or fog will chill you too, so it’s worth having water-resistant outer layers, even if you don’t expect rain. If rain is forecast, a quality waterproof jacket is essential.

8. Let someone know where you’re going

Let someone know where you plan to ride and how long you expect to be out for, particularly if you’re heading off-road.

There are far fewer people out at night to spot you if you have a mechanical or are injured, especially if you’re venturing off the beaten path.

You’ll also cool down quickly at night if you aren’t moving – another reason to wrap up or carry an extra layer in the event of an unexpected stop.

Clipless pedal systems have been used by most serious cyclists since Look applied step-in ski-binding technology to bikes in 1984. Then Bernard Hinault rode Look’s design to Tour de France victory in 1985 and there was no going back, with clipless pedals arguably becoming one of the top cycling innovations of all time.

The term ‘clipless’ can be confusing, though, because you ‘clip in’ to these pedals, with a cleat on the bottom of the shoe attaching to the pedal body. However, the term comes from the pedals not having the toe clips (or straps) that you used to find professional cyclists and amateurs alike using to hold their feet in place.

Some say that cycling with cleats improves pedalling efficiency because they encourage you to engage your foot through the whole pedal of rotation, rather than just pushing on the pedals on the downstroke.

On the flip side, some studies have shown that really nobody pulls up on the pedals in any useful way, and improved efficiency might just be a sensation.

Having said that, clipless pedals stop your feet from sliding around, which is important if you’re pedalling at higher cadences, sprinting, riding in the wet or – for some riders – riding off-road. On that note, we’ve got a guide on clipless pedals vs flat pedals, exploring the pros and cons of each.

Clipless pedals can also be more comfortable, especially on long rides, because your foot is held in the right place and you won’t have to adjust the position.

Despite being a rite of passage for many cyclists, using clipless pedals for the first time can be intimidating, so we’ve put together this guide to explain the different types of clipless pedals, which will suit your riding style, how to use them and finally some tips to keep in mind.

Before we get started, if you’re looking to upgrade your pedals, or you’re buying clipless pedals for the first time, we’ve got full guides to the best road bike pedals and best mountain bike pedals.

Different types of clipless pedals and shoes explained

Making sure you’re on the right pedal system can be confusing. Most shoes and pedals fall into two categories: road pedals, which use a three-bolt system, and mountain bike pedals, which use a two-bolt system.

There’s also a four-bolt system as used by Speedplay, but this goes a slightly different route with the locking mechanism contained in the cleat, rather than the pedal.

Mountain bike cleat systems like Shimano or Crankbrothers pedals require two-bolt SPD cleats.

It’s important to note all three-bolt systems aren’t necessarily compatible with each other, and neither are all two-bolt systems.

For example, you can’t use Look cleats with Shimano pedals, so check for compatibility before you buy.

Neither are three-bolt systems like Shimano SPD-SL road pedals compatible with two-bolt Shimano SPD shoes, even though they’re made by the same company.

SPD vs. SPD-SL pedals

The big benefit of two-bolt systems like Shimano SPD, as used by mountain bikers, is that you can walk easily in the shoes because they have recessed cleats. The shoes usually have some grip in the sole, but they aren’t quite as stiff as a three-bolt system. They do deal with mud and muck well though.

This makes them popular with beginners and commuters, and as well as featuring on the best shoes for mountain bikers they are the go-to cleat design for the best gravel bike shoes too.

They are often double-sided too, meaning that unlike most road pedals (Speedplay is the exception) you don’t have to worry about which way up the pedal is when clipping in.

By comparison, road shoes are much harder to walk in because the three-bolt cleats stick out from the bottom of the sole. You’ll need to practice walking with your weight on your heels, or you’ll grind away the delicate (and relatively expensive) cleats quickly.

There’s nothing stopping you from fitting MTB pedals to your road bike if you prefer. It means you can use MTB shoes with recessed cleats, and many people do it.

Our guide to Shimano SPD vs. SPD-SL pedals explains everything you need to know about these pedal types, and you can also compare the benefits and disadvantages of flat and clipless pedals.

Cleat set-up

Road pedals

A good bike shop can help you fix the cleats to your shoes. If you do it yourself, start by positioning the cleat underneath the ball of your foot, and make sure it’s on straight.

After you have both cleats on, hop on your bike and lean against a wall or a doorway where you can’t fall over, and pedal backwards for a few minutes. At this point, you can adjust the fore/aft of the cleats and even your saddle height to get comfortable.

If you need to change the angle – because your feet naturally point inwards or outwards and you can feel some discomfort – sit on the edge of a table with your legs dangling off the side, your shoes resting on a rectangular piece of paper, with the edge perpendicular to the table.

Draw around your shoes, then place the cleats on the outlines so they’re still square to the table edge. The angle between the centre line of your shoes and the edge of the paper (centre line of cleat) is your cleat angle.

Mountain bike pedals

With mountain bike cleats, you can position the cleat in three directions: fore and aft in relation to the axle, as well as the angle in relation to your shoe.

Tighten down the bolts just enough to keep them firmly in place. Try not to let them dig into the sole of the shoe because the remaining indentations will make fine-tuning harder — carbon soles are more resistant. Don’t use any grease just yet.

With your shoes back on, balance yourself against a wall and clip in. Your legs should hang naturally down, without any noticeable stress on your joints.

Check how much float there is to either side — the amount of lateral movement before the cleat disengages — to ensure it’s even. If there’s any discomfort, adjust the cleat until everything feels good.

If you’re fitting cleats to a new set of shoes, you’ll need to spend some time finding the optimal place in which to position them.

With your riding shoes on, but without any cleats fitted, sit on your bike and hang your right foot down in a natural pedalling position. Mark a spot on the sole of the shoe to show where the cleat sits in the fore and aft relation to the axle.

Roughly speaking, the cleat should sit under the ball of the foot. Many mountain bikers like to slam their cleats as far back as possible, but this is an extreme setting. You’re much better starting with a neutral position and experimenting to see what works for you.

Cycling with cleats: how to use clipless pedals

Despite different cleat and pedal designs, the technique for using clipless pedals is virtually the same across brands and types.

You clip yourself into the pedal by sliding the front of the cleat under the catch on the pedal and pressing down hard with your heel. When you clip in you should both hear and feel the engagement.

To release your foot, twist your heel out to the side. With some practice, you’ll be able to do this consistently.

The best way to practice is to start by leaning against a wall, clipping in and out of the pedals until you get the hang of it. Then progress to a quiet road or better yet, a smooth, grassy area.

Beware of sudden stops if in an urban area, such as junctions, narrow streets (where traffic is reduced to a single lane) and traffic lights. You’ll find that it’s best to unclip your feet before you reach junctions and traffic lights.

And don’t worry if you do fall off as you get used to using them. It’s happened to the best of us!

There’s no denying it, Mark Cavendish is a sprinting legend, and his recent return to form at the Tour de France has only cemented that.

Alongside Chris Hoy on the track, he has a sprinting prowess that few riders can rival. And admit it, you would love to be able to sprint as fast as these two titans of the sport.

Of course, few of us have the talent to hit 40mph in a sprint without the help of a downhill gradient – or an engine. But that’s not to say we can’t dream, make the best of what we’ve got and spend hours in front of the mirror practising our finish line salute.

What types of sprinter are there? Track vs road

Mark Cavendish and Chris Hoy are both super-fast, but they’re super-fast in different ways.

As a six-time Olympic gold medallist on the track, Hoy made his name by being awesome from a standing start. The track sprinting he excelled at leans heavily on explosive power, muscle strength and coordination.

Even in the kilo (the one-kilometre time trial in which Hoy won his first gold medal before the event was dropped from the Olympics, the key facets are a good start and an ability to maintain the effort without fatiguing excessively. This type of sprinter doesn’t necessarily have a great need for endurance, in the same way Cavendish does.

Consider yourself a Hoy-esque sprinter if you’re always beating your mates, or other commuters on the ride to work, away from the lights or are explosive from a standing start.

Although Cavendish’s beginnings were on the track, he later established himself as the world’s best road-race sprinter. This doesn’t seem to be a title he’s going to relinquish soon, either – if ever.

Cavendish is well suited to road sprinting as he can compete for hours in the saddle, yet still generate a maximal effort at the end of a hard race (or in the middle of a grueling three-week Grand Tour).

Cavendish clearly has a very strong endurance base (and an excellent team in the form of Deceuninck–Quick-step to protect him until the final few hundred metres), but he also has plenty of explosive power for the final launch to the line and can use his anaerobic energy systems better than most (we’ll come on to the science).

Both track and road sprinters have high absolute power outputs, though you’re likely to see a higher all-out wattage from a hulking track sprinter. As a lightweight road racer, Cavendish needs to carefully consider his ability to ride for hour upon hour, day after day, and over high mountains. Power-to-weight ratio still matters for sprinters in a stage race.

If you want to improve your sprinting, there are a number of things to work on. While power is clearly important, technique – underpinned by good coordination – is also vital. Cavendish has a reputation for his race craft and is able to win sprints, regardless of whether he is delivered to the line by a perfect leadout or has to surf the wheels of other teams.

Practice makes perfect here. If you want to excel in this area, practice, practice, practice. However, remember that good technique is best learned when feeling fresh, not when fatigued.

How to train like a sprinter

There are plenty of specific training sessions you can do to improve your acceleration and all-out sprint.

From increasing your top-end speed to working on your technique, we have outlined some of the best ways to improve your sprint below. Exercises off the bike can also help improve your sprinting.

Hill sprints

Working against a gradient means that energy input doesn’t diminish as the effort goes on. Aim for between four and eight seated maximal efforts of 20-40 seconds (build to the top end of the range as your fitness improves)

These efforts should ideally be done in a bigger gear, and have five minutes of light riding for full recovery between each one. To allow for fitness improvements, find a hill where you’re able to have a fast-rolling start. You can then progress to a slower start to the effort or even a standing start.

Jumps

In order to improve acceleration, jumps work on both power and lactate tolerance. These sessions are often best done with a partner of a similar standard.

Start by riding at a fairly fast pace, then aim for a set of six sprint accelerations of 10 seconds each, with a short, 10-second recovery in between each sprint. With progress, these sets can be repeated two or three times, with five minutes of recovery between sets.

Go long

If you want to work on your ability to close down a break, then try extended interval training.

These intervals are great on the road with a power meter but also done at home on a smart trainer. We’ve got separate guides to indoor cycling, the best indoor training apps, and the best workouts and training plans for Zwift.

The aim is to sustain the highest possible power for three minutes, without starting too slowly or fading too much. At this duration, it’s all about pacing your maximal effort and a power meter or smart trainer can help, particularly if you know your training zones.

If you don’t have a power meter, just try the hardest effort you can sustain for three minutes. Repeat this three to six times, with a three-minute recovery in between.

Play racing

It’s worth repeating that practice makes perfect, so break up a long group ride with riding mates using a series of prearranged sprints. Try using a road sign as a finishing line or a safe point on a short lap, for example.

After each sprint effort, bring the pace down for five minutes to allow recovery, before gradually building again for the next sprint effort. Sessions such as this can be organised to develop team tactics and practice leading out a nominated rider, or used as individual efforts to hone the perfect sprinting technique.

Of course, staying safe on the road is of up most importance, so ride with care and within your limits. If you have a closed road circuit near you, that’s the perfect venue for this type of training.

Get tracking

Many clubs have access to outdoor tracks with qualified coaches, while British Cycling run open track sessions at Manchester and Newport velodromes (for more information, visit the British Cycling website).

These sessions are great for developing all kinds of riding skills (especially group riding, pedalling technique and cadence), but, due to the nature of track riding, will mostly focus on higher intensity efforts and will undoubtedly help next time you come to sprint.

The bottom line

The physiology of sprinting is not as complex or trainable as endurance performance as you’re using energy stored in the body and once it’s gone it’s pretty much gone. You can’t top up when you’re riding flat-out, and even if you could somehow take on an energy gel or drink, it wouldn’t have an effect anyway.

Having said this, there are still plenty of exercises and activities you can do to improve your sprint technique, strength and, ultimately, speed.

And if you do, maybe that finish line salute practice will pay off, too.

Since its inception in the early 2010s, enduro racing has quickly become one of the most popular mountain bike disciplines, representing the type of riding a lot of mountain bikers were already doing.

Enduro offers technical but accessible racing for riders who want to avoid the full-blooded tracks of downhill racing, or the lycra-clad whippets of cross-country racing.

But what exactly is enduro racing? Read on to find out what enduro is all about, why you might want to give it a go and what you need to get started.

What is enduro racing?

There’s a clue in the name – it’s gravity racing but with an endurance element. In the early days, ‘enduro’ races were long-distance cross-country races, but those now tend to be known as marathon races.

Modern enduro events are very different. Enduro races are made up of multiple downhill stages, which are timed to generate the event’s result, while the uphills are ‘liaisons’.

Here, riders have to reach the start of the next stage within a time limit but, providing a rider meets that time limit, the actual time doesn’t contribute to the final result. Got it?

Enduro races tend to last one or two days with riders normally completing up to six timed downhill stages per day. The cumulative times of all their stage results are added together to create their overall time, which ultimately decides a rider’s finishing position in the field.

Whether riders pedal to the top of each downhill stage or jump on a form of uplift transport (vans, buses, chairlifts or cable cars) depends heavily on where the event is organised and the amount of elevation change the day’s riding (or a particular stage transition) has.

The best-known and biggest enduro event is the Enduro World Series. The EWS visits some of the world’s best riding spots for each of its rounds. Each round has a winner and there’s also a series winner at the end of the year.

Many smaller, local enduro events also exist, and some of these have EWS qualifier status, which means if you place high enough, you could enter an EWS event.

If you fancy a slice of the Enduro World Series action but can’t or don’t want to qualify, there are also EWS 100 and EWS 80 events, which allow non-qualifying riders to race in a separate event but on 100 per cent or 80 per cent of the course.

What’s so good about enduro racing?

Downhill racing requires extreme technical skill (and bravery) and expensive kit, while cross-country racing is largely about fitness (although XC race courses are becoming increasingly more technical, with cross-country bikes becoming more capable as a result).

However, anyone with a decent trail bike or downcountry bike, some technical riding experience and enough stamina to ride their local singletrack for a couple of hours can have a bash at enduro.

You might also find yourself already riding enduro without knowing it. After all, enduro isn’t only about racing, it’s a style of riding in itself.

Do you pedal efficiently but relatively slowly to the top of descents, where you then ride as hard and as fast as you can downhill, expending the most energy? If so, you’re already an enduro rider!

Enduro racing is also arguably better value for money than downhill racing. You get a lot more riding for your entrance fee than at a downhill race, because you ride multiple stages rather than just one track. This also means a mishap or mechanical won’t necessarily put you out of the running because it’s the overall time that counts, rather than individual stages.

The other big thing going for enduro races is the friendly atmosphere. While the top riders are definitely in it to win it, further down the field it’s more about having a go and enjoying a bit of finish-line banter.

The same, of course, could be said for almost any event – mountain bikers are generally a friendly bunch.

What type of bike do I need for enduro racing?

To race enduro competitively, you’ll want a full-suspension bike with at least 140mm of suspension travel, and up to 170-180mm of travel.

There’s nothing in the rules to stop you using a hardtail mountain bike or lightweight cross-country bike but you’ll find it hard work on the descents. At the other end of the spectrum, longer-travel freeride and downhill bikes are a drag on the climbs.

It’s a good idea to fit a chain device and clutch-equipped rear derailleur so your chain doesn’t get bucked off on the rocky sections. Big-volume downhill-style mountain bike tyres are decent additions, too – they increase puncture resistance and add comfort.

Otherwise, a short stem and wide handlebar will improve control, and a dropper post will make it easier to throw the bike around when things get sketchy.

The growing profile of enduro racing, and the popularity of enduro as a style of riding, means that a lot of mountain bike brands now offer enduro bikes designed and specced specifically for the demands of the discipline.

Want to know more? We’ve got a full buyer’s guide to the best enduro bikes.

Do I need any specialist riding gear for enduro racing?

Full-face helmets are a good idea for rockier tracks but standard mountain bike helmets are often fine for tamer, more pedal-friendly venues. That said, some race series organisers mandate the use of full-face lids, so be sure to check the rules carefully.

Some brands offer convertible enduro-specific helmets, designed to offer the protection of a full-face helmet and the ventilation of an open-face lid in one package. We’ve got a guide to the best enduro helmets.

Otherwise, knee pads, elbow pads, gloves and eye protection – many riders opt for goggles – are essential. A hydration pack with basic spares is a good idea too, particularly if you’ll be out for a long time and away from the event HQ or car park.

If you need to kit up, we’ve got these buyer’s guides to help you make the right picks:

• Best mountain bike knee pads
• Best elbow pads
• Best mountain bike gloves
• Best mountain bike goggles

Who are the riders to watch?

If you’re interested in watching top-level enduro racing, as well as trying it for yourself, the French have traditionally dominated, from former World Cup downhill stars Nicolas Vouilloz and Anne-Caroline Chausson, to enduro specialists such as Jerome Clementz and Rémy Absalon.

More recently, we’ve seen French riders such as Isabeau Courdurier, Morgane Charre and Melanie Pugin battle it out with Brit, Bex Baraona, in the women’s field.

In the men’s field, the French dominance of old has been diluted, with stiff competition from Australians Jack Moir and Sam Hill, who have both battled USA’s Richie Rude for the top spots.

It’s also worth keeping an eye out for Martin Maes, Greg Callaghan and Jesse Melamed, who are all capable of competing at the sharp end of racing.

And although Vouilloz and Tracy Moseley are from the old guard, they’re both contenders for the title in the electric mountain bike series.

Where can I have a go at enduro racing?

Enduro World Series

The 2022 Enduro World Series consists of seven events.

Enduro World Series qualifiers

More than 50 Enduro World Series qualifying races are held through the year.

Local events

Alongside the Enduro World Series and its numerous qualifying events, most European countries, as well as the USA and Canada, New Zealand and Australia, have their own local events, whether that’s one-off races or a series.

In the UK, these include:

• Southern Enduro
• TweedLove
• PMBA Enduro
• Welsh Enduro Series
• The Merida Ex
• Malverns Classic
• Ard Rock

One thing to bear in mind – rules and regulations tend to vary from country to country, so make sure you read the terms and conditions.

Otherwise, seek out a local event and have a go.

The attack position (sometimes referred to as the ready position) is a fundamental aspect of mountain biking. As with all key MTB skills, getting it right will reward the rider with a more comfortable and controlled ride. Get it wrong and, well, at best you’ll be uncomfortable on the bike and at worst you run the risk of crashing.

When the trail gets rough your bike will start to buck and move around. The idea of a good body position is to isolate your core mass (head and torso) from this chatter so you can stay smooth, in control and in balance.

Use these tips to put yourself in a position where you can let the bike move beneath you, so you can stay in balance and relaxed.

• How to ride rocky sections
• How to jump a mountain bike
• How to ride drop-offs

1. Your basic ‘ready’ or ‘attack’ position

Loosen up

If you’re in balance, you can loosen up and allow the bike to move around underneath you and track the terrain. Use your arms and legs like suspension by absorbing undulations on the trail.

Stand up

It goes without saying that if you sit down on rough terrain you’re going to feel like you’re riding a bucking bronco! Stand up, lower your chest, and keep a slight bend in your knees for extra control. Drop your saddle to get it out of the way, if you’re bike has a dropper post.

Weight distribution

Drop your heels and support your core mass with your legs and not your hands. This will get your weight low at the bottom bracket, which is stable, and free your arms up for control and steering, rather than taking all your weight. Think heavy feet, light hands.

Heels down

With your cranks perfectly level, place the ball of your foot on the pedal axle or just in front of it, in a mid-foot position, and drop your heels towards the ground.

Head up

Your head position affects your balance so get your chin up and focus on the trail ahead. Try not to look down at the front wheel because this will unbalance you straight away. Look down the trail, where you want to go.

Elbows up

Bend your elbows and hold them up so you can use your arms to control and lean the bike.

Engage your core

Try not to round your lower back like you’re slouched in a chair because it isn’t good for power and efficiency when it comes to more advanced skills. Stick your backside out and engage your core muscles.

Cover your brakes

Always keep your anchors covered with one finger just in case you need to scrub speed or stop quickly.

2. Your climbing position

Having a good body position, in combination with managing your power output, can make climbs more manageable, whether long ascents or short, sharp rises.

The aim is to balance your weight between the front and rear wheels, so you have traction at the rear and maintain a bit of weight on the front wheel to stop it from lifting or wandering.

Get low

Lower your chest towards the bar, move your hips forward on the saddle, tuck your elbows in and look up. If your hands feel light and you’re not hanging off the bar then you’re probably in the right place. Getting your chest low will keep some weight on your front wheel so you can maintain your steering.

Sit… or stand

In most cases, it’s more efficient to sit, but you may want to stand for a break or if you need to put more power down. On rough terrain hover just above your normal seated position so you can absorb bumps and the bike can move around underneath you.

Manage power output

It’s important not to burn yourself out quickly, so relax and try to maintain a good average power for the whole climb, rather than sprinting then freewheeling. You’ll need to carry as much momentum as possible into short steep climbs, so make sure you put the power down early.

Gear selection

On long climbs, aim to spin your legs for better efficiency. If you need extra traction on loose terrain, over-gear slightly by using a higher gear so you don’t spin out.

3. Body position riding downhill

The core principles of your basic body position remain largely the same when riding downhill. Effectively the front wheel has pitched away from you, so you need to lower your chest in order to keep bent elbows, which lets the bike move around.

The most important thing is to keep your heels down and your core mass over your feet and not in your hands. Do this by moving your hips back towards the rear tyre.

Look ahead

Look as far ahead as you can down the trail to spot obstacles in good time. Lifting your head will help you do this.

Bend your elbows

Bent elbows make you ready to absorb hits and manipulate the bike. Don’t overbend though, or you’ll run out of ‘arm travel’.

Keep your heels down

Dropping your heels gives you more control – your bike is pushed into your feet, putting more weight on your pedals.

Cover your brakes

Powerful brakes help you stop with ease. One finger on the levers is enough and won’t compromise your grip on the bar.

Stay loose

The looser you feel on the bike, the more relaxed you become. This helps you absorb hits with your elbows and knees, which lets the bike track the terrain.

4. Your braking position

Braking effectively and at the right time will help you ride safely and smoothly while maintaining speed.

Use both brakes smoothly and equally, on the whole, to control your speed. When you brake, your body position will move forwards and onto the bar, so counteract this by dipping your heels.

Try to avoid constantly dragging your brakes because your suspension won’t work effectively when you do and you won’t be able to stay loose.

Stay smooth

Braking affects your body position and suspension, so try to brake before technical or rough sections of trail if you want to ride smoother.

Look for traction

Spot grippy surfaces to brake on. Try to avoid braking on loose and slippery terrain because it will unbalance you.

Brake straight

Scrub your speed before corners, when you can brake in a relatively straight line. Try not to brake around corners because you risk losing traction and it will prevent you from leaning the bike.

A time-trial is bike racing at its simplest – just you, the bike and the clock. But don’t confuse simple with easy.

There are no wheels to follow, no pack to hide in, and it hurts from the moment the starter shouts “Go!” to the moment you cross the line. So let’s look at how to get better at time trialling.

The TT offers a different kind of satisfaction to bunch racing. Nobody sits on your wheel then jumps out to beat you in the last 100m. Barring a mechanical or a sudden change in the wind, the best rider wins, but more than that it’s a pure test of your ability to ride a bike fast.

Finish your first time-trial and, when you’ve wiped the sweat from your eyes, most riders will have the same thought: “I want to go faster!”

1. Learn to hide from the wind

All the bling kit in the world won’t make you go faster if your body acts like a giant air brake.

“The rider makes up over 80 per cent of the frontal area,” says Chris Boardman, arguably Britain’s best ever TT rider, “and at any reasonable speed 90 per cent of the energy you produce goes into overcoming wind resistance.” Cut that resistance and you’ll go faster.

Keen riders can head for a wind tunnel for guidance, or you can put your TT or road bike on a turbo trainer or set of rollers in front of a full-length mirror to tweak your bike position at home.

“Making your silhouette smaller is a crude but fairly accurate way to reduce drag,” says Boardman. “TT bars bring your arms in and round off your shoulders. Dropping your body also has a significant impact for every centimetre lower you go.”

But, he says, don’t have too great a drop to the bar. “If the front of the bike is too low you have to stick your head up to see where you’re going, which makes the silhouette bigger.”

2. Practice stretching your lower back, glutes and hamstrings

A full-blown time-trial bike, or even a modified road bike with clip-on aero bars, will have a more extreme riding position than most roadies are used to.

Riding with your head down, backside in the air, and elbows close together doesn’t look comfortable, and to some extent it isn’t. However, a rider can use stretches or yoga to improve their flexibility.

Physical activity expert, Professor Greg Whyte, recommends that time-trial racers should stretch their lower back, glutes (your backside) and hamstrings (the back of the thigh).

The following stretch for the bum and hips is particularly effective, Whyte says. “Lie on your back on the floor with both legs bent,” he says. “Place the ankle of one leg on the knee of the other. Place your hands behind the bent knee and pull it in towards your chest. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds. Repeat with the other leg.”

According to Professor Simon Jobson, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Winchester, “the big thing is habituation to the position”. He recommends training regularly on your TT bike so it doesn’t come as a shock on race day.

• Read more: Yoga stretches for cyclists

3. TT gear will help, but you don’t need to spend loads

The first job of go-faster frames or tri-bars is to get you out of the wind before they cut through the air. If you plan to use the same bike for your road riding and time-trialling, pay attention to the head tube length, says Boardman.

“A shorter head tube will make finding an aerodynamic position easier because it makes the front end of the bike lower and so helps you get out of the wind.”

Consider swapping the stem for one with a downward angle and removing any spacers, to make clip-on bars even more effective, making your body lower as well as narrower, and your silhouette even smaller.

You don’t have to spend a lot. Lowering the front of the bike (which might be as simple as flipping the stem to drop the handlebar position), fitting some tri-bars (from as little as £30) and buying an aero helmet (around £100) could make a big difference to your speed.

These changes offer the most bang for your aero buck. Boardman estimates that a TT helmet alone saves the rider 10 to 15 watts of power at race speeds.

From here you can start to add deep-section wheels, skinsuits, overshoes, aero drinks bottles and even a full-fat TT bike (you can read our buyer’s guide to time trial bikes). But spend money on kit that gets you in a good position first.

4. Work on your TT-specific fitness

We asked Professor Greg Whyte, who coached Tony Gibb to a silver medal in the 2008 National 10-mile TT Championship and has coached and trained a number of celebrities in Comic Relief challenges, to take us through the five key sessions he uses with his athletes to transform them from keen cyclists into TT speed merchants.

Want to know more? Read our in-depth guide to training zones, including how to set and use your heart rate and power zones.

Session one: tolerate this

How

• Warm-up: 15 mins including 5 x 30-second sprints and 2 mins flat out
• Workout: 2 x (6 x 30 seconds) flat-out with 30 seconds recovery between intervals. Five minutes easy spinning between the two sets. Follow with 5 x 1-minute holding time trial pace with 1-minute recovery between efforts
• Warm down: 10 minutes

Why

• “These sessions improve your handling of lactic acid,” says Whyte. “Fatigue means you will slow down but these sessions are as much about psychology as physiology, so concentrate!”

When

• Twice a week for three weeks prior to TT

Session two: strength builder

How

• Three hours of riding in the hills including: 10 x 1-minute seated and over-geared, 3 x 2 minutes out-of-saddle on a steep hill and 1 x 5 minutes ascending fast

Why

• “Cycling-specific strength is a key performance determinant,” says Whyte. “For the novice with limited strength, I would suggest gym-based strength work initially before tackling these strength sessions to avoid injury. This session does what it says on the tin — you should focus on working against a very hard resistance over long periods. It should be hard but if it hurts, take a break.”

When

• Twice a week pre-season

Session three: maximum attack

How

• Warm-up: 15 minutes including 10 x 10-second sprints
• Workout: 5 x 3 minutes very hard riding, 5 minutes recovery between intervals
• Warm down: 15mins

Why

• “Generally believed to be the most important determinant of endurance performance, VO2 max (the highest rate of oxygen consumption during exhaustive exercise) is genetically set and takes a great deal of work to improve,” says Whyte. “Focus on working as hard as possible for the entire three-minute effort.”

When

• Twice a week pre- and early-season

Session four: peak practice

How

• Warm-up: 15 minutes including 5 x 15-second sprints
• Workout: 3 x (6 x 10 seconds) at max power, 2 minutes recovery between efforts, 5 minutes rest between sets
• Warm down: 15 minutes

Why

• “The power you can sustain over long periods will be underpinned by your peak power,” says Whyte. “During these sessions you are trying to apply as much force as you can as fast as possible. You don’t need a heart rate monitor, just go as hard as you possibly can.”

When

• Once a week for three weeks prior to TT

Session five: spin to win

How – on rollers or turbo…

• Warm-up: 10 minutes including five spin-ups to max cadence
• Workout: 10 x 1-minute efforts with 1-minute recovery (5 x 1-minute 120rpm, 3 x 1-min increasing to 140rpm+ for final 10 seconds, 1 x 1-minute increasing to 140rpm+ for final 15 seconds and 1 x 1-minute increasing to 140rpm+ for final 20 seconds)
• Warm down: 10mins

Why

• “Cadence is crucial in producing optimal power in terms of both economy at sub-maximal speeds and peak power at maximum. These sessions focus on your ability to develop a fast cadence as economically as possible,” says Whyte.

When

• Once or twice a week for two weeks prior to TT

5. Fuel your fire properly

Some cyclists use carbo-loading for an event as an excuse to fill their faces.

“For races like 10- and 25-mile time-trials,” says Tim Lawson of Secret Training, and one of the founders of Science in Sport, “eat a carb-rich meal the night before, such as a rice or pasta dish, but don’t overdo it – 200g should be enough. Avoid foods high in fat.”

In the morning, the emphasis should again be on carbs. “Toast and jam with a high fruit content is good,” says Lawson. “If you prefer cereal, make sure it’s low in fat.”

On the way to the event, sip an energy drink and take up to 200mg of caffeine, Lawson advises. “Continue to drink throughout your warm-up to replace lost energy and take a caffeinated gel when your warm-up has finished.”

Don’t bother with a bottle for a 10- or 25-mile race because time lost drinking outweighs the benefit of taking on more fluid. But do have a recovery drink ready.

6. Learn some confidence tricks

Riding with elbows tucked in and your hands a stretch away from the brakes can be intimidating.

“At first TT bikes can be tricky in the tuck position, especially if you have disc or deep-rim wheels,” says former pro cyclist Matt Jones, “but the more you ride your TT bike, the more natural it feels and the more confident you will get.”

He advises getting into and out of an aero tuck one arm at a time, in case of a strong gust of wind or hitting a pothole, so you still have control of the bike.

“If you are worried about riding in the aero tuck position, just ride in the position on a turbo at first, then find a quiet road to practise on. Once you feel confident, go and rip up the local TTs.”

7. Go hard on the hills and into headwinds

Conventional wisdom is that you ride a TT at a tough but even pace, holding a steady power output throughout. But some research suggests that advice needs to change.

“Going harder on hills or into the wind can be quicker,” says Simon Jobson, “and a power meter can be very valuable.” If you don’t have a power meter or heart rate monitor though, you can learn to pace yourself.

“Practise riding the distance you will be competing over flat-out,” says Greg Whyte. “If your pace drops towards the end, you’ve gone too hard. If you finish feeling fresh, you haven’t tried hard enough. Keep practising until you know what a tough but sustainable effort over that distance feels like.”

8. Make sure you’re ready to ride

Arrive at the start without having warmed up adequately and you won’t get the most out of all those hours of training. “Many riders don’t warm up hard enough,” warns Jobson. “Some hard priming efforts trick the body into functioning at a higher level.”

One warm-up strategy that Jobson recommends is riding easily for 15 minutes, then performing 3 x 10-second hard efforts with 2 minutes of recovery in between.

“I wouldn’t put in a maximum effort during the sprints,” he says, “but I would be sprinting. I tend to call them ‘bursts’ rather than sprints. In total, a warm-up should be at least 20 minutes and could be as long as 40.”

9. Stay relaxed, think fast

You might think that getting psyched up before a race is crucial to putting in a great performance. However, Rob Hayles, a former professional racer and former world champion track rider, would disagree.

“Stay relaxed,” he says. This calm approach applies to the choices that you make before the start, as well as your mental approach to the race.

“Err on the side of caution with your equipment,” says Hayles. “If you have a choice of different depth front wheels and it’s windy, go with the shallower one. If you’re not happy with the bike’s handling, you’ll lose time.”

Hayles adds that it pays not to be too aggressive, even for a short race. “You can go out too fast, even in a 10-miler. Be in control of your effort. Go too hard in a time trial and there’s no chance to recover.”

10. Don’t forget to do a recce beforehand

It really helps to know the course beforehand. You’ll be sent the route with your start sheet, which usually arrives at least a few days before the race. If you don’t want to wait until then, enter the course code into a search engine (UK time-trialling’s governing body, the CTT, gives a code for every course) and you’ll soon find a description of the route.

Even on well-marshalled courses, riders sometimes take a wrong turn in the heat of the moment, so on the most basic level, riding or driving the route beforehand means you’ll know where you’re going.

A course recce will also show you where the course is toughest and help you to spot hazards such as potholes in advance, rather than having to react at the last moment.

A lot of emphasis is placed on the aerobic benefits of cycling but you’re also giving a wide range of muscles a workout when riding. Here, we talk through the key muscle groups that get stronger through cycling.

What are the key cycling muscles?

As you’d expect, the main muscle groups exercised by cycling are in the legs. That includes the muscles on the top of the legs in the front of the thigh, called the quadriceps (a group of four muscles), and the hamstrings (a group of muscles at the rear of the upper leg).

There’s also significant input from the buttock muscles, the gluteus maximus.

These are the primary muscles used to drive the pedals, producing the power which in turn propels you forward.

That plays on the strengths of the human body, says Dr Xavier Disley of AeroCoach, as we’ve evolved to perform knee and hip extension exercises like walking, running, jumping and pushing.

But with pedals limiting the extent of motion, there’s less extension when cycling than in these activities, leading to different effects on your muscles and different injury risks.

How are those muscles used in the pedal stroke?

Since effective power delivery is crucial to the sport, there’s been a lot of research into how to optimise the pedal stroke.

As you’d expect, pedalling is most efficient when most of the power is put into the downstroke, primarily using those powerful quad and buttock muscles.

Trying to pull up on the pedals on the upstroke uses the smaller muscles in the hamstrings and so doesn’t help as much, nor is it recommended.

The muscle groups in your calves, ankles and feet don’t contribute as much to your power as you might think, says physiotherapist Phil Burt, who has supported Britain’s elite cyclists at three Olympic games and Team Sky at seven Tours de France.

He cites Paralympic cyclists who have lost their lower legs and are actually more efficient cyclists.

But pulling – or ‘scraping’ – through the very top and bottom of the rotation will increase your power output: this will use a different set of muscles in your quads and calves. Many elite cyclists can exert power further around the pedal stroke than untrained riders.

That’s especially true of elite mountain bikers, where smooth power delivery is crucial to progress off the tarmac.

It’s an ability that transfers well to the road, with Cadel Evans being an example of a mountain biker turned road cycling (and, indeed, Tour de France) champion. Track and fixed gear riding will also improve your power delivery, says Burt.

What other muscle groups does cycling use?

Cycling doesn’t just use your leg muscles; those in your abdomen and back need to work to keep the upper body stable, while your shoulders and arms will get a workout, especially when climbing and out of the saddle.

Because you’re extending your muscles less when cycling than with other exercises, cyclists may be less flexible than other athletes; tight hamstrings can be an issue.

The three points of contact with the bike mean that core stability can be less developed, particularly for road cyclists. Coaches suggest mixing cycling with core strength exercises to improve this, in turn improving your efficiency on the bike and helping to prevent injury.

• 10 simple strength and conditioning exercises you can do at home

What are the injury risks when cycling?

Cycling has the advantage that it puts a lower load on the body than many forms of exercise, so it’s less likely that you’ll pull a muscle. But there’s more of a risk of repetitive strain injury and aches and pains from holding the same position for long periods, particularly if your bike setup isn’t correct, so a bike fit is something to consider.

Knee pain is the largest cause of injury that cycling physiotherapist Nichola Roberts sees in her practice at Velophysio. She says poor bike fit is the primary cause of knee pain, followed by trauma from an accident.

Biomechanical problems from muscle imbalances are also an issue, often caused by overtraining. She stresses the importance of building mileage gradually and incorporating stretches and exercises such as squats into your routine.

• Use these exercises to ride stronger and stay injury-free

How does your riding style change which muscles you use?

The type of riding you’re doing will also affect which muscles you use. A lot of road cycling and time trialling is about holding a static position for extended periods, which can result in aches and pains if your setup isn’t correct.

Mountain biking is as much about balance and position on the bike, while a sprinter churning out big watts out of the saddle will be using their arms and back muscles too. That’s also true of out-of-saddle climbing, when the legs and back will be more extended than when sitting.

Phil Burt emphasises the importance of your position on the bike to effective cycling; too low and too far back and you won’t be able to recruit your major muscles efficiently, including your hip extensors, the most powerful in the body.

“You want to be positioned high and forward, more like a triathlete,” he says. That’s also important to avoid knee pain and to optimise your cadence.

Will cycling give me big legs?

With all the emphasis on power output via the legs, you might think that your legs and buttocks would bulk out.

That’s often true of elite track riders and sprinters required to produce a lot of power quickly – think of Sir Chris Hoy – but it’s not necessarily so.

Again, it depends on the type of riding you’re doing and its intensity. Some of the best road riders are ultra-skinny to help get them up hills as fast as possible, although even they will have well-developed quads. In turn, their aerobic systems will be highly developed to deliver the oxygen those muscles require.

Because you need your legs to be able to move fast and efficiently, cycling is less likely to develop massive muscles than bodybuilding at the gym.

Setting out on your first ever road ride can be a daunting proposition, so here are six things to make your maiden voyage a success.

1. Be realistic

Just how fit are you? Can you run for the bus without breaking a sweat or does a single flight of stairs leave you panting and out of breath? There’s no need for heroics here, and we’d suggest keeping your first outing short and sweet.

If you’re moderately active already, make your first ride 15 miles long and aim to complete it in an hour to an hour and half.

If you’re less confident about your fitness, try to plan a route with a stop at five miles that gives you the option of adding distance if you’re feeling good, or heading home if you’re not.

2. Wear the right kit

We’ve got a whole guide on what to wear for road cycling and commuting, but the most important item, other than perhaps a helmet, is a proper pair of the best bib shorts.

Bib shorts are best because there’s no waist elastic to cut into your stomach, but any cycling shorts are better than none.

Shorts should be tight fitting because loose material will bunch and chafe, and wearing underwear with bibs is not recommended. You don’t want to be adding extra seams that could abrade your most delicate and valued body parts.

If you’re not comfortable showing off your curves in tight clothing, there’s nothing to stop you wearing comfy and baggier shorts or leggings over your cycling shorts.

One of the best cycling jerseys is ideal for your upper half, but hardly essential for your first rides. If you don’t have one, a close-fitting T-shirt is fine, or a heavier sweatshirt for cooler weather.

Just remember that you’ll be generating a lot of heat when you’re pedalling, so dress lighter than you would normally. A good rule of thumb is that if you feel slightly cold when you first step out of your front door, you should be comfortable once you get going.

If you haven’t bought all your kit yet then check out our beginner cyclist shopping list video below.

3. Bring the right kit

You shouldn’t need to carry out extensive roadside repairs on your first foray into the big bad world, but you’ll want to carry the basics for puncture repair.

All you need is a spare inner tube in the correct size, a couple of tyre levers, and a small pump.

You should also pack a basic multi-tool in case you need to make simple adjustments, such as saddle height, on the road.

We don’t recommend going on your first ride at night, but if it’s anything other than a nice, bright day, consider whether you should fit front and rear lights to make yourself nice and visible to other road users.

It’s also worth packing a lightweight jacket or gilet if there’s even the slightest chance of rain, and a little cash or a debit card for emergencies. Bring your phone too, even if you’re not using it for navigation, just in case.

4. Plan your route

As we’ve said, keep it short to begin with, and aim to ride on roads with no big hills and minimal traffic. If that’s not possible where you live, consider driving somewhere more suitable if that’s an option for you.

It may sound odd to suggest this on a cycling website, but you’ll enjoy yourself much more if you can focus initially on riding the bike rather than dodging cars, especially in the first few miles of your cycling life.

If it helps with motivation, aim to hit a cafe halfway round for a quick caffeinated morale-booster.

There are lots of free (or partly free – most have paid upgrade options) online services and apps that will make planning a route easier, including cycling-specific ones such as Strava, Komoot, Ride with GPS and Mapmyride, as well as good old Google Maps.

These allow you to plan exactly how far you want to ride, and show you whether there’ll be any hills along the way. Just be aware of letting software choose your route because not all platforms have a finely calibrated sense of where it’s appropriate to ride a bicycle.

Some won’t differentiate between tiny farm tracks and dual carriageways when they suggest directions, so if you’re in any doubt about a road’s suitability, Google Streetview is your friend. As a general rule, try to avoid A-roads because cars will generally be driving a lot faster on these.

Most GPS bike computers will have some form of built-in navigation, and the option to download a route to the device. However, even if you don’t have a bike computer, you probably do own a smartphone, so why not make use of its built-in GPS to navigate using your pre-planned route?

You can get handlebar phone mounts for most phones if you feel the need, but you should be able to hear instructions with it in your back pocket, regardless.

5. Prepare your bike

Your bike shop will have sorted out the essentials for you, but there are some basic things you can easily check yourself. It’s also worth learning how to do a basic pre-ride safety check.

Your saddle should be at a height where you can pedal freely, and you should have just a slight bend in your knee when the pedal is at its lowest point. If you can place both feet flat on the ground while seated on the saddle, then it’s too low and you’ll hurt your knees.

Your tyres need to be properly pumped up, and this is best carried out with a track pump (also called a floor pump) with a gauge. The correct pressure varies depending on your weight and the exact size of the tyres.

There are many online calculators and apps that will give you advice on this, but for a typical 80kg rider with 700×25mm tyres, we’d recommend starting with 100psi in your rear tyre and 90psi in your front tyre.

Lighter riders can go lower, heavier riders should go higher. As you gain experience, you may want to experiment with higher or lower pressures to fine-tune your ride. Try adjusting in increments of 5psi at a time.

Before hitting the road proper, take some time to familiarise yourself with your bike, making sure you can comfortably operate the gears and brakes. If your bike is fitted with clipless pedals, practice clipping in and out.

It’s a good idea to always unclip one foot a few seconds before you come to a halt. That way you’re much less likely to forget and tip over awkwardly at a standstill.

Try shifting through the gears, but avoid the easiest two at the back when you’re in the bigger chainring at the front, and the hardest two at the back when you’re in the little ring. These gear combinations force the chain to work at an extreme angle, which puts unnecessary strain on your drivetrain.

Don’t operate both shifters at once, and get into the habit of easing off on the pedals slightly as you shift. It’ll make everything work a bit more smoothly and reduces the chances of an accidental chain drop.

You should be able to ride comfortably with your hands on the brake hoods for prolonged periods, and from there you need to be able to shift both front and rear gears.

The drops are used when you want to go really, really fast, and for descending. It’s important that you can brake safely from either the hoods or the drops, so try both out and make sure you’re comfortable moving from one to the other. Do this one hand at a time so you’re never completely letting go of the bar.

6. Prepare yourself

Come the day, eat a carby but not overly heavy breakfast and give yourself a good hour and a half to digest it. Something like porridge is ideal, or toast with lashings of jam, or ‘jelly’ if you’re American.

You likely won’t need to eat much on a ride this long, but it’s best to get in the habit of carrying a bit of food with you — so take a banana or a square of flapjack.

You should also put a bottle of water or energy drink in your bottle cage, and try to take a sip every 20 minutes or so, even if you don’t feel thirsty.

The rest is up to you, so saddle up, have fun and be safe out there!

Taking a photograph of a bike is easy, but taking one to be proud of is something else altogether.

Here at BikeRadar we’ve photographed more bikes than we’d like to think of and we’ve learned a thing or two along the way. With that in mind, here are several pointers that should help you to get a shot you can’t wait to share.

Before you start, it’s probably time you cleaned your bike, our guide to bike cleaning shows you how to do a good job and quickly too.

• Best bike: how to choose the right one for you

1. Location, location, location

It doesn’t matter how crisp or well framed your shot is, if the location isn’t right then you’ll struggle to get anything other than an average shot. Consider colours, lines and any objects that may detract from the important part – your bike.

Think also about lighting conditions. Harsh light is difficult to manage, can cast hideous shadows and will leave you with a lot of unwanted reflections – for that reason it can often be better to shoot bikes on an overcast day than in blazing sunshine.

Getting up early or staying out later could pay off too. This is down to what photographers refer to as the ‘golden hour’ – a period shortly after sunrise or prior to sunset where daylight is softer and redder.

2. Play with aperture

Reducing your depth of field can give your images a more professional look and will allow your bike to really pop from the image.

For those who aren’t geeky with cameras, that’s when the subject (your bike, or part of your bike) is in focus, and the rest of the image is blurred out. The amount you are able to blur out the background in your pic will depend on the hardware you are using.

Traditionally, to get this sort of look you needed an SLR camera and a fast lens, but today’s mobile phones use clever technology to replicate such images with modes like Apple’s portrait mode.

Although various factors affect the depth of field on your shot, the most easily controlled is the aperture value of your camera’s lens.

Most digital cameras will have an aperture priority mode, often abbreviated to A or Av. Once in this setting you’ll be able to control the aperture of your shot; the size of the aperture is measured in ‘f-stops’.

Simply put, the the higher the f number the more the image will remain in focus outside of its focus point, the flipside being that the lower the f number the more any areas outside of the focus point will appear blurry. Therefore a lower f number equates to a shallower depth of field.

The principle remains the same for a mobile phone. Depending on which phone you have you’ll need to either adjust settings within your in-built camera app or perhaps use a different version that gives you manual control over the camera’s aperture.

To fully understand aperture and depth of field in photographs head on over to this article from Nikon.

3. Props

When it comes to propping your bike for a shot, there are a few different methods.

The first is what we call the 1.2.3 – and for this you’ll need a friend.

Said friend reaches in and settles the bike with one hand, usually from behind using the saddle. When the shot is framed and the photographer is ready to fire, the friend then releases their hand from the saddle and pulls back momentarily out of shot.

If said friend is talented in the fine art of balancing bikes, the bike will then free stand – as if by magic – while the snapper gets their shots.

The bike balancer then jumps back into the shot before the subject falls to the ground. Easy! Except it really isn’t.

An alternative is using a prop, and we’ve seen photographers use everything from twigs to clear acrylic rods, and even pedal spanners, to balance bikes for pictures.

If all of the above sounds like too much hassle, it is possible to take decent pictures of a bike against a wall. The advantages of this method are that your bike will be at minimal risk of falling over and you will not need to dial down your aperture settings as explained in the paragraphs above.

It’s essential that you choose a decent wall though. Look for one that doesn’t take too much attention from the bike and is generally free of clutter or distractions.

4. Move around

When it comes to snapping bikes, most people simply do not move around enough.

Instead of taking that side-on shot you’ve seen a million times before, why don’t you get low, experiment with different angles, take close-ups of parts that particularly interest you. Experiment, it’s what it’s all about.

5. Editing

If you want to take your images to the next level, processing them within image editing software can work wonders.

You don’t necessarily have to go to the extent of teaching yourself skills on expensive software such as Adobe Photoshop either.

Most mobile phones now include powerful image editing tools within their camera apps, or there’s a huge range of free software out there that will be able to process your pictures for you.

Instagram itself allows a user to dramatically change an image that’s been uploaded, with options to crop, change colour, tone, saturation and sharpness to name just a few.

The golden rule here is to try and not overdo things. Be subtle with your tweaks

6. Stylistic pointers

Certain things tend to just look a bit odd in a picture – here are a few tips we’ve picked up from years of snapping bikes:

• Shoot from the driveside – bikes look strangely incomplete when shot from the non-driveside, meaning the drivetrain is largely hidden from view.
• Crank position – some photographers swear by level cranks on a bike, but we tend to keep the driveside crank arm so that it runs parallel with the bike’s chainstays.
• Gear choice – if you’ve got a big ring at the crank then make sure the chain is on it, and we tend to place bikes about halfway through their cassette in pictures.
• Handlebars – and therefore wheels –  should be straight.
• Clean or dirty – mountain bikes can look great with a bit of mud on them, but there’s a fine line between looking cool and looking cack. Road bikes rarely look good when unclean.
• Look out for the position of any quick-release levers – you’d be amazed at how messy it can look if there’s one sticking out from the fork at a jaunty angle.
• Saddle height – if you’ve got a dropper post then don’t forget to raise it from a slammed position or perhaps drop it a little from full extension.
• Bike needs to stand level – if it’s leaning to one side you’ll end up with odd-looking geometry.
• Valve stems – some people do go as far as to position their tyre valves in a particular position.

Balance bikes are a great starting point for kids when they’re learning to ride. They get the hang of balancing while moving without relying on stabilisers, so the transition to a pedal bike is often much quicker.

Our guide to teaching a child to cycle in 30 minutes is a good starting point for a first pedal bike, but if your child has just got a balance bike, or is used to riding one and is ready to move on to a bike with pedals, the followings tips will help.

We’ve also got a guide to the best kids’ bikes, with recommendations for children of all ages, and advice for cycling with kids.

1. Striding

Let your child stride along aboard the balance bike. Let them enjoy the feeling of movement under their own power.

Pretty soon they understand that with a little more striding they can lift their feet and glide a few feet.

2. Gliding

As children get stronger and more confident, the gliding gets longer and faster. Once they reach this point, they’re already past stabilisers.

Once you start to become concerned that they can glide longer and faster than you can run, it’s time to think about a bicycle with pedals. These first two steps can last months or years.

You can get balance bikes for toddlers, so they can start to become familiar with the feeling of striding and gliding from early on. This will help them develop their sense of balance.

Then, when your child (and you!) are ready, you can move on to a bike with pedals…

3. From balance bike to pedal bike

When choosing your child’s first pedal bike, look for something with proper brakes front and rear.

Remove the pedals from the new bike. Take the child, the balance bike and the new pedal version to a park with a shallow grass slope.

Let the child stride and glide down the slope on their balance bike. As experienced gliders, they’ll nail it first time with big smiles.

4. Onto the new bike

Swap them onto the new bike. Tell them to stride and glide this one down the slope in the same way, and to ignore the pedal-less cranks.

Chances are, they’ll achieve this first time, and in a few goes will probably get a little blasé about it.

5. Using pedals

Now explain that you’re going to fit the pedals, but that they’re not going to pedal.

It’s just another stride and glide, only this time as they lift their feet off the grass, instead of holding them in the air, they need place them on the pedals without trying to turn them. Get them to let the glide peter out as usual.

6. First cycling steps

After a few goes gliding with pedals as footrests, tell them that next time they can turn the pedals forward.

It will keep their speed up and let them add power to the glide when the slope stops doing it for them.

7. Keep practicing

Most kids nail this first time. Let them keep practicing these steps: stride a few paces, use the slope to instigate the glide phase, feet to pedals, feel the glide begin to fade, turn the pedals forward.

8. Picture time

Have a camera handy — your child is now cycling without stabilisers. Now all you need to do is facilitate regular sessions so they can continue practicing and build confidence.

Remember to give lots of praise. Stuff will go wrong, kids will fall off, just make sure you’re ready to make them feel better with calmness, patience and love.

And sweets just in case the last three things aren’t enough…

Just as there are a zillion different types of bike for every kind of riding imaginable, there are a number of different indoor training solutions, and working out what one is right for you can be a daunting task.

But BikeRadar is here to lend a hand and help you work out whether a set of rollers, turbo trainer, smart trainer, static bike or something else is the right solution for you.

What are rollers for indoor cycling?

Rollers are best thought of as a treadmill for a bike (though an actual treadmill for a bike does exist).

Rollers essentially consist of a set of three drums bolted onto a solid rectangular frame that sits on the floor. Your rear wheel drives the back pair of rollers that in turn drive the front one via a belt or very strong elastic band.

Unlike a turbo, you actually ‘ride’ on top of rollers, so there’s an element of balance and skill involved.

This can make them a little more engaging to use than a turbo, and there are some unique training benefits.

In particular, high-cadence workouts on rollers are a perfect platform to develop a smooth pedalling technique, and many pro riders will spend the winter on rollers working on just this.

Rollers are also excellent for improving your balance and bike handling skills. If you struggle with holding a line, retrieving food (or your phone for a sweet Insta’ snap) from a jersey pocket or a bottle from its cage, then spending some time on them is bound to help.

Unlike a turbo trainer, you can also just jump straight onto a set of rollers on any bike and get right into punishing yourself – this makes them a popular choice for pre-race warm-ups, and the hum of a zillion rollers in a car park is a common spectacle at many events.

Despite being a relatively simple thing, rollers have actually come on in recent years, with better bearings making for a smoother ride and smaller rollers making it easier to get up to speed. Many rollers are now also concave-shaped (they slope towards the middle), making it much easier to stay in place.

The majority of rollers have a fixed level of resistance, so if it’s out-and-out power you want to work on, it might be best to look at a turbo or smart trainer.

Most rollers also aren’t ‘smart’ (more on that below) but are still compatible with apps such as Zwift as long as your bike has at least a cadence and speed sensor, though you’ll miss out on the automatic adjustment of resistance that a smart trainer offers – the exception being Elite’s Quick Motion (formerly known as the Real E-Motion) ‘smart’ rollers.

What is a turbo trainer for indoor cycling?

Turbo trainers clamp the rear of a bike into a static stand and are driven in two different fashions.

A regular (or wheel-on) turbo trainer uses the tyre of a bike, usually rolling on a metal or composite drum, to drive the trainer. After clamping the bike into the turbo trainer, a dial can be used to finely adjust how hard the roller presses against the wheel of the bike.

It’s recommended by most turbo trainer manufacturers that you use a special hard compound tyre that’s less resistant to wear and heat build-up on a turbo trainer. Turbo trainer tyres absolutely cannot be used on the road.

Direct-drive turbo trainers replace the rear wheel of the bike, sitting between the dropouts and clamped in place with a quick-release skewer or thru-axle. Just like a wheel, a direct-drive turbo is driven by a cassette.

Direct-drive turbo trainers tend to be quieter because there’s no tyre/roller noise, more stable, and offer greater levels of resistance than regular turbo trainers. They do tend to cost a bit more, though.

There are some other trainers, such as the Feedback Omnium and Blackburn Raceday, that use rollers out back with the front wheel clamped in place instead, but these are in the minority.

There are numerous ways in which resistance is produced on a turbo, ranging from heavy flywheels on the simplest models to fans, fluid discs and even the magic of magnets and eddy currents on certain models.

The very cheapest turbo trainers have a fixed level of resistance but, as price increases, you’ll gain features such as remote resistance control, power meters and smart features.

It’s normally recommended that you use a wheel block in conjunction with a turbo trainer to raise the front of the bike up to its normal height.

What is a smart trainer?

The term ‘smart trainer‘ refers to a turbo trainer that can interact with training software such as Zwift and TrainerRoad.

These apps can control the resistance of the trainer, allowing you to recreate rides and race others from the (dis)comfort of your home.

Most smart trainers work with both ANT+ and Bluetooth protocols. ANT+ is the most commonly used wireless protocol for fitness products such as heart-rate monitors and power meters. Bluetooth should be familiar if you use smartphones, tablets and computers.

Besides automatic resistance control, smart trainers also include a power meter, allowing you to work out exactly how hard you’re riding.

Exercise bike/static trainer

Modern static trainers are nothing like the contraptions – it would be a push to call them bikes – of old that you might have come across in a skip or at the back of a thrift shop.

• The age of the indoor smart bike is finally upon us, but can you really justify the huge cost?

Wattbike is the best-known brand that is dedicated to static bikes, though Tacx, Wahoo, SRM and others have brought options to market recently.

A static trainer offers a far more stable and hassle-free indoor training experience than any turbo trainer or rollers.

The price, bulk and weight of a static trainer will put off many, but for dedicated racers who want the very best indoor cycling experience, they’re hard to beat.

There can’t be many cyclists out there who don’t want to be able to ride just a little bit faster.

If simply turning the pedals harder sounds like too much effort, or if you’re already pedalling as hard as you can, we’ve come up with some tips to help you go faster for free or for very little money.

So, join us as we reveal our top five low-cost secrets. From road bike position to bargain upgrades, we’ve got it covered.

1. Clean your bike regularly

It’s something we probably all know deep down, but if you’re not cleaning your bike regularly, it’s going to be costing you precious energy.

According to testing by Jason Smith of Friction Facts, a moderately dirty chain can decrease your drivetrain’s efficiency by at least a couple of per cent, and these losses only get worse as things get dirtier.

• How to clean your bike

On top of that, all of the extra friction massively increases the wear on your bike’s parts.

Now, we don’t know about you, but we don’t like having to waste money replacing chains, cassettes and chainrings, when we could be spending that money on something more exciting like copies of incredible magazines like Cycling Plus or Mountain Biking UK.

So, grab that bucket and sponge and get to work.

The only part you might need a specific cleaning product for is the drivetrain because oil and dirt on those parts can be hard to remove without a proper degreaser, but for everything else, we find hot water and a dash of regular dish soap works just as well.

Once your bike is spick and span, don’t forget to carefully re-lube your chain with a good quality chain lube and wipe off any excess.

• Chain lube buyer’s guide: what’s the best chain lube for your bike?

This is also a perfect opportunity to check your brakes are working correctly, and whether all your bearings are spinning nice and smoothly too, or if they need a little extra grease.

Trust us, there’s nothing better than getting on a clean, quiet bike for your next ride and the fact that it’s also faster makes all that hard work worth it.

2. Use your gears better

Did you know you can also get a little free speed by using your gears better?

It might sound far-fetched, but it’s true. We’ll admit that this tip won’t turn you into a Tour de France contender, but every little helps, right?

The key takeaway is that it’s more efficient to use bigger chainrings, bigger cassette cogs and bigger pulley wheels. This is because larger cogs produce less friction than smaller ones because the chain doesn’t have to articulate at such extreme angles, as each link moves through the drivetrain.

• Friction Facts: free speed from proper shifting

So, how can you apply this to your riding? If you’re running a 2x setup, try to use the big ring as much as possible.

If you’re using a 1x setup, consider running a larger chainring up front, paired with a wider range cassette out the back.

The only caveat is not to forget about your chainline. Cross-chaining also increases friction because the chain has to bend to simultaneously reach each part of the system.

So, running extreme gear combinations, like the big-big or small-small, isn’t optimal either.

In summary, use bigger cogs wherever possible and try to use your front shifting to keep your chain in the middle of your cassette, and more of your watts will reach your back wheel.

3. Get faster tyres

Now this one is unfortunately not free, but as far as bike parts go, tyres are relatively cheap, so we think it warrants being included on this list.

The difference in rolling resistance between durable, puncture-proof training tyres and thin, supple tyres designed for racing can be huge.

Now, unless you’re doing short time-trials or hill climbs on good roads, we’d probably caution against going out and purchasing the absolute fastest tyres out there because these often have very little puncture protection.

The smart thing to do is to read the independent reviews on BikeRadar and choose a tyre that has the right balance of speed, comfort, weight and puncture resistance for your type of riding.

Now, maybe you already knew this and you already have the best tyres available, but did you know that what you put on the inside of your tyre can affect rolling resistance too?

Tubeless setups, for example, can be faster because they eliminate the need for inner tubes, which are a source of rolling resistance because energy is lost when they deform.

But testing by UK based aerodynamics experts Aerocoach has also shown that you can optimise the amount of sealant you put in your tubeless tyres. It found that around 30ml gives the best balance of rolling resistance and puncture protection for a 25mm tyre and that any more is just going to slow you down.

If your wheels aren’t tubeless compatible, or you’re just not ready to ditch inner tubes yet, there are still gains to be had though.

Latex inner tubes, for example, have long been known to offer less rolling resistance than standard butyl ones, and though they’re slightly more expensive, they’re a quick and easy upgrade for your race bike.

• Inner tube buying guide: common sizes, materials, valve types and more

4. Tidy up your bike’s front end

Look around at the front end of any modern superbike and one thing they nearly all have in common is a lack of exposed cables at the front end.

• Best aero road bikes

Despite their small size, gear and brake cables can cause a surprising amount of aerodynamic drag. This is because circular or spherical objects are what an aerodynamicist would call ‘bluff bodies’.

Without turning this article into a lecture on fluid dynamics, this essentially just means they’re not streamlined. Wind tunnel testing by companies such as Specialized has shown that completely removing cables from the front end of your bike can save around 12 seconds over 40km.

That might not sound like much, but it could easily be the difference between winning and losing a race.

Of course, simply removing the cables entirely isn’t a practical option for everyone, unless you’re willing to spend enough money to get a new bike or a wireless groupset, but you can get some of the benefits simply by making sure your gear cables aren’t overly long, and by using zip ties, electrical tape or shrink wrap to tie cables together and tidy everything up.

• Road bike groupsets: everything you need to know

As a bonus tip, this also applies to things like helmet straps. Shorten and tidy them up, and keep them close to your head, under the arms of your sunglasses. That’s another couple of watts saved for free.

5. Work on your riding position

This last gain could be the biggest one of all.

As many of you no doubt already know, the biggest thing slowing your bike down is of course… you!

That’s right, your body is the single biggest cause of aerodynamic drag in the rider and bike system, accounting for around 80 per cent of the total drag.

It makes sense, therefore, that anything you can do to your bike to make your body position more aerodynamically efficient is going to help you ride faster.

Back in 2017 we aero tested a number of road bike positions at the Los Angeles Velodrome in the USA and found that riding with your hands on the brake hoods with your elbows bent and forearms horizontal saved an enormous 94 watts when riding at 40 kilometres per hour, compared to riding sat up with straight arms.

Of course, the exact amount any of us stands to save will vary person to person, but the gains will always be significant.

We’d recommend experimenting with small changes to your saddle position, reach and handlebar height to find a setup that enables you to more comfortably hold this aero position for longer periods of time.

Slamming your stem might look great in photos, but if it means you can’t hold a good aero position for very long because your handlebars are too low, you’ll end up riding slower because of it.

What do you think of our tips? Did we pick the best ones or are there better ways to make your bike faster without spending much money? Let us know in the comments below.

Everybody wants to go faster, but not everybody wants to drop a ton of cash doing it. So, what are the tricks of the trade that don’t cost the earth – or, anything at all?

Our Simon is dedicated to going faster, and while Jack isn’t so bothered, he certainly likes going further, so they’ve teamed up to give you the lowdown on the cheap or free tricks to get your bike rolling faster and further.

If you want to hear more on aerodynamics, we met an aerodynamicist at the Boardman Performance Centre in a previous episode.

Do subscribe to the BikeRadar Podcast wherever you get your ‘pods’ from, we’re beaming two episodes per week direct to your device!

Alternatively, keep an eye on our BikeRadar Podcast page for the latest episode.

Strong hamstrings will help you keep a strong pedal stroke throughout your ride and reduce the risk of injury.

Paul Hough, an exercise physiologist at St Mary’s University and author of Advanced Personal Training, explains what they are and what to do if you injure yours.

What are your hamstrings?

Hamstring is the collective term that’s often used for the posterior (rear) thigh muscles.

They consist of the semimembranosus, the semitendinosus and the biceps femoris muscles – a series of muscles that span the thigh, crossing both the hip and the knee.

The muscles begin just below the buttocks, where they attach to the ischium (the lower part of the hip) and connect onto the top of the lower leg bones (the tibia and the fibula). Your posterior thigh muscles bend your knee and straighten your hip.

How do your hamstrings work when cycling?

The hamstrings work hardest when you pull your leg up from the bottom of the pedal stroke. But as the pedalling action does not involve a full hip extension, cyclists can develop tight posterior thigh muscles over time.

Why do my hamstrings hurt when cycling?

Prolonged cycling, particularly when fatigued, can raise the risk of developing a posterior thigh strain, which usually occurs where the muscle fuses with the tendon (myotendinous junction).

The risk of injury also increases when the posterior thigh muscles become fatigued by pedalling in a low gear and/or maintaining a low cadence.

How to stop hamstrings hurting when cycling

Performing hamstring strengthening exercises two to three times per week can improve your pedalling efficiency and reduce the risk of injury.

It is also a good idea to stretch your hamstring muscles following a ride, holding each stretch for at least 30 seconds, while taking deep breaths.

Hamstring stretch for cyclists

1. Put your feet up

2. Lift your hips

3. Drive on

Learning how to ride no-handed is another skill that looks effortlessly cool when done right and has lots of practical uses.

As with learning to wheelie though, it might seem like everyone knows how – except you. Don’t panic, here’s Anna Glowinski to talk you through it.

How to ride a bike with no hands

1. Find a suitable place to practice

It begins with finding a long, smooth, straight road to practice on.

2. Start pedalling

The trick to riding no-handed lies in getting up enough speed to keep some stability and picking a high enough gear that you’ve got something to push against.

3. Get your body weight back

Next, shift your body weight as far back over the saddle as you can and sit upright with good posture.

4. Easy does it…

Try to gradually get more and more comfortable with the idea of taking your hands off the handlebars. Try tiny steps to begin with, maybe with your hands hovering over the bars. Gradually get comfortable with loosening your grip.

5. Pedal as smoothly as you can

The key to preventing wobbles is to pedal as smoothly as possible – practice your ‘souplesse’, moving your feet in near-perfect circles. You’ll find this gives you more control and thus more stability.

Remember to keep your weight over the saddle, and be prepared to learn the process again for every new bike (and geometry) you climb onto.

This is the ultimate guide on how to set up new cleats for road cycling shoes, including Shimano, Speedplay and other systems.

There’s nothing more important than your feet when cycling. That may sound like a grandiose claim, but you generate hundreds of thousands of pedal strokes in any given ride. And how do you deliver your effort? Through your feet, of course.

I can say, with utmost certainty, that cleats can influence positively and negatively the following: feet, ankles, knees, hips, the lower back and everything in between.

Experienced fitters will tell you this is not the end of the list, and I agree, but that should be sufficient for you to take notice.

• Best road bike pedals 2020 | 5 top-rated clipless pedals for your bike
• Best mountain bike pedals — 16 of our favourites tried and tested
• SPD vs SPD-SL pedals: what’s the right system for you?

Pedalling dynamics – a brief explainer

Your foot experiences movement in all three planes when cycling, despite its fixed trajectory. In addition, the complex motion of the knee has to be taken in to consideration.

The knee joint comprises four bones: the femur, tibia, fibula (technically speaking) and patella. It’s also an organized chaos of connective tissues, cartilage, menisci, fluid sacs, and then some – it’s complex.

As such, its motion is also equally complex. It is not a simple hinge. Rather it engages in a choreographed arrangement of gliding, translating, pivoting and rotating.

Although explaining the dynamics of the knee is too complex for this article, what is important to know is that it is complicated and there’s plenty of room for error.

• Why do my knees hurt? Cycling knee plain explained, and how to treat it. 

“I like my current cleat placement” – how to replicate cleat fit on new shoes

If you already have your preferred shoe and pedal/cleat setup going that’s great. If you don’t have symptoms telling you otherwise, by all means, don’t fix what’s not broken.

Re-creating a placement using an existing shoe is simple with a Sharpie-style marker.

Trace the outside of your cleat on the bottom of your sole and you’ve got your template. Some folks just pick an edge or two, but my experience is that covering the entire cleat surface prevents any uncertainty.

Some companies offer template stickers that go over the existing cleat, but I’ve not had the most luck getting it just right.

The marker method is pretty much foolproof, unless you’re finicky about marking the bottom of your shoes (that no one will ever see… ever).

One thing to note when replacing bike cleats: they aren’t going to behave exactly like your old cleats.

Accept this and make adjustments accordingly. If you have a huge event coming up, the night before is not a good time to replace your cleats. Allow a few easy rides to get things sorted – 100 to 150 miles should be sufficient if all other things stay in the same.

The (three) axis of power

Mounting cleats to cycling shoes requires attention to all three axis/planes: fore/aft (sagittal), float (transverse), and angular (frontal).

For clarity, fore/aft refers to how close to the heel or toe the center-line of the cleat is located.

Float refers to the movement of the shoe once it’s engaged in the pedal body – the ‘heel-in’ and ‘heel-out’ motion – and the static orientation that allows it.

Last but not least is the angular position of the shoe compared to the pedal axle (aka ‘cant’, or ‘roll’, or ‘varus/valgus’).

To the front or back? How far forward or back should I fit my cleats?

The fore/aft position of your cleat is potentially the easiest to set.

In my experience, it is the least likely of the three to lead to any injuries if it isn’t just right on the first try.

The most common methodology today is to set cleats in the area of the metatarsal-phalangeal joint (MPJ) of the third toe, based on a guesstimate.

Have a look at the image above that shows the MPJ of the 1st and 5th toes. Put your shoe on and find these two bony landmarks and put a small mark to indicate their location. Somewhere between the marks is the location to centre your cleat fore/aft as a starting position.

From there, it’s been my experience that, for riders who engage in solo or long efforts – think triathlon, breakaway specialists or just-riding-my-damn-bike – moving things more to the heel is better.

For riders waiting for that burst of sprinting power in the last 200 metres, moving things towards the toe allows for a bit more springing ‘snap’.

There are other ideas to consider. The evolution of this methodology was never based on research and has only been validated by research as an artefact of its use.

I’m willing to argue that there is room for improvement in this realm and some progressive shoe manufacturers feel the same as they continue to move their cleat mounting holes towards the heel.

If you are craving a more rearward position, with most pedal and cleat systems there is no option. However, Speedplay offers a fore/aft extender plate that adds an extra 14mm of rearward placement possibility, and relatively speaking, that is a lot.

Save your knees – How much float should my cleats have?

Float is the next consideration, and this can be very tricky.

Before we even begin mounting cleats, are you aware that not all pedals are created equal when it comes to float? Some offer none and others as much as 30 degrees. Most people feel comfortable in the 6- to 9-degree range.

My key suggestion for setting cleats rotationally is to evaluate in a standing position first.

March in place a few steps and then once standing still, view the alignment of the kneecap and feet. Do they point in the same direction? Then look exclusively to the feet – are they pointed straight ahead or to one direction?

Another test: get into a seated position with your feet hanging off the edge of an assessment table or even a bedside.

Sit upright with the feet at 90 degrees to the tibia, then roll forward at the hip, do the feet rotate in or out?

Based on what is seen, set cleats to mirror the position of the feet or to facilitate the movement of the second test. Do some pedalling and see how it looks and feels. Do the pedalling feet look like the standing feet? What about the knees, do they have the same alignment they had when standing?

Medial or lateral knee discomfort as a very dull ache is a pretty good indicator you’ve not got it just right, yet.

Pretty much every system is capable of the adjustments above, with accessories. Unfortunately, only one pedal system available today (to my knowledge) is capable of managing these planes independently. The keyword is ‘independent’.

Speedplay Zero pedals allow float to be determined once on the bike. This doesn’t affect your already determined fore/aft position (or stance width), which could be compromised in a three-hole system.

Between you and your shoe

Fore/aft and float are simple in comparison to varus/valgus, roll, cant, or whatever name you give it.

If your ankle complex is not vertically stacked, you may benefit from varus/valgus wedging.

If your ankle is not vertically stacked, it is very likely that your entire foot has an angular component, and it will not sit flat on the pedal body. Due to the restrictions of the fixed trajectory, you’d be only loading one side of your foot, and this can be problematic.

Trying to decide whether you require varus/valgus wedging is no easy task. I highly recommend professional advice, but the rationale behind cleat wedging is fairly straightforward.

Again, this is an opportunity to complicate things for yourself, and it’s incredibly difficult to assess your ankle complex alone. With varus/valgus cleat wedging I strongly encourage you to seek feedback from a qualified professional.

It’s also important to mention that cleat wedging is not the same as forefoot wedging – this is a cleat setup article, so we will not address forefoot wedging today.

How to determine stance width

‘Stance width’ is the term used to describe the distance between your feet when engaged in the pedals.

When assessing the knees and feet that I described earlier, did you naturally stand with your feet wide apart or close together? When you pedal, do you feel like your feet are underneath your knees?

There really is no method for determining stance width. To some extent it’s just trial and error. Pressure mapping can add a bit of science, but that’s a fairly uncommon piece of tech for anyone to have access to.

If you suffer from IT Band issues, increasing stance width can be a useful adjustment.

If you move your knees outward at the top of your pedal stroke, moving cleats out can be helpful.

If your stance width is wide (lots of space between your shoes and the crank arms) and your knees dive inward, try a narrower stance. Note that this isn’t a catchall solution and there could be several other things going on.

Aside from fore/aft, float and canting, stance width is often overlooked, or a victim of the other three adjustments.

• Stance width: what it is and why you should care

However, if you’ve maxed out cleat adjustment, several companies purposefully offer different axle lengths to help (Speedplay, Keywin, Shimano and a few others).

Are your legs not symmetrical?

There’s one last thing to consider: you are not symmetrical.

There is a vertical component to evaluate as well, and it will require knowledge of your structural and functional anatomy to manage.

Perhaps you don’t sit squarely on your saddle or perhaps you have two different length legs (functionally or structurally). There are vertical stack spacers available to help accommodate this.

While I strongly recommend professional advice, this won’t negatively influence you nearly as much as wedging if you’ve made a poor decision. At least not in terms of a physical manifestation of pain, but that’s not saying it doesn’t influence you, because it will.

If you think you’re over-reaching on one side but the other side is better, try adding a spacer. If it feels smoother or more natural, go with it. If your body ends up telling you it’s no better than before, you’ll make an adjustment at the knee (or ankle) without even knowing, but remove the spacer if you don’t need it.

You’ll very likely need new bolts to accommodate your stack spacer, which aren’t expensive, and when it’s the right move are well worth the money.

Setting up mountain bike cleats

So far all content has been three-hole (road) focused. All the same information applies to off-road (two-bolt systems) in regards to fore/aft, float, and stance width procedures.

However, creating varus/valgus is pretty challenging on mountain bikes because the cleat contact is so minimal and the shoe/pedal contact creates stability of the system.

Furthermore, off-road riding is much more dynamic and most riders don’t find they even notice it, and subsequently don’t need it like they might on the road. Try it if you like, the wedges do exist.

Since I’ve pointed it out before, Speedplay again stands alone. It offers off-road pedals (the Syzr) that do in fact offer cleat-based canting.

Maybe it’s not important for mountain biking, but with the increasing popularity of gravel road riding and the use of mountain bike shoes, I see the feature-benefit for sure.

Check your cleats for wear

Cleats are a wear item, regardless of brand. The same can be said for pedals, with some holding up better than others.

Be mindful and check cleats once a month to look for signs of wear so you don’t find yourself in a pinch the night before your big event.

I have one request for you: keep a journal of how you’ve decided to go about messing with your cleats (or any other position metric for that matter). The above is powerful information and should be leveraged in a responsible way.

Making changes and not documenting what you’ve done leaves you armed with only the ‘ignorant shrug’ as a tool of communication and it’s scientifically proven 100 per cent ineffective, 100 per cent of the time.

This article was last updated in March 2020

The foam roller is an excellent tool for cyclists, according to Lorna Chapman of fitness studio Luna Yoga & Health – but you need to persevere and learn to love it!

You can pick up a foam roller for a modest outlay at most good sports shops. Once you’ve done so, try the following foam roller exercises to improve your flexibility and help your muscles recover after a long ride. It’s always worth stretching after a ride, too.

• Quick exercises to build your strength for cycling
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Foam roller exercises for cyclists with tight muscles

1. Glutes

This exercise works deep into the gluteus and piriformis muscles, which in cyclists are notoriously susceptible to tightness.

Sit on the roller with your hands on the floor behind you. Bring your right ankle across the left thigh. Move sideways onto the right buttock and roll forwards and backwards. You’ll know when you’ve hit the right spot!

2. Iliotibial band (ITB)

The iliotibial band (ITB), which extends down the outer edges of your thighs from hip to knee, can tighten in the saddle.

Lie with your outer thigh against the roller and support your upper body with one hand and one forearm. Keep the abs drawn in to support the lower back and keep the body aligned. This is painful to begin with, but it’s very effective.

• IT Band injuries and cycling: what you need to know
• How stretching can improve your cycling position

3. Thighs

This is another exercise that may make your eyes water at first.

Lie prone with the front of your thighs on the foam roller and your forearms on the floor to massage the quads.

Repeat on the back of the thighs to work on the hamstrings; work gradually from the top area near the glutes down towards the back of the knees.

4. Shins

When you’re riding your bike, your feet, shins and calf muscles stay fixed in position, so they need stretching and massaging.

Kneel with your shins on the roller and move forwards and backwards. Then turn over and cross your lower legs to roll on your calf muscles, using your arms for support.

5. Lower back

This exercise counters the effects of that hunched-over cycling position, and is best done with a long roller.

Lie on the roller, hips and head supported. Let the front of the shoulders open. Close your eyes and focus on your natural breathing for up to 15 minutes. Allow your body to let go a little more with each exhalation. Use a cushion behind your head if needed.

Riding into a headwind can be a demoralising experience – it can feel like riding uphill when blustery conditions strike – but there are ways to minimise the effects of cycling in the wind or, indeed, make the most of it.

Here are 10 tips to help you handle headwinds.

Got your own advice for cycling in the wind? Let us know in the comments below.

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• Why it’s faster to ride hard into a headwind than with a tailwind

1. Work with the wind

“If the headwind occurs during a training ride on a long flat stretch, riders should increase their cadence to keep the pace high,” says former professional cyclist and founder of the Le Col cycle clothing brand, Yanto Barker.

Doing this means the headwind won’t stop you in your tracks when it hits and will help keep your legs fresh.

2. Ride in a group

Riding in a group is a sure-fire way to reduce the effort required to overcome air resistance – you can reduce drag by around 30 per cent when drafting – and that’s even more the case when cycling in the wind.

“If you’re part of a group, take short turns to lead,” says Barker. “Keep rotating positions because staying too long at the front will quickly become tiring.”

3. Get aero

If you’re not riding in a group, or it’s your turn on the front of the bunch, getting aero will help you punch through the wind.

“Where possible ride on the drops, get your back flat and tuck in low to the bar,” says Barker.

4. Plan your ride

Check the forecast before you ride and plan accordingly. If the wind is due to drop and you have the option to delay your ride, brew another coffee and head out later in the day.

Choose a route that accounts for the wind. Riding out into a headwind means you’ll give yourself a better chance of a tailwind on the way home when your legs are tired.

If it’s particularly windy, planning a route on quieter roads will avoid any dangerous wobbles if hit by a gust on a busy stretch.

And remember to take heed of any weather warnings.

5. Dress for the conditions

The weather can change quickly in windy conditions, when squally showers can seemingly appear out of nowhere. Dress appropriately and take a jacket if rain is a possibility.

Otherwise, lightweight layers are key, especially because blustery conditions are common in the changeable seasons of spring and autumn.

A gilet will help keep the wind off your chest without overheating and provide some rain protection if you unexpectedly get caught out.

6. Beware, wind changes

As your route twists and turns or the wind changes direction, you need to keep your wits about you.

Maintain your focus on the road and be aware of crosswinds as you change direction or the protection afforded by your surroundings disappears, especially on winding routes.

“As you pass by gaps in the trees or hedgerows the wind can cut across your path,” warns Barker. Taking shelter within your group can counter this.

7. Leave the aero wheels at home

While it may seem counter-intuitive to ditch your aero wheels, deep-section rims are particularly susceptible to crosswinds and strong gusts.

If it’s especially windy out there, leave the aero hoops at home.

8. Tactics, tactics

While you always have the option to change your route – or stay at home – on a training ride, it’s not that simple if you’re racing. It’s time to get tactical.

“In a race, hide yourself near the front behind the first two rows of riders ahead of you,” says Barker. “If your team isn’t leading the pack, get yourself in the back and take advantage of the other teams’ work.”

9. Use it, don’t lose it

Riding into a strong headwind when training can actually have some advantages.

“It’s often like doing a hill climb ride without a hill, it demands increased effort and can add variety to your training,” says Barker.

Sometimes, however, it’s better to stay indoors…

10. It’s turbo time

Last but not least, if it’s blowing a gale then why not jump on the turbo trainer?

While following our tips can help you get the better of blowy conditions, sometimes cycling in the wind is an unavoidably dispiriting experience – or just plain dangerous.

The rise of smart turbo trainers and the growing popularity of interactive training apps such as Zwift mean there’s a whole virtual world to explore without a breath of wind.

Otherwise, take the day off. There’s always tomorrow…

Learning how to bunny hop is a hugely useful skill that can get you out of trouble, keep you moving forwards at speed, and help you clear big jumps better. The approach we’ll look at here is the smoothest, highest and most controlled hop, which can be performed on any bike with flat or SPD pedals.

• Learn how to wheelie, with Anna Glowinski
• How to jump a mountain bike
• How to manual

How to bunny hop on a bike

Sometimes called the “American bunny hop”, it involves getting the front wheel up first, then springing up and “scooping” the rear wheel behind you, similar to an ollie on a skateboard. It’ll take plenty of practice, but is definitely worth it for mountain bikers and roadies alike.

There’s also something called an “English bunny hop”, which relies on clipless SPD pedals, and sees both front and rear wheels spring up simultaneously. While it’s also a useful technique for jumping small obstacles on the trail, we’re going to focus here on learning to bunny hop with flat pedals. While it takes a little extra practice, it’s much more effective.

1. Practise the pumped manual

The first thing to master is the pumped manual. This is a way of getting the front wheel into the air using the natural rebound of the tyre – not the rebound of the forks, and not throwing your weight backwards or pulling back on the bars.

You simply roll along at a steady pace, not pedalling, cranks level and with your forearms low. It also helps if your heels are dipped. The lift comes from a thrust forwards through the hands, and possibly feet too. It’s a sharp, short burst of energy that’s mostly forwards and a little down, but not directly into the forks or they’ll soak up all the force. The tyre will immediately rebound and the front of the bike will lift.

2. Stand tall

As the front comes up, don’t be tempted to swing your weight backwards – instead push through with your feet and stand tall instead. This is important, because you will find it hard to get the back wheel in the air if you’ve just shoved all of your weight on top of it.

3. Throw the bars forwards

As the front wheel reaches full height, throw the bars forwards and rotate them at the same time (rolling them forwards to help twist the back of the bike into the air).

4. Scoop upwards with your feet

You can scoop upwards with your feet (toes down, push back into the feet and sweep them up towards your backside), bending your legs to absorb the bike as it comes up towards you. When practising it pays to have your saddle down to avoid a badly timed whack on the backside.

The forward thrust on the bars will push the bike out in front of you as it lifts. How far it travels, and the angle it ends up at depends on lots of factors, like how hard you pumped for your manual, how hard you kicked through with your feet, how hard you threw forwards, how quickly you scooped the back end up with your feet, and where you kept your weight.

5. Learn to control which wheel lands first

Experiment with all of these things and see if you can control which wheel lands first when riding on the flat. You can then take this skill to a drop and try pre-jumping it so you land both wheels together on the down slope.

This is a technique known as pre-jumping, and it gives you much greater speed and control – you spend less time in the air and get a much greater pump down on landing, resulting in much more forwards speed coming out of the jump.

So you  want to learn how to wheelie a bike? You’ve come to the right place.

There’s a sound practical reason why you’d want to learn how to wheelie: it helps you manoeuvre the bike up and over obstacles. But perhaps more importantly in many people’s eyes, it’s old-school cool.

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In this video, Anna Glowinski talks you through the basics, from getting into the right starting position and correct gear, then leaning back to find the right balance point, and keeping the bike rolling smoothly with judicious dabs of pedals and rear brake.

From there it’s practise, practise and more practise – before you know it you’ll be riding everywhere on one wheel. Maybe.

How to wheelie a mountain bike

Step 1: Get into a low gear

It’s also helpful to find a bit of an upslope, because that will help with popping up the front wheel. Flat grass is ideal, and flat pedals will let you bail out if needed.

Select the little ring at the front, and a gear three or four down from easiest at the back. Pedal along at walking pace while gently dragging both brakes.

Step 2: Place your strongest foot near the top of the pedal turn

You might be thinking that this is the point where you “heave” up the front wheel with your arms. Actually you don’t – the motion comes from your legs driving the cranks round.

As your lead foot comes over the top of a pedal stroke (see picture below), suddenly surge down on this pedal and release the brakes.

Step 3: Push down as hard as you can on the pedal

You’re aiming for the same feeling you get when you pedal hard on an uphill climb and the front wheel lightens due to how hard you’re driving the pedals. By the time your foot gets to the bottom of the stroke, your wheel should be in the air.

If you can’t get the wheel in the air you could be in too hard a gear, making it too difficult to suddenly increase your cadence and drive the wheel up. Or maybe you’re accelerating gradually rather than with one quick, snappy surge.

Step 4: Use your weight to lean back

Straighten your arms out (but don’t lock them) and keep your weight over the back wheel. If you’re twisting the bars to the side then you might be relying too much on a pull up, rather than a pedal stroke lift.

The thrust through the pedal stroke is coming through the centre of the bike so it’s inherently more stable than a tug on the bars. Try sitting higher and more upright so your weight is further back, and let the bars come up lightly with your hands rather than pulling them.

Step 5: Find the balancing point, and keep looking forward

Now it’s just a matter of time and practice in order to find the balance between pedalling hard enough to keep the wheel up (and your momentum going), and going too far backwards…

Remember – don’t look down at your front wheel! If the bike starts to fall to the side you can throw out the opposite knee to counterbalance and keep you upright. This is the way to steer when you wheelie.

Step 6: Cover the back brake (just in case)

Yup it can hurt to go over backwards all the way. Prevent that from happening by keeping your back brake covered: it only takes a slight dab to put you back in the right position.

So you want to learn to jump on your mountain bike? You’ve come to the right place

Jumping isn’t just for adrenaline junkies, it’s a fundamental skill that every mountain biker can and should learn. And it’s not that difficult once you’ve got the hang of the techniques involved.

• How to drop into downslopes
• How to ride rocky sections

In this video, MTB skills coach Sam from Pedal Progression shows you how it should be done.

How to jump a mountain bike

Jumping is all about exerting pressure and your ability to control the timing of this pressure through each wheel.

First, you need to make sure your pumping is up to scratch.

Being able to generate speed without pedalling, by snapping your arms, legs and feet from bent to straight, is crucial to understanding how a bike gets airborne.

1. The take-off

Find a jump that you’re comfortable with and then roll in at a comfortable speed out of the saddle.

Keep your weight central, over both wheels, and lower your chest.

Start to compress and feel the force of the lip against your tyres.

Treat each wheel as separate — deal with the front and then the back — not both together.

Slowly start to transfer your weight from your hands to your feet — the idea is that by the time the front wheel reaches the lip there’s no weight pushing through it.

Pressing down and then releasing your weight through each wheel when jumping is the same as when you bunnyhop.

In this case, the lip of a jump will provide all the lift your wheel will need to follow the trajectory of the jump.

This means that jumping is a less explosive movement than a bunnyhop — the idea is to keep your head and core following a smooth arc by using your elbows, knees and ankles to do the pushing.

2. Weight transfer timings

The point at which you transfer your weight from your hands to your feet is very important.

Imagine a line just past halfway up the lip of the jump — this is the point at which you need to change from pushing with your arms to pushing fully from your feet.

If you’re still pushing into the lip through your arms when you get to this line, you’ll end up getting bucked forwards and over the bars.

As the jumps get bigger, or your bike’s suspension increases, this line moves further back.

3. The landing

Once you’re in the air you can relax, the hardest part is done.

Spot your landing and use your arms and legs to absorb the impact.

Try to land both wheels at the same time.

Touching down the rear wheel first can cause the front to wash out and steep front wheel landings can end up with you going over the bars.

Then all you need to worry about on landing is staying off the brakes.

Jumping tips

• Start by learning on a tabletop jump, rather than a double, because you’ll have a flat, safe area to land on if you mess up. Don’t go too big too soon.

• If you’re struggling to jump using SPD pedals, try fitting some flats.

• Play around with your timings too and find what works best for you.