I grew up in mining communities in Zimbabwe. These places were remote and self sustaining in most aspects including entertainment. From a young age, my bicycle became the biggest source of entertainment and adventure as there were always many places to explore or friends to visit in the neighbourhood.
I have, therefore, enjoyed cycling socially all my life. As an adult I only got back into cycling socially at the age of 34. Almost 15 years after I had last been on a bike. Durban offers many options for casual cyclists and I have completed three Tsogo Sun Amashova races in the process. The last two being the 106km distance. Cycling is a wonderful way to clear one’s mind and I have captured below some of the things I have learnt while on my bike. Some relates to cycling and some relates to life in general.
1. Learn how to help yourself
Growing up in Zimbabwe there was always someone who could help me when my bike was out of service. Typically it was the local gardener or one of the petrol attendants at the garage who would patch up a punctured tyre for me or realign my gears after a crash. This meant that I never got to learn these skills myself.
I quickly realised as an adult that it is important to know how to keep your bike on the road on your own. Or you get stuck somewhere far from home by the side of the road! I practiced changing punctures, swapping rims and repairing broken chains at home many times until I could comfortably do it on my own. I would only take my bike into the bike shop if I failed to fix it on my own. I am better off for it.
How many other basic life skills do we outsource that we could attempt to learn and, therefore, help ourselves?
2. Get back on your bike
I enjoy mountain biking and find the trails at Holla Trails to be extremely interesting. However, every person I have ever cycled with on these trails has fallen off their bike at some point. Thankfully, the injuries have always been minor and the damage to the equipment negligible.
The most important things after checking for injuries or damage is to get back on the bike and complete the course. Delaying this makes you overthink why you fell and affects your confidence for the rest of the course. Typically, the next time you are out you would have forgotten that you fell anyway.
More parallels to life. Get back on the bike. Keep going!
2a. It hurts more if people are watching
Related to point 2 above I find that when I fall of my bike one of my first instincts is to see who is watching. If nobody saw me fall, then the fall wasn’t that bad. Avoid falling at the start or finish where there are many people.
There is a certain level of shame that comes from failure and this can hold people back from taking risks and trying something new. To minimise this risk maybe we should be more selective about who we share our plans and aspirations with. Who we keep in the inner circle. Not everyone in the world needs to know when things don’t go well.
3. Carry a spare tube
I experienced my first puncture on the road recently. I had 7km to go of a 27km ride. I had forgotten my spare tubes and repair kit at home. I walked. A 20 minute segment became a 75 minute walk that could have been avoided.
It was such an elementary mistake but the consequences were serious. There are always contingencies we take in the event of disaster and we don’t take these seriously. Mainly because most of the time the disaster doesn’t happen. However, when it does happen you will be grateful that you were prepared and took the contingency. Are there any contingencies you should be taking to mitigate some risks?
4. Cost per use
People refer to cycling as being a very expensive hobby. The reality is that it can be as expensive as you want it to be. A entry level bike from a supermarket like Game or Makro will set you back R1500 ($100) while a top of the range Santa Cruz carbon fibre bike from Cyclelab will set you back R110,000 ($7900). There are even cheaper options because in Durban you can hire a bike for less than R200 ($14.50) for the day. Other equipment such as helmets and cycling shoes can be purchased dependent on budget and helmets can almost always be hired too.
The learning here is that one must pitch their financial investment to the sport based on their overall commitment to it. Even if one can afford the R110,000 bike, if it is only used twice in the first year it means that effectively each ride that year cost you R55,000. For that sum of money you could have taken 5 people on an all expenses paid island holiday…twice. So, like most purchases in life, if you aren’t going to use it, don’t spend it.
5. Mix and match
In relation to cycling equipment, it has been wonderful to learn that almost every element of a bicycle can be replaced. One benefit of this is cost savings where one replaces damaged components rather than the entire bicycle.
The more relevant benefit in my view, however, is customisation. You can have an entry level bicycle with a Tour de France standard handlebar grip or saddle as examples. This means you can upgrade, downgrade and customise your cycling experience as you go. The key learning for me is what a great job the industry has done to make it easy for people to stay in the sport and personalise their experience.
To conclude I encourage everyone who enjoys cycling or did enjoy cycling at some stage of their lives to consider joining and getting back on a bike. Besides the obvious health benefits from the physical activity it also provides opportunity to see the world through a different lense. You may hate it, or like me you just might like it and look forward every week to your next ride.
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