Cycling UK Forum

If you use the in-step without very firm soles on the shoes, it will lead to tendon irritation and a condition called plantar fasciitis.

How do I know? Because one afternoon of light riding in soft-soled shoes on a hire bike that didn’t fit me properly was enough. It took weeks to heal.

The instep isn’t “designed” to take load, so needs to be treated with care.

Locally, we have 2 rides that are for real beginner cyclists. One of my cycling club’s runs a Breeze ride, on a flat loop on the local roads around our village, on Thursday evenings in the summer. This is probably 8-9 miles and sometimes involves a stop at a pub half way round. This ride is aimed exclusively at women, but it’s one of the reasons why our club has over 40% female membership. This ride is the one that hooks them in. The riders will often turn up on a hybrid, but many will buy a road bike soon after and will graduate to the other rides - Tuesday night summer ride 20-25 miles, Friday Ladies ride - 20-30 miles, or Sunday Steady Ride 20-25 miles. All these rides have different speed groups, with the lowest speed equivalent to that of the Breeze ride.

The other ride is run by the local U3A group on a Tuesday morning. This involves a 5 mile ride out to a local cafe and a 5 mile ride back again. They struggle to find cafes within a suitable riding distance, as many participants can only manage 5 mikes each way.

Nearholmer wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 8:30pm If you use the in-step without very firm soles on the shoes, it will lead to tendon irritation and a condition called plantar fasciitis.

How do I know? Because one afternoon of light riding in soft-soled shoes on a hire bike that didn’t fit me properly was enough. It took weeks to heal.

The instep isn’t “designed” to take load, so needs to be treated with care.

If I was using a soft soled shoe I'd want a pedal with a large platform.

Based on my experience, for most unfit beginners a four mile ride, with negligible hills, is a long ride.

The absolute most I would take a sedentary person on if I wanted them to ever ride again is probably four miles each way, no hills over 3%, less than 100' total elevation gain, with a long stop at a café/restaurant/pub/park.

Nearholmer wrote: ↑12 May 2023, 8:30pm If you use the in-step without very firm soles on the shoes, it will lead to tendon irritation and a condition called plantar fasciitis.

How do I know? Because one afternoon of light riding in soft-soled shoes on a hire bike that didn’t fit me properly was enough. It took weeks to heal.

The instep isn’t “designed” to take load, so needs to be treated with care.

THANK YOU

Andy Stow wrote: ↑16 May 2023, 8:30pm Based on my experience, for most unfit beginners a four mile ride, with negligible hills, is a long ride.

The absolute most I would take a sedentary person on if I wanted them to ever ride again is probably four miles each way, no hills over 3%, less than 100' total elevation gain, with a long stop at a café/restaurant/pub/park.

That sounds sensible.

I'd also discuss the trip in terms of *time rather than distance.

Jonathan

* Remember the discussion about signposts? : - )

Years ago I did an FFCT course on designing and conducting "cycling for the masses" events. One thing we were told that stuck in my mind was that while 20% of people in France owned a bike, 90% of them thought that 20 km was a very long ride.

When our club got round to organizing one such event a bloke turned up in backless carpet slippers.

Jdsk wrote: ↑17 May 2023, 1:53pm

Andy Stow wrote: ↑16 May 2023, 8:30pm Based on my experience, for most unfit beginners a four mile ride, with negligible hills, is a long ride.

The absolute most I would take a sedentary person on if I wanted them to ever ride again is probably four miles each way, no hills over 3%, less than 100' total elevation gain, with a long stop at a café/restaurant/pub/park.

That sounds sensible.

I'd also discuss the trip in terms of *time rather than distance.

Jonathan

* Remember the discussion about signposts? : - )

I organize a monthly breakfast ride locally, geared towards casual cyclists, and agree on that. We get a lot better response to a "half hour ride" than to "five miles each way."

Ten miles an hour is probably our average pace. We've had children around ten years old in the group before, and that was more like 8 MPH.