I Want to Ride My Bicycle

A riding trail in spring

Pump your tires and grease your chains, folks, biking season is upon us! 

The change in seasons can be an invigorating time that inspires us to spring into outdoor activity and take on nature at full throttle. My favorite way to enjoy spring is by breaking out my mountain bike. 

It can be tempting to pick up your riding where you left off when the snow started flying back in November, but believe me, a lot has changed over the last four months with your bike, your body and the trails. Here are a few tips on how to get you and your bike ready to open the riding season with as little suffering as possible. 

If you’re anything like me, your bike has probably been sitting in the corner collecting dust and laundry since last fall. Although it is tempting to drag it out and take a spin around the block as is, it’s not a great idea if you plan on getting the most out of your bike this season. 

At the very least, you’ll need to grease your chain and pump your tires. If you have some degreaser handy, use it to clean the chain with an old towel before you apply new lubricant. 

Chances are your tires have lost a lot of air in their hibernation, so you’ll have to refill them, but be sure to check the recommended pressure on the sidewall. Most mountain bike tires have a recommended pressure of 55-65 PSI, or pounds-per-square-inch, which usually can’t be achieved with an average foot or hand pump. Grab some quarters and take it to your local gas station and use their pump. Stewart’s Shops usually have free air, but if you don’t live near one, make sure you bring some extra quarters to the gas station, just in case your time runs out mid-fill. 

Warning: Don’t ride your bike to the gas station, walk it or drive instead. Riding with low tires is an easy way to get a pinch-flat, or roll the whole front end on a turn, which can lead to injury and bent rims. Bent rims are worse.

Of course, you can avoid all of that and just take your bike to the shop for an annual tune-up. For around $50 in the beginning of the season, you can save the time, stress and expense of dealing with crooked wheels, slacked chains and loose shifting cables that will end your season by June. I also highly recommend getting your bike to the shop as soon as possible. If you wait until there’s a problem, not only will it cost more to fix, but come summer, the average bike shop has a two or three week backlog of repairs. That’s a lot of riding to miss out on.

After your bike is ready to go, the next problem to overcome is saddle-sore. Over the last four months, the nerves in your seat have regenerated and it’s time to kill them again. I’ve found that there are two ways to deal with getting your riding seat back. You can buy a pair of riding shorts with a padded seat to keep the bruising to a minimum, or you can just ride everyday for two weeks until you can’t feel it anymore. Either way, it’s the biggest obstacle to overcome, so make it your prime objective of the pre-season. Don’t worry about getting your hard learned skills back from last season; by the time your saddle-sore is gone, a lot of your skills will be back. It’s just like riding a bike.

Not only have you and your bike change over the winter, no doubt your favorite trails have too. The path you knew like the back of your hand last fall could be much different in the spring, thanks to downed limbs, fallen rocks and overgrown brush. Before you go gung-ho on your usual loop, take a slow ride on it and reacquaint yourself with the terrain. A good way to shorten your riding season is to fly down your favorite hill into a blind curve that may have a fallen tree at the bottom. This slow pre-season ride is also a good time to take a long a few grooming tools as well. Some hedge-clippers, a pack-saw and a few strong friends should be able to clear anything from the trail.

Not only have the trails changed, the rules may have too. The Adirondack Park has an extensive trail system, with an extensive set of regulations for hikers and bikers. Of the Adirondack Park Agency’s 15 classifications for land use, only seven apply to public lands, and only four of those apply to recreational users. The APA classifies these lands as wilderness, canoe, primitive and wild forest. Mountain bikers are only allowed to ride on trails in the wild forest areas and although this seems unfair, the wild forest area makes up over a million acres of the Park and has countless miles of trails to ride. So be sure you check to make sure your favorite trails are still “legal” to ride on.

 The last thing we should brush up on is some basic trail etiquette. According to the book, Mountain Biking in the Adirondacks, by Gary Thomann, mountain bikers in the Adirondacks have no right-of-way, and you should yield to pretty much everyone. It’s easy to scare the daylights out of hikers when flying down a mountain trail. Keep your eyes and ears alert for hikers, dogs, horses and anyone else who may be on the trails and try to stay to the right when you come to them. Although four-wheelers and dirt-bikes aren’t allowed on most trails in the park, that doesn’t mean you won’t come across one, so stay alert.

 Spring riding can be a muddy affair, but as any Adirondack hiker knows, some trails have mud holes year round. When it comes to these, ride through the middle. It’s better to make a mud hole deeper than wider, and if you’re using a proper biking technique you should be dirty anyway.

As with any other activity, there is countless advice to give, but hopefully this will get you started on the right track. There is nothing worse than ending your riding season before it begins with a broken bike or body part. Enjoy the season and your bike, and I hope to see you on the trails.

Oh, and wear a helmet.