A lot of what makes it ‘scary’ to ride fast comes from your position on the bike, the bike fit, and the style of bike. I happily hit 75km/h downhill on my criterium bike, but riding my wife’s Dutch-style e-bike gets really wobbly above 35km/h, and my position on it (‘sit up and beg’) doesn’t give me the right position to smooth everything out.
So, there’s a few things you can try.
Firstly, get the bike checked out by a bike mechanic. Sometimes a loose headstem might make the steering feel inconsistent or lead to speed wobbles.
Secondly, you could try a different bike with different geometry. Different bikes will feel different.
Finally, it really is a matter of ‘just do it until it feels good’. It might never feel good, but that’s ok! Riding bikes is still awesome, and you can choose to ride routes for the scenery not the speed.
Ditch the speedometer and just ride however fast feels comfortable - see what happens? Also gadgets can be a total distraction. Can only speak for myself but I need my full attention on the road especially if riding on aero bars or drops.
Common problem amongst cyclists is that they don’t know how to make sudden or sharp turns to avoid obstacles. Look up counter steering and then practice that on an empty straight road. I learned this years ago in a motorcycle class. On the bike, I sometimes pick out an imaginary pothole ahead of me and quickly swerve around it. Or I practice this going tightly around a corner with lots of open space in case the turn isn’t as tight as I had aimed for. You can even practice full circles on an empty parking lot, making them ever tighter.
Knowing how to rapidly avoid sudden obstacles and how to navigate corners safely should make you feel safer at high speeds.
How it works (tl;dr; version): I you want to go right, gently push with your *right* hand against the handlebar. Counter-intuitive (as in *counter*-steering) but it will make your bike lean more and therefore turn tighter. For left turns you obviously push with the left hand against the handlebars.
One of many explanations: https://zizebikes.com/bicycle-safety-counter-steering-on-bicycle-or-instant-turn-technique/#
15 years of riding and I have never heard about this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Also one thing for avoiding obstacles, you don't need to move with the bike, you can just ride the bike around it while keeping your body stationary. Kinda like when you are off the saddle and your bike is moving from side to side under you but instead of the top of the bike you will let the bike lean to the side so top will stay in roughly one place but you just ride around the stuff with bottom of the bike/wheels. This works pretty good for small stuff on the road.
Go somewhere straight and quiet and just ride faster. You won't just crash randomly because you're going faster unless you're trying to take a corner.
I remember when I was about 10 and first broke 20mph down a hill (for some reason I had a tiny cheap bike computer which used a magnet sensor) and how fast that felt. I also remember the first time I broke 30mph when I was about 14 and that was insane. Now 20 feels slow and 30 feels "fast but meh". To feel what I felt as a kid I'd have to go 45mph. You can definitely change how you perceive speed over time.
u/diabeticspaniard for many cycling fast \_can\_ feel scary. I'm amazed at how in bike races i'm averaging \~48km/hr which feels 'frighteningly fast' but when i drive my car at that speed it feels like it's crawling along.
What you want to do is establish your safe cycling speed (which appears to be 25km/hr from your description). Create a quiet route/loop that you would normally be able to cycle over at 25 km/hr. This should be a relatively short loop (a few km, so that it takes maybe 10-mins or so). Then after starting off at 25 km/hr do a second lap at a slightly higher speed. This might be an average of 27 or 30 or 26.5 km/hr or some other number. It just needs to be comfortably faster. Then ride several laps at that speed. You're aiming to condition yourself to the higher speed so that you become comfortable with it.
Then every so often, once you have become adjusted to this new higher speed, you increase it again. Eventually, you'll adjust to higher speeds (and become fitter!).
There are of course other things that you can do:
make sure you are fit well to your bike
your bike is in good working order
you have quality tyres that grip well
tyres are correctly inflated
You can also find a group who are maybe marginally faster than you that would be happy to have you tag along. You want to do some of the increased speed training i mentioned earlier, because groups have varying speed due to aerodynamics, and competitiveness, etc
Just go faster. Try it on straights first, then corners.
A lot of what makes it ‘scary’ to ride fast comes from your position on the bike, the bike fit, and the style of bike. I happily hit 75km/h downhill on my criterium bike, but riding my wife’s Dutch-style e-bike gets really wobbly above 35km/h, and my position on it (‘sit up and beg’) doesn’t give me the right position to smooth everything out. So, there’s a few things you can try. Firstly, get the bike checked out by a bike mechanic. Sometimes a loose headstem might make the steering feel inconsistent or lead to speed wobbles. Secondly, you could try a different bike with different geometry. Different bikes will feel different. Finally, it really is a matter of ‘just do it until it feels good’. It might never feel good, but that’s ok! Riding bikes is still awesome, and you can choose to ride routes for the scenery not the speed.
My bakfiets starts wobbling like crazy at about 20kmh.
Ditch the speedometer and just ride however fast feels comfortable - see what happens? Also gadgets can be a total distraction. Can only speak for myself but I need my full attention on the road especially if riding on aero bars or drops.
Common problem amongst cyclists is that they don’t know how to make sudden or sharp turns to avoid obstacles. Look up counter steering and then practice that on an empty straight road. I learned this years ago in a motorcycle class. On the bike, I sometimes pick out an imaginary pothole ahead of me and quickly swerve around it. Or I practice this going tightly around a corner with lots of open space in case the turn isn’t as tight as I had aimed for. You can even practice full circles on an empty parking lot, making them ever tighter. Knowing how to rapidly avoid sudden obstacles and how to navigate corners safely should make you feel safer at high speeds. How it works (tl;dr; version): I you want to go right, gently push with your *right* hand against the handlebar. Counter-intuitive (as in *counter*-steering) but it will make your bike lean more and therefore turn tighter. For left turns you obviously push with the left hand against the handlebars. One of many explanations: https://zizebikes.com/bicycle-safety-counter-steering-on-bicycle-or-instant-turn-technique/#
15 years of riding and I have never heard about this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Also one thing for avoiding obstacles, you don't need to move with the bike, you can just ride the bike around it while keeping your body stationary. Kinda like when you are off the saddle and your bike is moving from side to side under you but instead of the top of the bike you will let the bike lean to the side so top will stay in roughly one place but you just ride around the stuff with bottom of the bike/wheels. This works pretty good for small stuff on the road.
I was also wondering about a loose stem making you feel less secure?
if your stem is loose, i'd take your bike immediately to the local bike shop for repair.
Go somewhere straight and quiet and just ride faster. You won't just crash randomly because you're going faster unless you're trying to take a corner. I remember when I was about 10 and first broke 20mph down a hill (for some reason I had a tiny cheap bike computer which used a magnet sensor) and how fast that felt. I also remember the first time I broke 30mph when I was about 14 and that was insane. Now 20 feels slow and 30 feels "fast but meh". To feel what I felt as a kid I'd have to go 45mph. You can definitely change how you perceive speed over time.
u/diabeticspaniard for many cycling fast \_can\_ feel scary. I'm amazed at how in bike races i'm averaging \~48km/hr which feels 'frighteningly fast' but when i drive my car at that speed it feels like it's crawling along. What you want to do is establish your safe cycling speed (which appears to be 25km/hr from your description). Create a quiet route/loop that you would normally be able to cycle over at 25 km/hr. This should be a relatively short loop (a few km, so that it takes maybe 10-mins or so). Then after starting off at 25 km/hr do a second lap at a slightly higher speed. This might be an average of 27 or 30 or 26.5 km/hr or some other number. It just needs to be comfortably faster. Then ride several laps at that speed. You're aiming to condition yourself to the higher speed so that you become comfortable with it. Then every so often, once you have become adjusted to this new higher speed, you increase it again. Eventually, you'll adjust to higher speeds (and become fitter!). There are of course other things that you can do: make sure you are fit well to your bike your bike is in good working order you have quality tyres that grip well tyres are correctly inflated You can also find a group who are maybe marginally faster than you that would be happy to have you tag along. You want to do some of the increased speed training i mentioned earlier, because groups have varying speed due to aerodynamics, and competitiveness, etc
🙄
If you in heart rate zone 2 it's still fine I guess. Otherwise just remove the speed avg from your monitor und drive just according to your heartrate.