Newbie - Riding a bike

[namechanger563]

Not proper cycling, just riding a bike! It's been 30 years or more since I rode a bike and I did it for the first time yesterday.

I was quite wobbly but surprised with how quickly I picked it up again.

I'm helping DS learn his route to high school for September, so I'm not looking to become a 'proper cyclist'.

I need tips. My bum is so sore today, and I wanted to give it another go. Should I wait?

We made it about 1/3 of the way yesterday and I wanted to build up to maybe half, but I don't want to make my bum worse. TIA

I really really recommend measuring yourself to check your saddle fits. I struggled for years with 'womens' saddles and always found cycling very sore. Eventually I measured my sit bones (pointy bits at bottom of pelvis). You can do this by sitting on your bottom stair on a piece of tinfoil. It needs to be on a carpet or mat so that your two pointy sit bones make dimples in the tinfoil. Then measure the distance between the two dimples. You can then measure your saddle and check that it is wide enough for your sit bones to be actually sitting on it with a small margin.

I spent a decade cycling with my sit bones off the edges of the saddle and basically all the weight was on my vulva l, ouch! My sit bones are right at the widest measurement of the womens range, so a saddle especially for wide sit bones was game changing.

You do still have to do a bit of breaking in if you haven't cycled for a bit though! For me it takes about four rides over a couple of weeks before it becomes comfy again. But it's achy rather than agony 😆

It's likely that you are actually fine and your sit bones fit on your existing saddle, but definitely worth sacrificing a bit of tinfoil to check.

And as others have said its important to remember that anything with a chamois needs to be worn next to the skin without underwear. It feels weird at first but you get used to it.

Do you have a canal towpath or park you can ride in, even if you have to push the bikes to get there? It sounds like your DS needs to practice one thing at a time. He needs to be confident that he's not going to fall before you deal with traffic, because he will need the majority of his attention to be on the traffic. Would sending him out to walk the route and get the bus back on his own be an option? Then at least he knows the route and has some confidence doing it without you

Padded shorts are good, but they're more to protect the 'undercarriage' than your sit bones! I'm a fair weather cyclist, so my bike stays in the garage all winter, and then in the summer I use it a lot more. The first couple of rides, my sit bones feel battered beyond belief, and then they get used to it and I get to a point where I can ride for hours without pain.

PLEASE don't wear headphones. You need to be fully aware of what's going on around you.

And be very careful about cycling on pavements. Pavements are not for cyclists (unless they are shared use paths). Use parks etc initially to build capability and competence, and then potentially some pavements if you must, but cyclists should be on the road.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I shall check out those shorts and defo no headphones. Also walking the route is a good idea.