Zuzkana

As some of you may have surmised, I am Dutch. We never had need for a car so I have cycled a lot in my life. Recently, however, I moved abroad to a university city with a big international student population. It is supposed to be bike friendly, I find it more bike tolerant, but that is another discussion. The reason I made this post is because I noticed very few people know how to properly ride a bike. So here are some pro tips.

Put the ball of your foot on the pedal. That is the part of your foot that your toes are attached to. It gives you the most economy of motion as it allows your calves to get involved with the pedaling motion as well. Try it, feel the difference.

Power comes from your butt. Proper cycling is like a proper squatting form. If most of your power comes from your knees you are doing it wrong.

Economy of motion also means keeping your upper body still. Do not move it side to side (if you cannot reach the pedals when they are at their lowest point your saddle is too high. Good news: this can be lowered), do not move front to back, and definitely do not stand. All you are doing is wasting energy. If you are going up against a lot of wind or up a steep hill it sometimes helps to lean forward, but moving your upper body does nothing to make you bike better or easier.

When taking a sharp turn, it can help to move the pedal on the inside of the turn to the top. This helps prevent contact between it and the ground when you make a sharp turn. This is due to the next point:

Steer with your hips first. When cycling, shifting your weight in the direction you are going in makes it easier to control your turn and make it smoother, but it is good to practice it. This does mean that your bike will be at an angle when turning, hence turning your pedal up.

Finally, cycling is like any other exercise. You need to build stamina in it, and other kinds of stamina (like walking) don't necessarily translate. Oh, and plastic coats are wind-resistant. They make cycling harder when there's even a little bit of wind, as they let the wind blow you back. Like a sail. If you're struggling a lot and don't know why, this might be the reason.

Additional tips for autists:

I like to listen to music while cycling. The wind tends to interfere with this, so I wear cloth over my ears. I crocheted a bandana last year that had closed fabric over the ears part for warm weather, and the rest of the year I wear a Buff (brand name), which is a tube-shaped piece of fabric that can be folded to fit over the ears like a sort of headband.

I also wear sunglasses a lot. It helps with sun, wind, and bugs. There are also special neutral glasses (not uv-filtering or with any kind of strength like the ones for people with bad eyes) that merely protect your eyes.

So, the question got asked under the heat advice post a couple of times, making me realize this is not common knowledge, apparently. Because a bunch of people have asked "why do we need tree shade, sun gets through the leaves still!" And given I am Solarpunk posting either way, let me quickly go over this - because hey, this is actually a topic I have taken part on some research on. So yeah, I do know some about this.

So: when it is hot and sunny, obviously you want to see shadow. But generally you will often find that the shadow of trees feels nicer than the shadow of buildings. And this is because of the "urban heat island" effect, and because of the evaporation of trees.

To make it somewhat simple: when it is hot and sunny, it tends to be a good bit hotter in big cities than outside of the cities. This is because a lot of modern architecture is kinda concentrating the heat.

You might have noticed that concrete is fucking hot when it the summer sun is out. It basically absorbs heat energy and kinda holds onto it rather well. Concrete is used a lot in modern architecture not just in the streets. And obviously the very glass heavy fronts of modern buildings at times also focus the sunlight, and generally do just not help to allow the heat in the cities to evaporate. Which creates the effect of "Urban Heat Islands". Cities just heat up, and with the dense city centers often also not allowing for wind to properly move through them heat at times can collect there for days with little ways to get out.

Now, old stone buildings are already better. They heat up slower than concrete - though they, too, will heat up eventually and then at times hold onto the heat for a while.

Wood buildings do the entire heating up less, which makes them often nicer in summer, but obviously a bit of headache to keep warm in winter.

Now, here comes the part with the green cities.

And I have realized... some people really think that Solarpunk has all those green buildings, green streets and what not for aesthetic reasons, or maybe because of the insects.

Uhm... yeah, that is wrong. Solarpunk has those green cities, because green cities are better thermoregulated, and urban planners are already pushing for cities to become more green.

See: plants are full of water. And water evaporates in the heat. And whenever water evaporates, it takes some of that heat out of the environment to do that. So: if you are around plants in the heat, it is nicer and cooler. You will notice that if you seek shade underneath a tree, that shade often is indeed cooler than the shade of a building. This is why.

Additionally, if you have a lot of green in a city, you often also have some open ground - rather than ground that has been sealed. And natural ground also is better at regulating heat than concrete or even cobblestone. Because, again: there is some water in there. And that can evaporate.

Generally: if it is hot and sunny and you walk on concrete, or similar ground you are gonna burn your feet. If sun has been out for a long summer day, same will likely happen on cobblestone. If you meanwhile just walk on earth, you likely will be fine. On grass you definitely will NOT burn your feet.

So, yeah: green cities are amazing. Not just for the vibes, but also because they help the city cool down. And generally: even in a grassy field without shadow you will be cooler than in a concrete parking lot without shadow.

Plants help you cool down. Support plants.

Cyclist batallion in Longwy, Lorraine region of France