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The Complete Guide To Finding And Fitting The Right Bike For You
Buying the right size bike is step one. Fitting it to your actual body is step two, and it's where most cyclists quietly suffer for years.
Training
Everything You Need To Know Before Your Next Solo Ride
June 6, 2026
Solo cycling is a skill, not just an activity. The riders who never call home for a rescue all do the same five things before they clip in.
Most of cycling actually happens alone.
The group ride is the highlight reel. The solo ride is the work.
And solo riding is where the small stuff quietly decides whether you have a great morning or a long walk back.
The good news is that almost every bad solo ride is preventable. The fix takes about ten minutes before you roll out.
Here is what actually matters.
The Two-Minute Bike Check That Saves Your Ride
Run the ABC before every solo ride: air, brakes, chain.
Pinch the tires, squeeze both levers, spin the cranks and watch the chain.
If anything feels wrong, fix it in your garage, not five miles out.
What Most Riders Skip
Tap each spoke with a spoke wrench or even a key.
A loose spoke sings flat. A tensioned one rings clear, like a tiny bell.
Then wiggle the saddle and check your cleat bolts.
A saddle that creeps even 2 millimeters over a long ride is the kind of detail that turns a 40-mile loop into an aching back and a numb foot.
What To Carry, And What To Leave Behind
You need less than you think, but you need it every time.
The non-negotiable kit: spare tube, tire lever, multitool, CO2 inflator or mini-pump, ID, a credit card, and a fully charged phone.
That fits in a saddle bag the size of a banana.
Skip the rain jacket if it has not rained in your area for a week, and skip the second tube if you are riding under 30 miles in town.
But never skip the ID.
For the full breakdown of what fits and what gets left behind, see TheCyclingWeek's guide on what every rider should bring on a bike ride to avoid a phone call home.
The Phone Trick Every Solo Rider Should Use
Tell one person your start time and rough route.
That is it. One text.
If you ride with Strava, turn on Beacon. Garmin users can set up LiveTrack in the same five minutes.
iPhone users can share location with a contact for Until End of Day, no apps required.
Now add an emergency contact to your phone's lock screen so first responders can reach someone without your passcode.
This costs zero dollars and roughly 45 seconds to set up once.
Where Solo Cycling Quietly Falls Short
There is no draft. There is no morale boost.
When the wind turns at mile 28, no one is going to pull through for you.
Bonking also hits harder solo because there is no one to spot it.
You ride past hunger, you push through fog, then suddenly your power drops by 30% and the math on the way home gets ugly.
Distraction is the other quiet killer of solo rides.
A peer-reviewed study in PeerJ of 1,064 cyclists across 20 countries found that distraction while riding (phones, headphones, conversations) was strongly linked to both risky errors and crashes, with distracted cyclists reporting significantly more incidents than focused ones. Read the study here.
The takeaway is simple: solo rides reward focus. They punish multitasking.
How To Actually Stay Safe On The Road
Run lights even in daylight.
A rear blinker is the single cheapest piece of safety gear you own, and most crashes happen because a driver simply did not see the rider.
Ride a predictable line: no sudden swerves around a pothole, no weaving for water bottles.
Keep one ear free if you must wear headphones, and put the phone in your jersey pocket, not your hand.
The rules of the road are not optional just because no one is watching you.
For the playbook on this, TheCyclingWeek has a clean rundown of the 9 essential cycling rules every rider should follow for safer roads.
Fuel Like You're Riding 30% Longer Than You Plan
A 60-mile ride almost always turns into a 70-mile ride.
The wrong turn, the headwind, the extra coffee stop: you will eat into your fuel buffer.
Plan for 60 to 90 grams of carbs per hour for any ride over 90 minutes.
Carry one more gel or bar than the math says you need, and never start it.
That backup is the one that gets you home when everything else has gone sideways.
Water with sodium matters past the two-hour mark. Plain water alone leaves you flat and crampy by mile 40.
The Mental Side No One Talks About
Some mornings your legs are willing and your brain is not.
Sit with that voice for one minute before you cancel the ride.
Sometimes it is real fatigue talking, and the smart move is the couch.
Often, though, it is just friction. Helmet on, shoes on, 15 minutes in: if you still hate the ride, turn around. You almost never do.
That is the quiet superpower of solo riding.
You get to negotiate with yourself in real time, and most of the time, you win.
Final Thoughts
Solo cycling is not lonely. It is honest.
The bike does not lie, the road does not lie, and your legs do not lie.
Get the prep right and the ride takes care of itself.
Two-minute bike check. Pocketable kit. One text to one person. Lights on, focus on, snack stashed.
That is the difference between a great ride and a phone call home.
The rest is just pedaling.
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