Types of Cycling
 
There are many reasons to go cycling: different journey purposes and different personal motivations for making that journey by bike. If you’re new to cycling, this page will help you decide what kind of cycling you most want to do. Or if you already know what you like, read on and perhaps be inspired to broaden your cycling interests.

There are as many different styles of bike as there are types of cycling and you’ll find links to other pages on this site that describe how each bike is designed for its purpose. You’ll also find links to further information about the various cycling activities briefly mentioned here.

Transport
This is by far the most important kind of cycling: economically important because it takes people to work, the shops and to school, environmentally important because it replaces polluting means of transport, and important for health because it offers an ideal form of exercise that almost everyone can make part of their routine. Moderate exercise taken every day is far more beneficial than one big workout per week, so if you don’t already cycle for all your local errands, think about it now. Transport cycling is mostly a matter of getting from A to B with minimum fuss. You shouldn’t have to wear special clothes and though you don’t really need a special bike, it helps if it’s designed for low maintenance and to keep your clothes clean. Instances when transport cycling becomes more technical include:

Long-distance commuting
Most people live less than 5 miles from their work and that’s no problem, but if you have further to go a more sporty touring, audax or even a racing bike and special cycling clothes may save more time than it takes to shower and change. Or maybe you can mix modes: use a train or bus for most of the distance and either keep a bike parked both ends or take a folding bike with you. Some people drive halfway to work and literally park and ride.

Shopping
This needs big panniers, a bike designed to carry them (i.e. city, trekking, or touring bike) and a change of habits. Shop more often and enjoy fresher food! A bike is easy to park so visit the shops on your homeward commute and it won’t take extra time. You can even do the big weekly shop by bike: all you need is a trailer, or maybe a workbike.

School run
All the child seats, trailers and tandem adapters that make family cycling possible can also be used for the journey to school etc. Cycling is, of course, the only independent means of transport (other than walking) available to children. A kid’s bike is freedom. But the more cycling you can do together as a family before those first solo flights from the nest, the safer they will be.

Recreation
Cycling is not only useful, it’s fun! Kids cruising the neighbourhood on their BMXs – a round-the-world tour – it’s all recreation. Cycling is a great way to explore: fast enough to cover the ground and provide a continual change of scene, but slow enough to take it all in. On a bike you can smell the flowers, feel the breeze and stop wherever you want to take a closer look. That’s usually incentive enough to get out there on a bike, but if you need another reason, find out about the BCQ.

The moderate exertion of cycling sharpens experiences and sharing them is even better. Cycling is sociable, so go with friends and family or a CTC local group. Clubruns vary from fast and furious to a Cafe To Cafe potter, we’ll help you choose the right one. As for the right bike: that depends on how much ground you want to cover in the time and what it’ll be surfaced with.

Day-rides
A ride lasting anything from an hour to all day does not need much preparation or special equipment. A map, a bottle, a snack, basic tools and a wind/waterproof will do. Use whatever sort of bike seems suitable for the surfaces you want to ride on and the speed you want to go. The same applies to the kind of cycling holiday comprising one-day excursions from a fixed base, or when there is motorised “support” to carry your luggage from place to place.

If going in a group, find out what sort of riding is involved: how fast, how hilly, how much on or off-road and how rough. It always helps if all the riders in a group have similar sorts of bikes and expectations.

Touring
Self-sufficient cycle touring needs a bit more equipment and a bit more work, but is probably the most satisfying way to travel. New horizons continually beckon and you have everything required to reach them. Actually, if you pack a big enough credit card, that needn’t be much more than you take on day-rides. The ideal kind of bike is, not surprisingly, a touring bike, but an Audax bike will do for credit-card touring.

At the other extreme a camping tour into remote areas needs lots of stuff and a sturdy expedition bike to carry it. Either way: no more is needed for a month away than a week. Most people do something in between for a fortnight.

Organised cycling tours are available from a variety of companies (most of which advertise in CYCLE) and the CTC Tours Company.

Off-road
For many people “off-road” means railway trails, towpaths and the like. They’re avoiding traffic not tarmac and an inferior surface is just a price worth paying for freedom from pollution and danger. If that’s your motivation you’ll generally keep to passably surfaced tracks within the capability of a hybrid, trekking or touring bike.

Real off-road riding definitely implies something more challenging. And if you want to get even further away from it all, into places where the only trail is rough, rocky and rooty, a mountain-bike will be wanted. Exactly what sort of mountain-bike depends to a degree upon what aspects of mountain-biking you find most appealing. For some mountain-bikers the challenge of the path is far more important than the place. They crave all the latest trail-taming technology may be happier going around a purpose-built loop in a forest than on a “natural” route (all routes are actually man-made) that goes somewhere - with all its natural imperfections. At the other extreme you have the traditional Rough-Stuff cyclist: a lover of wild places who rides many miles on road to reach his wilderness and is content to push or carry the bike through it. Some rough-stuffers do not even use a mountain-bike, reasoning that a tourer is better for the approach and no worse to push and carry!

Most off-roaders fit somewhere between those two extremes, deriving equal pleasure from wild or merely backwoods places and the cycling challenges they offer. The byways and bridleways of Britain provide such questing riders with limitless opportunities for independent off-road exploration, or if you prefer your adventures tried and tested you can visit a CTC Off-road Centre where networks of trails have been mapped out. You can even do mountain-bike touring – preferably with motorised support since panniers or a trailer seriously limit what is rideable. Even with a top mountain-bike, rougher or softer surfaces increase the effort required to roll a wheel, reducing how far you can comfortably go in the time. “Rough-stuff counts double” is a good rule of thumb. For a list of CTC off-road events click here.

Fitness
Cycling for fitness and the thrill of speed is an increasingly popular recreation that borders upon racing and uses the same kind of bike or something similar. It’s essentially a road activity, with even mountain-bikers finding it useful to hone their speed and stamina on road. Reason being that on the open road there is nothing to stop you trying as hard as you can; and since tarmac has less drag, that effort is rewarded by more speed – encouraging you to try even harder! Any kind of bike with a reasonably rewarding road performance will do, be that racer, audax, tourer or so-called fitness bike. The final choice depends upon what other things you want to do on that bike and what you’re used to riding.

It helps to have a goal when you’re getting fit and the CTC Challenge Rides provide an ideal opportunity to test your fitness. Also, in most parts of the country most weekends throughout the year, there are reliability or “Audax” rides – many organised by CTC local groups – that challenge you to cover a long distance (often hundreds of kilometres) within a specified time. None of these events give prizes for finishing first so it’s not racing – honest!

Fitness riding can be a solitary activity, fitted in whenever you have a spare hour or two, but becomes much more rewarding if you ride with a sociable and slightly competitive group. So it’s good to join a club or make contact with your local CTC. Most DAs have a fast or “hardriders” section.

Competition
CTC doesn’t aim to provide for racing, but recognises that many of its members also participate in cycle sport. The main cycle racing organisation is “British Cycling” and the main forms of racing are as follows.

Road
Cycling differs from most other forms of human competition in the duration of its events (most cycle races last even longer than a marathon), the huge benefit of slipstreaming another competitor. Equipment and the skill to use it also plays a part, but cycling differs from other “techy” sports in that human strength and endurance is still the overwhelming factor. All these characteristics of cycle-racing give rise to sophisticated individual and team tactics, so that to win requires brains as well as brawn, not to mention a little luck.

A cycling “road race” is just that: all start together, first to finish wins. It’s a long race lasting several hours and usually from place to place, but in Britain more often on a circuit due to the lack of suitable roads. It’s horses for courses with powerfully muscular riders more likely to win on a flattish route whilst slim guys come to the fore on the mountains. A “criterium” is a shorter race, on a tight circuit usually in a town centre to entertain crowds and where the frequent corners emphasise bike handling skills.

In Britain most road-racing is in the form of time-trials (controlled by the RTTC), where riders are set off at intervals, usually alone or sometimes in teams, and slipstreaming is not allowed – except between team members in team time-trials.

A stage race, taking place over several days or even weeks, comprises mostly road races with the occasional time-trial stage. Aside from the overall winner on total time, there are points prizes for the best hill-climber, sprint finisher etc. The team and individual tactics combined with the exhausting effort of racing for hours day after day provides all the intellectual and athletic drama of a major football contest.

Off-road
Competitive mountain-biking mirrors skiing: with cross-country, downhill and even dual slalom events. Like skiing, downhill has all the glamour whilst cross country has all the work! The latter is more like actually riding somewhere and uses similar equipment. And unlike road-racing, bike swaps are not allowed – which helps to keep the cross-country racing mountain-bike practical and versatile.

Bike handling skills play a major part in all forms of mountain-bike competition, and are the whole thing in trials riding. Mountain-bike racing comes closest to touring in Trailquest and “Polaris” events: a kind of orienteering where route-planning and navigation becomes almost as important as riding ability.

Cyclo-cross is an off-road sport that pre-dates the mountain-bike. It’s cross-country with worse obstacles, deliberately intended to be unrideable. You can try to ride any kind of bike around the course, but the places where you’ll have to run and carry it favour something light. And bike swaps are allowed. (Some riders have a team of trackside helpers handing up different bikes for the carrying and riding bits!)

Track
Not to be confused with off-road tracks and trails. By “the track” we mean events held in a velodrome: a specially built oval track with a speedily smooth surface (usually hardwood) and steeply banked curves to keep the riders from sliding out. A minimal kind of bike is used with one fixed gear and no brakes, to complete in as many different forms of race as can be run on an athletic track – only much faster and more exciting on wheels – with the effects of slipstreaming and the bankings to impart additional tactics and accellerations. It’s as far from normal cycling as you can get, but a great spectacle, and a good way for youngsters to get into cycle racing away from road traffic.

Other Events
You can also do grass-track racing (no banking – just an oval marked out on a field). And races (usually road time-trials etc.) are organised for different configurations of cycle, e.g. tandems, tricycles, recumbents, even penny farthings! Then there’s BMX of course, various trials of skill on these or other kinds of bicycle, pedal-cycle speedway, even bicycle polo!