When you love cycling, the best feeling you can have is when you convince your friends to take up cycling. People take up cycling for many different reasons be it exercise, transportation, or spending more time with their kids. When your friends asks you for your advice about any of these topics and you respond with cycling as the answer, make sure you provide a good answer in order to convince them.
Exercise
If you have a friend who wants to get in shape, lose weight, or simply get a little more active suggest cycling as a good solution. Cycling burns calories, builds muscles, teaches you about your heart rate and breathing, and keeps you active. Take your friend out for their first few bike rides and show them how to pick good routes that will challenge them, how long they should cycle, and what to bring with them on a long ride so they don’t get in trouble in an emergency.
Cycling with your friend for those first few days will give your friend the opportunity to ask questions and get more comfortable with cycling as a whole. Also, tell them about your own triumphs and failures. This will give them the confidence to stick with it later on when they face a challenge.
Transportation
If your friend lives in a large city and is complaining about transportation costs and problems, encourage them to take up cycling as a means of transportation. Cycling saves you money on gas, bus fares, parking meters, and vehicle upkeep. If you have a friend who is environmentally conscience, let them know that cycling is the mode of transportation that causes the least amount of pollution. They’ll likely already know this but encouraging more cycling can hardly go amiss!
Family Time
For friends that have young children, a common quandary is how to spend more time together that doesn’t involve the television. For those friends, cycling is a wonderful answer that you give your friend. Not only are there bike seats and trailers for children too young to bike, but biking as a family is a wonderful way to get the kids outside and exercising in an increasingly sedentary world.
Taking the kids for a bike ride keeps everyone active and exploring the community for new routes and things to see. Families can bike to the movies, library, or playgrounds and parks, something the children will all love. This makes exercise seem more fun and gives them an incentive to keep biking.
Convincing your friends to cycle shouldn’t be too hard if they’re open to change in their lives. Pamphlets or website links to bike clubs and cycling blogs will further encourage them, and you, to learn everything you need to know about cycling. The more facts you’re able to give, the more convincing you’ll be.
