New To Cycling and Looking to Joining the club

Send your name and a cheque to Peter Mc Conville ,3 Killowen Terrace ,Rostrevor,Co.Down
Enclose a cheque made payable to Newry Wheelers for £20.00 and then you are a member of the club.
Peter will then send you details of joining Cycling ireland for racing and training insurance cover.

E.Mail pete for further queries
peter.mcconville@selb.org




New Cyclists Frequently Asked Questions

People naturally have quite a few questions they ask us before coming out on one of our rides. Here we try to answer some of the more popular ones for you. If you have any other questions about cycling in general or the agreeable activites we do then please email us - info@newrywheelers.com

I want to ride with you. How fit do I have to be?
Not particularly. If you can ride 20 miles or so you are fit enough to come out on a mountain bike ride. If you can ride about 30 miles or so then you are fit enough to try the Saturday road ride. If you have ever ridden more then you won't have any problems at all.

Is everyone else fast? What if I can't keep up?
Our club rides are not fast. We want to encourage people to ride a bike, not leave them behind and put them off cycling for life. Try riding as far as you can on a flat road at 15 - 16mph. That is what we do and it is always easier when you are in a group. If you really don't think you can keep up email us and we will give you the details of the Slieve Gullion Wheelers. They are a local touring club and they go even slower than us, often at 12 mph. You will definately keep up with them!

What about ladies activities?
Firstly we'll assume that you mean cycling for ladies! The gals section usually meet on Saturday morning at Newry Gateway Club at 9.00 (Too early for the lazy blokes) or shortly afterwards on the Warrenpoint dual carriageway. There are normally about half a dozen ladies on these rides,and they are keen to see this section of the club grow in numbers. They will certainly make any female newcomers welcome!

Do I have to race?
Not at all. You do as much or as little as you like. You may find that racing is infectious, especially time trials which are done entirely at your own speed. In a time trial you cannot come last as you are racing against your previous personal best times always trying to better them.

I have just seen Lance Armstrong on TV. I want to race. What do I have to do?
You're keen aren't you! We can help you. To keep it simple you need to ride  club runs every week in winter to get fitness that will see you through the rest of the year, join Newry Wheelers, take out a racing licence (for road racing) and race. Next year you can try the Tour de France ;-) . If you missed the club's bulk licence application in January, then you've got a bit of work to do! Click on this linkhttp://newrywheelers.servasport.com/html/newsstory.jsp?newsID=192 for instructions what to do. We have had to take this approach to late licence applications because we have day jobs too!

Can I really ride the Tour de France?
If you are good enough. However, will your little brother who kicks a football around in the park ever play for Manchester United? Hmmm - kind of puts it into perspective doesn't it!

How far do you go on a Saturday or Sunday?
Generally we go out for about 40 miles on Saturdays. You can do more or less if you like. You can always go home early if you think it might be a bit much to start with. On Sundays the club splits into two groups. One is a 45 mile group (approx) and the other is a 65-70 mile group(approx)

Hey I am fitter than that. Will I leave you slowcoaches behind?
Maybe, but we like to save our fast stuff for local races. What's the point of wasting it on a club run where there are no trophies? A lot of our people also meet up midweek for training rides. If you are fast then try one of these!

What is the difference between time trials and road racing?
Road racing is you against 60 or more other people riding in a big bunch (just like the Tour). The groups are made up of riders the same level as you so you won't be riding against the experts! Time trials involve a field of riders who go off individually at 1 minute intervals over a set distance. The one who covers it in the quickest time is the winner. There are all sort of abilities in time trials but the person you are racing against is yourself. For this reason we encourage beginners to try time trials first if they want to see how fast they can go. They are often pleasantly surprised!

Cars scare me. Do you go anywhere quiet?
Yes cars scare us as well. We try to get out of Newry as soon as possible and hit the quiet country lanes that criss-cross the region. If you really hate cars the mountain bike rides are almost exclusively off road.

Do I have to have all the gear?
Well, a bike is quite helpful really. It doesn't have to be fancy, just reliable. It is always a good idea to ask around other club members for advice on what to spend your money on. They often have a lot of good quality used stuff for sale as well and are always happy to see someone get a lot of fun from something. We have our own team strip which you can buy if you plan to race. It is way cheaper than Premier League football kits.

So what else do you do?
We meet every week at Newry Tennis courts Sun @ 9.30), we have Saturday easy rides,keep an eye on website for these , we have Sunday advanced road training rides, we have Sunday MTB rides, we have afterdark MTB rides (sometimes), we go out for a pint, we have a 'Foreign Legion' section that travels abroad each year. Oh and we go to races together.

OK, you guys rock. What do I do next?
Probably just best to turn up! Saturday is usually the best place for new starters as the club run is fairly small on Saturdays. Just meet us at Newry Town Hall at 10.00 and take it from there! If you can't make it on Saturday, then join the group at Newry Town Hall on Sundays at 9.00, or else on the Warrenpoint Carriageway shortly afterwards. On Sundays the group always rides to Warrenpoint and then back to Newry before heading off somewhere. You can join in there if you prefer. If you prefer off roading and want to join the MTB group, look at the MTB pages of the website (click on the link from the links page) to find out where they are going that week. For Tollymore the meeting venue is Moneyscalp car park. For Kilbroney (Rostrevor) the meeting point is the Sheep Pen just off the Newtown Road (email for directions). For Ravensdale, the meeting point is (usually) the Carrickdale Hotel car park. If no current information is available on the pages (yes, it even happens to us, sometimes!) then bang us an email to mtb@newrywheelers.com - we'll sort out something for you!

Why are you doing all this stuff for me?
We all had to start somewhere. We remember how daunting it seemed all those years ago. Cycling is great fun. We want to help you realise that. Oh and also we want more people to go down the pub with, more people to crack poor jokes with, more people to race with, more people to share lifts to events with etc etc. It works both ways! If you have any other queries please email us newmembers@newrywheelers.com