21 Ways to Have More Fun on Your Bike

Sing

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Sing. Loud. As you pass pedestrians, people in their yards, getting into their cars. Just be careful of these 11 Road Rules.

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Try a Fondo

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Ride a fondo with your dad, or mom, or children. Or all of them.

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Try Kilometers Instead

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Set your computer to kilometers and do whatever it takes to make it flash 100 kph.

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Wheelies

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Get your childhood wheelie back.

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Instigate

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Be the instigator on the next club ride—town-line sprints, granny-gear sprints, coasting races, you call it.

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Parades

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Ride in your town's next parade.

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Cut Across a Field

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Cut across a cornfield. Follow the powerline. Poach the golf-course cart paths. (If caught, apologize sincerely and profusely—in a foreign language.)

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Volunteer

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Volunteer as a bike marshal at a marathon or 10K. (Resist the temptation to throw a victory salute at the line.)

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Switch It Up

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Ride up your favorite descent—and down your favorite climb.

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Swim

10 of 22

Ride to a swimming hole. Pack swimwear in your jersey pocket. Or not.

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Picnic in the Woods

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Fill a cooler with cheese, cured meats, beer or wine, and stash it in the woods somewhere along the route of the next day's ride. When the group reaches that spot, feign a mechanical, then unveil your surprise.

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Take a Trip to Cape May

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Ride Cape May, New Jersey, during the migration of the Monarch butterflies in late August or early September—one of the half-million winged wonders will alight on your shoulder now and then.

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New Roads

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Plan out a local ride that's at least 50 percent made up of roads you've never been on.

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Drag Your Cleats

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Fade casually to the back of the group. At a slow-speed section, unclip one foot then drag your cleat on the pavement—it sounds exactly like a bike crash.