It's an incredible feeling when you walk out of a shop with your new bike. Its likely been an overwhelming learning curb and now you're inspired by the promise of adventures and travel.

With the hard part of purchase over, you'd think it easy to get on the bike and take off...  But instead, we've found many bike owners lack the support of riding friends and have difficulties progressing beyond the safe confines of a local park.

Many reasons may keep a rider from joining the bunch. Not knowing what to do, who to join and where to ride are just some. Other intimidations include what to wear, how to use the bike, or the feeling of being too unfit.

But we're here to say, the best bunch riders are rarely the fastest or the strongest. They're the riders who work and ride together.

What counts is knowing the sort of riding you want to do. Your reasons might be motivated by exercise or social outings, to enjoy the outdoors or even to defy and overcome goals or fears. A bunch should support this reason to ride. Whatever the aim, the good thing about cycling is that its for everyone and the learning never stops.

There's a lot to learn on your first Road Bike. From using gears and brakes, coordinating cleats, building confidence amongst cars and finding the perfect bunch.

The good news is that you don't need to learn alone.

Chainsmith provides supportive complementary courses aimed to teach bunch riding skills alongside how to get the most out of your bike.