HC Bike/Cycling Thread

[blessingx]

[n_maher]

Be a defensive rider.  Saved my ass the other day (quite literally) as I watched someone approach the main road from the side, look, see no cars, and promptly pull out in front of me.  If I hadn't been already preparing to brake hard and avoid the collision it likely would have ended poorly for me the bike t-boning into the side of the otherwise immoveable car.  Cranked out some relatively hard miles yesterday in one of the last major efforts of training before the century in less than two weeks.

The tailwind for the first 17 miles was nice.  The punch in the face for the last 12 miles, not so much.  But all around a nice ride.

[TMoney]

Makes sense. If anything, I think my Motorsport experience helps quite a bit with awareness of other road users.

I also plan on joining the local bike club and doing group rides with them as soon as I’m sure I can handle the pace and distance and have the bike control to not ram into the person in front of me 🙃

[guzziguy]

20 hours ago, TMoney said:

Other than a good helmet, rear-facing radar, and good rider ettiquete/precaution what else should I be doing?

EDIT: Claude had some suggestions.

 

Sorry for the late response.  I believe that you are talking about road biking as opposed to gravel or mountain.  I don't know much about road biking so I asked my brother, who is a certified road bicycle safety instructor, to send me some links.  I'm busy this morning but I'll post them this afternoon.

The main thing to remember is that you are basically invisible to drivers.  So, anything you can do to make yourself more visible is a plus.  But always act assuming that car drivers don't see you when you ride.

Edited August 26 by guzziguy

[TMoney]

Thankfully I live out amongst the farms now. Davis is essentially an island surrounded by a sea of farmland. There are seldom used roads going in basically every direction. 

[guzziguy]

Here are the links that my brother recommended:

 The League of American Bikers:
  https://bikeleague.org/#null

  https://bikeleague.org/ridesmart/ridesmartvideos

California Bicycle Coalition:
  https://www.calbike.org

 

I like  blessingx's suggestion of a horn.  I have a bell on my e-mtb bike.  I also suggest both a front and rear lights to make yourself more visible when not in a group.

Edited August 27 by guzziguy

[TMoney]

Demo’ing a Diverge Comp Carbon this weekend. I’ll take her out on some farm roads and see how she feels.

Brent thinks I got the sizing all wrong (58 even though I’m 5’11”) but Brent’s bike also has been ridden maybe 2-3 times in the last year so we take his advice in proper proportion.