About to teach a novice how to ride on the road

EKE_38BPM

10 miler with a novice cyclist to introduce them to traffic, traffic lights, roundabouts. I've planned a route that includes a few parks (ease her in gently), a few hills, a good coffee shop and past my LBS. Any thing else to include?

Headhuunter

How about a bit about gear use? I'm still surprised at the number of cyclists I see on London's roads who clearly have no idea how to use their gears to make things easier. You see them trying to pull away fom traffic lights locked into the big ring and high gear at the back. Explain how to fix a puncture... You know give her a tour of the bike as well as the roads...

By the way, happy birthday, For some reason I remember you mentioned a week or 2 ago that you were turning 30. How's the big 3-0 treating you?

greg66_tri_v2.0

Headhuunter wrote:

How about a bit about gear use? I'm still surprised at the number of cyclists I see on London's roads who clearly have no idea how to use their gears to make things easier. You see them trying to pull away fom traffic lights locked into the big ring and high gear at the back.

Dude, that's the *only* way to do it... Big gear, stomp hard, and don't stop... wink:

jonny_trousers

You? With your reputation? Are they mad?

greg66_tri_v2.0

You know, teaching a filly to ride a bike is a lot like making love to a beautiful woman.

First, make sure she's nicely loosened up. Then get her to swing a leg over her steed, and let her get comfortable. Start slowly: remember to tell her that's she doesn't have to hold on too tightly with her hands. Nice and easy. Then get her legs working, easing up and down rhythmically. Push it a little bit faster, perhaps slotting in behind her to keep an eye on technique. See just how fast she'll go, until you're both flushed with tiredness and elation and can go no further. That's just the right moment to pull up, dismount, and take a breather.

But remember: don't wear her out, in case she fancies another go a bit later!

OldSkoolKona

This reminds me of GregT's offer to 'company's Mrs OSK on her commute

Good on EKE though, budding a noob cyclist will really help them. Other things to get across are watching out for the door zone, dealing with pinch points, filtering and of course safety around HGVs and buses

EKE_38BPM

Just got back from our 10 mile pootle. Had a few mishaps on the way that all helped with the learning process.

I went to her place and she was outside trying to pump up her flat tyre. Her hardtail MTB has nice looking wheels (24 bladed spokes and deep profile rims) and because of the rims it was hard to get the minipump locked onto the valve. Tried her pump, no joy. Tried my pump, no joy, Went to mine to try an electric car tyre pump, but couldn't find it so went to a petrol station to try their pump, no joy. Eventually used pliers to grip the valve to get my minipump onto the valve and finally got it sorted.

Took a pootle to a park to adjust her gears and taught her how to use them better than she had been.

She wasn't too bad on the road, just had to advise her on keeping out of the doorzone, not to go down the inside of buses and HGVs etc. She had good observation but was nervous at pinch points. On one occasion she screamed as we approached a traffic island and had a 4x4 behind us. I was in primary but she bottled it and pulled over to the left before the island to let the traffic pass. She saw how I handled the situation and I think she'd feel more confident about taking primary now and would do the same.

Popped into Shorters to see if they had an old school pump hose as they screw onto the valve and would make inflating easier, but it wouldn't really do the job so didn't get it in the end. She left saying the guys in Shorters were really friendly. Once again, I have to say I don't see why people have a problem with that shop. Anyway, I digress. Cruised back to mine and she climbed a hill with little effort as she now used her gears correctly, saying "I couldn't climb this hill before, but its easy now."

Back to mine to fine tune the gears and brakes, degrease and lube the chain then off to hers to check everything was hunky dory (it was).

She said she was dreading 10 miles before we started but it was easy and now wants to do a harder 15 miler. Think she'll have no problem with that at all. She is doing a couple of 60 miles charity rides in October and if she keeps up the training, she'll have no worries, but I may suggest locking her front suspension if she can (I forgot to look) and getting slicks as she may also start cycling the 9 miles to work.

I think I'll have to introduce her to a puncture kit, but otherwise, she seems to have everything she needs (apart from lights).

All in all, a good introduction to riding on the roads.

Headhuunter, my 35th birthday is in a couple of weeks. Not sure why you thought my 30th was recent. Thanks for the birthday wishes though.

Jonny_Trousers, my reputation seems to have proceeded me!
Nice one Gregg66. I always enjoy leaving a woman sweaty and breathless after a hard ride!

spasypaddy

you took her to shorters :shock:

poor girl.

Headhuunter

oh. Whoops. For some reason i thought you'd said it was your birthday recently. Well happy 35th anyway...

deptfordmarmoset

When you're next out with her you could try cycling behind her - partly to see what her lane sense is like but also to get her used to being able to shoulder check immediately. You could call ''check'' from time to time to get her to make eye contact with you to see how quickly and wobble-free she does it. Eye contact with a vehicle driver before a pinch point can have a very restraining ''I see you'' effect on the driver, and it obviously gives you a better idea how they're driving than just listening to the engine.

prj45

Yup., wobble free looking over the shoulder, one of the hardest things to do but so important for two reasons, you know what's behind you, what's behind you is reminded that there's a human being in front of them

lost_in_thought

One of the hardest things to do? Really? I have to say I disagree, it's really very straightforward.

jonny_trousers

I don't get this 'making eye contact' thing either. I'm all for turning your head to observe what's coming up behind you and to let motorists know you know they are there, but surely eye contact is a step too far? In my many years of driving a car among cyclists I have never once seen one make eye contact with me from in front.

A useful piece of advice I have learnt the hard way, in a brown-shorts-but-no-one-hurt kind of a way: once you are at speed do not ride too closely to the motorist in front. Cars can break far quicker and far harder than bicycles and there is nothing that makes you look like a bigger tool than mounting a car from behind.

prj45

lost_in_thought wrote:

One of the hardest things to do? Really? I have to say I disagree, it's really very straightforward.

If you watch somebody new on a bike and ask them to look behind themselves pretty much they find it quite hard, indeed many don't look behind because they don't like doing it.

It comes with practice. More experienced riders do it naturally and very regularly which you won't see less experienced riders doing.

prj45

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

I don't get this 'making eye contact' thing either. I'm all for turning your head to observe what's coming up behind you and to let motorists know you know they are there, but surely eye contact is a step too far?

Agree, I'd rarely attempt to make eye contact with somebody behind, you can tell from the movement of the car alone that it's either going to let you do what you want or not.

[Edit, I might use actual eye contact if the person behind does not appear to be playing ball or about to do something sill, like revving up try and overtake me at a pinch point]

Eye contact with a car sitting in front of you wanting to pull out (or turn right across your path) is paramount though, unless you achieve it assume the car is going to drive right out in front of you or indeed into the side of you.

Difficult of course when you're wearing shades and or they are and they have illegally darkend side windows.

Splottboy

I AM GODSMACKED!!!

I realise that today, things are different to when I was a kid, but...

Back then, nearly EVERYONE had a bike, and rode to the shops, school, for fun.
( Yeah, jumpers for goal posts, the sun always shone, beer was 1/2p etc...)
But, when I think back, some of the VERY BEST memories I have are riding with my mates, exploring, crashing, skidding, get sweaty, breaking parts etc.

You have a great opprtunity to teach the correct/best way to ride, but, I feel a little sad that there are many years that have been missed.
But maybe they can be caught up...

Good luck !

lost_in_thought

I disagree with the 'no point making eye contact' thing. I think it's very useful, and do it as much as possible. It reminds the person you're doing it to that you're a person, not just an irritation.

Interestingly, the police who were showing people round an HGV about a month ago in the middle of HPC told me exactly the same thing - make eye contact wherever possible.

jonny_trousers

lost_in_thought wrote:

I disagree with the 'no point making eye contact' thing. I think it's very useful, and do it as much as possible. It reminds the person you're doing it to that you're a person, not just an irritation.

Interestingly, the police who were showing people round an HGV about a month ago in the middle of HPC told me exactly the same thing - make eye contact wherever possible.

AndyManc

Check out your local council, many have free adult training.

I know Manchester has an introduction course that teachers adults how to cycle in traffic safely.


.

DevUK

I recently took a friend out to get her more comfortable riding on the roads. It was going great until we went through some fields on a public foot path. Got to a steep hill and she had to stop, but when she did she unfortunately didn't use her brakes to keep her bike steady, and was promptly bashed in the ribs by her handlebars as the bike fell back. Unfortunately I think she cracked a rib!

I didn't get the blame thankfully, but she's not been out since! We're planning on going out again soon though, as she's healed up now!

deptfordmarmoset

DevUK wrote:

I recently took a friend out to get her more comfortable riding on the roads. It was going great until we went through some fields on a public foot path. Got to a steep hill and she had to stop, but when she did she unfortunately didn't use her brakes to keep her bike steady, and was promptly bashed in the ribs by her handlebars as the bike fell back. Unfortunately I think she cracked a rib!

I didn't get the blame thankfully, but she's not been out since! We're planning on going out again soon though, as she's healed up now!

Getting injured by your bike while stationary is not one of those things you can really expect to happen.

davis

DevUK wrote:

I recently took a friend out to get her more comfortable riding on the roads. It was going great until we went through some fields on a public foot path. Got to a steep hill and she had to stop, but when she did she unfortunately didn't use her brakes to keep her bike steady, and was promptly bashed in the ribs by her handlebars as the bike fell back. Unfortunately I think she cracked a rib!

Bad news about the rib -- although I can't work out if she let go of the bars or what -- but footpaths aren't often bikeable. Bridleways are bad enough!

Edit: Christ I'm such a killjoy. I'll just pop outside and punch myself in the testes. Sorry.

tomb353

currently teaching my kids to ride on the roads, in the end bit the bullet and bought the cyclecraft book, won't make any great changes to my riding but wanted to make sure that I was teaching them the right way to do it rather than passing on my own bad habits.

Norky

deptfordmarmoset wrote:

Getting injured by your bike while stationary is not one of those things you can really admit to in public

FTFY.

tomb353, I notice from your signature you have a Kinesis (Decade?) Tripster. I was looking at them for a winter commuter because of the disc brake and rack mountings. Care to offer an opinion of the frame and how you've got it built?

FeynmanC

I was pondering the "eye contact" thing on my way in this morning. It was a long 25 miles!

As I understand it, the human brain is hardwired to "see" faces in a different way to how it "sees" other things. It actively seeks them out, etc.

By actively seeking eye contact we are engaging that part of their brain, which is a more powerful "see" than if they see a car or bike or dayglow vest, etc.

I wonder what would happen if we had big faces on the back of our jerseys? Even the big Aciiiiiid smiley face might work. Would that increase our visability due to the "face effect" and thus reduce the likelyhood of Smidsy from behind?

As I said, it was a long 25 miles!

alfablue

In my experience, making eye contact seems to have the effect of transferring any responsibility the driver has for your safety from driver to yourself. Drivers will pull out if they don't see you, but they will also pull out if you make eye contact. I now make a point of exaggerating a "head down" (i.e. not looking) posture when approaching junctions (and also pedestrians that would quite like to walk out in front of you), whilst still keeping an eye on things.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but it works as a pedestrian too - walk out without looking, cars stop; make eye contact with drivers, they keep driving - the thought process is probably something like "they obviously see me so they won't dare cross" (or cycle in to me if I pull out, for example).

EKE_38BPM

The worst 'accident' I ever had was when a driver pulled out from a right turn and then tried to overtake me and turn left in front of me. I made eye contact before she pulled out from the right and she waited for me to pass then still left hooked me.

Eye contact is good, but its not a force field.

Back to my novice, she has good observation, looks over her shoulder regularly and without wobbling. All that is needed is the confidence that comes from practice and better use of gears, which also comes from practice.

alfablue

EKE_38BPM wrote:

The worst 'accident' I ever had was when a driver pulled out from a right turn and then tried to overtake me and turn left in front of me. I made eye contact before she pulled out from the right and she waited for me to pass then still left hooked me.

Eye contact is good, but its not a force field..

I think it is actually bad, your example shows why.

tomb353

Norky, there was a recent thread on the tripster with someone else asking a similar question. I'd reccomend the bike 100%, I based my build on one of the kinesis build kits with the bike shop swapping bits in/out.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=tripster

EKE_38BPM

So you ride around avoiding eye contact like someone with autism?

alfablue

EKE_38BPM wrote:

So you ride around avoiding eye contact like someone with autism?

You can put it that way if you want :?

Just making the point, when you make eye contact in a motoring / cycling / pedestrian situation, a transaction takes place between the two parties; the transaction invariably involves a transfer of responsibility from the other party to the cyclist, so once the cyclist makes said eye contact, whether they then "choose" to hit left-hooking/pulling out vehicle is up to the cyclist themselves :evil:

To think that eye contact protects you may be a rather rose tinted view of life on the streets.