Group Riding Requires Your Undivided Attention Part 1 of ?

No Safe Riding Habits = Know Pain

Know Safe Riding Habits = No Pain

You are DRIVING your bicycle, not riding it.  Your undivided attention is required.

Call Outs Are Good Riding Technique

The riders in front of you and the riders behind you don’t necessarily see what you see. So, if you see something say something.  Some important call outs:

• If there is a car behind you say Car Back. 
• If the car is coming say Car Up.
  • This applies to other bicycle riders, walkers, and elephants as well.  
• Call out debris, pot holes, water, sand, gravel and mechanical issues as well.
• Rider(s) Off The Back if some people get caught at a stop light or traffic or their own speed.

  

• On Your Left.   Technically, when passing a rider on their left.  Absolutely, when passing a pedestrian.
• On Your Right.  You should NOT pass riders on the right side.  
  • It is their blind spot.
  • If the rider drifts right, most likely their rear wheel will hit your front wheel and you go boomy.
  • The fact that YOU may know what your are doing has no impact on the other rider and what they may do.
• Beer Stop – particularly with my bike group in Kansas City.
• Slowing & Stopping.  OMG, how often do we NOT do this.  If there is anyone near you and they do not know you are going to slow or stop,  they made ride right into you.

Most important of all, and rarely happens,  ALL CALLS are supposed to be repeated up or down the line.

There is no way the leader will know there are riders of the back, if he does not hear what the caller said 200 feet behind him.

There is no way the riders 4 bicycles back will know you are suddenly slowing, if the call does not get transferred from rider to rider.

This is all really a pain, especially to get the group to start doing it.   But, with the one group I rode with that did it more less regularly, everyone felt more relaxed.

Glenn

Comments welcome, at bottom of page

p.s.

Yeah, there is so much more, that sometimes it seems worse than driving a car.   

Fortunately, most casual riders do not paceline, which has its own set of rules.

State laws, have rules that we often ignore, like reflectors on the wheels and a bell.
Can you guess which state requires a seat belt?  Seriously?

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