AG: Aunt Granny's Advice, or How to become an elderly cyclist:

John B. wrote in
:

On Sat, 22 Oct 2016 23:22:14 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:


I usually take the Beyer Farm Trail home from downtown --it's scenic
and puts in a little extra distance-- but last Saturday I wanted to
stop at Zale's, so I stayed on Fort Wayne Street.

I caught myself drifting too far to the right, then thought that
because Fort Wayne is a one-way street that's wide enough to divide
into three lanes, it would be safe to ride in the "please pass me"
position.

!! NOT AT INTERSECTIONS IT AIN'T !!

Luckily, the driver who wanted to turn right was smarter than I was,
and no reportable incident occurred.

Satchel Page once said, "Don't look back. Something might be gaining
on you", but I don't think he rode a bicycle. My philosophy has always
been, "look back to see what is gaining on you.... so you can avoid
it" :-)

They've got mirrors for that.
--
Andrew Chaplin
SIT MIHI GLADIUS SICUT SANCTO MARTINO
(If you're going to e-mail me, you'll have to get "yourfinger." out.)

On Sun, 23 Oct 2016 14:23:22 -0000 (UTC), Andrew Chaplin
wrote:

John B. wrote in
:

On Sat, 22 Oct 2016 23:22:14 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:


I usually take the Beyer Farm Trail home from downtown --it's scenic
and puts in a little extra distance-- but last Saturday I wanted to
stop at Zale's, so I stayed on Fort Wayne Street.

I caught myself drifting too far to the right, then thought that
because Fort Wayne is a one-way street that's wide enough to divide
into three lanes, it would be safe to ride in the "please pass me"
position.

!! NOT AT INTERSECTIONS IT AIN'T !!

Luckily, the driver who wanted to turn right was smarter than I was,
and no reportable incident occurred.

Satchel Page once said, "Don't look back. Something might be gaining
on you", but I don't think he rode a bicycle. My philosophy has always
been, "look back to see what is gaining on you.... so you can avoid
it" :-)

They've got mirrors for that.

Yes they do. But why? After all one has to go out and buy a mirror.
Than one has to mount the mirror; bar end, helmet, clip on. Then the
mirror has to be correctly adjusted.

Or one can simply turn one's head a bit :-)

--
cheers,

John B.

Always leave yourself room to dodge to the right (or left on the other
side of the pond) -- but there *are* times when you want to ride as
far to the right as possible, so how far to the right *is* possible?

It's fairly obvious that you need to inspect the roadway ahead, and
have faith that it won't narrow suddenly, break up at the edge, be
covered with sharp debris, have potholes or deliberate holes or sunken
or raised drains and so forth, but you also have to be constantly
aware of what you'll land on if you fall off the pavement.

Is it good, firmly-packed gravel you could ride slowly on until you
come to a place where you can get back on the road? Is it, at least
firm enough that you can stay upright long enough to brake to a safe
stop?

Is it loose gravel that would guarantee a crash? If so, how wide is
it and what's on the other side? On can steer across loose gravel if
there's a firm, safe surface wide enough to catch a semi-controlled
bike on the other side -- and if it's narrow enough that your wheel
will be back on a firm surface before the gravel can steer the bike
out from under you.

Is your worst worry that you'll leave tire tracks on someone's nice
lawn? If so, will the lawn end before the situation you are riding on
the verge for ends? The *last* thing you want is a sudden need to
move *left*!

If you fall off the road, will you roll down a 100% slope held in
place by head-size rocks, with a barbed-wire fence at the bottom?

A curb at the edge of the road should be given at least half a meter
of respect, a full yard if you haven't had a *lot* of experience and
some training. If you touch a curb, you go down. No matter how good
your bike handling is, a ridge that is almost parallel to your path
will steer the bike out from under you -- and there's no guarantee
that you'll fall *away* from the traffic.

(When I touched a curb, I fell into the road, but by pure luck
*behind* the left-turning truck I was dodging. Purtnear had three
hear attacks, though: me, the driver, and a witness.)

Is that nice wide dirt shoulder really a dirt shoulder, or is it a
field of potholes hidden under loose sand?

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

Joy Beeson wrote:

Always leave yourself room to dodge to the right (or left on the other
side of the pond) -- but there *are* times when you want to ride as
far to the right as possible, so how far to the right *is* possible?

This is part of why I get so annoyed at riders who ride against traffic.
If you're riding that way, then if there's obstruction in front of you,
there's often *no* escape route. If riding on a road with a curb, that's
usually enough to prevent you from getting to the sidewalk, and the only
other option is to move directly into traffic that's coming the opposite
way.

It's fairly obvious that you need to inspect the roadway ahead, and
have faith that it won't narrow suddenly, break up at the edge, be
covered with sharp debris, have potholes or deliberate holes or sunken
or raised drains and so forth, but you also have to be constantly
aware of what you'll land on if you fall off the pavement.

Yep. "As far to the right as possible" is a good guideline, but for
motorists that don't ride, often aren't aware of what kinds of hazards
lurk at the side (and away from where car tires normally go). The most
common is sand and gravel and glass, pushed by normal vehicle activity,
but there's a lot of other stuff as well. Rough pavement (including
bumps caused by heat buckling and tree roots) are there, stuff that's
more likely to be mashed down by the weight of cars, in the path of
normal motor traffic. And motorists generally have no clue about just
how evil drains are.

Another dynamic is the difference between paved and soft shoulder. Some
of the places I ride have gravel shoulders where there might be an inch
or two of pavement outside the fog line, and places where sand/gravel
overlaps the fog line, because the road isn't frequently swept. Rumble
strips and raised reflectors also add interesting challenges. One place
I ride has is improved one side of the road (in front of a subdivision,
where the developer did all the necessary improvements -- two lanes of
traffic, space in the middle for an eventual left turn lane, curbs and
even a bike line), but on the unimproved side, it's a single lane, a
soft gravel shoulder, and beyond the shoulder, a concrete irrigation
ditch (normally dry) that's fairly substantial. If you go off the road
there, you'll end up at bottom of the ditch.

A further challenge for a road like that is gravel driveways that are
perpendicular to the road -- for a lot of the driveways, exiting traffic
manages to push gravel from the drive out a foot or two into the road,
where it's necessary to swerve toward the center of the road to avoid
the gravel.

I also have occasional problems with sloppy landscaping -- trees or
bushes that aren't trimmed and overlap the bike lane. Yet another place
to move left, at least temporarily, to avoid a hazard.

[ ...]


If you fall off the road, will you roll down a 100% slope held in
place by head-size rocks, with a barbed-wire fence at the bottom?

Tumble-and-roll technique is something I've never tried to learn. And
there's a difference how you do it, depending if you have old-style toe
clips and straps (and how tightly you have the straps pulled, especially
if you have cleats underneath), and more modern clipless pedals.


A curb at the edge of the road should be given at least half a meter
of respect, a full yard if you haven't had a *lot* of experience and
some training. If you touch a curb, you go down. No matter how good
your bike handling is, a ridge that is almost parallel to your path
will steer the bike out from under you -- and there's no guarantee
that you'll fall *away* from the traffic.

See above.

As noted, there's a difference between the motorist's and cyclist's
perceptions of "as far to the right as practical", because there's too
many hazards that are real dangers to a cyclist that most motorists have
never considered.

Smith

Got a long steep downhill and you don't want to ride the brakes? Sit
up straight and spread yourself out, and everyone on the drops will
shoot ahead.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

I happened to walk through the living room during an enthusiastic
description of an autonomous car, and overheard the line "It's best on
a crowded road or straight-line driving on a deserted road."

Exactly what one would expect: if you can't have the road all to
yourself, the next-best thing is a road so crowded that nobody can do
anything you don't expect.

In terms of safety, that is. I don't *like* constant noise. But
Center Street is more relaxing than energetically communicating with
every car that overtakes me on Pierceton Road.

But for a pleasant ride, I'll take Crystal Lake. Next Wednesday, I
plan to ride CR N 175 E. Pity I have to go through Sprawlmart to get
to it.

Or I could take Old 15, but getting to *that* involves a stretch of SR
15.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

On Sun, 06 Nov 2016 22:50:23 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:


I happened to walk through the living room during an enthusiastic
description of an autonomous car, and overheard the line "It's best on
a crowded road or straight-line driving on a deserted road."

Exactly what one would expect: if you can't have the road all to
yourself, the next-best thing is a road so crowded that nobody can do
anything you don't expect.

In terms of safety, that is. I don't *like* constant noise. But
Center Street is more relaxing than energetically communicating with
every car that overtakes me on Pierceton Road.

But for a pleasant ride, I'll take Crystal Lake. Next Wednesday, I
plan to ride CR N 175 E. Pity I have to go through Sprawlmart to get
to it.

Or I could take Old 15, but getting to *that* involves a stretch of SR
15.

There was an article in the news last week. Singapore has been testing
the self driven autos for some time and it was reported that one of
the test vehicles had hit a taxi. No details.

I dug out a thicker pair of sweat pants and wore my windbreaker today,
but I'm still wearing the thinner pair of gloves and my
cotton-and-linen scarf. It's thicker and fuzzier than the cotton
scarf and the linen scarves, but I've yet to break out the silk and
the wool.

I haven't completely broken the habit of drying my hands on my clothes
-- a damp jersey isn't as desirable as it was in August. I *have*
acquired the habit of making sure I have plenty of paper napkins and
paper towels to blow my nose on.

I was gratified that the hills on 350 S aren't as steep as I
remembered them. Perhaps I haven't been neglecting exercise as much
as I thought.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

On Saturday, November 12, 2016 at 8:25:04 PM UTC-8, Joy Beeson wrote:
I dug out a thicker pair of sweat pants and wore my windbreaker today,
but I'm still wearing the thinner pair of gloves and my
cotton-and-linen scarf. It's thicker and fuzzier than the cotton
scarf and the linen scarves, but I've yet to break out the silk and
the wool.

I haven't completely broken the habit of drying my hands on my clothes
-- a damp jersey isn't as desirable as it was in August. I *have*
acquired the habit of making sure I have plenty of paper napkins and
paper towels to blow my nose on.

I was gratified that the hills on 350 S aren't as steep as I
remembered them. Perhaps I haven't been neglecting exercise as much
as I thought.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

The problem is that even in very cold weather you sweat like a horse when climbing. And then you cover your glasses completely over with sweat and it gets in your eyes and burns like the devil.

I went up a 16% grade yesterday because there was a rest stop at the top. That allowed me to wash everything off. Then on the coast downhill at 10% I was fast enough to stay ahead of the traffic and with bright colors on the side traffic couldn't make out what I was.

Then it got hot and I had the worst of all possible worlds.

It would seem that riding too far right is a habit that can never be
completely conquered.

This incident was weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to
writing it up.

I was riding west on Arthur Street, approaching the intersection with
Park. When I got close to the intersection, I moved right because I
intended to turn right when I got there. It did not enter my muddled
head that the car behind me might also intend to turn right.

Having been invited to do so, he overtook me and swerved to the right.
By great good fortune he had one of those blinky things on his front
fender, and I was still several feet from the intersection, so
ordinary braking avoided the collision.

I wonder what the blinky things are for? They are life-savers for
cyclists, but it's received wisdom that one protects bike riders by
forbidding them to ride bikes, not by giving them information.

From a report of a recent Traffic Commission discussion of whether to
recommend an ordinance to allow golf carts in Warsaw:

quote

Shuter agreed with Beam, adding, “I’ve been sitting on this board for
25 years, and in all reality I think this is a step backwards for the
city. We do not allow any other off-road vehicles on city streets that
you don't have to register through the BMV like ATVs and things like
that. I don’t think it’s safe – 250 to 300 pound vehicle versus a
4,000 pound vehicle. I’ve focused my entire career on safety.”
He said golf carts on city streets don’t belong in a city the size of
Warsaw, a class 3 city.

Klondaris argued that there are bicycles and mo-peds on city streets
and “golf carts are here.” Shuter said that as far as mo-peds go, the
state has usurped the city’s authority on those; and it’s not safe to
ride a bicycle on city streets, which is why he’s passionate about
side paths, trails and greenways.

/quote


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.