Road or Sidewalk?

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 22:58:59 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

Badger_South wrote:



Trouble with getting in and out of clips is that I keep looking down and
lose my bearing and swerve a bit.

I'm workin' on it.

Here's a basic tip, and then a couple more arcane tips.

When you're starting out, forget about the clip you came out of. For
the first five pedal strokes (or twenty, depending what's going on) just
push on the bottom of that pedal. Get up to speed.

Hey Frank! Thanks for taking the time to post those tips. ;-)

Trouble with pedalling on the bottoms of the pedals is the clips scrape the
street, but just a little. I'll keep your tip in mind next time, as well as
the one about practicing in a parking lot.

Best,

-B

Badger_South wrote:



Trouble with getting in and out of clips is that I keep looking down and
lose my bearing and swerve a bit.

I'm workin' on it.

Here's a basic tip, and then a couple more arcane tips.

When you're starting out, forget about the clip you came out of. For
the first five pedal strokes (or twenty, depending what's going on) just
push on the bottom of that pedal. Get up to speed.

That will get you across an intersection without being distracted, and
you'll be fast enough to be stable. _Then_ you can deal with the toe clip.

Second tip: I still use toe clips. I once found a product called "toe
flips" that bolt onto the back of the pedal. They're just tabs of sheet
metal that sort of angle down and back from the top surface of the
pedal. Hmmm - let's try ASCII art:

___________
| |\ OK, that's super-crude, but the square parts
| | \ are the pedal, and the slanted parts are toe flips

They're actually a bit closer to horizontal. They make it easier to
flip the pedal, and they kind of funnel your foot in there. I _really_
doubt they're for sale any more, but it would be really easy to make
that using thin sheet metal, a pair of tin snips and a drill to make
screw holes. E-mail me (note corrected address below) if you want more
details.

Third tip: Sometimes getting into toe clips is hard because the shoe
bottom has little lugs that catch and interfere. I took a utility knife
and angled the front of each little lug, so the shoes slid in more
smoothly. It helped significantly.

Fourth, more general tip: Go to a parking lot, practice flipping into
the toe clips, and carefully watch to see what, if anything, is making
it difficult. Do your shoelaces snag something? Is the toe strap too
low on the one side? Whatever - you may be able to identify a culprit
and fix it pretty easily.

Good luck!


--
--------------------+
Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
replace with cc.ysu dot edu]

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 11:09:59 -0400, K-Man said:

I just ignored him and biked on.

"Ignore" is the root of "ignorance".

You should never ever EVER ignore an asshole like that. Always carry
some rocks or something to throw at them.

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 08:43:59 -0700, Terry Morse
said:

Sidewalk riding is a no-no in virtually all situations.

In the Cincinnati suburbs where the roads are horrid, riding on the
sidewalk is often the safest way.

In article ,
Badger_South writes:

How about this. Fantasize soaping the windshield. But, never, never be the
one that escalates. Always de-escalate.

Yeah, that's probably best.

And I say this as a guy who'd
rather fight at the drop of a hat...it's what I do - BJJ/Mauy Thai) ;-p

In fact fantasize even more drastic things, but then blow it off.

Or just think about the scene in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' where
Gregory Peck just wipes the spit off his face.


cheers,
Tom

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"Florence Henderson Had A Mullet" wrote

In the Cincinnati suburbs where the roads are horrid, riding on the
sidewalk is often the safest way.

Pray tell...what specific suburbs in Cincinnati? I ride here, and I've
never, ever, had reason to take to the sidewalk. Not once.

Cincy is no worse than many, many other places. Better than some.

Pete

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 20:30:50 -0700, (Tom Keats) wrote:

In article ,
Badger_South writes:

How about this. Fantasize soaping the windshield. But, never, never be the
one that escalates. Always de-escalate.

Yeah, that's probably best.

The key for me is that although it feels good, momentarily, to go for the
'revenge' angle, my conscience gets the better of me and I spend days
ruminating and worrying about consequences. Then I'd start thinking in an
empathetic way about the perp, and feeling bad about doing anything to
them.

Best is to keep below the radar, and be smooth and silent and swoosh on by,
IMO.

And I say this as a guy who'd
rather fight at the drop of a hat...it's what I do - BJJ/Mauy Thai) ;-p

(Jeeze, can't believe I misspelled: it's Muay Thai.)


In fact fantasize even more drastic things, but then blow it off.

Or just think about the scene in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' where
Gregory Peck just wipes the spit off his face.

Well, now, I don't know if I could follow my own advice in that scenario,
but, well, OK. ;-/

-B


cheers,
Tom

In article ,
says...
On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 22:58:59 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

Badger_South wrote:



Trouble with getting in and out of clips is that I keep looking down and
lose my bearing and swerve a bit.

I'm workin' on it.

Here's a basic tip, and then a couple more arcane tips.

When you're starting out, forget about the clip you came out of. For
the first five pedal strokes (or twenty, depending what's going on) just
push on the bottom of that pedal. Get up to speed.

Hey Frank! Thanks for taking the time to post those tips. ;-)

Trouble with pedalling on the bottoms of the pedals is the clips scrape the
street, but just a little. I'll keep your tip in mind next time, as well as
the one about practicing in a parking lot.

I often do one pedal revolution to get up to speed before putting my
feet in the toe clips. Yes, it scrapes as it goes around, but toe clips
are cheap to replace when that one gets worn through a few years from
now. Actually, since I just put shorter crank arms on it, it won't
scrape as much anyway.


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"maxo" wrote in message
news
The classic "pass" around here is the guy that MUST get past you because
you are a cyclist (!), then slows down and cuts you off making a right
turn. [slaps forehead and says duh...] I get a couple of these per day
even with my "assertive" style.

I had one of these Must Get Around Cyclist drivers yesterday -- a big black
Ford Imposition, or whatever those things are called. It just got around me,
and duh, there was a flagger -- why did the driver think I was slowing down?

I scootled around the hulking SUV, and chatted with the flagger. I mentioned
in a sort of jolly fashion that the driver of the car behind me nearly put
me into ditch so he could get up to the front first. All smiles, he said he
saw that behavior, and suggested that I go ahead of the vehicle to ensure
that he drove through the construction area at a safe enough pace, which I
did.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

(R15757) wrote in message ...
Frank Krygowski wrote in part:

IIRC, roughly half of serious bike accidents are the fault of the cyclist,
usually violating a very clear law...

I think you refer to car-bike collisions.

True. Sorry for the lack of precision.

But car-bike
collisions account for no more than 20% of all bicycle
accidents/injuries.

True. They're not extremely common.

The rest are what--wipeouts.
Wiping out on sand, potholes, ramming into curbs, et
cetera.

Yes. And running into other cyclists (as often as cars!) and hitting
loose dogs, etc. IOW, just simple little crashes.

And most of that wrecking is done by kids and beginners.

Sure. As it's always been, back into the 1890s.

When you start talking about experienced, adult
cyclists, it's a very different story. Experienced
cyclists are much less likely to wreck in the first
place,

.... logically enough ...

but the likelihood that any particular wreck
will be a serious car-bike collision increases with
experience.

That's oddly phrased. To look at it another way: After (say) ten
years of cycling, an adult is much less likely to just lose his
balance, or slip on gravel, or get his shoelace caught in the chain,
or forget where his brake levers are, etc etc. So if he _does_ crash
(a rare event) it's more likely to be with a car. He's eliminated
most other crash sources.

And that collision will most likely be the "fault" of the
motorist. This is straight out of Forester, although it
strikes a blow to his/your fundamental arguments,
imo..

??? I'm not sure which of my "fundamental arguments" you mean. Last
time you and I went around, I was saying cycling is pretty darned
safe. You seemed to be saying that no, it's quite dangerous.

Before that, IIRC, I was saying we should obey traffic laws, and you
were a guy who was saying it's OK to run red lights. (I _think_ that
was you - it's harder to tell with an anonymous poster.)

So be more specific. I still say cycling is relatively safe. (We can
look at the numbers yet again, if you insist.) And I still say it's
significantly safer for people who obey the traffic laws. Which are
you disagreeing with this time?

So cyclists as a whole can eliminate roughtly half of
car-bike collisions by riding lawfully. What about the
other half?

Cyclists can eliminate almost all of those by riding with proper
awareness, by asserting their right to the road (e.g. taking the lane
when necessary to prevent an unsafe pass), by communicating with other
road users (i.e. learning to negotiate lane changes, etc.), by
learning a few emergency maneuvers (like quick stops and quick turns).

This stuff is what gets taught in an Effective Cycling (or Bike Ed)
class. It's easy to learn. I have no idea what you propose as an
alternative.

--
Frank Krygowski