Speed biking
I've been biking to work for a few years now and it seems that there are waaaaaay more cyclists on my route, which is great. Except I'm not very agressive so it takes me a long time to work up the nerve to bike into the car lane in order to pass slower cyclists, and I tend to get stuck behind people a lot. I've been avoiding bike lanes this summer to bike on quieter side streets, but I've been dreaming of speed and wide open road or track. Must be a mid-life crisis or something. Any suggestions?
Annie (closet speed demon)
Annie, are you feeling stable when you turn your head to check for cars? I got this tip just a couple of weeks ago, and what a difference. When you turn your head to the left to look for cars, hold onto the rear of the seat with your right hand.
Because my commute is so long, and I start so early, I don't see many cyclists, except when coming in for a night shift. I am against the prevailing current until I hit the core, then I am riding to work with everyone riding home from work along the Danforth. I tend to ride between 27 and 30 kph, so there are a lot of slower cyclists to pass. You simply have to wait for a gap between cars. Also, many people ride a lot closer to the parked cars than they should; if you want to avoid getting doored, ride at the right side of the dividing line between the lanes. A little known fact is that one can fit three cars into two lanes (in fact, I did it once with an ambulance, car and dumptruck - I was sure the ambulance was going to lose the side mirrors). So, if the person is close to the cars, you can stay in that right hand lane and still have room to pass them.
Come back and ride with the cyclists; so much of my riding every year is commuting by myself in the dark, that I love to have the chance to just strike up a conversation with another rider.
Take care, Paul Dicks
Why is my comment about shoulder-checks posted here, gone?
Hey Aidan - did you get a reply? Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of access/power over the comments or the site in general...but I would be very much against any kind of censorship. Your comments are appreciated! I hope it was just a system glitch.
I talked to Herb, and he said there wasn't any censorship here. I'm not sure what happened. I looked through the history for this page, and I can't find any record of Aidan clicking "add new comment" until Oct 3. There were some technical changes on the site recently, so my only guess is that something strange happened then.
Sorry for your lost comment, Aidan. If anyone else notices a comment missing, please let us know. We don't want anything lost either! The posts and comments are what makes the site useful, afterall.
-dj
-dj
Nah, I don't feel unstable looking over my shoulder, I'm just not very good at judging whether or not the car behind and to the left is too close for me to cut in. I don't avoid it altogether (in fact, I do it daily to get into the left turn lane in a couple of places), but in some of those busy bikelanes there is a steady flow of cars to my left so I tend to avoid passing unless I'm really being slowed down. Today's cold, rainy weather has brought the cyclist numbers down a lot so this might become a non-issue until spring. Though I'll have to start another thread asking for clothes and equipment advice for cooler/darker weather....
Re: lost posts - did it appear, but then disappear? I can only ever 'preview' a post on my first try. On my second try (to actually post) I keep forgetting to change my answer since the math question always changes. Somewhere in the internet, someone is giggling at the collection of all the basic arithmetic questions I got wrong because of this.
Annie