Hello, commuters!

[Firoz Taverbi]

After a week of cycling too and from my house to my department (a grand total of seven minutes hard cycling, goodness gracious me), I think it's time to move out of the Beginners forum and into the Commuting one. My little ride pales into insignificance compared to some of these 20-mile commutes (bravo, anyone who does this on a regular basis. I salute you.), but I think while I'm still learning to navigate the roads it helps to only be travelling short distances at a time. I've already had a Bit of an Incident (misjudged distances and clipped a car wing mirror with my handlebar, has anybody else done this? Please tell me I'm not the only one with shameful spacial awareness!), but otherwise I seem to be improving.

I hope to be cycling to university for a long time to come - although I'm not sure how I'll handle snow or ice if/when it arrives - so this is a cursory hello to all you commuters out there, and perhaps even something of a little plea: any general tips you think I ought to know out on the road? Any suggestions? Solidarity on the terror that is passing vans and the embarassment of swerving too close to a parked car?

 

[Beebo]

Welcome, have you read the essential guide to new commuters thread yet? It's one of the threads that are sticky at the top of the page. Download the document and It will tell you all you need to know.

 

[Cyclopathic]

^^Were we supposed to read that? Looks like I've got homework to do.

 

[cyberknight]

Welcome to the commuting side of life, i was out at 4.50 am on the way to work but i did not see you

 

[trampyjoe]

I seemed to remember reading the first few posts and closing it thinking it was full of the usual cycle chat waffle and bollocks discussions.

 

[Beebo]

I seemed to remember reading the first few posts and closing it thinking it was full of the usual cycle chat waffle and bollocks discussions.

The downloadable document is the important bit, there is a link to Dropbox in the first post by johnny jeez, you can ignore the rest of the thread.

 

[kedab]

it does have some really useful tips in there. i had a read after riding through town from the bike shop to work and realising i'd forgotten how to ride on the road - definitely worth a butcher's.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Try to ride away from parked cars, Lucy: a door might open suddenly and you're toast

 

[BrumJim]

Confidence comes with general experience, and is dented by specific experiences.
Women tend to suffer more from cycling accidents than me, even though they tend to be given more room. No one has yet worked out why.

So, in summary: You will get better through experience/over time, don't let bad experiences knock your confidence, and ride with the arrogance of a bloke, but the hair style of a woman.

 

[jonny jeez]

I seemed to remember reading the first few posts and closing it thinking it was full of the usual cycle chat waffle and bollocks discussions.

The downloadable document is the important bit, there is a link to Dropbox in the first post by johnny jeez, you can ignore the rest of the thread.

As if by magic...(Mr Ben stylie)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12757785/guide.pdf

enjoy.
PS...its not mandatory to read, but it helps many new city riders (cyclopathic included by the sounds of it)

 

[jonny jeez]

^^Were we supposed to read that? Looks like I've got homework to do.

Glad it helped, like I say, you don't *have* to read it but we put it together in the hope that it would answer a bunch of questions that we all asked ourselves at some point

 

[jonny jeez]

I've already had a Bit of an Incident (misjudged distances and clipped a car wing mirror with my handlebar, has anybody else done this? Please tell me I'm not the only one with shameful spacial awareness!), but otherwise I seem to be improving.

Good th hear you are moving on a bit more.

I'm a bit worried about the Clip though (sorry to nanny) was it a left or right clip?...you're answer will help with advice as I guess you were either filtering a little too bravely, or not avoiding the door zone sufficiently.

Both are easily fixed.

J

 

[Firoz Taverbi]

I read through the guide to commuting document - definitely very useful. Because all the cycling I'd done before was on quiet roads or with other people, I have a lot to learn about the way the road works. But thank you all for your encouragement/advice/other general conversations that seem to have turned up here! Sorry it's been a few days... I was in Birmingham, visiting my (sadly bikeless) sister.

Good th hear you are moving on a bit more.

I'm a bit worried about the Clip though (sorry to nanny) was it a left or right clip?...you're answer will help with advice as I guess you were either filtering a little too bravely, or not avoiding the door zone sufficiently.

Both are easily fixed.

J

I clipped the right wing mirror with my left handlebar - I was trying to keep out of the way of passing cars and accidentally got too close to the parked ones. I think I've learned my lesson now.

Confidence comes with general experience, and is dented by specific experiences.
Women tend to suffer more from cycling accidents than me, even though they tend to be given more room. No one has yet worked out why.

So, in summary: You will get better through experience/over time, don't let bad experiences knock your confidence, and ride with the arrogance of a bloke, but the hair style of a woman.

I have a lot to work on, then! My hair doesn't look good even when it hasn't been blown about by a cycling commute! I also know I need to work on my confidence, but I feel like a menace to the drivers as it is since I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing. When I think I'm actually doing the right thing I can pull it off more assertively, perhaps!

Try to ride away from parked cars, Lucy: a door might open suddenly and you're toast

Aah! I hadn't thought of that! But the road is so narrow and the cars are so fast...

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Aah! I hadn't thought of that! But the road is so narrow and the cars are so fast...

Still, stay in the middle of the road if you need to, until it is safe for you to ride more on the left. Cars behind will have to wait. Or take a calmer road if you feel intimidated by fast traffic. Riding very near parked cars is dangerous. Doors could open, people could step out from behind the parked cars.

 

[Firoz Taverbi]

Still, stay in the middle of the road if you need to, until it is safe for you to ride more on the left. Cars behind will have to wait. Or take a calmer road if you feel intimidated by fast traffic. Riding very near parked cars is dangerous. Doors could open, people could step out from behind the parked cars.

I only really have the one road to my department (unless I want to cycle through the university, which takes about twice as long...). Because of the way the road is laid out, I end up cycling directly at oncoming cars if I go too far out into the road. I drew a picture:

When the road is clear, I don't have a problem. But I think in this case I was cycling very close to the parked cars to avoid both oncoming cars and cars behind me, and misjudged the distances by a few inches...