reducing fear when cycling?

My gfs bike will be finished on the weekend(pending delivery of final parts) and it's the first step in many to make cycling more enjoyable and useful for her.

The biggest thing to tackle is the fear and while I can cycle with her and get her out of the kerb it's more trusting in me than taking on the problem, I'm sure when left alone she would return to her default position in the kerb.

I know a certain amount will come from just spending more time on 2 wheels but beyond that what is there?

Someone will say cycle training I'm sure so I could ask a old friend to ride with her but they have always said my line was good/safe so apart from knowing the official lingo it might not add much.

Is she more likely to have an accident cycling nearer to the kerb?

Someone will say cycle training I'm sure so I could ask a old friend to ride with her but they have always said my line was good/safe so apart from knowing the official lingo it might not add much.

Training is not about lingo and may well benefit her. It's not just about line in the road, it's about effective bike control, use of communication as well as road positioning.

If you're in London it can be free so no harm. You too could try it and may even learn something :)

@Lémonsqueezer yes, more drivers will pass when there isn't space for it and if you come up on a pothole or something your only choice is towards traffic or hit the pothole or hit the kerb(all shit). Google "kerb cycling" it's like the 1st thing you learn.

Also when you go from kerb cycling to passing parked cars and keep the same distance chance of getting car doored is on the up too.

My Polish friend is working on High Holborn, she got a bike under bike to work, a sedate upright Pashley, but she says there's no way shed ride in London. She saw a horrible road rage near her house on the Old Kent Road, a cyclist calmly remonstrated and the driver went crazy ape bonkers at him. She says its just too frightening. The thing is, I've cycled with her in Kraków. It's not that bad, about the same as London. Just behave like a motor vehicle, hold your line, all the usual stuff. I think it's to do with perception. London just scares some people.

Headphones.

(only half joking)

Just behave like a motor vehicle, hold your line, all the usual stuff. I think it's to do with perception. London just scares some people.

+1

I'm on the OKR, plus the rest of it every day. Maybe a good way to explain it is to go with the traffic, hang out with the cars and be part of the flow for safety's sake, not a separate entity on the left.

The only time I've had a run in with a motorist was when I was filtering in the gutter with near stand still traffic, the position I put myself in was technically like undertaking I suppose? It's not natural for motorists to be passed on the left anyway.

I usually hang out in a fast prime with moving traffic, or on the outside when filtering.

But I suppose it does take some kind of experience, easier said than done and all that. Can't remember a definitive point when it all clicked and I got out of the gutter but friends still remind of the days when I even used to say "no way am I EVER riding a bike on the road, you must be bat shit".

Just behave like a motor vehicle, hold your line, all the usual stuff

Sound advice. Unless of course you are Copenhagenize, in which case vehicular cyclists are "testosterone-driven", cultlike and probably "hit their children"

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/07/vehicular-cyclists-secret-sect.html

Ahem. Anyway, I would say that if she's on the OKR there are a number of LCN routes passing through the area. These are pretty quiet and usable by even timid cyclists.

Back to the original post - I think structured cycle training with an experienced instructor would still be hugely reassuring - as has been said it's about a lot more than the lingo.

Just to clarify I am pretty vehicular cyclist myself....works for me as I know I can't easily be overlooked. That reinforces confidence in itself. Riding in the gutter is a bad habit.

copenhagenize.com/2010/07/veh­icular-cyclists-secret-sect.html

Christ - what a load of strawman bollocks.

I usually hang out in a fast prime with moving traffic, or on the outside when filtering.

This!
Really. Passing on the right and even riding to the right while behind vehicles, looking at the driver in their right mirror so they see you is key.
So few cyclists seem to do this.

( It's quite amusing when I do this going over tower bridge every morning, since drivers when they see you on their right move left blocking the space to their left, which seems to frustrate some of the kerb magnets riders. It's especially fun when the gutter hugger is clearly trying to strava
confessions thread >>>>>>>)

Terrible isn't it? All the greatest hits of Internet Arguing Rhetoric in one handy page.

The worst of it is this consultancy is very popular right now.

And this one came out today
http://willcycle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/space-for-cycling.html
With added personal attacks

It's kind of sound advice in the current environment, if you can do it. When the curbs come, the advice will simply be 'ride your bike, enjoy it, and don't be douche'.

Definitely this, I always filter on the right and quite often in heavy traffic the van/car/whatever will move over for me and I'll always give them a wave.

@Clockwise if she's interested in some longer rides later on, you could point her in the direction of the ladies rides on here, along with all the other fun things (bmx,cyclocross) that we get up to, in a 'no-pressure' environment. Get her to ladies drinks!
(I'm presuming you're London based, so this may not actually work..)

London just scares some people.

I don't enjoy cycling in London anymore...

You could always walk...
...with your bike

have you considered alcohol?

@clefty we are both south in streatham, the eventual goal is I guess touring+camping holidays for longer rides and not this years but next hoping she can do the dynamo with me(this year would be premature, getting stuck 1/2 way wouldn't be fun).

I know she also mentioned weight, gyms and stuff but she couldn't get into a routine that suited a gym before. I dunno how serious she was about that or just an observation as I lost a stone or two myself.

Cycling to work is a no go for her atm since she does 12/13hr shifts(nursing) so riding tired in the dark/cold/wet.

I fitted panniers and the bigger sainaburys is a little over a mile with 1/2 the ride along tooting bec common so hopefully going to the shops gets associated with cycling and then from balham it's not so far to wandsworth park then the arndale and around/across to clapham common/junction asda, before you know it 10-15 mile ride around many shops.

I doubt she will do ladies drinks, neither of us are very drinky tbh. I do SEs sometimes as they have pizza, only thin pan pizza I eat(things I do for the forum lol).

could try riding with her and both smiling at, waving at, generally positively communicating with drivers?

@dan @skydancer I just don't enjoy being treated like a cunt on the road anymore... You can't win, give them room and they'll buzz you, ride primary and they'll punish pass you... I'm sick of it...

I blame the SW2 > E14 commute I was doing over the summer on my gf's Pomp... Shit route, wall to wall cunts...

Find some good rides for her to take part in. With nice people, not competitive assholes. Some rides on here, maybe check out the rides Southwark Cyclists do (architecture rides etc).

@noiser that is kinda the idea but we work different times so that will be 1 in 3 weekends maybe(she works weekends lots).

@itsbruce for a while it's just going to be her building up fitness, she isn't like mega unhealthy but I remember in the summer she did streatham to wood green via hackney with me(15miles?) and couldn't/wouldn't cycle back to streatham the next day(so I had to get a bus up and cycle the other bike back for her) part of that was the mtb is a pile of shit but when we had city bikes in antwerp/paris/ghent/places the distance was about the same. If she came along to the st pauls rides one weekend riding to st pauls and back without the 15-20miles actual ride would be it.

I think I might dig out some routes from my strava that have gone via shops and aren't as main roads, we walk similar routes sometimes but she sort of just follows and doesn't know where we are. Stuff like this.

http://www.strava.com/activities/206601033
http://www.strava.com/activities/201348004

she isn't like mega unhealthy but I remember in the summer she did streatham to wood green via hackney with me(15miles?) and couldn't/wouldn't cycle back to streatham the next day(so I had to get a bus up and cycle the other bike back for her) part of that was the mtb is a pile of shit but when we had city bikes in antwerp/paris/ghent/places the distance was about the same.

Have you considered that maybe she's just not into cycling?

yes, more drivers will pass when there isn't space for it and if you come up on a pothole or something your only choice is towards traffic or hit the pothole or hit the kerb(all shit).

There is no need to hit any potholes wherever in the road you cycle. If you're not able to see what's in front of you and react in time you should probably stick to walking.