Wanted: A rider. Teach LdnGrrl how to ride day

Guilty ! you know me too well..... ;-)

have you thought about speaking to ed about his experiences?

Yes, I have, but him and I have different views on stuff!

You're going up in my estimation at an alarming rate ;)

What kind of strategy would you want to adopt? Do you want to just follow a wheel and copy a model of appropriate urban riding, or do you have something else in mind? And I don't know whether you're profoundly deaf/lip read/sign/whatever, but I imagine a quick discussion of communication methods would be useful before embarking on the practical side of things.

It's piss poor, BTW, that those cycling advocacy organisations have failed to reply. You'd expect at least a cursory notification of receiving your enquiry within 48hrs.

Follow a wheel but also swap and get feedback, I did this with Deluka last saturday, and felt tiny bit more confident. So I figure this is the way to go
I lipread and can hear and talk.

And yeah I'm irritated about the delay in the replies, it might be because it's the summer time and people may be still on holiday but its coming up what? A month or two now.

P.s No being mean to Ed, s'not allowed! :P

Apart from the nuts and bolts of bike handling, I think the most important aspect is being assertive, and projecting this non-verbally.

Hopefully you'll get volunteers who can demonstrate how you do this via your posture on the bike, eye gaze, road positioning, hand signals, and generally by anticipating the worst case scenario at any given time, whilst riding with the composure of someone in the midst of the best case scenario :S

i find it helps hugely if you have experience of driving a car - it's easier to predict drivers movements if you can put yourself in their minds

Well fingers crossed I will.
:)

And nope I don't drive a car!

Well, just remember cars have blindspots, and driving one often turns otherwise reasonable people into total cunts.

Cycle craft, buy it read it. and practice practice practice.

Well done.

Well, just remember cars have blindspots, and driving one often turns otherwise reasonable people into total cunts.

it's strange because i'm a total cunt, but when i get into a car i become quite reasonable

You're fucking weird though.

I quite fancy me some L places though.

people ride around with ipods every day - about the same as being deaf. f.ing annoying as that don't seem to acknowledge that they cannot hear at least if you're trying to manage it you're going to be better than all those stupid twats wearing ipods.

I quite fancy me some L places though.

no way. the idea is to pretend you know exactly what you are doing and where you are going. as soon as you hesitate it goes wrong.

there is a theory of urban design is that most car drivers accommodate themselves to the situation very well. so just learn by swerving all over the rode - they'll see you doing this - and steer well clear.

i ride with a guy that often stands in the middle of the road, sounds stupid but cars see him has a hissy fit and drive around him hooting. the point is that they have seen him.

Hey.....i'd be more than willing to help you out. I have days free next week if you fancy it. I can't imagine i'm much of a teacher but have recently aquired a lot of free time.

And it kinda sounds like fun.

no way. the idea is to pretend you know exactly what you are doing and where you are going. as soon as you hesitate it goes wrong.

there is a theory of urban design is that most car drivers accommodate themselves to the situation very well. so just learn by swerving all over the rode - they'll see you doing this - and steer well clear.

i ride with a guy that often stands in the middle of the road, sounds stupid but cars see him has a hissy fit and drive around him hooting. the point is that they have seen him.

I was joking about the L plates. And yes there's people who wear ipods, but they have the confidence already, it's there and giving them that ability to ride, I don't have that.

I understand cars can see me, and me serving or something will let them see me, but my entire point of making the post, I have a huge lack of confidence.

Hey.....i'd be more than willing to help you out. I have days free next week if you fancy it. I can't imagine i'm much of a teacher but have recently aquired a lot of free time.

I'd like that, please.

Cool...PM me your number. You around early afternoon Monday? If so i'll pedal up.

no way. the idea is to pretend you know exactly what you are doing and where you are going. as soon as you hesitate it goes wrong.

there is a theory of urban design is that most car drivers accommodate themselves to the situation very well. so just learn by swerving all over the rode - they'll see you doing this - and steer well clear.

i ride with a guy that often stands in the middle of the road, sounds stupid but cars see him has a hissy fit and drive around him hooting. the point is that they have seen him.

I ride with a bloke that rides on the wrong side of the road at high speed in the dark. I'm not sure what the point is.

It's worth reading the bikeability course manuals that you can download from here:

http://www.bikeability.org.uk/professionals/course_manuals/

I hope this helps, along with the other offers.

It's worth reading the bikeability course manuals that you can download from here:

http://www.bikeability.org.uk/professionals/course_manuals/

I hope this helps, along with the other offers.

Thanks :D I will print it out, as prefer the paper version (I know I know the trees etc) Cheers!

Thanks to everyone who has offered to help so far!

Can't offer any help I afraid being about 200 miles away but I am one of them ipod wearing dickheads and find that whether I'm listening to music or not it is visual alertness and experience of the situations that you face on the road that matter. You just have to learn to be ready to avoid retards, always, and it's when you get complacent and daydream that bad things happen. To me anyway.

Uh huh, I need to learn how to be ready, and feel confident. You may be an iphone wearing dickhead but you have the knowledge and experience to ride, right? :)

debatable