Cycling Techniques

All say aye, if we could get everyone to adopt this simple approach,
and confidence in riding, we would all be brothers and sisters in the magical kingdom
(like your new Yin -Yang .)

ya gotta believe jason

because NS cycle training is educating a generation of young people who only know 'ride a car doors width away' and 'cover your brakes' , ''know what's behind you' and ' ride in the middle of the lane at junctions'

and they love riding their bikes

without saying too much, things are changing for me next spring, and Im looking at delivering a whole load more N/S work again, gonna be sahweeeet:-)

*"The best way of educating drivers is on the road will. If they see more cyclists riding in the middle of the traffic stream when possible or necessary they'll learn. The more of us who do that the more they'll get used to it. They may even begin to understand why as simple messages (such as** ride a doors length away from parked cars**) are becoming more mainstream"
*
Yeh, I know that, I just thought writing something like "teach by example" sounded a bit patronising and smug coming from me. To be crystal about it: I don't think educating in the sense of explaining is best done on the road.

you're right will *explaining *is a limited way of educating someone...nothing beats a good demonstration ;-0

Have you seen my post in the What to say..... thread? There's one van driver who will have some explaining of his own to do next week.

Saw that will. Well done and good result
Punishment for bad driving is another excellent path to driver enlightenment and we owe it to ourselves not to let bad drivers get away with anything

Best way of educating drivers is before they get on the road. My personal view is that Bikeability L3 should be a requirement to get a provisional driving licence.

This is a change that 1) would take too many years to filter through to become the majority of road users having been trained to L3 and 2) wouldn't win any votes for the administration, so I doubt it'll ever come about. There's probably reasons 3-10 too if anyone cares to list them.

I was talking to a friend about that last night and wondered if there are any driving instructors on the forum? Or would they be too nervous to admit it?

I am not,but I d be happy to admit that learning to drive increased my road skills as a cyclist.

Learning to drive a car introduced me to the vast amount of blindspot a vehicles have, the braking distance of an non-ABS equipped car, the highway code, who's who has priority etc.

Being aware of those made me a better cyclists, most especially the blindspot of which allow me to work with the traffic more easily (i.e. not undertaking vehicles where the cycle lane is).

Apparently you can brake in less distance with a non-abs car. Especially on loose surfaces, or where every wheel on a car is prone to loss of traction like on ice.

It also prevents drivers from learning proper braking skills.

Learner car are usually equipped without ABS, or is that not the case nowadays? (like those Mini learner car).

Did not know that abs have a longer braking distance on loose surfaces and the like, is that a fact?

No. Its all about cadence braking in cars not fitted with ABS.

Talking of drivers

I have spent today with a group of london bus drivers giving cyclists awareness sessions. Generally a thoughtful bunch who agree with most the riding position points. They had a poster showing a cyclists in the middle of a bus lane and a bus driver overtaking her moving into the next lane in the depot. It's good to see the 'Middle of a bus lane' message clearly stated.

The drivers also appreciated the way professional cyclists ride
("the ones with a small cog and skinny tyres and have black bags and radios. They do that do that funny skidding thing to stop")
They're good because "they're always twitching their head and they go fast enough and know what they're doing "

I sent edscobles regards and said that many professional cyclists rate the bus drivers
as the best drivers on London roads which made them happy.

More tomorrow when I am being taken on a bus ride with their manager who will be pointing out to me the main places where drivers are most in conflict with cyclists along their routes.

Wow, that sounds like useful and progressive work. Well done.

Can you say which bus drivers they are, and how the contact came about?

So far we've worked with 2 companies so far Oiver, Go-ahead and Abellio.
40 drivers will have attended these sessions by the end of tomorrow

CTUK was invited to present the HGV work we had pioneered in lambeth (with Veolia) to a london bus company conference set up by TfL. We were then asked to run these sessions with the above 2 companies and are speaking to other companies.

in addition to this classroom based session we will be offering some on-bike training to drivers. (We have also trained a team of bus driver instructors as NS Cycling instructors for both companies who will be offering Cycle training as part of their driver inductions)

this is groundbreaking stuff ^^ great.

Piece in a coaching journal that’s worth sharing,
The technique here is ‘far focus’ as it sounds, riding with the distance as your main focus.
We could break it down into working on the following,
Use of energy, concentrating on reaching the distant goal rather than your immediate separate body functions, aiming at becoming efficient as possible on the bike.
Pacing strategy, Judging the right gear for the terrain, anticipating the upcoming needs of the bike to transit the section successfully as part of the whole ride, again far focus.
Efficient course, Making sure that your line is as smooth and graduated around obstacles as possible, taking the right line in and out of corners whilst gear shifting well in advance, braking and accelerating correctly.
Group riding, maintaining speed and place, combining all above far focus, anticipating changes and being able to remain consistent regardless of others more chaotic riding styles.
Combining these will make you a smoother, more able rider.

As advanced road users considering some of the following may also help, this is IAM stuff,
Observation, planning and execution. Position on the road is optimised for safety, visibility and correct routing.
Speed appropriate to the hazard being approached- using braking to be able to stop in distance clearly available.
Control though hazard by advance shifting to correct gear.
Acceleration for clearing hazard safely.

Not sure if this is the right thread, but with the dark afternoons coming on again, I often find myself worrying about braking sharply, wishing I had a brake light!

Not that I'm into unnecessary emergency stops or anything, but I just worry that whoever is behind me isn't paying attention or has no intention of stopping where I'm stopping. I mean you see it quite a lot with cars - you know the car behind thinks they can just nip through the lights, but the car in front stops on the amber and the car behind almost hits it - only cars being bigger and with brake lights are a bit more visible than me.

Also, I worry about those Barclays Bikes with their feeble little slow blinking lights. People that use them for commuting really need to start carrying their own.

Hoefla, I've send you a private message.

^Have more terrifying words ever been written?

Not sure if this is the right thread, but with the dark afternoons coming on again, I often find myself worrying about braking sharply, wishing I had a brake light!

Not that I'm into unnecessary emergency stops or anything, but I just worry that whoever is behind me isn't paying attention or has no intention of stopping where I'm stopping. I mean you see it quite a lot with cars - you know the car behind thinks they can just nip through the lights, but the car in front stops on the amber and the car behind almost hits it - only cars being bigger and with brake lights are a bit more visible than me.

Also, I worry about those Barclays Bikes with their feeble little slow blinking lights. People that use them for commuting really need to start carrying their own.

Back to looking behind again, the power of the glance back is amazing. Not only will you know what is behind you and whether stopping would be risky, drivers are less likely to tailgate once you've shown your face.

And as you suggested HOEFLA slowing down gradually and anticipating ahead, reading the road may eliminate the need for sudden stopping.

Regarding the Hire Bikes lights, back lights are less of a worry especially if you ride in the drivers line of sight and in their headlights. You're very visible.

Slightly more of an issue is the lack of a powerful front light which drivers, pulling out from side road,s may miss. Again riding away from the junction mouth will give you more time to get seen also turning your head towards the junction checking if anyone is there will also help. (Not a huge issue though since the hire bikes will mainly be used in inner london boroughs which have good street lighting ).

^Have more terrifying words ever been written?

I got a PM from Ed. not scary at all . Quite nice actually,

Back to looking behind again, the power of the glance back is amazing. Not only will you know what is behind you and whether stopping would be risky, drivers are less likely to tailgate once you've shown your face.

I'm quite into looking behind. I got the fugitive thing down.

But I feel that drivers (and cyclists) still look past you, especially when approaching junctions, especially when they are just thinking about getting home quickly, and they look past you to the lights. A car can make the calculation to scoot through on an amber, knowing the waiting traffic will see them and wait momentarily. A cyclist makes the same calculation and figures they are going that little bit slower and don't want to be in the middle of the junction when the waiting traffic starts to move.

Up to that moment, the cyclist has moved into the middle of the lane, cycling fairly fast to keep up with traffic flow, they are at the front when the lights change. Best place for being seen sure, but I do just fear the day the car behind hasn't seen me.

Regarding the Hire Bikes lights, back lights are less of a worry especially if you ride in the drivers line of sight and in their headlights. You're very visible.

Really? I don't drive so maybe it's to do with line of sight, but for instance, London Bridge is super central, and there are several hire bike commuters, but it is sometimes really dark heading south and the traffic goes at a pace and everyone is tearing it for the lights / avoiding the buses etc. I don't envy them getting in lane to go down Borough HS. Actually some nights it seems much darker than others - do the streetlights sometimes go off?

I got a PM from Ed. not scary at all . Quite nice actually,

yes. very pleasant.