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Bike Checks

01.15.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

Earlier this week, Pat and I were about to take a short ride in the neighborhood. While I waited with the bikes in the driveway as she finished putting on her shoes, I glanced down at the rear wheel of the bike — and I was stunned by what I saw.

The left-side brake pad was sitting at a right angle to the wheel rim. I put my fingers on it, and it was very loose. If I had ridden the bike that way, I would have had no stopping power in the rear brakes — and could have been in for a serious on-road problem.

I grabbed my Allen wrench set from the garage and quickly put the brake pad in place and made sure it was tightened down. Then I did a careful inspection — as careful as I could given the few minutes available — to make sure no other bolts were loose, and that everything was working as it should.

What bothers me about this incident is that I’m pretty good at doing the ABC Quick Check. I hadn’t done it yet this day, but would have before Pat came out. But on the previous ride I did, I didn’t catch the loose brake pad. Maybe it didn’t come loose until the end of the ride. Maybe something caused it to come loose while it was sitting in the garage for two days without being ridden (yeah, right). Maybe I had done last Sunday’s club ride with a loose brake pad. I get shivers just thinking about it.

But although I do the ABC Quick Check, I am negligent at doing a more careful inspection of the bike at a regular interval. Things like my tires, for instance. I know I should check them after every ride to make sure nothing got caught in the tread that could lead to a puncture, or if I have any new cuts or gashes in the tire. But I don’t. I check them when I think about it. I just don’t think about it near enough.

Since that experience with the brake, I’ve been over-diligent about checking out the bike. I suppose that’s a natural overreaction, but over time, I’ll ease up on doing it. Instead, I found a nifty little bike checklist, courtesy the folks at Active.com, that I’ve printed out and tacked to the garage wall near the bike. Now, I’ll have an ever-present reminder of the kinds of checks I need to do on the bike to prevent any other easily-detected problems from cropping up.

How about you? Do you have a bike inspection routine you normally use? Share it with our readers.

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Categories // Maintenance, Safety Tags // Maintenance, Safety

When Nice Drivers Cause Problems

01.10.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 10 Comments

Just the other day, I mentioned that sometimes when drivers are nice to cyclists (it does happen!), it can cause safety problems. Sure enough, on our club ride Sunday, we ran into that very situation — twice.

One of my favorite routes is Fitzhugh Road. It’s in the Hill Country west of Austin, but not too far west. In fact, it’s only about a 10-mile ride to get there, and then the rider can go for as long as 30 miles, on some challenging rolling hills. We didn’t go that far Sunday — in fact, we went only about five miles on Fitzhugh before we turned back.

But here’s the tricky part. When Fitzhugh ends at U.S. 290, we have to make a left turn onto the highway. At this point, 290 is four lanes wide with a center lane. Cyclists take the center lane, because in just about 200 yards, we’re going to make another left turn — and being in the center lane is safer, believe it or not, than trying to ride an iffy shoulder, then cut across traffic lanes to get into position to make a left.

Most of the time, it’s an easy maneuver. Because of the way stoplights are timed along 290, we often can make our left turn from the center lane without dealing with oncoming traffic. But that wasn’t the case this time. We were in a tightly-packed group of 10. The oncoming traffic was as heavy as I’ve ever seen it. We reached the left turn, and had to stop.

But one of the oncoming cars decided to do us a favor. He stopped, and waited for us to turn in front of him. We all stayed put, and signaled him to keep going. After all, he had the right of way. But one of our group decided to take him up on his generous offer, and started to make the turn. The car, responding to the group’s gestures, started up again. Then, more cars headed in his direction caught up. Our cyclist friend could have been t-boned, and the result would not have been pretty.

Later, just yards from the end of our ride, we were in the left turn lane of a four-lane divided road. We were about to turn into the shopping area where our Starbucks meeting place is situated. The traffic spaced out enough that some riders opted to proceed across the oncoming lanes. Others of us weren’t quick enough in our reactions, and stayed in the left turn lane, waiting for all the traffic to pass. But one car decided to be a nice guy. He stopped — in the middle of a 50 mph suburban arterial — to let us make our turn. Other traffic was closing the gap. We had to decide quickly what to do. We all made it across, waving at the guy as we did.

We get enough static from bike-hating drivers that it’s a pleasant change of pace to see someone who’s looking out for bikers. But when their generosity has the potential of causing worse traffic hazards, I’d just as soon have them be less nice.

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Categories // Safety Tags // Safety

The Hidden Danger of Bike Lanes

12.01.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Normally, I’m a fan of bike lanes. In my area, which is a subrban-style neighborhood, they’ve been striped on most of the arterials. It’s reassuring for me to know that if I stay in my lane and the cars stay in their lane, we can all just get along.

That rose-colored glasses view of bike lanes fogged over last weekend when I was on a short ride with my wife. We do a nine-mile round trip from the house. It takes only about 40 minutes, but she considers it a good ride, and it’s often the only ride I’m going to get anyway, so I’m happy to do it. We ride the bike lane along a broad, two-lane street out to a busy highway, then turn around and double back.

I like to crank it up on the way back. There’s a nice stretch of almost two miles that’s a little bit downhill, and it’s easy to build up some decent speed. I’ll usually charge through there and then stop to wait for Pat at the last side street before we have to make a left turn at a stoplight and head home.

So I was moving at a pretty good clip, approaching a side street that entered from the right. Without warning, a white Toyota Camry sped up to the intersection. The driver was looking to his right. I was coming from his left. Instead of stopping even with his stop sign, he kept coming until the nose of his car was sticking out into the bike lane — just as I got there.

I flicked the handlebars over and passed in front of him. He didn’t see me until I was right on top of him. The whole thing happened so quickly, I didn’t even have time to yell, “On your left!” or some such thing.

The situation could have been very dangerous. Well, it was, but it could have had serious consequences. When I moved to my left to avoid him, I darted into the traffic lane — without looking. I had no idea if a car was behind me in that lane or not. (I had a pretty good idea none was, since I had not heard anything. But with today’s quiet cars, you never know.)

As I continued riding, I thought about the close call. I was still thinking about it about a half mile down the road when sure enough, another car — this time a black Mercedes driven by a soccer mom type — enters the intersection from the right, and doesn’t stop until it’s completely blocking the bike lane. This time, I wasn’t quite as close as in the first incident, so my move into the traffic lane was done more deliberately, and I even signaled my move –but I still didn’t look for cars coming up behind me.

Now, I suppose I could make the argument that I should always just take the lane anyway and not both about bike lanes. But I don’t think that’s necessary. I prefer to maintain an entente cordiale with motorists, and in four years of riding along that street, I really haven’t had much to complain about. But an entente implies that two parties are involved, and I’d sure like to see drivers acknowledge that marked bike lanes are another traffic control feature that must be observed, just like yield signs and double yellow lines.

In the meantime, I’ll be riding that route with a heightened sense of alertness.

Bike lane picture from University of South Florida Bike Club.

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Categories // Safety Tags // bike lanes

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