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Is Cycling Dangerous?

05.23.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

Our friend Don Blount got some bad news last week: In addition to a broken wrist from a fall during his first century ride, it turned out that his arm was broken, too.

Don had surgery on the arm Friday, and says it went well, but he’ll be off the bike for six to eight weeks while he heals.

That gives him time to do some thinking. He’s been thinking about his second major crash in the last nine months, and breaking the same wrist in those crashes. On top of that, many of us rode in the Ride of Silence last week, which commemorates riders who died in bicycle crashes.

So Don poses the question: Is cycling dangerous?

Don says some of his non-biking friends are telling him to give up cycling, because it’s “too dangerous.”

A couple of studies done in the 1990s found about 500,000 visits to the emergency room each year in the U.S. as the result of bicycle crashes. Just a small fraction required a hospital stay.  Over half the accidents involved motor vehicles, and road surface and mechanical problems with the bicycle are also common causes of accidents.

That reminded me of a club ride I was on a couple of months ago. We were nearing the end, but had to ride for a short distance on a two-lane highway with no shoulders. The road is hilly and curvy, and we mostly avoid it. When we turned off it to cut across a parking lot to another road, one of the riders remarked how glad she was to have survived another ride.

“Well,” I said, “it seems to me that every time we get on our bikes we’re taking a risk. It could be the car that doesn’t see you, or the car that does, and wants to ‘teach you a lesson.’ Or you could hit some bad road surface and lose your balance, or any number of things. But usually we don’t. We’re smart enough to know the risks and we watch out for problems.”

I guess that’s how I’d answer Don’s question, too. Cycling can be risky, but it’s not inherently dangerous.

Don concurs. “I never thought of riding a bike as dangerous,” he emailed me, “probably because it’s something I learned to do as a child. And if I felt it was dangerous, I doubt I would have taught my children to ride.”

He says his injury occurred because he became overly concerned with one risk factor – cars – and lost sight of another – a railroad track at an intersection bad for riding.

But he also notes that other adults get hurt in sports like skiing, soccer, or basketball, and don’t think twice about getting back to them.

And after his convalescence, he says, “I intend to get back on my bike as soon as I can. After all, I received my new helmet just a few days ago.”

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Categories // crash, Injury, Safety Tags // crash, Injury, Safety

Rude Cyclists

05.16.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 14 Comments

I saw a tweet recently complaining about rude cyclists. Thinking it was another rant about bikes interfering with cars, I replied to the writer (twitterer? twit? This person is definitely not a twit) asking for clarification.

What I mean, she wrote back, are cyclists who are rude to other cyclists, not motorists. They pass without warning, don’t call out, “On your left,” and generally have an arrogant attitude toward others they meet on the road. That attitude could contribute to accidents.

I chewed on that for awhile, and tried to remember instances I’d run across where other cyclists were rude to me. But then I experienced first hand what I think she was talking about.

I was taking my weekly run around the Veloway, chatting with my friend David. The Veloway is wide enough for two lanes, with a white stripe painted down the center. Slow cyclists are supposed to stay in the right lane. In practice, things are less formal.

As we rode along, catching up (I hadn’t seen him in weeks), he was in the right lane, and I was in the left. We didn’t hear anyone, but suddenly, the call, “On your left,” came from right behind me.

Before I could react, a rider passed me on my left side. He was down in the drops, moving fast. I didn’t think much of it — the lanes are plenty wide enough for two bikes to pass without a problem. But suddenly, a second cyclist shot between us without warning.

He was obviously the riding partner of the first guy, and was going just as fast. I looked at David, and he looked back at me and raised his eyebrows.

“Good thing you didn’t move right when that first guy called ‘On your left,'” he said.

“I would have, but he was by me too fast,” I replied. “We could have had a pretty good crash there.”

The problem, as I saw it, was that the first rider indicated he was passing on the left, but his partner passed me on my right. Now, you never pass on the right. And this guy was more than a bike length behind his buddy, so why didn’t he grab his wheel and follow him around me on the left?

The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth. I know I’m not the fastest guy out there, but I do get out of the way when faster riders come by. There was no reason for this cowboy behavior.

What kinds of rudeness from other cyclists have you experienced on the road?

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Categories // Safety Tags // rudeness, Safety

ABC Quick Check – Do It!

04.25.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

ABC Quick Check is a simple way to check out your bike before a ride. A is for Air. Are your tires pumped up to the proper pressure? B is for Brakes. Are they adjusted correctly? Do they stop your bike? C is for Cranks and Chains. Any looseness in the cranks when you pull on them? Is the chain moving smoothly over the sprockets? Quick is for the Quick Release levers on your wheels. Are they tightened properly? Check is for a checkout of the bike before riding. Hop on, pedal a little bit. Does everything seem OK?

Preston Tyree, the education director for the League of American Bicyclists, does a demo of the ABC Quick Check.

The League of American Bicyclists, among other groups, promotes ABC Quick Check for all riders before they begin their rides. If done properly, it takes only a minute, and it’s a good way to make sure everything is shipshape. I do it. Mostly. But lately I’ve been slipping. And on Saturday’s ride, that slippage could have caused a big problem.

Earlier in the afternoon, I put my bike on the bike stand to wash it. I took off both wheels to do a thorough scrub job, then put the wheels back on while the bike was still on the stand.

They went on okay, but the front didn’t seem as secure as it usually does. After a day of yard work and other honey do’s, I couldn’t wait to get out on a ride, so I set the bike aside and jumped into my bike clothes.

This was going to be an easy ride, but I still wanted to sneak in a little hard work. I went out to the Mopac route. On the return leg, I started thinking about that front wheel. I should really pull over to check it. But here comes an intersection I have to pay attention to. Got through that okay. I should really pull over to check it. But here comes the best downhill part of the route. I’ll stay on the hoods, instead of the drops this time. Above 30, against the wind — pretty good. Here comes the sweeping bend to the north. I’ll get into the traffic lane a bit to avoid the gouges in the asphalt on the shoulder. I should really pull over to check it. Man, going 21 up hill — doing great, but I should really pull over to check it. Maybe up at the end, when I turn into the Veloway…

I did pull into the Veloway, and stopped by the water fountain and covered benches at the start. Had a good swig of water. Okay, let’s check that front wheel. I loosened the quick release a bit — and the dropouts clicked into place over the axle.

I had just ridden more than 10 miles with a front wheel that wasn’t completely locked in place in the dropouts. If I had stayed on the shoulder through the big turn, and hit one of those gouges in the pavement, it could have had severe consequences.

This morning, I loaded the bike onto the car to drive to the start point of my ride. In the parking lot, while the rest of group were chatting and joking, I was doing a very careful ABC Quick Check. Make it a habit.

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Categories // Safety Tags // Safety

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