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Tighten Your Cleats!

02.10.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

On a recent ride, I turned into the parking lot of one of those stand-alone Walgreen’s drug stores that seem to have cropped up on every other corner, when something didn’t feel right.  My right foot was looser than it usually is.

I stopped at the edge of the lot, used the opportunity to drink from my water bottle, and then I sat on the curb to take a look at my shoes.

The cleat on the right shoe had come loose.  Not catastrophically – I could move it a little with my hand – but the constant pressure in the pedal had loosened it up.  A few quick turns of the screws with my 4 mm Allen wrench, and it was solidly back in place.

I hadn’t been experiencing the same feeling on the left shoe, but decided to take a look anyway.  Sure enough, I could tighten those screws about a half-turn each as well.

I do periodic checks of the bike between rides, making sure the tires are in good shape, that everything moves smoothly.  I guess I’ll have to add a non-bike equipment check, too, and look at those cleats every couple of months.  It could save some headaches down the road.

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Categories // Equipment Tags // cleats, shoes

Triggering Green Lights

02.08.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

When I wrote my last post about getting stuck at red lights, a couple of commenters noted that the bike should be able to trip the green light.  The problem is, a lot of us don’t seem to know exactly how to do it – and I guess I’ll have to count myself as part of that group, since I’ve never been able to trip a green light while on my bike.

Andrew in New Hampshire says bikes just don’t have the weight required to trip the signal.  That’s true, Andrew, and it’s too bad if that’s the way they work in New Hampshire.  In Austin, Texas, they’re supposed to be tripped by metal – the metal on a car, and even the metal on a bike.  But some of us Austinites can ‘t make that work, either.  Steve says he sat through a red light cycle three times before finally waving a car ahead to trip the sensor.

Alice in Louisville has the solution – at least in her town.  “The sensor plates under the pavement show a “T” shaped seam in the road,” she writes. “By placing your front bike wheel at the top part of the T, that’s supposed to trigger the sensor as I understand it. Seems to work most of the time, although there are some intersections where it just doesn’t work.”

Yeah, that’s the way it’s supposed to work here, too.  In fact, Nadia Barrera, the project coordinator for the city’s pedestrian and bicycle program, posted an item on the Austin Cycling Association’s web site explaining how to trip the light:

“To trigger a traffic signal, simply place your bicycle over or within three inches of the ‘saw cut’ of thedetector loop (pictured). The signal detects metal, so your pedal or even the metal in your shoes should trigger the signal. Once you have situated yourself over the loop, stay put. The signal works in such a way that if you leave, it thinks that you were a right-turning vehicle, and the trigger process to change the light is aborted.”

I’ve tried. Lord knows, I’ve tried. An intersection I cross on three out of four bike rides stymies me. I think I can figure out where the cut is that she refers to, and I park the bike right over it. I have never triggered the light. I assume I’m doing something wrong.

And looking at the diagram supplied with her information … uh, I don’t know what it’s supposed to show. What’s that diagonal off to the upper right? Part of the loop? I assume the T at the top center of the top diagram is the part that Alice uses to get her green light. I will continue to try for the magic solution.

In the meantime, I’ll just inch forward into the pedestrian crosswalk so that cars behind me in the left turn lane will be able to get far enough forward that their metal content will trigger the green and get us going.

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Categories // Safety Tags // red light

Jumping Red Lights

02.06.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

So, I’m on a longer-than-usual weekend ride, and I come to a “T” intersection.  I’m going to turn left, off a narrow two-lane road onto a busy, four-lane arterial.  But I’ve got a red light.

I stop, and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Geez, this is a long light!  Maybe I can goose it up a bit.  I walk the bike over to the stop light, and push the button to display the “Walk” signal.  And wait.  And wait.  And wait.

Finally, the cross traffic gets a red light.  But my light doesn’t turn green.  The traffic moving from my right to my left has a left turn arrow, but no one is turning left.  So everyone is stopped at the intersection.

I’ve got two cars waiting behind me.  They’re both going to turn left with me.  I want to get out in front of them.  Oh, the hell with it.

I push out into the intersection and make my left turn.  I’m a good fifty yards down the road before the light where I was waiting turns green.  By the time those cars catch me, I’m safely in the right lane, and signaling a right turn for the next corner.

About an hour later, much the same thing.  Another “T” intersection.  I’m planning another left turn, and once again the light isn’t changing.  So once again, I pull out into the intersection, complete my turn, and I’m well down the road before any cars can catch up to me.

Proponents of vehicular cycling urge cyclists to ride as they would if they were behind the wheel of a car.  That means I’d have to stay in my place until the light goes green.

But from a personal safety standpoint, it made more sense to me to get a jump on the cars.  And both times, it worked just the way I had hoped.  I put distance between myself and them, and I think the drivers behind me might have appreciated that I wasn’t in their way, either.

And notice, I did not jump ahead at a red light where I was traveling in the same direction as the rest of the cars.  I would never do that.  I made these moves only at “T” intersections.

Was I wrong?

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Categories // Safety Tags // red light, vehicular cycling

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