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Causes of Bike Crashes

11.18.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

I recently came across data from two different sources that sheds some light on the causes of bicycle crashes.  The first is a report from the Twin Cities Bike Club of Minnesota.  The second is a report prepared by the city of Fort Collins, Colorado.  While the two sets of data covered different time periods and were compiled in different ways, they are interesting to look at.

The Twin Cities Bike Club has a Safety Committee that compiles records of all of its members’ bike crashes throughout the year.  The most recent data is from 2009.  In all, 34 crashes were reported,  and they fell into three categories:

Falling from a bike, 23; bike-bike collisions, 5; and bike-car collisions, 6.

The falls ran the gamut of causes, from silly to unfortunate.  My favorite: “Rider was drinking from camelback with one hand and braking with the other while negotiating a curve, went down.”  Other falls happened because of trouble with pedals and cleats, skidding on wet pavement, going off a paved bike trail, and handlebar grips coming loose.

Falls aren’t a laughing matter, though.  Falls can hurt.

In Fort Collins, the city’s report didn’t count falls from bikes.  It focused solely on car-bike crashes, with an eye to making the city’s streets safer for commuters.  It covers police reports filed between Jan. 1, 2007-June 30, 2009.  In all, 354 bike-car crashes were studied.  The conclusion:  Both motorists and cyclists share the blame.

The biggest cause of bike-car crashes may be considered somewhat of a surprise: Bikes traveling against traffic and ending up in a broadside collision with a car.  These kinds of crashes accounted for more than half of the fatal or severe injury crashes, and 60 percent of all crashes, in the report.  A broadside is a crash when a bike hits a car on a perpendicular road.

A broadside crash in the making.

Those of us who ride regularly might be surprised to learn that most of the broadsides happened when the bike was riding against traffic.  Part of the reason might be that Fort Collins, a city of about 140,000 people, is home to Colorado State University, which enrolls 26,300 students.  Many of these students commute to campus by bike.  The city’s bike coordinator says the crash data shows that university students could benefit from bicycle education efforts.

Other car-bike crashes included the overtaking, or “right hook” crash, where a car passes a bike, then turns right.  Those were 13 percent of the crashes.  Sideswipes, where bikes and cars were going in either the same or opposite directions, accounted for seven percent.

The Twin Cities crash data is less clear about the causes of bike-car crashes.  Only one seemed to fit the “right hook” description, and none apparently were broadsides.  Inattention by cyclists was the evident cause of some crashes: A rider was hit in a right turn lane, and another rider crashed into the back of a school bus when the bus suddenly stopped for railroad tracks.

So, what do we learn from these very different reports?  Both bikers and motorists have lots of room for improvement.  Clearly, if you ride predictably and obey the rules of the road, your chances of tangling with a car diminish.  But you must be alert and attentive all the while you are on your bike.  It’s not just the cars that can knock you down.  It’s yourself, too.

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Categories // crash, Safety Tags // crash

Are You Old School?

11.16.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 12 Comments

I was talking with a cycling friend of mine who lives across country from me, and I mentioned that I grabbed a Clif bar at the halfway point in my long weekend ride.

“I never eat that stuff,” he said.  “I prefer real food.  I guess I’m just old school.”

I chuckled.  He does eat real food during rides.  He often sticks a banana in one of his jersey pockets, and if he needs to eat on one of his long rides, he’ll find a convenience store and get a small submarine sandwich.  No gels or shot bloks for him.  But I wouldn’t call him old school.  He’s got a nifty carbon fiber bike that cost the same as three of mine. However, some other biking acquaintances might qualify, in one way or another.

Some Tour de France riders in days of yore. Yes, the guy on the right is holding up a cigarette to the rider next to him. Now that's old school.

There’s the guy with the steel 10-speed that is pretty much the same today as it was 25 years ago.  He sees no reason to upgrade to a more contemporary ride.  In fact, he thinks more than 10 speeds is ridiculous.  He tells me he rarely uses more than five different gears during a typical ride.

Another friend rides a more recent aluminum framed bike, but goes without any of the current accessories.  You won’t find him entering data from his Garmin into his home computer — he doesn’t have a Garmin.  He doesn’t even have a basic cycling computer.  Heart rate monitor? Forget it.  If he wants to know his pedaling cadence, he counts his pedal strokes for six seconds and multiplies by 10.

Another acquaintance looks forward to this time of year, because the wind picks up and the temperatures go down.  He trains in the wind the way most of us train on hills.  And he has no problem keeping warm and comfortable on his bike — he wears a nice long sleeved wool jersey.

What else constitutes “old school” cycling?  I once saw someone wipe his tire with his bare hand — after riding through broken glass.  Do guys who train on single speeds or fixed gear bikes qualify as old school?

I’m happy with my current setup, and have no plans to revert to the accoutrements of bygone days.  Well, maybe I’d like one of those wool jerseys.

Are you old school?  In what way?

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Categories // Odds 'n ends Tags // old school, style

Patch or Replace?

11.14.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 18 Comments

I was running late Saturday morning, and rushing a bit to get ready for my ride.  The cool morning had something to do with it.  For some reason, I have to push myself to get out the door when the weather turns cool.  I figured if I waited an hour or two longer than usual, I’d be able to ride in more moderate temperatures.

It was well after noon before I finished all the around-the-house chores I’d set for myself, and I was finally able to climb into some cycling clothes.  I filled my water bottle, grabbed my cycling computer, and went out to the garage to get the bike.

The front tire was flat.  I had ridden the day before, in late afternoon, and had no problems.  But I must have hit something on that ride, because even though I made it home all right, it was clear I was going nowhere this morning until the tire got fixed.

I pulled the tire and got the tools out of my seat bag, then headed for my personal bike repair venue — the kitchen.  I pulled the tube from the tire, but couldn’t find a puncture.  I ran my hands around the inside of the tire, and found nothing with a sharp edge.  So I pumped up the tube, filled the kitchen sink with water, and slowly rotated the tube under water to find the source of the leak.

I found it — a tiny blemish on the tube that was leaking one air bubble at a time.  I took the tube from the sink, ran a towel around it, let out all the air, and found a patch kit.

Ten minutes later, I had a patched tube (it was one of the better quality tubes I own — I have a bunch of low quality cheapies) and in short order, it was in the tire, mounted on the rim, then on the bike.  I took off for my ride about 20 minutes after discovering the flat.

Normally, I would replace the punctured tube with the spare I carry in my seat bag.  I thought about doing that this time too, but since I was at home and working in comfort, rather than outdoors miles from home, the patch seemed to make sense.

I’ve got a lot of patched tubes in the garage — some with three or even more patches.  And I’ll be spending one cold, dark, winter evening sometime soon with a little chore:

All of these tubes need to be patched.  I’ll do it, too.  Riding on patched tubes is not an issue for me.

How about you?  Are there situations where you would patch a tube rather than replace it?  Do you ride on patched tubes at all?  And do you have a favorite brand of tube?  (Seems we talk about favorite tires a lot, but no one ever mentions their tube preference — if any.)

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Categories // tires, Uncategorized Tags // patch, tube

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