Tag: bicycling

Three simple things can make your bike riding much safer and easier:

Take the palm of your hand and hit the front of your bicycle helmet. If it goes up more than one inch, you need to tighten the strap. Otherwise, if you wreck and land on the front of your helmet, you won’t land on the front of your hemet – you’ll land on the front of your head.
Spin your pedals between 60-90 revolutions per minute. If you are not pedaling that fast, you are hurting your knees and reducing your efficiency. All you need to do is select a lower gear. If you don’t want to time yourself, here’s a 5-second video that shows about how fast that is. No need to be too strict about this. – it’s fine to pedal slower part of the time.
Listen to your chain. If it’s squealing, it’s not happy. You need to give it some lubrication. The best kinds I’ve found are teflon-based lubes, such as this one. They last fairly long and do not attract too much dirt.

I love riding my bike to work, even in the cold and dark of winter. Knowing that if I can’t be seen, I can be run over, I bought a taillight so bright that “it can cause seizures,” as a friend described it. That same friend went on to tell me of his ultra-bright headlight that allowed him to see potholes and road imperfections.

I pridefully said I was good with my little flashing headlight that allowed me to be seen – but not to see.

The very next evening after that conversation, I was riding home and ran head-over-heels into a corner curb. I had assumed that there was a wheelchair ramp on that corner. No.

Ouch!

Thankfully, I did not tumble into oncoming traffic or damage myself or my bike more than just a few scrapes and a destroyed innertube.

Lesson learned. I need to listen to advice, even when it’s not given as such. (My pride could have been the death of me.)

How to ride a bicycle

Pride, literally, comes before a fall