Thursday, June 30, 2016

Teaching The Boy 14

Question: I go up to the 26th and Discovery intersection on the line that triggers the light and then a car comes and sneaks in between me and the curb and turns right. Any thoughts?

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Answer: Being in the left portion of the lane kinda encourages that.  If you were driving a car and there was space to your right for a right turning car you'd see that as normal. In fact, that's a feature of being in the left potion of the lane, it allows for drivers behind you to do right turns on red.

What's not normal is if a driver comes alongside your right and doesn't turn on red. They could choose to go straight and pass on your right. When the light turns green be hyper vigilant so you don't move to the right and end up in their path after they've already started to overtake you. If you are being overtaken on the right go slower so the danger passes quickly.

To prohibit right on red you'd need to be on the right side of the lane but the trade off for that is increased likelihood of a driver coming alongside your left and passing improperly in the intersection or worse turning right, across your path. That's known as a right hook.

A hard part of driving a narrow vehicle is lane position is a bit of an art.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Sunday's Saturday Coffee Shop Ride Manna Bakery

Stepping inside the Manna Bakery is like stepping into another world. I like that about any place. Thanks for coming out this morning fellow riders. 


Next Saturday Coffee Shop Ride is July 30. We roll at 9am from the Falls Park Farmers Market. They always have food and coffee for sale within.


Saturday, June 25, 2016

Tour of Sioux Falls

Happy Tour Sioux Falls day. I'm going to ride from TSF Central at Cherry Rock Park to FAST singletrack at Leaders Park. After that the bike trail will take me to FAST singletrack at Yankton Trail Park. I'll hang out there for awhile as a FAST board member welcoming all the singletrack curious riders. Then back to Cherry Rock Park for some food truck goodness.

See you out there.


Cherry Rock Park - a few of my favorite things.



Thursday, June 23, 2016

58!

58! Degrees. It's important to write it like that - 58! Degrees. It was so nice out this morning I rode in with the top down.


Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Saturday Coffee Shop Ride Is Sunday

The Saturday Coffee Shop Ride is this very next Sunday. June 26. We depart the Manna Bakery at 9am. The Manna Bakery is at 812 E 6th St which is the intersection of 6th Street and Indiana Ave.

What the Manna Bakery lacks in coffee it makes up for in freshly baked pastries and such.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Learning to Ride a Bike on Father's Day

I've been working with The Boy 14 on how to safely ride in the city. Lane control & release, being predictable, communicating. Soon he'll be released into the wild so that he can fulfill some volunteer opportunities downtown this summer.

For today's 5 mile round trip between home and two bus stops I led and 6,000 mile rider Big Brother took the rear. My job was to demonstrate lane positioning, and the timings for scanning, signaling and turning.

Big Brother's job was to verify proper imitation. At the end Big Brother offered his comments which were amazing for me to hear because he gets it, including: "Do those hand signals like you mean it. Do them sharper than dad does because that's what gets the attention of drivers."

Plus I got to demonstrate tire changing.

Happy Father's Day!


Impeding Traffic?

I don't know for sure but I suspect most people, when they think of riding bikes in the city imagine following a car down the street, with an impatient driver behind wishing the rider off the road, and another turning driver ready run over the rider at the slightest mis-cue.

The reality for me is when I'm smart about route selection, the roads around me look more like this...