Make it easy to be seen from behind

With the days getting shorter and daylight savings about to end, we need to think about visibility again. There’s not much point being upset with motorists who don’t see us if we haven’t done our best to be seen!

Bike riders are most vulnerable to traffic from behind. It’s easy to take evasive action when we see something in front, but you can’t see behind. So you need to make sure you can be seen easily at the back.

Start and stop safely with the right technique

It’s relatively easy to handle a bicycle when you have a bit of speed. How confident are you when you have to slow down? Stopping and starting again can be easy and safe with some simple techniques under your belt.

First, you need to get on your bike. It’s best to get astride it before you push off. Pushing off on the left pedal and then getting your right leg over the bike means you’re moving before you’re securely settled on the bike and more likely to make a wobbly start. Getting astride and balanced over the bike first gives you much better control at those critical low speeds.

I’ve watched many people “scooter” along with their free foot to get going. The less time your feet spend in contact with the ground while you’re moving the lower the risk of slipping or snagging your foot on the road. The safer way to start is by using your strongest leg to make the first push on the pedal.

Do you know how fast is that cyclist going?

Motorists who aren’t cyclists often don’t realise how fast an adult on a bike can move.
Road cyclists can sit around 40 kph, but don’t assume that the bloke on the mountain bike or the woman with panniers is travelling slowly. You don’t need a hill to really get moving.

On the run in from Kangaroo Flat to the CBD along High Street a hybrid with a tail wind can easily reach or exceed 50 kph which means a cyclist is travelling as fast as a car.

Going solo on two wheels

Sometimes when life gets a bit hilly you have to get off and walk. If the bike is Judy Mason’s metaphor for life it’s also been a life buoy in difficult times.

Overcoming an addiction to prescribed tranquillisers, a bike ride every day was sometimes the only thing she could manage. The staff at TRANX (Tranquilliser Recovery and New Existence) were delighted with her regime and confident it helped her come off the drugs.

Those years were not easy. She remembers sitting out in the bush on her own, brushing sand with a twig and telling God how angry she was with him. “I swear an arm went round my shoulder and a voice said ‘I know. I understand. It’s OK.’”