Properly Secured Equipment

This week marked my first week back at school. School is 13 km from home, and I get there via bicycle. At the moment, the bicycle is my only mode of transportation, so I’m trying to get stretch things out as much as possible. I know I promised some road safety tips this week, but I think I’ve a little more appropriate and fresh a topic than hand signals.

With today’s changing economy, more and more people are working late into the night. There are 24-hour grocery stores, walmarts, restaurants, etc. University and colleges now keep their doors open much later into the evening, and I know of a couple that you can get into 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Public transportation is not a 24-hour thing, but a bicycle has been. Today I’d like to talk about a few things to help you be visible in the case of night riding.

It’s the law to have a front white light and a rear red light on a bicycle for night riding. I’m currently using the set in the photo on the right. This is not a high-end or expensive set. It uses basic AA and AAA batteries and ran me less than $20 CDN. There are lights that run off of bicycle powered generators than can help you see really far ahead of you, and they run hundreds of dollars. Although very useful for trail-biking, on city streets, you don’t need something that high-end.

A more experienced cycling friend of mine once gave me a very important piece of advice when I was buying my first bicycle lamp 10 years ago: “the bicycle lamps are not so you can see, they’re so people can see you.” A cheap, inexpensive light easily hooks to your handlebars and seat-post, and provides that service as well as an expensive light. If the lamp happens to help you see, that’s cool, but shouldn’t be a deciding factor for a street cyclist.

Another key piece of equipment for night cycling are reflectors. You already have a couple on your bicycle, as they tend to come standard. They aren’t enough. If you’re wearing a backpack, sew some reflective patches on there. If you usually wear a jacket when cycling, make sure there are reflective stripes on that. Actually, it’s VERY important to have a brightly coloured jacket, or visible reflective stripes on the sleeves of your jacket. You still need to signal your turn ( see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_signals ), and drivers coming up behind you need to see that signal.

There are powered signal lights available for bicycles that some people may think are handy. If you’re going to be doing a lot of night biking, don’t care about the speed & weight of your bike, and have the extra room you’ll need on the handlebars to mount the control, go for it. But for most people, that’s not a good option. Not only do you have increased weight, you’ve also lost a lot of aerodynamics.  If the signal lights are battery operated, that’s a recurring cost. If they’re generator powered, you lose more speed powering them up and have the extra weight of their battery pack.

Now, on to story time. I can’t mount a rear-light on my seat-post. Well, I can, but it won’t be visible by any cars behind me because of my big, plastic, locking carry-all that I have mounted on the back of my bicycle. The carry-all has an oversized reflector on the back, which is nice, but doesn’t provide anywhere for me to mount the rear light. This generally hasn’t been a huge problem as I’ve been able to slide my light’s clip into the carry-all and close it over the edge leaving the lamp fully exposed.

I left the school this past Thursday, after the Alexisonfire concert. I went to attach my rear light, and discovered the batteries were dead. No problem, I always have a couple spares taped inside the carry-all (TIP: ALWAYS HAVE SPARE BATTERIES). So I put in my fresh batteries and clip it on. I tried to close the carry-all, only to discover that because of the excessive use and the pot-holed cycling lanes, it doesn’t quite close properly with the hook in there. I figure it’ll do, as it’s done before and begin my bike ride.

I made if four blocks before I came off a drain cover and heard the lamp fall from my bike. The lamp ended up in front of where I stopped my bike. Not to mention behind it, beside it, and even in the opposing traffic lane. I never was able to track down the second battery. So there I was, 12 km from home, without a rear light. “Good enough for now” was not good enough for a proper ride.

The moral of the story: What’s good for a quick trip to the corner store, isn’t good for the daily commute. Make sure your gear is secure, or you’ll have to make another trip to the shop to pick up a replacement. I’ve since put a hole in my carry-all to which I’ve bolted the new light’s fixture. I’ve also re-aligned the casing so it’ll seal properly.

That’s all for this week. Here’s my cycling record for the week.

Sunday: No cycling due to rain. 0 km. 0 km/hr

Monday: No cycling due to rain. 0 km. 0 km/hr

Tuesday: No cycling due to rain. 0 km. 0 km/hr

Wednesday: Alta Vista/Industrial along Alta Vista to Heron, Heron to Navaho, Navaho to Algonquin College. Time 45 minutes. Algonquin College to Navaho, Navaho to Baseline, Baseline to Alta Vista, Alta Vista to Alta Vista/Industrial. Time 50 minutes. Alta Vista/Industrial along Alta Vista to Alta Vista/Bank. 20 minutes. Alta Vista/Bank to Alta Vista/Industrial. 17 minutes. 34.6 km. 15.7 km/hr.

Thursday: Alta Vista/Industrial along Alta Vista to Heron, Heron to Navaho, Navaho to Algonquin College. Time 55 minutes (tire blew). Algonquin College to Navaho, Navaho to Baseline, Baseline to Clyde, Clyde to Value Village. Time 5 minutes. Value Village to Clyde, Clyde to Baseline, Baseline to Navaho, Navaho to Algonquin College. Time 5 minutes. Algonquin College to Navaho, Navaho to Baseline, Baseline to Alta Vista, Alta Vista to Alta Vista/Industrial. Time 45 minutes. 32 km. 17.5  km/hr.

Friday: Alta Vista/Industrial along Alta Vista to Heron, Heron to Navaho, Navaho to Algonquin College. Time 45 minutes. Algonquin College to Navaho, Navaho to Baseline, Baseline to Alta Vista, Alta Vista to Alta Vista/Industrial. Time 48 minutes. 26 km. 16.8 km/hr.

Saturday: Entertaining family, no cycling. 0 km. 0 km/hr.

Average Daily Distance: 13.2 km

Average Speed: 17.3 km/hr

Average Weekly Distance: 66.5 km

Average Cumulative Speed: 17.9 km/hr