Common bike commuting mistakes and how to avoid them — our top tips for hassle-free rides to and from work

Your honor, my client admits to a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit and being under the influence of cocaine but the cyclist was not wearing hi-vis so we move the case be dismissed.

So ordered!

I once had someone observe that no-one had an excuse for not seeing me. I replied "That's what my widow will tell the judge".

Overall: sadly in the UK cyclists need to do more than other road users to keep themselves safe.  Society (including planners, the law etc.) essentially considers you're choosing to take additional risks and it's on you to keep safe, not others.

This shouldn't put anyone off cycling though.  Overall you can expect better health outcomes (and happiness!) if you cycle than if you don't.

In my experience the few bad experiences I've had have almost all been
a) punctures (occur more often in the wet!  Plus your tyres / wheels will be grimy...)
b) other simple mechanical failures (mostly cables parting)
c) bike theft.

The first two can be made (almost) non-dramas through some very easily-learned skills and carrying a few tools and spares.  Even better is if you undertake basic, semi-regular maintenance on your bike.  That makes issues less likely to happen (you can spot wear / damage) and you'll be confident and practiced at basic fixes if you do so.

Theft - you can mitigate against that somewhat.  Somewhat sadly in my experience it seems to involve not leaving a new / shiny / moderately expensive bike outside your house / secure workplace.  ("Secure" bike storage?  Might just be a secure place for cutting locks in overnight...)

Of course you may have the odd unpleasant encounter on the road, depending on where you ride.  And for a few unlucky folks bad health outcomes - because our safety isn't fully under our control.

Roll on a radically different approach to safe, convenient and social travel.  Until then Mark Twain's comic review still applies: "Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."

Seat Post

Having commuted on a bike in London for 25 years, I would recommend removing your seat post, when you secure your bike, always an effective deterrant.

Facial Recognition

Humans are conditioned from an early age to recognise a human face (At one time the Queens face was enlarged on the bank notes to reduce counterfeiting). It would be interesting to do some research, where the actual sized image of a face is displayed on a bike/helmet/jacket, to see if other road users identify them more quickly than a cyclist pedalling with their head down. I always try to give other road users a good stare in the hope that they will identify me more quickly. Still cycling...

It is difficult to purchase hi visibily cycling pants. I buy fluorescent yoga pants and convert them with crotch pads.
 

I noticed the riders were all wearing dark clothing as well, not good, at the least put on a cheap home improvement safety vest in a bright neon green or orange if there is a lot of greenery around where you live, and make sure the vest has wide reflective bands.

Lights need to be doubled up on, you have your main 700 plus lumen light that is bright enough to see the road if you ride after dark, and a small but bright strobing light added to the helmet, and you should have a very bright 300 lumen plus taillight fastened somewhere on the bike, and a smaller one on the helmet.  Doing this allows the lights to be seen better.  Different countries have different lighting laws, but in the States, I can have my main front and rear lights on steady, and the others on the helmet flashing.  Then I also wear reflective ankle bands that hold the pant legs against my leg so they don't get chewed up by gears or crank arms.

I read people complaining in the comments about how useless hi-vis is, I strongly disagree, if I hi-vis was useless then why do road crews wear them?  Road crews wear them because, after many years of study, they found that hi-vis is safer for the crews, plain and simple, and a fact that is well known universally across the globe.  Is hi-vis guaranteed to keep cyclists or road crews safe? no, just as airbags and seatbelts don't guarantee you'll survive an accident either; but they do increase your survival chances, and it is the same with hi-vis clothing.

I'll take the shortest route to work whenever possible, and try to stay on bike paths and lanes whenever possible, but coming home, I usually take a self-prescribed detour that takes me into a 20 to 30-mile ride.  I was lucky in the 45 years I commuted to work by bike, all the places I lived were within 5 miles of work.

Your first line of defense against flats is the tire, most jobs are not going to be happy with you if you keep showing up late due to flats, it's not an excuse, once a year is fine, but not all the time because someone wants to ride on racing tires.  Find a robust set of tires, and to be extra safe go to a second line of defense and use a flat liner like the Clear Motion Rhinodillo liners, these work a heck of a lot better against flats than the Mr Tuffy liner, and they are lighter in weight, plus they have a soft edge that goes against the tube which prevents the liner for chaffing the tube.  Today's tires are a lot better against flat than they were even just 15 years ago, I experienced the changes that tires went through, and all the changes have been good.  Don't bother with thorn-resistant tubes, they don't work, and they are extremely heavy more than some tires weigh!  Today's thorn-proof tubes are all junk, the valves are the crappiest of the worse and have a high failure rate, and there are problems with seams separating, so you end up with more flats than you would have had using a good quality regular tube.  Sealant is another weight issue, unless you're using tubeless tires there is no need to use sealant in tubes.

Some of you have been commuting for years but here is a safety website you all should at least read to see if something in it makes you think, just google:  "Bicycle Safety: How to Not Get Hit by Cars"  

There is a tragic video you all need to see, this is about a big truck that kills a promising doctor, both were at fault but the doctor more so because she was inexperienced in knowing what to do in high traffic areas, and knowing what to do around big vehicles, the driver should have been paying more attention, but it is possible that the driver thought she went into the designated bike lane and since big trucks have huge blind spots he never saw her, so he should have stopped and cleared his mirrors first.  Once the truck runs over her traffic moves enough for you to see the fact that she was not in the designated bike lane as is outlined with a picture of a bike on the pavement, she was in fact in a designated bus pickup lane.  She also failed to see that the truck had its turn signals on for 8 seconds before turning, that is quite a ways but she came up alongside the right side of the truck anyway.  The people who put this video out for all to see were from a cycling activists organization, they make it sound like it was all the truckers fault because he had her in view for 16 seconds, not true, she was in his blind spot, watch the video carefully understanding what I said about what she did wrong and you'll see it wasn't mostly the trucker's fault; yes the driver continued on, but a big truck isn't going to feel much of anything running over a bicycle, and if he did feel something he probably thought he ran over the curb which he did clip.  They also argued that the driver made an unexpected wide turn, again not true, he had to swing wide to miss the light pole next to the curb, and flatbed trailers do not turn as well as a box trailer. So google: "Anita Kurmann Video - Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (massbike.org)"

This case was resolved and it turned out after extensive investigation by both sides of the complaint that the doctor was mostly at fault.  The city of Boston due to this accident has made some important changes on their city streets in a bid to try to make cyclists safer, but at the end of the day, our safety is in our hands, not other drivers, and not on the city.

Be safe out there everyone.

11. Being Invisible.

The photo with item 10 shows a cyclist wearing all black clothes, black backpack, drab green/black helmet, black handlebars. One low mounted front light, presumably similar rear light. When riding into a shadowy area like that behind him in the picture or between a dark area and a car approaching from behind or in front, for the driver he is difficult or nearly impossible to see.

The car driver immediately in front of or behind him can see his lights but the drivers following those two vehicles very often can't. 

Wearing a white or light coloured helmet or a hi-vis vest (£5 or less) makes riders MUCH easier to see - wearing both is even better.

Half of commuting is route planning. Find a nice quiet route with few cars and it is pure joy.

I have to commute a long way so I carry a puncture repair kit, mini pump, tyre levers, multi tool and fast chain links. All have come in handy over the years either fixing mine or other commuter's bicycles.

Don't just sling an inner tube in the bottom of your bag with the multitool and tyre levers without first placing it in a stout protective bag/box else when you need it you will almost certainly find rattling tools have already puncture it.