bicycle Injury prevention

This page shows you real ways you can get hit and real ways to avoid them. This is a far cry from normal bike safety guides, which usually tell you little more than to wear your helmet and to follow the law. But consider this for a moment: Wearing a helmet will do absolutely nothing to prevent you from getting hit by a car! Sure, helmets might help you if you get hit, and it's a good idea to wear one, but your #1 goal should be to avoid getting hit in the first place. Plenty of cyclists are killed by cars even though they were wearing helmets. Ironically, if they had ridden WITHOUT helmets, yet followed the guidelines listed below, they might still be alive today. Don't confuse wearing a helmet with biking safely. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It's better not to get hit.

Here is one of Michael's bicyclesafe lessons which would really help a lot of us:

Take the whole lane when appropriate.

While you'll often prefer to ride to the extreme right to keep out of the way of cars passing you, it's often safest to take the whole lane, or at least move a little bit to the left. As you'll see from diagram #1 above, riding a bit to the left allows cars at cross streets at intersections to see you better. Also, you should take the lane if cars are passing you too closely from behind. This requires cars behind you to see you and either slow down or change lanes. Then again, if you're on the kind of street where you've got cars blocked up behind you or constantly changing lanes to get around you, you're probably on the wrong street and should find a quieter neighborhood street.

By the way, it's perfectly legal for you to take the lane. Texas State Law (and the laws of most other states) says you have to ride as far to the right as is "practicable". Here are some things that make it impracticable to ride to the extreme right:

Cars are passing you too closely. If the lane is too narrow for cars to pass you safely, then move left and take the whole lane. Getting buzzed by cars is dangerous.

Cars are parked on the right-hand side of the road. If you ride too close to these you're gonna get doored when someone gets out of their car. Move left.
You're in a heavy traffic area with lots of side streets, parking lots, or driveways ahead and to your right. Cars turning left won't see you because they're looking for traffic in the MIDDLE of the road, not on the extreme edge of the road. Move left. See Collision diagram #1 above.

If you're paying attention, you'll notice that there are risks to both riding to the extreme right as well as taking the lane. If you wanted a steadfast rule, then sorry, it isn't that simple. (But take heart, because many of the OTHER concepts we mention in our Top 10 list above work 100% of the time.) If you ride all the way to the right, you risk getting doored, and you make it hard for cars at cross streets at intersections to see you.

But if you take the lane, you'll definitely get hit if a car behind you doesn't see you. To make it more likely that they'll see you when you're taking the lane, be lit up like a Christmas tree at night, and take neighborhood streets when you can, since the cars will be traveling slower and therefore approach you from behind slower, and have more time to see you.

Wrists: A lot of mountain bikers give themselves repetitive wrist injury (arthritis) by riding on bumpy off-road areas without front suspension. You can prevent this. Learn more at Dirt Bike Net.

Privates: There are several things you can do to prevent numbness and discomfort:

• Wear shorts that fit, without underwear. If your shorts are too tight you will overheat your private parts - this can be more significant for men than for women, but applies to both; if your shorts are too loose you'll chafe. Underwear seams will also chafe.
• Adjust your seat to the right level. Riding with your seat too high is a problem for obvious reasons. Your legs should stay slightly bent throughout the whole cycle.
• When adjusting your saddle, start with the saddle level from front to back (use a carpenter's bubble level), then ride a bit, and adjust it (usually nose down) from there. This will help prevent stress and numbness. (Some padding is essential but the more and harder you ride, the less padding you'll want.)
• Give your butt a break every now and then: Stop and stretch and/or ride out of the saddle, to prevent numbness.