Road I Cycling Class

Friday night, SilverSon stopped one foot short of an adolescent tantrum :mad: over not wanting to do the Road I Cycling class in Bloomington yesterday. After about 30 minutes of adolescent posturing, he agreed to participate.:)

Last night, at dinner, he said "Thanks for making me go":D

Here's the plug:

ROAD I is a great refresher for experienced cyclists on the evolving place that bikes play on the road, the rights that cyclists have...and the RESPONSIBILITY we have for our safety and that of the folks around us. We have to MAKE SAFETY HAPPEN!

I'm very comfortable in traffic...but after comfort comes cockiness. I know I occasssionally need a "back to basics" kick in the pants to keep me straight:eek: My guess is that many of you need that too...or avoid traffic at all costs.

Here's a list of classes offered by the League of American Bicyclists:
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/e...on/courses.php

Seek out an LCI in your area and see if you can help organize and participate in the these classes.

The one that happened here occurred because I contacted local LCI's from this list...and asked them for the course:
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/e...e_schedule.php

My fear is that these programs don't get the notoriety they deserve and not enough folks know that they're even happening. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the League does a very great job of getting all the course events on their own website.

I encourage each of your to seek this out and make it happen in your area.

There is a grand total of ONE class being offered in the state of Washington this month, according to the LAB site. And it's offered tomorrow.

Mr. Silver, how did you get the class started? Do I just pick an instructor at random and ask them to teach Road 1 somewhere in Seattle? Do I need to rent a facility to hold the class or arrange a location?

ETA: these videos aren't LAB, but they are bike stuff: http://bicycling.511.org/traffic.htm

Road I is definitely on my to do list. Since most of my riding is stoking the tandem, my bike handling skills have gotten worse and worse. It is to the point where I find myself wondering "When are we going to stop?" and I realize that there is no we, and I will stop when I apply the brakes.

I emailed all the guys in our area in one email so they'd know what I was doing and could collaberate on a response.

I don't think that the one we did yesterday was on the schedule (for reasons I don't fully understand), but it happened...

I hope you got a good turnout despite it not being on the list. I think I told my sister about it but she hasn't mentioned it so I'm guessing she didn't do it. I know she's doing an internship this summer, not quite as insanely busy as before the semester was over, but her kitty died a couple weeks ago and that was a bit of a distraction.

Did Silver teach it? By herself or with another LCI, or a non-LCI helper? How did it go? Cyclists taking the course can get awfully argumentative.

Keep passing the dates of these along to me, and I'll keep pestering my sister about taking the class. Her boyfriend would benefit too, they both bike a lot to save money and not use gas.

Around here they are few and far between because it's really hard to get any kind of turnout. However, it looks like we'll be having one in mid July :D (So if you're near CHampoo-Banana, c'mon over!) I've done it before but I'll do it again. You can *always * learn somehting.

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Originally Posted by Melalvai

Did Silver teach it? By herself or with another LCI, or a non-LCI helper? How did it go? Cyclists taking the course can get awfully argumentative.

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Silver assisted one of the local LCI's. It went well. The group was varied from SilverSon to a self professed "Little Old Lady" (who wasn't).

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Originally Posted by Geonz

Around here they are few and far between because it's really hard to get any kind of turnout. However, it looks like we'll be having one in mid July :D (So if you're near CHampoo-Banana, c'mon over!) I've done it before but I'll do it again. You can *always * learn somehting.

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Sue, one of the participants here came from C-U. He lives in Monticello; his name was Tim. He wants to get LCI certified so that he can support programs locally.

Road I courses get posted on the LAB site when the LCI responsible for them logs on and enters them ;-) So it's really not the League's fault, you have to enter your own courses thru the link for the "Instructors' Corner."

Hopefully that's going to pick up a little bit with the changes in LCI certification that they started to put in place a couple months ago... now we're expected to be a lot more active in teaching classes and working for bike advocacy groups and issues in order to maintain/sustain our certification. Newly certified LCIs are expected to mentor with a more senior LCI and teach a certain number of courses to work their way up the ladder, those who don't actively teach or advocate might get their certification dropped a notch or two down the ladder.

I find myself doing a whole lot more short little courses and workshops than the full-up Road I courses... but demand for Road I is picking up a little bit now that warm weather is back and folks are out riding more (and reading about the bike classes.)

Tom

Hey, Tom, I emailed you (and the guy in Fayetteville) through the website about getting one scheduled for NWA and Team Lewis & Clark. Just FYI in case you don't check that email often.

Mr. Silver, and my club ride on Saturday, inspired me.
Karen

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Originally Posted by Tuckervill

Hey, Tom, I emailed you (and the guy in Fayetteville) through the website about getting one scheduled for NWA and Team Lewis & Clark. Just FYI in case you don't check that email often.

Mr. Silver, and my club ride on Saturday, inspired me.
Karen

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Karen:

Got the note last night, just hadn't had a chance to reply just yet.

It shouldn't be a problem to come up and do a class at Siloam or the Fayetteville area... The biggest part is finding a place to hold it, and shaking the bushes to get folks out and signed up for it. Paul is local, and probably more available, and Mitch Durham is a new LCI down in Greenwood... so he's sort of local, too.

If it's a big class, it's probably better to get a couple of LCIs together to help host it. That way the students get a lot more personal attention during the parking lot drills and road phase. Believe me, it's tough to wrangle a dozen or so riders on one of these thing by yourself, and remember who did what on the road test ;-)

Tom

Okay, I'm going to raise a flag and see who salutes and I'll get back with you!

Thanks!
Karen

This may be a stupid question, but do clubs take super slow complete newbies? Or would I be considered a royal pain in the a@@ for being so slow and clueless?

There's only one class listed in MN. I was pumped that the class is only one town over from me, but then I saw that I had to be a bike club ride leader to sign up. I would think that if you're leading rides for the club you'd already know the rules of the road.... What about us road-newbies??

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Originally Posted by cyclinnewbie

This may be a stupid question, but do clubs take super slow complete newbies? Or would I be considered a royal pain in the a@@ for being so slow and clueless?

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Some of the clubs around here are not friendly at all. I joined a new club, and I'm "getting in on the ground floor", so I can help make it friendly to newbies.

Make sure you're upfront about your needs, what you're looking for, what kind of rides you want to do. The club you approach may or may not be the one that can meet your need. But don't go in assuming they will. Ask and see if it's a good fit, first.

Karen

Gotcha. Thanks for the info!

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Originally Posted by Flur

There's only one class listed in MN. I was pumped that the class is only one town over from me, but then I saw that I had to be a bike club ride leader to sign up. I would think that if you're leading rides for the club you'd already know the rules of the road.... What about us road-newbies??

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Flur -
Here in Cincinnati, we put on a separate Road 1 just for our Ride Leaders of the Cincinnati Cycle Club. It helps with insurance and liability. Like Mr. Silver said, EVERYONE needs a refresher course every now and then even if you're a ride leader. As an LCI, I find it frustrating that some "older than dirt" type people grump at my helpful and constructive criticism on a ride. They've been riding longer than I've been alive which MUST mean they know more than I do (or so they think). As a ride leader for the CCC, it's my duty to keep everyone safe.

Maybe the class you saw listed was for the ride leaders of the club.

Glad Silver became an LCI and glad you made SilverSon go. It's a worthwhile class.

Jeni Roosen
LCI #1717

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Originally Posted by TrekJeni

Flur -
Like Mr. Silver said, EVERYONE needs a refresher course every now and then even if you're a ride leader. As an LCI, I find it frustrating that some "older than dirt" type people grump at my helpful and constructive criticism on a ride. They've been riding longer than I've been alive which MUST mean they know more than I do (or so they think). As a ride leader for the CCC, it's my duty to keep everyone safe.

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Probably the toughest market to deal with is the old timer club cyclists... It's derned tough to teach old dogs new tricks, and to break old bad habits. A number of our local club leaders signed up and took Road I when Willa first started offering it here -- probably out of curiousuty as much as anything else -- and immediately went back to their old ways.

I had a little epiphany the day after our class where I got to do a quick turn to avoid being backed over in the agency parking lot and then a panic stop to dodge a small child on the River Trail. That convinced me that there must be something to this stuff, and so I signed up with the League and started working on my LCI. It was a lot deeper process than I anticipated, but it's made biking a whole lot more fun and fulfilling for me.

One of the best ways I've found is to get out there and preach the gospel of "effective cycling," and set an example for your local riders. I work a lot with our new riders and the young folks to teach good habits from the start, and chip away at the monolith of the old club riders as opportunity permits.

Tom