I took what was probably the very first Road I course offered in recorded history in Arkansas back in September, here in Little Rock. For the LCI certification seminar, I came to Louisville, KY back the middle of this month. Awesome experience... I parked the truck Thursday evening when I got to Louisville, and the next time I moved it was early Monday morning when I started back home. Everywhere we went around town that weekend was on the bikes! And it was an eye-opener to really drive home that LCI status is really a continuing education, and how much there is still out there to learn...

Depending where you are, check with the Louisville club to see if there's a Road I course coming up. Barry Zalph with Bicycling for Louisville, one of our seminar instructors, is a good source, and they're building up a nice team of LCIs there with the plan to hold regular Road I classes through the year.

The reasons you named are exactly the same as what got me to seek out the LCI courses. I work with the local cycling club here in LR/NLR, as well as the cycling advocacy group, where we're reviving the bike education & outreach program.

Having just been through the wringer in the LCI process, I strongly recommend getting a copy of Forester's Effective Cycling and wading through it... a great deal of the background and course content is derived from there, especially the stuff in the pre-seminar written exam. In addition to the un-wavering requirement to pass Road I with a score or 85 or higher on both the written and road tests, it's a good idea to have at least sat through a Road II class... although Road II seems to be very hard to find anywhere. The League will send you the Road II manuals with your course packet, though, and you'll see about half of the pre-test comes out of Road II. Be very sure to absorb as much of the instructor manual as you can before showing up for the LCI seminar. The seminar is purely about teaching biking; you're expected to have the riding skills and cycling knowledge because you signed up to become an LCI.

The seminar focuses on teaching Road I, and our group got an equal emphasis on the Kids I and Kids II as well. They did cover all the various core courses, but the heaviest dose was on the Road I and Kids blocks.

Robert Hurst's The Art of Urban Cycling, Bob Mionske's Bicycling and the Law, and Lennard Zinn's Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance are also good prep reading... especially the Zinn book, since a big portion of the LCI skills they're checking for is basic bike maintenance and fitting. The parking lot drills are a very important part; while in our group each candidate had to satisfactorily present one of the modules out of Road I, every one of us had to present and pass every one of the on-bike Parking Lot Drills.

Best of luck in pursuing your LCI, and if I can be of any help, just holler...

Tom