Please share your wisdom with a newbie..

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

For those of you who are afraid to ride with traffic.
I recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Cycling-Bi...0350704&sr=1-1
You can get it used for $10 there too.
This book completely changed how I ride....it made me realize that many things I was doing 'seemed' safer to me but in reality my riding habits were putting me into very dangerous situations. This book gave me confidence riding in traffic and other hazardous conditions too. It empowered me. I ride way safer now and can better avoid getting into potentially dangerous situations to begin with, rather than trying to decide what to do in a panic when I'm already IN a dangerous situation.
It's an EXCELLENT book on defensive biking.

[effy]

Thanks for the book. I will be looking for it.

[MsTerra]

Effy, thank you for starting this thread. It's very timely for me right now, and I have a feeling I will be coming back to it from time to time. I'm pretty much a newb (coming back after a decade-long layoff, and I was still kind of a novice when I stopped riding back then) and for some reason feeling much more intimidated coming back to cycling at 41 than I did taking it up at 30. I don't understand why I wasn't more afraid of riding in traffic back then, or why I'm so afraid of it now, but my plan is to commute to work (about 3.5 miles) in good weather, and go on rides with the spousal unit on weekends. Just getting started seems to be the tough part, and it doesn't help that it's rained a lot in the two weeks since I bought my bike.

I've found that in general, overcoming resistance to doing something is harder than actually doing that thing. For me it's a matter of not letting myself psych myself out. Hubby and I finally got in a little riding today (he complained I was riding too fast ) and I was remembering the old skills a lot faster than I expected I would, which was encouraging.

This week is Bike Week in greater Boston, and I hope to use that as motivation. A lot of people around here ride, and there's nothing like peer pressure for motivation, is there?

[PscyclePath]

What Lisa said... Robert Hurst's The Art of Urban Cycling (the second edition is simply called The Art of Cycling) is probably the best little handbook out there for urban and suburban cyclists.

If you're uncertain about riding in traffic or the open roads, one thing you might look for is one of the League of American Bicyclists' courses on cycling. The basic course is referred to as "Road I", though you usually see if advertised as something more descriptive like "Smart Cycling" or "Street Cycling." This is a good basic intro to getting around town or wherever on your bike, with a good helping of traffic law, safety principles, and staying out of (or getting out of ) trouble with your bike. About half the course is hands-on (or better said, butts-on) the bike. Check the web page here to find one in your community, or at least for a list of instructors in your state to call up and say, "hey, I want to take a bike class." I'm sure they'll be glad to help out: http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/e...e_schedule.php .

Does one of the local bike instructors, bike shops, or bike clubs sponsor "Critical Manners" rides? This is another good way to learn good traffic skills and experience... it's worked well for us here in Little Rock, anyway.

Tom