I am a IPMBA bike officer (International Police Mountain Bike Assn)...we are taught to take the lane...and turn from as far right as is practicable.
My stuff weighs a ton. Vest itself weighs about 4 lbs. My belt has radio, flashlight, handcuffs, gun (with gunlight....the gun weighs about 1 lb and a half), spray, and baton. My extra cuffs hang on my vest inside my shirt, and my knife is in my pocket. In my shirt pocket I have cell phone, cards, notepad, and ID. In the bike bag I have ticket book, spare bike stuff, and water. The way we are taught to ride is really different from how I ride not on duty....in this crazy easy gear, we pedal a lot and go nowhere...the idea being that it is easy to balance when your center of gravity is over the pedals...when you are pedaling. And since we go pretty slowly through crowds and stuff, that is the stuff they make us practice. If I am in the park I ride like that, but if I am on the road I grab a few gears and ride like normal....albeit it is much harder riding that heavy bike with all that gear.
Now, funny thing I have seen.....a boy on a bike holding a chicken in one hand and a watermelon in the other...riding with no hands. I had no clue how he was doing it, but he was.




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