Traffic situation

[ny biker]

There was a thread last year about someone not being able to drink from a water bottle while riding, and someone (I'm pretty sure it was Tulip) recommended a way to gradually practice riding with one hand, reaching for the bottle in the cage, etc. It involved reaching down and touching the bottle briefly as a way to get started. So I followed that advice for signaling with my right hand. On a safe part of the ride (i.e., flat straight trail or road with no one around me) I would practice lifting my right hand off the bar, first just a couple of inches, then a bit more, etc. until I was able to signal.

Oddly enough, after a couple of winter months off the bike, I found that this year I was more comfortable taking my right hand off the bar than I was last year. Still not as good as riding with my left hand off the bar, but I'm definitely better at it now.

In addition to signaling right turns, this has made me better at signaling road hazards on the right edge of the road while doing group rides.

[Catrin]

NY Biker, that is a good idea, I will start working on it. I don't care about drinking from a water bottle as so many places where I ride there aren't any options for more water - so my hydration pack serves me well. It would, however, be good to signal with my right hand without getting all unstable. I focused on doing things with my left hand when I started riding to prevent me from grabbing a hand-full of front brake...

WindingRoad, good idea about the yellow gloves! I really like my route home, and that intersection is the only bit that seems to give me problems - I think because the rest of it is 2-lanes. I don't have to stay in the right hand lane at the GT road intersection if I don't need to do so, and I am just more comfortable with that intersection and the rest of the route home. Once I've passed the Chase Bank I get on the "Trail" as there are just too many curb cuts on the "trail" for the businesses before - I feel safer being on the street until past that point.

They have completed resurfacing 56th from Kessler to just east of Guion Rd AND they now have bike lane signs up for that short section They haven't striped it yet but they have the markers so they can stripe the new car/bike lanes. The new bike lane will start just on the west side of the intersection. I thought about riding up Cooper to 62nd and take that home, but it is going to be closed as yet another part of the huge neighborhood project that is ongoing. Better just to deal with a quarter mile section of 56th that I don't much care for...

[hebe]

I read a very helpful tip on another forum for less wobble on signalling - just lift your chin before sticking your arm out. I don't think we have the bent left arm signal for a right turn here, it's left arm out for left turn and right arm out for right. I'm good with the right arm but my left is not so confident.

[malkin]

For a while I experimented with a blinky on my wrist to make my signal more obvious, but it just gave me a headache.