Road Signals

[violette]

I'm thinking of starting or joining a bike club, a buch of us women. I've heard of signals to give when in a group, example, to turn left, right, obstacle on the road, etc.

I have no idea what to signal for a turn, if the pack need to do something, slow down, spead up, get closer... all these things that you would do as a group.

Can you tell me the rules i need to know for riding in a group.

[Eden]

Here is a good start - some guidelines put out by a local club.
Some of this may seem hard to understand if you've never done it before. I might suggest getting someone for a onetime group riding clinic for your new club. A local bike shop or somone from a local club or team might be willing to give you all a short lecture and take you for a ride to get the basics down.
http://www.cbcef.org/ridesmart_pacelines.html

In our groups we tend to use our voice and our hands - call out turns and signal them just as you would when you are alone. Point out obstacles - we usually point at obstacles (pot holes, junk in the road), wave our fingers for glass, use a sweeping motion behind our backs or a pat on the hip for thing you need to pass - like other cyclists, parked cars etc.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, thanks Eden! Wish I had read that article before my first group ride on Sunday! But happily I didn't do anything too awful!

[smilingcat]

to turn left we use put our left arms out and point left.

to stop some of us put our hand palm open and facing out on our butt. Some will put their left hand down the side again palm open and facing toward the back.

to point debris out we point with our forefinger and shake our wrist. or if its a stretch, then we wave the area by moving our forearm from the elbows or the whole arm from the shoulder i.e. bunch of parallel parked cars...

so far easy.

now about the right turns. I put my right arm out and point to the right. Some prefer to raise their left hand up (as you are told from the driving school). European guy said how stupid, point up with your left hand up? gonna take off into the sky or something?

And I've known of one club where they told the riders not to take their hands off the handlebars and yell out. No hand signals. I found that rather peculiar.

Now in a pelaton we sit up and raise hand straight up to signal a flat. and drift out of the pelaton out of the back then onto the shoulder.

So Eden what about the right turn signalling?

Oh at times, you can't take your hands off the handlebars so we just yell out. Lead guy yelled out "POT HOLE" and the only thing I could do and several others were to just jump the big gaping hole in the ground It was on a technical descent going around 60Km/hr. No way to swerve out of the way unless you wanted to take out about dozen or more people. Still a fun ride not a race.

Shawn

[Kimmyt]

On trails where we frequently have to pass slower cyclists, roller bladers, pedestrians (also on roads were there is a sudden loss of shoulder/ large impediment on the right hand side and we will have to shift leftwards), we will usually pat our butt/hips and point to which direction we will move around them (almost always left).

[Eden]

now about the right turns. I put my right arm out and point to the right. Some prefer to raise their left hand up (as you are told from the driving school). European guy said how stupid, point up with your left hand up? gonna take off into the sky or something?

So Eden what about the right turn signalling?

I signal rights either way - the left arm bent up a the elbow was developed because those signals were originally from cars before electric turn signals existed - you had to stick your free hand out of the window and since you couldn't reach your right one out the window....

I think our drivers manual has both variations in it.

[run it, ride it]

When there's a car coming behind and we're not single file we'll yell up the line "car back" and vice versa, yell "car up" down the line if not everyone can see. Sometimes we're more specific, e.g. "BIG FREAKING TRUCK back."

[Grog]

When there's a car coming behind and we're not single file we'll yell up the line "car back" and vice versa, yell "car up" down the line if not everyone can see. Sometimes we're more specific, e.g. "BIG FREAKING TRUCK back."

Sometimes on my rides we have "PLANE BACK" because we ride along an airport landing strip. It can be pretty scary to have a Boeing 747 drafting behind you!!!

We also go over a bridge with a "LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT" sign. I love that one.