Bicycle riders often make some errors while riding on the road that can be avoided easily if they are well informed about the mistakes. These are really common issues and they do it only because they probably don’t know clearly about these. They have good road bike is all to them. Any other thing is minor to most of them!
They simply follow the practice what they see other people practicing whether it’s correct or not. As the things are quite simple, they don’t go in-depth and frequently continue to repeat. This article is about the 5 common mistakes when riding bicycle that should be avoided.
1. Riding Too Close To The Curb
Riding too close to the curb may be one of the most common mistakes when riding bicycle by a rider. The highway rules always indicate that you need to be as close as “practicable” to the edge of the road, when you’re riding a bicycle, not as close as possible.
To avoid the debris, potholes, or manhole covers you should ride at least 1 meter from the edge. At the same time the you should be careful of traffic volume, lane widths, speed and weather, so that you can get rid of the frequent possibility of accident.
2. Not Shoulder Checking
Not checking over the shoulder to get a sense and view about the traffic of your back side isn’t a good thing. It’s a very common mistake done by most of the rider while riding. You really need it to check the traffic flow behind you especially before changing the course on the road.
It’s essential even while you are crossing a parked car to check whether it’s going to open its door at a sudden and go through 1.5 mete far from such type of car. In the same way don’t forget to shoulder check first before signaling to avoid any kind of nasty and accidental surprise.
3. Not To Maintain A Straight Line
You need be seen by the drivers of cars and other vehicles while riding bicycle so that they can avoid any accident with you. It’s more necessary for you because of your excessive amount of risk as a bike rider. To do so you need to maintain a straight line that isn’t usually followed by the bikers.
Winding your way in and out from between parked vehicles will disappear you and then reappear repeatedly. This is an unpredictable behavior that makes you invisible to other drivers at that times and increases the risk of accident highly.
4. Signals
To ensure your safety you need to use the correct signals while riding a bicycle. But it’s a common thing that a very few people are used to using appropriate hand signals. Not only that but also in some cases people even don’t know the correct signals used on the road.
Statistics show that not abiding by correct signals is one of the main reasons of accidents on roads. And, there is no doubt that a bicycle rider is more unsafe than a car driver in case accidents. So, the biker should be very precise on using signals.
5. Don’t Ride Too Hard, Too Early
Stop biting off more than you can chew! In other words, ride on the road according to your ability. Aiming high isn’t bad, but do it incrementally. If you start riding very hard and very quick too early there is significant chance to get injured. So, please be modest do according to your capability; don’t cross it.
Final Thoughts
Knowing the things is good, but it’s the best to bring those under practice. So know the common mistakes when riding bicycle and practice. You need to do this even if you have one of the best road bikes. It will increase your capability, confidence and assure you a nearly risk free ride. Happy riding!