Road Cycling - UK - how far from the curb

Hi,

Just signed up on this forum and this is my first thread.

I've just bought my first bike since I was a kid a Bianchi SL L Alloy with 105 groupset racer.

I've been riding it about a month now and have just changed to clipless which I still feel nervous about.

But the main thing that I need some advice about is how far should I ride from the curb, at the moment its about 2 feet. Which takes a great deal of concentration to maintain(on a twitchy bianchi)as well as having to dodge all the storm drains.

I was wondering if it would be better to move a bit further into the road, say about a meter. This would mean I don't have to dodge all the storm drains but it would force cars to move into the other lane to overtake.

Is this a good idea, am I more likely to come a cropper from the gutter or cars overtaking.


Any advice from uk cyclists would be gratefully received.


Steve

Steve - UK roads are a mess!

I ride out at the same level as the storm drains. I do this because the drain covers in Berkshire are far from level with the road surface and very occasionally I've seen some with drain slots parallel to the kerb. High risk of catching your wheel and throwing you off.

If I rode closer to the kerb I would be forevere folloing a wobbly/wevy pattern to avoid the drains, so riding furhter out means I can track a straight path and probably less likely to freak out the drivers.

Also, (and this point has been raised elsewhere on the forum) the closer you are to the kerb, the more gravel/flint/glass/crap you ride in, and you greatly limit your choice of manoever if another vehicle crowds you.

See, if you're already on the kerb, and a car crowds tou, you've got nowhere left to go.

Also, taking a positive position on the road will force cars to wait behind you on pinch points, rather than try and squeeze past.

By the way - do a search on pot-hole watch. someone has set up a database of potholes in the uk. handy for reporting bad road conditions in your area of the uk, and for finding out which roads to avoid and for taking any legal action against councils if they have been aware of a hole and failed to fill it before you rode into it and bust your bike.

Stew

ps: welcome to the bikeForums!

I ride as close to the curb as possible, I don't ride in the garbage so I move out as the road gets bad, if the road is clean and not broken up, I ride close to the curb.

I'd go along with everything stew has written.

The roads in the UK are atrocious, but after a while you'll learn which stretches of road you will be able to go close to the kerb on.

You'll also appreciate those lovely stretches of newly laid tramac:D

By the way Nice Bike

Originally posted by Ouch !
I'd go along with everything stew has written.

The roads in the UK are atrocious, but after a while you'll learn which stretches of road you will be able to go close to the kerb on.


By the way Nice Bike


Thanks for that, I took your advice yesterday and went out for a ride, but kept about a meter from the curb which felt much better.

Now all I have to get used to is the clipless pedels and the twitchy stearing.

Thanks

Steve