Commuting - My girlfriend crashed today

On the commute to her job today my girlfriend raised her arm to signal a right turn, lost balance and hit teh right side curb. She landed on her leg and her head and scratched her helmet up a bit, no other damage that we could see *yet* on her person. I was really scared when I turned around and saw her on the ground but she didn't cry (she's one tough biking newbie I'll give her that!) and we made it the four more miles to the destination.

Unfortunately the bike took a light beating too. The front blinky fell out of the clip but clipped in fine, the top plastic bit on the left thumb shifter came off and was damaged but snapped back into place, and the frame and handlebars got a bit more scuffed up than they were before.

Any tips on helping her learn to maintain balance while signalling? I'm going to get her to ride around on a quiet street and have her practice some turns and emergency maneuvers, should I include anything else?

Thanks, Alan

Have her practice looking back. There are so many cyclists that have a hard time looking back and keeping their balance. It's scary.

It would probably be a good time to teach her how to grab for the water bottle with one hand while continuing to maintain speed. Also a tricky one for newer folks.

Koffee

Make sure you give that girl a much closer inspection - personally! ;)

Practicing is fine, big empty parking lots are a good place to do it. But practice might not be the 'root' issue. Her riding position and/or the fit of the bike might be something to take a look at. She should be able to raise an arm from the bars without having to shift her body around to compensate.

I would look into bicycle rodeo-type activities. Slow riding, slalom courses, line tracking, stopping, and signalling practice are all usual suspects.

I'm not sure if y'all already replaced her helmet, but if you didn't, then you should.

It might be good, but you don't want to find out it's not by way of a head injury

I think there is a very subtle tendency to shift one's weight when making a signal. I seem to notice it in myself, but it is so subtle that it took me a while to observe it. Just knowing now that it is present makes it easier for me to practice making a signal with arm movement only.

It reminds me of the day, 30+ years ago when I was a kid, of driving along a country road with snowbanks on each side, looking in the rear view mirror to check my hair, and running right off the road to the right, into the snow bank. I had to walk home and get my Dad out of bed in the morning to help me get the car out. Those subtle, hard-to-observe physical connections are there; one must watch for them.

She is a new rider, she rode a bike a couple days when a kid but has only spent about two hours total on this bike as an adult. She definitely has the tendency to move to the let when looking over her left shoulder and to veer right when taking her left hand off the bars to signal. I want her to enjoy biking as much as I do, and to respect the bike as a potential hazard if not used properly.

And yes she definitely will get my helmet until I can get her a new one, it was for sure damaged at least on one side and the helmet was free anyways. I'll take hers (universal sizing anyways) until then, my noggin is very durable ;)


Thanks for all the advice! She just called me and wants a ride in my truck back home, her legs are sore from the crash :( but her spirits are high :)
Alan

If she's only spent a couple hours total on the bike, then she probably just needs to practice. She'll get better with experience, but you can also try heading out to a big empty parking lot and doing some practice just riding around, looking around while riding and taking one hand off the bars to signal/grab a water bottle/scratch her butt/whatever. In the meantime, I wouldn't focus too much on hand signals - I ride in traffic on a regular basis, and very seldom do I use them. I much prefer having the stability of two hands on the bars while looking back to check traffic. In fact, turning your head is a pretty effective signal for lane changes and the like all by itself, so that may be the big important thing to practice. Best of luck to you!

Also use the right hand to signal a right turn. I only signal a right turn if there is a car waiting for me to pass, then my RH signal shows that he neednt wait for me. Practice keeping a straight line while looking behind it the most important thing. It is easier to look behind if you lean forward and bend your head forward as if you want to kiss the tip of your shoulder. You then look past your shoulder without so much twisting of the body. I use a glasses mounted mirror for keeping aware of what is approaching from the back, but before turning I always look over my shoulder because that is a clear indication to approaching cars that I am about to change my lane position.

Girls shouldn't ride bikes. Their childbearing wider hips lower the centre of gravity making it unsafe. Next thing you know and they will want to drive cars or vote.

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Just before she takes one hand off the bars, she can move her other one closer to the center of the bar. Have her actually point to the right with her right hand to siganl a right turn.

My girlfriend just learned to get the water bottle out of the cage and put it back in while riding. It takes time to learn these things.
Have her use her body and weight to balance rather than the handle bars. Most likely what she's doing is turning the bike cause she only has one hand on the handle bar, maybe hold it closer to the center.

I can't remember which it was but my wife noticed it was much easier to grab her waterbottle and keep control when she grabbed the bottle with her right hand (she's right handed) instead of her left. She always thought it would be better to keep the bars in her good hand but worked out otherwise for her. Have your girlfriend try removing both hands (not at same time) and see if one results in her having more balance than the other. My wife does not have a great deal of balance and enjoys her bike a lot more since she figured this out.

Although I've been riding for many years, I recently started commuting. In the very beginning, I noticed that the fact that I was a little nervous + making hand signals, often made me swerve. What helped was to slow down a little, look back to see what's going on behind me and then make a signal.

I'm not a huge fan of nearside turn signalling it just encourgages cars to overtake just when you need to swerve outwards. I prefer to keep a wide riding position and just make the turn. If someone needs to know my intentions, eg a driver attempting to exit the junction, I will signal.
Take your GF on some weekend rides to get used to road riding. I dont think it is fair to expect an adult with a couple of hrs experience to takle a commute.

Great advice here so far, I would just add one thing. My almost-40-year-old back sometimes wakes up on a different schedule from the rest of me, and I have found that it is considerably harder to go one-handed the more achy I feel. Stretching helps.

Practice signalling, water bottle, looking back (all good ideas above) on grass so if she takes a spill it won't be a big deal.

+2 on the rodeo thing.

Practice on a parking lot (empty works best) so she can follow a line looking backwards and forwad.

Soon enough she will be giving parting shots with her 9mm to rude cagers without falling or braking stride.

If you ride 1-handed, any slight bump in the road will cause the inexperienced rider to twist the handlebar due to upper body inertia. Signalling right will cause this to be to the right. Just yesterday my daughter brushed an insect off her shirt and crashed, also hitting the kerb.

Learning to ride no handed is surprisingly helpful. Whilst this shouldn't be done on the streets, what it teaches you is to control your balance with your butt. The carry over will be that when signalling, grabbing the water bottle or other cycling related fiddling the subconcious response will be to maintain balance with the backside.

Once she can ride no handed it's little extension to ride no handed with alternate arms outstreched.

Also get her to keep peddaling whilst signalling and turning. It gyro action keeps the stability up.

[edited to add]

Also consider looking for local adult cycling courses. For a reasonable fee they'll probably be able to teach her a lot of good practice over a couple of hours and she won't pick up any of your bad habits, if you have any.

i use platforms, but i notice that doing the trackstandy thing while waiting for street lights to change has also done a lot for my balance - no forward momentum to disguise any wobbles. it's also kind of nice that you can just put a foot down if something starts to go wrong :D

in traffic maybe you should try riding behind her if she's a newbie. maybe let her keep both hands on the bars and you do the signaling? i try and let newer riders lead whenever possible (although it is sometimes necesary to take the lead in the city to navigate through heavy traffic areas).

This seems like a good non-biking (yoga) way to improve on the one-armed signaling and looking back skills.

(from http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-483.html)

Balancing Cat
This strengthens the muscles along the spine, the arms, and the shoulders, and it opens the hips. The posture also enhances focus and concentration and also builds confidence.

1. Beginning on your hands and knees, position your hands directly under your shoulders, palms spread on the floor, with your knees directly under your hips.

Straighten your arms, but don't lock your elbows.

2. As you exhale, slide your right hand forward and your left leg back, keeping your hand and your toes on the floor.

3. As you inhale, raise your right arm and left leg to a comfortable height, or as high as is possible for you.

4. Stay in Step 3 for 6 to 8 breaths, and then repeat with opposite pairs (left arm and right leg).

Have her practice looking back. There are so many cyclists that have a hard time looking back and keeping their balance. It's scary.

A helmet or glasses mounted mirror is much safer way to keep track of what is going on behind you since you can see things at any angle while keeping an eye on things in front.

If someone is losing their balance when riding in a straight line with one hand, I would check to see how the bike is adjusted. If the rider has too much of her weight on the handlebars, she'll have difficulty riding one handed unless she moves her hand towards the stem. A properly adjusted bike is easier to ride and will result in less fatigue.

A mirror is good. So is an extra wheel. You can't fall down on a trike!

Seriously, though, sometimes you will lose your balance. Best thing to do is learn what to do when that happens. You learn by riding more. Just keep going and soon it'll be second nature. Trust me on that as a person who learned to ride a recumbent recently so I know how it feels to learn to ride a bike all over again.

A helmet or glasses mounted mirror is much safer way to keep track of what is going on behind you since you can see things at any angle while keeping an eye on things in front.
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The only problem with doing that is it initially defeats the whole training exercise and avoids the real problem. Checking one's surroundings is someting that one has to be made aware of and it has to become second nature.

Girls shouldn't ride bikes. Their childbearing wider hips lower the centre of gravity making it unsafe. Next thing you know and they will want to drive cars or vote.

It's not the hips - it's those wily ovaries, throwing us off-balance all the time! :rolleyes:

When I started riding again, I practiced looking behind me, turning and falling in a park; soft grass is much more forgiving than concrete.

If one can ride on rollers, balance is never a problem.

I'm too much of a wuss to ride much in the cold, so I'm going to master these this winter:

http://www.kreitler.com/images/product_1.gif

If one can ride on rollers, balance is never a problem.

I'm too much of a wuss to ride much in the cold, so I'm going to master these this winter:

http://www.kreitler.com/images/product_1.gif

While I echo the sentiment...newbie + rollers = cager. Practicing the things above outside is probably going to be more fun. Rollers, while infinitely more fun than stationary trainers, are still MUCH less fun than just riding outside. Plus, it takes a while to master them.

Thanks for all the advice! We survived another commute this morning, no close calls and she's starting to go a bit faster each time. She controls the speed on these commute rides. She's going to commute home by herself tonight as I have school, I told her to take her time and repeated a bunch of the advice I saw here. The next time we have free to practice in daylight together is in a couple days.