Going to take the Road 1 & LCI courses.
 

Sept. 23 is the Road 1 course cost $50.00, Sept 29 - Oct. 1 is the LCI course cost $175.00. I am going to take both if the minimum number of people is reached. Right there are 3 of us, we need an additional 7. I have asked the staff at the bike shops to help promote it & if they are interested in taking the courses. I am also going to call the LAB & ask if they can send some materials that we can use to advertise & promote this to get people interested to take the courses.

Any helpful suggestions from anyone here are welcome.

I say good for you!

I received some notes written by LAB instructor who teaches the class from his recumbent trike. Since you ride a recumbent bike you might find this interesting even if it isn't applicable. Interesting because you may find that you have to kind of advocate for yourself, for different ways of doing things, because it is different to ride a recumbent bike than a regular one. And this guy at least shows that you can adapt the material for different needs.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=172074

My wife and I took Road 1 last month, and IMO it was definitely worth the time and $.

I don't think this course was advertised broadly enough because turnout was very low. Also several people who signed up and presumably paid, never attended.

It was offered as a summer course in the park district program of a small Chicago suburb, so it was listed in the park district's summer schedule. Unfortunately, this particular park district promoted it only in their own small community. They also tacked on a substantial fee for out-of-district participants. People from LAB and the Chicago Bicycle Federation arranged sponsorship from several sources to defray the fees and underwrite part of the base cost, but that info didn't get out until two weeks before the course.

In addition to the park district promotions, the course info was posted at 3 or 4 LBSs and talked up at one meeting of a bike club that meets in the suburb. But the word just didn't get out to enough people.

L

This area only has a total of about 103,000 people living here. There are areas larger then this who only have one or 2 LCI's. If we have 3 or 4 here that will be great!

I took the Road I course in June. Although I would still recommend it to anyone, I found that I had already picked up most of the content from this forum and I was already doing it. But it's always good to make sure there are no glaring gaps in your knowledge and behavior, and get qualified feedback.

For instance, I found out that I could still use more practice looking back (that old mirror reliance thing), and also with emergency stops. I cockily volunteered to demonstrate stopping distance with each brake alone, then both together, which I had already practiced in another earlier course. For the front by itself, I remembered to shift my weight back to keep from going over, but with both, I forgot and my back wheel lifted about a foot before I recovered and came back down normally on it! :eek: That tells me its not instinctive yet!

Our state bicycle coalition arranges for these courses here, but they also have perennial problems filling enough slots. The LCI was a bit miffed about the fact that they don't require payment up front, and they agreed that they ought to start doing that. We had about a dozen signed up, but it looked like rain and we ended up with 4, and two of those were after a coalition person called and ragged them about it.