Bike School Student Again

MSF Course includes Reference Text Like LAB, but Unlike CS. Material is Also Available on Line

The Bike League requests that its instructors periodically take educational material related to bikes in order to keep "fresh" in bike ed. The principle is exactly correct and ought to be followed by all; ESPECIALLY by instructors. Recently, I took advantage of an opportunity to become a bike school student all over again through a Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) course offered near my home in North Texas. There is an obvious (to me) synergy between how to safely ride and control a bicycle with how to do the same thing on a heavier and more powerful two-wheel vehicle. Indeed, I found MANY things that cross over directly, and it was fascinating to see the similarities and differences between the Bike League (LAB) and Cycling Savvy (CS) bicycling programs.

MSF Instructor Has a Pole to Help Cone Placement, With Marks on the Lot, Unlike Either LAB or CS
ALL Riding was Done in this Parking Lot

General Observations
The MSF course takes two FULL days, and there is at least one added follow-on course. Thus it is longer than either of the cycling programs. In addition, in many states, taking and passing the test obviates the requirement to take the state skills riding test in order to win a motorcycle endorsement to one's driving license. On both days, the course started with some classroom work that consisted of going through the MSF handbook and watching relevant videos. Late each morning, we'd go over to the parking lot for various drills. Unlike EITHER the CS or LAB programs, there was no on-street riding and, as you can see below, the school-provided motorcycles do not have licenses or turn signals installed on them, making them not street-legal. My own class was probably unusual because one of the three students already had his motorcycle endorsement, was a deputy sheriff, and was taking the class in preparation to become an instructor. The second student was taking the course to get his motorcycle endorsement and did not have much more motorcycle experience than myself. The third student was me. While my bike handling skills were probably better than most, I last rode a motorcycle more than 30 years ago. Fortunately, the course does NOT assume you know how to do things such as starting the motorcycle nor shutting it down.

Our Class Had Only Three Students, Like Many LAB and CS Classes. Instructors Only Double-Up With Larger Courses

Motorcyles ARE Different (in some ways)
The first, and obvious difference is that motorcycles are big, heavy, and fast compared to bikes. Our training motorcycles were Suzuki 250 models which are tiny by current motorcycle standards but even they seemed heavy and clumsy to me. The second difference is that rider compliance is NOT considered "optional" by the larger society and the education programs are specifically backed by major manufacturers. A corollary is that instruction recognizes that motorcycles are vulnerable road users, but also starts with the presumption that crashes are usually multi-cause events in which the motorcyclist is actively seeking a balance between risk and safety. That is a refreshing change from bicycles, where advocates often seem obsessed with distinguishing between which crashes are the fault of the motorist and which are the fault of the cyclist. The MSF course knows that if you crash, it will HURT. This being said, there is a LOT of crossover in principles with bikes, even though the motorcycle people use different terms for many of their principles. ONE OTHER THING - Motorcyles ALL "backwards brake."

For the rest of this post, I'll cover topics I found interesting that either differ from bicycle teaching, match bicycle teaching, or fill in blanks for me.

Ear Protection
One thing I found fascinating was the subject of earplugs, due to my past bike school experience. Gail, here, started this and I have made other posts on the subject, here and here. In the case of the MSF, hearing protection is STRONGLY advocated even for those with quiet motorcycles and full-face helmets. One reason why, which tracks with my own bike experience, is that outside noise is a problem. The MSF cites wind noise in particular. In addition, traffic noise adds to the fatigue aspects. The MSF instructor discounted engine noise as a reason for the earplugs and was unaware that some jurisdictions outlaw their use. I also found that some motorcycle helmets have built-in provisions for listening to things like music while riding. Myself, I think this is a situation where "it depends" is a guiding factor. If you are riding slowly, in a quiet locale, ear protection is probably extraneous. That's a major reason I do not wear earphones in Ocean Shores. OTOH, if you are going to be listening to loud and engaging music, earphones are probably NOT a good idea since the music itself, in addition to being distracting, can add to hearing loss.

Visibility
In the past, I've been somewhat dubious about the incremental benefits of wearing "high vis" since much cycling (and motorcycling) clothing is basic black and because the first line of defense is to have good lights and to ride where people WILL see you before it is too late. However, I have to admit the MSF makes good points that being visible adds incremental safety. As they note about motorcycles (and could equally be noted about bikes), "...are smaller and not as prevalent as cars and trucks, so they are more difficult to pick out in traffic and their speed may be difficult for others to judge." We should keep in mind that many emergency vehicles are rear-ended on roads, despite being covered with high vis and despite "move over" legislation. 'Nuf sed.

Lane Positions
The MSF teaching on this is simple, and virtually identical to what is taught as "best practice" in cycling. The "line of sweetness" rules! In an interesting difference of terminology, the MSF describes the "line of sweetness" as the "presentation position."

The "Line of Sweetness!" Also Endorsed by the MSF

Dogs
I don't recall much material from bike school about dealing with dogs, and DEFINITELY not about how to deal with larger animals such as the deer that abound in Ocean Shores. The MSF recommendation follows: "Once an approaching dog is spotted, a good rider response is to slow, including a downshift, then accelerate past the point of interception. Don't kick at the dog, because it will make controlling the motorcycle difficult."

Crash Chain
Two things that are talked about in bike ed, are "the danger is ahead" and ACE (which stands for Ability, Conditions, and Equipment). This is complemented by the "ABC Quick Check" which is more equivalent to something the MSF refers to as TCLOCS. The Crash Chain is an excellent way to view all the elements of ACE. With apologies to Preston Tyree, he ought to consider adapting the graphic view of the Crash Chain as it wraps together all the elements of ACE, though it separates "conditions" into "road and environment," and "other traffic."

Crash Chain Graphic PERFECTLY Illustrates the LAB "ACE" Concept
REMOVE Crash Causes to BREAK the Chain Between You and Crashes

Tests
As noted  here and other places, I feel the CS program does too little testing (this is only bad because it means less feedback to students) while the LAB program spends too high a portion of its course time in testing (better student feedback, but too much time spent on tests relative to the length of the course). I do not know to what degree the MSF course approach to testing is dictated by state licensing requirements, but I found that its written test wasn't much less of a PIA than the LAB test, and its riding test was "pass/fail" since a "pass" is required to eliminate the state riding skills test. Overall, I wasn't impressed with the MSF testing, since feedback was only offered upon request. In this way it was effectively somewhere in between the two cycling programs.

Turning and Braking
I think I've blathered on for almost too much here, so I'll end with turning and braking. The principles of turning on a motorcycle are the same as on a bicycle. I found it interesting that the instructor never used the term "countersteer," though he taught us the principles. The MSF Handbook mentions it once in the context of "Press" where you press forward on the motorcycle grip in the direction of the turn. Still, this is an area in which my past bike experience with "instant turns" and such allowed me to control the motorcycle more accurately than the other students.

Another difference in emphasis is braking. In bike school, we try quick stops with the rear, with the front, and with both brakes to illustrate things. In motorcycle school, we are simply taught to apply both brakes smoothly and there is less emphasis on letting up on one or the other brake should skidding begin. Principles are the same, but perhaps the difference is because it would be difficult to spot for someone on a heavy motorcycle.

All in all, it was a good learning experience and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in improving his/her cycling abilities. Since I've done it, I also guess I ought to go ahead and get a motorcycle endorsement. After all, "you never know..."

Student Advice

Student Objective - ALSO Student Advice!

One aspect I like about the LAB program, despite its other warts, is the organized feedback it offers. Case in point: last weekend, a student inadvertently offered me some advice without realizing it. You can see that advice above. Yes, campers, teachers have bad habits every bit as much as any student. And, if Gail Spann is reading this, it isn't what she thinks. Even Warren would admit I was VERY well behaved about avoiding cyclocross mounts and dismounts. My recent fixie purchase should help further, but I have to drag THAT story out a while. For reasons that will become gradually clear in future posts.

It all started with Quick Stops and Instant Turns. For those not practiced in the bike handling drills common to LAB and Cycling Savvy, Quick Stops are the theory and practice of stopping a bike as quickly as possible in an emergency. You will NOT do a Quick Stop or Instant Turn every day. In fact, I cannot say I have EVER had to do a life or death Quick Stop. With luck, I never will. Still, should that day come, I hope I will be around to tell y'all how the three or four feet quicker I stopped, or the three feet quicker I turned, made a real difference. That is why we practice. Similar motives lead me to practice emergency motoring maneuvers. As in SCCA Solo Racing. What can I say, I'm an engineer?

But, bike ed has its possible downside. Today, I had one incident in which I considered initiating a Quick Stop. I also had a second incident in which I considered how ineffective the "back brake only" version of the Quick Stop truly is - and where you want to be wearing helmets the very most. Was this coincidence? I hope so. I'd rather not think that practice creates the need for the actions we practice.

Bedford Road. Scofflaw Motorist Was Off to the Right. No Cones Today...

First off, I was going down a slight incline on Bedford Road - IN Bedford, on the way home; headed towards a major coffee chain that creates a "most days" major homebound delay, when I saw a motorist and her vehicle off to the right at a stop sign. Following my usual policy, I watched the car's wheels. When they moved forward prematurely, my hands applied pressure on the brake levers and I considered potential Quick Stop options. An Instant Turn also was momentarily considered, but at close to 30MPH, was considered only as an adjunct to a Quick Stop after speed got scrubbed off. Then, the motorist recognized - or registered me - and waited. Recollections of last weekend flooded through. Once again, I didn't have to actually put any of that bike ed stuff to REAL use. Whew. The cycling equivalent of a reduction in the "DEFCON" level. Still, it was nice to know the recent practice was ready if needed.

The Offending Parking Lot. On a Day a Little More Slipperier Than Today

Before long, I was pulling into the coffee chain parking lot and exposing a BAD habit. Namely, I took off my helmet as I pulled in, which I often do to let my head cool down a smidge before I go inside. I do NOT want to start any helmet wars here, but in my experience, parking lots are one of the four situations in which helmets are the most useful. The other ones are: regular walking around or riding on slick ice, and crowded bike paths. All three situations have a lot of potential conflict and the helmet wearer is going slow. Simply said, if you wear a helmet on the road, do not take it off until you stop. That parking lot is a hotbed of potential conflict. Rantwick's mom is right.

My Dear, Departed Helmet. Killed in a Texas Summer. Still, Illustrative of Today's BAD Habit. The Helmet in the Photo Got ZINGED in Texas Heat

To make the story move forward, I took off the helmet, and held it in my left hand, leaving me with only rear braking. A car pulled out. Good thing I wasn't going fast, or I'd have made a good dent in the motorist's fender and we'd have had to argue why it was OK for him to run that stop sign when I didn't have one. I'd really rather not argue. BOTH HANDS available for braking. That's good practice. The premature helmet removal is a bad habit, and doubly so when it compromises one's ability to use the strong (front) brake. Nuff sed.

Those students learn. They also teach.

Warren Casteel Illustrates a Point in Parking Lot Drills

Renee Jordan Explains Instant Turns to TS101 Students

FOCUS!

Captain Picard Contemplates Steve's Habits...

Brompton at Cycle Savvy

Chandra Sets Up the Brompton

Sometimes you learn stuff in bike school that you weren't planning on learning. Like about some of the other bikes. Early in September, "Lovely Bicycle" did a piece on a bare, clear coated Brompton folding bike. Knowing that Chandra was likely to bring his own Brompton along, I decided to grill him a bit on the color and finish choices on that fine bike. Well, to my amazement, Chandra and Velouria seem to have similar tastes, since Chandra also went with "the natural look."

Without further comment, look at the photos. The look might not appeal to all, but the brazes visible to all that look appeal to me somehow. If it was not a basic truth that "all the best bikes are red," I might be smitten...

Brompton Rear Triangle. The Little Wheels are for Rolling the Bike When Folded

Close Look at the Brazes at the Head Tube

Brazes and the Mighty Brompton Drive Train

Cycling Savvy On the Road

CS Instructors Talk Students Through Their Next Traffic Situation

On Sunday afternoon, our Cycling Savvy class went out on the road. I’m not entirely sure if the parking lot drills readied us for this, or merely gave us an opportunity to forget some of Friday night’s lecture, but either way, the road session was an experience that should not be missed by anyone contemplating taking a Cycling Savvy course. It differs substantively from the road session in the LAB Traffic 101 course. What’s more, in retrospect, it seems obvious to me that the LAB road curriculum would be easy to fix (with added road time), without any major changes in basic direction. To illustrate the difference, I’ll describe the LAB Traffic 101 road session and compare the Cycling Savvy equivalent.

In LAB Traffic 101, after completing parking lot drills that are very like those in Cycling Savvy, the class is taken out on local roads to give them first-hand experience with cycling on low stress roads. This sounds sensible, and I’ll state that when I took Traffic 101, it seemed appropriate to me for inexperienced cyclists. Anyway, in T101, the road experience guidance is merely that the streets are typically 35mph or less. Cycling Savvy is quite different.

Richard Wharton Signals For a Left Turn

Cycling Savvy uses a dramatically more structured approach to the student road experience. It is NOT just, or even primarily, a ride to experience real streets. In truth, in Cycling Savvy, you ride real streets to get to “situations.” As I realized about half way into the session, CS’s tour consists of a series of specific street situations that it expects students to be exposed to, and succeed with. For example, we got situations structured so we’d realized we should sometimes simply remain in the left lane and then make a left turn, or deal with lanes that appeared or disappeared. We had other situations where we went over a freeway overpass and then merged into a situation where we’d make a “jug handle” turn instead of dealing with complex and heavy traffic. Some, reading this, will not understand all of the specific terms I’m using, but that is less important than understanding that Cycling Savvy has a list of traffic situations they expect that cyclists will face and you WILL be exposed, deliberately, to each and every one of them. There is no pressure to do something the student is not ready to do, but it is a much more deliberate and structured situation than I saw in my Traffic 101 course, or even in my LCI Seminar. In truth, the situations were much more like what Preston Tyree put us through in our LCI Seminar than the Traffic 101 course, except that in CS, they are not attempting to teach the student how to teach others. I actually encountered situations in CS that were NOT part of our LCI road time. In our LCI, we didn’t do freeway overpasses or stretches on high speed roads. I had to learn that by myself. CS does all that, and more. If you haven't done this, you'll have to trust me that it is not hard to do, though it can be a bit scary if you have to learn it on your own as I did. Cycling Savvy takes care of the learning so you don't have to "do it yourself."

Lots of Police on 9/11

What’s more, the situations that CS creates are not all oriented towards simply safe operating principles. There is emphasis on understanding what and how the motorists are going to operate, and how you can use this knowledge to create harmonious co-existence with them. In short, CS partly teaches how a cyclist creates what I often refer to on this blog as “my motorists.” I do not recall material in either Traffic 101 or LCI that explains how to reduce on-road conflict explicitly. Certainly the principles are there; jug handle turns and such, but CS put these into clear, real world context.

If you are reading this, but are not FULLY confident in traffic, I can assure you that Cycling Savvy will not push you to do anything dangerous. In our situations, I saw none that I do not deal with on at least an occasional basis in my own cycling. On the other hand, knowing you CAN do these maneuvers is critical to a cyclist ready to ride confidently, safely, and assertively, and that appreciate less conflict with motorists.

Chalk Diagrams Helped Students Understand the More Complex Traffic Situations

Still, there are thorns amongst the Cycling Savvy roses. Our session included at least one cyclist that had enough experience cycling to be able to “connect the dots” and I think she is likely to experience positive and permanent positive changes in her ability to ride more comfortably in any situation she might encounter. I do not think this would have occurred for her from a LAB Traffic 101 course. However, there was another cyclist that was overwhelmed by it all. IMO, a cyclist new to bikes would be better advised to take a Traffic 101 course, get more comfortable riding on “low threat” streets, and THEN take Cycling Savvy. Personally, I don’t think most adults, hopping on to a bike for the first time since childhood are going to get the most out of the course. Perhaps others exposed to CS have seen other results. The instructors were fully aware of the situation, but only so much can be done with a class situation.

Keri Caffrey Explains Just How Far that Truck Door Will Swing Out

If I use an analogy with learning to swim, it seems to me that Cycling Savvy assumes the student knows how to breathe in the water and hasn’t been taught to believe that there are sharks in the swimming pool, but neither is that student a returning swim team member or someone ready for a Red Cross “Water Safety Instructor” certificate. For a student just starting again after childhood, I think Traffic 101 is still a better bet, followed by some daily riding, and THEN Cycling Savvy. Exposure to sound principles is not enough for some beginners, but it probably is for others. Maybe that is one reason that Cycling Savvy is currently an “adults only” course. I didn’t query the instructors about that element of CS.

Repetition is also necessary, and that cannot be fully offered by Cycling Savvy in a single riding session with many different experiences to cover. Some items will stick with the student, but other points will be forgotten. That could change, but today, the Traffic 101 course leaves the student with written reference material (even if it isn’t ideally organized for that purpose and the diagrams are less than ideal) that can be reviewed and practiced after the course. Cycling Savvy will, I hope, someday leave each student with a flash drive to help their independent repetition of sound principles, seeing themselves actually DOING it once again. Paper is SO 20^th Century! I’m not sure the state of practice is to that point, but it is getting close. For sure, it would add teaching burden so maybe things are better the way they are, but I know if I was learning a lot, I’d really like to be able to review things at my leisure afterwards.

The bottom line: I hope that I’ve not painted either an unrealistically rosy or pessimistic portrait about what Cycling Savvy either is or is not. Soul searching about Bicycle Education is long overdue, and Cycling Savvy is an admirable advance. Simply eliminating the mechanical elements that many students do not want or need and dumping the test that adds no value to the student would give it an advantage, but it went beyond that and reduced instructor lecture preparation load, as well as adding useful structure to the on-street session.

Our Class and Teachers

Cycling Savvy in the Parking Lot

Here, I reported on the classroom session of cycling savvy. Sunday morning, we collected for parking lot instruction. This is very similar to the parking lot session of the LAB Traffic 101 course. As a practical matter, it is almost IDENTICAL to the LAB Traffic 101 course parking lot session. Come to think of it, it has most of the SAME problems that the LAB Traffic 101 course parking lot sessions have. As a result, I’ll simply criticize both and compliment both as one body. IMO, most of the differences could just as easily be instructor-to-instructor variation.

Waco Moore and Chandra Look Relaxed, Neither Yet Knew About the Ants in the Dirt to Waco's Right Where My Bike (and helmet) are Parked

In both cases, the purpose of these drills are to build basic bike handling skills and to build student confidence in things like “looking behind to see if some car is going to squish you if you make that lane change you are contemplating.” Of course, rather than the wordy version, this is called a “head check” or a “scan.” Things start out showing us how to start out how to get on the bike and start out. That sounds pretty simple, but cyclists accumulate bad habits. Gail Spann, for example, caught me doing sloppy starts in my LCI Seminar that might cause problems for some riders. She even took photos, but I seem unable to find the link just now, so you'll have to do without examples of Steve riding badly. You might similarly suffer from bad habits that make things simpler for what you’re doing daily. I think the operative phrase is “do as I say, not as I do.” In the parking lot, bad habits get corrected and good habits get stronger. Why else would you spend all morning riding around in a single, empty parking lot?

From starting out, we advanced to practice shifting gears, and thence to turning, head checks, riding slowly, and we wound up practicing emergency maneuvers. Most of these drills are identical between the two courses. That really should not be a surprise, because the physics are independent of what course is being taught. Duh. One difference that I actually found a little disappointing was the "snail race." While Chandra proved once again that he is slower than me, I wonder if a better variant with stronger traffic application might be "how long can you take to go a single foot?" Same general idea, but staying behind a stop line without putting a foot down is something I do every day in traffic. I rarely try to go 20 feet (or whatever the length of the snail race was) as slowly as possible. In all fairness, if I had a brilliant alternative, you'd be reading about it here. Some things are simply BORING until someone comes along with the brilliant alternative everyone else wishes they'd thought of. Keri or Waco might well come up with that alternative some day, but it wasn't in Sunday's parking lot drills.

Keri Caffrey Chalks Out What Might Create a Need for an Emergency Turn, Referred to as an "Instant Turn" Soon, There Were Cones and Sponges

Sponges in the Rock Dodge Course - Nice Unless it Got Windy

On a personal basis, I found it interesting that Cycling Savvy used sponges to mark off the drill course, while the Traffic 101 courses I’ve experienced have used cut up tennis balls. Sponges seem like a good idea – AS LONG as it doesn’t get windy. I haven’t seen it done in person, but an idea I recently heard on the "LCI Mailing List" that seems better than EITHER approach is to simply cut up a colored bath mat and use it. Bath mats make less of a bump to a bike wheel running one over than a tennis ball, but they would not be caught so easily by the wind as a sponge. Yup, I’m a bike school geek!

One problem common to BOTH programs is that instructors seem to have problems holding the students to a precise schedule. I suspect the students are not as "parking lot schedule aware" as the instructors. Note to myself: try the "train and station" approach. I’d hoped that somehow, Cycling Savvy’s new approach would have found a miracle solution, but miracles are not always to be found. Well, at least it made things no worse in that regard, and a more rigid student limit kept things more manageable for two instructors.

Students Focus on the Instruction, but They Still Make Holding to the Time Schedule a Challenge
Honestly, Waco and Keri Did Pretty Good, Though All but One of the Students Was Pretty Good About Time
(and no, I wasn't the scofflaw, at least I don't THINK I was the scofflaw)

Students About to Discover the Ants. You'll Note My Helmet and Bike Were No Longer There, Only My Water Bottle

Cycling Savvy Report PLAN

I reported on the classroom session of Cycling Savvy, but it took until now to figure out how I’ll report on the whole body of experience. I plan to report four ways. I will report on each major element, capturing as much as is practical (not practicable). That yields three main reports. The first, already completed, is here. The second will cover the Cycling Savvy Parking Lot Drills, The third covers the Cycling Savvy Road Session.  The fourth element covers various elements related to our Cycling Savvy course and the program in general. The fourth element may be a number of posts. For example, one thing I think could be improved would be to find a way to provide modern reference data to students for their future work. As a second example, I had an opportunity to better appreciate the simple beauty of a Brompton “clear with exposed braze” bike. As a third example, I had a chance to closely examine Dallas driver behavior entirely unrelated to the course, other than I was IN the course at the time. Anyway, the fourth element is sort of a “closure” collection and might drag on for weeks at random intervals.

For additional perspectives on the overall Cycling Savvy, I suggest you visit here (classroom report) or here (bike drills and road report). These are reports Chandra made on his new “iBrompton” blog and I agree with most of his observations. Chandra’s observations, by the way, are more than usually complementary to any I make, because he took Traffic 101 with me, as well as LCI, and we carpooled to the Cycling Savvy course and discussed it on the way there and on the way home.

Why Did I Bring My Road Bike? It's a "Fourth Element" Story

In the Parking Lot Drill, Be Careful About Standing Too Close to that Tree!

Road Drill - That Diagram Looked a LOT More Complicated than the Actual Ride

Cycling Savvy Poop

As in, for the moment, pooped out about cycling stuff. Stay tuned. I got lots of photos and will have to ponder the whole matter for a day or two...

Cycling Savvy Preliminaries

Fellow Student, Chandra, Boards the TRE

First, I'll start with an update to that "Earphone Myth" post. When I mentioned it to someone before class started, the reaction was "eww, that is as controversial as a helmet post or gun control, only less well known!" And so it was.

Talk, Talk, Talk!
Friday was the lecture segment to Cycling Savvy. Cycling Savvy is an educational product of the Florida Bicycling Association that was principally developed by two cyclists in the Orlando area. Rather than belabor the details, go here to learn more about the developers and the organization. Our course was co-taught by Waco Moore and Keri Caffrey. Waco was one of my co-students when I took my second LCI Seminar and Keri came in from Orlando.

Chandra Unfolds the Folder

My own context for this post is from the context of one who has been trained to teach the Bike League curriculum; particularly Traffic 101. Most readers, if they know anything at all about bicycle education, know of that or its Canadian counterpart.

Cycling Savvy Myth
It is easier to first start with what Cycling Savvy is NOT. Despite what might be claimed, such as comments here, or even in Cycling Savvy literature, if the lecture I heard is believed, the underlying principles of how to operate a bicycle in traffic are identical as are taught in the LAB curriculum, and so Cycling Savvy is most emphatically not "new" in that regard. While Cycling Savvy claims to eschew "vehicular cycling," it does so only in avoiding the offensive language often associated with "vehicular cycling" advocates. Phrases such as "infeariority," "phobia" and similar hot button words. It presents simple information, simply and plainly. The closest it came to inflammatory rhetoric was when Waco contrasted bike ed videos from the 50's with the current "gotta wear a helmet" variety. Cycling Savvy, in short, does not pretend there is some magical new way to ride safely. It simply tells the student what to do.

Instructor Waco Moore Prepares for Cycling Savvy Lecture

A second thing that Cycling Savvy is NOT, is a general bicycling course, and this is really the major difference from the LAB Traffic 101 course. Simply said, Cycling Savvy will not teach you how to fix a flat tire, adjust brakes, or how to adjust a derailleur, while Traffic 101 does cover those topics. The difference is crucial to a student, however. It means that Cycling Savvy has much more class time to cover riding situations. It also means a prospective student needs to consider just what he/she really needs to learn and alternate ways to get that learning. On the other hand, if all things bikes (and not only  riding) are somewhat of a mystery to you and you don't even know where to start, Traffic 101 is a better bet.

Instructor and Course Co-Developer Keri Caffrey Takes a Brief, Well-earned Break

Steve Editorial Before We Get Too Far
My own strictly personal and unofficial opinion, neither endorsed nor prohibited by anyone, is that most people considering taking a cycling course are people scared because the BS they have been fed makes them nervous about simply enjoying the act of riding their bikes. Just like non-swimmers worry about all that water, prospective cyclists are concerned about those 18 wheelers. What's more people simply don't believe that I'm comfortable on the same road as 18 wheelers (GOD BLESS PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS!). The students I've seen are much less concerned that a flat tire or a loose quick release will hurt or strand them. They've got cell phones and bike shops identified. What is more, bike shops often offer means to learn basic mechanics. To draw an analogy, the LAB Traffic 101 course is like a computer course that teaches a bit about component installation and removal while Cycling Savvy focuses on how to boot things up and check your email. Most of the students I've seen, even in Traffic 101, are less concerned with what makes the computer tick than simply USING it. Of course, that might be just a North Texas situation. Which is why I'm not paid millions of bucks annually by either LAB or the Florida Bicycling Association. Go back to the disclaimer at the top of this paragraph.

Preston's Influence
Preston Tyree ruined me. It means I need to find something good and something that could have been better about Cycling Savvy. I'd like to list more of each (and I certainly have LOTS of candidate items), but I'll wait until after the on-bike sessions. For now, one of each.

Preston and Co-conspirators, Figuring Out What We Could Have Done Better

Something Good
The lecture material was strongly developed and presented. As I noted to an anonymous fellow student sitting to my right, (also a Bike League LCI) "you or I could work on PowerPoint for six months and we wouldn't be CLOSE to these charts." At the risk of getting to a second "good" thing, it looked to me that the pitch was standardized, with buttons being clicked to tailor for the locale. Simply put, the charts worked, made preparation simpler for the instructors, and engaged the students with modern multimedia.

Selected Cycling Savvy Chart. Note Familiar Material and Buttons to Customize for Presentation Locale

Something That Could Have Been Better
Well, to be perfectly honest, it seemed like there was an AWFUL LOT of stuff about how to ride around bike lanes. There are no longer any bike lanes within daily riding distance of my house. As in zippity do dah. The main problem that creates for me is I have to explain to non cyclists that no bike lanes really don't make it harder for me to ride to work safely. Even the unmourned loss of the North Tarrant Parkway bike lane was unlike the examples presented in class because there was no parking allowed along the bike lane and it was so wide that motorists used it as an auxiliary passing lane. Suburban North Texas is NOT Orlando, nor even Dallas, but it IS where a lot of students in North Texas will come from, and suburbs are around all the other cities where courses have or will probably be offered. In short, the class occasionally loses its focus on fundamental operation principles. That is hardly a fatal or uncorrectable flaw, though it is notable, considering I was thrashed before I took my first LCI by a correspondent that didn't like the LAB position on bike lanes. Come to think of it, bike lanes are a controversy up there with earphones and helmets and it was integrated so well that it really didn't use a lot of class time, so 'nuff sed!

Many Familar Faces Were at the Class, Including Eliot Landrum in the Photo, Richard Wharton, Chandra (of course)
And an Anonymous LCI that Sat to My Right. And I'm Sure I Forgot to Mention a Few. Chandra and I  Were Two of Three That Came by Bike
The Other was the Gentleman in the Back in the Hawaiian Shirt that Came up from Houston and Rode His Bike from the Hotel

Irony
One item brought up in the lectures were those count down lights I posted about, just last week, here. Another was how to trigger traffic lights. Posts here and here, and lots of other places. On the way to the train station to get home, I was mildly concerned about missing the TRE. There were three of those count down signals along the route. One one of the count down signals, I flashed through the intersection just as it hit zero. Hit it! It seemed a fitting end to the evening. And I may have to point Keri to some added secrets about the finer points of video signal camera detection zones. It's the engineer in me. Just as I'm sure John Brooking is capable of improving my ice biking technique.