Cycling question

I would most definitely ride on the sidewalk in those conditions Tory. You probably have to ride slower, just for safety sake, on the sidewalk but the hazards on the road surface are too unsafe otherwise sounds like to me. The roads here in Spokane are notoriously bad and there are places that I have to jump on the sidewalk just to avoid huge potholes. I just slow down a bit and watch extra close for folks pulling out of their driveways. Good luck and I hope heal up ok.

First, I am glad you are not seriously hurt
you may want to think about replacing your helmet
bike helmets are designed to save your noggin ONE TIME
Tegaderm is great stuff for road rash

Ride where you are safe.
guilt is stupid

<quote>
So my question is this, is it appropriate to use the sidewalk for riding when you feel that conditions are dangerous for a biker?
</quote>

In light of what just happened to you.....haven't you answered your own question??

We now return you to our regularly scheduled rant.......
I am not saying the below applies to you personally but,
I have been frequenting tri boards for a while,
and roadie boards for longer
I have ridden with tri-folks
Roadies
MTB'ers of all stripes
and eight-year-olds
One of the most overlooked skills for triathletes is bike handling skills.
For some reason, lots of tri-folks will spend hours and hours and hours and hours
getting faster on the bike
<hyperbole>
and
will still be no better able to handle the bike than your average eight-year-old,
it's like building a Ferarri and not putting in a steering wheel
</hyperbole>
Time spent doing skill drills like
track stands
slow-speed slalom
riding a parking lot paint stripe
small bunny hops
etc.
spend some time *playing* on your bike
learn about how the bike behaves in all sorts of situations

is not time that takes away from your
training, it's time that can keep you from hurting yourself
or someone else

you can't win if you're layed-up with a broken collar bone,
hell, you can't even ride

Hey, I resemble that rant! What in the world are track stands and slow speed slaloms?

Sounds like I need to be practicing them.....

Edited by Whizzer 2004-06-02 10:26 AM

Track stand = balancing on your bike without moving forward or falling down (hard to do, but impressive)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/bicycles-faq/mountain-bikes/section-22.htm...

leading up to the track stand.....

Slow slalom = find a parking lot or other open, flatish piece of
real estate (parking lot, school playground etc)
either place objects on the ground or use the
organic features ot the place (lines, parking barriers, pebbles, potholes)
ride a course as slowly as possible around them.
The slower, the better
Falling over or running into things is bad.
The idea is to make your bike do exactly what you want it to.
This drill teaches you how to ask your bike to do things.

Thanks! I can't wait to try this out because I really do need to develop a better feel for my bike (it's fairly new).

I think you should practice Track stand with no people around

Something else that you could do that *might* help drivers notice you better: I have a bright orange crossing-guard type vest with reflective stripes. I'm rather lucky that I can ride a lightly travelled route to work, and it's before traffic gets busy, but I've found that the vest can help some. You'll still be at the mercy of drivers not paying attention, but I've never met a cop who hasn't read the riot act to a driver that creased someone wearing a vest.