Edogawakikkoman
Maximum Pace
- Jan 14, 2007
- 2,549
- 251
2 weeks ago a guy in our club fainted and crashed while doing our morning training ride.
We don't know exactly what happened and neither does he. He was unconcious for over 24 hours. The guy riding behind him said his front wheel started wobbling like he was falling asleep at the wheel yet he was still ridng fast enough to hit the guy's back wheel in front of him.
As a result, our club didn't have the usual Sunday morning warm-up and shinkansen like sprint along the Edo river last week. We had a 2 hour talk about the accident and ways of improving safety all round instead.
Our club has grown a lot and we have experts and beginners. We divvy them up and ride in small groups of 4 to 6 accordingly, but we realised the experts have to start taking on more responsibility in helping the newbies.
We are making a manual on safety, hand signals, and a few other things to help us all stay alive on the bike without upsetting pedestrians, drivers and other people that use the roads and cycling paths.
I've come off my bike twice at 40+kph and luckily was able to walk away without trips to the hospital.
I can be lazy when leading a group of riders too and even when my wife is following me while riding together I don't always afford her (a lot of the time )the calls and hand signals that I'd be expected to do within our club rides.
Since our meeting last week I've been extra careful. Pointing out obstructions to my wife following cloesly behind. Obstructions that she knows like the back of her hand anyway.
It's vital that when riding you take into account the rider at the end of the group. If you are leading or have riders behind you, you need to always think to yourself... for example...
can the person at the end of this line get past this obstruction before that person with the dog over takes the old couple up ahead? Can we all get through this traffic light or should I just stop and wait?
Should we ride at the speed of our weakest rider or make them suffer?
Should we let that guy ride in our group even though he forgot or doesn't like helmets?
Should we get angry at our frineds when they ride foolishly, risking their safety as well as the safety of the group's?
Our club has decided to ride a bit slower on Sunday mornings, get a rhythm back, help the newbies, make sure we are all riding safely and not push ourselves too hard just to try and fit in with the speedsters.
The speedsters will of course ignore the restrictions and ride fast after training or form smaller groups and go to different places. That's ok. At least the beginners won't get in their way.
4 years of Sunday morning sprints and this is the first real problem we've had to deal with. We've had a few falls and I think a guy broke his thumb, but apart from that, this was the biggest scare. The guy was close to death. In a coma.
I wasn't there that day, so didn't see how it was handled. I'd like to know if the ambulance got their quickly and whether anybody had the brains to check breathing, pulse etc...
Do any of you guys know first aid? Where the nearest hospitals are?
Rant over but I think it's worth talking about.
Cyclists dying can take the fun out of our lifestyles....
We don't know exactly what happened and neither does he. He was unconcious for over 24 hours. The guy riding behind him said his front wheel started wobbling like he was falling asleep at the wheel yet he was still ridng fast enough to hit the guy's back wheel in front of him.
As a result, our club didn't have the usual Sunday morning warm-up and shinkansen like sprint along the Edo river last week. We had a 2 hour talk about the accident and ways of improving safety all round instead.
Our club has grown a lot and we have experts and beginners. We divvy them up and ride in small groups of 4 to 6 accordingly, but we realised the experts have to start taking on more responsibility in helping the newbies.
We are making a manual on safety, hand signals, and a few other things to help us all stay alive on the bike without upsetting pedestrians, drivers and other people that use the roads and cycling paths.
I've come off my bike twice at 40+kph and luckily was able to walk away without trips to the hospital.
I can be lazy when leading a group of riders too and even when my wife is following me while riding together I don't always afford her (a lot of the time )the calls and hand signals that I'd be expected to do within our club rides.
Since our meeting last week I've been extra careful. Pointing out obstructions to my wife following cloesly behind. Obstructions that she knows like the back of her hand anyway.
It's vital that when riding you take into account the rider at the end of the group. If you are leading or have riders behind you, you need to always think to yourself... for example...
can the person at the end of this line get past this obstruction before that person with the dog over takes the old couple up ahead? Can we all get through this traffic light or should I just stop and wait?
Should we ride at the speed of our weakest rider or make them suffer?
Should we let that guy ride in our group even though he forgot or doesn't like helmets?
Should we get angry at our frineds when they ride foolishly, risking their safety as well as the safety of the group's?
Our club has decided to ride a bit slower on Sunday mornings, get a rhythm back, help the newbies, make sure we are all riding safely and not push ourselves too hard just to try and fit in with the speedsters.
The speedsters will of course ignore the restrictions and ride fast after training or form smaller groups and go to different places. That's ok. At least the beginners won't get in their way.
4 years of Sunday morning sprints and this is the first real problem we've had to deal with. We've had a few falls and I think a guy broke his thumb, but apart from that, this was the biggest scare. The guy was close to death. In a coma.
I wasn't there that day, so didn't see how it was handled. I'd like to know if the ambulance got their quickly and whether anybody had the brains to check breathing, pulse etc...
Do any of you guys know first aid? Where the nearest hospitals are?
Rant over but I think it's worth talking about.
Cyclists dying can take the fun out of our lifestyles....
