Tips for cycling in the city

A reader asks us to give some tips on how to ride the bike in the city, especially if it has many cars and is dangerous. A server that has thrown a few kilometers into the streets of Granada is going to give some advice not to end up with the bones in the ground:

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  • Check your brakes, they have to be perfect: in general, the entire bike must be in good condition, but the brakes are essential. In the city are used a lot and between some brakes, in good and poor condition there is up to 10 meters difference in an emergency braking.
  
  
  • Do not get between the cars, even if the traffic is slow because they may not see you and if they make a sudden maneuver you will be the one harmed. My advice is to go always on the right side and very carefully.
  
  

• Do not hit the cars from behind, your brakes are more powerful and if you nail the car to us it will not give us time to brake.


• If there is no traffic go through the center of the road. And even if there is traffic, if the street is very narrow you do not cut in going through the center, you are another vehicle more. The issue is to avoid the area near the sidewalk because there is always a clueless pedestrian or some outgoing that can play a trick on us.


• A city bike without lights is not a bike. Although the city has lit lights on the bike is very important, there are times that cars do not see us, and rightly so, we are a little perceptible vehicle and with a pair of LED lights, we will be warning that we are on the road.


• Find a route with fewer cars. Sometimes the shortest route is not the best, either because there are more cars or the road is worse we can take the same time for another alternative and safer route. It is much more comfortable in the city to go without cars even if more kilometers are done than to go always surrounded by smoke and danger.


• Beware of putting yourself first at the traffic lights . Especially if at the exit all the cars that you have advanced will happen to you or if you intermingle with the motorcycles. If the route is going to allow you to leave and follow the first one, there is no problem but you will only bother the traffic and you will run more risks.


• The mp3 is not for bicycles, because it distracts and because it prevents us from listening to traffic. When driving through the city, all concentration is small, with music we will go to our own and we will pay less attention to the dangers.


• Get off the bike if you go down the sidewalk. It is not the first time that a cyclist collides with a pedestrian to go by bike on the sidewalk, and is that a turn in a corner or an inopportune change of direction will easily cause a shock.


• Use your turn signals. Normally if you use the arms to indicate what your direction will be, the car ahead will respect you and leave you room to do your maneuver. If you never point the back ones they do not know where you are going and they will assume that you will not change direction.


• If you do not know the city, examine it first. In small cities, they do not matter, but in large cities, you get overwhelmed with so much traffic and especially if you do not know where to go. When you know the terrain you know those little tricks that allow you to go more safely. In the face of unknown terrain it is better to be prudent and if necessary to walk on the sidewalk.


• And it goes without saying that the helmet is not superfluous in the city. Even the police will call your attention if you do not take it. Keep in mind how dangerous it would be to fall to the ground with so much car and no protection on the head. There are many models and brands for the city, so you have no excuse.