Posted by Janet.
Jul
23
Posted by Janet.
Bicycle Fever
I have been thinking for a long time about buying a bicycle, and with Portland as the most bike-friendly city in the US I want in!
I sold my old one in our yard sale (to Courtney!) because the reason I never rode it was because it was really heavy and inconvenient to ride. It is a mountain bike and I need a slim road bike with not a lot of gears.
Beyond that though I am 100% bike-challenged. I am prepared to drop a wad of moolah but I want it to be on a good bike for me that is comfy to ride and not too heavy, and is good for riding around town. There are a lot of bike shops here so I figure I will go into one and let them school me.
Another thing is that I don’t know much about bike etiquette and practices re: riding and parking. I know hand signals and I get that the bike lane is for biking but what’s the rule of thumb on riding by other riders? Who gets the right of way at intersections with cars? Can I chain my bike up at any ol pole if there isn’t a bike rack? What can I do to avoid these uber cyclists scoffing at me? I am a little intimidated!
There are 4 comments to this post.
Evan had this to say,
Jul 23, 2009 @ 2:34 pm
You can pass other bikers whenever it’s reasonably safe. Use common sense.
Under Oregon State Law, a bicycle and a car are treated pretty much the same. If it’s a four-way stop, then whoever got there first, yield to the person on your right if at the same time. Some drivers like to be “nice” and stop at intersections when bikes are there whether or not they have a stop sign; I call this being unpredictable. Most importantly, a cyclist traveling straight in a bike lane has the right of way when a car is attempting a right turn, but about one driver in a hundred seems not to know this.
Generally, you can lock your bike to whatever. There are blue bike staples all over the city (park parallel to them!) and bike racks in a lot of close-in east side neighborhoods, but in busy areas street signs work well too.
You can’t avoid being scoffed at, but they’re dicks anyway, so they were going to find some reason not to like you. I recommend going to your local bike shop and picking up a bike map. It shows which streets are designated bike corridors, which are low traffic, which have bike lanes, and which are to be avoided, as well as tough intersections and hills.
Sarah Bott had this to say,
Jul 28, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
http://www.bikeportland.org is a great resource.
Cheers! And welcome to portland!
Janet had this to say,
Jul 28, 2009 @ 9:54 pm
Thank you Sarah!
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Did’nt those safety films teach you anything ? hehe… You will be riding in no time