there is an
element of danger when it comes to
riding a bike
being on two wheels means the crashes
can happen
and they do happen yeah trust us on this
one so in this video we are going to go
through some of the common crashes
and hopefully give you some tips to help
you avoid them aren't we connor
we are yeah and well we've got quite a
lot of experience when
picking up some of the points in this
video and hank's lost quite a lot of
skin as a result
yeah this video has been years and years
in the making
lots of loss of skin so make sure you
give it a thumbs up hey connor
yeah right let's get to crashing shall
we oh gosh here we go
i've already anyway
okay let's kick this video off with
badly surfaced roads
now badly service roads can really be
one of the main causes
of crashes first up i'd really recommend
scanning the road ahead
looking out for any imperfections and
finding a line
you can pick to avoid those badly
surfaced roads
next up if you're riding in a group you
want the other riders to try and signal
to you
if there's a pothole or anything you
need to look out for on the road
it's a great way of communicating and
all staying safe
together if you don't have the
confidence to rely on other riders
in a group then what i say is maybe
leave yourself
a bit more space behind the rider in
front
that way you'll have a bit more time to
react to any last minute potholes
[Music]
now this is definitely something i've
been caught out with in the past
yeah this normally happens when you lean
into a corner
bank the bike over start a pedal and
your pedal clips the tarmac
sending your rear wheel into the air and
causing you to take a lie down on the
tar rack and have
well an unplanned rest yeah no one wants
one of those unplanned rests do they
no so when you're heading down those
descents or you're hitting some sharp
corners
or even you're doing a sharp change of
direction make sure your outer pedal
is at six o'clock and your inside pedal
is at 12 o'clock
that way you're further enough from the
ground so there's no chance
if you're hitting your pedal on the
tarmac and make sure you give yourself
enough time when you exit the corner
before you start pedaling and i think
this is a common mistake by many of us
that's how i got caught out
yeah when you're panicking in a race you
don't lose the wheel you don't lose the
wheel you pedal hard
and before you know it and you could
also take out all your teammates
i think that's what happened to me too
unless you're riding off-road or on a
circuit or track then it's
inevitable that you're going to come
into contact with other road users
cars trucks and the list goes on hmm
my car needs a clean a common mistake
that some cyclists make is that we ride
a little bit too close to traffic
when out on the road and this leaves us
little time to react to things
like a car door suddenly opening in
front of us or maybe
a car turning in the right in the road
whoa james
oh sorry man i didn't see you look how
you're going
like let's try and prevent these hands
in the face moments and
a top tip is to look out for indicators
or try and make eye contact with other
road users
that way you can give yourself enough
reaction time so if a carpet door
does open well you can swerve around it
i'm not getting a mirror next
sorry
[Music]
riders taking selfies out on the bike
can stop them from scanning the road for
potholes and other hazards
sending a snapchat to your mates is a
quick far way to run into a lamppost and
hurt yourself
hank how are you doing stop that
try to keep using your electronical
devices to an absolute
minimum when it comes to riding your
bike
this will distract you and you could end
up looking at your phone
and veering off into a hedge bush or
hitting another road user
so if you do want to use your
electronical device
i would pull over check your messages or
even check the direction and route
you're going
so put this in your back pocket
that way all your attention is looking
forward and where you're going
you fly down in descent and break next
speed
to be met with a corner you just weren't
expecting
you chuck on the brakes for the last
minute you miss your
breaking point and it throws you offline
so
you resort to a bank a hedge a pond
or something like connor to slow you
down
descents and corners well they're one of
my favorite parts of cycling the speed
the adrenaline
i've exited that corner with a smile on
my face but
well there's been plenty of times when
i've mischarged those quarters and ended
up
well on my ass in a ditch somewhere
without a smile on my face
right get out there mate we uh we got a
ride too you're right
yeah you might need a bit of a hand
actually hank yeah um
i think we need a crane to get you out
of there
a big the crane
just arrived got it i got into here by
myself
i'll get myself out this is how hank
spent most of his races
there's a few things that you can
improve to help alleviate some of the
risk when it comes to misjudging corners
if you're riding in a group this is a
great way to use your eyes in front of
you
to gauge what the corners are like if
the riders are sliding on the brakes
ahead of you
there's a good chance nice tight corner
and you need to scrub off a bit more
speed
if the rides in front of you are
carrying speed through the corner
then it could be a sweeping corner so
you carry a bit more speed through it
if you're on your own i would ride to
win your ability keep safe
scrub off more speed than you need that
way
if you come to any corners that you're
not expecting
you can handle it nice and easily being
able to ride close to other riders has a
whole host of benefits
and the main one is being able to slip
stream meaning you can save energy
and effort and share the workload with
your riding buddies
however riding close to other riders
brings with a whole host of hazards and
coming into contact with another rider
is the main one
yeah it has to be said though the closer
to the rider in front of you
the more energy you're gonna save but
it's also
gonna increase the risk a common mistake
a lot of cyclists make
is overlapping the wheel in front of you
and suddenly the front rider change
direction
swerves a pothole or hazard in the road
takes your front wheel out
and you end up hitting the deck or even
worse
the rider in front slams on their brakes
giving no warning whatsoever
to the rider behind so what we want to
do is try to avoid
overlapping the wheel in front of you
but you can also give yourself
more space to ride in front so you have
more time to react
if their movements do change but at the
same time
the emphasis is on that front rider to
communicate and signal to the rider
behind
what they're going to do if they're
going to change their line maybe
slam the brakes on or even get out of
the saddle
the more you can communicate that to
rider behind
the best chance they'll have of avoiding
a crash
getting out of the saddle here mate
thanks mate
oh that's better
[Music]
first and foremost we want to try and
avoid puncturing
in the first place so if you see debris
on the road or right next to the curbs
or
even potholes or glass try and avoid it
if you can but sometimes
we just can't avoid a puncture so what
do you do how do you stay
upright if you start to lose the air
from that front tire and you end up
running the rim
well first and foremost what i say is to
try not to panic
and try not to change your direction so
if you hear that you punctually feel the
air coming out of your tires then
try to keep the same line and not change
from that
also if you function on the front wheel
you want to try and shift your body
weight
to the rear of the bike taking the
weight off that front wheel
meaning you'll be able to scrub off that
speed and break a lot more
safely and then once you come to a stop
you could then have time to change your
tire hey
connor you will yeah and get back on the
road
city riding is great for so many
different reasons it's great for
commuting it's great for beating the
traffic
but with cities come congestion comes
more traffic
comes more people equals more hazards so
what we would say is when you're riding
in the city you come to junctions and
stop lights and roundabouts
make sure you take good care in looking
left and right before
you proceed yeah and another good tip is
to always try and make eye contact with
other road users and not just
assume that they've seen you and because
the city is so busy it's going to take
you longer to get where you want to
go so try and take things easy don't
rush it too much that was always russian
in the city this is what can lead
to accidents another lastly another good
tip
is to try and plan your route in advance
look out for any bike paths that you
could take
which may circumvent really busy roads
so
you're not hitting those real kind of
hot spots for traffic
yeah but golden rule don't race through
town it's just not worth it you're
better off
taking your time and then hitting those
lanes all quieter roads hey yeah
so in summary keep safe while out on the
open road have good observation
look out for other road users but most
importantly ride within your ability
yeah and i hope these tips have helped
to avoid crashing in some of the ways
we've discussed
in this video and if they have done
please let us know in the comments
section below
don't forget to give this video a big
thumbs up if it's helped and we'll see
you
in the next video um hopefully i'll
implement some of those
tips yeah yeah just keep working thanks
mate yeah you're going to do in the end
yeah yeah i'll leave you there thanks
mate bye
i'm working on him