09
The Basics
Warning-
It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with the laws where you ride and to comply with all applicable laws, including properly equipping
yourself and your bike as the law requires.
Observe all local bicycle laws and regulations. Observe regulations about bicycle lighting, licensing of bicycles, riding on pavement, laws regulating bike
path and trail use, helmet laws, child carrier laws, and special bicycle traffic laws. It is your responsibility to know and obey your country’s laws.
•
Always check the safety of your bike before you ride it
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Be thoroughly familiar with the controls of your bicycle: brake (page 13), pedals (page 6 & 16), shifting (page 17)
•
Be careful to keep body parts and other objects away from the sharp teeth of chain rings, the moving chain, the turning pedals and cranks,
and the spinning wheels of your bicycle.
Riding Safety
• You are sharing the road or path with others – motorists, pedestrians and other cyclists. Respect their rights
• Ride defensively. Always assume that others cannot see you
• Look ahead and be ready to avoid
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Vehicles slowing or turning, entering the road or your lane ahead of you, or coming up behind you
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Parked car doors opening
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Pedestrians stepping out
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Children or pets playing near the road
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Potholes, sewer gratings, railroad tracks, expansion joints, road or pavement construction, debris and other obstacles
• Ride in designated bike lanes, on designated bike paths or as close to the edge of the road as possible, in the direction of the traffic flow or as
directed by local governing laws
• Stop at stop signs and traffic lights; slow down and look both ways at street junctions.
• Use approved hand signals for turning and stopping
• Never ride with headphones
• Never carry a passenger
• Never hitch a ride by holding on to another vehicle
• Don’t weave through traffic or make unexpected moves
• Observe and yield the right of way
• Never ride your bicycle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs
Safety
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