Roadmen, we need to chat
Roadmen, we need to chat. I was riding across the city today and I seen some, we'll call us roadcraft for want of a better word, cyclists behavior in traffic and it was worrisome. That's what I want to talk about today. But before we do that, let's kill the intro. The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our long journey. That is the question, this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh, and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Welcome back to a Roadman Podcast. It's the Roadman Bites folks. It's our short-form podcast, which is common to you live on the internet of airwaves every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Friday. Real difficult to try and say the days of the week there while admitting Wednesday. I don't know why that was so hard. Wednesday is of course our full forum roadmap podcast which came to you yesterday and it dropped hot off the press. This one was particularly hot. I had a chat with Ryan Mullen, Trek Sega Freight of Star. I'm gonna call him a serial Irish champion at this stage. Also a little known piece of trivia about Ryan. He was the youngest ever Irish National Champion. Also, an even more obscure piece of trivia about Ryan, which he shared with us on the podcast, that he was conceived in Kelmissen in Ireland. The venue for this year's National Championship, Ryan didn't quite word it like that. He may have mentioned his father's ballsack, but you'll have to go back to that episode and listen to exactly what that was all about, because it was a whole rigmarole. But no, it was a great chat. It was literally like, you know, you saw it beside us and over here, the conversation we had down the pub, really casual book, brilliant, the casual nature, meant obviously the conversation flowed great, but there was no good information in there that you maybe didn't get from someone who was a bit more regarded. Today's podcast, like every podcast, is brought to you by your good peers who are supporting the podcast over on Patreon. It's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walsh. That's the place to head on over, buy me a coffee, buy me a beer, because that's what keeps this podcast going. Okay, you know, I love to tell a story, and today is no different. I was riding across the city today on the bike, and like I often do, I always commute by bike. I don't know who commutes by car. It's, I just look at the cars and they just, everyone looks so sad and depressed, and then I look at the cyclists and everybody smiling and happy. Yeah, I prefer to be in the smiling and happy club. But there's definitely a few cyclists who won't be smiling and happy for too long. It's... there's terrible skills in traffic and make no mistake, roiden in traffic is a skill. And I know I've ridden with guys who are good bike riders and pro bike riders but aren't used to roiden in traffic and initially they struggle with it. But if you're living in the city, it's a skill you need to master.
Anything, it's graded adaptation. You need to, you know, slightly…
And like anything, it's graded adaptation. You need to, you know, slightly progress it week on week and just get a little bit more comfortable but as I said this podcast, the roadman bites format. It's all about giving tangible tips, giving things you can do rather than just an absolute laundry list of stuff that you don't know where to get started on. So today in honor of the lads I seen nearly killing themselves, riding across the city, I want to give you a few tips while riding in traffic. One of them, It's super obvious but almost no one is doing it. It's visibility. It doesn't have to be the hobby of this clause. Philip Gilbert was out trying to put a backlight on yesterday, even the middle of the day. Backlight are now cool in the Pro Peloton. So I give you permission to use a backlight. There's all sorts of cool ones. That feeds into the resources section that I'm trying to build at the moment. There's a cool backlight by Bontrager. So the idea what my resources section is, I'm gonna clade everything I find that's cool. And it's gonna just save you that time of going, looking, saving true, reviews, watching, poxy long videos from DC Rainmaker, see whether you should get a camera or a Wahoo. I'm gonna save through all that because I've been looking off to, or unlucky enough to born through a lot of this equipment through years. So that's the goal with that, but I digress as I often do. Yeah, I'll give you a permission, stick a backlight on your bike, even in the daytime, and be visible. It doesn't have to be hoivy, but just wear a bright color. That's tip number one. That's a bit of an obvious tip. The next two tips I want to give you aren't so obvious. Tip number two, it's positioning on the road. There's one part on my commute across the city and it's especially legal. Don't trust the town planners that they're looking out for your safety. You're only concerned when you're out on the bike. It's not roads at a road, it's not etiquette to other cyclists, it's not being a chivalrous road user and looking out for other cars, it's your own personal responsibility to stay safe. You owe it to your friends, you owe it to your family, you owe it to yourself. Your goal is to get from A to B, a live, safe. And do whatever you have to do that. And, you know, I'll be non apologetic like coming across the city today. There's a car behind me and he is locked on the horn and he's locked on the horn because I've decided to do take the lane. Now, it's something I'd encourage you all to start doing. take the lane. So if you're coming up to a left turn and you're on the left side, I'm speaking in Ireland, so we're left side of the road. So the bike path is typically slammed on the far left side. So there's a car on your right and as you're approaching a left turn, now you have a left turning vehicle on your right side. So you're in 10 that I'm going straight and if it's vehicle, it's intended to turn across your path.
About two, three hundred meters before I get up to that horn
So about two, three hundred meters before I get up to that horn. As soon as I see a gap in the traffic, I go and I take that whole lane. That's my lane. I ride right in the middle of that lane. That car is not getting past me. That car has to wait to get past that left horn before he can make his left horn. Now on this occasion, this road user decided, oh, he was in the wrong and he decided to slam on the horn. You need to have the confidence and now this podcast, I'm giving you permission to have that confidence to go, you know what, my priority is to get home safe. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get home safe and I don't care if I hold you up for five seconds beeping behind in your fucking SUV because my priority is getting past this left-horn without you cutting across and absolutely mincey me. That's tip number two. And tip number three, it's kind of similar to tip number two in that you don't have to ride glued to the left hand side of the gutter. The left hand side of the gutter often has shores that are running off, drainage ducts are built there. It's really broken poor pavement. Don't let a bus pass you on your right hand side and force you into this really poor pavement. If you're looking ahead and you see this poor pavement, get out of it, take the whole lane, slow people down if you have to. Those are my roadman tips for staying safe in the traffic. If you do have other roadman tips that you think are useful, what I would invite you to do is stick them on your Instagram Stories, just get a blank Instagram Stories page, stick your tip there, tag me on it in a one-coach and I'll share it. I'll share it for the rest of the roadman community. But that's that folks, roadman bites, I said they were going to be short, I said they're going to be tangible, I'm living up to my ward. That's it. Chatty soon. If you're enjoying these daily tips from the Row Man podcast, I would ask you to take one second and head over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony under skull watch. That's the place you can go and you can say I'm getting a lot out of these tips and things bringing me. I'm getting really actionable tangible points that are bringing me from where I am closer to my destination every day. every day and I'd like to buy my beer, I'd like to buy my coffee to say thanks for that. Patreon is the place you can do it. It might seem like a small little gesture for you, but for me it does two things. It gives me vindication, it gives me feedback that were on the right road, that were heading the right direction, that the content is valuable to you and it helps sustain this podcast. It helps me bring you this podcast every single weekday. Thank you and I'm gonna talk to you again tomorrow.