Bicycle Safety Quiz Challenge!

 Club News
Nov 152018
 

Ride Illinois LogoDiscover relevant laws and best safety strategies for sharing the road.

Ride Illinois has an excellent online Bike Safety Quiz that has been used by more than 75,000 people, since 2013. The easy-to-use resource includes Illinois Secretary of State approved content. Designed for both cyclists and motorists, the interactive questions focus on relevant state laws and ways of avoiding common car-bike crashes. The Adult Bicyclist quiz has 33 multiple-choice questions divided into Bronze (10 questions), Silver (11), and Gold (12) levels.

Successfully answering the quiz questions (it is educational so you a get a couple of tries) earns you a wallet sized certificate of completion card. Next spring, this bike safety quiz will be the first homework assignment for our training rides!

Created by Ride Illinois, a nonprofit organization working statewide for better bicycling conditions.

New classifieds and other news

 Club News
Oct 152018
 

Several new items have been posted in the Classifieds including a trike and a “wanted” request for center pull brakes. Also new, recently added a “Ride Maps“ page under Rides and Events that connects to various Garmin Connect route maps and data. RB

 Bicycle-Specialized-Roubaix

Dutch Reach now Illinois Law

 Club News, Safety
Sep 132018
 

Illustration of Dutch Reach method to avoid dooring cyclistsThe MC Wheelers are members of RIde Illinois, our state bicycle advocacy group. Of interest recently is a technique called the Dutch Reach that State Rep. Theresa Mah is trying to make part of Illinois driver training. The Dutch Reach is a way for motorists leaving parallel-parked cars to avoid “dooring” cyclists coming from behind – by opening their car doors with their right (not left) hand. This method results in a torso twist where you are better positioned to see cyclists and limits the speed with which the vehicle door opens. Read more at Dutch Reach Project… RB

Updated Aug 23, 2018: Now Law in Illinois. A new law requires the Illinois secretary of state to include in the ‘Rules of the Road’ information on the ‘Dutch Reach‘ method of opening a vehicle door to avoid injuries to bicyclists. It also requires that the term be included in the pool of questions to obtain a driver’s license.  Aug 23, 2018

Bike Friendly Community Survey

 Announcements, Bicycle advocacy
Aug 232018
 

Bike Friendly Community Survey BannerThe Town of Normal recently submitted an application to be re-designated as a “Bike Friendly Community” by the League of American Bicyclists.  The League requires the Town to solicit feedback from local bicycle enthusiasts and stakeholders. Please consider taking 10 minutes (yes, it is a little long, but worth it) to contribute your thoughts.

To understand the BFC requirements and benefits, it is helpful to review what the Normal is already doing as well as the BFC award criteria (some excellent ideas here!).

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/app_BFC_FA18

Deadline for submissions is Sept. 20, 2018.

If you have any questions about the BFC process, please contact Mercy Davison, Normal Town Planner, at mdavison@normal.org or (309) 454-9590. Thanks for your support of making bikeable Normal! RB

Hope on for Hope

 Club News
Aug 042018
 

Hop on for Hope Logo15 Wheelers participated in the 6th Annual Hop on for Hope Ride on Aug. 4. The charity ride is sponsored by the First United Methodist Church in LeRoy, and benefits an orphanage in Guatemala. It was a sunny warm day with most riders opting for the 25 mile route around Moraine View State Park. Good roads, food and comradery. See group photo on our Facebook page.

2018 Spring Metric Ride Feedback

 Club News, Group rides
Jul 312018
 
Wheeler Metric t-shirt design

Although anecdotally, and by the smiling faces index, we think that the Spring Metric is a success and that we are doing the right things, this year we did a follow-up with Survey Monkey to see if the participant data agreed with our organizers’ observations. And indeed there does appear to be some correlation.

Of the approximately 200 riders, there were 151 usable emails, each of whom received the 10 question, one-minute Survey Monkey questionnaire. With only one reminder, we received responses from 42 riders. All rating averages were > 4.3 on the 5.0-scale. You can see a summary of the results at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-TPYQ73NRL/

Thanks again to all riders, survey respondents, and our volunteers who make the event possible. We appreciate your support and feedback and look forward to seeing everyone next June for the 2019 Metric!  RB

What is the “Dutch Reach?”

 Club News, Safety
Jul 282018
 

Illustration of Dutch Reach method to avoid dooring cyclistsThe MC Wheelers are members of RIde Illinois, our state bicycle advocacy group. Their latest e-Newsletter can be found <here>. Of interest is a technique called the Dutch Reach that State Rep. Theresa Mah is trying to make part of Illinois driver training. The Dutch Reach is a way for motorists leaving parallel-parked cars to avoid “dooring” cyclists coming from behind – by opening their car doors with their right (not left) hand. This method results in a torso twist where you are better positioned to see cyclists and limits the speed with which the vehicle door opens. Read more at Dutch Reach Project… RB

Updated 9/13/18: Now Law in Illinois. A new law requires the Illinois secretary of state to include in the ‘Rules of the Road’ information on the ‘Dutch Reach‘ method of opening a vehicle door to avoid injuries to bicyclists. It also requires that the term be included in the pool of questions to obtain a driver’s license.Aug 23, 2018

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