October 2025 Top Talk
Your board meets monthly, via Zoom, to discuss club issues. You have some excellent board members who each work hard at their assigned job and take the role of board officer seriously. You can depend on each of them to listen and give thoughtful responses, opinions, and rebuttals to concerns that are brought before them. It’s really refreshing to be involved with this process. Nice discourse and calm problem-solving. I think we’re onto something!
One “problem” that we’re discussing is SAFETY. Your board cares about you, and I think I can safely state that we club members truly care about each other. We all want to feel safe while on a club ride, and we each want to ride safely as a participant. Some of that comes with time in the saddle. We learn, our skills improve, and we ride predictably. Others don’t mind riding near us, fearful that we will spontaneously steer our bike off in a random direction or slam on the brakes without notice. If you often find yourself “alone” or “isolated” on a club ride, consider your riding techniques and accident reputation. Other riders don’t want to get caught up in your crash. ✎
One solution to this would be to simply ask such irresponsible riders to leave the club. The board does not like that solution. However, we agreed all members should talk to one another if they are feeling unsafe. For example, “It makes me uncomfortable when you ride so close to my rear wheel. When I look in my mirror, all I see is you.” Or, simply, “Please don’t ride so close to me,” when you know someone to be accident prone. Stay proactive. Communicate. Be kind.
As a ride leader I, like most of the other ride leaders, discuss the “Car Back” scenario in my safety speech before a ride:
“Car Back” means “Pull as far to the right as is practicable”
If you don’t hear well (and many of us don’t, especially from behind) I suggest you ride to the right all the time. And equip yourself with a mirror so YOU are personally aware of what’s happening behind you. Then you don’t have to worry about it. I understand we are sometimes trying to avoid the possibility of a car door opening while staying to the right and sharing the road with other vehicles. But some riders are consistently in the middle of the road and at times even crossing the center line, which is sometimes a double yellow line. We worry. We fret. We yell CAR BACK! We want you to be safe. As a bicycling club, we want to give car drivers at least the perception that we want to share the road and not impede their forward movement.
Not discussed at the board meeting were the laws, Oregon State Laws, that should govern our riding style. These are not just opinions or preferences of some members; these are laws enacted for our protection. I am not a lawyer, but you might research the outcome if you, as a cyclist, are disobeying the law while riding and involved in an accident with a motor vehicle. I think you will find that you may be held responsible for property damage, and/or you might be cited, or you might be assessed comparative negligence, depending on the facts. That’s right, being on the seat of a bicycle does not provide impunity. Click here to see “Rules of the Road” in the Oregon Bicycling Manual.
While we care about the laws, the board is focused on you and your well-being. Let’s listen to our ride leaders’ safety speeches, and ride safely.
Ann Morrow, President
To read the Quick Releases newsletter associated with the October 2025 Top Talk, go to Table of Contents.