The bicyclist with a jacket tied loosely around her waist, a guy with a strap dangling from whatever is clamped into the mousetrap over his back fender. An errant shoe string or flapping pants leg. Suddenly, the fabric swings that extra inch and gets snagged. It’s pulled into the derailleur or wedged between the chain and the teeth in the front chainring. The rear wheel seizes; the unfortunate cyclist slams into the asphalt.
Your second thought—after the condition of the cyclist and any medical help that’s needed—is: How can this happen? How can manufacturers still make, and why do we still purchase, a mechanism with such an obvious and an easily correctable safety flaw. The open chain-and-sprocket is a mechanical construct that belongs in a 19th-century mill, where it would be maintained by a fingerless proletariat.
Oddly, we all had chain guards on our first bikes. And then decided to forego them.
The naked chain isn’t the only glaring safety flaw in a bike. There is also the issue of what traffic engineers call conspicuity.
Because traffic is a social activity, we constantly communicate our presence and intentions to those around us. We illuminate ourselves. We signal our turns. Our brakes light up when we’re slowing. In cars, that is. On bikes, we’re an enigma. A cipher. Ghosts. We’re the stealth fighters of the roadway: hard to track, hard to forecast, unintelligible. Inscrutable.
Bostonian Josh Zisson has set out to make bikers more scrutable. He’s built what he thinks is the safest bike on the road, and it isn’t that different than the one you already have. A few simple add-ons, like a working brake light. Chain guard. Puncture resistant tires. (The puncture resistant tires are an inspired idea, but if you are really serious about bike safety in the icy months, consider using studded tires. Check out bikeforums.net for the ongoing discussion about winter tires, including some DIY suggestions. And while there, don’t miss the 50+ section.)
The biggest difference between Zisson’s bike and yours is probably his frame, which has a retroreflective coating (from the appropriately named Halo Coatings) that bounces light from a car’s headlamps back to the driver. Stealth, be gone. You are announcing yourself with the subtlety of a Humvee stretch limo with purple wheel-well lighting.
The bike lacks any turn signal, which seems like an odd omission, because indicating your intention is probably a good idea, especially if you’re going left in the dusk. There are plenty of solutions on the market, but this is my favorite:
Also, you–and Josh, who’s the model in the photo–should wear a helmet.
Photo of bike via Josh Zisson.
