How many miles do you cycle a year?

Question

Have you been knocked off your bicycle, crashed, bikes stolen etc?

Details please? How often have you been injured in collisions etc?

Answer 1

Before having to drive to & from work I rode at least 5000miles a year commuting.

Had one £2500 bike stolen from my front door (insurance paid up), saw young lad on it a few weeks later - police recovered it, even got a mention on local radio crime spot!!

Had many accidents, smashed front teeth twice. Usual cuts & scrapes. Also couldn't walk for a month after a motorist pulled into my lane and I couldn't stop in time so 'bailed' rather than go through his rear window.

NEVER been knocked off, and ALWAYS obeyed traffic laws...except when I was speeding (43 in a 30).

Had 3 collisions with vehicles pulling out in front of me - only one injury as impacted road with knee not car at around 20mph.
1 mechanical failure (front wheel collapsed - broken teeth).
2 major incidents resulting from poor road conditions (diesel on wet corners) - sliding for 20 feet along tarmac (road rash) / face plant (broken dental implants).

Averaged under 1 MAJOR 'off' per year either commuting or training and 1 set of tyres (as the front would suffer extra wear by heavy use of the hydraulic disk brakes) - new drive train about every two years, chain every 6 to 9 months.

Hmm, that about sums up my cycling career.

Oh, and only wear a helmet OFF-ROAD which accounted for maybe 200 or 300 miles a year, and had a personal stereo on for over 50% of my commuting / training.

Answer 2

I use a bike every day (about 5 - 8 miles total) and have a continental trip to the flatter(!) parts of Europe once a year. This works out to around 1,900 miles per annum.

In several decades of cycling I have not yet had a bike stolen, neither have I had a collision with a car, though I have impacted with another cyclist who came round a cycle path corner on the wrong side of the road - no injuries or damage suffered by either of us. And I once nearly collided with a tram in the middle of Amsterdam, but the tram driver sounded a very loud horn and I managed to get out of his way!

Most of my cycling has been on standard roads in the UK and abroad - Europe and USA. In the town where I now live there is an excellent system of cycle paths which allows cycling in safety all around the town and it suburbs.

As an aside, a comment or two about bike theft... Get a good 'frame to wheel lock' of the type popular in The Netherlands, use a Krypton U or cable lock, fasten the bike to a really immoveable object (preferably in view of lots of people), and install a cycle alarm - an excellent device! And remove any easily stolen things like a speedo, or pump.

There's not much else you can do, apart from making sure you have a record of the frame number of your bike and a couple of good pictures of the machine.

Hope some of the above helps.

Answer 3

I cycle about 5000 miles per year, in a mix of commuting and pleasure. I've never had a bike stolen, but have had a few scrapes and bumps, of which one was my fault (I was drafting a car at 30mph when he did an emergency stop), one was nobody's fault (bike slid from under me as I went over a manhole cover) and the rest were the car driver's fault (not looking, on their mobile, eating a sandwich etc.). Aside from cuts and grazes, the only serious injuries are two broken ribs and a groin strain. I have indemnity insurance which covers me if I cause an accident, but also provides a free legal service for me to sue drivers if necessary. At £35 a year it's a snip, and you'd have to be crazy to cycle without it.

As for helmets, there's no real evidence that they save lives. They're good at preventing minor head injuries becoming more serious, but that's about it. They're not designed to protect for impacts above 13mph, and it's high speed crashes that most often lead to fatalities. There's also the phenomena of risk homeostasis, whereby the safer your environment becomes the riskier is your behaviour, which tends to cancel out any safety benefits.

Answer 4

I recently started cycling to work every day in central London, I have probably covered about 200 miles so far.

I haven't crashed but have had one close shave where a motor bike pulled out in front of me.

If you are thinking about cycling and are worried about safety here are some tips:
1. Wear a helmet! When I was a kid it literally saved my life when I was messing about and fell off landing on the curb head first.
2. Wear bright colours and use lights at night or in dim light.
3. Have your full concentration on cycling, do not cycle with a personal music player on because you need to hear what is going on around you and not be distracted from the road.

Answer 5

I bike up to 7000 km per year just commuting in the city. I go on average 20 km per day.

Other questions:
- crashed - yes
- bike stolen - yes
- injured in collision - slightly (bruised head)

All this happened a while ago. I think I've reduced my chances of getting injured by being more careful on the road, by wearing a helmet, and by locking my bike everywhere, including inside my house.

Answer 6

No miles
Yes I had my year old saracen eiger pinched from my office bike rack, never mind, I had done a hell of a lot of off road racing with it, so the chain, chainwheels, rims etc were all pretty much knackered. The insurance paid out and then I got my self a cannondale, my son has now ruined that so no bike anymore.
Never been injured by a car, but brought down a couple of times by people turning left as they overtook me

Answer 7

If a persosn has ben knocked off a bike by a vehicle they should be able to sue the insurance co. for an accident of the motorist. BB

Answer 8

all of us who can do the impossible is probable to grow to be very in call for. regrettably it seems to be impossible to do the impossible. cycling at over 30 mph for sixteen hours an afternoon (for that reason permitting a minimum time to eat, sleep, wash and defecate) daily for a twelve months is quite for sure no longer achieveable for all of us we would recognize as a human. In 1939, Tommy Godwin rode seventy 5,0.5 miles in one twelve months to set an persistence driving checklist that some have faith heavily isn't crushed. He grew to become into especially mind-blowing yet would want to conceal two times the mileage and then purely approximately 30,000 extra to hit a hundred and eighty,000.

Answer 9

I have not been cycle for years since my school time.

I still remember, i might be dead if i knock by the car which only inchs behind me when i suddenly right turn without a signal. The car just have the emergency break... i was 12!

Answer 10

Zero! Unless you count my stationary bike at home that I use for exercise. Much as I would fancy cycling outside, there are far to many accidents in my area involving bicycles. Many of them are fatal, unfortunately.