I’ve recently started using cycling for transportation (before I only did it in a recreational sense). I usually bike on the sidewalk because the drivers in my city are maniacs, no kidding. It’s like you’re invisible on the road. Anyway, I don’t know if I’m just too sensitive to it, but my bike seems to hit every sidewalk bump and crack awfully hard. I’m wondering if riding on the sidewalk will be more damaging to my bike or tires than dirt and grass would be? Btw, it is a mountain bike, and it’s about 10 years old, so it has nothing in the way of shock absorbers.
Satyricon
Two things.
First, riding over reasonable bumps shouldn’t hurt your mountain bike too much. That’s why you have a mountain bike, right? And with a road bike, the wheel will probably go before the frame gets damaged.
Second, and more important, as a long-time bike communter, I pretty strongly suggest getting comfortable on the road, not the sidewalk. If you look at the statistics, very very very few bicyclists get hit by cars coming up behind them while the cyclist is on the road. Most collisions happen at intersections, when the bike comes from somewhere the driver doesn’t expect – like off of a sidewalk. It might feel scary on the road, but you’re actually a lot safer.
But there’s a couple links that make the point better than I can, I’m sure.
http://www.massbike.org/info/bostraf.htm
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/
(this is the best bike riding advice I’ve ever come across)
the roads actually safer then you think, although I dont know aobut your local situation, I know in my town its disturbingly narrow yet I still seem to manage with some concerntration.
Probably the biggett danger however is people opening car doors when leaving their car; just watch for it, and slam the brakes if they do. People are getting better, I havent had it happen to me in about 8 years.
If you really want to continue using the sidewalk, maybe a scooter or something would be better for all involved, however its your choice 
Where is the noise coming from? I’d check all the components and make sure everything is properly adjusted and the bolts are tight. A loose headset is the part that will most likely be damaged by bumps. The bearings will pit the races and then it will be notchy, even if you tighten it later. A pain to change out if you don’t have the tools. Actually, it sort of sucks even if you have the tools.
I’ll second what the other have said about riding on the road. I ride quite a bit, and even on the few bike paths (multi modal, actually, meaning you have to share with runners, bastard rollerbladers, and dog walkers) in town that I ride, I’ll move to the street when I get to a traffic light. Drivers naturally tend to watch out for other cars, so placing yourself where a driver is looking is the best way to be seen.
It’s not that the road is scary in that I’m cycling close to cars, it’s that drivers seriously act like I’m not there. In fact my city (Kitchener-Waterloo) is listed as one of the worst cities for bad drivers in Canada. I stay as close to the curb as possible, use hand signals, always check behind me before moving, etc. and yet I’ve been almost swiped three times by cars passing me so close that once I felt the car door brush my elbow. Another time a group of teenage idiots thought it would be funny to zoom by me at 100 mph hooting, and to throw a rolled-up newspaper at me as they passed. I’m damn lucky I didn’t crash into something. Nope, until they put bike lanes on every road here, the sidewalk is definitely safer than the road. I’m just hoping trying to save my own life doesn’t ruin my wheels or other parts in the process.
You asked about damage to your bike but you seem more worried, and rightfully so, about damage to you. Check your local laws. It may not even be legal for you to ride on the sidewalk.
As for the bike the biggest factor in terrain damaging your bike is how you ride. It’s not easy to explain verbally but you need to ride so your arms and legs become a suspension system. Keep your ass off the saddle in rough terrain. Let the bike float over obsticals rather than bashing into them. If you’re skilled enough learn to bunny hob so you don’t even hit most bumps. I wasn’t as big in my riding days as I am not but I was always significantly heavier than my riding buddies. They always managed to dent and bash wheels and could never figure out why I never did even riding over the same terrain with a much heavier load.
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- Unless you are using small high-pressure tires or have overinflated the bigger fat tires, you shouldn’t have a problem with damage occurring to the bike, unless the cracks are more than a couple inches high and you’re running up onto them.
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- If you’re shopping, the “low-end” hybrid bikes that area bicycle shops around me sell come with a suspension fork and seatpost that do a lot to eliminate the jarring of bumps. Some even come with disk brakes, that are better than the regular rim brakes–disk brakes grab harder and faster, yet still modulate smoother. Many just have one on the front, and a regular rear rim brake. They just plain work better overall though, so get one with them if you can.
- For longer distances a recumbent bike is far more comfortable but they aren’t real good at low-speed sidewalk maneuverability, and ones with suspension cost at least up around $1000+ USD.
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I commuted to work 10 miles on a bike for 3 years, when I got my DWI I had little choice. Check your laws, in the state of South Carolina it is illeagal to ride a bicycle on a sidewalk. Also, a bicycle is legally considered a motor vehicle in South Carolina. That mean if you run into someone or something and hurt or damage it, you are liable. That means you copuld be sued for negligent operation.
Check the air pressure in your tires to make sure they are properly inflated. I want to second the notion of checking your local laws. I know that riding a bike on the sidewalk is illegal in my town. I’ve received a ticket for it.
Thanks for the suggestions. The bike street smarts guide is particularly helpful - I printed the whole thing off.
I can’t seem to find any actual law prohibiting bikes on sidewalks on my town. I live near a University where many, many students bike on sidewalks, and there is also a police precinct in the area, so so far it doesn’t look like there’s any problem with it.
There’s one easy guaranteed way to avoid opening car doors: always ride at least an open door’s width away from stopped cars.
If you’re riding at any decent speed right next to a row of parked cars, it is virtually impossible for someone getting out of a car to see you approaching from behind (try it sometime when you’re parking – see how far you have to turn and how carefully you have to look to see the spot right next to the fourth or fifth car behind you). In my opinion, it’s unreasonable to expect them to be able to see you or blame them if they didn’t.
Just treat every stopped car as if it already had its doors open and give it the proper clearance.
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- That isn’t practical where I live; if you did that, you’d be rolling down the street in the middle of the driving lane. You just have to watch the cars parked ahead of you for people sitting in the driver’s side seats.
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- That isn’t practical where I live; if you did that, you’d be rolling down the street in the middle of the driving lane. You just have to watch the cars parked ahead of you for people sitting in the driver’s side seats.
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Your bike may be better off on the sidewalk sometimes. I blew three tires in one summer riding on poorly cleaned streets – once there was a 4-inch nail in the tire. There are many places in narrow or busy streets where you’d be suicidal to ride on the street. I don’t think you can ride safely on only the street or only the sidewalk. You need to exercise judgement to do what’s best based on the situation, keeping in mind all the factors mentioned in previous posts.
No, that’s the wrong thing to do!
Stay out in the middle of the traffic lane (unless there’s a specific bike lane). There are several reasons why it’s better to do this:
- car drivers are looking for traffic in the traffic lanes, they aren’t usually watching close in to the curb.
- farther out will help you avoid the suddenly-opened car door, which is a real risk when cycling.
- near the curb is where all the junk (nails, glass, sharp stones, wide drainage grids) accumulates and waits to wreck your tires.
- far fewer things to hit in the driving lane, as compared to a sidewalk (pedestrians, delivery handtrucks, newspaper boxes, trash barrels, etc.).
The main problem with this is when a driver comes up behind you, and wants to pass. But a cyclist ought to be either:
- good enough to keep up with the prevailing speed (in residential areas), or
- polite enough to move over when needed to let faster traffic go by.
Also, rude car drivers who try to run you off the road or teenagers who throw things at you are at a disadvantage – they have license plate numbers that you can write down and report to the police. Do it! Most bikes don’t have license plates on them, or are too small for anyone to see the numbers.
I’ve gotta ditto t-bonham, with the caveat that the normal highway laws in Canada often state that a bicyclist should ride as close to the right hand side of the road as is practicable-- which means that you are well within your legal rights to ‘take the lane’ and ride on the left hand side of the lane if that is the only safe place (either because passing cars are not giving you enough room, or if there is lots of crap on the right side of the road).
Then that’s what you should do. It’s perfectly legal and usually safer than riding close to the parked cars.
Getting back to the original question, air pressure is important, as RogueRacer said. If the tire is under-inflated, a bump on the road can squash the tire all the way. This can cause a flat, or even rim damage.
Not that you don’t already know this, so it’s just a reminder…Remember that the right hand break is for the rear tire. If you must slam on your brakes ALWAYS grab that one first, and hardest. The front tends to slow you don’t faster, but if you grab it first or harder when you have any decent amount of speed will cause you to flip the bike over., :eek:, or atleast to a wheelie with the back wheel. Either way, not good.
If you see the bump coming, stand up with your knees bent, and let them flex when you hit the bump. This will take some of the stress off the frame.
I also ride the sidewalk for part of my commute. That particular road is too busy, and I’m riding to extend my life, not shorten it. The kicker is that it’s marked as a bike path…
DougC That’s the idea – you should be in the middle of the lane, if that’s what it takes to be safe. And every study shows that you’re safer out where auto drivers can see you rather than hidden at the side of the road.
All the closest calls I’ve had on my bike have been when I drifted too far to the right in the lane, and let a driver think he had room to pass me (even though they really didn’t have room to do so safely). They managed to get by, but it wasn’t exactly safe. On the other hand, I’ve never had someone plow into me or even come close when I was visible right in the center of the road.
The links above go into more detail, but I can’t recommend Street Smarts enough. In fact I’ll post it again: http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/