Prepare Completely

We've discussed, at meetings and in newsletter articles, controlling the inherent risks we face while riding. When we get the training, keep up with the maintenance, plan our ride, drive defensively while remaining alert and all the rest, we can reduce the chances of an unpleasant result. The best return on our efforts requires our best effort. A 95% effort, while it gets you an 'A' in school, may not be enough out on the road. It's that 5% I want to mention today.

Taken individually, a small omission in preparing for a ride will probably be of little or no consequence.

The bike will handle adequately with tire pressure just 5% below spec. +

A missed turn on the route results in little more than a U-turn and a little ribbing. +

Making it through a little rain shower normally is no more than an inconvenience. +

A short case of attention fixation passes unnoticed.

But these things have a strange way of accumulating.

Consider the low tire pressure, the rain shower and the missed turn together, in the mountains where the temperature dropped ten degrees as you reached the upper elevations and you did not pack a jacket. Now you've got four 5% 's combined and suddenly you're vulnerable. Throw in a bike unfriendly driver and you're in the soup!

 

I don't know why these little omissions pile up on each other, it just seems to be that way. So, when preparing for a ride, cross town or cross country, prepare completely. Anything less is simply not good enough. The risks are too great to do otherwise.

RIDE SAFE    RIDE OFTEN

Submitted by
Tom Scully NC-E Chapter Educator