Useful Links and Advice
Our right to be on the road
Safety
- one cyclist was killed on Britain’s roads for every thirty million miles traveled by cycle – the equivalent of well over 1,000 times around the world
- there were around 9.4 million cycle trips for every cycle death
- the general risk of any severity while cycling was just 0.05 per 1,000 hours of cycling.
- According to a paper that looked at sports injuries, tennis is riskier than “outdoor cycling” with 5 injures per thousand hours against 3.5 for cycling. Rowing machine exercise came in at 6 injuries per thousand hours.
- The health benefits of cycling far outweigh the injury risks, by between 13 and 15 to 1, according to various studies (and depending on the benefits/disbenefits considered).
The graph below shows the numbers of cyclists injured on the roads of Gloucestershire.
A map of incidents in which road users were killed or seriously injured (KSI)
St Johns ambulance 1st aid for cyclists app
How best to call the Emergency services
How best to report your location, using the what3words app
A site to report collisions and near-misses
Some advice on keeping your bones strong
The Definitive Guide to Safer Cycling
Navigational aids
Trid and tested routes to the Club’s favourite pubs and cafes can be found under the Club Rides tab on our web page. The table contains routes as links to RideWithGPS. Many of the cafe locations are linked to a map in the grid reference column.
Some tips from Cycling UK on riding in Gloucestershire and Bristol
A crowd sourced free map with marked cycle paths Open Street Maps and here’s one way to download it to your Garmin Edge GPS unit. There’s apparently another way at https://extract.bbbike.org/
A map showing where people actually ride: Strava Heat Map
An interesting way of comparing modern and historic maps Know Your Place
A useful route plotting service Ridewithgps
A guide to various GPS devices
A range of local cycle maps is available from ThinkTravel here
Guidance on riding Cranham Woods is here and on Leckhampton Hill is here
Roads and Highways
Gloucestershire County Council’s Major Projects
HIghways England Roadworks
Gloucestershire’s Cycle Map showing planned and installed infrastructure
Where to report Potholes and what to do if you hit one
Gloucester City Problem reporting by email to
Report problems on the County’s roads County at the website, by email or phone 08000 514514
See where road works are taking place
General issues (parking, streets, transport) in Gloucester City
Find who has the maintenance responsibility for any street at www.findmystreet.co.uk/
Helmets
- British Medical Association and Royal College of General Practitioners are against compulsory cycle helmets – overall benefits outweighed by negative effect on cycling
- Helmets are designed to protect from impact with motor vehicles.More than 90 per cent of serious injuries and fatalities involve impacts with vehicles. These arguments are summarized by Cycling UK here
- Cyclists account for less than one per cent of head injury admissions to hospital. There are 4.8 times more car occupants who die of head injuries than cyclists, 4.6 times more pedestrians and 1.5 times more motorcyclists (Thornhill et al, British Medical Journal, 2000; Mayer Hillman, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1993).
An excellent source of further information is at helmets.org
Cycle Security
A register for your valuables, accessed by police to find the owners of stolen goods Immobilise
A register for your bike, accessed by police to find the owners of stolen bikes Bikereg
The test house for security products Sold Secure
Crime statistics including cycle theft data
Provider of “get you home” insurance for cyclists” Lexham Insurance
Top tips on submitting good quality camera evidence to police
Some ideas on storage are here https://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/blog/bike-storage-solution/
Riding Skills
Group riding https://www.bicycling.com/training/a20023215/cycling-tips-group-riding-skills/
How to ride in a group https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/skills/sportives-ridesmart/article/izn20151117-Sportives–Ridesmart–Related-How-to-ride-in-a-group—Ridesmart-0
General riding skills https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/skills
Joining a group ride https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/how-take-part-group-ride
Leading a group ride https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/how-lead-ride
How to Time trial http://www.theraceoftruth.org.uk/
Maintenance
A reliable, if quirky, guide to a huge range of mechanical maintenance issues on cycles Sheldon Brown
Shimano manuals and technical documents
How to fix a puncture (and don’t forget to put your chain n the smallest sprocket before removing the back wheel)
How to use a CO2 cartridge to inflate tyres
General (and in some areas very specific) maintenance advice
National Cycling Organisations
Cycling Time Trials (formerly RTTC) https://cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/
British Cycling (formerly BCF) www.britishcycling.org.uk/
Sustrans www.sustrans.org.uk
Rough Stuff Fellowship www.rsf.org.uk
Local Clubs
Cheltenham & County CC; https://www.cheltenhamandcounty.cc/contact/
Cheltenham branch of Cycling UK https://cheltenhamctc.org/contact-us/
Eastgate Cycles of Gloucester; https://www.facebook.com/EastgateCycles
Kingsway Cycles of Gloucester; https://www.facebook.com/kingswaycyclingclub/
Leadon Vale Cycling Club http://www.lvcc.club/
Newent https://www.cyclinguk.org/local-groups/newent-cycling-group
Stonehouse Wheelers http://www.stonehousewheelers.org.uk/
Tewkesbury: http://www.clubs4uk.co.uk/cycling/gloucestershire-tewkesbury-cycling-club.html
Winchcombe http://www.winchcombecc.org.uk/
Cycling Blogs
Steephill.TV http://www.steephill.tv/
Cycling news http://www.cyclingnews.com/
Road.cc https://road.cc/
InnerRing http://inrng.com/
The Rules http://www.velominati.com/